Dead But Not Forgotten (43 page)

He passes the table

(don't do it)

unsure if he's relieved or annoyed when none of them look up

(do not do this)

and pauses, ten feet from the door and the rest of his life.

(Really? You're really doing this?)

“You can love a parent while disliking the decisions they made for you,” he informs them, part of his brain wondering why he is bothering. With any of it. Is he talking to them or just using them to remind himself of a few home truths? “You can love them even as you pull away from them. You won't ever be rid of them. Even in death—perhaps especially not in death.”

Jason looks up. They all look up. Bred to politeness by their elders, none of them say what they are thinking.

“Uh . . . okay. Thanks for that, I guess, mysterious weirdo.”

“Eric,” the redhead corrects. “Jason
just
told us. God, if it's not about food or sex you're really not interested, are you?”

“That's exactly right. So anyway, thanks, mysterious weirdo who knew G-Cubed and whose name is Eric.”

All right, one of them says what they are thinking. Eric has to bite his lip to stifle the smile.

“Sookie,” Jason says by way of mild reproof.

“Sorry,” This Younger Sookie says, not seeming at all remorseful.

“And his name is
Mr. Northman
,” Jason reminds the rest of the table. “Like I started to tell you, he was a friend of G-Cubed.”

“Sorry?” This Younger Sookie tries again, sounding the smallest bit remorseful.

“I don't think you are,” Eric replies, and gives them a real smile, and moves past them to the door, “but that's fine.”

“Um, okay.” And then, the last thing he hears before the door shuts between him and a throng of Stackhouse-Merlottes: “Well, that
was
mysterious. You gotta admit.”

He feels good, and he thinks he even knows why. Returning had been bittersweet, but he'd been afraid the bitter would outweigh the sweet, and it hadn't. He feels satisfied and curiously pleased. He's seen evidence of Sookie's post-Eric life and it hasn't broken him. It hasn't even bent him. He can move on to the next phase of his life knowing he has tied up loose ends.

Perhaps he will marry again. It would be novel to marry without tricking the other party or being forced himself. How . . . how does a marriage like that even work? When you can just tell the other person the truth all the time? Perhaps charts are made. Or something. Chore charts? Lovemaking charts? Since everything can be out in the open from the beginning, there would be lots of time to plan spousal activities. So definitely charts of some kind would be involved. Maybe? He honestly has no idea; the whole thing is baffling.

A strange thing to suddenly be happy about, but it is quite something to realize that even at his age, there is still unexplored territory, things he has yet to experience.

He gets in his personal vehicle—no driver today, unnecessary for so many reasons—and pulls out of the lot to find whatever awaits him.

His
future.

Rachel Caine
is the
New York Times
,
USA Today
, and internationally bestselling author of more than forty novels in urban fantasy, romantic suspense, and young adult. She's probably best known for her Morganville Vampires novels and has been a proud Sookie fan(atic) from the start. Her most recent novel is the YA Romeo and Juliet novel
Prince of Shadows
. Visit Rachel online at rachelcaine.com, facebook.com/RachelCaineFanPage, and twitter.com/rachelcaine.

Dana Cameron
can't help mixing a little history into her fiction. Drawing from her expertise in archaeology, Dana's work (including several Fangborn stories) has won multiple Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity awards, and earned an Edgar® Award nomination. Her first two Fangborn novels,
Seven Kinds of Hell
(2013) and
Pack of Strays
(2014), were published by 47North. Dana lives in Massachusetts with her husband and benevolent feline overlords. For more information, visit danacameron.com.

Bill Crider
is a former college English teacher and the author of more than fifty published novels and an equal number of short stories. He's won two Anthony Awards and a Derringer Award, and he's been nominated for the Shamus and the Edgar® awards. His latest novel in the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series is
Compound Murder
. Check out his homepage at billcrider.com, or take a look at his peculiar blog at billcrider.blogspot.com.

New York Times
bestselling author
MaryJanice Davidson
is a former model and medical test subject. Her books are available in fifteen countries, and she frequently speaks to book clubs (“I don't know why my books sell”), writer's groups (“Seriously. No idea”), and World War II veterans (“Thanks for driving Hitler to suicide!”). She lives with her family and dogs in St. Paul, Minnesota, and her latest book,
Undead and Unwary
, came out in July 2014. She loves hearing from readers and can be reached at [email protected] or via her website at maryjanicedavidson.net.

Leigh Evans
was born in Montreal, Quebec, but now lives in southern Ontario with her husband. She's raised two kids, mothered three dogs, and herded a few cats. Other than that, her life was fairly routine until she hit middle age. Some women get tattoos. Leigh decided to write a book about a half-Fae, half-Were girl who's a magnet for trouble. The first Mystwalker novel was released as
The Trouble with Fate
in 2012. Second and third books have quickly followed:
The Thing about Weres
and
The Problem with Promises
. At the age most people start thinking about retirement, Leigh has found her career slinging words and pummeling plots. A little tardy, but then again, her mum always said she was a late bloomer.

Christopher Golden
is the
New York Times
bestselling author of such novels as
Of Saints and Shadows
,
Strangewood
, and
Snowblind
. He has cowritten three illustrated novels with Mike Mignola, the first of which,
Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire
, was the launching pad for the Eisner Award–nominated comic book series
Baltimore
. The first volume in his graphic novel trilogy collaboration with Charlaine Harris,
Cemetery Girl
, was released in January 2014. Golden was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. His original novels have been published in more than fourteen languages in countries around the world. Please visit him at christophergolden.com.

