The strong aroma of coffee woke Sookie from her peaceful slumber. She opened her eyes to see that it was already late morning. Quickly she jumped out of her bed, running to her bedroom door to fling it open. Casting a mental net out, she was able to tell that her brother had already arrived.
"Sorry I slept in Jase." She yelled down to him. "I'll be down in just a few."
Sookie didn't even wait to hear his reply and made her way to her bathroom to get herself ready for the day. Since they only had plans to go grocery shopping, she dressed in just jeans with a Bon Temps football hoodie, wanting to be as comfortable as possible.
Godric could feel that the sun was still up so he wondered why he was awake now. He knew that vampires could awaken in the middle of the day for short periods, but that called for a very dire situation. With his eyes still closed he searched the bonds he had with Eric and Sookie, finding them both fine. He could tell that Eric was dead for the day and that Sookie was safe but not within hearing range, she must have already left to go shopping with her brother.
"Well are you just going to lay there with your eyes closed all day and ignore your guest, or are you going to stop being rude and acknowledge me?"
Godric froze, he had no idea that he hadn't been alone down here. But how had someone gotten in? Curious to know who his intruder was, he opened his eyes while sitting up. The figure standing watching him with an easy smile was not one he would have ever guessed.
After she had gone downstairs and had a small breakfast, Sookie left with Jason and Hayden in the borrowed SUV that Godric had told them to use during the day if they had anywhere to go.
Jason gave Hayden directions to the store Sookie wanted to go to and they set off. The drive was spent with Sookie going over her lists again, adding last minute things as she thought of them, while Jason and Hayden talked sports.
They were walking around the large department store buying all the household products Sookie needed when Hayden felt eyes on them. He tried finding who he felt that was following them but wasn't able to pin down the person with how crowded the store was. It wasn't until they made their way to the laundry soap aisle that the person let themselves be known.
"I didn't think vamps let their pets out to do their own shopping."
Sookie was so lost in her thoughts that she had no idea that someone had walked up behind them. Turning at the statement and seeing who had spoken made Sookie question what she ever did wrong that the ones that used to be so close to her, now are the ones that seemed to hate her.
Godric looked at the figure in his room with wide eyes as he thought of something to say.
A chuckle brought him out of his thoughts. "Not even a chair for company to sit on, but then again I'm guessing you didn't count on having much company down here right?"
Looking down at him in amusement was Sookie and Jason's Gran- Adele Stackhouse.
"Hello Godric. I'm sorry we didn't really have time before to get introduced. I'm Adele Stackhouse, or you can call me Gran if you want, we are family now."
Still feeling unsettled at being awake during the day, Godric could only nod his head at her.
Feeling sorry for the vampire that no doubt was feeling out of sorts, Adele figured it was time to go easy on him.
"You're awake because I called you. There are a few things we need to talk about."
Godric found his voice as he gave himself a mental nudge to snap out of it. "You need to talk to me? What about Sookie or Jason?"
"Yes dear, I need to talk with you. I'll have a chance to talk to them again at a later time. I am limited on the amount of times I can come, I have to try and plan them as best I can."
He nodded his head to let her know that he understood as he wondered what she needed to talk to him about.
"I'm not able to stay for long so it would be best if I just told you everything I needed to and then when I'm done, if you need to and we have time, you can ask any questions you have. The most important thing is I need you to get Sookie caught up on super natural protocol and laws. She will be required by the Ancient Pythoness herself to go to the summit in Rhodes, so it is up to you to make sure she is ready."
Godric was floored when he heard that Sookie would be personally asked by the Ancient Pythoness, it could either be seen as a huge honor or a very bad thing to be noticed by her.
"I also wanted to talk to you about something that most likely will cause some trouble very soon. I'm sure Sookie has told you that she has a cousin named Hadley?"
"She has, we discussed her and wondered about her, why didn't a family tattoo go to her?" He asked.
Adele nodded her head gravely. "I thought that might come up. Hadley didn't get one because even though she has the blood of the fae in her, she holds no claim to it. She disowned herself from her family and in the eyes of the fae, her vow to herself that she was no longer a part of this family will forever hold strong."
Godric felt some anger at the human that pushed aside her family, even though she didn't know about the fae part, she still knew of her human relatives.
"I brought her up because she is the reason that the vampire queen knows of Sookie, she is the reason Bill came after her. Hadley lives with the queen now as her favorite pet. But she left behind a child that she had with her husband. The husband has fully custody of the child but will soon seek out Hadley for help. If that happens, the queen will take the child. And that is an outcome we in the Summerlands hope to change."
"Wait, just wait. How do you know all of this? Why do the fae in the Summerlands care about a human child? And why are you telling all of this to me and not Sookie or Jason?" Godric asked, very confused.
"All good questions." Adele said as she smiled at the clearly agitated vampire. "I know what I know because the royal seer can talk with the fae in the Summerlands, and they in turn tell me. Sookie is fae so they all want to help her as much as possible. To the fae, family is all important. I'm sure you have seen that Sookie and Jason have a very strong sibling bond? Both of them were also very close to me. It's the fae in them. They form very strong bonds with those they see as family. As to Hadley's child, well he is not fully human. He is just like my Sookie."
She waited for that to sink in and wasn't surprised when Godric understand almost right away.
"Yes Godric, Hadley's son Hunter was born with the fae spark. He can also read minds. As a child it is very hard to control, he answers thoughts instead of what comes out of people's mouths. This will cause his father to get in contact with Hadley, who in turn will tell the queen about her son to try and get in better with the queen in hopes that she will turn her soon. So do you see why I'm telling you?" She finished with a very pointed look.
