A/N: As always I want to thank everyone who has reviewed, put this story in their favorties, and on alert. Thank you so much, it keeps me writing. And of course I have to give a shout out to my beta Sheknitsnicely. If you've read any of my other stuff you know how fabulous she is making this one!
Okay so we're coming to our first big event in the story in these next two chapters. I know some people were worried about how this story would end, and so I just want to remind everyone that a happy ending for Sookie and Eric is what this story is all about, but it's a long road! Please hang in there with me :) The first big hurdle is going to be resolved now.
Disclaimer: I own nothing...
Sookie's POV
When I rematerialize in my hotel room I'm too shaken to give much thought to the fact that the place is absolutely ruined. The couch has exploded, one of the windows is broken, the lamp on the table is in pieces on the floor, and the table it was on has been reduced to saw dust. I'll have to go down to the concierge later and make some sort of excuse as to why this happened and arrange to pay for the damages, but right now such mundane worries are beyond my ability to care about.
Instead of doing anything useful, I just sink down to the floor and start to cry. The tears come fast and hard as I think about everything. I don't know if I'm crying because of what Eric's poor wife is going through, or if I'm crying because I know how much it will hurt him when I tell him what they've done to her, or if I'm crying because, even knowing how much this poor woman is suffering, I still took the opportunity today to touch and carress and covet her husband while he was unable to stop me. That last thought, and the accompanying one that tells me just exactly how horrible a human being I am, makes me cry all the more.
I lay there in a flood of my own tears for what feels like hours. I barely notice that the sun is setting, or that the temperature in the room is plummeting as the cold night air seeps in through the broken window. I don't care that I'm a mess, or that the room is a mess, or that my life is a mess, or that the world is a mess. I just want it all to stop. It doesn't though, and I'm made painfully aware of that fact when a pair of expensive red suede stilettos swims into my watery view.
"Sookie, what happened here?" Pam asks, her voice at it's usual emotionless volume. I look up at her from my place in the fetal position on the floor, and it's all somehow made so much worse by the fact that she looks, as she always does, absolutely amazing, while I am a sobbing, snotty mess on the floor of my trashed hotel room. I raise myself to standing and try to smooth out my dress and hair before answering.
"Nothing bad, I just lost control of myself this afternoon and had a little magic accident." I try to laugh at how utterly I've understated things, but Pam doesn't question me any further. Once she has looked me over and ascertained that I am not in fact bleeding or injured, she just nods her head.
"Did you find anything out today?" She asks, her voice betraying only the slightest bit of concern. I nod my head.
"A lot, we need to go to Eric right now." I say, though internally I'm cringing at the thought of facing him again after what I did this afternoon.
"If you did find something useful then you should probably change before we go. You're not dressed to kill, if you take my meaning." I nod at Pam and hurry into my less devastated bedroom to change quickly. A black turtle neck, black jeans, and hair scrunchy later, I re-emerge carrying my sneakers, which I can put on in the car.
As always, Pam and I are silent on the ride to the royal residence. When we arrive I have to say that I am clearly in favor of the new digs. It seems that his majesty has traded in Sophie-Anne's old place for a stately mansion in the French quarter, with large wrought iron balconies (which I will be staying away from), and beautiful circular turrets. I never saw Eric's house, but he always struck me as a clean lines, little clutter kind of person, so a sinking part of me feels that this must be the considerable taste and style of his Queen coming through.
Pam and I enter the residence, the vampires and humans there bowing to her as she passes. We walk all the way to the back of the first floor to a set of double doors, which Pam walks through without bothering to knock. On the other side is what appears to be Eric's office or study, and he is there just in front of the fire place, pacing back and forth. When he sees us he stops pacing and rushes straight up to me, stopping just inches from me. I crane my head back and for one brief moment I hold my breath thinking that he will touch me, but he doesn't. Instead, I see that his eyes are filled with a burning impatience.
"What did you find out? Is she there?" He asks in a rush so fast that I almost don't understand him. I take a deep breath and force myself to be all business. Head in the game, Sookie this is important.
"Yes, she's being held in the basement. I couldn't get to her though, they had some sort of membership drive today. It made reading people easier, but the place was crawling with FotS members so I couldn't snoop." Eric nods his head and turns to Pam.
"Get everyone ready, we leave in one hour." He commands. Pam only nods her head and then leaves to make all the necessary arrangements.
"Thank you, Sookie. I can handle it from here." He says. For a moment I'm completely dumbstruck with shock; he simply intends to dismiss me!
"Eric, I can help..." I start to say, but he holds up his hand, stopping me mid-sentence, and shakes his head.
"This is likely to be very dangerous, Sookie. The Fellowship headquarters are well guarded, night and day, and when they realize that we have come for Layla things are likely to get bloody fast." I shake my head furiously.
"Eric, you need to listen to me. They damn well know you're coming. They're expecting it. It's a trap- they want you too. They want to make examples out of both of you. They want the supernatural community to see what will happen to each and every one of them if they try to organize and work together and speak out for their rights. If you go in there, swords blazing, they will kill everyone else, but they'll take you alive, and what they want to do..." I can't finish that sentence. Seeing it in Steve Jr's head was one thing, but making my mouth form the words is another. Eric just snorts.
"Let them try, I've dealt with worse threats than the small-minded hatred of a bunch of humans. I am getting her out tonight!" I feel my temper rising. It's not that I don't expect him to do anything; I know he would let everyone in the world be sacrificed if it meant getting his wife back. But still, there has to be a better way."
"I know, and I can help if you'll let me! Eric, I'm not just human anymore." I say. He looks over at me now and I see something pass just behind his eyes before it disappears, and the cold steely gaze of a hardened warrior replaces it.
