Shake it Off

by JustJensThoughts

In the final chapter Sookie prepares to face off with Cartimandua and she’s throwing everything she’s got at her. Will it be enough?

Eric's voice came to me as a background noise. The repeated calling of my name sounded to me as if it came from a hundred feet away. A loud ringing filled my ears, drowning him out. I slowly blinked at the contents of the seemingly normal box. The box was perfectly ordinary as far as boxes go, nothing unseemly, but once you peeked inside it became evident that it was a dark and horrible box. For it contained a finger, cut from one of my kin. 

Cartimandua was really upping the stakes. No pun intended. She took Claude and Dermot a couple weeks prior to the finger in the box. They had ignored everything I said and went to try and reason with her, but you can't reason with a madwoman. I had been beside myself thinking they were being tortured and now the proof was right in front of me. In a brown. Cardboard. Box.

Eric finally grabbed me by the shoulders and turned me towards him before giving me a good shake. 

"Sookie!" His voice finally breaking the daze I was caught in.

"Listen to me! You need to be sharp!" His eyes bore into mine.

"She cut this off of one of mine!" I screamed, pointing angrily at the box, eyes full of tears. It was the middle finger, adding insult to injury.

"You have to shake this off. Look at me." He caught my darting eyes with his own. I felt him breathe his serenity into me. 

I inhaled it, for lack of a better word as he watched me visibly relax. 

"We know that they are still alive. She would not have sent this if they weren't. She needs them." I nodded, letting him calm me with the truth. 

"She'll probably send a demand of some sort. People do it sometimes during hostage situations." I told him. 

"Undoubtedly. In this case, she is going to ask for your surrender." He informed me and I scoffed. "As your maker and your husband, I would strongly advise you against this." He managed to elicit a smile from me, but it didn't touch me.  

I realized though, that she would not contact us to ask for my surrender. This was her way of demanding it. 'Surrender or your family gets it.' I knew it without a doubt. It mattered not that they were also her family, or that I was. If there was a finger in a box today, there could be a head on porch tomorrow with no in between warnings. The realization wiped the smile from my lips.

"We can do this." He said reassuringly. 

"Can we? Look around, Eric. She is kicking our asses and she hasn't even broken a sweat." I said bluntly. 

"That does not mean we cannot win." He shrugged. 

"Doesn't it? Because we've thrown everything we have at her, but with her magical abilities, she's shaken every one of them off! I can't even-" I stopped mid-sentence, staring into the distance as my idea began forming in my mind; a background thought coming forward.  

"Sookie?" He tried to catch my eyes. 

"Shh." I held up a hand for silence so the idea could take full form. 

"Did you just shush me?"

The final piece clicked into place in my brain.

"I've got it!" I felt my eyes light up with triumph with my announcement. 

"Oh, really?" Pam spoke for the first time since opening the box. "I can't wait to hear this."

"Niall can help us!"

"Niall? That's great, except for the fact that we have no way of reaching him." Pam moved her head as she spoke. A true testament to her sass. 

"Well, maybe you don't." I raised my brows and she raised one in return. 

"What are you thinking, Lover?" Eric smirked at me. 

"I'm thinking that all we need...is a witch."

"A witch isn't powerful enough to beat Cartimandua." She rolled her eyes. 

"That's fine, because that's not what I was gonna propose." I said before turning and leaving the kitchen.

They exchanged glances almost audibly as they followed me into the exquisitely decorated living room. Eric had the place before we ever met and it had such feng shui that I never even thought of asking to change it. It was so simply...Eric. Strong yet deep, gorgeous and very expensive. With large art pieces and a statue or two. The furniture hinted at designer origins.

I retrieved my phone and called a number I hadn't in years. It rang twice before I got an answer.

"Hello?"

"Yes, hello. I was hoping this is still the number to reach an Amelia."

"Sookie?"

"Amelia!"

"Oh, my word! I can't believe it's you! It's been so long! How are you?!" She exclaimed.

"That's kind of a loaded question." I chuckled. "Can we meet for coffee?"

"Of course! Of course! Where are you? Eric's place? I'm already in Shreveport!"

"Really? Get out!" I jawed, finding the convenience uncanny.

"Yes, ma'am! Came down to consult with a coven about their newest witch. She's bright!"

"Oh, wow! Yeah, we're all here. Come on by! Do you still remember the address?"

"Well, duh! I'll see you soon!" She squealed excitedly before hanging up. 

I'm betting you have about a million different questions about Amelia, but the truth of it is rather simple. She grew to great power in the witch community about ten years after Eric turned me.  She raised eyebrows and gained notoriety when she seemingly found the way to create the long awaited anti aging spell.  

I say seemingly because it still isn't considered an "official spell" by the coven of high witches, but it obviously works. They refuse to acknowledge it as an official spell just to spite Amelia. They don't like her very much due to a tiny indiscretion a hundred years ago. Which she totally took her punishment for and they unfairly misjudge her anyway. It never held her back, though. She just keeps rising to the top. Truth be told, I think they are afraid of her. They know she's stronger than any one of them and someday, she's going to take their places. 

You see, each of the high witches coven are chosen from the brightest of their generation. Most live normal humans lives and dies, so the change is constant. Each position is higher than the last so there's a scale, so to speak; rankings. Which means as each of them dies, Amelia will take the place of them. One right after the other. Going up and up until she sits at the very top as Supreme Witch, where she will rule the most powerful coven in the world for the foreseeable future, due to her immortality. Personally, I would respect her if I was them. 

In the meantime, they send her around doing bogus jobs that they would never personally lift a finger for. As if she's their intern. Ugh! She never complains, though, doing everything she's told. She's remained so humble through all of her success, it just proves that she deserves to be the Supreme Witch. 

She came through the door in an excited frenzy. We haven't actually seen each other for about thirty years. We keep in touch. Sort of. It's a whole different ball game when  you're immortal, okay? We talk every few years. Exchanging emails mostly. Like old ladies. 

Now though, we squealed and jumped up and down like we were still in our twenties. Of course, I would always be in my twenties. She was pretty excited to see Eric and Pam, as well. When you live so long a blast from the past is one of the best things in the world and the longer someone is around the more precious they become. 

I gave her a glass of water while we caught up, but we had so much to discuss that I pulled the subject towards the main topic. My kin didn't have forever. 

"Amelia, I hate to say this, but the real reason I called is because we're in trouble." I said delicately.

She inhaled deeply. "Ah. I see. What's up?"

"Short version?" I asked and she shrugged as if to say why not?

"An ancient fairy who is my great, great aunt was presumed dead for like, ever until she recently popped back up more powerful than ever, in an attempt to destroy all of vampire kind and she keeps attacking me and she kidnapped me, poisoned my husband and now she kidnapped Claude and Dermot to use against me." I explained maybe a little too quickly. 

She slow blinked at me and I watched her brain catch up to my words. "So, just regular Sookie stuff, then?" 

I laughed. "You know me so well."

"Poor Claude and Dermot. Are they okay?" She shook her head.

"I don't know." I said somberly. "We received this this morning." I gave her the box containing the finger. 

"Oh! Okay, eww." She said before giving it back. "And what is it you think I can do to help?" I put the box on the coffee table between us.

"Remember my grandpa Niall?"

"Of course! What a nice man."

"I need you to help me contact him." The silence that followed was almost audible.

"Sookie, he sealed Fae away. I'm not sure I can help you with this." She shook her head in doubt. 

"I know, I know." I said, inching forward and trying not to get ahead of myself. "But if I can't get him here, we will all most likely die." I replied. I felt bad for saying it, but it was the truth and I needed her to hear it.

"No pressure." Pam added from an armchair, to which Amelia smiled at sarcastically. She took a moment to exchange a long glance with Pam. They had a slightly romantic background and they parted on good terms. Their behavior didn't exactly surprise me.

"If I do this, it would be tampering with the laws of the natural order. I don't know what might become of it or what we could be messing up." She said heavily. 

"We would appreciate it." Eric smiled sheepishly. I almost laughed at how adorable he was. Almost. 

"I'll do it." She said and we all cheered. 

"Wait! Before you get excited, you should know that I have no idea if I'm even capable of this and there's no guarantee it'll work. But, I am sworn to protect this realm and all its creatures and I suppose that includes you. And especially Fae people." She said with a hand raised.

"You are?" I asked. There was still so much I didn't know.

"I will need a day to prep and gather my ingredients. Also, do you have anything of his?" She eloquently dodged my question. I supposed witches had secrets just like vampires. 

"No." I said truthfully, the culvier dor was his, but now it was mine and it was more of a family keepsake. Not to mention that nobody knew I had it. Best to keep it that way.  

"How about something from a relative?" I just stared at her. "Sorry. A more closely related relative?" She corrected herself.

We all stared at the finger box. 

"Right." She smiled at the unpleasant thought. 

We dispersed to let her do her thing and Eric dragged me back to our room. We had seen plenty of trouble in our time together and we're big fans of 'in case we die' sex. 

He kissed me afterwards and brought me a brush before sitting at my feet. I brushed his hair meticulously. I missed braiding it. Don't get me wrong, I dig the short hair, but I get nostalgic about his long hair. Which makes me nostalgic about being human. At least, the sex was better now.