Godric's thoughts spun a thousand miles an hour at this. He was sure of one major thing, the queen could not get her hands on the child. He was just a child, the queen is viscous and cruel, to bring a child anywhere near her was just insane. Not to mention that this was Sookie's relative and had the fae spark. Godric wasn't stupid, he knew what Adele meant for him to do. But was he ready? What would Sookie think of this?!
He stopped thinking at that thought, he knew what Sookie would think and what she would want him to do. No, what she would want them to do.
"You want us to go get the child don't you Adele? You want him living with us or at least somewhere close and under my protection."
Adele beamed at hm. "Such a smart mate my granddaughter has. Oh and child? It's Gran, not Adele."
Godric wanted to scoff at the thought of her calling him a child. But instead he sent her a smile back. "Ok Gran, I'll talk to Sookie about it tonight and see what she wants to do."
"I feel the pull to go, but before I go there is also another big piece of news but it is one that I am sure you and your child have already thought of. One of you are going to have to become King, the overthrow of Sopie-Anne will happen and it would be best for everyone if one of you take up the throne."
Godric's mouth dropped open as she dropped that bomb and disappeared into thin air, going back to her place in the Summerlands. Of course he had already thought about just killing the Queen but this was coming from Gran, who heard it from the dead fae, who heard it from the royal seer. That meant it was more than a passing thought, it was going to happen. Guess he had to get together with Eric and start planning sooner than he thought. He hoped Eric was up to the task of being King, because Godric knew that just being the mate to the royal heir was going to keep him busy enough.
Jason glared at Tara. Who the fuck did she think she was calling his sister a pet?!
Before Jason could get too worked up, Sookie tugged on his arm and gave him a look to chill.
Sookie then faced Tara herself and tried to seem indifferent to her words, even though they hurt deeply.
"Look Tara, we are just out buying things we need just like everyone else. We really don't need your negative bullshit, so how about you just go on your way and forget you saw us. Trust me when I say that I want nothing more than to do the same."
Tara's mouth dropped open, stunned that the normally nice Sookie had just told her off and swore. Tara could count on one hand how many times she had heard Sookie curse in the past. Tara knew that it was all thanks to the vampires, she knew that they would end up pushing her sweet friend down a sinner's path.
Sookie had heard enough in her ex-friends head, if she didn't get Jason and Hayden out of there before Tara opened her mouth again, they would cause a big scene.
She sadly shook her head as she addressed her childhood friend for what felt like the last time. "You forget I can hear what you think Tara. And you know what? Your judgement of me? It's irrelevant. And honestly? So are you now. I don't know what happened to you, or why you are suddenly so judgemental of me but I don't really care. If you had been a true friend to me, you wouldn't be acting this way. That makes this real easy. Good bye Tara, I truly wish you the best."
Sookie took a deep breath, let it out and walked away from the girl who once promised to always be her best friend, to grow old with her and never leave her side.
Godric was already up when the group got back from shopping. He was outside waiting by Sookie's door before the SUV was even in park. Opening her door, he smiled down at her before leaning in to kiss her cheek.
"Hello min kära. Did you enjoy yourself today? I figured you would have been back before now. Did you buy out every store?" Godric gently teased her.
Sookie accepted his help out of the car and wrapped her arms around him for the hug she had wanted since she got up that morning. "Mmm." She hummed happily, content to be in his arms. "We had to stop at a few different stores to get everything I needed for the house, sorry it took so long."
"You're here now, that's all that matters. I missed you today." Godric admitted, speaking the last part softly in her ear. "Let me help the other two with the bags, you go on inside. We need to talk, something came up today."
Godric went to the back of the SUV and grabbed some bags with Jason and Hayden, as he did he pushed a thought to Sookie. "Sookie, I need you to look inside Hayden's head to see how loyal to us he is. We need to know before I tell you what happened today, if we can not then I will have him go home for the night."
Sookie gave a sharp, quick nod to let him know that she got the message and with a slight grimace dove into Hayden's head. Going this deep in someone's head really made her feel rude, but she understood that this was important. Godric wasn't asking to find out what her guard's favorite color was or something silly, he wanted to know if he was loyal. If that wasn't a good reason to do something she normally hated doing, Sookie had no idea what was. It was different from just hearing the persons current thoughts, as she heard those all the time unless she worked very hard to try to block them. However, digging in a person's head and sifting through thoughts and memories? That was hard and a whole new ball game.
The guys had just carried in the last bag as Sookie finished up in Hayden's head. Sookie pushed them out to go sit in the living room while she took a few moments to process what she had seen in his head as she put away the cold groceries. When she was done she made her way to the guys and took a seat next to Godric.
He looked at her with a question in his eyes and she hesitated for a half a second, but in the end gave him a nod.
Godric wanted to ask what the pause was for but figured it was something he could ask later. It wouldn't be about if he wasn't loyal, he knew that Sookie would have said no if she even had the smallest doubt. They had quite a few talks about her safety, who to trust, how much to trust people and so forth, along with just how important it all really was. It took a few arguments but in the end Sookie understood how serious her life was now and that things in her life would be much more dangerous. Trust was a very huge thing when you were a royal fae, mated to a vampire, when you had a vampire queen after you and when you had a vampire ex boyfriend wanted you to be his. You could never be too careful with what got out, you didn't want it in the wrong hands to be used against you after all.
Knowing they could trust the were panther, Godric sat back and began his tale, telling them all about Adele's visit and what she told him.
So what do you think?
What does the Ancient Pythoness want with Sookie?
Will Sookie and Godric go talk to with Hunter and his dad? What do you think will happen if they do?
Do you think Tara will change her ways and be a friend to Sookie again? Will Sookie even forgive her?
What do you think Sookie read from Hayden's mind to make her pause before answering Godric?
hmmm.. so many questions! Maybe next update will give you some answers, maybe not ;)