After Dead
Page 1
Ace Books by Charlaine Harris
The Sookie Stackhouse Novels
DEAD UNTIL DARK
LIVING DEAD IN DALLAS
CLUB DEAD
DEAD TO THE WORLD
DEAD AS A DOORNAIL
DEFINITELY DEAD
ALL TOGETHER DEAD
FROM DEAD TO WORSE
DEAD AND GONE
DEAD IN THE FAMILY
DEAD RECKONING
DEADLOCKED
DEAD EVER AFTER
A TOUCH OF DEAD
AFTER DEAD
Ace Books Edited by Charlaine Harris
THE SOOKIE STACKHOUSE COMPANION
Ace Anthologies Edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner
MANY BLOODY RETURNS
WOLFSBANE AND MISTLETOE
DEATH’S EXCELLENT VACATION
HOME IMPROVEMENT: UNDEAD EDITION
AN APPLE FOR THE CREATURE
Berkley Prime Crime Books by Charlaine Harris
SWEET AND DEADLY
A SECRET RAGE
The Harper Connelly Mysteries
GRAVE SIGHT
GRAVE SURPRISE
AN ICE COLD GRAVE
GRAVE SECRET
The Lily Bard Mysteries
SHAKESPEARE’S LANDLORD
SHAKESPEARE’S CHAMPION
SHAKESPEARE’S CHRISTMAS
SHAKESPEARE’S TROLLOP
SHAKESPEARE’S COUNSELOR
The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries
REAL MURDERS
A BONE TO PICK
THREE BEDROOMS, ONE CORPSE
THE JULIUS HOUSE
DEAD OVER HEELS
A FOOL AND HIS HONEY
LAST SCENE ALIVE
POPPY DONE TO DEATH
Berkley Prime Crime Anthologies Edited by Charlaine Harris
CRIMES BY MOONLIGHT
InkLit Graphic Novels by Charlaine Harris
GRAVE SIGHT
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
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AFTER DEAD
Copyright © 2013 by Charlaine Harris, Inc.
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eBook ISBN: 978-1-101-63598-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Harris, Charlaine.
After dead : what came next in the world of Sookie Stackhouse / Charlaine Harris.—First edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-425-26951-0 (hardback)
1. Stackhouse, Sookie (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Vampires—Fiction. 3. Werewolves—Fiction. 4. Magic—Fiction. 5. Harris, Charlaine—Characters. I. Title.
PS3558.A6427A69 2013
813'.54—dc23
2013030521
FIRST EDITION: November 2013
Cover, endpaper, and interior illustrations by Lisa Desimini.
Cover design by Judith Lagerman.
Cover photograph of clouds © Elenamiv/Shutterstock.
HBO® and True Blood® are service marks of Home Box Office, Inc.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
CONTENTS
Dedication
A Note from the Author
A
THE ANCIENT PYTHONESS
GREG and CHRISTY AUBERT
B
CONNIE BABCOCK
DOKE, MINDY, MASON, and BONNIE BALLINGER
CHRISTIAN BARUCH
BATANYA and CLOVACHE
ISABEL BEAUMONT
ALCEE and BARBARA BECK
ANDY and HALLEIGH BELLEFLEUR
TERRY and JIMMIE BELLEFLEUR
BELLENOS
BERNARD
POLLY BLYTHE
JANE BODEHOUSE
ANTHONY BOLIVAR
KATHERINE (KATE) BOOK
BOOM
DERMOT BRIGANT
DILLON BRIGANT
NIALL BRIGANT
AMELIA BROADWAY
BUBBA
C
CALLISTO
PORTER CARPENTER
DESMOND CATALIADES
DIANTHA CATALIADES
CHARLES CLAUSEN
HANK CLEARWATER
PARKER COBURN
BILL COMPTON
MIKE COUGHLIN and WILLIE CROMWELL
ALFRED CUMBERLAND
CYNDEE
D
DEVON DAWN
BUD and GRETA DEARBORN
FELIPE DE CASTRO
MARK DUFFY
JB DU RONE
ROBERT THORNTON DU RONE and SARA SOOKIE DU RONE
TARA THORNTON DU RONE
DUSTIN
E
IMMANUEL EARNEST
RUSSELL EDGINGTON
HELEN ELLIS
ERIN
F
OCTAVIA FANT
FARRELL
HOYT FORTENBERRY
MAXINE FORTENBERRY
COBY and LISA FOWLER
FREYDA
G
LUNA GARZA
DANIELLE GRAY
H
GINJER HART
HEIDI
CATFISH HENNESSY
RUBIO HERMOSA
ALCIDE HERVEAUX
BRENDA HESTERMAN
MR. HOB
BARRY (HOROWITZ) BELLBOY
I
INDIRA
ISAIAH
J
BOB JESSUP
BROCK and CHESSIE JOHNSON
KENYA JONES and KEVIN PRYOR
K
KENNEDY KEYES
MUSTAPHA KHAN
L
TOM LATTESTA
ANTOINE LEBRUN
MAXWELL LEE
LAYLA LARUE LEMAY
BEV LEVETO
LISLE
DR. AMY LUDWIG
DAHLIA LYNLEY-CHIVERS
M
MCKENNA
SISTER MENDOZA
BERNADETTE MERLOTTE
CRAIG and DEIDRA LISLE MERLOTTE
SAM MERLOTTE
FRANKLIN MOTT
N
SARAH NEWLIN
CALVIN NORRIS and TANYA GRISSOM NORRIS
TERRY NORRIS
ERIC NORTHMAN
O
TOGO OLYMPIO
P
PALOMINO
PRESTON PARDLOE
DELL and JANICE HERVEAUX PHILLIPS
JOE PORTUGAL
LORINDA PRESCOTT
DANNY PRIDEAUX
TRISH GRAHAM PULASKI
SELAH PUMPHREY
JAKE PURIFOY
Q
FRANNIE QUINN
JOHN QUINN
R
RASUL
SHERIFF PAM RAVENSCROFT
RED RITA
S
SALOME
ERIN and REMY
SAVOY
HUNTER SAVOY
MICHELE SCHUBERT
TODD SEABROOK
DELIA SHURTLIFF and RANDALL SHURTLIFF