When I was alive, I thought sex with Eric couldn't get any better, but after I died it did. And the more time went by, the better we got at it. Or maybe he was always this good and I was just cathcing up? You'd think sex with same person would get old after a while, but it was quite the opposite. I knew his body almost as well as I knew my own at that point and I very much enjoyed making it do what I wanted. I knew every place I needed to touch, bite or lick to elicit any desired results. The very thought made me shiver and a smile played on my lips.

Besides, I could hardly remember what it was like to be human. The monotony of it. The annoyances that came with it. The helplessness. Incessant breathing. Eating three times a day. Working for someone else. Peeing. I giggled to myself. Stomach aches, itchy nose, colds. Eugh! Scraped knees, broken bones, mosquito bites. I don't think I even missed it. A heartbeat, though; the blood pounding in your ears to let you know you love someone? That's a loss I would never get over. 

"What are you thinking about, Lover?"

"How I miss my heartbeat." I said casually. 

"I don't remember mine." He replied.

"You don't?" I asked, absentmindedly handing him the brush to do me.

"No, I forgot after a couple hundred years. You most likely will, too."

"I don't want to." I said childishly as he pulled the hair behind my ear and ran the brush through it gently.

"It's just how it goes." He shrugged. "And you will always hear the hearts of others."

"That's true, but it isn't the same. I remember the way mine would crash in my chest every time you kissed me." I smiled widely at the memory. 

"Now, that, I wouldn't forget." He smiled down at me. 

"Really?" I was a bit surprised. 

"Oh, yes. It was very important to me. The sound of your heart let me know you were alive and it let me know how you were feeling. Even if your mouth lied, your heart told the truth. The little rhythms it played for me." I heard the smile in his voice. 

"I'm not sure you can call erratically beating a rhythm." I chuckled. 

"Yes, I can. It changed whenever I did something different. If I would touch your face, it would pick up its pace and it would pounder louder and louder the lower my hands went. skipping a beat and restarting in a more frenzied pattern."

"It did?" I looked up at him and he used the opportunity to place a kiss on my forehead.

"Yes. It would get heavier when you saw me approaching and it would thunder when I kissed you, as you said. But once I got you into the bedroom... Sometimes I thought it would sputter out and stop altogether. Especially when I bit you." He smiled into the past as I flashed back to him biting me only minutes before. I crawled into his lap with a fresh braid in my hair.

"I'm sure you liked that." I smiled, twining my arms around his neck. 

"You needn't worry, my Queen. Even when you've forgotten the sound of your heart, I will never forget it."

 I leaned in and kissed him passionately. 

"You're sweet." I said, losing myself in his endless eyes. As deep and as blue as the ocean. 

"We need to go." I said, pulling myself back into reality. 

"Right." He said, standing with me still in his arms. I giggled as he marched me across the bedroom, still naked, his swinging manhood owning everything around us. 

He set me on the tall dresser and opened my legs to get to my drawers and began ruffling through my things. 

"How about these?" He smiled in a tantalizing way as we swung a piece of barely there material in front of my face comprised of nothing more than string and a small triangle of silk. 

"How bout something more practical for today?" I smiled back.

He scowled before rumaging some more and this time his hand emerged with a pair of very normal panties, to which I shook my head yes. He smiled and kept eye contact with me as he slid them up past my ankles and brushed my legs all the way up. He pulled me forward and kissed me as he set me on my feet to slide them over my backside. 

Eric's hands lingered there and he grabbed a handful, crushing me to him. I let myself disappear into him for another moment as his mouth explored mine. 

When he pulled away, I was a complete puddle and he reached past me to the drawers again. He pulled out a t-shirt and a pair of shorts and finished dressing me right down to my socks and shoes. I picked him an ensemble as well, but let him dress himself. I loved watching the process play out. The shirt slide over his head and the scent of him crash over me with his every move. The little shake his leg did when he pulled up his pants and the wink he gave me as he buttoned them, making me bite my lip.

We emerged from our bedroom like giggly teenagers, hand in hand. Eric had always been fun and I took a second to be thankful that it wasn't something time had been able to strip from his personality. He watched my chest as it bounced and I rolled my eyes, secretly pleased he was watching.

Apparently, Eric didn't see the necessity of a bra, because he had dressed me without one. Oh, well, I shrugged. I can't change or add anything to it, that would be against the rules, I reminded myself.

About fifty or sixty years ago, we came up with a game where we dress each other after sex and the other has no say in what they wear and whatever we put on each other must be worn for the entire day. Believe me, he has shown up to more than one important meeting dressed like a clown and I've been to more than one dressed like a stripper. But after that time a guy tried to buy me off Eric, (yes, buy me!) he stopped dressing me like that for events. Now he only dressed me that way for himself.

I bounded into the kitchen, saw it was morning and got a pot of BrewBlood going. The smell filled the house quickly, adding to my good mood. We had really been in there a while. Did I mention we're fans of pre battle sex?

The doorbell disturbed my thoughts and I opened it to see a weighted down Amelia juggling bags. 

"Let me help you." I reached out and took half. 

"Thank you!" She smiled once I could see her face. "The magic shop was crazy!"

"Is all of this for the ritual?" I asked, disbelieving.

"Not quite all of it. The coven had me pick up a few things while I was there. I also have another witch on the way. Sorry, I didn't warn you, but I forgot that I need at least one magical creature to help me with the spell. Hey, Eric!" She greeted him warmly. 

"Good morning." He smiled over his mug, handing me the other one. He was always in such a good mood post sex. I sipped my own mug and let the warmth spread through my cold body, making me shiver delightedly in response. Goose pimples would be normal right then and I almost sighed about it.

Amelia stopped dead in her tracks. "How are you awake?" She asked him. 

"Oh, sometimes if I need to be awake during daylight hours, I'll feed from Sookie to help me daywalk."

"That works?" She raised a brow. 

"Yes. Her Fae blood seems to be more potent as a vampire, so a little takes me a long way. Why? Are you looking to daywalk?" He grinned wickedly.

She chuckled. "Well, it's magic and magic interests me."

"Hey, speaking of which, aren't I a magical creature? One who could potentially do magically magic spells?" I asked sarcastically, forcing her to digress. 

"Yes, but I need a more practiced hand in magic. No offense. Besides, you will be the center for the spellwork, so you can't help anyway. Here."

 She pulled out a large object and handed it to me with a grunt. I examined it one handed with my cup to my mouth. It was a marble statue with engravings all over it that were foreign to me, but I'd be willing to bet they were in Faery language. They all wrapped intricately around the Fae girl who sat on her knees, naked with her hands held up, releasing magic as though it were a butterly. I was astonished by the beauty and craftsmanship of it. The magic that came from her hands was real and it shimmered and sparked a golden hue, making me think it might burn me.

"It's beautiful." I said, turning it over in my hand to try and make out the glyphs. That, of course, wasn't going to happen. 

"It's yours." She said without much attention, looking through her bags and emptying them.

"Mine?" I asked, sure I had misheard. 

"Yep. Yours. You will need it for the spell. And you can put it on your night stand or something afterwards." She winked at me. 

"What does it do?"

"It taps into and synchs up Fae magic."

"Huh?"

"It'll help you talk to granpa Niall."

"Cool." I said, setting it on the counter and admiring it some more. "Do you want some coffee?" I offered, remembering my manners.

"Oh, that would be wonderful!"

"Great." I smiled and returned to the coffee maker. 

"How exactly does it synch Fae magic?" I heard Eric ask Amelia. 

"So, Sookie holds the statue and it searches her energy for Fae magic, once it senses the magic, it locks into the type of magic she has based on her blood. It then searches the universe specifically for magics that match her blood and her magic."

"Will that work with her being dead for so long? I doubt she has much human traces of blood left."

I sighed, realizing he was right as I scooped regular coffee into the filter. 

"I thought you said it was more potent?" She chuckled. "That shouldn't be a problem. She may be dead, but her essence is the same."

"Really?"

"Of course, so is yours. Turning into a vampire doesn't change the molecular make-up of your soul."

"Do we even have those?" He asked doubtfully.

 I could almost hear her roll her eyes. "Yes, every living thing has a soul. I know, you're dead, but you didn't die long enough for your soul to leave your body. And you're magical. That means you're alive with magic."

"How do you know all this?"

"It's magic and magic interests me."

"But we kill so easily." He argued.

"So do psychopaths." She countered. "Look, the longer you're around the more you can stomach, plus requiring the blood makes it easier. And believing you have no soul makes it easier, as well. Though, to have no soul is to have no remorse. Have you never felt remorse?" 

"I have." He answered and I smiled as I poured water in the top of the maker.

"There you have it." She said simply. "So once it has sought out and found Sookie's matching magic, it will conjoin their minds so that they can speak telepathically. The fact that Sookie is already a natural telepath should make this as easy as pie. Heavy on the 'should.' It's channeling the energies that will be difficult for me." She concluded. 

"It won't summon Niall?" Eric asked.

"No, I cannot summon someone from a world that is closed off from ours. Well, I could, but hat would require darker magic and I try not to mess with that stuff. They can talk and then he can act accordingly. Or something."

I returned a minute later with her coffee. Light cream, no sugar. She sighed and wrapped her hands tightly around the warm mug as she blew on it and sipped. 

"Thank you. You still remember how I like my coffee." She smiled before leaning her head on my shoulder. 

