Family

A/N- Pronunciations: (most important bold) Naoise (Nee-sha, meaning lost, sometimes given as 'connection'), Niall (Neil or Nye-all, means champion but is also associated with cloud, or passionate), Noírín (Noreen, honor), Fionnula (Fin-o-la, fair or white shouldered), Mairéad (Mahr-ade, pearl), Eoín (Owen, God is gracious), Saoirse (Seer-sha, freedom), Eithne (Ayt-na, kernel or heart of the nut).

VI.

Victor spent the better part of an hour showing us around the house and showing us the grounds. I learned the furniture in the guestroom was not Victorian, but Georgian. Victor's room was epic, with wardrobes and a massive bed with curtains. I thought I got a glimpse from his mind of some kind of safe room behind one wall, but thought it impolitic (Oct 29) to ask. Meanwhile, I could sense that Eric was very puzzled about it all. Where had Victor gotten all this stuff, I heard him wondering to himself? Even though all the rooms weren't finished, it was room after room of very expensive looking English antiques. Eric looked at me, but I was not able to be any help on the matter. I couldn't be, sadly, not without breaking Victor's trust. And then I caught a hint of something listening to Eric's thoughts as we walked out into the gardens. The guarantee… What had Eric meant when he said he could guarantee that Victor would be behaving himself? He had something on Victor. Something… financial? As I stealthily traced my way through Eric's thoughts I found Eric knew something that could cause a lot of trouble. Victor wasn't paying Felipe the full 20% he owed.

I thought maybe Eric had the wrong idea from all the furniture but I quickly gathered from Victor's mind that it was really true. He was cheating Felipe. He was distracted talking about the house and didn't notice my creeping around in his head. Victor was even having people pay his renovators and landscapers directly, rather than have funds pass into his hands. I was aghast. I hadn't read the agreement that was signed by Felipe and Victor. Mr. Nikolaidis had offered to show it to me because I still did work for Felipe securing his interests. I hadn't had a chance to look at it before I left Madison. Did it specify cash revenues only? Felipe was very meticulous. If Victor was caught violating the agreement I could only imagine what Pythia could do to Victor. And I had suggested this agreement to Felipe... Just thinking about it, I felt a ripple of panic. I stopped in the middle of the garden, while Victor was on his way to explaining about the removal of the old garage and stables and the plans for building a new stable, smaller garage, and a new pool house. Eric turned back to look at me all of the sudden.

"What's wrong?" asked Eric. Damn, he felt it, I thought to myself.

"Nothing," I said quickly shaking my head trying to disperse any feeling about the matter. But Eric knew me far too well. And he could feel that I felt something was very wrong. He turned his head at an angle and looked at me with narrowed eyes.

"Sookie? What's wrong?" said Eric firmly.

I had a strong sense of right and wrong. I had a strong sense of family. When the two conflicted, I was miserable. Felipe trusted me. I still worked for him and would see him for that work in just a few weeks. My job? To help prevent Felipe from being robbed and cheated. And Victor was cheating him, after Felipe had been eager to settle, to make peace with an arrangement I had suggested. And Eric knew about it? I didn't even know what to say to the two of them.

Victor walked back toward me and looked at me as if curious. "What is it, Sookie?"

I looked at him and just decided to go for it.

"Please tell me that you are not cheating Felipe, Victor. Please," I said in a hushed voice.

He sort of snapped his head to the side so he wouldn't have to look at me. He ran his tongue over his teeth for a moment while he thought and then he turned back and said carefully, "What is your idea of cheating?"

"Victor! Damn it, I work for him. He trusts me to make sure he isn't cheated. Ooooh… ! You just make me so mad!" My hand balled into fists. I turned on my heel and started walking back to the house.

Eric caught up with me. "Just settle down…"

I was so angry. I wheeled around to look up at him. "Settle down? You knew about it and you said nothing? I work for Felipe in a position of trust trying to specifically prevent people from stealing from him and Victor's my cousin! Felipe's your King, Eric! But you're trying to use the information against Victor for your own agenda? This is just fantastic! I congratulate both of you," I said acidly.

I was so mad I could hardly think straight. Eric reached out to grab me angrily as I tried to keep walking and I just flamed up in my colors and spun around to give him a look that said 'back off'. Now he was really mad. His fangs actually ran down and he glared at me.

"Don't you dare touch me, Eric. And don't you look at me like that, either. I'm mad and I want you both to leave me alone. I am so sick of shit with my family! And I don't expect it from you."

