Hi folks! A brief interlude from our regularly scheduled AFU program. I decided that Stan was awesome, and needed a, albeit shot, story. This will probably be three parts, and you need to read Ache for You before this will make sense. Well, you should, anyway, for context. Maybe it'll still make sense. It's in that universe. Anyway, Here you have it, I believe one of the only Stan Davis fics on fanfiction. Let me know what you think! I'm slightly terrified to not be speaking for the Viking, but I assure you, he makes many appearances.

Thanks Missus T!

Stan

"I think the Romanian girl was the most delicious," I crossed my arms, in mock anger.

Pam just laughed and shook her head. "The Thai girl put her to shame." She glanced over at her. "In fact, if you'll excuse me, now that we've sampled the wine, I'd like to buy the bottle. You'll see yourself back to the palace?"

I nodded. "Nice of you to invite me out and desert me." I would have been just as happy sitting in my rather grand guest room at the California palace and ordering in room service. I assumed Pam was picking the girls both there and at here the club, and she had most excellent taste.

"The night is young, Davis. Go have some fun." She winked, before slinking off, taking her pick of vintage to the basement.

I sat there for a while, enjoying being mostly slightly incognito. If I'd been with Eric, I would have stuck out like a sore thumb. We had a meeting tomorrow night; I hadn't seen him since arriving. He didn't frequent Bloodlust much anymore though, and his evenings were his own, for the most part. I'd long delegated things to other people and made myself available as little as possible. It was better to maintain an that aura of mystery than have people too comfortable with you. That was when thoughts of rebellion formed.

It was a nice bar, far more classy than Eric's old place in Shreveport, but then again, he was catering to a higher class clientele. Somehow he'd managed to scare of the F-heads, and as I looked around, it was obvious that most of the vampires here were at least a hundred and fifty years old. Pre-revelation vamps.

The ones with money to spend.

At about two in the morning, I made my way out, into the balmy California night. It was a nice place to visit, but I would never have wanted to live here. Too artificial. Texas was the real deal. People said what they thought, even if it wasn't the right thing to say. I liked that.

In a few minutes, I swiped my passcard at the palace gate, nodded to the were guard, and made my way through the massive back yard to the guest house where I usually stayed. I had just turned the key in the lock, when I caught an exotic scent in the air.

Fairy.

It wasn't Sookie, because she smelled distinctly of Eric, and it wasn't the one that they'd kept jailed in their basement for the better part of a year, because he smelled of full Fae. I'd only been down there once, and it had been hard to control myself.

This was something entirely different. I put the keycard back in my pocket and took a walk around the massive yard, across the tennis court, following the scent, until I reached a dead end. I looked up, to see a beautiful girl, sitting on top of the garden shed. I wiped my eyes, and looked again.

She was beautiful, with long blond hair, big brown eyes, and shapely legs sticking out of the bottom of her robe. It was a few seconds before she noticed me, and scampered back from the edge of the roof, her eyes wide. "You scared me."

I stood back a bit. "Sorry." And then I had a realization. She shouldn't be here. Eric had had some problems with the Fae in the past. I tried to look intimidating, without flashing my fangs. I didn't want to scare her too badly, not until I knew why she was here. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm, well, I live here. I mean, I'm visiting. I'm not sure if I live here yet." She blinked adorably, tucking her hair behind her ears. Her pointy ears. "I just got here a week ago."

"Does Eric Northman know you're here?"

She nodded. "Oh, yes. He does. Of course, you don't think I should be here. Who are you?"

"I'm the King of Texas." That probably wasn't important to her. I assumed if she was supposed to be here, then she knew about the vampire hierarchy. Hell, everyone knew about the vampire hierarchy now. "Stan. Stan Davis. Who are you?"

"Amelia." She smiled, brightly before popping down to my level. She was average height, maybe 5'5". Great chest. Who was this girl, living with Northman? Was he collecting fairies? "Sookie's daughter."

I looked down at her, surprised. "But you're the same age as her. Well, you look the same age."

"I'm sixty."

