Sookie 13.5 After Dead (11 page)

Calvin’s daughter,
TERRY NORRIS
, backed by her mother, Maryelizabeth, succeeded Calvin as the leader of the Hotshot panthers. She was the first of a line of female leaders.

ERIC NORTHMAN
threw himself into his role as Freyda’s consort. He was surprised to see that Quinn was planning the ceremony, but he played his part with great attention to detail. If his heart was not in the joining, no one knew it. Or expected it, for that matter. After a couple of years, Eric became genuinely attached to Freyda, who showed herself to be strong but fair. When Pam called Eric to tell him about a wedding in Bon Temps, Eric sat without speaking for a few minutes before asking Pam to send him a picture of the bride. When the picture arrived, Eric looked at it for half an hour, then tore it up and burned it. After that, Freyda never questioned his loyalty. Eric’s pride and his own survival depended on his protecting his vampire wife’s back and furthering her interests. Freyda came to rely on him more and more, and gradually Eric lost any inclination to pine for the past. After twenty years, he uncovered a plot against Freyda and demolished the conspirators in a bloodbath that was spoken of with awe by vampires everywhere. He seemed happier after that. To celebrate their fiftieth anniversary, Freyda offered to release him from his second century of marriage, but Eric refused without an instant’s pause. He did ask for the boon of creating another child. When Freyda graciously agreed, she was wise enough not to put any conditions on her gift, and in return Eric was wise enough not to change a woman. But the lucky young man was a blue-eyed blond.

TOGO OLYMPIO
continued to roam the Southwest. For years he dropped in to visit Trish and stayed with her for a few happy days . . . or weeks. As Trish got older, Togo’s visits became longer, until one morning he woke to find she had passed. Togo left a note with her nearest neighbor and returned to his wanderings.

PALOMINO
became a famous model due to her unusual coloring and her fabulous flexibility. When she grew tired of that, she returned to Louisiana during the reign of Bill Compton and handled the complaint department for his video game business.

PRESTON PARDLOE
(his true fae name was Conor) was favored by Niall for many years. He is still well-known for his talent at gift giving.

DELL
and
JANICE HERVEAUX PHILLIPS
were divorced three years after Dell dissed Sookie in Jackson. Janice married a really nice barber named Corky, and they had a wonderful time after they opened a huge salon together.

JOE PORTUGAL
, the two-natured airman who died in the Witch Wars, attained status as a legend among young werewolves worldwide, possibly because of a photograph of him looking incredibly handsome and tough in the cockpit of an airplane.

LORINDA PRESCOTT
continued to decorate her family home for every possible holiday, and she was featured in the Homes and Gardens section of the Bon Temps paper nearly every year.

DANNY PRIDEAUX
was devastated after his breakup with Kennedy Keyes, but he managed to console himself with Hotshot’s Terry Norris. After she’d had the obligatory two children with two different male panthers, she cleaved only to Danny. She makes him leave Hotshot every full moon when the panthers hunt together.