XI.
Late December 2011
I awoke to find that Eric was playing some sort of complicated card game with Hunter, at the same time they were playing chess, each taking a turn and thinking about a move while playing the other game. I mean, I was dizzy just looking at it. It looked as if they had gone quite a few moves in the chess game, each having captured quite a few pieces of their opponents. With a smile on his face, Hunter picked up some card Eric had put down and then moved his bishop on the chessboard and said, triumphantly,
"Check!"
Eric smiled and as I looked at the board, I was absolutely certain based on what I was feeling from Eric that Hunter had jumped the gun and fallen into some dreadful trap of Eric's that he would not escape. He picked up one of Hunter's cards, laid down three pairs of cards and then moved his king, exposing his knight. Hunter then groaned audibly. His hand flew to his forehead.
"NO! I am so stupid! It was a trick!"
Eric chuckled and said softly,
"It gets worse…" and after Hunter had picked up a card and discarded another then moved his bishop back one square, Eric took up a final card from the discard pile and then laid down a series of royal pairs. "I've had you since you put down that queen. You didn't pay attention to the count after you got the pair of kings and now I've got more royal pairs than you have on top of having my own pair of kings. Plus you agreed to aces high, so…" he laid down a pair of aces, as well.
Hunter's head fell to the tabletop and he banged it there lightly several times. He groaned and then sat up. He looked at the chessboard, shaking his head.
"There's no way I can win, right, Uncle Eric? I mean, it's just a matter of time. Because you're going to force me to take the knight with my last bishop and then your king is going to take my bishop and then…."
Eric picked up some pieces and put them back on the board.
"This is where you lost. All the way back here… But you're getting so much better. This is the best that you've played, other than the little detail that I was trapping you and you fell for it. But good game."
I stood there and smiled.
"So, um, Dinner? The two of you were just going to let me go on napping until when?" It was already past 7:30 pm.
Eric looked at me and shook his head.
"We were having fun without you. Hunter could really cut loose. There was even language in an earlier round when he made a mistake."
"Oh really?" I said with my hand moving to my hip. I looked over at Hunter with dismay. An eleven year old in my care, cursing? "Well, I really don't like the sound of that, you know, Hunter…"
Eric pointed at Hunter and started roaring with laughter. Hunter turned red and then started laughing so hard he almost fell off his chair. Eric drummed on the table several times while continuing to laugh and smiling at Hunter and then turned to me and said,
"So predictable. Like clockwork. Like rain in summer or snow in winter."
Both hands were now on my hips.
"What is so predictable?"
"Women. Specifically, you. I told him you'd take his cursing badly." He turned to Hunter and said in a conspiratorial tone of voice, "Another thing that's important to remember: women are creatures of habit, Hunter. If you pay attention, you will understand their habits. They love to be understood. They like you to pay attention. But if they have to ask you to pay attention, you are lost and probably done. If you like one, you'd better pay attention from the very start. Being complimentary, treating her like a lady, acting like a gentleman, paying attention, all important points." Eric turned to me and by way of explanation said, "Hunter likes a girl at his school. And older woman. She's just turned 12."
I stood there shaking my head. A 1100 year old vampire giving advice to an 11 year old boy about women? This had the makings of serious trouble.
Hunter turned to me and smiled politely.
"May we have the pork chops for dinner? Please? I love your pork chops." He smiled some more as if trying to be extremely ingratiating. Where was the Hunter I knew?
"Uh, yeah. Sure. Is this your version of sucking up, Hunter?"
"Eric told me women like to be complimented. That you should let them know you see what they're good at. I'm practicing." He smiled.
Omigod, I thought to myself. The two of them together had the potential to get on my very last nerve.
"You might not want to lay it on too thick. My goodness, the two of you are a pair, aren't you?"
"At least we're a pair who share information. Hunter tells me that he's coming to live here when he is 13. And that you have known this for more than two years."