Fucking fairies and their weird aging. I guessed Sookie was nearly a hundred and thirty. Maybe older. She was certainly a spitting image of her though, when you looked for the resemblance. "I'm six hundred, or so."

Her eyes went wide. "Really?"

I nodded. Sookie's daughter. That was interesting. "Yep." We awkwardly stood there for a few minutes, and then I had a thought. "Are you a telepath?"

She awkwardly looked down, wringing her hands. "How did you know?"

I smiled. She was as naive as her mother had been all those years ago in Dallas. A more experienced telepath would have just said no. "Lucky guess. Your mother used to work for me. I know it runs in families." My grandfather, and Barrie's had been telepathic.

She looked up and smiled. "Yea, I guess it does."

"What were you doing up there?"

She blushed, deliciously. "Helga, the nanny, her room is right in there." She nodded to a lit window. "I was practicing blocking her out, and listening. I need to work on that. I could only hear the part fairies in Faerie, and now I can hear almost everyone." She smiled. "It's kind of tiring."

I had to ask, even though after everything that had happened, I didn't really want to know the answer. "Can you hear me?"

She laughed. "Of course not. You are a vampire, right? I haven't met many, but you have this weird glow. Pam and Eric have it too. I can't hear vampires."

I leaned in, and spoke quietly enough that only she could hear. "And even if you could, that would be the right answer."

She smiled. "I really can't."

"Good." I smiled back. "It's late. You should go inside. Practice your telepathy when there aren't a bunch of vampires creeping around. Pamela will probably be back soon." I winked.

She giggled, and it was quite delightful. "What about you?"

"Oh, I was just going to read." I made a point of reading for an hour before dawn each morning. I found that it helped me dream. "And Pam isn't interested in me. I'm not her type."

More giggling. "Well, it was lovely meeting you, Mr. Davis. Perhaps I'll see you again."

And then I had a thought. I pulled my wallet out of my pants and handed her my business card. "Do you ever do jobs, with your telepathy? Your mother used to." It had been was a difficult transition, going from having a telepath to not. I'd grown quite used to having Barry's services at the ready. If I could have one on loan, even part time, it would be very advantageous for me, but there was no way Eric would loan out Sookie. I wasn't even sure how much telepathy she helped him with these days.

She took it the card and glanced at it. "You really are the King of Texas. The card proves it."

"It would be good practice. I'd pay you handsomely as well."

She tucked it in the pocket of her robe. "I'll consider it. Good night, Mr. Davis."

I nodded. "Please, it's Stan."

She grinned, and then vanished.

Eric never mentioned his mysterious stepdaughter, however, about three weeks later I got an email request from Pam for a video chat with him.

It was about 11 p.m., when I sat in front of the giant video screen, and found Eric, reclining on his throne in his usual track pants and flip flops. He dressed up when necessary, but more often than not, this was it. I'd grown up in a different era, where appearances were probably more important than during the Viking age. Eric and I did many things differently.

"Stan."

I nodded, acknowledging him. "Eric."

He didn't look irritated, but he didn't look impressed, either. "If you'd like to request the services of one of my telepaths, I'd appreciate it if you came to me first."

"I didn't request her services. I offered her an opportunity to work for me, if she wanted to."

He groaned. "And now that's all I've heard of for weeks, from her and her mother. You threw quite a wrench in an already complicated situation. I've emailed you a contract that my lawyer drew up. If you're amenable to the terms, she's yours for a probationary period of one month, as long as assuming she wants to stay for that long. After that, we can renegotiate the terms."

This was unexpected indeed. I brought up the contract on my computer. I was would be paying her a lot, but that was fine. In Texas of her own volition, also fine. A room in the palace. Of course. A bodyguard, also fine. I was to personally accompany her on all jobs. No biting; I could live with that. "This looks fine."

"She can mask her scent, but poorly. Makes her smell like she's around a quarter. It's still pretty strong. I mean it, no biting." I wondered whose edict that was, his or Sookie's.

"I don't bite the unwilling, anymore than you do." I leaned back in my chair, slightly insulted by his implication.

"It doesn't matter if she's willing." He raised an eyebrow.

