Author's reminder: I own nothing, I make no money, we're just here to have a little fun. Duh.
Dear readers-I know, it's been a while...::ducks thrown fruit and chairs:: Real life happened. Ugh. My apologies. Enjoy!
Chapter 2
A beautiful spring night descended upon the front porch of the farmhouse on Hummingbird road. The breeze held a delicious little chill; summer's heat and humidity hung in the air like a promise, waiting to descend upon Louisiana once more.
Sookie and Alcide sat on the front porch swing; she swaddled in her old quilt, he in his shirtsleeves. Alcide caught her up a bit on developments he knew of taken place the past two years. Aside from Bill taking the throne, Jason was now a sheriff's deputy, and Sam had done well enough to add an addition to Merlotte's. Alcide wasn't seeing Debbie any more, though she showed up on his doorstep once in a while after a bender begging to be taken back. His father's company had landed a lucrative new subdivision contract in Shreveport. They were depending on its completion to stay afloat in the slogging economy. Alcide was in charge of keeping an eye on the project, but in truth he'd been thrilled to land the job of Sookie's house. Despite the obvious, it was a chance to get his hands dirty again, to bring new life to an old house in need of some love. As a younger man he'd dreamed of branching off from his father's mega-construction company to do specialized restoration work in historic homes, but now he doubted he would ever get the chance to realize it.
"When are Eric and Bill due back from Europe?"
"We have a few more weeks of peace and quiet," Alcide answered, praying word would not travel across the ocean and bring them back prematurely. Eric left Pam in charge in Shreveport—keeping the secret from that tall harpy would be the essential trick. And at that moment Alcide wondered if spies lurked in the woods, as they sat so openly upon the front porch swing.
"If we're not being spied upon this very moment," suggested the telepath.
"You reading my mind?"
"Not this time," replied Sookie coyly. "He'll be furious, you know," she mused aloud "I really don't want you to get in the middle of it."
"I can hold my own. Don't you worry that pretty little head."
Sookie raised an eyebrow at the werewolf's self-assured declaration, but said nothing. Eric was a 1000 year old vampire—and though she had a great deal of faith in Alcide as a protector, she couldn't imagine a confrontation with the angry Viking that would turn out favorably.
It would be up to her, she decided, and knew that honey would take her farther than vinegar. Unfortunately she suspected that to be the vampire's intent all along. She would be walking a fine and dangerous line very soon, she realized. Sooner than she truly felt prepared for. The stakes were high—she knew she wouldn't just be negotiating for her ancestral home, but for her freedom, her very soul, even. The thought of matching wits with a creature such as Eric for such things only chilled her bones farther, an icy cold passing through her body that no quilt could quell.
Alcide did not sit next to her in oblivion to the storm that took her inside. He could not read her thoughts, perhaps, but with a canine sensitivity to emotion he could absolutely sense her fear. Hoping he wasn't too bold, Alcide wrapped an arm around Sookie's narrow shoulders, pulling her close.
For a moment she stiffened with surprise, before relaxing against him, melting into his body heat. "You're so warm," she sighed.
"And you are a block of ice," replied the wolf, a thread of worry entering his words. "This isn't right, Sook. Maybe we should get you to a doc."
However, the telepath shook her head no at the suggestion. She didn't want to be poked and prodded any more than she already had been in faery, Niall's aides inspecting her for fitness to be a bride in a royal wedding she wanted no part of.
My God, she'd escaped by the skin of her teeth. And she wondered if the chapter could be closed so easily—somehow she suspected not.
Anxiety built in Sookie, rose in her as a flood assaults a dam, as she ruminated upon the implications of Eric owning her home. Disgust ran in circles around her mind, between Jason and the devious vampire. The fact that her own brother gave up on her, after virtually no time at all, stung Sookie deeper than she could truly express.
She felt exhausted, so very tired, in a way that permeated far deeper than just the physical. It reached deep into her soul, and despair welled with it. Once again, she found herself stripped bare, forced to start anew from the ashes. She doubted she even had any legal recourse to reverse the sale. Jason had surely already spent what ever earnings he'd gleaned from the house, leaving nothing to pay Eric back with, and besides, how would she even begin to explain to a court why she'd disappeared? Somehow she doubted I just stepped out for a vacation to Fairy Land would cut it.
"We'll take it a day at a time, cher," Alcide interjected into the storm of her dark thoughts. "Step one. You're alive and well and home. The rest will come."
With a heavy sigh, Sookie nodded. Though his words did not exactly bring her solace, the very fact that he was there and he tried, did.
"I guess I need to go see if Sam will give me my job back."
"I think you should take it easy for a while. No sense in running yourself ragged so soon."
"Alcide, I can't afford the luxury. I have nothing. No money, no house…" She looked to the place where her little yellow Honda had stood parked since high school. It stood empty. Jason must have sold that too. "No car. Nothing."
Alcide bowed his head in sympathy, holding his tongue as the immediate impulse to offer to support her leapt forth within him. "You have a friend," he offered, holding out his hand in a gesture that mirrored their interlude at the dinner table not so long ago. "A friend who's not going to let you starve anytime soon, Sook. It'll be alright. It'll all work out, somehow."
