A/N: For those of you who have not yet figured out who the mystery man was in the last chapter, I challenge you to go back and read his POV again and resist reading the reviews. I left plenty of clues for you to figure it out. His identity is not essential to the plot, he was simply a form of comic relief therapy for me. (You'll see why I needed that in the next few chapters as the angst reaches new highs.)

On that note, hold onto your hats everyone, this ride won't come to a full stop for at least three chapters and it contains cliffhangers and violence, so if you can't tolerate the angst, you know what to do.

I'm going to try and avoid A/Ns for the duration of this current chain of events to keep the flow going so I have some help for those of you with more gentle sensibilities. No I won't post it here, or I'll spoil all your surprises. You'll have to go to the A/N at the end of Chapter 10 and the beginning of Chapter 11 if you need some reminders to get you through.

For the rest of you…don't peek at the above spoilers, just enjoy the ride.

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Chapter 21

October 2021, Hunter 21 years old

Oakland, CA

Shatter

P~

We entered the Oakland Sheriff's office and were met by an ominous sight. It appeared that every vampire in the area had convened here tonight. Add them to the number of Weres we had passed on the way through the building, and I would have to say that there were about 50 supes gathered under this roof. Given the high levels if tension that had already existed between vampires and the Westward migrating fae, this was a recipe for disaster.

Sebastian Bradford, the Sheriff of Oakland had called us here to deal personally with the fae problem that had become out of control up and down the Western coast in the last few years and specifically in the last two days. Ever since Eric had been named the vampire representative for fae relations in 2008, we had been called to intervene in Texas, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Oregon, temporarily calming tensions by gathering the fae together in cohesive, and thus happier groups until they moved on a few years later. But the fae had stayed in California and they kept coming and were getting more and more agitated as time went by.

Eric had been increasingly busy with his attempts to calm the rising tensions but this week's loss of two vampires and three Weres on the heels of last month's daytime murder of five vampires who's young nestmate had foolishly drained a fairy had the area in an uproar. Fairies had never been seen this far West before and the younger vampires were caught off guard by the intensity of their cravings and were unable to control themselves once they caught the unknown and delectable scent. Now add in the angry Were population and Oakland was just a huge supernatural clusterfuck.

This latest incident's victims had been tasked, along with other similar groups to gather up lone fae who refused to meet up with Niall's grandson, Claude. Once they were gathered, Claude could use his authority as grandson to the prince to force compliance from the deviant fae and try to keep violence to a minimum. Fae who were kept in close proximity with one another were calmer and less prone to violence. Unlike the case with vampires where the nests caused more trouble than individuals, it was the lone fae who had created this mess and others like it.

Sebastian, a tall dark vampire with a large curling head of hair stepped forward and bowed to Eric and then nodded to me, we nodded back to him and his second in the standard greeting.

"Majesty, thank you for coming so quickly, our fae situation has spun out of control. We did as you instructed and identified and rounded up the isolated fairies; most went immediately to meet with Brigant and the other fae, but as you know there was one unfortunate situation."

"Explain exactly what happened," Eric instructed.

"The fucking fairy killed two of our nest mates, that's exactly what happened," said a short, thick vampire who didn't have much interest in seeing the next sunset. I almost laughed out loud at his idiocy; I had seen Eric rip a vampire's head off with his bare hands for misrepresenting the quality of steel he was bringing into the state for the building of the new levees. This guy was just too dense to be a vampire; he should have been a were-tiger for all the brains he used.

Eric slowly turned to him and gave him my favorite glare. Unfortunately the idiot appeared to gain a few IQ points from Eric through osmosis or some other means because he bowed deeply in apology and shut his trap, robbing me of my entertainment for the evening.

Eric returned his attention to Sebastian, "What happened to the fairies accompanying this team?"

Sebastian picked a small piece of lint off his shirt, stalling, oh this would be rich. "The fairies in question apparently did not feel safe with the vampires selected to join this group. They left and returned to Brigant's shortly after this lone fairy was scented."

Eric closed his eyes for a brief second and his anger rolled through me, he was a tolerant vampire in some regard, but he simply couldn't endure stupidity when so much was on the line. He spoke slowly, another sign that the Oakland vampires were walking a fine line. "You're telling me that a search and relocation team approached a fairy and expected that fairy to travel to an unknown destination based on the word of three Weres in the company of two vampires?"

"They called Claude Brigant himself shortly after the fairies left, and were given his approval to approach."