At that, Eric's eyes just glowed with anger as he tried reach for my arm again but I was not about to be grabbed by my angry vampire husband. Out of sheer frustration I just froze them both in place. It was as if I stopped the shuttle on the loom. I wanted time to cool off and think. I sat down on the nearest bench and tried to think of what to do. What were the terms of Victor's agreement with Felipe? I rose briefly and took Eric's cell phone out of his pocket. I sat back down and called Mr. Nikolaidis in New York. Demons never sleep. What about half-demons? It was just after midnight but an hour later in New York. Well, Mr. N. had told me "call me any time" when he said goodbye to me in Madison.

He sounded wide awake and actually seemed quite delighted to be hearing from me. After exchanging pleasantries and apologizing for the later hour of my call, I told him my call was personal. He said that was fine with him but warned me that Pythia might still know about anything that I asked him "because she's like that..." Well, I needed the information, so I'd have to risk it. I asked him about the terms of Victor and Felipe's agreement in carefully couched terms without mentioning any specific names. A hypothetical question, about agreements between two states. It turned out that in the haste to forge an agreement, Felipe had agreed to solely cash revenues and had not specified the value of any revenues granted as intangibles or services offered to Mississippi. That was a bit of relief. Then I asked the important question. What if a person involved in a hypothetically similar agreement subverted the agreement by gaining revenue in the form of services, in order to deliberately underreport cash revenues? Mr. N. told me that much depended upon whether it was provable, assuming the person was even caught. Wonderful. I was basically the person responsible for doing the catching in Felipe's world. Just great. I just felt this swell of frustration with Victor. I said thanks to Mr. N. and that I'd see him in a few weeks in New York for the summit. He said he'd look forward to it and then, with a chuckle, wished me the best of luck with my cousin.

I had absolutely no idea how much money Victor had been keeping off his books, but I was guessing it was easily about a hundred thousand dollars since August, from the scope of work he was doing on the house, and on the grounds. He was even demolishing buildings and planning new ones from what he'd just shown us. I didn't want to think where all that money was coming from, either, because Mississippi is a relatively poor state. He must be involved in something pretty illegal, there was just no two ways about it. But, no matter where the revenue stream was coming from, he was going to have to pay Felipe what he really owed, that much was clear to me. He had signed a binding agreement in his world. He had better abide by it or the consequences would be horrible. But Victor had already spent the money he owed Felipe. I was looking at it all over the grounds and inside the house. There was only one person I could think of with that kind of cash on hand to help him repay what was owed for the past three months. Niall. And Niall owed Victor, as far as I was concerned. Finding him a surrogate sire was not nearly enough payback for what had happened to Victor. And after keeping distant from Victor for several centuries, Niall had tried to press him into protecting me, as if I was the new and desirable family member. Victor had been put into a difficult situation between me and Felipe and he had no choice in the matter knowing Niall. Yes, Niall owed him, in my book. If Niall covered his present debt then I could try to get Victor to stick to the agreement in future. Though how I could do that I wasn't exactly sure.

Okay, I had something of a plan and I was finally calming down. I released Eric and he looked at me as if… well, let's just say he wasn't my biggest fan at the moment. I apologized for freezing him but reiterated that I was really upset at the time. As my reward I got the icy Nordic stare and silence. At least the fangs were no longer down. I returned his phone to him. He looked very puzzled as he checked the last dialed number. New York, not Nevada? I released Victor before he could ask about it, though. Victor really seemed relatively unperturbed. He just glanced over Eric to see what had been going on with him. Eric still looked mad. Then Victor just smiled back at me, eyes sparkling playfully.

"Sookie, come on, it's not all that bad." He looked like his usual playful self again. Coasting on charm, indeed. Well, it wouldn't work with me...

Ignoring his chipper mood, I said firmly, "We're calling Niall. And you're paying Felipe back, Victor."

Victor looked confused by the correlation between the two. "I don't want to call Niall. And I certainly don't want to pay Felipe any more than I already am. It's my money and my state. I won it fair and square, Sookie." He looked rather incensed as he said the latter part. Like he was a child refusing to admit he'd cheated while playing Monopoly or something.

"No, Victor, you won by using someone else's resources behind their back and their financial assets to fund your venture. Felipe was being generous and you know it. He found out that we were cousins and that you were related to Niall. He was trying to let you off easy, but recognized that you did have to have some consequences for your actions both for him to save face and to make sure you don't think you can go on getting away with this kind of shit you keep pulling. You can't go on playing these games and expect to get away with them. Pythia will not cut you even the slightest favor because you're related to Niall. She won't care that you're my cousin and I love you and don't want you staked or soaked in brine or wrapped in silver. She simply won't care. She has a job to do. If anything your relationship to Niall and to me gives her even more reason to make an example of you. Just because you have connections doesn't mean you can get away with anything. It's the opposite- you have to be even more careful now. Your scheming has got to stop, Victor or the consequences will be horrible. You have to stop!"

Victor seemed to consider this all carefully but I really didn't think he was convinced. He smirked. "Well, I still don't understand where Niall comes into the picture."

