Sookie was a Princess by blood and a Queen by might. She could deal with almost anything. She had endured a fate worse than death for so long. She had dealt with her biological father and she could most certainly handle breaking things off with Grayson. It was like a Band-Aid she supposed. One painful yank or day and it would only get easier, at least that was what she hoped. The flight time passed much too quickly. What were the odds of Her Majesty's jet being called early in the flight plan? The skies were prime flying weather too. She was in California much earlier than she would have liked, but there was no procrastinating on this. From what Fintan had told her Eric would need her to make the bond between them authentic. How she was supposed to go about it, she hadn't a clue. She could barely even focus on it at present due to the mess she had made in her hallowed state.

The jet touched down and Zee was out of his seat. Yes, he was still tagging along, but oddly his presence comforted her. He also knew something was bothering her so he was attempting to tone down his harassment.

"Just don't be yourself," The Queen told her brother. "I need this to go as smoothly as possible."

"I am charming," He said.

Sookie snorted a laugh. "Keep telling yourself that, you conceited ass!"

As they descended the steps he took her hand. "If he's important to you then you know you should have no concerns."

Damn it! Now Zee was also attributing the obvious in her to Grayson much like her father was doing. He hooked his arm through hers and they disembarked. The private tarmac had five black sedans. Anxiety that she couldn't explain descended, but she swallowed it. This would be over quickly. She scanned the cars attempting to gauge the one in which Grayson was waiting.

It was as if just thinking his name propelled Grayson out of his car. He emerged looking much the same as she did. His clothes were exactly what his cars and guards had described him being. He was just as tall and his hair was just as dark, but the smile on his face…it was something that the robot had missed when they had first met.

That look Sookie hadn't been able to decipher. It was the one that had come with Grayson's first kiss and their first goodbye. It was now evident; adoration. Grayson adored her and nothing could be worse. She told herself that she was a pessimist seeing only what she wanted to see in a situation that had already gone so awry.

That would be the worse complication ever. Surely the Hybrid King of Three didn't adore her. Even if he thought he did she was certain she could convince him otherwise. Sookie was holding onto that, and then Grayson vanished! Suddenly he was before her scooping her up in his arms. When he tried to kiss her lips the Queen turned her head into his neck, but he didn't seem to notice or care.

Meanwhile, Sookie was reeling over meeting two people in the same day who were just as fast, if not faster, than she. As Grayson held her tight, those thoughts left her mind. His scent wasn't real. She couldn't feel his heart beat, but knew that it did. The warmth of his body was absent, but she knew he was as warm as her. All the markers of his partial mortality were there they were just hidden by his amulet.

"I have missed you so very much," he murmured still holding her so close it hurt.

There was no response to that, but he didn't seem to care. The Queen just waited for Grayson to set her down on her feet once again. She hoped that look would be gone. It wasn't. It was somehow augmented while he gazed at her in wonder. This was not going to be as easy as she thought.

Sookie had been fine with disappointing him, but it wasn't until that very moment she realized she would be hurting him. The consequences of that weren't something she could calculate. She did not know him or how he would react. Most people would take money as restitution while others might demand blood. That was an unknown; an unknown that changed things. She didn't just need finesse, she needed information.

"How have you been?" She asked politely.

He smiled and kissed her lips. She didn't kiss him back, but she didn't pull away either. "Better now that you are here."

From behind her Zee cleared his throat loudly and needlessly. Happy to break free from Grayson's embrace she turned to face him and make introductions. While Sookie had moved and placed distance between them he just took her hand and kept it in his. Lysander and Grayson shared the customary vampire hello, a nod of the head, except Grayson added the spiel of being a male who wanted nothing more than to wed his sister. This was taking far longer than she liked and was getting out of hand.

"I have a request," Grayson said.

"Of course."

"Leave your people here."

Honestly, Sookie hadn't intended to go anywhere with Grayson. Her plan was to express her change of heart in the car before they even left the airport. No need getting caught in traffic after the fact. This aligned with that plan somewhat getting him alone.

"King Grayson, your request violates 'Section II, article IV' of the preliminary documents, which states that her Majesty's royal guards will not be prohibited entrance nor access to where their Queen walks and every step that she takes while visiting this state."

That had come from Eliza. She was her father's assistant because Dorian was with the King tonight at the Opening Day of The Games. Grayson smiled down at Sookie expecting her to grant him his request. She had been saying yes to him since their second meeting. Then it was because she didn't care one way or the other if she lived or died. She agreed now because she hoped the small act of kindness would make it better in the end.

The guards Zee's and hers as well as the two who had traveled with Eliza fell back. Grayson looked at Zee as if he fell into the same category as the others. He didn't and the King should know that or were full vampires the same to him? It was offensive, but Zee just smiled.

"Moonlight's burning," He called over his shoulder while he walked toward the cars. The drive was short even with Grayson talking about how beautiful California was and all the things he wanted to show her. He was entirely unperturbed by her lack of contribution to the conversation.

"We will be meeting my family," Grayson announced.

They'd stopped moving and she looked and found that they were in front of a beachside restaurant. It was as if someone had pressed that big red button that spelled doom on a disastrous level.

"Odd locale for that?" Zee chimed in.

"He doesn't know?" Grayson asked.

All Sookie managed was a jerky shake of her head. Grayson removed his amulet and the effects were instantaneous. His pulse could be heard beating in a steady languid rhythm. His scent and the color to his face were there for Zee to see. He did the last thing she expected. He let out a laugh and looked entirely relieved.

"This is why you've been acting so weird? I thought it was something bad," He replied. That explained why he was refusing to leave her side since she had picked him up in France.

"She was keeping my confidence," The King replied, giving her that look and kissed her head.

"Good, now that that's out of the way a drink to celebrate!" He clapped Sookie on the back while he walked into the restaurant as if he owned it.