"That is Hunter's theory. Of course, it's possible I'll be so annoyed with him by then that I'll send him to live at boarding school for Remy." I bent down and started looking for a good size skillet for the pork chops.
"Exactly when were you expecting to tell me this little plan?" asked Eric, who was shuffling the cards.
"I was planning to tell you when I believed it to be likely," I said as I shifted pans in the cabinet. I stood back up and gave Hunter a dark look.
"Hunter also told me that in July," he put up his hand because Hunter's eyes went wide and he sat up straight and looked like he wanted to stop Eric from saying anything further, "he wanted to talk to me, to tell me that he was very worried about you doing the undercover work in Lafayette. He said you wouldn't let him talk to me."
"He was leaving, you were asleep. Besides it would have worried you."
"It would have worried me, eh? Interesting reason not to tell me. Well, I've solved that little problem."
I hesitated.
"Really? How?" I asked, glancing at Hunter.
Hunter looked down studiously at the chessboard as he gathered up pieces and stowed them in the game box.
"I've purchased a cell phone for him as his present for the holiday from me. It will be delivered tomorrow. Of course, he has my numbers and Pam's as well. And my email address. And the next time he thinks something terrible is going to happen to any of us, he's going to call me and tell me no matter what you say. Right Hunter?"
He glanced over at me then back at Eric and nodded his head cheerfully.
"Because secrets don't work very well around vampires, do they? They get you in trouble, don't they, Hunter?" He then looked at me with a provocative expression. "Especially with the vampires in your family. Serious trouble." An eyebrow raised slightly.
Hunter looked absorbed in putting the chess set away and just nodded. He rose to put away the chess set and then suddenly froze as he bent over the drawer the games were stored in. I felt chills run up my spine as I'd turned to look at him. It was like his zooming brain was just gone. I'd only seen that once before… in July.
"Hunter? What's wrong? Hunter?"
Eric turned back to look at him. Hunter's hand was still hovering over the drawer with all the games. He seemed to stare down, almost vacantly. Even Eric could tell there was something wrong, without being in his head.
"Hunter? What is wrong?" said Eric firmly. "What is it?"
Suddenly, Hunter began to go weak at his knees and Eric swiftly moved to catch him then picked him up and glanced down with puzzlement at the games drawer.
He carried him back to the table and sat down in his chair, with Hunter in his lap.
I bent over them and took Hunter's little face in my hands.
"What is it? What do you see?"
In an almost monotone voice, and with a vacant stare he said in whisper,
"The dominoes… They are all lined up now. The first has fallen and there is nothing to stop the rest… there is no turning back now."
Eric looked at me, puzzled.
"Is this how it was with the thing with the guy wearing the wire?" Eric asked.
I swallowed, and just nodded.
"Not quite so… intense, though."
"What does he mean?" he asked.
I shook my head. I couldn't even see what was in his mind. It was like it was all a blank screen.
"Turning back from what Hunter? From what?" I asked him.
He looked somehow old and distant. He squinted as if seeing something very far away and was silent for more than a minute. Then everything in his face relaxed and looked open again. He suddenly seemed much more present, almost as if he'd flipped a switch.
"I'm fine, Aunt Sookie. Everything will be fine." He leaned back against Eric for a moment. "You're so big, Uncle Eric. You make my dad seem small. He holds me just like this sometimes."
"What did you see, Hunter?" I asked softly.
He looked at me hesitantly and said, "I'm not sure. But it all works out fine." Then he briskly got out of Eric's lap and walked away.
Eric looked at me and made a gesture of puzzlement. I shrugged my shoulders. I trailed Hunter with my eyes and realized that I couldn't read what he was thinking, other than about pork chops, that is. Whatever he had seen was tucked away in some corner of his mind and I couldn't find it. He turned back to look at me and smiled.
"Can I make instant pudding with you for the dessert? Will you teach me how?"
That night, after Hunter was in bed, Eric sat in the library reading. After I'd come back into the room, I commented,
"So now he's calling you Uncle Eric to your face, eh?"
