I sent a message out to Amelia and had included my father, brothers, and even Victor in the copy portion. I then went to shower in an attempt to decompress. I was trying to sort through all I had learned, all I felt, and all I thought I should feel. They differed vastly. At the end of a half-hour stint under hot water I still hadn't a clue. It didn't matter. I had information that I could use and leads to follow.
I don't know why, but Amelia still lived at home with her mother, Lori, and Genie, her stepfather. It was five hundred steps from my house, the one my father bought for me when he brought me home. I knew it was five hundred steps because we had counted when Genie had bought that house. Then again, the house was big enough to accommodate her. Whatever the reason I was glad she was so close. Fast as I was, it took me a full minute to get over there after she had told me she had information.
"This is incredible!" Amelia said in hello.
I wouldn't use those choice words exactly. "Not her, I hate her but what she is…" she continued. "It's like Haley's comet."
Amelia had met me on the porch but in her animated state, she pulled me into the house, up the stairs, past the living area, and into her section of the home.
"Vampires are magic," She explained. "So it stands to reason you cannot make that which makes you. It's all about balance. It is the same thing that bans vampires from the sun that makes sunlight essential to humans. Balance is also why there are accidental turns with vampires as well as duds."
An accidental turn was what happened when a vampire gave a human blood that typically wasn't enough to turn them but it did. A dud was just the opposite. It was what happened when a vampire wanted to turn a human and, despite the proper climate and method, the turn didn't take. The intended human never rose.
"Attempting to turn a witch should result in dud?" I asked, knowing that wasn't the case.
"It should, but with all rules there are exceptions. Think about it, instead of your dad having a V-addict crack baby because he gave you blood daily, he had you."
"Point mutation—"
Before I could fall into a very detailed, scientific explanation she pulled out a book. It was so heavy that it made her desk creak. It was also covered in enough dust to make me want to sneeze.
"I keep telling you and Genie. Spells and science aren't that different. There are exceptions to every rule. You are one and Freyda is another. Both are very rare."
"But there aren't other hybrids," I said. I had looked. I had searched desperately and my father and Dr. Wexler had helped. We had even contacted Saul, and even the procurer had come up empty.
"Haley's comet, it doesn't mean never. It's just once in a lifetime," she reminded. "Anyway, wiccans, casters, sorceresses, or whatever you call witches, they all draw power from life of the earth. If you die, it is presumed that power dies with you, even if you come back."
"Like when a werewolf is turned and can no longer phase," I murmured
She nodded. "Here is the disturbing part," She said flipping through several pages. "The books say she should no longer be able to pull from the earth and she can no longer pull from life. So she should have no power."
Shit. "She pulls from death." And she was dead, surrounded by the dead.
"I know what you're thinking, but I can't help," Amelia said, putting the book away into the same dusty cubby. "She is a Cardinal."
"So are you," I argued.
"I am also only twenty-nine-years old," She replied. "Combined and multiplied my mom and I, we don't have the juice."
Freyda had them beat in her lifetime alone, and Amelia and her mom weren't part of a coven. All my carefully laid plans were shot. One fact hadn't changed. She was going to meet her end and soon.
"Are there any special instructions to ending her or will chopping off her head work just fine?" I asked point blank.
"You need to be very careful, Sookie." She told me. "But yes, that should work."
While Freyda would have been expecting a delicately played game, I was going to skip the fancy footwork and kick it old school. A full scale assault from dusk until dawn; there would be blood in the streets, public executions by the handful, torture chambers, and business and homes razed to the ground.
In short, I had been planning to reign down the wrath of Heaven and Hell down on Freyda's head. This plan satisfied my craving for blood and was the most vicious thing I could come up with while I punished those who had wronged me. It would brand me a monster and Freyda's name a curse to vampires everywhere because it wouldn't have been a battle for a throne, it would have been a blood bath.
Freyda was young and didn't have many powerful fighters. She had Ocella and Eric, but I knew he wasn't willing and Ocella's loyalty was iffy at best. Sai commanded a band of heavy hitters, and was a force to be reckoned with on any day, being a daywalker aside. My father had good roster of loyal and powerful fighters. I was the fastest hybrid my family knew, and I could bring a vampire to their knees with a mental punch. Then there was Victor. He was a vampire eater.
When it was over, survivors would be released. They would tell of the horrors they had witnessed, and the day would live in infamy. My father wouldn't even have watch his back or end anyone for a long time. That angle was shot now.
I ate breakfast at Amelia's but, despite having a very interesting conversation with Genie about the uses of the Zebra fish, I couldn't focus. My head was in the same place where my heart lived, with Eric. With the current course I had set, I would be Queen of Oklahoma by the end of the month. Now I didn't know and it ate at me.
I was still trying to reconfigure my plans when Caspian called me that afternoon.
"You forgot about me," He accused.
I did. "No, something just came up."
He sucked his teeth in a very bitchy manner, "And you forgot about me."
I took a left that would take me back toward the suburbs instead of continuing into the city and the hospital to pick up the blood for Bill. Caspian and I had plans to get together after I returned from Oklahoma. He hadn't even bothered to hide the fact that it was to check on me, but with the mornings events it had totally slipped my mind.
"You know, it's not easy being your friend," Caspian said, sucking his finger to staunch the wound. It had been nothing more than a pin prick but…there was a wounded vampire in the room.