Sookie found her usually sunny outlook on life lacking, and she mourned this newfound darkness inside her. She'd been warned that the vampires would steal her light, would suck her dry until there was nothing left of herself in her shell of a body.
At that moment she understood all too well.
And at that moment, Alcide's warm body beside her was worth more than its weight in gold to Sookie. She laced her fingers in his, and thought bless him when he didn't even flinch at the icy touch of her skin.
"I don't even want to see them," she found herself confessing in a whisper, staring out at the dark night, envisioning the town that lay somewhere beyond.
"Who, honey?" A sinking feeling crept into Alcide's heart, a small sting that made him wonder if he was an unwelcome party on this porch swing.
"All of them. Everyone I know in town, every familiar face. Not Sam, not even my brother. Not Bill, not Eric. I don't want to answer their questions, I don't want to hear their mean little thoughts. I think I could just sit here on this porch swing with you until the magnolia's bloom."
That would be at least a month off.
It was a long time to sit on a swing, but Alcide took the statement for what it was worth, happy once more in his place beside the little blonde telepath.
"You don't have to see them," he assured her. "You can set right here for as long as you want."
She knew it wouldn't last long, but the thought was the sweetest she'd had all day.
A few moments of silence passed, before she spoke again. "It's nice to be here, with you," she dared admit.
"A little bit like old times, huh?" He cracked a smile that was radiant as the sunrise, and her heart ached for it. "Only we're not looking for any fangers and no one's trying to kill us."
Yet, she couldn't help but think.
Sookie nodded, a small smile pulling the corners of her mouth, at long last. The sight warmed Alcide's heart, and perhaps made him a little brazen. The werewolf dared to reach up, brushing a stray lock of straw colored hair from her eyes, and gently chucking the little telepath beneath the chin. "You know, back then, you stole my breath away the first time I saw you. I've been waiting to get it back ever since."
For a moment Sookie thought Alcide might kiss her. Her heart pounded mercilessly in her chest, galloping as a herd of spooked horses. For she found that as much as she would have liked to feel his soft lips on hers, there were a million and one reasons why it would have been a very bad idea. She clenched her eyes closed as though withstanding an onslaught.
Puzzled, Alcide pulled back, unsure of his position once more, cursing himself for moving too fast. Cool it, wolf, he warned himself. She's been to hell and back.
"I wish we'd met before, Alcide." Before vampires found her, and faeries, and decided they wanted to own her, one way or another. Decided they were entitled to pull her apart piece by piece.
Her words fell upon him like bricks, though their inherent meaning still managed to leave him with some sort of hope.
"Before Eric?" he asked.
"Before Eric. Before Bill. Before my chances at a normal life went spiraling out the window."
A nervous little laugh escaped her, a sound of despair she knew some associated with crazy Sookie. She wondered if Alcide would. The thought hurt a little, but she was used to that. She buried her face in her hands to escape the hazel eyes that fixed upon her.
Escape would not be so easy, however. She felt Alcide move from his place beside her on the swing, and she felt the blissful warmth of his body at her legs as he crouched down before her. He reached out to gently lower her hands, and she was too surprised not to let him.
"Cher, I've known you a little while, and I'm pretty certain you've got at least nine lives. You've probably only used up about…four. That's less than half."
She couldn't help but laugh a little at his earnest expression, and perhaps all too accurate analogy.
"And how many lives do wolves have, Mr. Herveaux? Because Eric would kill you just for looking at me that way. I'm a dangerous girl to be around right now. I shouldn't even be here."
She stood from the swing, shedding the quilt, but Alcide stood with her, towering over her slight form. The line of heat that emanated from him was delectable; far more of her wanted to curl up in his strong arms, than run away.
Alcide knew what Sookie said was probably true. That the fanger wouldn't think twice about tearing out his throat, just for looking at Sookie with the slightest longing. Yet with her here, in front of him, looking up with those oceanic blue eyes, he just couldn't help himself. Strong hands rose to stroke the line of her arms from elbow to shoulder, winning a shudder that filled him with a maddening desire.
"Let's play a game," he proposed, and Sooke's eyebrows rose high.
"A game? Have you lost your mind?"
Ignoring her, the werewolf went on. "This game is called To Hell With Eric. Until he returns from his little trip abroad, we can live here in our little bubble of paradise. I will continue to fix this old house, because it deserves a pair of hands that know what they're doing." The hands in question, large and strong and a little calloused in a way Sookie didn't mind in the least, clasped her hands in his. "And you can rest, sit in the sun, read a book, and regain your strength. You're going to need it."
"And when Eric gets back?"
"We'll make a plan to get you your house back."
"He won't give me back this house without getting what he wants. We both know that."
"Well…we'll see. But for now, it's your house. Because we're playing To Hell With Eric. Agreed?"
He held out a hand to shake, and though she inherently knew it was a bad idea, it was too sweet a temptation. Sealing her fate, Sookie shook his hand, her small mitt disappearing in the breadth of his.
"It might become my favorite game," she warned.
"Mine too."