EVERETT O’DELL SMITH
DR. SONNTAG
JASON STACKHOUSE
SOOKIE STACKHOUSE
T
THALIA
DAVID and GENEVIEVE THRASH
TIJGERIN
JULIAN TROUT
U
INDIA UNGER
V
JUDITH VARDAMON
JOSEPH VELASQUEZ
GLEN and PORTIA BELLEFLEUR VICK
W
WARREN
SARA WEISS
QUIANA WONG
X
XAVIER
Y
VERENA ROSE YANCY
Z
BETHANY ZANELLI
For the grandchildren.
They are our future.
A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
After I began writing the final novel in the Sookie Stackhouse series, I was deluged by questions from readers who all wanted to know the same thing: how to find out what happened to a score of characters who couldn’t make an appearance in the last book. It was obvious I couldn’t fit all of the people in Bon Temps and its environs into Dead Ever After. So in the interest of satisfying the readers who’ve been following Sookie’s adventures for years, I herewith present my coda to the books that have dominated my professional life for over a decade.
THE ANCIENT PYTHONESS continues to be cared for by the vampires of Rhodes. The donors from the Donor Bureau who are sent to her have to be carefully briefed, because giving her blood is terrifying and definitely unsexy.
GREG and CHRISTY AUBERT continued to work at Greg’s insurance agency, Pelican State. Greg, a natural witch, struggled with using his innate power to improve his business after he almost ran all the other insurance agents in Bon Temps into the ground. He underwent an intervention (telling the psychologist he was an alcoholic) to change his behavior. Not too surprisingly, the treatment didn’t work very well. Greg finally managed to impress Greg Jr., who was watching from the garage one day when his dad reinflated a tire by pointing his finger at it. Lindsay, Greg and Christy’s daughter, sowed her wild oats and then settled down to teach tap and jazz dancing to little girls in Clarice. She married a farmer.
CONNIE BABCOCK, the deceitful secretary at Herveaux and Son, was not able to get a comparable job after she was fired. She ended up working as a guard at a correctional facility.
DOKE, MINDY, MASON, and BONNIE BALLINGER are living happily in Texas. Doke got laid off for a while, but he was called back to work before things got too tight. Mindy got a job working as a secretary at the high school, and she really enjoyed it. Mason had nightmares about the day of his uncle’s wedding, but his parents talked to him a lot and sent him to a counselor, and he got through it. He became a manager at a mattress factory. Bonnie didn’t remember that awful day the wedding was picketed by protesters, but she became an activist for various social causes later in life. She was also the best veterinarian in west Texas.
CHRISTIAN BARUCH was accused of unprofessional behavior at a meeting of the Vampire Hoteliers Association. He was never seen again.
BATANYA and CLOVACHE are still working for the Britlingen Collective, which continues its business of providing protection in several dimensions to whoever can pay for it. Batanya thinks Clovache is the best partner she’s ever had, and they’ve had many adventures in many strange situations. So far, they’ve come out alive.
ISABEL BEAUMONT, Dallas vampire, racked up an impressive body count among the rebels responsible for killing her king, Stan. She still lives in Dallas and has become Joseph Velasquez’s right hand. She never dates humans.
ALCEE and BARBARA BECK went away for a vacation in Hawaii after the events of Dead Ever After. They returned after two weeks with some very interesting underwear and big smiles on their faces.
ANDY and HALLEIGH BELLEFLEUR welcomed their daughter, Caroline, two months after the events of Dead Ever After. Caroline was born with a heart defect, but after some surgery she lived a relatively normal life for many years. They had two more children, sons Jared and Clayton. Caroline’s heart defect unexpectedly caused complications when she was a senior in high school, and Andy and Halleigh buried her in her cheerleader uniform. Jared and Clayton both became lawyers like their aunt Portia Bellefleur Vick.
