Hot Rain (vampire): Long Shadow’s sire and grand-sire to Charles Twining, he is unhappy with the penalty levied at Eric for Long Shadow’s death and seeks revenge by having Charles kill Sookie. (Mentioned DAAD)

Hotshot: Located on a crossroads about ten miles southeast of Bon Temps, Hotshot is an isolated little community, the home of a werepanther pack consisting mainly of the multigenerational Norris and Hart families. Therefore, its residents tend to have one of two basic heritages: stocky and fair with green-gold eyes, or small and dark with dark eyes. They keep to themselves and do for themselves, taking care of one another and seeing to their own justice. The roads leading into the community are not well maintained, there are no streetlights, and the people are secretive. Outsiders rarely venture into Hotshot.

Within the pack, they are all family. They take responsibility for one another. They work as a community to ensure that needs are met. They share the raising of children, considered precious in this small pack. Each member is expected to add to the pack, often more than once, which requires multiple partners, as only the first child of any full-blooded shifter pair is a full-blooded shifter. Though the panthers are not incestuous, they are inbred.

Calvin Norris, a man well respected both inside and outside the pack, is the leader of Hotshot. He does not hold this position lightly and can be ruthless when enforcing pack laws or meting out justice. When Felton Norris kidnaps Jason Stackhouse, holding him in a metal shed and repeatedly biting him to turn him into a panther, Calvin makes certain Felton pays the ultimate price in exchange for Jason and Sookie not going to the police. Needless to say, death certificates are not always filed when pack members pass away and are quietly buried behind the Tabernacle Holiness Church, where Calvin’s uncle Marvin Norris is the pastor. And, in the past, the need for secrecy has sometimes overwhelmed all else: Sheriff John Dowdy disappeared while serving a warrant in Hotshot, never to be seen again.

Calvin does not bring the pack out publicly when the shifters announce their presence during the Great Reveal, preferring to allow his panthers to choose when and to whom to disclose their second nature. But Sheriff Bud Dearborn’s careful and caring handling of a grief-stricken Calvin after the death of Crystal Norris Stackhouse indicates that the secrets of Hotshot have been known for some time to at least a few. (DTTW, DAAD, ATD, FDTW; mentioned DAG, DITF)

Humphries, Tolliver: The death of Bill’s friend and fellow Civil War soldier Tolliver—who was killed while trying to rescue a wounded Jebediah Bellefleur—causes Bill to loathe the Bellefleurs for the next hundred and forty-odd years. (Deceased; mentioned DUD, LDID)

I:

India: No last name given. Merlotte’s new waitress, India, has cornrows and a nose piercing and is naturally cheerful. She’s currently dating Lola Rushton. (DR)