I hope you enjoyed the previous chapter. I want to thank everybody who took the time to read the story. I am definitely enjoying this and I hope you're enjoying it too.
Disclaimer: I am not the owner of these characters. The original story and the characters belong to Charlaine Harris. I am only borrowing them for a little while.
Chapter 4
While Felipe de Castro was torturing the Viking, Sookie...
I stopped by the grocery store on my way home. I bought all the ingredients for dinner tonight, even for the pecan pie. I smile remembering my grandmother. It made me sad that I will never eat another one made by her, but she thought me how to make it, so at least I still have that.
I went straight to the kitchen as soon as I got home. I got the oven going and then sat down to write the letter for Niall while dinner was cooking. I didn't know if this was going to work, but at least I'll try it.
Dinner was almost ready, and after several writing attempts, I finally had a letter for Niall:
Dear Great-Grandfather and Claude,
Bellenos and Dermot are worried that the fae at Hooligans are getting too restless to stay confined to the building. They miss Claude and his leadership. We are all afraid something bad will happen if this situation doesn't change soon. Please let us know what's going on. Love, Sookie.
I wrote Niall's and Claude's name on the envelope, and sealed it. I ventured outside to drop it off. The heat was a killer, and the bugs were having a field day on my legs. The day was almost over but the day refused to cool down. I kept moving to keep them from draining me. Drops of sweat were already falling down my face and my hair was sticking on my neck.
I sigh in relief when I found the little clearing where the portal was. I frown to its size. It was smaller than the last time I came here. Last time it had been large enough to squeeze in a human body, but not this time.
Either the portal was shrinking naturally, or Niall resized it to prevent me from throwing more bodies into Faery.
I knelt before the patch of wavery air, which hovered about knee-high just above the blackberry vines and grasses. I popped the letter into the quavering patch, and it vanished.
I held my breath waiting for any sound or movement like the last time when I dropped the body, but nothing happened. Suddenly, I felt depressed with the deafening silence. Would I ever see Faery? Would I ever see my great-grandfather again?
I stood up and smiled at my own silliness. Why am I so curious about Faery? I made my difficult way back through the woods. I could hardly wait to strip off these sweaty clothes and jump in the shower. Dinner will be ready and Jason will be here soon enough.
At my arrival there were three uninvited visitors waiting for me. Two men and a woman. Now I regret not staying at the portal a few more minutes. They looked in the mid-forties and they were standing by a car getting ready to leave. Unfortunately, they saw me returning and that changed their plans.
"Hello", said the olive-skinned brunette with raccoon eye makeup. She was wearing a low-cut T-shirt, dark green with gold studs as a decoration, and white shorts. Her bare legs were heavily tattooed. She took a drag on her cigarette. "You Sookie Stackhouse?"
I stared at the trio and for some reason two of them looked familiar.
"I am. And you are?"
"We're the Rowes. I'm Georgene and this is Oscar. This man," and she pointed at the driver, "is Harp Powell."
The man standing by the driver's door had coppery brown hair and a short beard, and he was wearing gold-rimmed glasses. He wore khakis and a pale blue oxford cloth shirt with the sleeves rolled up, practically a summertime white-collar work uniform.
The other man was a real contrast. His jeans were stained, and his T-shirt said he liked pussies, with an oh-so-clever drawing of a Persian cat. Subtle, huh? I caught a whiff of otherness coming from him; he wasn't really human, but I didn't want to get any closer to investigate what his true nature might be.
I could hear trouble coming from their brains.
"I'm sorry?" I said. "Do I know you?"
"Kym's parents," the woman said.
And I regretted even more coming back to the house. I really got bad vibes from them. Their presence made me uncomfortable. This situation was giving me flashbacks. The Pelts. I shuddered just remembering them.
"I'm sorry for your loss," I said. "But I'm not sure why you've come here."
"You talked to our girl before she died," Oscar Rowe said. "We just wanted to know what was on her mind."
The parents were sending mixed emotions and that made me curious. Instead of grief and regret, I was getting avid curiosity.
I turned slightly to look at their companion. "And you, Mr. Powell? What's your role here?" I'd been aware of his intense observation.
"I'm thinking of doing a book about Kym's life," Harp Powell said. "And her death." I could read his mind and his dark plan. He was thinking of writing a true-crime novel with pictures in the middle: Kym as a cute youngster, Kym in high school, Kym as a stripper, and maybe Kym as a corpse.
Bringing the Rowes with him was a smart move. Who could turn down distraught parents? But I knew Georgene and Oscar weren't anywhere close to devastated. The Rowes were more curious than bereaved.
"How long had it been since you saw her?" I asked Kym's mother.
"Well, she was a grown-up girl. She left home after she graduated from high school," Georgene said reasonably. She had stepped toward the house as if she were waiting for me to open the back door. She dropped her cigarette on the gravel and ground it out with her platform sandal.
"So, five years? Six?" I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at each of them in turn.
"It had been a while," conceded Oscar Rowe. "Kym had her own living to make; we couldn't support her. She had to get out and hustle like the rest of us." He gave me a look that was supposed to say he knew I'd had to get out and hustle, too-we were all working people, here. All in the same boat.