Shit, that just adds to the problem, why would Claude do that? Eric's anger increased if that was possible, "Take us to the apartment," he demanded.

We traveled fifteen minutes through the city's winding roads in Sebastian's cars and arrived at a nondescript apartment building that was being discretely guarded by two Weres. We were about to go in when Eric's phone rang, catching my attention. Niall was calling, but Eric had not yet contacted him about this current situation, having been waiting to gather more information first.

"Your fae are causing more trouble," Eric said as he answered the phone.

"You are alone?" I heard Niall ask in his deceptively weak voice. Eric's eyes narrowed and he looked at our company, "One moment," he said into the phone.

He turned to Sebastian, "My second will examine the scene in my stead," he gave me a piercing gaze that told me I was to conduct the search of the apartment, I nodded and he took to the sky.

I could feel that he hadn't traveled too far away and that he was angry and focused about what he was learning from Niall. Reluctantly I entered the building with five of Oakland's top vampires, I would much rather be with Eric right now to hear what Niall was telling him.

We rode the rickety elevator to the fourth floor. I took a deep breath as the doors opened and immediately wished I hadn't, the smell of human urine seared into my nose, tongue and brain…ugh, gross. Humans wonder why we don't breathe more often and there's the answer, very few things smell good to us, in fact most of them are extremely unpleasant, so we reserved breathing and thus smelling for important moments. Unfortunately this was one of those moments, so I took another breath and tried to smell around the rancid scent as Heidi had taught me in our tracking lessons.

I caught the scents of a number of different humans and something else, similar to but not quite fairy. It was an old scent and much diluted so I couldn't be sure. Eric had a stronger nose for tracking than I did so I was sure he would be able to determine what this unusual scent was.

We turned right out of the elevator and walked down the hallway to the last apartment at the end. The floor around the broken door was littered with tiny pieces of plaster and we had to step around that debris to examine the three piles of ash and two partially melted iron pikes on the floor. These ashes did not belong to a vampire; the scent was all-wrong so it must be what was left of the Weres. The fairy's scent was stronger here, so I bent down to explore the faint aroma more fully. I had been right, there was something different about this scent; it was unlike that of any other fae I had ever encountered, and I had run into my fair share of fae in the last few years.

I stood up and surveyed the room, two more piles of ash were present, definitely vampire remains and beside one of the piles was a small bloodstain on the carpet. I crouched down and sniffed once more, but was once again overwhelmed by the disgusting urine scent. Disgusted, I took a page out of Eric's book, wet my finger and rubbed it on the dried blood, sniffed it to make sure it was urine free and then licked it from my finger. I let the blood roll around on my tongue for a few moments and then I stood bolt upright. Stackhouse blood! It wasn't an exact match, the human side of the blood had only part of the Stackhouse flavor I was familiar with, but that combined with the small trace of fairy I recalled from Jason and Sookie's blood made me think of them. This blood didn't belong to either of them, but it was a close relative's at the very least.

Possibilities ran through my mind. Could this human with a fairy heritage have helped to kill the vampires and Weres to avoid being relocated? Was the injury to the human that this blood had come from the reason that the unusually scented fae inside this apartment had struck out and killed the relocation team? Or was another participant involved here that I could not smell; similar to the night Sookie was murdered?

I looked at the ashes, and how had they been killed? I'd never seen remains like this without a fire being involved and there was no sign of a fire here. Could a fairy be this powerful? The thought shook me more than I would ever admit to anyone.

My phone vibrated, alerting me that Eric was calling. "Yes, Majesty," I was in the presence of underlings, I had to be formal, and I didn't want them to hear our conversation so I walked quickly to the stairwell and closed the fireproof door.

"Return to Louisiana," Eric said, "I will join you in a few days."

I could already feel his focused intent and his protective evasiveness through our maker-child bond and so I knew what he was doing. I hated when he tried to protect me by cutting me out of dangerous situations. I didn't know what Niall had told him or what he was about to do, but it was clear from his emotions that it would be treacherous and so I should be by his side.

"Eric, don't do this alone, I can help you."

"No." He said simply.

"Where are you going?" I asked cautiously, knowing that I was crossing the line by doing so.

"Maui. I will speak with you tomorrow night," he said and ended the call.

