CHAPTER 10
I open my eyes and I am momentarily disorientated, I stop and realise where I am. I sit up and look straight into Eric's face as he is waiting for me to rise, he is lounging totally and unashamedly naked in a chair at the side of the bed, I can't help myself and my eyes roam greedily over his magnificent body.
He smiles smugly and shifts slightly so I get a better view of all of him, "Good Evening my love" he says calmly and then he leans forward and offers me a mug.
"What's this?" I ask him, flashing a quick glance at the mug before resuming my ogling.
"Human blood...from a willing donor," he says.
As soon as he says this, my hunger rises and I eagerly take the mug and drink down the blood, then he reaches for what looks like a flask and refills it, I drink it down and he repeats the procedure twice more.
"Enough?" he asks eventually.
I nod, "Mmm thank you," I say.
Eric looks at me seriously, "Do not get used to this treatment, you would be hunting for your food under normal circumstances and I will not be spoiling you like this again as you need to learn to hunt for yourself, I do you no kindness by spoon feeding you, however, we have a visitor coming tonight and you needed to be well fed before he arrives to avoid any...mishap."
"Oh? Who is coming?" I ask.
"Niall," Eric says shortly, I get from the tone of his voice that he isn't pleased about the prospect of seeing my great grandfather.
"But he said his masking abilities would be useless with me being a newborn," I say nervously.
Eric smiles at me, "I personally guaranteed his safety, hence me feeding you like this to alleviate your need to feed."
I stretch and the sheet falls away from me, Eric's fangs descend and in a moment he is on the bed on top of me and inside me.
"I love you so much Eric," I say when we have both come back to our senses.
"I love you too and that love is a powerful thing" he replies as he carefully withdraws from me. He stands and holds out his hand, "Come, we need to shower and dress."
I grasp his hand and he leads me into the small shower room. After three more orgasms in the shower, we eventually dress and leave our resting place. Eric demonstrates how to get out and I watch closely. He orders me once more never to reveal our resting place as we leave its confines.
As soon as we are in the main house Eric goes to the fridge and produces two bottles of Trueblood, he smiles knowingly at me as he prepares them and then hands me one of them.
I take a gulp and nearly spit it out "hell that is vile!" I exclaim, "It like sucking on an iron bar, the taste is so artificially metallic," I thrust the bottle back at him and I see he is laughing loudly.
"That is why I will teach you to hunt successfully, vampires cannot exist on Trueblood alone, no matter what the humans are told, its flavour is not pleasing and for a newborn such as yourself it is not nutritious enough to sustain you for long, but for vampires choosing to mainstream its consumption is mandatory, but there is the more serious point that if there is no other choice available, it will keep you from starving, so you need to learn to tolerate it, now drink it."
I hesitate and giving him an evil look I close my eyes and holding my nose I chug back the synthetic blood, I shiver when I have finished and slam the bottle down so hard it shatters.
Eric is grinning at my reaction "Well done" he says as he leans into a cupboard and pulls out a hand held vacuum cleaner, and then he quickly clears the broken glass. I watch him and smile at the very domesticated sight.
When he has finished he turns his attention to me once more, "the next time you drink it, it won't be so bad, and each time you drink it, the experience improves slightly, so, you will drink a bottle of Trueblood each evening when you rise until you reach the point where you can tolerate it without any reaction, do you understand?" he looks at me questioningly.
I nod "OK" I agree, I know this is for my own good and I can't be stubborn about this because my survival depends on it.
Eric seems satisfied with my response, "Good" he says briskly.
"I would never have fed you that stuff had I known," I say, thinking of all the times I had given Eric the bottled blood when he came to visit.
"Don't concern yourself", he looks at the small clock on the wall, "we need to go we are meeting Niall at your home in Bon Temps, Pam and Karin will also meet us there," and with that he opens the front door and leads me to the garage.
"Are we taking the Corvette?" I ask.
Eric turns to me and smiles, "No my love, tonight we will be travelling in your car" I stare at him in shock.
"Really? You want to go in my old heap?" I ask incredulously.
Eric snorts, "Perhaps you are right lover, maybe this will be more appropriate transportation", he opens the garage door with exaggerated swagger and I stare open mouthed at the new car parked neatly beside the Corvette, I am looking at a brand new sleek Aston Martin DB11.