"Before I talk to Niall, I want the rest of the story, Victor. I want to know what it was that you weren't telling me. Because I know you were thinking about something worse than what you told me last night."

Victor seemed as if he was really straining to get the connections between Felipe and Niall… What is she going on about? She's not going to tell Felipe I still owe him money, is she? And what does Niall have to do with any of this? he was thinking. "Why? What does one have to do with the other?"

"Trust me on this, Victor, I'll tell Felipe. But I need to know exactly what I'm dealing with where Niall is concerned. And you're going to tell me. You didn't tell me everything and I want no surprises." It was awkward because I couldn't discuss some of the stuff in front of Eric without betraying Victor's confidence. And I also didn't want to come out and tell him that I wanted Niall to give him the money. First, I had to get Niall to agree to it. And I suspected that it would not be an easy agreement to broker.

Victor paced around in agitation and then looked at me for a minute and apparently came to the conclusion that I wouldn't back down on either issue.

"Alright, fine. Fine. But we should go back to the house. You're going to need to sit down for this," Victor said. He grimaced at Eric as if to say that this was going to go over badly, really badly. Eric looked puzzled. Victor was always up to something and couldn't be trusted. But what could Victor possibly have on Niall, he wondered…

I turned and walked back to the house. As I passed Mrs. Hodges in the kitchen she reached out to me, handing me a gin and tonic. I smiled at her. She always knew.

I walked through the house and then sat on the comfortable couch in the library. In spite of the fact that Eric would probably have preferred to be having a very different conversation (namely the one in which he totally tells me off), he sat next to me and looked at Victor cautiously.

Victor looked extremely edgy again, similar to how he had looked before when talking about our family first time. But this time, there was more of a tinge of genuine regret in it. He looked at me as if he pretty much pitied me.

"Look Sookie, are you sure, really sure, that you want to know all the gritty stuff? Because you already have the heart of what was going on with Niall and Fintan. And why the Brigant family has the reputation it does among vampires. What more do you really need?"

"Victor, I still don't understand why Fintan forbade Niall to see me, Jason, and my cousin Hadley. Niall told me that Fintan wouldn't let him. I've actually heard his thoughts lamenting the fact that he didn't ignore Fintan's wishes toward the end of his life. I want to know why Fintan would do such an odd thing. It has to be something serious. If Niall did something bad to us, I should know about it now, not later."

I took a sip of my gin and tonic and waited for Victor to tell me. He looked as if he was struggling with what to do or say. He looked at Eric, who was little help. Eric just put up his hands as if to say he wanted nothing to do with it and it was Victor's call.

Victor sighed. "Alright, Sookie. I suppose you really do have a right to know. I can give you the truth, as much as I know it. But you're not going to be happy… And I don't even know all of it, either. But if you want info on why Fintan wanted Niall to stay away from all of you, I can tell you a part of it. For the record, Niall didn't 'do anything' to your family, so far as I know, okay?"

He sat on the edge of the coffee table and looked me in the eyes.

"You remember that Niall and Naoise were fighting. And that Fintan killed Naoise's son Eoin in self-defense and then left for America?"

I nodded slowly. I rolled my lips in and bit down on them. I had a feeling like a chill settling in somewhere deep inside me, all around my heart.

"Naoise had kind of snapped, as I said. He became very irrational. I guess it was like a mental illness or something. First he lost Mairéad, then Eoin. He was even worse after Eoin. He loved his children very much. He really became bent on revenge against Niall and especially Fintan. Eoín was his only son. So…" he looked at me like he really didn't want to spit out the details.

I am just so dense at times.

"So?" I insisted questioningly.

I felt Eric stiffen. And then it hit me, like a blow upon a bruise.

My eyes met Victor's but I felt like I was shrinking internally from what he was saying. I just felt cold inside.

"You remember I told you that Fintan was something of a ladies man. Well, Fintan had three sons, Sookie. Two in Ireland… and then…" Victor looked at me as if he was so sorry he was the one delivering the news.

He couldn't be serious. It couldn't be true. Surely I was misunderstanding him.

"But Victor, my parents died in a flash flood. They died together. In a flood. When I was seven." My voice was getting tight and my heart just started racing.

Funny thing about that flood. No one else was caught in it and no one could quite figure it out how the river had swelled up to wash the car off the bridge. I started breathing heavily, almost gasping. I remembered looking at the newspaper article on microfilm when I was thirteen in the Bon Temps Public Library. The investigation was closed but the police had been puzzled. The detective interviewed said it didn't make any sense. And there hadn't been any other floods that spring.

Victor leaned forward from the coffee table and put his hand on mine. He was just quiet now.

Finally, I said in a whisper, "So you're telling me that Naoise killed all of Fintan's sons as revenge for Eoín's death?"