I stared at the phone. Hawaii. It was always Hawaii that came up whenever something that made me think of Sookie arose. I has seen a woman who looked like a mix between Sookie and a fairy in Hawaii, the friends of Trent, the football playing Were had told me that the woman, Jeanne and her friends were from Maui, but when I had taken a vacation there with Miriam the next year, I found no trace of anyone fitting her description although I searched through much of the island. Trent, himself had no memory at all of meeting the woman, it was as though he had been glamoured or perhaps he simply suffered a concussion as was common with football players. I gleaned nothing of value from him except for the phone numbers of three women identified only by their first names from his phone's memory. Two of the numbers checked out to be friends of his and were definitely not the woman I had seen on TV and the other, under the name of Jeanne, was a disconnected line. When I inquired as to the history of the phone number, I found that it belonged to a disconnected prepaid phone.

A woman who looked like the mix between Sookie and a fairy in Hawaii…a glamoured Were with long blond hair…a disconnected phone number belonging to a woman by the name of Jeanne…unusual deaths after an altercation with an oddly scented fairy in an apartment in Oakland.

I wonder…I rushed back to Sebastian who was waiting for me, "What name is this apartment registered under? Who owns it?" I asked staidly, but inside I was thrumming with anticipation. This could be the piece of the puzzle I had been missing.

I waited as Sebastian's second looked in a file he had been carrying, "Jeanne Holden from Hana, Maui."

That's it! I nodded, "We will deal with this matter," I said and ran from the building. I would catch a plane to this Hana, Maui. I needed to know what was going on and what this woman and the human with her had to do with Sookie, other than clearly being a relative. Maybe both were her relatives; one tasted like her and the other looked like her. It wouldn't shock me to find that Sookie's relatives had taken part in planning or carrying out her murder; the fairies had been interfering with her and her family since they had the misfortune to interbreed with Niall's son. It would explain the magic that had been performed at the site of her death if the fairy involved were powerful enough to turn vampires and Weres into ashes.

Niall…Niall must have found out her name from the same records and sent Eric to find her since he himself could not set foot on Maui, but Eric didn't know what this woman could do to vampires. The image of the piles of ashes flashed before my eyes and I ran even faster. As I ran, I booked a flight on a private jet to Hana using my own savings. I usually pulled from Eric's but I didn't want to risk him knowing that I was on my way until it was too late or instead of telling me to go back home, he would order me to do so and then I would have no choice but to comply.

I mentally created a hundred messages to send him, but knew that each one would clue Eric into my intent; he knew me too well, so my warning would have to be delivered in person if I wanted even a small chance of being able to fight by his side.

He would be traveling on his personal plane, so I was sure that I could arrive at least around the same time as he did and the company I called had informed me that larger airplanes like Eric's couldn't land in Hana, so I would have a small head start.

As I arrived at the airport, I could sense that Eric's flight had just taken off. He was on his way. I removed my shoes, throwing them into the gutter; they were ruined already, and ran barefoot to the waiting jet.

Once I had boarded the plane and the door was closed, I took a deep breath to make sure that I was the only passenger on this plane, a simple precautionary move. The scents I caught had my fangs running out and my body tensing as I readied to defend myself; they were an exact match to the scents I had caught in the hallway…but less diluted so I could catch both scents clearly. I quickly realized that these were old scents; the odd fairy and the human had been on this very airplane, probably two nights ago after the fight at the apartment.

I looked at the clock; it was only 10:30. The flight would take five and a half hours, but I would gain two of those hours back with the time change, giving me over four hours to find this fairy before Eric did and slow him down enough to listen to me about the dangers.

Both Eric and I would need shelter so I used my phone to search for hotels in this remote town of Hana and found an acceptable hotel and booked the only available room that was light tight. I was informed that the other had just been booked. As usual, Eric and I were on the same wavelength.

I looked at my phone. Five more hours…300 minutes…18,000 seconds…I sat on the edge of my seat and waited as each one of those seconds ticked by. I had to get to Hana and to this fairy and her human before Eric went into this situation completely blind. He didn't know it, but he was running into a potential deathtrap.

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S~ Fourty-eight hours earlier

My head snapped up and I dropped my shields as a loud banging sounded on the apartment door and before I had a chance to process everything I was hearing, I flew into protective mode, grabbed Hunter's hands and pulled him off the couch and into the back room.

"What, what is it?" Hunter asked and I felt him drop his shields as I covered his mouth with my hand and shook my head, terror running through me like ice water.

They can hear everything we say Hunter…listen, I urged him silently and removed my trembling hand.

