A/N I've noticed some authors mention theme songs for their fics. I was listening to Jason Mraz's 'I'm Yours' while writing this chapter. I've also listened to a lot of Regina Spektor's music along the way, especially 'Fidelity,' it just fits Sookie too well.
Chapter 21
I went down to the house Sunday morning to have breakfast and visit with my roomies. About 10 o'clock I answered a knock on the door to find a midget standing on my front porch. About three and a half feet tall, he had the face of James Cagney, only the skin a little darker, hair a little wilder, and rather scruffy in appearance. His ears were pointy, kind of like Niall's but much bigger and more exaggerated.
"I'm Wizno," he said without preamble, a huge grin splitting his wide face. He looked kind of demented when he smiled, like a fifty-something version of that kid on the cover of Mad Magazine. "Mr. Brigant sent me."
"Mr. Brigant sent you?" I repeated, tipping my cup and spilling my coffee. "Which Mr. Brigant? What for?"
"The only Mr. Brigant I know. Are you Sookie?" I nodded. "He said you wanted a brownie. I'm your brownie," he said, that grin never leaving his face.
"What?" I repeated again, dully. What is he talking about? I went over the previous afternoon's conversation in my head, oh no, these Supes are going to be the death of me.
"I think there's been a mistake…" I began.
"Nope. He said you were his kin, and you needed me to help with your garden and stuff," he said.
Right then Octavia walked out of the kitchen, also carrying a cup of coffee. She took one look at Wizno, said "Shit," and headed back towards her room.
"I owe Mr. Brigant a big favor," he said. "Plus he's going to pay me. He told me to do whatever you needed me to do." He turned around and motioned toward the yard. I noticed he was wearing a pair of the smallest, and grimiest, Carrhart overalls I had ever seen. "That your garden?" he asked, pointing to the overgrown area.
"Yes."
"Where's your ox?"
I heard a muffled guffaw from somewhere in the vicinity of Octavia's room. I frowned.
"I don't have an ox," I said. "I have a tiller. And I think you'd better wait until I talk with Mr. Brigant before you start any work around here."
"Oh, oh, he gave me a note," the little man dug in his pocket and pulled out a grimy folded white sheet of paper and handed it to me.
I gingerly took the note from it and unfolded it. The elegant script read:
'Dear Sookie, please accept this gift as a token of my affection. You mentioned that you wanted a brownie and I happen to have one deeply in my debt. He can work for you as long as you require; I noticed when I was leaving that your garden space down at Adele's needed quite a lot of clearing and preparation before spring planting. I look forward to dining with you tonight' Yours, Mr. Big Ant
Great, just great. I would be seeing him tonight, so I guessed the only practical thing to do would be to wait until then to discuss this. I did not want to offend my potential grandfather this early in the game.
Octavia came back around the corner. I guess she couldn't stand it any more; she did love a train wreck so. "Don't let him use the bathroom," she said. "They piss out their pointy ears. And they have sex with their…"
"Ear urination is a myth," Wizno said darkly, staring at Octavia. "We have almost exactly the same private parts and functions as humans except for the fact that we …"
"No no no no," I said. "That's fine, that's fine. I don't need to know." Wizno's demeanor lightened as he eyed Octavia appreciatively. "She's hot," he observed. "A little sassy for my taste, but we can fix that."
I tried my best to freeze-frame Octavia's expression in my mind so I could play it over and over again whenever I get depressed in the future. "Come on over here sweetie," Wizno leered, leaning forward to get a better view. His ears wiggled slightly. "Let's see what you got."
Struck speechless, for perhaps the first time in her existence, Octavia stared at Wizno indignantly for a full five seconds before she managed to harrumph and march away again.
"Do you have a hat or something?" I asked, not meaning to be rude, but seeing a midget working in my garden was going to be enough of a shock to anyone who might happen by, the ears might just push them over the edge.
"Sure," he said, whipping a dirty dark blue plaid paper-boy type cab out of his back pocket. He placed it over his head, and it did cover his ears nicely.
I figured I might as well let him work. I did need the help. Jason had always tilled the garden for Gran, albeit begrudgingly, and I guess I could do it just as well as anyone, but with my job and Eric I wasn't spending so much time at the house lately. Getting a garden ready after two missed seasons would be a lot of work. I felt a little guilty, though. "Would you mind telling me what you are being paid?" I asked, determined to reimburse my dinner host when I saw him.
"Sure, I'll tell you, I'll even show you," Wizno said, pulling a battered aluminum tin from his jacket pocket. "Mr. Brigant is paying me very well." He opened the tin and I looked in and squealed a little. It was filled with dirt and huge white worm-like wiggling things, about as big and round as my pinkie and just as long.
"Grubs," he said in satisfaction, licking his lips. "South American grubs. The best. Mr. Brigant has a direct connection. He keeps me hooked up." He picked up one of the grubs delicately and held it over his mouth with his head tilted back, and then dropped it in. He looked at me with relish as he chewed. "My grub tab is getting really large. I owe him for some other stuff too," he said a little sullenly.
Alrighty, then.