"I'll sign this and send it back to you. When can I expect her?"

"In a week. Next Monday. She doesn't work weekends, either." He grinned. "Unless you want to pay her overtime."

I rolled my eyes and then nodded. "I'll await the details of her arrival."

When I rose the next evening, I spent a few hours making a list of tasks that a telepath would come in handy for. It was not as long as I'd imagined. I figured I would come up with things as I went. I also ordered one of the suites on the third floor of the palace redone, and the fridge stocked with human food. I should have asked Northman what she liked, but he probably would have laughed in my face. I was sure he had no idea.

My driver picked her up on Monday evening, and I left word that she was to be sent to my study, once she settled in.

I decided that she'd first read my human staff.

She strolled into my study about a half hour after she arrived at the house, wearing a delightful short red dress, and a pair of flat gold shoes. I could tell see she'd spent time in the sun recently, because she smelled of that, even more than Fae. I nodded, and gestured for her to sit down in the chair across from me. I gave her a nod. "Good evening."

She smiled, quite adorably. "Good evening to you, too. So, I'm here, and I'm ready to work."

She really was as naive as Sookie Stackhouse had been. "I'm going to have you read my staff, and make sure they're well intentioned. It will be good practice, and it is imperative that they are loyal to me."

"But no pressure?" She smiled again, tucking her feet under her on the huge chair.

Most of my staff had been with me for many years. I didn't keep anyone around that I didn't trust. "No pressure."

She put her best game face on. "Okay, let's do this."

I moved aside, and she sat in my chair, while I sat on the large leather couch to the left of my desk. I'd decided to bring them in in order of length of service, most to least. First up: My gardener, Alberto. He'd been with me for thirty years.

Amelia shifted slightly in the chair, before reaching across the desk. "Can you give me your hand?"

He nodded, glancing at me before handing it over reaching his hand out. She looked up, thinking, before looking at me. "Do you want to know everything, or just really bad things?"

Alberto started to sweat. I winked at him, confident that I had no reason to be unhappy with him. "I think we can discuss your findings in private."

She nodded. "Of course."

He'd been stealing fruit from my garden. I didn't care about that. I would have just given it to him, had he asked. It wasn't as though I had much use for it. It was when the third from last human came in, a girl named Melinda that did my laundry, that things got really interesting, and the discussing in private thing went right out the window. She gasped as she touched her hand. "She's installed cameras, and does a live feed from your mansion to the internet." She lowered her voice. "She's been trying to catch you having, well..."

How the hell had I missed that? I stood up and grabbed Melinda, glancing over at Amelia. "That's enough, for tonight."

She looked at me with horror, mostly focused on my fangs, knocking my chair over as she practically ran out.

I dealt with Melinda, through some very heavy glamouring, so she would forget Amelia, and then convinced her to confess everything to me the next day, so I could deal with her through the proper channels. I left it to Isabel. She'd never liked Melinda, but she wouldn't be unjust.

The next evening when I rose, I found Amelia her seated outside in my garden with a paperback novel of some sort. She immediately stashed it behind her when she saw me. "Good evening. I didn't think you would, well, be awake, I guess, so early." More blushing.

I sat in the chair opposite her. "What are you reading?"

She laughed, somewhat nervously. "Something my mom had. It's nothing."

I reached behind it. "Wuthering Heights. A classic." Nothing to be ashamed of.

"Exactly." She tucked her hair behind her ears. "What's on the docket for tonight, boss?"

"I'd like to visit some of my businesses, and just have you observe, and let me know," I cleared my throat. "Afterwards, there is anything I should be aware of."

She blushed. "Sorry, I was so surprised last night."

I leaned across the table. Barry had had the same problem initially. "Do you know what a poker face is?"

She shook her head. "I don't."

Right. Fairy. "It's when you don't reveal your thoughts through your face. You need to look stoic, unmoving. Revealing too much when you're mind reading can be dangerous."

"But you'd keep me safe?" She looked up, her eyes a mix of fear and innocence.

"The contract does dictate that, yes." I met her eyes. "I have the feeling that Northman would have my fangs if anything were to become of you."