"Eric that's an Aston Martin...a new Aston Martin," I say stupidly, pointing at it.
Eric nods and wraps his arm around me, "it is and it's yours, my love."
I move away from him and walk towards it and reverently run my fingers over it, "it's beautiful" I whisper to myself as I admire it.
Eric walks up beside me once more and wrapping one arm around me he dangles a set of keys in front of me. "Keyless ignition is standard on DB11's but I thought you would prefer a key, I know I do, it took some persuasion but I got what I wanted in the end," he says, he is watching me and the amusement is clear on his face, "It is my wedding gift to you, I wanted you to have something better than what you had before."
I look up at him, "Eric anything would have been an improvement on what I had before" I say with sarcasm dripping from my words.
He throws his head back and laughs loudly, "that is indeed true," he pulls himself together and gestures to the car, "Shall we?"
I don't need telling twice and I jump into the driver's seat as Eric climbs in beside me I turn to him and fling my arms around him and kiss him violently, "Thank you so much" I whisper in his ear.
Eric smiles, "you are more than welcome my love, now shall we go?" He gestures out the window to the yard outside the garage. I am practically drooling as we move out of the garage. As we do so Eric leans towards me and points to a small box.
"If you press that button the garage will close," he explains and he demonstrates, I glance behind me and see the garage door closing.
"That is so neat!" I say.
He laughs, "When you come back and want the garage to open you simply press it again."
We are driving along the familiar road to Bon Temps and I am enjoying myself immensely, until I glance down and see that I am travelling at a speed I didn't know was possible.
"Shit!" I exclaim and ease off immediately.
Eric laughs again, "You are fine, your reflexes have improved significantly since you became a vampire, you are perfectly safe," he says.
"I don't want to get a ticket" I mutter.
He laughs even louder, "Sookie, no vampire who is stopped by police ever get a ticket" he looks at me meaningfully and I realise what he is getting at.
"Oh, you mean you glamour them" I am shocked but it does explain a lot.
We reach my old house and I pull into the familiar yard, I climb out of the car and I quickly glance at the ground I arose from last night. Waiting on the steps are Pam and Karin they both stand to greet us.
"About time" Pam grumbles.
I go to say something to her when I hear the familiar popping noise, my head snaps round towards it, "Niall?" I call questioningly.
The familiar figure of my great grandfather appears out of the woods, and to my surprise, he is accompanied by Mr Cataliades and someone else, someone I have never seen before.
I step towards them but I can't move because Eric is holding me with a grip of iron.
Niall approaches cautiously and stops a good distance from me, he is looking at me carefully.
"Sookie, how are you?" he asks.
"I'm fine, Eric will you let me go, I'm not going to eat him!" I grumble.
"I do not wish to take that risk," Eric replies but he moves with me slightly closer to Niall. I notice Pam and Karin are flanking us and it occurs to me that they are here to help Eric control me should I go nuts and try and drain Niall.
I look at the three men in front of me, "Mr Cataliades how are you?" I ask politely.
He beams at me, "I am very well my dear as it seems are you, vampirism suits you."
I grin at him, "Wanna see my fangs?" I ask cheekily.
Niall looks appalled but Mr Cataliades laughs loudly, "I would love to see the full effect," he says jovially.
My grin gets wider and I let my fangs descend, a moment later I retract them again.
"Very impressive my dear, oh forgive me, let me introduce you to my friend Darren, he is an Empath Demon," Mr Cataliades says as he seems to remember the guy at his side.
We all look at the demon and he bows at us, "It is a great honour to meet the fabled one" he says reverently.
"Who?" I ask.
Darren stares at me, "Why you of course" he says.
"Me!" I squeak loudly.
The Demon nods, "it is unheard of, a Fae becoming a vampire, the species are so highly incompatible and yet you appear to manage both characteristics well."
"I'm not full Fae, and never was, I've only got a tiny bit of Fae in me, my grandfather wasn't even full Fae he was a Halfling, so my trace is negligible" I argue, dismissing his words.
"I disagree, something quite unique has happened to you since you became a vampire, it appears to have enhanced your essential spark, I sense you are significantly more Fae now than you were when you were human," he says.
Everyone stares openly in shock at me and I have no idea what to say about that.
