I got nothing for you to gain
eyes on fire
your spine is ablaze
felling any foe with my gaze
- Eyes on fire, Blue Foundation

.

I was slightly disappointed by Phoenix's reaction to my revelation. I watched her very careful when I told her what I was and the only reaction she had was that her eyed widened slightly and her mouth shaped into an "o". Other than that she seemed to take it right on the chin. She gave herself a shake and then looked at me with curiosity blatant in her eyes. I looked back at her feeling almost defiant as though I was determined to show her that I was stronger than I appeared to be. I watched her eyes flickered to Eric very quickly before they refocused on my face. She smiled.

"Well that must be interesting," she said carefully obviously choosing her words. "No wonder this Victor wants you gone. Indeed if I were Victor I would put all my efforts into making you disappear."

I shuddered at the difference in her tone. She was eyeing me very careful with distrust written across her face and I felt slightly indignant at the expression. She had no reason to distrust me unless she had something to hide and that worried me a little. Eric leaned across the table towards her and I glanced at him to see the intensity of his eyes. He didn't like Phoenix's last sentence any more than I had.

"She cannot read Vampires," Eric told her and Phoenix looked over me appraisingly as she absorbed this information.

"Sookie," she said her head tilting to one side as she looked at me, "can you read me?"

I was a little startled. It wasn't often that I was invited to read someone's thoughts. I mean sure sometimes I was invited the read the thoughts of someone who had been accused of doing something wrong but I was rarely invited by someone themselves. I looked into her eyes and saw no hint of a bluff there so I decided to try. I let my guard down and reach out for her mind. I touched the blazing flames of her mind before once again I was hurled out.

Being thrown back into your own mind is not a pleasant experience although I really couldn't describe how it feels. It was something I had never experienced before. I couldn't read Vampires but they left a blank hole in my consciousness and I could register brain patterns for the Fae and the part demons I could encountered. I could read intentions in Were's heads and humans were quite easy to read but never before had I been thrown out of someone's mind. I looked at Phoenix whose brow had creased into a frown.

"I can't read you at all," I told her honestly. "In fact your head will not allow me in for more than a few seconds and the whole time I am there it's just flames."

Phoenix seemed to consider that for a moment. I doubted that she had ever met a telepath before. I knew that Eric had met one before me and he had also met Barry but I was pretty sure that we were rare anomalies rather than part of a major supernatural group.

"I felt you," Phoenix told her tapping her fingers to her temple and that startled me a little. It wasn't that nobody had ever felt me in their heads before but the only two people that had felt me were two people I had actually been able to read, my cousin Hadley's son, Hunter and the were witch that had cursed Eric, Hallow. When I had practiced with Barry, the King of Texas' telepath, I hadn't felt anything when he had been reading my mind but Hunter had said he could feel me and I wondered whether it might be something I would have felt if someone had read my mind when I was young. I certainly hadn't thought that someone I couldn't read would be able to feel me probing around in their brain.

"You did?" I whispered through dry lips and I glanced briefly at Pam and Eric who were focused intently on Phoenix.

"Oh yes," she responded not taking her eyes from mine. "It sort of tickles although I am not sure if that is an accurate description. I wonder if ..."

Sookie, is this working? I should think that it probably does. Sookie, can you hear me? I nearly jumped as the voice in my head started and I immediately recognised the British accent that belonged to Phoenix. I stared at her open mouthed. How did she know to do that? I was also puzzled by the fact that I had heard her when she was thinking directly at me when I couldn't hear her normally. Could they all do that?

"I heard you," I told Phoenix in awe. "I could hear you when you thought directly at me but I can't hear you normally. How did you know to try that?"

Phoenix shrugged her shoulders.

"I didn't," she explained. "I just thought it would be worth a try. Are you trying to tell me that none of your other supe friends have tried it?"

I glanced at Pam and Eric who looked rather taken aback. It was obvious that they had never thought about it themselves and I certainly hadn't thought to ask them to try it.