"I don't think he likes me very much." She looked cast her eyes down again.

"He cares a great deal for your mother, though, and that would certainly be enough reason for him to exact revenge." I smiled. "He's very old. Vampires get crotchety in their old age at times." And she was a Fae. Northman was not a fan of the Fae, even if she was his wife's kin.

That certainly hadn't saved the fairy in his basement.

"Am I dressed okay?" She stood up. "I wasn't sure what we were doing tonight."

She was in blue tonight, a navy skirt and a blue striped top. "Yes. This will be quite casual. I need to take a trip to Florida next week, and that will be more formal. Isabel can take you shopping for the appropriate pieces."

She looked tense. "We're going back to Florida?"

I nodded. "My former second in command is being sworn in as King. It's a cause for celebration, especially considering that it means that I will no longer have to do the accounting for that accursed state."

She sighed. "It's just that, well, one of my brothers was last seen there, before the door closed. He tried to drag me back just before, and I don't know if he's still looking for me. I've been moving around a lot. I can't go back."

We started walking towards the house. "Did he not return to Faerie?"

She nodded. "He did then, but it doesn't mean he won't be back. There are less popular doors, in isolated areas that few know about."

That was good to know. "I swore to protect you, and I will." This would have been easier, if I'd been allowed to feed from her. "Besides, I doubt he's going to be hanging around a bunch of vampires. That would not be smart."

She laughed. "No, I suppose it wouldn't be."

It was a few minutes later that both of us realized the irony of my statement. We exchanged an awkward glance.

The first stop was at a restaurant that I'd owned for a few months. It featured a mix of human and vampire offerings, and catered to a middle to upper class clientele. It was quite popular. "We'll eat, and you can observe the staff."

Her eyes lit up as we walked in. "Can I get whatever I want?"

I looked at her curiously. "Of course."

"I've only eaten at a restaurant a few times. We didn't have them in Faerie."

She was certainly unusual. "I've heard the pizza is very good here."

She opened the menu. "Should we get a couple of things and share?" She gasped, and covered her mouth. "Sorry."

Adorable. After six hundred years, it took a lot to offend me, and drawing attention to the fact that I didn't eat food would never do it. "You can get as much as you'd like, and we can take away what you don't finish, for later."

She ordered a lot. Enough for four humans. I watched, slightly curious, as she tried a bit of each thing, moaning deliciously at the things she liked and wrinkling her nose at the things that she found were less tasty. Finally, after she'd had a couple of bites of some sort of carrot dessert, she set her fork down. "That was great."

"It seemed as if it was." I smiled.

"Your cook spits in the soup. It's why I didn't get any." She smiled, sipping on a glass of water. "Other than that, you're good."

We went through a number of my businesses, and with Amelia's help, I discovered that I had hired mostly good humans. A few were stealing, mostly petty amounts, a few knew of spies for other regents in my retinue, which was also fine. I knew most of them. It was the eighth business that got a real reaction from Amelia. It was an all-night laundry mat. The colour drained from her face as soon as we walked in the door. I was surprised when she grabbed my hand, and looked up at me, her eyes pleading with me. "I think we should go."

I shook my head. "We'll be fine."

"I don't need to hear anymore." She tugged at my shirt, anxious. "Please."

I nodded, glancing at the clerk as we headed back out to my towncar. After we were both seated, she finally let got of my hand. "They're draining Faemans in the basement. Seven of them. Their thoughts were horrible."

I'd made the sale and use of F illegal in Texas. "I'll take care of it."

She smiled weakly. "Those F-heads are scary."

That they were. Fucking baby vamps. "The operation will be shut down by the end of the night." I pulled my glasses off and rubbed my eyes. It was a habit, more than anything, from a time when I'd actually had a visual impairment. "We will go home." We could take care of the rest of of my businesses another night.

She nodded, still upset. "Thank you. You can dock me pay for the rest of the night, if you want."

I shook my head. "That won't be necessary."

