“It’s the Long Tooth enforcer,” I told the vampires. I gagged and had to wait a minute before I could go on. “It’s Basim al Saud.” The passage of days had made a great difference, but I knew him instantly. Those corkscrew curls I’d envied, the muscled body.

“Shit,” screamed Jannalynn, when the howling was done.

And that about summed it up.

When the Weres had calmed down, there was a lot to talk about.

“I only met him the once,” I said. “Of course, he was fine when he got in the truck with Alcide and Annabelle.”

“He told me what he’d smelled on the property, and I told him to tell Sookie,” Alcide told Eric. “She had a right to know. We didn’t talk about anything in particular on the way back to Shreveport, did we, Annabelle?”

“No,” she said, and I could tell she was crying.

“I dropped him off at his apartment. When I called him the next day to go with me to a meeting with our representative, he said he had to pass because he had to work. He was a website designer, and he had a meeting with an important client. I wasn’t too happy he couldn’t go, but of course, the guy had to make a living.” Alcide shrugged.

Annabelle said, “He didn’t have to work that day.”

There was a moment of silence.

“I was at his apartment when you called,” she said, and I could tell the effort she was expending to keep her voice calm and level. “I had been there a few hours.”

Wow. Unexpected revelation. Jason had hopped out of the grave, and he and I gave each other big eyes. This was like one of Gran’s “stories,” the soap operas she’d watched religiously.

Alcide growled. The ritual howling for the dead had brought out the wolf in him.

“I know,” Annabelle said. “And we’ll talk about it later. I’ll take my punishment, which I deserve. But Basim’s death is more important than my bad judgment. This is my duty, to tell you what happened. Basim got a phone call before yours, and he didn’t want me to hear it. But I heard enough to understand his conversation was with someone who was paying him.”

Alcide’s growl intensified. Jannalynn was standing close to her pack sister, and the only way I can put it was that she was aimed at Annabelle. She was crouching slightly, her hands curved as if they were about to sprout claws.

Alexei had edged close to Jason, and when the tension kept ratcheting up, Jason’s arm slung around the boy’s shoulders. Jason was having the same problem separating illusion and reality that I was.