Karin seems to recover first, "Can we get back the reason why we are here?" she says irritably, she turns to my great grandfather, "We need to know if you or any of your kin were responsible for what happened last night."
"What happened last night?" Niall asks looking at each of us in turn.
Eric quickly outlines the gist of what happened and Niall listens carefully.
"So, that was the real reason for your call last night," Mr Cataliades says knowingly after Eric has finished explaining.
I nod, "It is, I didn't want to say anything at the time until we had worked things out a bit more."
Niall looks at each one of us in turn, "I assure you I had nothing to do with the events of last night, I will make enquiries in the Faery and if any of my people have been playing such tricks you have my word that they will be dealt with" I listen to him and he sounds worried.
"Do you think this has something to do with the shift in the balance?" I ask.
Niall shrugs, "I have no idea, it could be, but it could easily be something else entirely."
I glance at the Empath Demon, "Why exactly are you here?" I ask.
The demon bows again, "Forgive me, I have information which I believe is beneficial as you search for the answers you seek, Desmond contacted me after your call to him last night and asked me to undertake some research," he reaches into his pocket and pulls out something that resembles a scroll, he leans towards me and offers it to me. I take it with a word of thanks.
"What is that?" Eric asks, looking at it suspiciously.
I open it and quickly scan it, but before I can answer Eric, Darren replies "It's a list of the different species of Demon who appear as hole in the mind of a Telepath, it is a reasonably short list there are over a 1,000 different species of demon, but there are only eight whose thoughts are negligible to the telepath and appear as an area of nothingness".
As he is talking, I silently open my mind up and I am shocked to hear the thoughts of Mr Cataliades and the Empath Demon, I had never managed to hear demons before but now I am listening their thoughts are coming through to me as clear as a bell, I quickly establish that they are both totally benign as I expected. But something feels slightly odd about Darren's thoughts, I dismiss it and then I focus on Niall and at first there is nothing but slowly I start to make out small snippets and it is then I realise he is shielding his mind, he is stopping me from listening in, it is only years of training that allow me to not react to this and I quickly slam in place my own shields, as if I can read them there is every chance they can read me. I check their reactions to what I have just done but there isn't any.
I turn to Niall "You had nothing to worry about Niall, I can't smell you at all," Niall frowns at me.
"Really?" he says incredulously.
"Nope, not a sniff of fairy anywhere," I say.
Niall looks at Eric, "She has great control for a vampire so new."
Eric nods, "I'm exceedingly proud of her, she has made great progress in such a short time, I was afraid that as a newborn she would detect your Fae scent even with your cloaking abilities, but she has astounded me this evening, so if you are happy for me to do so, I will release my hold on her."
Niall takes a sharp breath in and but nods once. I see him stiffen as soon as Eric lets go of me. I grin at Eric and then turn to face Niall.
"See, I'm fine there will be no fairy draining tonight!"
I hear Pam snort with laughter and quickly hide it with a cough, and there is even a hint of amusement on Karin's face.
Niall ignores my sarcasm and addresses Eric once more, "thank you for this new information, I will make enquiries and get back to you with the findings" As Niall turns to leave I get a sudden thought.
"Niall wait!" I call.
He turns and looks at me expectantly.
"The Shreef, it warned me, why?" I ask carefully.
Niall shakes his head, "It is difficult to say, my best guess is it has lived within this area for some time and felt some sort of kinship towards you, Elemental spirits do have more of an affinity with the Fae rather than the other members of the ghoul family to which they belong. You are of the Sky Fae so it felt a natural affinity with you as an air elemental, it has clearly witnessed whatever it was in the woods and when you went to confront it, it knew you had been deceived and showed itself to warn you, this is also proof of your increased Fae abilities, although I am surprised they have increased sufficiently to hear elementals, you would never have heard a Shreef speak under normal circumstances, even vampires cannot hear the voice of an elemental spirit, unless of course your enhanced vampire hearing along with your enhanced Fae essence gave you this advantage," Niall stops speaking and after looking hard at me for a moment he glances briefly at Eric and then steps closer to me.
"What are you doing?" I ask.
"You guarantee my safety, vampire?" Niall says to Eric ignoring my question completely.
"As long as you don't reveal your scent you will not be harmed, if you do, then none of us will be able to control our instincts," Eric warns him grimly.