"I don't have anything to say about your daughter. I didn't even talk to her directly. I saw her for maybe five minutes."
"Is it true your boyfriend was taking blood from her?" Harp Powell asked.
"You can ask him that. But you'll have to go after dark, and he may not be too glad to see you." I smiled. Leave to Eric to scare the Jesus out of them. Maybe that would make them disappear.
"Is it true that you live here with two male strippers?" Powell persisted. "Kym was a stripper," he added, as if that would somehow soften me up.
"Who I live with is none of your business. You can leave now," I said, still smiling, I hoped very unpleasantly. "Or I'll call the sheriff, and he'll be here pretty quick."
With that, I went inside and shut and locked the door. No point in standing out there listening to questions I wouldn't answer.
The light on my phone was blinking. I turned the sound very low and pressed the button to play it. "Sister," said Bellenos, "no one here will admit to giving any blood to the girl who was killed, or giving blood to anyone at all. Either there's another fairy somewhere, or someone here is lying. I don't like either prospect." I hit the Delete button.
I heard knocking at the back door, and I moved to where I couldn't be seen. Harp Powell knocked a few more times and slid his card under the porch door, but I didn't answer. They drove off after a couple of minutes.
Though I was relieved to watch them go, the encounter left me depressed and shaken. Seen from the outside, did my life truly seem so tawdry? I lived with one male stripper. I did date a vampire. He had taken blood from Kym Rowe, right in front of me.
Maybe he just wanted answers for his book, but I didn't want anybody to point out some facts about my depressing life.
The oven's beep brought me back to reality and I rushed to take the food out. Pretty much everything was done and Jason would be here within thirty minutes. I left everything on the stove and rushed to take a quick shower.
A quick shower was not enough to relax me. I should have taken a bubble bath or something to tame the anxiety.
Within minutes, Jason arrived all hipper and ready for a nice meal. We sat in the kitchen table, and we said our prayers. He started devouring the food as if he had not eaten in days. I knew that Michelle cooked for him every day. I smiled at this. It felt good to have him here visiting.
We ate silently for a little while. My mind was running a thousand times per minute debating to whether open up to Jason or not. I wanted to talk to somebody, but should that somebody be Jason? My heart was pumping really fast and my hands were sweating so much that I kept drying them off with the napkin.
"You know Sookie, this food is delicious. You sure learned from our grandmother", Jason said with half of his mouth full with food.
"And I believe that our grandmother thought you to not speak with the mouth full of food", I teased him.
He smiled and once his mouth was empty he replied, "Yeah, I would have gotten a smack on my head for it. At least today I won't get any."
I laughed at his reply. After a few seconds, I stopped and I realized that this was the first time I honestly smiled in a very long time.
"Sook, I know you want to tell me something, but you are debating about it. Spill it out! It must not be that good when you are in so much doubt. Plus you have hardly touched your meal."
Only Jason would notice such a simple detail. I smile at him nervously. I breathed deep and I spilled it all out.
"Things are not going so well for me, and I really need an outsider's perspective. I feel as if I were in a rollercoaster going downhill without breaks. And I don't want it to crash, but I can't find a way to stop it either."
"What do you mean Sook? Are you and the vamp having problems? I thought that you were going strong with him. You have lasted the longest with him, and he seemed into you."
"Well, yes and no Jason." I took a deep breath and then continued, "I have done some things that I'm not proud of and I'm afraid of the consequences."
Jason looked puzzled. "What have you done sis?" He asked without taking his eyes off me.
"I broke the blood bond with Eric," I said looking down. "I shouldn't have done that. Now I miss it," I confessed. Wow, I have just confessed what I have been so afraid to say out loud. And it felt bad.
Jason gasped and put the fork on the table. "So you guys are over then? You don't love him?" he asked incredulously.
"That is the problem. I love him. I love him with all my heart. I wanted to break it to make sure that the feelings I had for him were not influenced by the bond. Amelia helped me out. Now that the bond is not there, I feel the same way for him. I am in love with him and it hurts me that the bond is not there anymore. I want to take that moment back, but I can't." I said sadly.
Jason grabbed a napkin off the table and handled it to me. I looked at him puzzled, but he made his case clear "clean your tears sook". A shockwave traveled around my body at my sudden realization that I was crying. I was crying, and I couldn't stop the tears from coming down.
"I assume Eric is pissed at you for breaking the bond, but if you explain to him he would understand. Besides, you can always ask him to create the bond again." Jason said trying to be optimistic. I looked at him and without waiting any longer, I went ahead and told him everything else, including about Freyda.
Jason listened intently and didn't say a word. I cried my eyes out while I confessed to my sins. I didn't hold anything back. The moment I was done I felt as if a giant rock has been lifted off my chest. I could breathe better now.
Jason remained silent. He lowered his head and continued eating in silence. A few minutes later he put the fork down again and looked at me without saying a word.
"Oh for fuck sake just say it Jason!" I couldn't take the silence anymore.
"Your life is pretty fucked up Sook. I'm sorry if I'm blunt, but shit. You need to sit down with Eric and talk about all of this shit with him. You can't continue moving on waiting for some magical spell to fix things," Jason said glaring at me.