Outside the door of our usually vacant Oakland, California apartment stood three Weres and…I didn't recognize the other two minds. The rate of my breathing increased with every passing second as I dug a little deeper trying to discern what was out there. I had no doubt that these two minds belonged to supernatural beings; they were unfamiliar to me and I couldn't catch what they were thinking all the time in their hazy minds, just a few groupings of words here and there and a spattering of pictures as well.

Vampires! Hunter exclaimed mentally.

Vampires? No. I can't hear vampires. I tapped into Hunter's mind; he was sensing three snarled minds, just like I was and two empty spaces that definitely belonged to vampires. I closed my eyes for a moment, overwhelmed with the potential risks associated with hearing vampire minds, but quickly compartmentalized those concerns for another time. Right now I needed to use every tool I had at my disposal to figure out what the hell was going on. Five supes were banging on our door so I would make good use this potentially disastrous skill.

Listen to the Weres, I'll try to hear the vampires, I told Hunter. I closed my eyes again, this time with a focused purpose and listened as hard as I could to the vampire minds. I found one that was dominant over the other and honed in, pushing past the noise and haze to find her thoughts. My eyes flew open as I heard what she was thinking. I looked at Hunter and it was clear that he had heard similar thoughts from the Weres.

He grabbed my arm and shoved me behind him into the corner of the room as the banging became louder, Stay there, he demanded. He then ran to each window, threw up the blinds and looked desperately for a safe way down from the four-story height of the apartment, but I knew there was no escape. We would have to fight, if that's what this came down to.

He glanced back at me in terror, so I took a deep breath to steady myself, I would not let anything hurt him. I then hurried to the closet and pulled out two daggers, both made of mixed silver and iron and handed one to him. He clenched his jaw, nodded at me as he accepted the dagger and handled it with ease and then we both made sure our silver jewelry was in place and secured. I licked my dry lips and tried to control my breathing, we had trained for this moment for years.

"Fae," a deep voice resounded from the hallway outside our apartment, the dominant Were was speaking. "Fae, we've been sent by an emissary of Niall Brigant."

Niall sent them? I looked at Hunter and we both listened, he was telling the truth, they had been sent by…by Eric! Eric Northman who was now the King of Louisiana. My mouth fell open. Eric had Weres and vampires rounding up fae in California in the name of my Great-Grandfather? Anger rivaled with the already overwhelming fear coursing through my body. Niall would never allow this, what the hell was going on? Had another vampire/fae war begun?

"We're to take you to Claude Brigant, he and the other fae are gathering at his house. We won't hurt you."

Yeah right, they didn't plan on hurting me but they had two vampires with them. What did they expect the vampires to do when they smelled fairy blood? Were these guys insane? I checked on the vampires, they seemed calm enough but they were extremely focused in on my scent; there was no way this would end well.

You're right, this will get out of control if they smell you but they know we're here and they won't leave until we resolve this with them. I'll go tell them that you were here but that you just left. My fairy scent is so subtle they won't be able to smell it. They won't hurt me.

No! I ran to the door and stood with my back against it to keep him in this room with me.

Hunter walked over to me and placed his hands on my was now just under six feet tall and so I had to look up about three or four inches to meet his eyes. What else are we going to do? They'll break the door down if we don't open it and we have to leave here eventually. I'd rather do this on our terms. They won't hurt me, he repeated.

No Hunter! I ordered as he yelled out, "Tell the vamps to leave and we'll talk."

Damn it. I grabbed the front of his shirt and placed my forehead on his shoulder as I saw the security of our lives begin to crack and crumble to the ground.

"Sorry, no can do, packmaster's orders. Now, if you fae weren't causing so much trouble around here, maybe we could accommodate you. The best we can do is to have the vamps step back a little so we can talk face to face," he offered.

I looked up at Hunter again, the vamps were moving back to the elevator. I nodded at Hunter, accepting the inevitable and knowing that I could glamour the Weres if I had to once I could see them, and so we slowly walked to the door, monitoring the situation outside carefully.

I stood back a few feet from the door and Hunter reached over and opened it and then stepped back next to me. I looked up at two huge male Weres, one blond and one redhead who were standing at the door, each brandishing iron pikes in one hand, a female was behind them with a bright blue squirt gun. I was sure that I knew what was in the gun, and it wouldn't work on me, the iron was a dud as well, but the pike would definitely cause serious damage to both Hunter and I. Hunter huffed and stepped in front of me when he saw the iron pikes, I pulled him back until he was beside me again.

"What do you want?" I asked the head Were.

"I already told you."