"I will remain masked, but you believe she will not harm me?" Niall pushes.
"You can see her control for yourself", Eric snaps impatiently.
Niall steps even closer so he is within touching distance, "Give me your hand Sookie" he says.
Eric's hand twitches as I reach out and place my hand in Niall's.
"It feels so cold now," Niall says sadly.
"What are you doing?" I ask.
Niall once again ignores my question and closes his eyes, after a moment they fly open and they are round and he has a look of complete shock on his face.
"This cannot be!?" he gasps.
"What?" Eric and I say at the same time.
"Her essential spark has not only increased, it has tripled in strength, when she was human it was already far stronger than her tenuous link to her Fae lineage could account for, but now...she has the spark of a full blooded Fae, this is ...unheard of."
"What does this mean?" Eric asks.
Niall looks up at him, "This means she could start to display Sky Fae abilities, she is essentially a full Fae as well as a Vampire."
"Such as?" Eric pushes.
"Mimicking others, control of the weather and the ability to fly are the main ones," Niall says.
I remember the story of how Fintan made himself look like my grandfather and posed in family portraits with my grandmother. But controlling the weather and flying, I turn to face Eric. If I could fly it would be wonderful, I could fly with Eric.
"I could fly with you" I whisper.
Eric looks shocked at these revelations, "Her telepathy – this gift remains unchanged?" he asks.
I shake my head, "I still can't hear vampires as we established last night but I do have one improvement, I also discovered last night that I don't have to shield anymore, I don't hear things unless I want to, I can turn it on and off now, instead of having to work at not listening" I say, but I don't mention I can now hear the demons clearly or my grandfather, albeit in snippets.
Mr Cataliades steps forward at this point and he looks at me closely, "I believe you will be able to hear clearly those who were unclear before" he says.
"You mean Weres and Shifters?" I ask.
Mr Cataliades nods, "but other than that I don't foresee any further enhancement, those who were silent before will remain silent now."
I ponder that for a moment but I am still not about to announce the fact that I can now hear demons and sort of hear fairies.
"It has been an evening of revelations," Eric says.
"You can say that again!" I mutter.
"You rose from the Fae soil here?" Niall asks suddenly.
"Yes, I did" I glance at Eric, "Why do you think that has something to do with the enhanced fairyness?" I ask Niall.
He looks unimpressed by my description of the essential spark but he nods his head, "It would explain it, but this kind of enhancement would not be caused by the soil alone".
"To rise from the earth holds deep meaning for vampires, and it has been long since established that those who rise traditionally make stronger more successful vampires than those who choose one of the more modern methods," Karin says suddenly and I see Eric nodding in agreement.
"I too felt the effects of the enchanted earth, when I was buried with Sookie, when I rose I felt stronger and fitter," Eric says.
"Interesting" Niall says.
Niall and Eric talk for a few minutes longer and then eventually Niall, Mr Cataliades and Darren the Empath Demon take their leave and disappear into the woods and after a moment I hear a loud pop, I listen carefully to make sure they have completely gone and then turn to Eric.
"They're gone, Mr Cataliades was wrong, I could hear his thoughts and that Empath Demon I couldn't hear Mr Cataliades before and I also got bits from Niall but it was as if he was preventing me from hearing him, I only got snippets from him" I say.
"That could have been an effect from the cloaking spell he used to mask his scent," Karin says.
"Oh, I never thought of that," I say, I turn to Eric, "Do I smell more fairy?" I ask.
Eric shakes his head, "No, you have the scent of a vampire, but tonight has been very enlightening and interesting to say the least. But I am incredibly proud of you. Your self-control was incredible."
Both Pam and Karin nod and mutter their agreement.
"Thanks," I say a little embarrassed by the fuss.
As we are driving back to Shreveport a sudden thought hits me, "Eric I've thought of something" I say.
Eric turns to face me, "What is it my love?" he asks gently.
"Do you remember when Niall came to see us before the wedding he said something which has made me think, especially now that I am a vampire" I say carefully.
"What are you referring to?" he asks the confusion clear in his voice.
