Dead among Friends and Neighbors – Chapter 8
A/N:
Again, thank you for all your comments and thoughts.
I also want to thank Suki59 for betaing this. You should go read all her stories. She`s just signed a book contract and you really have something to look forward to when her book comes out. It`s my favorite kind: vampire romance.
Charlaine Harris owns everything. One little (well, large) Viking vampire was all I wanted but she didn`t give me Eric for Christmas, unfortunately.
Chapter 8
Felipe de Castro didn`t say much on our way back to my house. And he certainly didn`t try to kiss me in the car. I wasn`t sure why he`d done so at the Roadhouse but he was my king and I didn`t want to question him. Mainly because I wasn`t sure I`d like the answer very much.
I knew Felipe hadn`t suddenly fallen in love with me. To my knowledge, he was monogamous to the string of women he`d dated. They rarely lasted very long but he didn`t sleep around when he dated someone. At least not that I knew of.
Felipe and I had always been strictly business, which made Felipe an extraordinary king. I`d heard of several kings who insisted on "trying out" new vampires but Felipe hadn`t even "checked out the goods" with his eyes.
We drove up Hummingbird Road and I noticed Eric`s car was still in my driveway. I caught Felipe looking at it and then at me and I realized why the car was there in the first place. Eric might as well have taken a branding iron to my behind.
The owner of the car walked out my door just as Felipe and I exited my car. Eric walked over to Felipe and bent to his knee.
"Felipe," he said with his head bent.
"Eric," Felipe said back. A smile tugging his lips showed that Felipe was satisfied with Eric`s acknowledgement. But his shoulders were squared and the air simmered with frustration. Or possibly anger. What had Eric done? "Let us go inside Sookie`s lovely house," Felipe continued, and Eric got up.
As we entered my house I went straight for the kitchen, opting for the role of the hostess instead of witnessing Eric and Felipe acting like two male lions just before a battle of territory.
I put three bloods in my microwave and waited for them to heat. Then took them out, shook them and put them on a tray with three of my finest glasses. A tiny shiver of worry ran down my spine when I opened the door to the living room but Eric and Felipe were sitting on two different couches, staring quietly at each other.
I served the two vampires a bottle of blood and a glass each and then I took the third blood and glass and sat down in my recliner and poured myself a drink. I took a big gulp to hide how nervous I was.
Again I caught myself wishing Eric had told me why Felipe was there because I felt like I`d walked into a scene in a movie not knowing if it was a thriller or a bromance. I just hoped it wasn`t a kung-fu movie because my roundhouse kick was a bit rusty.
"It was time for me to leave Freyda," Eric said after a long silence.
"You served me better in Oklahoma," Felipe stated and my curiosity was peaked. Eric had served Felipe in Oklahoma? Eric had been Freyda`s second-in-command. Had he been Felipe`s spy too?
"Not any longer. I found that Freyda had built an army behind my back. For some time now she`s wanted Arkansas. And possibly Louisiana," Eric added.
"This was why you were in Oklahoma. You were to stop plans like that." Felipe looked relaxed but his more pronounced accent gave him away. Felipe was not a happy vampire.
"I`ve managed to stop her for 16 years but Arkansas and Louisiana were always her ultimate goals. She finds it galling that you are king of two states so far from your own. Oklahoma is, after all, neighbor to Arkansas." Eric looked from Felipe to me. "Arkansas and Louisiana were what motivated Freyda to contact my maker."
"16 years is far shorter than the 200 years you were supposed to work as my … representative in Oklahoma," Felipe said. He leaned forward and Eric did the same. I felt myself pulling my legs closer and leaning forward too. If war broke out I didn`t want to be left sitting in my recliner.
"The contract was broken, " Eric stated as if it explained everything.
Felipe turned towards me but kept talking to Eric. "Yes, the contract was broken ten years ago."
I wanted to shout, "What he said!" to Eric but he didn`t answer my unspoken question.
"When I found Freyda had built a secret army, I knew that your two states were at risk. And both my two children. " Eric said. "I did not want you to lose your land and I did not want my children harmed."
Felipe was still looking at me and Eric turned his head in the same direction, his eyebrow up and his lips narrow.
"Maybe Sookie was part of your reason for leaving Freyda." Felipe didn`t ask even if he`d started his sentence with "maybe."