"We're not going anywhere with you, we don't even live here. We'll be out of town by tonight, alright," Hunter said firmly.

"No, it's not alright, we have our orders, we are to take you to Brigant's place," he stepped forward as he spoke, allowing all three Weres to cross the threshold. They sniffed at my scent and the female's eyes grew wide, her mind was so snarled with fear that I couldn't catch what had her so scared, but she mumbled, "That's no fairy," and she simultaneously squirted me in the face with lemon juice and yelled over her shoulder, "Come in Daria and Mitch."

"No!" I screamed, brushing the juice from my stinging eyes, but the vamps were both in the room before I regained my vision. "I rescind your invitation! I rescind your invitation!" I screamed as Hunter grabbed me and hauled me back farther from the short handsome male and the taller, older looking female vampire, placing his body between us; but my words had no effect. What the hell?

We all looked at each other, dumbfounded and then the vampires smiled. The look in their eyes was horribly familiar; they were both being pulled into bloodlust by my scent. I stood still, staring at the hungry vamps as their fangs ran out, afraid that any move would set them off. You try rescinding their invitation, I urged Hunter silently.

"I rescind your invitation, Daria" Hunter said with meaning, but again there was no effect. Why? What was going on?

The vampires continued to move closer and the Weres, clearly aware of the gravity of the situation, moved to step in front of the vampires, a foolish but appreciated effort.

"Calm down Mitch, you know your orders, we can't hurt her," the dominant Were warned.

"Not just a fairy…more," Mitch whispered.

The female Were said, "See, she's not a fairy, she's something else, can't you smell it? The lemon juice didn't even hurt her."

No shit Sherlock, I thought to myself, if the lemon juice had worked you would be vacuuming me up with a dust buster by now. Hunter laughed at my thoughts despite or probably because of the tension.

The vampires were inching closer, bumping into the Weres now. I grabbed Hunter's hand, with the hopes of making it to the door while they distracted one another.

"She's going to teleport!" yelled the female vampire, "Stop them!"

The danger the vampires posed was forgotten in a split second as everyone lunged at us, and both Hunter and I reacted defensively, releasing our hands and relying on our years of training. I dove to the left, rolled and came back up with my weapon ready, I struck the female in the side, ignoring the disturbing feeling of warm blood on my hand. I withdrew my weapon and responded to the oncoming male Were who was now furious after seeing me take down his partner. His eyes were glowing with anger and he was trying not to shift. He lunged at me with his lead pike, but I jumped aside, kicked him in the stomach and struck his arm with my shoulder and forearms, knocking his arm and the pike to his inside and wrenched the offending iron out of his hands. I used his own weapon to take out one of his knees and then smashed the length of the bar into his stomach, knocking him to the ground. My moves were deliberate and I made sure that each injury I caused would be easy for a Were to recover from. They were only trying to do their job, but we needed to get out of here and away from these vamps.

That was my last sane thought because any higher-level cognitive functioning ceased when I heard the roar of pain coming from Hunter. My head snapped up and I saw that the male vampire had jumped on him and his mouth was attached to Hunter's shoulder, having been just barely deterred from his neck by his silver necklace. He was feeding furiously and the large Were was doubled over in the corner, blood dripping from his head, so I was Hunter' s only hope.

My world shattered at that moment and I lost all control as I saw my son being hurt; I swear that there must have been blood in my eyes because all I could see was red. The female vamp dove at me, her mouth open wide and I struck once again with my dagger, but this time I was the slowest of the pair. She knocked my hand to the side and slammed me to the ground, knocking the dagger to the floor. I threw up my hands, making contact with her face and screamed as I tried to push her off, but she only growled and moved closer to me.

Instinct guided me; I pushed with my power rather than my muscles and suddenly she was gone. I didn't give a shit what had happened to her. I jumped up, recovered my dagger from the floor and ruthlessly stabbed the feeding vampire in his neck and then kicked him in his stunned and bloody face, again using my power as much as or more than my strength, trying to dislodge him. It worked, but not in the way I expected, because instead of rolling off Hunter, he just dissolved from the head down in the time it took me to blink and was gone, just like the female but this time I saw tiny bits of dust floating to the ground to rest in a pile next to Hunter.

"What the fuck are you?" the female Were asked breathlessly, as she limped to the door, holding her side. The males were also up and moving; they were going to go to their packmaster and would tell him what they had seen me do.