"Well shifters and Weres are the only ones that have tried," I told her, "but I can read their minds already. I didn't think about it when it came to vamps, demons and the fae."

Phoenix looked at Eric who looked almost adorable with his eyebrow hitched up in confusion.

"Try," she told him.

Eric looked blank for a moment but I heard nothing that I wasn't suppose to hear with my own two ears. Pam looked at me with her head tilted to one side like a curious puppy. I wasn't sure if either of them were trying but I couldn't hear either of them. This could certainly come in mighty handy, Phoenix thought at me with a smile playing on her face. I'll bet it's extremely irritating when you hear people all the time though.

I nodded to agree with Phoenix's thought and then look at Eric and Pam.

"Did you try?" I asked them.

"You couldn't hear me?" Eric asked sounding a little disappointed. I shook my head. I was kind of disappointed that it hadn't worked either but relieved all at the same time. It would have been great if Eric could have communicated with me without anyone knowing but I was also so physically aware of Eric all of the time that I might end up exhausted if I had to be mentally aware of him as well.

"I think you should be pleased that you didn't hear my thoughts," Pam told me pleasantly and when she smiled I caught sight of her fangs. I was exceptionally glad right then that I hadn't been able to communicate direct thoughts to me.

"I assume that is your talent that drew Eric's interest to begin with then Sookie," Phoenix questioned me and I have to admire the way she put it. The inclusion of the words "to begin with" gave the idea that Eric was no longer just interested in my talent and whilst it might have caught his attention it was not the reason he stayed with me. Phoenix was sly I had to give her that.

"I was dating another vampire who introduced us," I explained not particularly wanting to give her Bill's name. If she was here to kill us all then at least I had kept his name from the conversation and gave him the chance to live on.

"She was dating Bill Compton," Eric told her without glancing at me. Phoenix continued to watch me for a moment before her eyes flew over to Eric. She seemed surprised at this revelation.

"The Bill Compton?" she asked. "The vampire who has put together a sort of vampire directory?"

"The very same," Pam confirmed for her. "Did he contact Lorcan? I understand that he ask you several questions about Lorcan, Eric."

"Which I refused to answer," Eric responded looking grim. "I had no doubt that Lorcan would rather not appear in such a directory and I knew there would be no chance of Bill getting anywhere near him for an interview. I do not think Lorcan's whereabouts should be widely known either."

"It would put the gatekeepers at risk," Phoenix agreed with him. "We were certainly contacted by Mr Compton a couple of times but he didn't phone again after I, ah, persuaded him not to."

I didn't like the look on her face when she said the word persuaded and I didn't want to imagine what she had said to Bill to get him to stop calling this Lorcan. I was very curious about this vampire who was married to a woman who could burn him to a crisp in seconds, who had the respect of my very own vampire and who lived with some mystical group called the gatekeepers. I found it rather clear from the look in Phoenix's eyes when she spoke of him that she was in love with him. Eric had also told me that he thought it would destroy Phoenix if Lorcan thought any less of her. From what I had gleaned their relationship seemed extremely intense.

"How long have you and Lorcan been together?" I asked Phoenix on impulse. Phoenix looked startled as she looked up at me and then she looked thoughtful before she shrugged her shoulders. She glanced at Eric briefly.

"A couple of centuries?" Phoenix seemed to be asking Eric and he nodded.

"You don't know?" I said incredulous. Phoenix did not look abashed at all.

"Well, you tend to lose track of time when you're going to live forever," she told me completely nonchalant, "but I would say a couple of centuries. Trust me; if you spent around two hundred years married to Eric you would be forgetting exactly how long you've been together."

I determinedly avoided Eric's eye. I was uncomfortable about this topic of conversation. I had asked him never to change me but recently I had been wondering whether it would be for the best to have him make me a vamp. I suppose I was really conflicted. I loved Eric and I wanted to be with him but I really didn't want to be a vamp. I liked the sun too much for that.

"So you are really devoted to him?" I asked cautiously. "Eric mentioned to me that you were ruthlessly when it came to protecting Lorcan?"