"I miss you, too." I said, wrapping my arms around her as I answered her unspoken thoughts. 

"Awww!" She said aloud. "We really do need to see each other more."

"I concur." I said as she went back to her purse, discarded among the spell supplies.

"I almost forgot the oil." She said.

She tossed me a small pouch that smelled of at least five different oils and was in a very plain looking leather pouch. 

"A hex bag?" I joked and she rolled her eyes. 

"Put it around your neck. It draws your magic to the surface. It will make the spell easier for the statue."

"Cool. So, when do we do this thing?"

"After nightfall. We need the energy of the moon and lucky for you, it just so happens to be full tonight. Well, mostly, but it should be enough." She squinted her eye and shrugged. 

"What do we do in the meantime?"

"I have to bless some things and prepare."

"Can we help?" I asked. 

"Not really. It's mostly prayer. My assistant should be here before long and we'll set up the altar. We can't have just anyone touching these items. They're imbued with my energy and she knows what she can and cannot touch, so I need her."

"Okay."

I wandered back to my room and watched some old episodes of Charmed while she did what she had to and Eric ran a couple errands. What can I say? I was feeling the witchy vibes. Eric eventually came home and  joined me, undoing the braid he had only just put in and combing slowly through my long hair again while I laid on my stomach, heels up.

"Did you enjoy your errands?" I asked him.

"Yes." He smiled. Eric adored running errands during the day while on my blood. He only had the occasional daytime man these days.

I tried to let the movement of his fingers soothe me and the tv distract me, but my good mood had warn off and I was left with a deep fear in the pit of my stomach. I knew without a doubt that we would do everything in our conjoined power to save my family, but my mind kept wandering to the finger box and I couldn't help but worry that Cartimandua was taking them apart, piece by piece without bothering to mail them to me. 

I eventually got up and began pacing the room, glancing at the worlds slowest clock every few seconds. Eric kept his eyes on the screen and pretended to ignore me, but I could feel his tension. I knew he was slightly annoyed, but he understood why I was so impatient and he was curteous enough to not chide me for it.

 I heard the doorbell about an hour before sundown and went running out excitedly, but Amelia, mid chant, only made eye contact with me a shook her head ever so slightly, concentrated on her work. I wanted to meet her assistant, but the pretty young brunette looked busy, so I backed out of the room without a word. Worried I had messed something up. 

I threw myself onto the bed and groaned aloud. 

"Be patient." Eric said calmly. I threw my hands up exasperated. I didn't need to tell him that with every passing moment Claude and Dermot were in deeper danger, he knew. Eric snaked his arm under me and pulled my head onto his chest and ran his hands all over my back, neck and hair, soothing the tension from my body. I laid there with him a while before there came a knock at our bedroom door. 

"We're ready." Amelia said through the door.

"Finally." I was in the living room so fast, I beat her back. 

"Where do you want me?" I asked as she caught up with me and Eric tailed her into the living room.

"In the center." She said serenely. The drawing of the circle is an intense few moments, and I stood quietly while they whispered their words of woship. They went from corner to corner, calling the elements, summoning the God and Goddess, wands held high.

I continued to stand quietly as she took a burning sage bundle in a beautiful stone dish with a feather in her other hand, which she used to smudge me. Smudging is where she uses the feather to waft the sage towards me to cleanse my aura. She then took some sort of blessed water and asked me the following. 

"How do you enter this circle?" She asked me as Eric watched interestedly from the couch. 

"With perfect love and perfect trust." I answered honestly, knowing the words from a spell we had done years ago. She dipped her finger in the water and touched it to my forehead, my lips, my chest. She did the same to the girl and then the girl repeated the process on Amelia.

 Amelia's assistant then came to me with the statue and placed it in my hands. Amelia took a goblet and stood before me, casting under her breath and her friend used the blessed water to fill it. She then gave me a handful of salt. 

"Slowly put the salt in the goblet as Amelia chants." She whispered to me. I began sprinkling the handful in the goblet and as soon as it touched the water I felt an intensity drop upon us.  Amelia's chanting grew louder with intent. I could feel the energy crackling around the room with the presence of the Goddess, working her charms. 

My mind grew fuzzy and there was a ringing in my ears. It started out quiet but within a few seconds it was numbingly loud. The statue in my hands began trembling and the Faerie girl opened her mouth and the sparks of magic from her hands changed from gold to purple to blue to gold again and finally, a bright green. The color of precious stones and they shot up from her hands bright and hot. It swirled and surrounded me in a wind whipping magic. 

'Sookie? Is that you?' I heard inside my mind. 

'Grandpa Niall?' I mentally called back into the void that I now realized was a direct line to him in Faery. 

'Yes. What is wrong, Sweet Sookie?'

'It's Cartimandua, Grandpa. She has Claude and Dermot. She's hurting them! Help!' I blurted out, afraid that the magic would collapse at any second. 

'It cannot be!' He exlaimed. And as quick as a heartbeat, he was gone. The ringing stopped, the void was closed, the magics fell and the three of us were brought to our knees. 

I hadn't felt this weak or tired since I were alive. Amelia grunted with effort to pull herself to her feet. She checked the girl who seemed to be unconscious and she then began closing the circle almost the same way she drew it.

When she got to the corner closest to me I heard her saying, "Go if you must, but stay if you will and harm none along your path."

"Are you okay?" She asked me as she put out the candles, incensed smoke still filling the room. 

"Yeah, I'm just exhausted." I said as Eric pulled me up. 

"What happened? We didn't get through?" She asked.

"No, we did. I only just told him when the magics failed." I answered, confused and a little fuzzy.

"They didn't fail. They were pulsing strongly." She shook her head, eyes wide. "The channels were closed."

"How does that happen?" I shook my head. 

"It could've been Niall." She shrugged.

"Why would he do that?" I was confused.

"I don't know. Maybe he was afraid Cartimandua would interfere. Or maybe, even worse, it was Cartimandua who closed the channels."

"Could she do that?" I asked astonished.

"Oh, yes." She said wryly. "If she knew what we were doing, magical creature that old? Oh, yes."

"How would she know what we are up to?" I asked. 

"You can't do magics like this without causing ripples, Sookie. And magical creatures can feel ripples. We have to be prepared for the fact that she may show up here."

The hours passed as we waited anxiously throughout the night, but Cartimandua didn't show. I began to assume that it was Niall who had closed the channels, though I knew not why. Or perhaps Cartimandua had done it, but she didn't want us knowing that she did.  

Either way, by the time dawn broke again I had calmed down. Amelia took some smelling salts to the young witch. 

"Are those necessary? I mean, won't she wake up on her own?" I asked. 

"Of course." Amelia replied. "But that could take days and we don't have time for that."

The girl woke wearily with heavy eyes. "How long was I out?" She asked, taking in her surroundings. 

"Only the night. Here." Amelia gave her a juice and crackers. "This should help."

She drank til the juice was gone and then started in on her crackers. 

"Good morning." I said, tired of being patient. "I'm Sookie." I smiled. 

"Pleasure. I'm Rowena." She held her hand out to shake and I looked at it, fighting the urge to feel insulted. I always thought it was ridiculous and rude, still did, but I couldn't help it. All vampires seemed to possess it, though I was told that will fade with age. Amelia's reached out and pushed her hand back down, shaking her head. 

"Sorry. I've never really spent any time around vampires, so I know very little about etiquette and faux pas." She chuckled nervously. 

"No problem." I assured her, remembering the jitters you feel when you first hang with vamps. 

"This is my husband, Eric. Eric, Rowena." I introduced them as he came into the room with a towel around his waist while he ran another one through his hair. 

Her eyes bugged out as she took in his massive, half naked form. 

"Pleasure." She said, looking away, cheeks red, heartbeat intensifying. 'That's somebody's husband.' I heard her mentally chide herself. At least she was a decent person. I'd met all too many bad ones in my day.

"I'm sorry. He is way too comfortable being naked. Eric, go put on some clothes." I chided him. 

"Hi." He smiled as he turned back towards the hall. I rolled my eyes. He loves teasing. I do hate it, but at least that's all he's doing. Not to mention that it is kind of nice the way he makes women feel good about themselves. You can't be noticed by Eric Northman and not feel good about yourself. Besides, he's beautiful and he knows it. I'm not going to try and cut down his confidence to boost my own, I'm no bully. The running of Fangtasia will do that to your personality, as well.

'Wow! What an ass!'

My head snapped up at her thoughts and she locked eyes with me. 'Oh, my God! I am so sorry!'

"Oh, my God! I am so sorry!" She said aloud this time. 

"It's okay." I laughed. "It is pretty great, isn't it?" I could hardly blame her. The effect Eric has on women the first time they meet him is...unprecedented to the women. And I was that woman once, so I understood. I try to make allowances. People aren't trained to control their thoughts after all and Eric has always been faithful. I'm proud, not insecure. 

She shook her head in agreement and I laughed again. Nobody ever said it was easy being married to the most beautiful man in the world. I showed her around and chatted about her work. Turns out, she's the new witch Amelia's been evaluating. She's always been powerful, but she's always been an independent witch, which is why she's so late to be having all this done.

"How old are you?" I asked her. 

"28, but I like to say 25." She said and we laughed together. 

"How long have you been a vampire?"