I connected with each of their minds, I had never tried to glamour more than one person at a time, but I was sure that I could stop them and make them forget what they had seen. They were backing away from me quickly now so I had to hurry, I ran after them as I tried to push my influence onto them and yelled, "Stop!" while reaching out toward them in a futile motion as though I could drag them back to me. Suddenly the walls and ceiling imploded causing tiny pieces of plaster to rain down on me from all sides. I stumbled forward a few feet, but they weren't there.

What had happened? Where were they? I brushed some plaster from my cheek and noticed that my hand came back bloody. I looked at my hands and saw to my horror that my palms were both raw and seeping blood but already healing around the edges. Oh my God…I did this? No, no, no, no, no. I ran over to the exact spot where they had been standing and found nothing but small piles of ashes and two partially melted iron bars. I fell to my knees with my fist tightly pressed to my mouth, holding in a hysterical scream of horror.

What had I done? I hadn't meant to kill them; I just wanted them to stop…just to stop. They hadn't planned on hurting me; they didn't understand the whole situation and how dangerous taking me to the other fae could be. They had actually tried to protect me, and I had killed them with my…what had I done?

A small noise drew my attention away from the horror of my actions. "Hunter!" I jumped up and ran to him. He was pale and weak. "Honey, I'm here, I'm so sorry," I whispered as I pulled up the sleeve of his t-shirt to reveal the large wound caused by the rabid vampire. I didn't even think, I forced two of my teeth to become fangs and brought my wrist toward my mouth, but Hunter smacked my arm away.

"Don't you even fucking think about doing that, I'm fine," he growled at me. I'd never heard him swear at me angrily before and it really caught my attention and I forced my teeth to return to their regular shape.

"Hunter, you're hurt and we have to get out of here! You can't move around like that," I half-screamed in my terror.

"No way, you promised me," he said, glaring at me.

What could I do? I looked around the room and gasped as I saw the dagger on the floor. I ran over, picked it up and brought it back to Hunter and I ran my fingers along the blade of the knife, scooping up the blood. It was a mixture of Were and vampire blood, but as I rubbed it into Hunter's wound I knew I had been right, it was enough vampire blood to heal him. I made sure to get every single drop of blood off the knife that I could and then I knelt at his side and watched as his skin began to knit together. It was really amazing to watch, I had never seen a human healing before; I had always been the one who was inured.

"That's really disgusting. You know that, don't you? Now I've got bits of that fucker floating around in me." Hunter said, his voice stronger as he looked around the room. "What happened? Where is everyone?"

I stared at him, unable to form words. Instead I just showed him. Rather then being upset as I was, Hunter nodded his head curtly and said, "Good."

"What do you mean, 'good'?" I asked incredulously, "I killed them Hunter! I killed five individuals, three who just wanted to keep us safe as they brought us to some crazy fairy detention camp and two who were sent by…they were sent by… Holy shit Hunter! Eric sent them! He'll know something happened when he doesn't hear from them, we have to get out of here right now!"

"It's night," said Captain Obvious.

"Yes, but we have to go anyway, there's no way we can stay here; others might be on their way. I'll call for a private jet to be ready for us at the airport, hopefully we can leave right away." This was one of our plans that we had rehearsed time and time again since Hunter went to college; we had contracts with several private jet companies that could be ready to take off within a matter of hours and hopefully faster than that tonight.

"Okay, let's go," Hunter got up slowly, wavering only a little. I urged him to sit back down on the couch, amazed with all that had happened in the short time since we were sitting here celebrating his twenty-first birthday and admiring the new identification we had just picked up from the PO Box.

I ran to the kitchen to get him a big glass of water, it was all we had in the apartment, and made him drink it down as I called for the flight and threw our few belongings into our backpacks. We always traveled light and carried bags that allowed our hands to be free. It was just an ingrained habit after years of defensive training.

When he had finished his second glass of water, I carefully pulled him to his feet and to the door. "Let's go."

"Do you really think someone might come here looking for us?" Hunter asked.

"I do," I said desperately.

Hunter walked back into the apartment and began to open all the windows, I immediately understood what he was doing and ran to the back room to get those windows too. When I returned to the living room I heard a sound that reminded me of rain falling on long grass. I looked for the source of the sound and yelped and then covered my eyes when I realized what it was. "Hunter! What are you doing?" I said, in full on Mom mode now.

He had his pants unzipped and was peeing on the carpet and couch in a wide pattern. He went to the back room and I guess he did the same in there.

When he returned he shrugged his shoulders, "I had to go and I figured that smell would cover our scents pretty well. I sure wouldn't want to stick my nose in that," he said with a smirk.

