When I woke I was feeling good as new. I disentangled myself from Eric and got out of bed. That was one of my favourite things about Eric's house; I could wake up next to him during the day thanks to light-proofing.
Now that it was day all I wanted to do was stay here. I had work tonight though so I had to be heading back to Bon Temps, even though Eric objected to the idea of me working tonight. I seem to spend half my life driving these days.
"You can afford to skip a day of work, please, take a day off to recover," he had pleaded last night. I was adamant in my refusal.
So at four o'clock I was walking into Sam's empty office at Merlotte's to stow away my purse. Merlotte's had only just opened up for the night so there was only one customer in and they weren't sitting in my section. Sam was perched on a bar stool talking to Kennedy who was bartending tonight.
"Hey Sookie, I along with the rest of Bon Temps is waiting for your fiancé to charge on in here. You can't keep in hiding forever," she called.
I laughed and took up the stool next to Sam, "I'll be sure to pass on the message."
"How was Red Ditch cher?" Sam asked.
"Oh it was fantastic," I gushed, briefly recounting my trip to my friends, leaving out a few selective details such as Hunter's telepathy.
Slowly business picked up and our conversation had to be abandoned. Calvin Norris came in with Jason in tow and a moment later Jannalynn arrived, a Were from Alcide's Shreveport pack (second in command actually) that was in a relationship with Sam. She was with another werewolf I recognised when I was Shaman for a recent trial held but I never caught her name. She had a short, choppy auburn hair and a round face with startling green eyes. Both sat in my area, Jannalynn sitting at the table closet to the door while Calvin and Jason took residence in a booth closer to the kitchen. Aside from Jason, these were the only patrons that were not regulars tonight.
And then Claude strolled in. My cousin turned heads everywhere he went, women and men alike. His looks are so beautiful that it's inhumane; it's fae. Claude had been to Merlotte's a few times before but all eyes were on him anyway. I noticed how distracted my customers where and turned to see him almost skipping over to lift and twirl me in his embrace. Oh yup, I felt jealously washing off almost everyone in droves. To top it off Dermot followed in straight afterwards and copied Claude.
"Hey Cousin, Uncle," I greeted them. No one had met Dermot, but a few recognised Claude as my cousin, but not many. Dermot was the identical of Jason except for eye colour. The bar was certainly going to react to this. Thank god my mental shields had righted themselves. I lead them to a vacant table in my area and saw some people staring, mouth agape. When they saw me looking they shook themselves and continued with their night. The Stackhouse's had hidden adult family.
Jason gripped my arm as I walked back pass, "What is the stripper and my evil identical doing here?"
He tried to whisper it but few tables close heard, damn. "I know Claude can be rude and about the grudges you hold towards Dermot but I can explain it all if you come with me. By the way, I have walked in on Claude naked accidentally when he was living with me and as awkward as that was he's god's gift to women owning and performing at Hooligans. And Dermot is not evil," I defended. Let the busybodies listening in think about that! "Excuse us for a minute Calvin."
I dragged Jason back to Sam's office and shut the door. "What the fuck?" He exclaimed, clearly confused.
"This is going to be incredibly hard to explain so you'll need to trust me for some of this. Dermot has been under some kind of evil spell for years. When the portals between the fae and human world closed he remained here. Long story short, once Claude and I discovered the curse, spell or whatever it was, we broke it. He's good really, even Eric trusts him to an extent where he permitted Dermot to enter his house once and you know how Vampire's and Fairies are together, it's lethal. Claude and Dermot are family, we don't have that much left surviving and in this world. Please Jason, don't ruin this, talk to them, get to know them."
He looked thoughtful for a moment before storming out of Sam's office. What the hell brother?
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and followed him out to get back to work. I hadn't been gone long but a few pitchers need refilling and dirty plates taken away. I glanced over at my fairy relatives to see that Jason and Calvin had joined there table. Wow, Jason actually listened to me.
"Sookie, I would love to hear about how everything went with Hunter in Red Ditch," Claude said when I asked them all if I could get them anything.
"Who's Hunter?" Calvin asked. Jason was wondering the same thing. Shit.
This wasn't how I planned on telling Jason. I had been going to tell him but I had wanted to get to know Hunter more before I did.
"Our Cousin Hadley's son before she was turned vampire and met her final death," I replied, my voice higher than normal.
A sequence of emotions splashed over Jason's face, "why didn't you tell me?" I had told him about Hadley becoming a vampire and meeting her final death soon after when I went to New Orleans to clear her apartment, meeting Amelia at the same time, but Hunter was all brand new.
"I only very recently found out he existed. He had a sleepover a few weeks ago and I saw him again on the weekend just to get to know him a bit more before he met everyone." Jason nodded to keep the peace but he was not happy. "And Claude, it was great. We went out for ice cream when I arrived and he woke up extremely early so we went for a swim in the hotel pool for an hour. It wasn't even dawn yet by the time we got back to the room," I would wait to tell him in private about our telepathic discoveries.
The bar was busier than normal for a Monday night with the addition of five Supes visiting and with three of them werewolves or were-panthers, and then Jason another were-panther, they ordered a lot. They ate a lot by themselves, in groups you needed enough food that would normally last several humans a week. Supes thoughts are harder to read though so their presence was better than a group of humans tonight.
Bill and Judith walked in together just after the peak and sat as far from the fairies as possible but still in my area. Vampires and fairies in the same room is asking for trouble, especially combined with the two-natured. I could feel the tension rising considerably and I saw Jason twitch uncomfortably; I wasn't the only one feeling it.
I was standing by Kennedy waiting for the TrueBlood's to heat when I started to vibrate with excitement. What the fuck? No, this wasn't my excitement, Eric was coming. I turned to the door in time to see Eric swagger in followed by Pam. Ok, what? Eleven Supes and a telepath in Merlotte's could not be a coincidence. I was right.
"I thought your family was hot, now that is a whole new brand of something," Kennedy muttered to me.
"That he is. Kennedy, meet my fiancé Eric Northman." I agreed, walking up to him to give him a light hello kiss. I wasn't about to put on a large act of public display of affection at work in front of everyone I knew. Well Kenned got her request fulfilled and I hadn't even had to ask Eric to come in.
She was catching flies. "You are one lucky bitch Stackhouse, swap places?"
I laughed and turned to talk to Eric. "How are you feeling lover?" he asked me quietly.
"Good as new. I had another Tylenol when I woke up but it's worn off now but I've been fine. Thank you for looking after me last night. Now unless you have suddenly become incapable of driving yourself here alone, to what is the purpose of this visit?"
"I have required some knowledge about your ah... disjointed visitor."
I immediately understood the pun. There had been a lead on the enigmatic arm.