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My grandmother would certainly have been ashamed of my vindictiveness; but then (like Alcide) she would have found it almost impossible to believe that Debbie had really tried to kill me.

“We’ll infiltrate the neighborhood slowly,” Pam said. I wondered if she’d been reading a commando manual. “The witches have already broadcast a lot of magic in the area, so there aren’t too many people out on the streets. Some of the Weres are already in place. We won’t be so obvious. Sookie will go in first.”

The assembled Supes turned their eyes to me at the same moment. That was pretty disconcerting: like being in a ring of pickup trucks at night, when they all turn on their headlights to illuminate the center.

“Why?” Alcide asked. His big hands gripped his knees. Debbie, who’d slumped down to sit on the floor beside the couch, smiled at me, knowing Alcide couldn’t see her.

“Because Sookie is human,” Pam pointed out. “And she’s more of a natural phenomenon than a true Supe. They won’t detect her.”

Eric had taken my hand. He was gripping it so hard that I thought I could hear my bones grinding together. Prior to his enchantment, he would have nipped Pam’s plan in the bud, or maybe he would’ve enthusiastically endorsed it. Now he was too cowed to comment, which he clearly wanted to do.

“What am I supposed to do when I get there?” I was proud of myself for sounding so calm and practical. I’d rather be taking a complicated drink order from a table of drunken tree-trimmers than be first in the line of battle.

“Read the minds of the witches inside while we get into position. If they detect us approaching, we lose the surprise of it, and we stand a greater chance of sustaining serious injury.” When she got excited, Pam had a slight accent, though I’d never been able to figure out what it was. I thought it might just be English as it had been spoken three hundred years ago. Or whatever. “Can you count them? Is that possible?”

I thought for a second. “Yes, I can do that.”

“That would be a big help, too.”

“What do we do when we get in the building?” asked Sid. Jittery with the thrill of it all, he was grinning, his pointed teeth showing.

Pam looked mildly astonished. “We kill them all,” she said.

Sid’s grin faded. I flinched. I wasn’t the only one.

Pam seemed to realize she’d said something unpalatable. “What else would we do?” she asked, genuinely amazed.

That was a stumper.

“They’ll do their best to kill us,” Chow pointed out. “They only made one attempt at negotiation, and it cost Eric his memory and Clancy his life. They delivered Clancy’s clothes to Fangtasia this morning.” People glanced away from Eric, embarrassed. He looked stricken, and I patted his hand with my free one. His grip on my right hand relaxed a little. My circulation resumed in that hand, and it tingled. That was a relief.

“Someone needs to go with Sookie,” Alcide said. He glowered at Pam. “She can’t go close to that house by herself.”

“I’ll go with her,” said a familiar voice from the corner of the room, and I leaned forward, searching the faces.

“Bubba!” I said, pleased to see the vampire. Eric stared in wonder at the famous face. The glistening black hair was combed back in a pompadour, and the pouty lower lip was stretched in the trademark smile. His current keeper must have dressed him for the evening, because instead of a jump-suit decked with rhinestones, or jeans and a T-shirt, Bubba was wearing camo.

“Pleased to see ya, Miss Sookie,” Bubba said. “I’m wearing my Army duds.”

“I see that. Looking good, Bubba.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

Pam considered. “That might be a good idea,” she said. “His, ah—the mental broadcast, the signature, you all get what I’m telling you?—is so, ah, atypical that they won’t discover a vampire is near.” Pam was being very tactful.

Bubba made a terrible vampire. Though stealthy and obedient, he couldn’t reason very clearly, and he liked cat blood better than human blood.

“Where’s Bill, Miss Sookie?” he asked, as I could have predicted he would. Bubba had always been very