Only my son. I shook my head at the wonder that was Hunter and then gestured to the door, "Are you ready now?" I asked pointedly.

He nodded and we stood at the door and listened as carefully as we could, but neither of us detected anything out of place. I opened the door, deliberately not looking at the piles of ash on the floor and hurried him into the hallway, down the elevator and out the door to our rental car.

I drove as fast as I could without drawing attention to ourselves and we were at the airport in thirty minutes.

We left the rental car in the parking lot, I would call the company to pick it up later and we ran to the hanger. The plane was already on the tarmac waiting for us, as we had been told it would be. We ran through the parking lot and alongside the hanger but Hunter suddenly came to an abrupt halt and I careened into him, knocking him down and tumbling on top of him in a tangled pile.

I looked up from my prone position on the ground and into the eyes of a beautiful brown haired fairy. He was staring down at me with a large sword in his hand, his eyes wide with tension. I screamed and tried to scramble in front of Hunter but he rolled me aside, jumped up and dove at the fairy. I jumped up, pulling my dagger from the pocket of my backpack but before Hunter could reach him, the fairy popped away.

I grabbed Hunter's hand again and pulled him to the airplane, looking every which way, expecting to be attacked at any second, but somehow we made it without running into anyone else. We clambered up the stairs and told the pilot to leave as soon as possible. I helped Hunter down onto one of the two couches lining the sides of the small jet and and I stood guard over him as the plane taxied and took off. Hunter's wound had re-opened and his blood loss had taken a toll on him, so he closed his eyes and was out within a few seconds.

Once we were about twenty minutes into the flight, I figured we were over the ocean and I relaxed marginally. I didn't have any proof that we were any safer from fairies here than over the land, but I felt more secure.

I sat down and took what felt like my first breath in hours. The breath turned into gasps for air and then into sobs as the shock, grief and fear broke through my defenses and drained me of all my courage and energy. I curled up on the couch opposite from the one I had placed Hunter on, wrapped my arms around my head and tried to block out the world. I still couldn't believe what had happened, what I had done.

I felt Hunter pick up my head and shoulders and wrap his arm around my trunk, holding me close to him, I cried myself out wrapped in my grown son's arms.

"You had to do it. You know that," he said with the certainty of a young man full of testosterone and way too little experience and humility.

"No, I didn't Hunter, I could have modified their memories. I didn't have to kill them, but I…I lost control, I was too scared and angry that you had been hurt and…whatever this is in me…this monster that I am…"

"Shut-up," he said, I stared at him in disbelief, "You can blame yourself all you want, but I don't want to hear it. What you did saved our lives. Do you really think that you could have glamoured all of them before one of them caught on to what you were doing and attacked us? Yes, you have to work on disciplining your powers, but you did what you had to do to survive and I for one am grateful. Those vampires were going to kill us, the rest was just a series of events that neither of us could control."

"Those three probably had children, wives, a husband, parents and…"

Hunter cut me off, "So do you and if I have to choose them or you, I choose you."

His statement reminded me of thoughts I used to have years ago before I left Bon Temps and my head swam. I was back at the beginning, right where I was before. I hadn't fixed anything; all I had done was buy us some time until Hunter had grown up enough to have a chance of defending himself.

I should be relieved that he was grown, that's what I had wanted all these years, but now that the danger was here, I needed more time. I wanted our security and our lives back. I didn't want us to constantly be fighting for our lives again, Hunter was still so young, he shouldn't be entering this dangerous world, he hadn't even accepted his pa yet, so he was as fragile as I had been before I left Bon Temps. At least I could heal from any injuries I received in a fight.

Anger began to replace my more fragile emotions and I sat up more, "What in the world were you thinking by jumping in front of me when we saw the fairy? He could have killed you."

He raised one eyebrow at me, I withdrew from the hauntingly familiar expression, "He could have killed you too, he wasn't looking at me, he was looking at you."

"So? I never want you to do that again. Do you understand me Hunter? Never put yourself in danger for me. That's not what I want."

He scoffed at me, "Then it sucks for you, 'cause it's what I want. There's no way in hell I'm going to stand by and watch someone hurt you, that's not how you raised me. We learned how to fight side by side, protecting each other. Was that all a show? All a lie?"

"No," but now that the danger was real, I didn't want it anymore.

Hunter read my thoughts. "Too bad."