I pointed him to the shed and the tiller. He said he needed to weed-eat first, so I showed him that too. I watched him doubtfully, as he struggled with the large equipment at first, he was so short, but he really seemed to know what he was doing and got right to it after familiarizing himself with everything.
"Are you staying around here somewhere?" I said tentatively. 'Please say yes, please say yes, my roomies are going to kill me ….'
"I have a tree," he said proudly, the way a normal person might say "I have a houseboat."
"It's about two miles from here," he continued. Good, not too close, I thought, then scolded myself. I'd always prided myself on overlooking the differences of others. This guy was just so strange, and dirty, and carried grubs in his pocket, and ate one of said grubs right in front of me….still, I needed to be compassionate, I told myself sternly.
"Well, thank you very much," I said, forcing my voice to be cheerful. "If you need anything let me know," I added, still overly polite to make up for my initial rudeness. "I have lemonade and soft drinks inside." He nodded happily, he was a cheerful little being, and got to work.
Octavia pounced on me as soon as I walked in the door. "Is he going to be around long?"
"I don't know Octavia. I'm going to talk to Mr. Brigant tonight," I said, tired already.
We heated up our then-cold brunch and started to eat. Amelia came out of her room, still in her pajamas, rubbing her eyes. "What's going on? You two surely make it hard to sleep late on a Sunday."
"Sookie's got herself a nasty little brownie," Octavia said. "He's out in the garden as we speak."
"A brownie? Really? How'd you get one of those? Can I put him to cleaning out the basement? 'Cause I've been wanting to do it but it looks kind of dangerous down there!"
"We're not keeping him," I stated firmly.
"I'm not living in the same house as that horny sawed-off son of a bitch," Octavia all but yelled. I leaned forward and winked at Amelia. "He thinks she's cute," I confided in a low voice. Amelia raised her eyebrows and smiled.
"Oh, please, he can help me with my magic, finding all the strange herbs and stuff like that we need from the woods," Amelia pleaded. "You know, the wild-growing ingredients for my spells. I get freaking poison ivy every time I go out gathering."
"We're not keeping him," I repeated. "And he says he lives in a tree." After much more argument, they both could tell the whole situation was beginning to make me grumpy so they dropped the subject for the time being.
I went about doing things I needed to for the upcoming week, laundry and such. For the remainder of the afternoon I heard nothing from Wizno. I brought him water and and some lemonade. He waved big each time I looked out the window, I tried not to look like I was keeping tabs on him, but that was exactly what I was doing. I was glad I wasn't at home alone.
About four I started thinking about getting ready for dinner. Eric said this place was dressy, so I surveyed my closet. I pulled out a dress I'd found in Shreveport at an end of season sale. It was really pretty, one of my new faves, and I'd been saving it for a special occasion. It was beaded chiffon in swirling shades of aqua, dark blue, and muted red, with fluttery mid-length sleeves and a v-neck, low but not too low for dinner with a potential relative. The aqua made my eyes appear the same color, and looked great against my tan. The heavily beaded fabric fitted me to a T, came right below my knee, with a slit up the side to about mid thigh. I chose a pair of beautiful aqua sandals that matched the dress perfectly. I had mother of pearl drop earrings and a matching bracelet that set it off just right. I decided to forgo a necklace as the bodice was so elaborately decorated that it would be too busy. I wore my hair wavy and loose, with just the two front pieces caught back in a mother-of-pearl barrette.
I heard gravel crunch right on time, at about six thirty. I walked downstairs to see my Viking, wearing a gorgeous red dress shirt and tie, with black pants and his jacket over his arm. His hair gleamed, pulled back in a ponytail the way I liked it. He looked and smelled fantastic.
His eyes lit way up when he saw me coming down the stairs.
"Sookie, you look magnificent tonight." He dropped a kiss on my cheek. "I should take you out to dinner so I can see you in that dress again."
"Yes, you should," I said. "And not just so you can see me in this dress."
"Would you like me to take you out, my lover?" he asked, his brow furrowed. "You once said we were past dating."
"That doesn't mean we should never go out. Mr. Brigant said there are several Supe restaurants in the area," I pointed out. "Would they not have something to accommodate you?"
"Yes, lover, they would."
"Well, then, you should take me. By now I should be familiar with every one of them," I chided gently.
"Yes, you should," he acquiesced. "If I have been remiss I do apologize. There are other places for Supes that you may not know about also, I will have to acquaint you with them," he winked suggestively, and I wondered what the hell I had gotten myself into by jonesing for a dinner date with Eric.
Just then Wizno came clomping up the front porch, covered in bits of grass and weeds and smelling like gasoline and brownie sweat.
"Howya doing vampire?" he addressed Eric cheerfully. "Wizno," Eric nodded.
"You two know each other?" I asked. "It's been a few hundred years," Eric said. "But we have met, yes."
We headed to the Corvette. Unexpectedly Eric walked over to the passenger side and held open my door for me. He'd never done that before that I could recall. "What is he doing here?" Eric asked, much more calmly than I expected.
"When I was talking to the Fintan wannabe last night, I sorta said I wanted a brownie, but I was joking."