Phoenix's eyes immediately narrowed and she glanced between me, Eric and Pam. Eric's hand shot out to grasp my arm and I knew he was cautioning me. His fangs were on display as were Pam's and I could see the wariness in Phoenix's eyes. I ran my eyes around the bar looking to see if anyone else had noticed how much then tension had shot up in our little booth. Nobody else seemed to be paying any attention to us.

"There is a question in there, Sookie," Phoenix said, "and I would prefer if you would just ask it outright rather than beat around the bush?"

"Sookie," Eric whispered in my ear in a low voice. His tone told me that he was concerned but I ignored him. I needed to do this in order to be comfortable. Without my talent to help me I would have to go mainly on instinct but I needed to ask the questions in order to gauge her reaction.

"Phoenix, are you here to kill us on the orders of Victor Madden?" I asked in a firm voice not allowing my voice to waiver for a moment. I saw Pam's eyebrow flicker up delicately and she was looking at me incredulously. She obviously thought the same as Eric, that Phoenix would never betray them.

"No, I am not," Phoenix replied calmly as though she were taking a lie detector test.

"Is Victor Madden blackmailing you into killing us by holding Lorcan?"

Her eyes did not waiver from mine. She did not blink and she did not glance away.

"No, he is not."

"Are you part of a trick on Victor's part trying to lure us to New Orleans so he may kill us himself?"

Eric's hand tightened on my arm a little bit more but I did not move my eyes from Phoenix's. I had to get these questions out and I needed to see her reaction to them. The fact that Eric and Pam were willing to take this girl at her word made me nervous.

"No, I am not."

"Is Lorcan likely to have turned against Eric?"

I saw the flames leap up in her eyes in her fury but she seemed to be able to reel her temper in. I heard a hiss escape from Eric's mouth in warning even though he knew he could not win in a fight against her.

"No," she answered me shortly obviously offended on Lorcan's behalf. "Lorcan would never betray Eric."

I glanced at Eric whose grip was almost painful on my arm. I wanted to be convinced. I wanted to be sure that we could trust her, that we could trust this vampire Lorcan. I knew vampires. They could appear one thing and be something completely different and I was not willing to be taken in again.

"Please excuse Sookie," Eric was apologising for me which was unusual but all too familiar at the same time. Unusual because Eric never apologised and familiar because it was the sort of highhanded thing that he would do.

"Eric, she doesn't need to be apologised for," Phoenix said with a smile looking over me appraisingly before she turned to look at Eric. "I'm not one of your Kings or Queens, I am your friend and if Sookie needs convincing of that then maybe we should convince her."

I was about to interrupt, I hated being talked about as though I was no present, when Phoenix looked at me once more.

"When you've been stabbed in the back once too often then you can't trust anyone," she said with feeling as though she too had experienced her fair share of betrayal.

"We've put our trust in the wrong people before," I told her by way of explanation. I didn't like to come over as a rude person and my Gran would have been horrified by the way I had just treated Phoenix. Still, after being betrayed to the Fellowship of the Sun by Hugo Ayres, tricked by Charles Twinning and caught in an explosion planned by the Fellowship of the Sun with inside help from Jake Purifoy I wasn't going to pretend that everything was all rosy in the garden.

"There are loads of things I don't understand about this whole thing," I continued and I wasn't just including Phoenix in this. I look at both Eric and Pam too. "You three and Lorcan seem to go way back and Eric you obviously trust them with your life. I suppose I want to know what makes you so sure that she isn't going to hand us over to Victor in return for getting Lorcan back."

Eric sighed as though some great burden was about to be shifted for his shoulders.

"Lorcan and I are related," he told me, "in the vampire sense. My maker and his maker are brothers; not human brothers but rather that they have the same maker."

I stared at Eric for a moment processing this information.

"So you're like cousins," I suggested after a moment.