"116 years, though I was around your age when Eric saved me."

"Saved you?" She was obviously confused by my wording. Surely, vampirism is no rescue.

"Yes. I lay dying when he turned me. I had been shot by a vengeful Queen. Had he not been so quick to act, I would be long dead." I waved a hand at the past as I spoke.

"Are you glad he did it?" She asked, genuinely curious. 

"Yes." I said carefully, weighing my answer. "There are things about it that I don't like, but if I wasn't here, I couldn't help to save the vampires. Of course, if I wasn't here, my family wouldn't be in danger." I felt the weight of the situation begin to crawl up my throat like anxiety, but I stamped it back down. I had to shake it off, so that I could keep moving forward and do what needed to be done. 

The footsteps up the walk caught my attention, shortly followed by the doorbell. Rowena watched me as I flashed to the door, her eyes wide with fear as her heartbeat quickened its pace. I looked through the keyhole having already caught the scent. My visitor was Fae and my grandfather! 

I flung open the door and threw my arms around his neck. 

"Grandpa!" I exclaimed. He looked as young as ever and as beautiful, too. I tried not to be surprised. After all, I hadn't aged, either.

"Oh, my sweet Sookie!" He laughed, hugging me back with big, crushing squeezes. His scent burned in my throat and my fangs itched to come out, but I knew better and was much too careful to do anything reckless. 

"Come in, come in!" I ushered him inside. 

"What a beautiful home!" 

"Thank you." Eric said as he came into the room. "Niall."

"Eric." Since vampires don't shake, Eric politely bowed, but Fae being so touchy feely and all, my grandfather crushed him with a hug, as well.

"You are part of my family now? You must be, she smells of your blood and is clearly not human." He laughed. 

"Yes, Sir. She is my progeny and my wife." Eric smiled back. 

"Is that so?" Grandpa asked wide eyed. 

"And a Queen." Eric bragged. 

My grandfather turned his big eyes onto me. "So, you have found your way to royalty?"

"Not by choice." I rolled my eyes and he laughed exhuberantly. 

"Have you got any spaghetti?" He asked, patting his stomach. 

"No, but I will get you some." I told him and he smiled in delight.

"Let me." Amelia offered. "I need some things from the store anyway. And Rowena needs to be returned while it's safe."

"Thanks." 

She hugged and kissed my grandfather as she went past him.

"Sure." She departed quickly, Rowena in tow. I gave her a hug on her way out. 

I gave my grandfather some wine while we waited and Eric summoned Pam from wherever she was. I hadn't seen her since Amelia showed up, now that I thought about it. 

"So, what happened to the spell?" I asked Niall. 

"I broke off the channels as quickly as I could. I felt a presence trying to trespass on our conversation." He said darkly.

"Cartimandua." I stated to which he nodded his head yes. 

"I was afraid she would get through and track me. You say she has my boys?"

"Yes." I said, filled with guilt. "She took them to use against me. I'm so sorry. It's all my fault."

" I doubt that's true." He said as I sat beside him. He took my hand in his own and stroked it absentmindedly as we talked. 

"I thought Faery was sealed forever." I told him. 

"We don't make spells and things like that without a way to reverse it. We Fae are wise."

"I know it." I chuckled. 

"Has she hurt them?"

"We received this the other day." Eric chimed in, handing over the box.

Niall peeked inside and grimaced. "Oh, poor Claude." He said mournfully. 

"You know who's it is?" Eric asked. "How?"

"I just do." He said simply and without explanation. 

"He probably gave her the finger." I joked without thinking. They both laughed, much to my relief. I was positive Claude wouldn't find it funny and I suddenly felt like he was aiming that finger at me. 

"If we ever get them back, they'll hate me forever." I said, feeling meloncholy. 

"No, they won't." Eric said sweetly. 

"Claude will." Niall said realistically. 

"Maybe." Eric said. 

"Probably." I countered. 

"Well, first thing is first; have you tried talking to her?" Niall asked me. 

"Yes. Right between her kidnapping me and her trying to kill us." I put an angry emphasis on my words.

"Does she know you are related to her?"

"Yep. Doesn't matter one teeny tiny bit to her."

He made an expression as though to say, I see. 

"Have you tried attacking her out right?" His voice had the tone of an interviewer or a police man, conducting an investigation.

"Ah. No. I didn't wanna do anything rash before I spoke to you." I shook my head. 

"That was wise." He said, patting my hand. 

"Can't we just spray her with lemon juice?" Eric asked like we had overseen a massive point. 

"I would not advise it. Fae that powerful always have contingencies in place and she is not stupid enough to let herself get sprayed by a water bottle. You were right to wait for me." He said. 

"What do we do, Grandpa?"

He scratched his head. "Have you tried giving her what she wants?"

"Not really." I said in a high pitched voice. 

"What she wants is all of us vampires dead." Eric told him. 

Niall nodded and made a face as if to say, 'Yeah, makes sense.'

"I will speak with her." He told me. 

"You can't!" I grasped his arm. "That's how she got Claude and Dermot!"

" I see. Perhaps we should attack."

"Did we mention she has an army of undead vampire victims?" Eric asked. 

"That complicates things a bit." He said and we both nodded in agreement. 

"She is invoking ancient and dark magics that we as Sky Fae have no business messing with. I will help because you are my granddaughter and because as my aunt she is my responsibility, but also because it is my duty to handle Faeries who go bonkers like she appears to have."

"Thank you." I said as I stood up. I walked to the door and opened it to find Pam and Amelia...canoodling?

"Um, hi?" I said. 

"Here." Pam handed me the grocery bag and put her hand on the wall next to Amelia's head as she giggled and leaned in close to whisper in her ear. I accepted the groceries graciously, chuckled and closed the door. 

It felt incredibly ordinary to be in the kitchen preparing a meal for family and I cherished it as I began boiling pasta. I chopped the vegetables for a salad and grated fresh parmesean for the spaghetti. Bless Amelia, she got fresh ingredients for the sauce as well, and I crushed the tomatoes and garlic, excited by the smells I no longer found appealing.

They reminded me of home. Gran always used this recipe and I mentioned it to Amelia when they came back inside, hand in hand. 

"I still use it." She said proudly.

"You do?" I asked, feeling choked up. 

"Duh! Grans spaghetti is the best. You can't let a recipe like that go unused. Bob loved it, too." She said sadly. 

Bob and Amelia eventually married and got a real cat. She grew fond of them when Bob was our pet. A few years after the wedding, however, Bob was in a horrible accident and he didn't make it. A six car pile up. It's crazy what a little snow will do to Louisiana drivers. She became obsessed after that with stopping death and immortality. Ergo, her current state. It won't save you from horrible accidents, but otherwise it will keep you going indefinitely. I guess it hadn't worked quite as she was hoping when designing it.

I threw in herbs and stirred the contents of the pots as they sizzled pleasantly. I browned the beef and tossed it in the simmering pot while I heard Eric and Niall laughing in the dining room with Pam and Amelia. 

I tossed the salad as the final step and carried in two plates steamy with food and three warmed true bloods, balanced perfectly in my arms. I gave Eric his blood and he paid me back with a kiss. I set the plate before my grandfather and he thanked me generously before tucking in. I also served Amelia and Pam who had to sit back, because she was leaning across the table playing with Amelia's hair.

Just as I was sitting down I couldn't help but notice how normal this was. No matter how many different species we were, when we gathered around the table, we were just a family having quality time over a fine meal. I smiled and made a mental note to do this again when we got Claude and Dermot back. If they would want to, of course.

The pleasant chatter died down as we turned more towards the pressing subject; what to do with Cartimandua. We all seemed to agree that before we could get anywhere near her, we needed to neutralize her armies. 

Reversal magic would be the first idea, obviously. The idea of killing them all seemed impossible. Even if we did manage that, she would only raise more victims of vampires. God knows, there's enough of them. If we could find the source, her altar, we should be able to reverse the effects of the magic. To raise something like that and to keep it raised, the magical properties had to be sustained by a constant source of magic. Cartimandua couldn't be the source incessantly on her own. According to Amelia, she would need to imbue a magical conduit with her power and use it as a constant source like a battery. We simply needed to remove said battery. 

We then began brainstorming about where she would keep this altar. We ruled out Sophie-Anne's palace. Cartimandua was way too smart to keep it that close by. There was a possibility that she had shifted it onto a different plane. Fae often shift dimensions for safety purposes. The question then becomes what plane? There are so many of them and she could have access to hundreds that we don't even know exist. So how do we A) decipher which plane it's on and B) get to it and break the spell before she kills us all?

"The zombies." Pam said. 

"What about them?" Eric asked her. 

"Maybe we could snag one of them and torture it. That's what we did last time and it seemed to work out okay." She shrugged.

 I shook my head in disagreement. "No, he cooperated because I appealed to his humanity, but these things are essentially vengeful spirits. It would be folly for us to assume the others would be willing to help. I mean, you should've seen the way these things were throwing themselves onto my blade. They were steadfast. I think we can count on them being loyal to Cartimandua. Or at least, loyal to her cause." I looked over and saw Eric eyeing me with pride. He always liked it when I got brainy.

The room fell silent as we all continued to think. 

"Well." Amelia chimed in. "Maybe I can use a truth serum on them."