"That night he came when he started talking about the end of the world, he said something and I've not been able to get it out of my mind since, do you remember? He said '...whatever or whoever is behind this has a plan, the first part of the plan is eliminate humans which is why the human birth rate is waning and miscarriages and stillbirths are on the increase, but Supernaturals are a different matter so the idea appears to be, increase their number and let the strongest survive, give them a fighting chance as it were to prove themselves worthy of survival' do you remember that?" I take my eyes off the road and quickly glance at my husband who is staring at me intently.
"I remember, what of it?"
"What if it's worse than we think, what if whatever or whoever is causing this, wants to put an end to Supes as well?" I say.
"But..." Eric begins but I interrupt him.
"No hear me out, think about it, human birth rate decreases – what is our food source Eric? At the same time Vampires are increasing in number more predators, less prey...you do the maths!" the silence spreads out between us.
"'Prove themselves worthy of survival'" Eric murmurs to himself more than to me. "This is an interesting thought and one which I had not considered, Weres are increasing and so are Fae, so a food source will be available to us as long as we choose to diversify, those who evolve will survive those who don't will ultimately perish, leaving only the strongest vampires left to rule."
I glance once more at him and I can almost see the cogs working in his mind as he tries to make sense of what I have just said.
He turns to look at me, "If you look at it that way it would be reasonable to assume that the being behind these changes is a Vampire wanting to cleanse the race of inferior vampires and creating a super race of superior vampires who feed on beings other than humans".
"It sounds fantastical when you say it out loud, who would be so powerful to be able to implement something like that?" I ask.
Eric shakes his head, "Nobody, the only vampire who would come close is the Ancient Pythoness and she just wouldn't even consider such a notion."
We ride the rest of the way in silence, when we arrive in Shreveport Pam and Karin are waiting as we pull into the Fangtasia car park and Eric shares with them what I said, Pam stares at him as though he is crazy.
"There is no vampire in existence who would be powerful enough to pull off something like that" she scoffs.
Eric nods, "I don't disagree, but Sookie has made a valid point, even if the theory behind it, that we are trying to work out sounds totally absurd, if things continue the way they are doing, more vampires and fewer humans is going to be a problem for all of us".
After a moment Eric turns to me, "I need to go into Fangtasia for a short while, Pam will accompany you home."
"Can't I come with you?" I ask.
Eric considers my request and then shakes his head, "No, you are a newborn, it wouldn't be wise, all those humans, it would be too difficult for you," he pulls me close and presses a kiss to my head. "I won't be long," he says.
I nod although I'm not happy about it and I reluctantly climb into my car and head home.
When we arrive back home Pam and I head inside in silence.
"What is an Empath demon and what do they do?" I ask suddenly.
Pam laughs, "They read people's auras, they know exactly how you are feeling by the aura you are projecting, they know if you are lying or if you are trying to con someone, they are handy to have around, in fact, a double act with your telepathy would be an unbeatable combo. Older Empaths also have extra powers, some can contact the dead if the live person has a strong enough emotional attachment to the dead person, they claim they can summon the spirit of the dead person back, I've never seen it done, but I have heard stories that it that it has been".
"Interesting, why do you think he was here tonight, I didn't buy that story that he was just desperate to meet me and the 'I did some research' crap," I say.
Pam laughs, "It was a bit thin, I didn't believe it either, I'm sure we will discover at some point what his purpose was, and he must be sincere as Desmond trusted him," she says.
She has hardly gotten the words out her mouth when there is a knock at the door, we look at each other and Pam is immediately on alert. I close my eyes and listen and the thoughts I get surprise me.
"Well, talk of the devil...or demon, in this case, it's Darren the Empath Demon."
Pam's eyebrows rise at this information and she moves quickly to the door.
I open it and there stands Darren. "Hello, what can I do for you?" I ask politely.
"Mrs Northman I am so sorry to bother you but...now this is going to sound crazy, but since we met this evening, I have been plagued by someone who is no longer with us, and who is desperate to speak with you, they felt your presence and came to me and they want to come through and speak with you," he stops and I am just left staring at him.
I am surprised and intrigued but a more pressing question needs to be answered first. "How did you know where I lived? How did you know to come here?" I ask sharply, I'm not happy that a demon who we know nothing about now knows where we live.
He holds up his hands "I mean you no harm, I told Desmond about the spirit who was contacting me and he made the decision to give me this address, he said to say, if the Northman disapproves tell him to come to me."