TERRY and JIMMIE BELLEFLEUR welcomed many litters of pups to their double-wide, and three of the pups won prizes at Catahoula shows. Eight years after their marriage, the couple died in a two-car accident as they returned from a grandchild’s birthday party. Terry was sincerely mourned by Jimmie’s children and grandchildren, and they gave a donation to the VA hospital in Shreveport in Terry’s honor. It was earmarked for the treatment of prisoners of war.
BELLENOS the elf was glad to return to Faery with Dermot, and they go hunting together often. When Bellenos found a female elf to marry, Dermot gave him a handsome wedding present: a metal relief plaque embellished with the likenesses of the heads of those Bellenos had slain. It has a place of honor above Bellenos’s hearth.
BERNARD the vampire, a great friend of Russell Edgington’s, became an even better friend of Christopher Hauser, the vampire king of Germany. Bernard was named Christopher’s consort. He’s unchangingly cute.
POLLY BLYTHE was fired from her position with the Fellowship of the Sun. She found a job as a public relations contact with a Pat Robertson–style ministry but was fired from that, too, after she told a newscaster during an on-air interview that he was bound for Hell. She became a telemarketer.
JANE BODEHOUSE died five years after the end of Dead Ever After. She blacked out while she was sitting on the toilet and cracked her head against the edge of her sink. Marvin found her the next day. Marvin Bodehouse never got married, but he also never took a drink.
The vampire short-order cook ANTHONY BOLIVAR became a celebrity chef and appeared on the Food Channel several times. After he was arrested for picking up a prostitute and overdrinking from her, the Food Channel asked him to pack his knives. He began traveling again and occasionally takes a night shift at a restaurant . . . maybe one near you.
Lawyer KATHERINE (KATE) BOOK is still an undead activist. She has to practice in night court, of course, but she’s featured in magazines all the time as a poster woman for all that is good about vampires.
BOOM still works on the bomb squad in Rhodes.
Shut away in Faery forever, DERMOT BRIGANT is extremely happy. He basks in his father’s affection and has a very uncomplicated sex life. He is spell-free.
DILLON BRIGANT had already disowned his remaining child, Claude, well before Claude escaped from Faery. Dillon spent the next few hundred years keeping a low profile, because he didn’t want to remind his father, Niall, that a family member tried to overthrow Niall’s government.
NIALL BRIGANT spent a few decades suspecting that there were plots against him behind every door because of Claude’s rebellion, and many of the fae suffered for Claude’s misbehavior. Every now and then, Niall thought of Sookie and sent her a letter via rosebush.
AMELIA BROADWAY had a son with Bob. After many arguments over what to do with her father’s business and money after he was declared legally dead (Bob wanted to give it to charity), the couple split up, but they shared custody of their son, Felix, until he was eighteen. Amelia sold her father’s business to a large chain, invested the proceeds, and used her witch skills to play the stock market. She amassed a huge amount of money and married her banker. Felix became an animal wrangler for the film industry, specializing in big cats.
BUBBA continued to be passed from vampire kingdom to vampire kingdom, but while he was in Tennessee, he escaped from his minder to visit his gravesite, causing a near riot. After that, the vampire council censured Tennessee and ruled that Bubba couldn’t enter the state for fifty years. He is in Canada now. He hates the winters.
CALLISTO drifted over to the Middle E
ast, where she caused dreadful bloodshed but went unnoticed.
Wright’s PORTER CARPENTER took special courses to become an expert in crowd control. He got the job of police chief of Arlington, and then he was hired by Fort Worth.
DESMOND CATALIADES remained a friend to Sookie, developing a habit of dropping in before Christmas every year. His children didn’t approve of his attachment to a human, but in view of what happened when their father was unhappy, they never spoke to him about it. Mr. Cataliades declared New Orleans a devil-free zone, and he enforces that doctrine vigorously. He continues to practice law.
DIANTHA CATALIADES was a teenager for only ten more years. She still has a startling sense of fashion, and she still works for her uncle. She also has a seasonal job at a fireworks factory.
CHARLES CLAUSEN finally found a nice lady wereowl to nest with.
HANK CLEARWATER contracted gonorrhea.
PARKER COBURN lived with Rubio Hermosa and Palomino for fifty-seven years. After a fight about who had left the bathroom light on, Parker moved to Las Vegas, where he’s become a door-opener at a casino owned by Felipe de Castro. He’s looking for congenial vampires with whom to nest.
BILL COMPTON developed a warm relationship with Karin the Slaughterer. He built a secret daybed for her on the second floor of the Compton house. Though eventually their physical ardor abated, Bill was glad to have Karin’s input when he began creating and producing violent vampire-themed video games. He recruited a stable of young computer-oriented men and women who agreed to work for Bill exclusively for twenty years in exchange for being brought over. Eventually, Bill had to add on to the Compton house to accommodate his nest. He became extremely rich and was featured in all the vampire magazines, and not a few human ones. He strolled across the cemetery to visit with Sookie from time to time. He always loved her. A surprising development was made possible by all the money he earned from his computer empire: see Felipe de Castro.