Chapter 10 Niall and the Gate

Third Person Narrative

Niall Brigant, now the Prince of all Faeries, had set the date to close the final portal between the human world and the Faery realm. This was set for St. Patrick's Day, March 17th, a day that was important for the Faeries and the Irish alike, since most of the Fae lived in Ireland. This gave him about a month to take care of most of the business he needed to get done. There would still be some things that needed seeing to after the portal was officially closed, but he and Preston would take care of that.

"Have you talked to the Weretiger?" he said to Preston as they smoked a couple Cubans in the treetops near Sookie's house.

Preston gave him a devious look. He knew the plan and focused on his reward once he got to Faery for good. He had driven rather a hard bargain with Naill, who reluctantly agreed to his reward demands. It was a bargain; however, that Naill, for all his power as Prince couldn't walk away from.

Preston answered, "Yes Your Highness, the weretiger is all set up and primed to do it. It wasn't hard to convince him the first time, or the second, or this time. He's so besotted with her he just can't help himself. I can't say that I blame him. She's quite a catch in so many different worlds and the beauty of it all is that she just doesn't know it."

Nail smiled at the praise for his great-grandchild. Yes, she was indeed a catch and an asset. Any female with any amount of Fae blood these days was worth her weight in gold ten times over. And triplets to boot! He'd listen in on the doctor's visit this afternoon to make sure the pregnancy was going well. He truly did love Sookie, she was his kin after all, and he hoped that she would willingly make the right choice, when the time came, to live in Faery with the children. He hoped he wouldn't have to break her heart by separating them from her, but Faery babies—even part Faery babies—weren't exactly a dime a dozen. He slipped out of his reverie to speak again, "Tell me more details about Quinn and the plan."

"Well, Your Highness," began Preston, "he doesn't know he's kidnapping her because he's been fed so much bullshit by me that he actually thinks he's rescuing her from Eric. Eric is the one being that can keep her from us, and I have been making sure that he stays as much out of her life as possible. Feeding Quinn that information about the poor invalid Queen Sophie-Anne caused the whole vampire take-over of Louisiana and kept Eric busy for so many months—busy and away from our Sookie-"

"MY Sookie. Let me remind you that she's MY great-granddaughter. She's MY kin and no matter what hold you have over me, you ALWAYS keep that in your mind Preston. ALWAYS!" barked Naill angrily. Preston might have a hold over him, but he wasn't going to let him forget his family ties.

Preston ignored Naill's little outburst. Was Prince Naill getting senile in his old age? He continued, "Many apologies Your Highness. That Goddamn vampire ruined my last plan. I still don't know how Eric convinced his new superiors to allow him to keep Quinn away from Sookie, and she seemed to go along with it. Quinn almost had her convinced to hear him out after I snuck him back into "ERIC's TERRITORY," Preston said sneeringly with his fingers up in the air making the quotation mark signs. He took another drag on his cigar and tapped the ashes off the end with a skilled finger and continued, "Quinn was going to tell her a lovely little tale, about her precious Eric, but he got sappy and emotional toward her and blew it. Then Bill Compton came by and picked a fight with him. Then low and behold, who should appear to save the day, but the meddlesome Viking who flew in to sweep her off her feet yet again! Oh well," said Preston disdainfully, adding with a wave of his hand in the air, "I'm not giving up quite yet…there's too much at stake." Too much for Faery and too much for me. He thought to himself.

Naill looked at Preston out of the corner of his eye. He knew the stakes all too well. After the Faery War, there was too much of a decrease in population. Fae women, no matter how little Fae they had in them had become a hot commodity as breeding stock and his Sookie with her added bonus of telepathy would be even more highly prized—and she would be bringing in three more children to pass his legacy onto.

Naill felt surely that he'd succeeded in tearing Eric and Sookie apart when he convinced Eric to suppress the bond. He kicked himself for not trying to kill the vampire on the spot, but he had such a soft spot for his little Sookie that he knew she'd be devastated by Eric's death. He'd done the next best thing—but it backfired. Now, not only was the bond back but stronger than ever, but—married? Did he hear right? They were getting married? Their separation was going to be tougher to accomplish than he thought.

Preston interrupted Naill's introspection again. "It's always Eric," he said open-endedly.

"What is always Eric," said Naill stifling a yawn. He was getting tired of this tree top sitting night after night.

"The Problem. The problem has always been Eric. Why can't he just leave her alone? Thank God she was free of him enough to bring me into her home on Christmas Eve. I thought for sure that would have staked my—I mean our—claim to Sookie once and for all. Then the Problem goes and forgives her. She's got a power over him," he said out loud, and to himself, over me too.

"Well, a few more weeks of planning and then we can make our move and put our grand plan into action."

"I'll be glad when it's done, Your Highness."

"Me too, Preston, me too."

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters, I'm just having some fun with them and thank Charlaine Harris to allow us all to play!

A/N: This story will have an ending at some point, about 10-20 more chapters. A couple characters will come back...