"Yes, and force him to talk." Niall pointed his finger at her giving her idea validation. "If we brew it properly, we can get him to sing us every secret he's ever had while dead or alive. Including Cartimanduas secrets."

"Seems like a solid plan. How do we do it?" I asked them.

"A distraction." Pam said firmly. 

"Or bait." Eric said and we all turned our eyes onto Amelia. 

"What?" She asked. 

"You're the only one she doesn't know." I told. 

"Me? As bait? What? No! Absolutely not! No way!" She put her foot down.

Two hours later, we waited in position as Amelia crept up to the palace, her heart beating so fast, I could hear it from our position. 

"I hate this!" She said into her ear piece. 

"I won't let anything happen to you." Pam said reassuringly. "Just get it done."

She stumbled to the front pretending to be drunk, her heels clacking in an uneven pattern on the sidewalk.

"Hey, fellas! Yoohoo!" She hollered in a friendly, slurred voice. 

"My car broke down. Can you help me?" A long silence followed before I heard the two guards speak to each other. 

"I died before cars." The first one said.

"Ugh!" Replied the second one. "Fine. Let's go." He said to Amelia in a gruff voice. No manners. Not too discreet, either. 

We watched Amelia out the windshield as she stumbled to a random car in front of us.

"Pop the hood." The rotting man told her. 

She reached for the door handle and began fiddling with it. "Oh, no! I locked myself out!" She complained.

"You stupid slob!" He said in the rudest voice. We slipped silently out of the van and surrounded him as he approached the car. I took some pleasure in it as I swung the bat, rendering him unconscious and Eric and Pam caught him and loaded him silently into our van. 'Jerk.'

Amelia hopped in and we were gone before his partner knew anything was amiss. I ripped out his ear piece and dismantled his walkie talkie. Who knew how long he would be out of it for. 

By the time we reached Fangtasia which was closed by now, he was awake and screaming obscenities at the top of his lungs. He was saying a lot, just not what we needed, so I gagged him. 

"Shut up!" I said firmly. He continued to mumble through the duct tape and I walked away, rolling my eyes. 

"Why did you have to pick the annoying one?" Eric asked Amelia. 

"I didn't "pick him!"" She threw her hands up, exasperated. "I'm lucky he followed me at all!" 

Eric shrugged and we let her and Niall cook up the potion which was surprisingly fast. We went back down the stairs and he was still mumbling. I ripped the tape off gracelessly and it took some skin with it. Eugh! 

"Eugh! These things are soo nasty!" I cringed. 

"I ain't givin you shit!" He spat at my shoe and Eric smacked him across the face. 

"Play nice, or I'm going to rip your arms off." He said with a finger in its face. 

He growled at Eric and I couldn't help but snigger. 

"Really?" Eric asked. 

"Sorry." I repressed a smile. It was just so not scary. Maybe to a human, but not us. 

"I'm gonna rape your wife and burn your Kingdom to the ground." He told Eric in a flat tone. Less funny.

Eric reached his hand out to Niall and took the potion. He pried open its mouth with a sneer and forced it down his throat. "Now tell me what I need to know so I can fucking kill you already."

"What do you wanna know?" He asked almost politely, his body language opening up. 

"Where is Cartimandua's altar?" Eric demanded. 

"Let's see... Today, you mean?"

"What?" Eric asked, annoyed.

"She moves it." I stated. 

"That right, beautiful lady. Gotta keep it hidden. You have great tits!" Eric hit him again. 

"Right! The altar! Today it's at the palace, but that's only because she's recharging it. Tomorrow it will be somewhere else."

"Where?" I asked. 

"I'll tell you for a kiss." He smiled his disgusting smile and this time I hit him myself. 

"If you don't stop being disgusting horny guy, we're gonna kill you." I warned him. 

"You're gonna kill me no matter what."

"True." Eric conceded. "But if you don't show my wife some respect, I will kill you very, very slowly." He smiled wickedly.

He rolled his eyes. "It's in Faery." He spat at us. 

"Seriously?" I asked as I exchanged glances with Niall.

"I didn't know. I had no idea she'd been there." Niall said.

"Yes, seriously. I can't lie right now. Duh! She knows that one is on this plane." He nodded at Niall. "She figures it's unprotected and she thinks she might be able to get the rest of her kind to follow us into battle. She knows the king of the sky Fae wouldn't be involved in such violence given the choice."

"And she just tells all her lackies everything?" Eric questioned. 

"Not deliberately. Her magical link with us sometimes gives us sneek peeks inside her head. That amount of constant magic is a strain even for one such as Cartimandua. And it has its weak points on occasion."

"Anything else we should know?" I asked. 

"Yeah!" He said leaning to look at my backside. "You've got a great ass, too. For a filthy bloodsucker." He guffawed.

Eric swung the blade so fast, I almost didn't see it, but I couldn't miss his head rolling onto my shoes. 

"Eugh! Eric!" I whined, kicking slime off of the toes of my sneakers. 

"Sorry." He kissed me, knowing that's all it usually takes for me to forgive him. 

"So you must go to Faery." I told Niall.

"He can't go alone! It's too dangerous." Amelia protested. 

"She's right. You should go with him." Eric said to me.

"Vampires are not allowed in Faery!" My grandfather exclaimed. 

"Yes, but you need back up. Amelia wouldn't stand a chance, no offense." Eric said to Amelia. "And Sookie has much more control than me and Pamela combined."

"He's right, Grandpa. You have to take me with you." I said. He sighed and nodded his head in consent.

"Let's go." He took me by the hand and led us up the basement stairs and out the back door, into the employee parking area. 

My grandfather became very focused and started chanting under his breath. Eric came forward and pulled me in tightly, crushing his lips to mine. I rose up onto my tippy toes and wrapped my arms around his neck, getting as close as I could. He twisted his fingers in my hair and rocked me ever so gently. The kiss ended but we stayed together, our lips practically touching. 

"Come back to me." He whispered against my lips. 

"Always." I whispered the promise and kissed him again. The wind picked up as I felt the portal open at my back. I hugged my husband in a moment that ended too soon. 

"Come, my love." My grandfather called to me, his hand outstretched. I waved to my sister and my friend as I went to him and took his youthful hand. I nodded to let him know I was ready and we both stepped through the bright, windy portal that smelled of the deliciousness of a thousand Faeries. 

When we entered the other side, it was no longer night and we stood in a field filled with nothing but green grass and wildflowers of pinks, blues, and purples. The field was bordered on all sides by trees that were draped with twinkle lights and seemed to have spirits of their own. I inhaled and felt a burn so intense, I thought it would catch fire. The smell of Fae engulfed me amd my fangs dropped without permission. 

"Sookie, you must control yourself." My grandfather said, stepping back. 

I attempted to retract my fangs, but they had a mind of their own. I tried harder and still I got no result. I had no idea it would be so intense.

"Sookie." He said again. 

"I'm trying!" I told him. 

"Try harder." He commanded me.

I clenched my fists and my hands began to shake, tears of blood pooled in my eyes and I fell to my knees, with a shaky sob. I sat there a moment, my hands clenched in the grass, trying desperately to focus on anything other than the smell. I told myself to see the sky, feel the grass, smell only the flowers. I eventually got control of myself within moments that felt like centuries and rose as my fangs retracted, avoiding Nialls gaze. I didn't know if I could control myself if I looked at him. 

"You have done well. Much better than I thought you would. Here." He reached out with a glowing finger and booped me on the nose. The relief was immediate and intense. I gasped at the air I didn't need as the burning in my throat receded. 

"I wanted to know if you could handle it first." He said. 

"You mean, you could've helped me from the start and you didn't?" I turned on him angrily, remembering as I spoke how he had dulled his scent from Eric the first time I had met him.

"I needed to know in case something happens to me and you don't have my magic to dull your senses. I had to know that my people would be safe." He said, touching my shoulder apologetically. 

I could understand that and I nodded in forgiveness. He took me by the hand and led me out of the field and into the trees. When we emerged from the trees there was a village bustling with Faeries and they all turned, excited to see Niall. 

"My king!" A little girl ran over and he bent to accept the flower she had outstretched in her little hand. She gave it to him and giggled when he kissed her on the cheek. I smiled down at them, unable to fight the infectious joy I felt at being around such a happy people. She hugged him before running off to play and several others came forward to greet him. 

One woman stopped dead as she caught sight of me and I heard the fear spread through her mind. 

"Vampire!! You brought a vampire here! You have forsaken us! We are doomed!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. That, of course, caught everyone's attention and a panic broke out. They all began snatching up their children and their baskets and fled to their homes. 

"Be still, my beloveds." He spoke in a loud, but calm voice. "She will not hurt you." They stopped to stare at him. Some thought him mad, while others thought perhaps he meant to kill them all, but a few trusted and wanted to hear more of what he had to say. They slowly came forward to hear him. 

"This is my great granddaughter, Sookie. She is a vampire, yes, but no ordinary one. She is here on a mission and she will leave after and never come back." He said to me so I would understand. I nodded that I understood. 

"Hey, y'all." I smiled genially. "I'm Sookie and like Niall said, I will stay out of your way. I'm only passing through." I said sincerely. The same little girl tried to approach me, but her mother grabbed her. 