"I cannot take the risk of you being hurt." He says, matter-of-factly.
"Eric, you really don't need to worry about..." Eric cuts me off again, rounding on me quite angrily.
"I said no! You are my bonded, I cannot risk you being hurt or killed." He says, coming up directly in front of me and getting so close to me that our faces are only inches apart. When he realizes what he's said and how close we are, he seems to recover himself, quickly taking a long step back. "What I mean is that I cannot risk your physical injury impacting me," He quickly ammends. "We are still bound. Your injury might slow me down or distract me at a crucial moment." He says, seeming quite proud of himself for his little save. In truth though, all of this pointless argument is starting to wear on me, and so I do the only thing that I know will end it quickly. Still staring him down, I lift my right hand, palm out, and let a burst of light shoot out and hit his desk. The wood groans heavily for all of a second and then the thing collapses into two pieces everything on it falling into the gaping hole in the middle. Eric's firm expression gives just slightly.
"It's unlikely anyone will get close enough to injure me. Now, would you like me to keep destroying your furniture, or can we talk about other things I can do that might be more useful to you tonight?" I say, in a level tone, as though I'm asking a waiter about the specials. Eric's face is still pretty neutral but, after one last sideways glance at the mess that used to be his antique cherry wood desk, he nods.
"You were saying?" He says, his voice sounding just a little bit smaller than it did a moment ago.
"I was, thank you." I try not to let the note of childish triumph seep into my voice, but I'm sure I fail. It's not every day that you get to shock a thousand plus year old vampire into not just silence, but acquiescence. "You have the blueprints to the Fellowship center?" I ask. Eric nods again and points to the messy pile on the floor. I go over and pick it out, thankful that it wasn't damaged during my demonstration. "Good, okay. She's in the basement." I say, pointing to the underground portion of the building. "There are three rooms down there. I'm not sure which one she is in, but I think this picture should be enough."
"Enough for what?" Eric asks, interrupting me. I look at him and smile, actually proud for the first time in...well, ever, of my fae abilities.
"Normally I need to be able to see a place, but this blue print should be enough. I can pop." Eric's eyebrows go sky high when he hears this.
"You can teleport?" I nod, the smile becoming wider.
"Yes, I can only teleport myself, I'm not as good at is a full fairy, yet. But I think I can pop down there and get her out while y'all are distracting them upstairs." Eric nods, but he isn't smiling.
"It's unlikely she'll be alone down there Sookie. I'm not comfortable with the idea of you going down there by yourself." He pauses and then feels the need to clarify his statement once more. "Your death or injury does not get us anything." I get it, I think testily. Just then a thought occurs to me. I'm certainly not willing to own up to what happened in Eric's bedroom this afternoon and, even if I was, now would not be the time, but it does make me stop and think. If the blood within him that belongs to me is still active enough to allow me to pop to him, destination unseen, then I wonder if it's enough to allow me to teleport with him? Full fairies don't have a problem teleporting objects or other people, and maybe one day I'll get there too, but as of now I haven't had any luck with taking anything with me other than the clothes on my back or a small object I can hold. I look up at Eric, and it's clear he can see the gears turning in my head.
"Eric, how much time do we have before we leave?" I ask. He gives me a puzzled look but doesn't push me to clarify.
"Perhaps a quarter of an hour. Pam will come back in to let us know when everything is prepared." I nod.
"I'd like to try something if it's okay with you? I think, because of our bond, that I might be able to teleport you as well. If that's true then we could both pop down into the basement and one of us can hold any attackers off while the other frees Layla." I see Eric smile and behind his eyes such hope blossoms. It makes me feel proud of myself, but also just a little bit unhappy. I don't too closely question either of those emotions though- we don't have time. "Can I try now? I won't take us far, I just want to see if it works." Eric nods and I hold out my hands to him. He steps directly in front of me again, forcing me to crane my neck all the way back to look at him, and he twines our hands together. The little spark of electricity that runs from his cold hand to my warm one makes me shiver, but I ignore it.
I nod my head once and wait for him to nod in return that he is ready, and then I close my eyes and visualize the other side of the double doors to his office, the two vases of pretty, night blooiming flowers that stand on either side, and the pattern of the blue Persian rug just at the entry way. As I concentrate I begin to feel that sick, falling feeling that starts in my belly and radiates out. Then suddenly, just as happened earlier today, I feel as though my body is moving, inside first, and then there is the familiar popping sound. When I open my eyes I'm on the other side of the doorway and, to my absolute astonishment and pride, so is Eric. Although he looks a little bit worse for the wear.
"Holy S! It worked!" I say, jumping up and down. Eric looks over at me and smiles wanly, letting his hand go out and grab for the door to steady himself.
"Does it always feel that way?" He asks. I try not to laugh. The situation we're about to go into is dangerous and fraught with all sorts of potential for things to go really badly. Even if things weren't so dire, it's not like Eric and I have moved to a point where joking and camaraderie are again a part of our relationship, but it's just so funny seeing a vampire go as close to green as possible.
"Yes, but if you start coming along for rides, you might eventually get used to it." I say, laughing ever so slightly and winking at him. The sound of footsteps in the corridor alerts us to the fact that we're no longer alone and Eric straightens up and puts his best bad-ass-vampire-King-on-a-mission game face back on.
"Everything is ready," Pam says. I see her eyebrow go sky high when she finds us just standing out in the hall in front of Eric's office, but she doesn't say anything.
"Good," Eric says, opening the office door and grabbing the hugest, sharpest, most frightening looking sword I've ever seen and breezing past both of us. "Then we go."