"Never joke with a fairy, Sookie; they usually have a very odd sense of humor, if they have one at all. You asked for a brownie, and now you have a brownie. You have only yourself to blame," he said teasingly, a twinkle in his eye as he pulled out on the main road.
"Yeah, that's what happened. My life's not weird enough, so I thought I'd get me a little filthy grub-munching creature who lives in a tree and pees out his ears to hang around my house and make things interesting," I said sarcastically.
"I think the peeing out the ears thing is a fallacy, but if he ever looks like he's going to sneeze, get the hell away from him," Eric said in a serious tone. I looked at him sharply to see if he was joking, but he wasn't. He really wasn't.
"I'm giving him back tonight."
"Not so fast," Eric said thoughtfully. "He could come in handy."
"There are lots of woods surrounding your properties, Sookie. Brownies are very good with the woods, skillful in any outdoor situation. I've been thinking about adding a day guard to your protection. He could be the woods guard. I think it would be a good idea, and as long as Fintan is offering…if it really is Fintan. I need to meet him first."
"You said last night they weren't good for anything," I reminded him.
"For me they are not," he said in a reasonable tone. "For you, perhaps."
I could feel my anger building. I hated that there was so much I didn't understand about the supernatural world.
"I want a list," I said suddenly. "I'm tired of finding out about something else I didn't know every day. I want a list of all the supernatural creatures in existence." I took out a gel point pen and a little notebook I had stuck in my evening bag (I thought I might want to write down some of what Fintan/Dermot/mystery fairy told me tonight) and looked at Eric expectantly.
'I am not doing it," he said, setting his jaw.
"What do you mean?"
"It would be overload Sookie, it's just going to get you agitated."
"Look, I've had it with this giving me information on a need-to-know basis crap. I need to know now."
Silence.
I started again. "There are fairies, werewolves, shifters, and vampires, demons and brownies, then there's those Britlingen things from Rhodes, the ones from another dimension…"
I looked at him inquiringly.
"What else?"
"Sookie, it's too much to get into here," he said slowly. "I do not want you to be upset before your dinner, you need to keep your head on straight. We will have this conversation some other time."
I could not believe he would not give me a simple list.
"Eric," I began. He cut me off. I noticed we were parked in front of a large grey stone building with no windows or signs. He leaned forward and grabbed my hand.
"Sookie, there is a real possibility that you are going to have to learn a lot of new things very quickly," his voice was tense and tinged with impatience. "Believe me, I will prepare you for it as well as I can. I know I told you I would try not to keep things from you. The fact is, I don't know what is going to happen, and I refuse to speculate with theories that may or may not be true. At some point in time you are going to have to trust me. Can you do that?"
I looked into his deep blue eyes. I did want to trust him, so badly. "Fine," I pouted. Really, Eric was right, I didn't want to get in a bad mood. I looked at the time. Of course Eric had driven like a mad man, and we were twenty minutes early.
"Come here, my lover," Eric murmured, a sexy smile curving his lips. "Make out with me in the parking lot for a little while. I'm going to miss you while I'm waiting." I leaned across the gear shift and gave him a chaste peck on the cheek. "I don't want to mess up my face," I said, starting to lean back again.
"I want to kiss you, Sookie," he said, a bit of hurt in his voice as he pushed a lock of hair away from my eyes. "Do not deny me. You have to work tomorrow, so you will need to get some sleep tonight. I just want a moment, my lover. I will not muss your face. Is it too much to ask? " His glacial blue eyes filled with reproach.
Well, who the hell could resist that? I leaned back over the gear shift and he grabbed me lightly as he slid his seat back as far as it would go. Before I knew what was happening, my dress was pulled up to my thighs and I was across his lap, straddling him. I knew I had been played but before I could get mad he was nuzzling my neck in just the right way, his hands were everywhere, his cologne and presence enveloped me and what can I say, I just didn't give a damn.
His lips caught mine in a searing kiss just as his hands moved up and tangled in my hair "Eric, be careful," I moaned into his mouth. He moved his hands back down quickly, to my breasts this time, stroking my nipples through the fabric of my dress.
"Do you remember the last time you dined with a fairy, lover?" he asked huskily, removing one hand from my breast to stroke my neck. "You denied me nourishment after I took a bullet for you." He continued to play with my nipple, shifting in the seat as I felt his hardness pressing against me. "Tonight you will pay." My eyes widened as he trailed his mouth and tongue down my neck. "I'm going to bite you here," he cupped my breast again and squeezed lightly. "And here," he then reached between my legs, ran his hand all the way up, and goosed my inner thigh. I moaned again. He pressed himself against me, hard, and held it. His lips met mine. I gave the kiss all I had, to hell with my makeup and hair. Just then we were interrupted by a sharp tapping at the driver's side window.
Startled, I looked up to see Mr. Big Ant standing outside the car. I froze. Eric casually reached over and pushed the down button for the window.
"Greetings, Viking," he addressed Eric, his voice cold and his gaze fixed. "It has been a while. Do you think you could release my granddaughter from your loins long enough for me to have dinner with her?"
.