Eric picked up my other hand and looked away.

Victor said softly, "Yes, Sookie. All. Your father Corbett was the last. Niall has been worried that you would find out. He specifically told me about it because I already knew that Naoise had killed the other two sons Ireland from Fionnula. You were not to know. I guess when Naoise found out Fintan had a new family here in the States he just went after them here. His only other child, Nóirín died about twenty five years ago. I guess it just started the whole thing up again for him. I think he was very ill in his mind. A dangerous thing when you can do magic."

Could it really be true? My mother and father. Killed by my great-great uncle in a fit of magical vengeance? Naoise had killed my father, and perhaps accidentally got my mother, too? I tried to process it and just couldn't wrap my head around it. My Fae family had killed my parents. It couldn't be true. I… didn't want it to be true. But I knew Victor was telling me the truth. I could see it was true. I felt tears start to roll down my cheeks. I just couldn't speak. Eric stroked my hand with his thumb soothingly.

So Niall knew that his fighting with his brother had ultimately caused my parents deaths. And he hadn't told me. Fintan had wanted to keep them all away. Had he made Niall stay away from us in hopes that no further harm would come to us? As soon as he died, Niall showed up. Too late for Hadley. But on time to get involved with my life. But he started interfering with my life, using magic on me to make me sleep with some strange fae man, arguing with and even beating on Eric… Sure, he'd done things to keep me safe like providing Britlingens and getting Victor to help protect me. He'd discovered my mother's heritage. My poor murdered mother… He'd sent me to Eithne. But all the while, he'd lied to me. About something completely fundamental to our relationship and our family history.

"Is Naoise still alive?" I asked Victor.

He hesitated. "Yes, as far as I know. I haven't heard anything about him in about five years, though. I haven't been keen on asking Niall about him because of the way he gets with me." Victor looked worried as he met my eyes.

"So Naoise would be one of the enemies that Niall occasionally mentions?"

"Yes, Sookie, I guess in a manner of speaking. I mean there are others but… It's true that Naoise and Niall were still fighting the last I knew." He looked at me as if he was worried about what he may have done by telling me. Like he could have just made things much worse. "You… you wouldn't do anything… crazy, now would you?"

I looked at him, squinting. What did he mean? Could he honestly think I would perpetuate the whole thing? I really had a hard time believing I was a member of this family. I just didn't think like them at all.

"I want to talk to Niall. I just want him to tell me the truth. That his brother killed my parents because Fintan killed his brother's son."

"Well, when you're not so upset…" Victor said.

"No. Tonight. Now. I want him to explain it to me now. And I have to talk to him about something else anyway. So now's the time." I tried to reach for Eric's cell phone in his pants' pocket.

"Sookie, maybe it's really better to wait until you're less upset," said Eric softly.

"No. Give me your phone. Please," I insisted. "I want to talk to him. I needed to ask him for something anyway."

He handed me his phone but looked as if he was trying to think of a way to talk me out of it. "Sookie, I really don't think…."

I dialed Niall's number and pressed send. The delightful magical answering service informed me yet again that Niall was presently unavailable. They could give no date for his return. He just didn't want to talk to me. He knew I could take pretty good care of myself now, and he had heard no warnings or concerns from Claudine. I had been spending time with Eithne, Pythia and had even met Declan. The odds were steadily increasing that I would find out. I had told Claudine I wanted answers and she'd squirmed. She told NiallI was asking too many questions I realized now. It was only a matter of time until I knew and he just didn't want to deal with it.

I looked at Victor. "You call him."

"Me? Why should I call him?"

"I'm sure he's not taking calls from me because he thinks I'm trying to find out, or I that have found out. You call him. See if he'll call you back. It's in your interest to get a hold of him."

"I don't know, Sookie… I don't see how it's in my interest when I really think it's very likely he'll try to kill me. And I'm not being dramatic here. He told me I wasn't allowed to tell you anything and I turned around and told you everything, including all the very worst bits. He was mad enough when I just bruised your wrist. This is a many orders of magnitude worse than that."

"I won't let him hurt you, Victor. He won't even touch you. I promise you. I give you my word. I'll keep you safe from him." I looked him in the eyes as I said it.

Now Eric was upset. "Sookie, you can't seriously mean that you'd get into a fight with Niall over Victor? Are you crazy? I just don't think you should do this right now. I think it's a bad idea." I could tell he was extremely worried about all the drain on my energies if I got into a real fight with Niall. But did he really think I would get into an actual fight with my own great-grandfather? He had to be kidding. It would be nice if he could give me credit for being able to finesse things a bit better than that.

"Now is the best time because Victor and I are together. It's safer. You always want me to trust you, well you trust me, Eric. Victor, call him. See if he'll call you back."

Victor called and left a message. Within five minutes Niall returned the call.