Chapter 9

(Snow!!! Sweet glorious snow! Ok so where ever you are this might not seem like any big whoop, but I haven't seen snow in these quantities in years. Love it. I am filled with a childlike buzz from the wonder of it. Sorry if I took a while with this chapter I have been busy making snow wolves). (oh yeah this is really short in Claudine's PoV for a change.)

The Rising Sun. An apt name for their meeting place. John Lydas, Matthew Conner and Whit Spradlin (Arlene Fowler's latest fella) were huddled around a circular table setting the world to rights over a few beers.

"That bitch dared to slap my woman!" Whit grumbled as he slopped his beer over the table waving his arm furiously.

"How can you expect better from a fangbanger?" The short man, John, asked.

I was sorely tempted to go and smack them both upside the head. Good for Sookie if she slapped that trailer trash wannabe with the bad dye job. I never liked that woman, Sookie had been too trusting when I'd first met her, I'd say this for the Vamps, they sure had put a stop to that. She was dating Eric now from what I had gathered, and as usual that meant trouble. I swear Sookie Stackhouse was a danger magnet. I was sat in the far corner of the bar watching the human bigots from behind an emerald cloak, which mostly kept my face hidden. I knew these men were a danger to my little cousin, even if I wasn't sure how at first. That's part of my gift, I'm part pre-cog, on my mother's side. Unfortunately my gift was a little vague, I can tell if a member of my family is going to be threatened, but the nature of the threat I had to find out my ownself.

"I wouldn't be surprised if she was a fur lover too!" The third man at the table offered, Matthew I believe his name was. It hadn't been long since the two natured came out as it were, but already the humans had started coming up with names for them.

"Well first thing we gotta do is boycott that dog man's bar" Whit whined. Whit what the hell kind of name was Whit? It was clear from his upbringing he was never gonna be the sharpest knife in the weapons cabinet, I thought to myself as I sipped my cocktail, it was my own special concoction, pretty good if I do say so myself.

"Boycott it? Hell we should protest!" John added.

"I'll do you one better!" Whit yelled, so everyone in the bar could hear "we should torch the place" Uh oh. I thought Sookie, why'd you have to slap his girlfriend, I should have seen it coming, he was just the type to start rabble rousing.

The stupid human, struggled to his feet, he was inebriated and in my experience drunk men could cause more damage than an Ictheleon demon in a ceramics store. (That particular demon was known to cause earthquakes if woken early from their nap, you might think it's a bit overkill but given they only sleep once every twenty years for one month, being woken up early is kinda a big deal).

"How many of you fear for your children?" He asked the curious crowd of the bar. There were a few murmurs. "In Bon temps there is a bar Merlotte's" he said with contempt. "That actually claims to cater to families, but I ask you this; what kind of a family would subject their young to Werewolves and Shapeshifter's? Creatures who should have stayed in the fairy stories!" he continued. I wondered whether sending him to a hell dimension would go against the whole becoming an angel thing. I guessed it would. Damn. "Now I say we strike first before they come for us!"

There were louder murmurs of agreement in the crowd, they were almost all as intoxicated as the fool on the table.

"I say we burn them, same as those damn Vampires!" Matthew yelled.

"In two days time, when it's sure to be filled with the freaks, I say we burn the whole lot of 'em!" Whit cried swaying violently on his precarious position on the table. It was a Saturday night and here I was playing Claudine, fae private eye, infiltrating a mob. I cast my mind out searching for my family blood, a shimmering beacon in my mind's eye. Sookie. Cousin and pain in my butt, but I love her like the little sister I wish I could trade Claude for.

"Then we should head over to that Fangtasia" a voice from the crowd added. "Take out some of the other freaks".

Sookie never made my job easy. Thank the lords and ladies that I would be getting my wings sooner, rather than later. I scowled at the drunk on the table and snapped my fingers, it collapsed and the idiot went crashing back to earth with a thump, shame it didn't knock any sense into him. Ok maybe not so soon till I got the wings. I smiled as I blinked out of there, no one saw me go.

(Sorry mega short but it's a lead in to the battle and I love Claudine. Next chapter will be as promised at the end of "Sookie gets a shock". )