"Whatever it takes to get the little dwarf to do what I want…" he murmured not even looking up from him book.
"Eric!" I said, shocked by his sarcastic tone.
He didn't look up but he wasn't smiling or anything.
"Eric, he looks up to you. You do understand that, right? I mean seriously, he…"
"No lectures, Sunshine. You're on the blacklist with me right now because of the dirt I've mined from the little dwarf. You've known for years he was going to live here but didn't tell me? He was scared something bad would happen to you if you went to Lafayette and you didn't tell me? What else has the little dwarf been telling you that I don't know about, I wonder? Well, I'll find out."
I felt this jolt of anger at him. He was going to find out exactly how?
"You had better not be planning to twist anything out of him, Eric. I mean it. I will not tolerate your trying to manipulate him, if that's what you're implying, are we clear?" I said, deadly serious.
Still without looking up, he said,
"Too late. I'll get what I need now that he'll have the phone. Maybe I can even glamour him the way I did Ahmed. Now there's a thought…"
I gasped as I stood in front of him and he still wouldn't look up at me.
"Eric," I said in a low and cross voice. "I am not kidding here. You had better let Hunter alone, do you hear me? I'm serious!" I was getting more and more upset. "There had better not be any of that vampire BS going on with Hunter. I mean it! He's just a child and you gave me your word."
Finally, he looked up with eyes almost sparkling with laughter.
"So I did, Sunshine, so I did. And since I'm not wanting to wake up with a stake in my chest, I'm thinking I'd better keep it, too. The child is not in my plans. So don't worry yourself about him."
He was teasing me?
"It isn't funny, Eric."
"You're right. It isn't. He was very upset about your getting injured so badly after what he'd seen in July. And for the record, he told me that he was going to live here freely. I did not even raise the subject. He did. He was upset that you were so badly injured and had made light of his trying to warn you and his desire to warn me. He seems to think the same thing happened about Salome except that he warned you much more clearly about things this time. Of course, you told me about Salome. Which makes the Lafayette thing rather worse in my mind, since he was so clear about it and you clearly didn't want me to know. I seem to remember a conversation outside my office in which you assured me you knew everything would be fine."
He leaned back in his chair, resting his chin on his hand, and looked at me.
"Well, what do want me to say Eric?"
"You were never particularly good at apologizing, so I'm not surprised you're having difficulties now."
He rose and drew me toward the bedroom.
"How long have we been married now?" he asked as he strode.
I stopped moving and gave him a dark look. I replied saucily,
"Two years and three nights," hoping that my saying nights instead of days would make him happy.
He nodded with an expression that looked like he knew exactly my reasons for responding as I did. He swooped down and picked me up, carrying me into the bedroom, setting me on the edge of the bed. He leaned over me with arms on either side of me.
"Two years and three nights. Yes. And when, exactly, are you going to start really telling me things, Sookie?" he asked me, looking quite serious. "Important things, like who I'm going to be responsible for safeguarding or if you're likely to incur serious harm. When does that get going? Is there a timeframe for frankness?"
I pulled my eyes away from him and looked down.
"But I'm much better than I was," I said softly.
"You mean, since you weren't telling Ahmed or anyone else instead of me this time? But you still weren't telling me. I sense ample room for improvement, don't you?"
I nodded slightly and he tipped my chin up so I'd look him in the eyes.
"Two happy years. But you didn't even tell me when he saw the guy with the spy gear until after you caught him. I should have known right then and there that there was more I wasn't hearing about things. Is there anything else he's told you that I should know? Earlier tonight for instance? Did he explain that one?"
I shook my head. "No," I whispered. "There's nothing else."
"There better not be. If I catch you again, you will not like my solution to the problem one bit."
"Oh?"
He smiled. "I am not kidding you," he said firmly.
I sighed.
"If he ever warns me about something like the Lafayette thing again, I promise I'll tell you, Eric."
He picked up my hand and kissed it with a sardonic smile.