I glance at Pam who shrugs, I also notice she is on the phone and I'm fairly sure she is contacting Eric.
"Ok come in," I quickly make the decision to let him in.
He looks relieved and steps inside. "You have a lovely home," he says as he looks around.
"Thank you, who is it that is trying to talk to me?" ask, thinking if he says Bill Compton I am going to scream!
The demon pulls out a notepad, "She was quite insistent, and gave me some information to validate my claims".
She? I pick up on that one word and hope blossoms inside me.
Darren looks at his notepad, "Erm...the lady in question is a Mrs Adele Stackhouse she informed me that she is your grandmother and she was your legal guardian, she took you and your brother Jason in when you were small children when your parents died, they died when their car went off of a bridge during a flood. She said she has been watching over you and she was sorry that, and I quote, 'that William Compton turned out to be such a jerk', she was sorry she encouraged your relationship and that she was angry that he managed to pull the wool over her eyes". He stops and looks at me.
"That sounds like Gran" I whisper.
"Ok, we need to sit down, and I need to touch you so we can summon enough energy to bring her forward," he says nervously.
I glance at Pam who immediately comes to my side. "What does this touching involve?" she hisses menacingly.
"Erm...j j just h holding her hand" he stammers, clearly terrified.
Pam nods "I will witness this, so I can inform Eric that nothing untoward happened," she says and sits down beside me. Darren holds out his hands and I place mine in them.
"Ooh the energy is really strong, I was afraid it wouldn't work with you being a vampire...you know dead," he says and he turns I follow his gaze and I see a shimmering I watch as the faint outline of my grandmother appears.
"Gran" I whisper.
"Hello Sookie, my sweet girl," the figure says.
I can't help it blood tinged tears start to roll down my cheeks, "Gran" I say again.
"I know this must be very overwhelming for you, first of all, I am so happy for you, I saw you marry your Vampire, I was there even though you couldn't see me, I also watched over you when he turned you, he was so careful with you, he loves you and he is honourable, but my reason for contacting you is you are in danger, his Sire is making his way here he wants to kill you."
"Ocella is coming?" I ask.
I see the figure nod, "Yes, he is beside himself, he believes your Viking has made himself weak by marrying you in a human ceremony and I believe he is quite insane, he now knows of your Fae heritage and he believes it is his duty to rescue his progeny from you, as he thinks you have bewitched him in some way, also I need to warn you that..." suddenly in mid-sentence she fades and is gone.
"Gran? Where did she go, bring her back" I demand.
Darren shakes his head, "You moved and let go of my hand the link was broken it was only for a second but it was enough" he says apologetically.
"What is going on here?" I turn and see Eric in the doorway. I leap to my feet and run to him.
"Eric, Ocella is coming he wants to kill me" I blurt out.
Eric looks from the demon to Pam and then to me, "Explain" he says curtly.
I quickly go through everything that has happened here and he listens carefully, I tell him about Gran's warning and how she was going to say something else but the link got broken and she vanished.
Eric looks at Pam questioningly, "I have no reason to disbelieve the evidence I saw, and Sookie seemed satisfied that the apparition was the spirit of her grandmother, I have no way of confirming that as I never met the woman when she lived" Pam says.
Eric turns to the demon, "If this is some sort of trick I will track you down" he hisses.
Darren shakes his head frantically, "M M Mr N N Northman sir, I am genuine, everything was done the best intentions, I don't trick anyone" he stammers.
"Then you have nothing to worry about" Eric growls.
He turns to me and wraps his arm around me. I feel him pushing love and comfort through the bond and I press myself into his side.
"I'll be going then, Mr Cataliades did say you were to contact him if you weren't happy about me coming here today, he said he would vouch for me take the blame for giving me your address."
Eric says nothing but glares at the demon, who visibly quakes.
"Goodbye, Mrs Northman," the demon says.
"Goodbye" I reply and with that, he is gone.
Eric turns to me, "You believe this?" he asks.
I nod my head firmly, "I do."
Eric nods in acceptance and then pulls out his phone, he dials a number and waits, "Karin, we have had word that Ocella is coming and his mission is to kill my wife, you have my blessing to keep your oath". With that, he simply hangs up and pushes his phone in his pocket.