"It's okay, mommy. She's one of us." She said in her tiny voice. The Fae woman reluctantly let go and the little one came forward with a second flower in her hand. 

I kneeled down and took the sweet smelling flower that smelled of no flower I had known before. It was purple and pink and had multiple blossoms on it. I thanked her and reached up to my hand and removed a shiny little ring I was wearing. It had a sparkly mermaid on it and I put in on her tiny thumb. She smiled up at me widely and said thank you. 

"You're welcome. You'll grow into it." I smiled at her and she threw her little arms around my neck. I heard a few people gasp as I hugged her back. And then a collective sigh of relief when I let her go. 

"Come, Sookie. We must be on our way."

I waved goodbye to the girl and her family as we left and they actually smiled in return. I left with my grandfather, pleased to have changed some minds. We took off at a run, passing mountains and rivers of unimaginable beauty under a bright pink sky. I had no idea the Fae could move so quickly. 

"Is it always like this here?" I asked in wonderment while my feet passed over the grass silently.

"Yes." He smiled. "I wish you could stay here." He said a tad melancholy.

"So do I. How come I didn't know Fae run this fast?" I asked him. 

"They don't. I do." He answered and we smiled at one another. 

He seemed to catch something in the air that I didn't know how to look for and I followed his lead in another direction and we stopped dead on a cliff that overlooked the ocean. 

There it sat, shiny and shimmering with magic. There was a small table covered by an altar cloth with magical supplies placed in their specific areas. There was a large golden chalace, crystals, candles that were lit, despite the ripping wind and various herbs spread on the altar. 

As I tried to approach, Niall put an arm out to stop me. He stepped close and put his hand up, as though he were touching a wall. 

"There is a barrier here, tough. And she will know the moment it is broken. Maybe I can use magics to enter, but I will certainly be denied. Hmm."

As he pondered with his hand to his chin, I went to his side and looked at the shimmering, like a thin layer of ice or glass that you could only see from a certain angle when the sun bounced off of it. My grandfather continued muttering to himself under his breath. 

'Fuck this.' I thought. I cocked back my fist and with a great amount of effort, I put it straight through the barrier, where is shatter and fell apart. "Sookie, no!" he ordered, but it was too late. He turned to look at me, mouth gaping. 

"She wasn't expecting you'd have a strong vampire with you." I smiled and passed through where the barrier had been and began destroying everything in front of me. I dumped the chalace, crushed the altar and flung the ever burning candles into the sea. 

Then came a terrible cry that seemed to come from the sky and everywhere all at once. The sunny sky turned to dark clouds in mere seconds and thunder boomed, lightning struck and the seas became terrible, splashing all the way up the sides of the cliff; threatening to engulf us. 

"She's here!" He yelled over the storm and grabbed me frantically by the wrist. The world before us vanished adn I felt as though my body was being ripped apart and my very being squeezed through a tunnel ten times too small. Colors of blue, green, purple and pink hurled around us at mock speeds. My body was no longer whole and I felt my different parts swirl together like a Van Gogh painting. Just a suddenly as it started, it stopped. 

I hit the ground more dizzy than I ever had been, and I clung to the floor, praying for the room to stop spinning. 

"Sookie!" Eric came forward and pulled me to my feet, where I swayed. If I were human, I'd have thrown up on him. For a moment, I wished I could. You always feel better after you hurl. We seemed to be back in Eric's house. 'How did we all get here?'

Eric pulled my chin up to look me in the eyes, but I couldn't focus on his face or speak yet. 

"What did you do to her?" He demanded of Niall, who seemed perfectly fine. 

"We had to teleport out of there, rather abruptly. Not meant for a passenger. I don't think I need to tell you that you acted rashly." He said to me. I had never seen him upset with me, but I was sure he was. "You could've gotten us both killed. Do you realize that?!" Definitely upset. 

"No?" I managed to get out. "You were deliberating and I knew I could break it."

"I could have, as well. I was deliberating how to get us out of there before she figured out what we were up to! We needed to open a portal Before we destroyed the altar!" He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and his thumb. 

"I'm sorry, Grandpa." I told him, sincerely. 

"Oh, it's alright, but I fear she will be here any moment. We must leave!"

"Can you move yet?" Eric asked, his face in my hair. I struggled to lift my foot, but it felt as though it was weighted down with cement blocks. 

"I don't think so." I sighed. He scooped me up into his arms and I became dizzy and weak all over again. I closed my eyes and laid my head on his chest, willing it away. 

He placed me in the passenger seat of a large SUV and placed a kiss atop my head. 

"I'll be right back." He whispered in my ear before disappearing back into the house. 

"Where is he going?" My grandfather asked, aggravated. 

Eric had returned before I could answer and started the truck. 

"What will she do if she comes here?" Pam asked Niall. 

"Most likely destroy everything." He shrugged.

Eric looked at his Corvette and sighed loudly. He didn't like this and he wanted to stay. I could feel it. Then he looked back at me, seemed to make up his mind and threw the vehicle in reverse. 

When we were about five blocks away, I saw from my side mirror a swirl of purple and blue light shoot straight up into the sky. I figured that was it. Everything we own in that house is gone. The house is gone. Eric loved that house. 

I turned to look at him and he met my eyes with a small smile. He was telling me that it was okay. He looked in the rear view mirror and gave Pam the same smile. He was telling us that everything that mattered was in this vehicle. He reached over and grabbed me by the leg, so I took his hand and squeezed it for support. 

"What did you go back for?" I asked him weakly. 

He reached into his inner coat pocket and pulled out a large manila envelope. 

"Our passports, marriage license, and all the cash we had in the house. It's also got our keepsakes from when we were human."

"You were ready for this." I wasn't asking. 

"I was afraid it may come down to this. Us evacuating our home. I wanted to be ready." He said, staring straight ahead at the dark road. 

We went straight to the old Stackhouse home, my old home in Bon Temps and I went in alone while they stood guard outside. 

I sighed in relief to see them all sitting around the tv. 

"Hey!" My nephews wife greeted me at the door. "How are you?" She smiled and hugged me. 

"Not good." I answered low and urgent. "Take this." I said, giving her the cash. 

She looked up at me from the money in her hand, concerned. 

"I don't-"

"Take your family and go. Tonight. Leave the state. Just for a little while." 

"We can't just go." She smiled. "I have work in the morning, Jason has a school play next week, and Claudine has girl scouts-"

"Katie!" I interrupted her. "You are in danger! If you do not leave, you will die! Tell Earl you have to leave tonight. Do not come back until I say so! Let me know if you need more money, but do not tell me where you are!"

She stared at me, horrified. I gripped her tight in a hug and forbade myself from crying. 

"Pam will make sure you get out of town safely." I said, beckoning Pam and Amelia over. Pam came over with a kind smile. "Tell them I love them." I told Katie. 

I went back to the truck and Eric peeled out of the driveway. I saw her in the side mirror begin to panic and rouse her family. Good, I thought. 'Good.' 

I felt bad for scaring her, but I wouldn't lose anyone else to Cartimandua. My mind flashed back to Verbena's mortified face, saw her bloody hand wrenched from mine, her scream echoing in my mind. 

We went to the edge of New Orleans to hole up. We wanted to be right under Cartimanduas' nose. We found an abandoned light tight warehouse before circling back to a vamp friendly hotel. We then ditched the car there, pulled up our collars, and kept our heads down as we walked away. About a block away from the warehouse, just for good measure, Eric flew us into the building. So as not to be seen entering it. 

Once we were safe inside I called Pam. She answered on the first ring. 

"Are they okay?" I asked her before she could speak. 

"They're fine. I, on the other hand-"

I heard a noise in the background and Pam changed up. 

"What?" I asked, afraid for her and Amelia. 

"I, on the other hand, don't get paid enough for this crap." She sounded normal, but something in her voice had changed and we don't pay Pam. She has her own state. 

I chuckled lightly. "Well, I will personally see to it that we rectify that, okay?"

"Oka-" The phone went dead. 

"She has Pam and Amelia!" I told them and started pacing. 

"What? No. I would've felt something if someone had snatched my progeny." Eric argued. 

"Look, she switched up what she was saying and she complained that we don't pay her enough." I said, panicky. 

"We don't pay her." He made a confused face. 

"Duh!" I practically yelled at him. "Don't you get it?! She was trying to tell me that something is wrong without tipping off Cartimandua that she was doing so."

"Why didn't I feel anything?" He said confused still. 

"I don't know!" I threw my hands up, exasperated. "She's magical, it's probably magic."

"Now what?" Niall asked, looking a tad defeated. 

I was about to tell him I have no idea, but Eric spoke first. 

"I say we go at her. Head on." I looked at him like he was crazy, but he held up a hand of reason. "Listen, we already took her army and she is going to be really pissed off. She will take them apart piece by piece until we show ourselves."

"How do you know?" Niall asked. 

"It's what I would do." Eric said simply. 

"Okay, what's your plan, Stud?" I asked. 

"We go in, armed with lemon juice and she has no army so we don't really need anything else. Niall and Amelia will counter her magics with their own. If the three of us rush her, one of us can free the witch. While they fight her with magic, you and I can kill her." He told me. 

Hmm. Not a bad plan, I suppose. 

"Why not use our staff?" I was confused. We had tons at our disposal and we were gonna go in there alone?