"Yes, I suppose you could see it like that," Eric agreed. "Lorcan is quite a bit older than I but by how much we are not sure since I am not sure how old I am. When believe he might be about two hundred years older."

"I love an older man," Phoenix said with a grin and Pam butted her shoulder with hers very briefly.

"Not only this," Eric continued ignoring Phoenix, "but Pam and I stood alongside Lorcan and Phoenix in the last battle of the Nativus. We are bound in blood and war, all four of us. Do you understand?"

I nodded trying to take in what Eric was saying. I wasn't all that clued up on vampire relationships but when Eric was serious about a connection then obviously it was a serious connection. I felt better to know that Eric actually had a concrete reason to trust Lorcan and therefore Phoenix as an extension. I also knew what it was like to stand alongside someone and face your death head on. That forged bonds that would never be broken.

"So if Phoenix is Lorcan's wife," I began, "and I am your wife then that makes Phoenix and I cousins-in-law."

I saw Eric smile when I called myself his wife. It was the first time that I had done that but I had to admit that as long as it kept me safe I would call myself whatever he wanted me to be called. I didn't really think I was his wife, not in my eyes anyway. It had been a simple matter of me handing him a ceremonial knife and him accepting it, done completely without my knowledge might I add.

"I suppose it does," said Phoenix with a smile. "Well, I don't have any family so gaining any is always a bonus."

"How come you don't have any family?" I asked intrigued.

"It's a long story," Phoenix said with a sigh and she looked weary for the first time since I had met her, "and it has a lot to do with the history of our race. I would also need to swear you to secrecy. Let's leave it at I don't have any family apart from Lorcan. What about you?"

"I've only got my brother," I said and Eric snorted rolling his eyes. He didn't think much of Jason who even I had to admit was self-centred.

"Not much of a brother I take it," said Phoenix with a smile glancing at Eric.

"You could say that," Eric confirmed. "Although since Sookie's great-grandfather revealed himself to her she has a couple more family members."

"Yeah," I told Phoenix. "I've got my cousin Claude who is a full fairy and my great-uncle Dermot who is a half fairy and my granddad's twin brother. They're both living with me at the moment and using up all the hot water."

"Family is family eh?" she said with a grin. I smiled back at her because I felt a bit more at easy now that Eric had explained why he trusted her so much. I wouldn't say I trusted her completely but I trusted Eric.

Her words sunk into me them. Family is family and when it came to family you had to do everything you could for them. I glanced at Eric who was looking at Pam. They both had the fangs extended and there was determination in their eyes. I understood why Eric hadn't told be to begin with why he trusted Phoenix and Lorcan. He felt compelled to help Phoenix rescue his cousin from Victor's clutches because family always helps family.

"I suppose we'll have to organise a trip to New Orleans," Eric said at length.

"Nah Eric," she said shaking her head, "I can't be involving you lot when you've got problems already with this Victor."

I liked Phoenix even more for this statement but I was sure that Eric would not let it go. He was a very honourable vampire something that I admired and hated all at the same time.

"Look Phoenix," said Eric seriously, "Victor has probably taken Lorcan because of his connection to me and even if that isn't the case I can hardly leave Lorcan to put up with Victor's company. Pam and I will come down with you. I think we should try to pass you off as a friend of Sookie's or else Heidi might report your presence back to Victor."

"Eric," Phoenix said leaning forward, "I don't want anything to come back on you or Sookie. If Victor's got Lorcan so he can get to you then it seems a bit foolish for you to get involved."

I heartily agreed with Phoenix just then but Eric wasn't going to back down and we both knew it. Pam was looking a little excited about the idea. I just couldn't have a normal life for a couple of months. I knew without a doubt that I would go with them. There was no way I would be staying in Bon Temps to worry about Eric and Pam.

"No arguments Phoenix," Eric told her. "Pam and I cannot just let you go on your own. We'll come with you. If need be I will try and smooth things over with Felipe De Castro.

"Well if you come, Eric," Phoenix told him seriously, "then I'll kill Victor for you."

If anything could have got me on her side it was that.