I didn't see her the next night, but the evening after, I found her in my library, up high on a ladder, looking through the shelves. Without a sound, I walked up to her, quiet until I was right under the ladder. "Hi."

She screamed, practically falling off the ladder. "Sugar! Stan, you scared the shit out of me."

I chuckled. "If you're going to hang around with vampires, you have to rely on more than just your telepathy to let you know if someone is behind you."

"How the hell was I supposed to hear you?" She climbed down the ladder, and stood with her back against it. "Sorry I didn't find you last night."

"I would have found you if I needed you." She'd really reacted badly to the Faeman draining at the laundry mat, and from what I saw when I went back with Isabel later that night, she had good reason. It was one of the most complex and one of the most horrifying draining operations that I'd ever seen. We'd transferred the Faemans to a local hospital, where they'd be for a long, long time, and staked three baby vamps that never should have been made. That was one good thing about being king; I was kind of outside the law in many ways, and I often held vampires to a higher standard than the humans in my service. With age should have come wisdom. "And you don't have to work every night, only when I require your services."

"Do you need me tonight?"

I shook my head. "I have to sit tonight, and hear disputes. Isabel will take you shopping."

She smiled. "Okay. I'm ready to work if you need me though."

She was very different than Barry in the beginning. I would have had to drag him out of bed if he was working two nights in a row. "I'll let you know."

It was a dull night. Arguing over humans, and money, and hierarchy. The usual shit. At about 3 a.m., I made my way to my study, closed the door and pulled out my violin.

It wasn't the one I'd owned as a human, which wasn't even called a violin at the time. That one was lost to the ages, dust somewhere, although it should have long outlasted me. I'd constructed it, hand crafted every piece, while my wife carried our child. I wasn't able to be sentimental, not after I was turned, so it was lost. Creating it had lead to my downfall. I never would have come to her attention, if it hadn't been for the violin.

I'd come to power by being patient, by listening to the music behind what people said. The pitch and the tone. One could conquer entire civilizations, by listening, understanding and acting on the meaning behind the words. It was unfortunate that it was a lesson that I'd learned too late as a human.

My fingers delicately held the bow, and I set my chin in the rest. The ones I'd made had never had a rest. So many pieces determined the voice. The type of wood it was constructed from, the quality of the strings, and the lacquer that covered the instrument. This one had been a gift from Isabel, a century after I turned her. She'd called it an anniversary gift. It was far nicer than the ones I'd made as a human, as the tools and technology were better, but I'd never forget the ones I'd created myself. I could never bring myself to build one after I was turned. For centuries, I'd never had the time to just sit for the amount of time it would have taken, and I wasn't in a position to be carrying such a delicate instrument with me.

I'd been playing for about a half hour, various pieces from Borodin, who I'd actually played with a couple of centuries ago, and had just started Notturno number two in D-major, when I sensed something unusual. A split second later, I had an intruder pinned to the floor, and my fangs were bared.

Amelia.

I sat up, still holding her down. "What are you doing?"

Clearly I'd scared the shit out of her. "I, um, I heard you playing, and I thought I'd try and sneak up on you, like you did to me earlier." She was ghostly pale.

I moved off her, and looked at my broken bow, which I'd been ready to stake her with, and the startled look in her huge eyes, and then started laughing, so hard that blood tears came out of my eyes. I hadn't laughed so hard in centuries.

"You can't sneak up on a vampire." No wonder Eric hadn't wanted me drinking from her. She'd be so easy to manipulate after one swap, not because she was stupid, but simply because she didn't know much. I guess she did come from a whole other world, and not one where my kind existed. "If I listened hard enough, I could hear you breathing on the third floor of the mansion."

"Why are you bleeding?" She sat up, her legs spread out in front of her, and examined the broken bow. "Were you going to kill me?"

"Not once I realized that it was you, but before, possibly." I wiped my eyes. "I cry blood. I don't have other fluids like you."

"Oh." Her eyes went wide. "Sorry I bothered you. You play very well."

"I've had a long time to practice." I'd taken the split second to set the violin down. Bows were disposable, but not the actual instrument. "Did you pop in here?"

