Sookie 13.5 After Dead (3 page)

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.