Nancy Holder
is the
New York Times
bestselling author of the Wicked Saga (written with Debbie Viguié) and the recipient of five Bram Stoker Awards for her supernatural fiction. She received a Scribe Award for
Saving Grace: Tough Love
, based on the TV show of the same name. She is known for writing “tie-in” material for such universes as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Teen Wolf, Beauty and the Beast, Sherlock Holmes, Nancy Drew, and many others. Next up is
FutureDaze2: Reprise
, an anthology of young adult short science fiction, which she coedited with Erin Underwood. She was a guest of honor at the World Horror Convention in May 2014. Find her at twitter.com/nancyholder and facebook.com/nancyholderfans.

Miranda James
is the bestselling alter ego of Dean James, author of mystery fiction and nonfiction. He has won the Agatha and Macavity awards for Best Nonfiction and has been twice nominated for the Edgar® Award for Best Critical/Biographical Work. As Miranda, he is the creator of the Cat in the Stacks series featuring librarian Charlie Harris and his Maine Coon cat, Diesel. The latest in the series,
The Silence of the Library
, was both a
New York Times
and
USA Today
bestseller.

Jonathan Maberry
is a
New York Times
bestselling author, four-time Bram Stoker Award winner, and freelancer for Marvel Comics, IDW, and Dark Horse Comics. His novels include
Extinction Machine
,
Fire & Ash
, and
Patient Zero
. His award-winning teen novel
Rot & Ruin
is now in development for film. He is the editor of
V-Wars
, an award-winning vampire anthology series that is also in development as a comic from IDW, and
Out of Tune
, a forthcoming dark fantasy anthology. Since 1978 he's sold more than 1,200 magazine feature articles, 3,000 columns, plays, greeting cards, song lyrics, and poetry. He teaches Experimental Writing for Teens, is the founder of the Writers Coffeehouse, and is a cofounder of The Liars Club. Jonathan is a frequent keynote speaker and guest of honor at genre conventions and writers' conferences, often speaking on the craft and business of writing, the publishing industry, social media, and other topics. He's a member of the Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, the Horror Writers Association, and the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers. Jonathan lives in Del Mar, California, with his wife, Sara Jo, and a fierce little dog named Rosie. For more information, please visit jonathanmaberry.com.

Jeffrey J. Mariotte
is the award-winning author of more than forty-five novels, including supernatural thrillers
Season of the Wolf
,
Missing White Girl
,
River Runs Red
, and
Cold Black Hearts
, and, as Jeff Mariotte,
The Slab
, the Dark Vengeance teen horror quartet, and others. He also writes comic books, including the long-running horror/Western comic book series
Desperadoes
and the original graphic novel
Zombie Cop
. He has worked in virtually every aspect of publishing and is a co-owner of the specialty bookstore Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego. He lives in southeastern Arizona on the Flying M Ranch. For more information, please visit jeffmariotte.com.

Seanan McGuire
writes things. It's surprisingly difficult to make her stop, which is why she has two ongoing urban fantasy series and a pseudonym (Mira Grant) under which she writes science fiction and medical thrillers. When not writing things, she travels a lot, spends too much time in Disney Parks, and watches horror movies with her three abnormally large blue cats.

Suzanne McLeod
is the author of the Spellcrackers.com urban fantasy series about magic, mayhem, and murder—with dangerous faeries, seductive vampires, bureaucratic witches, eccentric goblins, and rock-solid trolls!
The Shifting Price of Prey
—#4—is her latest book. Suzanne has been a cocktail waitress, dance group roadie, and retail manager before becoming a writer. She was born in London (her favorite city and home to Spellcrackers.com) and now lives on the sunny (sometimes) South Coast of England, with Mr Mc and Bella the Hound, and they share their garden with a small colony of pipistrelle bats!

Nicole Peeler
writes urban fantasy for Orbit Books and, in her spare time, is an assistant professor at Seton Hill University, where she teaches in their MFA in Writing Popular Fiction. Having recently finished the final book of her award-winning Jane True series, she is looking forward to the upcoming publication of
Jinn and Juice
, the first book in a series about a cursed jinni living in Pittsburgh. Nicole also lives in Pittsburgh, although she's neither cursed nor a jinni. Please visit her at nicolepeeler.com for more information on her books, or on Facebook for pictures of her sandwiches.

Leigh Perry
is Toni L. P. Kelner in disguise, or maybe vice versa. As Leigh, she writes the Family Skeleton Mysteries.
A Skeleton in the Family
, the first, came out in September 2013, and
The Skeleton Takes a Bow
in September 2014. As Toni, she's the coeditor of
New York Times
bestselling anthologies with Charlaine Harris. (Obviously, this is their most recent.) She's also the author of the “Where Are They Now?” Mysteries and the Laura Fleming series (all of which are available as eBooks and audiobooks), and is an Agatha Award winner for short fiction. Though she has published a number of stories as Toni, this one is her first as Leigh. Leigh/Toni lives just north of Boston with her husband and fellow author, Stephen P. Kelner, Jr., their two daughters, and two guinea pigs. On the Web, she's found at leighperryauthor.com.

Jeanne C. Stein
is the bestselling author of the urban fantasy series the Anna Strong, Vampire Chronicles. Her award-winning series has been picked up in three foreign countries and her short stories published in collections in the United States and the United Kingdom. Her newest book,
Blood Bond
, was released in August 2013. She also writes under the name S. J. Harper with San Diego author Samantha Sommersby, and the first book in their new series,
Fallen
, was released in October 2013. She has been a fan of Charlaine Harris and Sookie ever since a special lunch in San Diego when Charlaine offered encouragement and friendship to a writer just embarking on a publishing journey of her own.

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