"I didn't know how else to sneak up on you." She crossed her legs, and looked like she was finally catching her breath.

I smiled, wiping the last of the blood from my cheeks. "How about no more popping. Can we agree on that?" I didn't want her popping around.

She grinned. "Fine. But no more sneaking up on me. Deal?"

"You'll have to have Northman write in in the contract for next time." I winked. I found it both odd and refreshing that she was so comfortable with me, but when I'd given it some thought, I realized that it was probably because she had witnessed Eric and Sookie's relationship, which was far from formal. Human, fairies, whatever, weren't usually so comfortable around vampires, and with good reason.

"I used to play the harp, but very poorly. What's that instrument called?"

"This is a violin. I used to make them, as a human."

She eyed it curiously. "It's very nice."

"She is." I grabbed it off my desk. "I've had this one for many years."

"Will you play for me, or did you break a very important part trying to kill me?"

I stood up, and pulled an extra bow out of my filing cabinet. "It's important, but replaceable."

She sat on the floor and watched while I played a bit more, closing her eyes at times. I didn't play for an audience very often anymore, only really Isabel, and my other children if they were around. When it was about five, I stopped. Time to read. "I'm going to go to my room."

She opened her eyes, half asleep. "Wait. I'm going to eat something. I'm starving, and I didn't want to ask Isabel to get me some food when we were out. Will you come with me first?"

I shrugged. I had a couple of hours before dawn. "Sure."

She followed me down to the kitchen, and I pulled a bag of donor blood from the fridge, before popping in in the microwave. She did the same with a pasta dish of some sort.

We both sat down, and ate and drank our meals in comfortable silence. When she'd finished, she took her dish, placed it in the sink and sat back down. "Thank you for not killing me, earlier. I really wish there was some sort of vampire code book, that had all the rules and things that people should know."

And that guide book would never exist, because if people could just know those things, it would threaten our existence. "I wouldn't have killed you. Someone else, but not you." I leaned across the table. "Why did you want to come here? To Texas?"

"Because you asked me." She clasped her hands, and sighed. "That's not it completely. To see you. That was why it took me so long to convince them. Mom read my mind."

"And what were you thinking?" It was odd that a mother would have such control over a girl her age, but then again, she was from a different world. Sookie was probably just looking out for her best interests, and thinking back on her experiences, she was doing the right thing.

She smiled. "That you were very interesting."

A few days later, we flew to Florida at first dark. She sat beside me, wringing her hands. "I've only flown twice."

Once to get to Texas, and now this trip? I guess she had very little need to fly. "It's perfectly safe. Besides, you could just pop out of any sort of disaster."

She grinned. "That's true."

Isabel shot me a knowing look. We'd traded stories of Amelia's interesting world views. Isabel thought she was playing it up, but I didn't think so. She just really knew very little about this world. Sure she'd been here for a couple of years, but she'd had very little interaction with people outside of her backward kin in Louisiana and the other Faemans, who were also poorly adjusted to earth. 'We'll have to keep a close eye on her.' Isabel thought at me. 'I don't know what kind of company Joseph is keeping these days.'

He was a rather poor judge of character at times, especially when it came to humans. 'I thought I'd have her stay with you. Joseph said there's an adjoining dark and light suite.'

'I thought you'd might want to share with her.' Isabel chuckled. Amelia looked confused.

I glanced at her sideways. 'I'm sure Northman would like that.'

'She's not his, is she?'

'I don't know what she is to him, besides Sookie's child. He holds the contract.' I shrugged.

'Is no sex in the contract?' She raised her eyebrows.

I wasn't completely sure. 'No biting is.'

'I think she'd have sex with you. She talked about you the entire evening when we were shopping. She even likes your appalling glasses.' Isabel had been trying to convince me to get rid of the glasses for centuries. I liked them. They made people think. For a long time I'd used them to pass for human. I'd had terrible vision as a human.

Amelia had had enough of our bizarre back and forth. She looked to me awkwardly. "So, how long until we land?"

'See, she totally wants to have sex with you.' Isabel smirked.