"Damn it Hunter you're not strong enough! You're not ready for these battles, they're my battles and I don't want you fighting them for me. I want you to go back to college or go somewhere else and get as far away from me as possible. They're rounding up fairies! Eric is sending Weres and vampires to round up fae…what is he doing? What will happen to them and where is Niall in all of this?"

"I don't know, but I'm taking a leave of absence from school and sticking around until I'm sure you're safe."

I jumped up, frustrated and scared. "You don't understand Hunter, I don't think this is an isolated event, and even if it was going to be, it isn't anymore. Don't you get it? I murdered two vampires and three Weres who were doing official business for a King and a packmaster. They aren't going to let this go and I wouldn't expect them to."

Hunter broke from our argument and was lost in thought for a minute. "Do you really think they'll find out what happened in the apartment?"

Terror ran through my chest, "Yes. That group must have found us by following my scent, there's no reason to think that others won't follow the same trail."

"What name did you purchase it under?"

I tried to swallow but failed, "Jeanne Holden," I squeaked.

"How about the fairy? Do you think he'll figure out where this plane was going?"

The terror in my chest became even more intense, "Probably," I whispered. Our eyes met and we both reached for our cell phones at the same time, I was slightly faster since it was closer to me. I hit speed dial and waited anxiously for my call to be answered.

"Hello?"

"Eva, it's Jeanne, put your Mom or Dad on the line right away please, I need to speak with them."

"Sure, are you alright?"

"Yes, but something's happened, please hurry." There was silence for a few seconds before I heard one of my favorite voices. The dichotomy between the comfort her voice gave me and the fear that was devouring me was overwhelming.

"Jeanne? What's going on? Are you okay?"

"Yes Macey, but we had some trouble in Oakland. We're on our way home right now, flying into Hana on a private jet. I need you to do a few things for me. Just listen, okay."

"Okay but you're scaring me," she said and I could hear it in her voice.

"I'm sorry," and I was, more than I could say, "we need you to drop my car off at the airfield and leave my keys under the driver's mat. Then go home and pack a week's worth of things you and your family might need and go over to our place and bunker down in the safe house. Don't lock the door, just close it and wait for us. We'll be arriving around two in the morning and will join you as soon as we get there."

"Jeanne, what's happening?"

"Hunter and I ran into some danger and we're afraid that it's going to follow us home. I want everyone who's close to us to be tucked away so they can't hurt you or try to force information out of you. Call Pua and make sure she comes too, no one else knows enough about us to be in danger." I checked with Hunter and he urged me on, "Get over there as quickly as you can and stay inside since it's dark already."

"Oh my God," she whispered, just having put two and two together to understand the type of danger we were in. She took a deep breath, "Do you need anything from your house?"

I looked at Hunter, we had a good supply of weapons, food, and clothing in the safe house, he shook his head, "No, we have everything we need."

"Okay Jeanne, we'll be waiting for you. Please be careful."

"We'll try," I said. I couldn't lie and I wanted her to know how very serious this situation was.

"We love you both," she said, her voice cracking with emotion.

"We love you all too. Be quick Macey. Bye."

I hung up the phone and looked back at Hunter, my despair was crushing me. "We can't go back there, we can't bring this down on them. I'll talk with the pilot and get him to turn around and go somewhere else." I was desperate to keep dangers away from home.

"It won't matter, the original flight plan was for Hana. If anyone is following us, they'll go there no matter where we are. We have to go now or we're leaving them completely vulnerable." Shit, he was right. "Plus," he continued, "if your suspicions are right, fairies won't be able to go to Maui because of the volcanic soil and the iron, so all we'll have to deal with will be vampires and Weres."

I gave a desperate laugh. "Well, at least they're more predictable than the fairies," he said reasonably.

He was right, but it was still beyond awful. "Hunter…I want you to promise me that you'll stay out of harms way, and only enter a fight if our friends are in danger. I'll hold my own."

"Fuck that," he answered, "then I want you to hide in the basement since you're the one they're looking for."

We glared at each other for a long while and then answered simultaneously.

"No." Hunter said flatly.

"I can't." I whispered.

Tears filled my eyes again as I realized that there wasn't anything I could do to keep him from fighting with me, he was determined to stand by my side…my son, my cousin, my friend, my heart, my purpose, my life.

I placed both of my hands on either side of his strong face, the face of a man, not a boy anymore and looked into his dark eyes for a long while, "It's beginning," I whispered and then I pulled him into my embrace and held the most important part of my life close to me while I still could.