Grayson followed pulling her with him. All Sookie wanted to do was scream for him to stop looking at her as if she his Earth. She wanted to pull her hand from his. How had things gone so out of control? How could she deal with this with any kind of dignity or grace? She didn't know, but she tried to stick to what she did and learning what she needed in order to make her extraction from her contract to Grayson as smooth as possible.

Dinner was a disaster and when Zee finally walked off she left with him with no plans on ever returning. Breaking things off with Grayson also got easier because she knew he couldn't fight her over spurned feelings. While he was the King the face there was a council made up of his whole family, his sister included.

Leaving California the most important thing Sookie learned at the end of it was an age-old lesson, be careful what you wish for. When she was a girl, she had wanted someone who was like her, a little vampire with a pulse, fangs, and if they were royalty that would have been perfect, but she had been completely alone. Sitting at a table full of people just like her should have been a dream come true. It wasn't.

"Those people are pompous pretentious shits!" Zee was fuming.

Sookie was tired and physically and emotionally it had been a long-ass day and was coming up on her twenty-fifth hour. All she wanted was to call Eric and have his voice be the last thing she heard before she crashed. While she and Zee walked up the stairs to the residential suites he was going off like a machine gun! That wasn't to say his ire wasn't justified she just didn't care enough to be angry.

"We pride ourselves on the distinction. It is vital. We are vampires, undead are undead," He mocked Grayson's elder sister, Elizabeth.

"Then she lectures her son about control and restraint because he wanted a cookie."

The Queen rolled her eyes. "The entire time she's staring at you."

"What the fuck was that about?" He asked.

Sookie wished she knew. She had never met anyone with more respect for human life than Zee. Oliver was a close second, but Zee; he still shed tears for them. Even with the pain it caused him when they died he still befriended them with an ease no vampire his age should be able to manage.

"That one extra cookie would have made him an undead serial killer like the rest of us!"

"That's what happened to me," She joked.

"Honestly, Shy!" He snapped, stabbing his fingers through his hair. "If you ask me not giving him a cookie is what's going to do it, mark my words. He'll be raping and murdering bakers all down the west coast and they'll call him 'The Cookie Cutter Killer'."

Sookie laughed and despite her exhaustion and the late hour she couldn't seem to stop. Zee's rants, few as they were, were always classic. While her brother was still very much pissed he smiled. They had reached the top of the stairs where they would part ways, but Zee grabbed her hand.

"You aren't really going to marry him, are you? He would make you miserable…well, he would make me miserable, and I would make your life hell."

Leave it to Zee to make everything about him.

"No," she told him with a smile. "I'm not marrying him."

Even if Eric wasn't in her life Sookie couldn't be around people who looked down at the man who had raised and loved her or the brothers who defended him because his heart didn't beat. Sooner or later she would hurt someone.

"Good, because sooner or later I would have to beat the shit out of one those blustering douche bags..."

Sookie was laughing when she walked away, but she was still hearing Zee cursing out the entire royal family of California. The day had been long and draining, but as she laid her head on her pillow with Eric's voice mail playing in her ear all was well in the world.

The Queen awoke only after two hours of sleep. She was catching up on back-logged tasks, but she was also looking to talk to Eric before he left for work. She was in the middle of clearing all the things on FIN's To Do list when she heard Zee scream. It was a noise so foreign it forced her to push her body faster than she had in decades.

She was in the grand ballroom in under a minute. Before she saw him she caught his scent and she felt him as soon as she crossed into the other half of the estate. Eric was here, it was in the warm, glowing, comforting feeling in her veins. When she entered the room, he stood there watching Zee who was gaping at Eric as if he was the Grim Reaper.

"I didn't mean to startle him," Eric said.

"He's fine," The Queen grabbed her brother by the arm and proceeded to drag him out of the room. He didn't resist and he didn't really help as he was just gawking at Eric every second of the way.

She smiled at him. "I'll be right back don't go anywhere."

Sookie dragged Zee across the hall and watched as he freaked all the way out. He didn't say much. It was a series of, 'oh shits', 'oh my God', mixed in with hand wringing and pacing.

"You can't say anything, Zee please—"

"How is this even possible?" He asked.

"Be cool!"

"He's human?"

Sookie halted her response when she saw Eric in the door way. "Now is obviously not a good time—"

The Queen was beside him with his hand in hers. "Please, don't go."

If he left right then she didn't know what she would do. She had missed him. He was all that mattered. Seeing him had been the only thing she was looking forward to.

"It's fine," Sookie said, glaring at her brother. "You're good, right?"

Zee blinked and composed himself as best as he could. "I'm just having a very fucked up couple of days, so I'm a bit on edge. Please excuse me, won't you, Eric?"

"Sure, it was good to meet you," Eric said doubtfully.

Zee nodded heading for the door. He gave Eric a wide birth. "Likewise, now I am going to have a drink maybe several."

"That was Zee?" Eric commented, staring at the door.

"In the flesh," The Queen answered with a sigh.

"But it's the middle of the day."

"I have made vampires of my line immune to sunlight and silver."

"Oh," he said rather blandly.

Sookie took his hand and reclaimed his attention plus she really just liked touching him. "Hiya, handsome," She greeted.

He smiled while he wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sorry if I threw you by just showing up early."

"This is easily the best surprise ever."

"I missed you too. Plus I thought I would give myself an extra day or two to pilfer through the art gallery in this house."

The Queen jabbed the cheeky asshole in the ribs. He shook with silent laughter while he held her. They stood like that for a long time. For Sookie being this close to him made the emotional turmoil that had weighed her down hours ago feel like a distant memory. This just felt so right and she was at peace. The feeling of utter serenity was so deep that she fell asleep right where she was on her feet and in his arms.