"Probably an hour?" I smiled. "Would you like anything? There's a fully stocked fridge. The flight attendant can make you whatever you want."

She shrugged, looking a little dejected at being left out of our conversation. I guess she wasn't used to not hearing the whole story. It was very useful, being able to communicate without saying a word with those I trusted most. "Maybe a water?"

I reached up and pressed the call button, and a minute later, she had her water. "We don't have any obligations tonight. You will share a suite with Isabel, but you'll have your own room."

She glanced at Isabel. "What do you all do during the day?"

Isabel chuckled. "Don't worry about it. I'll lock you out. We sleep very heavily."

I was a fan of calling a spade a spade. "We're dead, for all intents and purposes. You could wake us if you had to, but it would be very, very hard. Your mother managed to save many of us during the day. Ask her about it sometime."

Her eyes perked up at the mention. "Really?"

I nodded. "It took me a year to recover. I would have been finally dead if she and Barry hadn't searched us all out."

She looked impressed. "Wow. She never told me."

Isabel grinned. "Sookie Stackhouse has quite a reputation, amongst the supernatural community, even after vanishing for a century. She used to be quite mad, at times, and she's lucky she didn't end up dead, the way she behaved."

I shot her a look. 'There's a better way to say that, Isabel.' "She's very brave. She killed the last Queen of Florida a few short months ago."

Amelia gasped. "Really?"

Isabel nodded. "Her loyalty to those she cares about is probably her be most valuable asset, not her telepathy. It's quite unwavering."

I could tell she was thinking all this over. "The only bedtime stories she ever told me were the ones out of the Faerie book of Fairy Tales."

Isabel raised an eyebrow and glanced at me. 'That exists?' "Pity."

When we landed, I could tell from her body language that she was tense. "You'll be fine. Just don't leave the palace without one of us."

She nodded. "So this is a party. Do I need to do anything?"

I hadn't really thought about that. It wasn't my state, so I wasn't really required to have my telepath for the month provide her services. But then again, Joseph had been in my service for many years. "You can listen. Let me know if you hear anything interesting."

I knocked on the door to her room a few minutes after dark, and found her sitting on the couch, a laptop in front of her, dressed in a long gold gown, her hair pulled loosely back from her face, just covering her ears. "So you can lose an arm, and it will grow back?"

I nodded. "Everything but the head, although some parts hurt worse healing than others." Fingers were a bitch, even though they were small.

"That's crazy."

"You can pop in and out of rooms, and read people's minds. Now that's crazy." I smiled. "You look lovely."

She adjusted the top. "I don't usually do strapless."

I felt a bit as though Isabel was playing a cruel trick on both of us, Amelia being quite exposed, and me being quite powerless when it came to exposing her further. "It's nice."

"I'm going to put a sweater on." She stood up, setting the laptop to the side. "I don't want anyone biting me and pissing Eric off." She reached in her bag and pulled out a chocolate brown cardigan.

"No one is going to bite you." Although in that dress, I'm sure I wasn't the only one that wouldn't have minded. "I would advise you to just keep quiet though. If you have any questions, you can ask me discreetly." I glanced at the computer screen. One hundred and one things that you should know about vampires, but were afraid to ask. "You can really just ask me vampire questions. I might not tell you the answer to all of them, but most I'd imagine."

She blushed, embarrassed. "This is my first job. I just really want to do a good job."

"You're doing fine." Sure, she was a bit quick to blurt things out, but so far the experience of having her work for me had been quite positive.

"Thanks. I know I have a lot to learn. It's just that my Mom was such a good telepath too. I don't want to embarrass her."

Non-vampire parent child relationships confused me, so I just said the obvious answer. "I'm sure you won't. We should go though."

She grabbed her purse, stopping for a minute to look at me. "You look nice too. But you always look nice."

I grinned at her. "Flattery will get you everywhere. You don't have to eat the food if you don't want. You can order room service later."

She grinned back. "Mom said that vampire food for humans was always terrible."

"From what I hear, she's right."