"She'll just run right through them. Do you want that blood on your hands?" Niall asked me  

"No, of course not. What if she sees us coming and starts picking hostages apart?" I asked. 

He turned to Niall. "Then you had better make sure that doesn't happen." Niall shook his head in understanding. 

"When?" I asked. 

"Tonight." He said. "She's not getting the chance to snatch one of us next."

"But-" 

"No, Sookie. We can't risk it. If she got hold of you, I would do anything she says and she knows it. She is probably plotting right now how to take one of us next."

"You're right. We can't let that happen. Let's do this." I made up my mind only as I said the words. 

We wasted no time, stopping only for lemon juice and ball caps to hide our faces. We then went out by the old palace of the queen. Not too close, maybe a quarter mile away and parked behind some trees off the road from the grounds. 

"Okay, Niall take the left, I will take the right and Sookie, you take the back." Eric instructed us on the ride over. We both nodded our understanding. We pulled up and I felt the ghost of a heartbeat thundering in my chest. This was it. We might die. I turned to Eric and Niall stepped out to give us privacy. 

I blinked back the urge to cry. The thought that I might never see Eric again gripped me with a terror I scarcely knew anymore.

"Come here." He scooped me up into his lap and held me to him tight. I said nothing, but wound my arms around his neck and squeezed with all I had. 

"We can do this." He said into my hair. 

"We will." I responded to his neck. 

"Look at me." He gently pulled my chin up to gaze into my eyes. "I love you." He said it firmly, as though he didn't know if I knew. 

"I love you, too." I said fiercely, really fighting the tears now. He saw the effort it took me. 

"This isn't goodbye." He told me and I nodded. "This is a 'be careful, I'll see you soon' kind of deal." He said it sweetly. 

"I know." I nodded vigorously, forcing myself to believe it. 

"Let's go kill this bitch." He half smiled at me. 

"Sounds fun." I smiled back. I couldn't not smile back at him. Never could control it.

As he kissed me passionately, I reminded myself we'd had a hundred kisses like this before; where we thought this could be the end and every time it worked out. 'This would, too.' I told myself, trying to will it into being so. 

He pulled away too soon. It was always too soon. We exited the SUV and I hugged my grandfather and he exchanged a nod of understanding with my husband. 

"Let's all watch each others backs in there, okay?" Eric said to the two of us. 

"Absolutely." My grandfather smiled down at me before kissing my forehead. 

"Let's do this." I said. 

Niall and I disappeared our seperate ways at supernatural speeds as Eric took to the sky to look for entrances or windows we could get in through. I circled extra far out to go around the back. I passed by trees and through a long since kept lawn, bushes and other forms of organic life reclaiming the grounds at vampiric speeds.

Once I had scouted about halfway down the building, I found something. Or rather, I hit something. A force field of some sort. It wouldn't let me go any further, so I tried turning around to scout back. Only, I couldn't. I couldn't move! The force field began encircling faster than a snake. It forced my hands to my sides, forced my head back and my feet came up off the ground.  I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound would escape my lips, no matter how much I tried. I was suspended in silence. My voice stuck in my throat. 

She knew! She knew we were coming and she would've set the same trap for them, as well. Damn her! I needed to get to Eric. 

Two men came around the corner silently. 

"Well, well, looky what we have here." The first one whispered to me, knocking my cap off my head. 'Ah, shitballs!'  I looked him up and down, he definitely wasn't a zombie. So, I guess we were successful at that, at least. And his plain scent was so obviously human. He smelled of stale tobacco and cheap hot sauce. 

The second one smiled at me very creepily. He smelled...wrong. Human, but wrong.

"She's so pretty for a dead bitch." He stared up at me as I glared down at him. 

"No lie, look at that dumper." Number one admired me with an appreciative chuckle. Everyone was appreciating my ass today.

"Well, let's haul her down." The second one said. 

They grabbed me, which confused me. It must not be a force field at all. It's an entrapment spell. If it were a forced field, they'd be stuck, too. I didn't know much about magic, but when you get to be a few decades old in the vampire world, you learn a few things. They pulled me down and set me on my feet, balancing me, for I couldn't hold myself up. 

"What should we do with her?" Creepy number two asked. 

"We gotta take her to Cartimandua." The first one answered shortly, holding his hand out in annoyance. He seemed agitated with creepy. Marital problems? I'd've snickered if I could've.

"Yeah, but not right away, right? I mean, look at that pretty little mouth." He squeezed my face. I wanted to bite him. Thousands of years, and men like him haven't changed. 

"Yes, right away!" The first one yelled. "Cartimandua literally said to bring her any intruders right away, you fucking moron!"

"Yeah, but vamps killed and raped my wife! It's only fair that I do the same the their wives." He pulled my face to him and forcefully kissed me. Shoving his disgusting tongue in my mouth. He tasted worse than he smelled. I tried to scream again, but it was still useless. 

"Hey!" The first guy grabbed creepy roughly by the front of the coat. "We take her to Cartimandua!" He said firmly. "After that, you can do whatever you want to her." He said with disinterested. 

Creepy gave him a dirty look and then sighed. He let go of my face and took me by the arm, instead. Number one grabbed my other arm and they hauled me into a side door.

The inside of the building was bare. Several stories high and one big room inside. No lights seemed to be on or around, but the moon streaming in all the higher windows made it easy to see. 

They marched me right into the middle of the room and creepy kicked me in the back of the leg, forcing me onto my knees. Cartimandua came forward from the shadows to stand in front of me. 

"Sookie." She greeted me as I glared at her. "Oh, right." She seemed to remember something and then she snapped her fingers and I once again had control of my head. 

"Cartimandua." I said darkly. I whipped my head around to hiss at creepy with my fangs extended. He jumped a little and I smiled. 

"What can I do for you?" Cartimandua asked sweetly, masking her anger behind a curteous smile. I wanted to smile, knowing she was mad about her army. Well, I was beyond angry about my family and friends being murdered, kidnapped and dismembered! 

"You could drop dead." I smiled bitchily. "But since I doubt you'll do that, maybe you could tell me where my family is."

I heard the door open and looked to see two more guys come in, carting Niall with them. 'Shit! Two down.' 

Cartimandua nodded her head at my thoughts. 'She can hear me!' She smiled. 

"Caught another one." Number three said. He tossed Niall down next to me and he landed on his face. I growled at him next. Number four walked over and slapped me which only made me angrier. 

"Hey!" Creepy jumped at him. "She's mine!"

"Excuse me?" Cartimandua looked at him incredulously.

"Well, he sai-" He pointed at number one.

"Is he in charge?" She asked him and pointed her finger at number one. "I would never give my great great great niece, vampire or not, to a disgusting man like you. You're no better than them! I don't know why I keep you around!" She spat the words at him. And he grew angily quiet. 

"Now, where is your husband, my dear?" She bent down to ask me as she motioned for the two to pick Niall up. "Hold that thought, Seeetie." She held a finger up at me. "Niall! I couldn't believe my ears when I found out she is yours." She smiled and pointed the same long finger back at me. 

"My Aunt." Niall said. "I could not believe my own ears when I heard that you were not dead."

"I know." She chuckled, clearly thrilled with herself. So smug.

"I do not relish the thought that you...abandoned me. My own sweet Aunt." His voice was full of accusations. Oh, poor Niall. I hadn't really had a chance to look at what all of this meant for him. 

She narrowed her eyes at him. Then she softened, even reaching down to take his head between her hands as she spoke sweetly to him.

"Poor, sweet, baby Niall. Sookie is right. You've been given a bad hand in all of this, but you're a simple thing in the construct of it all. Don't you see? I was destined to be someone great! To be someone powerful! Powerful people don't become so while caring for others. I loved you and it would've been my undoing. I couldn't have that. So, yes, I abandoned you. I am sorry. I couldn't be your mother after our people were slaughtered. I was meant for more."

"And now you want to kill them all?" He asked.

"And you don't?" She asked, confused. "You want to throw in with them and kill your blood?"

"Sookie is my blood, as well! We cannot take all of those lives!"

"She is a vampire." She said, dismissive of my life. "And before that she was human." She said disgustedly and shrugged. 

"She is of me." He said. "And what about Claude? And Dermot, my own son?"

"Your own son who you shut out?" She asked, coldly.

"You answer me!" He demanded.

She sighed. "I am sorry for that, but they sided with the dead! Just as I am saddened for what will befall you for the very same crime." She shook her head at him.

"You are the criminal here!" He yelled.

"Oh, how could you?" She asked. "You know what they are, what they've done! Killing, drinking and raping everyone and everything in their path, poisoning the lives of those they let live. Taking my own family from my side!"

"No." He said calmly. "You did that."

She stood quickly, enraged. "We're done here!"

Her fingers started to glow and then burst into light as magic emerged from her fingertips at first, then her whole hands; and then all the way to the elbow. Sparks and tendrils of magic shot everywhere, like an omnipotent firework show. She lit the entire room, as winds swirled around her and the tendrils of magic spread over her body. Her eyes turned purple and she opened her mouth where a blue mist emerged. 

The magic shot forth from her and hit us full blast. I almost couldn't hear Niall's screams over my own. It shot through my whole body like a raw nerve being stabbed. The pain was a blinding white within me; an intensity that I'd never known in my life. They stopped as quickly as they started. 