"Sook, lack of communication is the main problem! There won't be any relationship that will last if you don't communicate. Shit. Are you expecting him to read your mind Sook? No pun intended there. But how are you expecting him to know what's going on in your life if you keep secrets from him?" Jason shook his head as he drank his tea.
"I'm sure that Eric has his secrets too and that is what is damaging the relationship Sook. If you are going to be with him, you must trust him with everything. If you can't, then get out of that relationship."
I look down at the table listening to my brother's speech, and whether I liked it or not, he was right.
"Sook, I'm no expert on relationships. Heck, you know that I fucked almost every woman in Bon Temps and the towns nearby. Singles, married, divorced, widowed. You name it. But with Michelle is different. I feel like I can trust her one hundred percent. It doesn't matter how bad my story is, she is there to listen. And she doesn't judge me."
Oh shit! More tears streamed down my cheeks listening to Jason. I had this with Eric. I did. And I didn't know if I had it anymore.
Jason handled me another napkin as he continued with his lecture, "if Eric is too proud to sit down and talk to you, then you do it! Grab the bull by the horns sis!"
Suddenly, Jason started to raise his voice, "There is another problem I see here sis. Now you have some problems with him being a vampire. Let me tell you, you met him as a vampire and accepted him back then, so why the change of mind?" he breathed deeply trying to control his temper.
"Sook, before you judge other people, you should look at yourself and me. You can read minds and that is something that nobody else can do. So you aren't all the way human. Now look at me. I shift on every full moon!"
Jason was already steaming and pointing the finger against the table at each statement.
"What the fuck? But you know what? Michelle accepts me just the way I am. She doesn't judge me. Can we have kids in the future? We don't know. I'm a were-panther now, so I don't know if I'm screwed up. But Michelle doesn't care! What if she gets pregnant, are we going to have kittens? We don't know, but Michelle will accept whatever happens. And do you know why Sook? Because she loves me. That's why. If you loved Eric the way you say you do, then you would not question his nature."
I couldn't stop crying. I wanted to defend myself. Heck, argue against Jason. But I couldn't. I felt so guilty.
"Jason, I'm having problems accepting myself as part fairy. I just wanted to be Sookie. A normal human living a normal life," I said between sobs.
"Well sook, blame grandma them. She was the one that fell for a fairy to begin with. If she hadn't done that, then no fairy blood would be running in our veins. Well, your veins. Mine seems non important to the fairy community."
"Jason"
"No Sook. If you are going to point fingers then you must point your finger to me too. Your brother. Your blood."
"Jason"
"Don't Jason me! What is it Sook, are you looking down at me now that I'm a shifter? If so, you aren't any better than those that follow the Fellowship of the Sun group."
Jason was fuming. I haven't seen him so angry before. And my heart hurt even more because he was right. I can't point my fingers against him, or me, or Eric. Oh Eric. I wish he was here right now. I would hug him and not let go.
"I'm sorry Jason. I didn't mean to hurt you, and you are right. I can't do that. I must accept myself as part fairy and others for what they are. We all have the same rights."
"You fix that shit, and then you must talk to Eric and fix that shit too. If you are going to be with him, you must accept him and his political world as part of yours. Your life isn't perfect, but he accepted you without asking questions. Heck, Eric accepted me as a dumbass human and now as a dumbass panther."
Jason shook his head several times in disappointment. "I can't believe you Sook. Of all the people, you should know how it feels to be different. Remember when all the kids at school discriminated against you for being different? And even now!"
Jason lifted his hands and brushed them against both sides of his head. He breathed deeply several times. I could tell he was angry at me and to no avail. I have been an idiot. I was an idiot.
"I owe you an apology Jason" I murmured.
"No. You owe Eric an apology," he said without a second thought.
"Yes I do."
"Yes you do."
We remained silent for a few minutes, but they felt like an eternity. "Would you like some pie? I made it for you." I said breaking the long silence.
He shook his head and remained silent. I went to the kitchen anyway and brought it to the table with a couple plates and spoons. He didn't eat it. He just sat there silently. The tension in the room was heavy. I could cut it with the knife.
Jason stood up and walked to the door.
"Jason?"
"Sook, I need some time alone to think and to calm down. Besides, you have things to do too. Before I forget, I wanted to tell you that we are closing in on the wedding date. We are going to pin it down tonight. We are thinking in a couple of weeks. I'll give you more details some other day. Tonight is not a good night for it. I'll talk to Michelle for the wedding to be at night time so that you can bring Eric, your husband."
I was shocked and speechless. I wanted to say so many things but nothing came out of my mouth. Jason left, and here I was, wanting to talk to Eric desperately. Maybe if I go to Fangtasia to see him? No. We need to talk in private and Fangtasia is not a good place for it. I need to plan this. I must see him soon before it's too late. I don't want to lose him.
NOTE: And here we go. This chapter is the one that separates the story from CH's. I'm trying to get the old Sookie back to her senses. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. There are more chapters to come! What do you think about the story so far? Are you enjoying it?