She was perfect, staying quiet for most of the evening, and only speaking when spoken to, but paying careful attention to everything. It wasn't that I liked her like that, but it was what was expected of her, and in a room full of vampires, the last thing she needed to do was draw attention to herself. Many noticed the smell, but because she was within arms reach of me for the entire evening, they kept their distance. She didn't eat the dinner, which was some sort of purple vegetable, with a meat pie of some sort, so at about 2 a.m., as the festivities died down, and everyone started paring up, or going off in groups, she patted my arm. "I'm going to go back to my room and get room service, if that's okay with you."

I nodded. "I'll take you up to your room. Once you're there, stay put though, and don't open the door for anyone."

When she was securely in for the night, sitting in front of the huge television in a fluffy robe and slippers, I left her and rejoined the party, and while she had her meal, I had mine, a lovely Russian girl with a name I hadn't heard in centuries. Yullya. She was wonderful company, and spoke flawless Russian. We'd been sitting for quite a while, and she'd just accepted an invitation back to my room, when a slightly frantic Isabel found me. 'She's gone.'

"Who?"

She shook her head. 'Your telepath. She's not in her room. I went to check on her.'

'Shit.' I pushed Yullya off my lap, and made my way upstairs, Isabel on my heels. There were signs of a struggle, the laptop on the floor, and the contents of her purse scattered around the room. "Shit."

"How long ago did you bring her up?" Isabel walked around, surveying the room.

"Two hours or so."

She picked up her purse, and sniffed the air. "I don't think this was the fairies. We need a tracker."

It turned out that Joseph's tracker was shit, and it was nearly dawn when I realized that we'd have to give up soon.

And it was then that I thought of the last place a fairy would want to be, and the first place a vampire would take them. " The lemon grove," I exclaimed.

Isabel nodded, shouting at the driver.

We found her, just as the sky started lightening, surrounded by three or four vampires, tied up, covered in a splotchy rash from the lemons I assumed, with a draining kit hooked up to each arm. The vampires took off when they saw us coming, but it was no surprise that they were far younger than Isabel and I. We quickly subdued them, and Isabel tossed them in the trunk of the towncar, as I knelt beside Amelia.

"You were supposed to stay in your room." She looked terrible, her pale complexion near vampiric.

She winced, as I pulled the first needle out. I desperately wanted to lick her wounds, not only to taste her, but also to heal them. They'd been barbaric with their needles. That wasn't biting, was it? "I just went out to get the food," She whispered.

I shook my head. "There's a slot, in the door. You didn't have to go out." I hopped over her to the other side. This one was even worse than the other side. I'd have to take her to a human hospital, if I wasn't allowed to give her my blood. "You need a doctor." Her rash was something else too. Really awful.

"I've never been before." She let me pull her up so she was sitting.

"I'll call one to the palace. It's almost dawn." I looked at the wound. "If I lick you, can you keep it to yourself? No telling Northman?"

She wrinkled up her nose. It was obvious that she was quite lightheaded from all the blood loss. "Why would you lick me?"

"It'll help your healing. My blood would help more, but I think that would fall under the no biting clause in your contract."

She nodded weakly, as I picked up her arm. It sealed the immediate wound, but the damage below the surface was still there. I licked the other one, and it did the same.

Isabel stalked over a minute later. "I say we finish them here. Joseph doesn't have a proper jail, and they don't need a trial." She nodded at Amelia. "Clearly, they're guilty."

I shrugged. "Fine, but you're telling him." He always had a soft spot for Isabel.

"Deal."

I knelt back down beside Amelia. "I'm going to help you into the car, and then we'll just be a minute." If the lemons were going to kill her, she'd be dead already.

"What are you going to do?"

"Don't worry about it."

She didn't argue, and I scooped her up, setting her gently in the back of the car, as Isabel hauled the three baby vamps out of trunk, and tossed them to the ground. We finished them quite quickly, and buried the remains under a large tree. I looked up, as we finished digging the hole to see Amelia looking out the rolled down window, an odd expression on her face. It wasn't anger, or fear. It was something else entirely. Acceptance.

Note: The remaining four chapters of this story are posted on my blog: seastarr08 dot wordpress dot com