"Where's your husband, Sookie?"

" I don't know." I panted out honestly. She hit us again and I screamed at the top of my lungs. 

"Where?!"

"I swear I don't know!" Mentally begging him to come.

"Perhaps we will try another tactic." She smiled. She muttered an incantation and out of the shadows stepped a young woman with dark hair, an animalistic smell to her. She shimmered with magic, obviously not real, but I was startled nonetheless.

"Heya, Sookie. Remember me?" She asked in a chipper tone, coming forward to squat down in front of me.

"Debbie?" I sighed.

"Debbie Pelt, that's right." She nodded with a pretty smile. "You. You murdered me." She said with a longing for life in her voice.

"I defended myself." Was my rebuttal.

"No, you didn't need to do it. You did it because I shot your boyfriend, but he was fine." She said with a wry chuckle. "I guess that makes me a victim of vampires, too." She bit her lip.

"I did it because you wouldn't stop." I sniffled back tears. After all this time, seeing her- It brought my guilt straight up to the surface. "You would have never stopped."

"You wanted me dead!" She accused me.

"I wanted it over!" I cried, blood flowing from my eyes.

"You want to let this guilt go? Forget about it?" I nodded yes to her questions. "Then tell me where he is and I'll make it stop." She promised as I hung my head and cried some more.

"Sookie, don't!" Niall yelled. Cartimandua zapped him again as he screamed.

Her people started looking spooked before running away.

"Fools!" She cried, shooting a single shot at them. All four hit the ground with not a single heartbeat among them.

"Come on, Sweetie." Debbie coaxed me gently, distracting me from the bodies on the floor. "I wanna help you, so you can rest. So we both can have peace. Finally."

 I felt the weight of magical influence descend upon my mind. Things became muddled and I felt the urge to give in. It felt natural, like sleeping or brushing your hair. Easy, peaceful.

"Don't you want peace?"

"Yes." I said. 

"Then tell me where he is." She said it as though it were easy.

"I don't know where he is!" I exclaimed. He should've been there right then, helping us, but he wasn't. I didn't understand. I grew agitated at the fog on my mind, but I was tired.

"Come on, Sook. We know that isn't true." My brother Jason said, stepping out of the darkness just as Debbie had done. I sobbed when I saw him, with the shimmering making him look more beautiful than ever. 

"You know where the fanger is. Tell me." He said, squatting next to Debbie.

My mind felt asleep or like I was submerged in water and my mouth began to move on its own. "He's...he's.." I tried to tell them, I really did, but I simply didn't know.

"It's okay." Jason touched my shoulder. "Where did you see him last?"

"I saw him-" No! No, I couldn't do this! I felt myself resisting the fog as my brain seemed to restart and I began to regain control.

"No!" I yelled, pushing through the last of it with all my strength. "You are Not my brother!" As I yelled it, Jason and Debbie both disappeared in a puff of magic and Cartimandua cried out, enraged.

She hit us with a more powerful blast. I felt as though my blood were boiling and my body was melting apart.

"Where are your hostages?" Niall asked after she stopped again.

"Not here. Not that you are in any position to be asking questions." She smiled.

'Fuck! All of this for nothing.' 

"That's right." She answered my thoughts with a smile and hit us again. I felt blood begin to run from my nose and ears.

"This is the last time I'm gonna ask nicely. Then things are gonna start getting really bloody." She said to me. "Where. Is. Your. Husba-" Her neck snapped so quickly, it startled even us. Her head cocked to the side, her mouth still open from talking as Eric sank his fangs into her neck viciously.

"I'm right here, Bitch." He whispered and went back to his meal. She was drained in mere seconds, having never known what hit her. 

Her body deflated before us, her magic visibly flowing into Eric with every pull. For a moment, he took on a horrible visage, a monster of magic and of vampire. The bulges in his face scared me as they moved through him with hues of purple and blue magic. The effects faded with her life force. 

As she died, her magical sway over us faltered as well and we were released from our magical bindings. He dropped her corpse and smiled down at it eerily before it disintegrated. In the back, or I guess technically the front, came Pam, Amelia, Claude and Dermot.

"You found them!" I got slowly to my feet and threw myself into his arms. He growled deep in his throat and kissed me passionately. I had to pull myself off of him after a second, he got really into it. I looked deep into his half closed eyes. Yep. Drunker than a skunk. I ran and hugged my miffed cousin. He half hugged me back, clearly angry, so I let him go to hug my uncle.

"Dermot! I am so relieved that y'all are okay!" He squeezed me back.

"Okay? Okay?!" Claude exclaimed. "I lost a fucking finger, Sookie!" He held up his left hand where his middle finger was clearly gone and it was wrapped by a bloody old piece of a t-shirt. It matched the one he wore.

"Oh, no. Oh,no." I waved my finger at him. "I will not let you make this my fault." I put a finger to my own chest angrily and then I threw it back at him. "I told y'all not to talk to her and you didn't listen! That is not on me and my husband just saved your lives! How about a thank you?!" I yelled back.

"Thank you!" He yelled louder. 

"I didn't mean me!" I screamed at him.

"Oh." He said at a normal level. "Right. Thank you, Eric." He turned back to him with a coy smile. I rolled my eyes in response. Eric nodded in response before leaning in closer.

"Be nice to her." He told Claude who opened his mouth to argue, but Eric spoke first. "She did tell you not to go there. She was worried sick about the two of you. Go see your grandfather." He said of Niall and swayed a bit.

"Eric." Pam came forward and hugged our maker and I hugged Amelia. 

"Still kicking?" I asked her.

"Oh, yeah." She smiled. I hugged my sister afterwards. I squeezed her tighter than I had my other kin. We shared much more blood and had spent a lot of years living together. 

Claude approached our grandfather and they embraced as Niall traded long glances with Dermot. Niall is his father and there's some bad history between them. Bad enough that Niall had deliberately shut Dermot out of Faery when he closed it.

"Hello, Father." Dermot said from the background.

"Son." Niall nodded. "I know you may not think it, but I am relieved to see you in one piece." Dermot smiled as he was beckoned forward for a long overdue hug from his father. I was thrilled to see them making up after all those years of being at odds. Claude glared at Niall for his comment and he laughed aloud. 

After Pam finished hugging him, I went and put my arms back around Eric. 

"Thank you for saving them. And for saving me." I smiled up at him. 

"I would never let her hurt you." He said, drunkely. "I love you."

"I love you, too." I grabbed him by the arms to steady him as I stood on my tippy toes to kiss him. He even giggled with a slur. Man, it was gonna take a while to sober him up. 

"Let's get out of here." I smiled at my family. It was larger than it was when I was a kid and it warmed my cold, dead heart to see this many of them together. 

"I'll fly us home! Zoom, zoom, zoom!" Eric exclaimed, throwing his hands above his head. 

"Or I could drive us." I told him gently, worried about him attempting to fly in such a condition. 

"You." He said leaning down to my level. I thought he would argue with my verdict for a moment. "You are so, so smart! Boop!" He giggled after he booped my nose and the lot of us laughed with him. 

"Come on." I said to him as though he were a puppy and I put my head under his arm for support. He leaned on me so heavily that he started to slump, so Pam took his other side and together we walked him out the front and back in the direction of the car. 

"I'm sorry about your Aunt." I told Niall as we walked. 

"Aren't you a sweet thing." He smiled at me. "It's quite alright. That wasn't my Aunt. My Aunt died a long, long time ago."

 I couldn't argue with that, and I let myself become part of the background as they all talked and laughed. After a few hours of driving and dropping people off at different locations, Eric and I finally made it back to my palace. It was almost fully restored to its previous majesty and I made a mental note to give the construction crew a hefty bonus for such quick work. 

When we entered my staff looked alarmed and offered to help me with the leaning Viking and I politely refused. I dragged him to our room and tossed him down on the bed where I yanked off his socks and shoes before removing his shirt and pants.

"You are so beautiful." He smiled up at me as I tucked him in, a tad more sober than he was before. 

"Oh, yes." I replied sarcastically as I pulled the blanket up to his chest. He nodded and 'mhmm'd' in response.

I planted a kiss on his forehead which was still warm from draining Cartimandua and I went to the kitchen. By the time I got there, I could barely stand and I chugged two True Bloods cold before I started to feel better. I warmed up chugged a third for good measure and returned to my room. 

When I walked in, he was surprisingly still awake and I stripped down myself and crawled into the sheets with my King. He pulled me close and I layed my head on his chest while he stroked my hair. 

"I'm so glad you're okay." He said into my hair and kissed me. 

"How did you find them?" I asked. 

"Quite by accident, really. I caught their scents and followed it to the pool house and ggr! I ripped their restraints and freed them." He chuckled at himself. "But when I felt you hurting and I heard you scream, I remembered the time withNeave and Lochlan all over again. It terrified me."

I let my mind glaze over the time I was tortured and Eric couldn't get to me. It was a long time ago and I didn't want to relive it.

"It takes more than that to take me down." I smiled up at him and pulled myself up to his lips. "I feel like we haven't slept in days." I said. 

"We haven't." He reminded me as he kissed my head again and rubbed my arm. 

"Oh, yeah." I said. 

"Sleep." He told me as I snuggled in closer to him. And then I died in his arms, just like I would every night. 

                                                  Forever.