"And this time, I think I might actually believe you. Or perhaps you should want me to be able to believe you. Yes, you should want me to."
"There's no need to make threats."
"I wasn't threatening you, Lover. I was promising you."
"Promising what? What are you promising me?" I hissed. I didn't like his tone.
"Feisty creature," he said softly. "Has it occurred to you that part of the reason you were so upset last month is because you knew from Hunter that you could get hurt, kept it a secret and then did get hurt, will take some time to recover and that you felt guilty that you had covered it all up? I seem to remember some prior promises to come clean on such things? Hmm?"
"Mmm." I was now feeling rather squirmy about the suggestion that it was part of what upset me about not being able to give him blood. I was feeling squirmy about the whole topic, actually.
"He told me that he told you that you could get badly hurt and that you brushed it off saying that you had a different standard for what bad was compared to other people. Is that what you said to him? To the child who was so concerned for you? You brushed off the child's concern for the only adult who appears to understand him? Brushed aside his concern for one of the only people who appears to understand me? Only not so well that you don't know how your disregard of such things upsets me."
I looked down again and felt myself blush.
"So you can't even look at me?" he said, with his voice sounding tight. "Guilty, then? But is feeling guilty ever enough to get you to change, I wonder?"
He pushed me back onto the bed. His fangs were down and his eyes were glowing as he loomed over me.
"You listen to me. I am not threatening you. I'm telling you that you will stop this bullshit, Sookie. You told me once that my behavior was beneath me. Well, this is beneath you. If you know something is very wrong, or dangerous and you don't tell your partner, then you tell me what the partnership is all about? You came back from your experience saying you so valued your life with me and were so harrowed that you almost lost it? Then act like it from here on out. And if you're expecting that I will safeguard your child you had damn well better make sure I know future plans for that child. If you try to get away with this sort of bullshit again and I catch you at it, you can bet that the very next time you are laid low I will do exactly what I did with Ahmed and I will have you singing like a canary. Be reasonable and keep your word to me. Because if you can't keep it on your own, I'll help you keep it."
I trembled under him. Not because he was angry, but because he wasn't angry. That was the scary part.
"You wouldn't…" I said softly.
The glow went out of his eyes and his face was like marble.
"I wouldn't want to. But another few rounds of this and you can bet I would," he said finally, with a voice that sounded glacial.
"You want me to trust you. Don't you?"
"Oh, yes. And it would be nice if we wanted the same things."
I swallowed hard. He stood up and started to walk away and I reached out and caught his wrist.
"I do want you to trust me, Eric."
"Want it more," he said with an acid tone.
He pulled away from me and went off to the bathroom. He came out a few minutes later in his robe and walked past the bed.
"I'm taking a sauna."
I sat thinking for a while, remembering the things I'd thought about when locked in the basement room of the church. About Hunter and what he'd told me. About Eric. It didn't take long before I felt like I was itchy inside myself, uncomfortable with myself, in my own skin. I got undressed, put on my robe and went across the hall to the sauna room. I was glad I left my robe on because when I pulled open the door to the sauna I was surprised to see Stefan was in there with Eric.
"Kom in, kom in…" Stefan said.
He got up and walked out of the sauna smiling at me ruefully. He held the door open for me, and looking away as I walked in, held out a hand for my robe. I handed it to him and sat down next to Eric. As we heard the shower running outside, we just sat, not talking. Through the frosted glass of the door we could see Stefan putting his robe on.
"God natt," he called out.
Eric replied to him.
After he'd left we sat for a few more minutes before I said,
"I was consumed with guilt when I was in Lafayette that night I was shot. About not listening to Hunter. Not telling you. Thinking you'd feel me… I was really consumed with guilt, Eric. And since I was letting you feel me, you had to know I was."
He didn't say anything.
I scooted closer to him and took his hand in mine.
"I'd still have gone to Lafayette anyway," I said softly.
He was silent as he looked at our hands and said quietly, shaking his head slowly,
"And I'd still have let you go."