Jason falls asleep in his work truck, tired from all that thinkin', and in the dream he's getting hieroglyphics and various words that are not words on his written test, so he takes it up to Bud Dearborn, who of course has a giant bullet hole in his head, and assures Jason there's nothing wrong with his test: Just something incredibly wrong with Jason. "Jason," he says, voice becoming Lafayette's: "Wake the fuck up."

Jason wakes up. That's like all Lafayette is ever saying to him. Jason prevaricates about how he wasn't sleeping on the job, and Lafayette calls him "supervisor" in a tone that causes most of the swamp grass along the road to wither away and die. "I know what you're thinking," Jason says, wiping sleep from his eyes and trying to remember how adults act, "But I got a lot on my mind lately." Lafayette is sympathetic to the fact that Jason has not once had any things on his mind, previous to this point, and complains about the ongoing mess of Tara's insides that he is now dealing with every moment. Jason gets worried about Tara, but before he can ask about it Hoyt starts screaming: There's a body in a culvert, and it's missing its head and hands. Hoyt does not deal with headless bodies very well, I suppose.

Sookie's doing some kind of housework outside when she hears somebody's thought's were-inflected, coming closer. That must be her, said blond and pretty. No wonder the girl's a magnet for trouble... She runs full-tilt into the house, ready to start a big fight with a werewolf as usual, but he grabs her and swears he's not going to hurt her. "I've had vampire blood! I'll kick your ass!" God, I love Sookie this year. The werewolf -- who is about six and a half feet of brooding sexy, my favorite boy in the entire series of books, and is bulked up to the point where his muscles have muscles -- introduces himself as Alcide Herveaux, sent by Eric to watch over her while Eric can't. Somehow Sookie finds it within herself to keep from climbing up his body like a spider monkey, which just goes to show you how hardcore she really is.