Eric`s nostrils moved but apart from that I detected no emotions. I tried to keep myself in check too. I wanted to tell them I was sitting right here and didn`t appreciate how they were discussing me right in front of me. I suppose it was better than discussing me behind my back though.
"I assumed I would never see Sookie again when I left Louisiana," Eric said. "No humans live for 200 years."
"Yes, but then Hot Rain changed everything and you have a second chance." Felipe smiled at Eric but it was no pleasant smile.
Eric shrugged and I kept as quiet as possible even if I was the topic of this discussion. There were layers upon layers in what Eric and Felipe said to one another and I did not want to get stuck in one of them because of my hurt feelings. My 16-year-old hurt feelings.
"Sookie did not want to be turned," Eric said, as if that had any bearing on what he and Felipe were discussing. Or maybe it did and I just didn`t understand the depths of the conversation.
But he was right and if my heart had still had blood pumping through it, I`m sure it would have been beating just a little bit harder now. It was silly perhaps, but his acknowledging that I`d never wanted to become a vampire warmed my heart. At least figuratively.
"I believe she is still trying to come to terms with it," Felipe said.
"What he means is that I`m no longer planning on getting a suntan," I said dryly to Eric.
"And now you`ve cost me my best man in Oklahoma, Sookie." Felipe didn`t sound angry but that didn`t mean much. I`d seen him kill with a smile on his lips and I let my tongue glide over my teeth as a nervous reaction to what he`d said. It was bad if Felipe blamed me for losing a good spy.
"I didn`t even know Eric could get out of that contract. Or that he wanted to," I added.
"Oh, he wanted to." Felipe didn`t expand but left me to put two and two together.
I knew Eric hadn`t volunteered for the job as Queen Freyda`s consort. He`d been signed up by his maker. I also knew that since Appius wasn`t alive, Eric could have gotten out of the contract. Instead he`d doubled the length of it after thorough negotiation. Granted, one of the reasons he`d given Freyda 200 years instead of 100 was to protect me, and even if it hadn`t worked out very well, I´d appreciated the thought (once I`d gotten over the humiliation of a public divorce).
Eric had also added a clause to the contract saying Pam was to be the Sheriff of Area 5, Eric`s old area. I`d always wondered why a contract with Freyda would have a clause which Felipe was to uphold. What leverage did Eric hold over Felipe? Because what I remembered was how Eric was one of Felipe`s best warriors. Why Felipe would have wanted to lose Eric to a potential enemy had been a puzzle.
And now the last piece to the puzzle was there. Eric had been Felipe`s spy at Queen Freyda`s court.
I looked at Eric, trying to understand his motivations 16 years ago. He`d divorced me but had wanted me to be his mistress. He was going to become Queen Freyda`s consort but also King Felipe`s spy.
A part of me felt sorry for Eric and a part of me was happy I`d declined his offer. I would have been dead within a year since neither of Eric`s two bosses would have wanted me to have distracted him.
When I`d said no to Eric I`d known that I`d probably never see him again. But he`d known the same. I`d been bitter for years after my divorce from Eric but now I wondered what choice Eric really had back then. Was it easy for him to sign the contract with Freyda, or had he tried to look for ways to get out of it? Had he really believed I would join him in Oklahoma, hiding from everyone and being there for him whenever he could get away from his queen?
I looked at Eric and it was as if I saw him with new eyes. The last residue of bitterness was gone but I had nothing to replace it with. Eric had waltzed into my life again and after just two days, my emotions were in turmoil. I`d loved Eric and I`d hated him.
I had no idea what I felt now.
"It seems to me we have to prepare for war," I said to change both the topic of conversation and the one occupying my brain. And to defuse any anger Felipe might have towards me for Eric`s actions.
Felipe nodded and Eric smiled. Eric loved war.
Felipe said, "You will go to Red Rita, Eric. The vampires in Arkansas are very young and they need someone strong to help them." He took a sip of his blood. "I shall take Sookie with me to Las Vegas to make sure you are still my warrior, and not Freyda`s. I have already started rumors about Sookie being my new lover."
I felt my fangs aching to be free and I noticed Eric fists clenching. Were we going to kill our king? Would that be wise?
A/N:
The plot thickens….