We were in Bill's house and I was hooking a bag of blood into every vein I could find. Seeing both his hands were gone it wasn't easy. I begged Caspian for blood and he reluctantly gave in.
"I told you it was going to be a working lunch," I said as if I had no idea what the problem was. "I need him in top form soon. If you would give me just a little more…"
Not only was faery blood irresistible to the undead, it worked miracles to their bodies at least if they were hurting physically. It hadn't done much for me in my time of need.
"You drink blood so you cannot fathom just how intensely the Fae abhor bloodletting, especially for vampires," He said. Despite Bill being bound and dead for the day; he was hiding behind my back. It made conversation hard.
"You did though, so did Claudine," I implored. "I only need a little more."
He was looking at me as if I was being dense. "She did it to save me," He replied "I did it to save you because you are my best friend in all the worlds."
His words reminded me of a conversation I'd heard from what had felt like a dream, except it wasn't a dream. When I'd been catatonic in bed and was dying he had reached out to her. He had been talking to Claudine and I'd heard something similar.
"What exactly would have happened to you if I'd died under your care?" I asked.
"Niall cursed your death with all the fury and power of an entire species. Unless you die willingly and happily, anyone deemed responsible for your end will suffer a curse that is so vile that I cannot even translate the meaning in any language I know. All the Fae, elves, angels, and even some pixies and sprites know your face. That is why none of them will come near you for fear of something befalling you while they are about. I risk much for your company, so you are welcome."
I smiled because that was such a Caspian answer. Sick as it was I was touched. I guess I wasn't the only one that had seen my association as more than a job. It was why I had fought to defend the Fae and it was why he had done this. It had nothing to do with being directly descended from his line. I had proven myself and he was doing the same.
We found a place close by and had lunch. Then I proceeded to vomit on him emotionally. It wasn't that I thought my father didn't know this was painful for me. I knew he did. I knew he understood I loved Eric. In fact, I felt as if he was trying to understand my attachment after the betrayal. He couldn't though. Caspian was the only one who understood the intense mental confusion and emotional turmoil that Eric's name alone caused me. I think it was because he had been there, at my Happily Ever After. He had known me when I had been so happy and in love that I couldn't think straight.
"He wants to tell me something," I said.
"For you to trust him and for you to let him go," Caspian replied.
I gave him the same answer I did when he suggested that the first time. "I can't."
"You saved an entire race. You are a living Princess of the Undead and the Fae. There is nothing you cannot do."
He had me there. "This is different," I sighed.
He nodded easily. "There is something else I wanted to talk to you about."
Glad that my weakness was no longer the focal point of the discussion, I bit. "What's up?"
"Fintan."
I was already shaking my head but he spoke over me. "He tracked me down to make sure you had recovered. He asked about you. I think he just wants to know you. So, I told him. Not the personal stuff, just your likes and quirks that sort of thing, you know?"
I nodded politely.
"You two are alike in the brilliance department, except his is with enchantments, although he gives off the mad scientist vibe."
I gave another polite nod.
"He wanted to track you down but I advised against it and said I would talk to you instead. So, what do you think?"
"About what?" I countered blandly.
He rolled his eyes. "I really hate it when you do this tit for tat, conversational chess bullshit. You know god damn well what I mean. He wants to meet you. Do you want to meet with him?"
I sighed. I wasn't sure which topic made me most uncomfortable, the one about my ex-husband or my biological father. Truth was, I appreciated what Fintan did for me back in Florida, but I also felt as though he wanted something I couldn't give, especially not now. I was a mess emotionally. I had a takeover that I had to replan around because of a witch Queen. I had duties here in my father's state. Since watching the footage I was now more than worried for Eric.
What manner of hell would he be faced with when the sun fell tonight? How much could he endure before I got to him? Meeting my Fae sperm donor of a parent was not something I would do if my life was perfect. There was certainly no room in my life for it now. It was more than timing, there would never be a place for Fintan Brigant in my life, period.
"I have a father and it isn't him," I said honestly.
"He may be able to help you."
"And then what?" I asked. "Is he going to work off thirty years of absence with favors?"
Caspian's response was to stuff bread in his mouth and I dialed down my irritation. "I know you feel like him being in my life might somehow heal everything that's wrong but it wouldn't."
It just wouldn't. I didn't have daddy issues. I had a father, and he was a great one. He had given me a life that other little girls dream of.
"There is no place in my life for him, nothing can change that. Not his stunt with Claudine, not him saving me, and not you advocating for him."
He nodded. It took a few minutes of awkward silence but we found our easy rapport. It was the best two hours of my day because Caspian had a way of being so self-absorbed that it drew you out of your own mood and into his, which was always good. I needed good. I was desperate for it.
"This is bad," My father said when I arrived home later that afternoon. He along with Sai and Nim had woken early so I could bring them up to speed.
Sai looked entirely disappointed that he wouldn't be getting to go on a war path. It was a first but I felt the same way.
"The claim with the Pythoness has already been submitted?" I asked.
My father nodded. "It has cleared the Counsel and I am waiting to hear from her scribes directly."
I had made Arkansas and Louisiana Republics, and now I was coming to take them back. It was a loophole in the emancipation that we were going to manipulate. My father would claim that the money I used to buy the independence of those states was his. It was kind of true. He would also claim that I had been Queen Regent, not a full Queen, and so I had no right to do what I had done. That was very true; it was what made me have to pay off all the regents in Amun. I didn't have his permission.
Due the substantial sum, he had been granted a special hearing in which to file his suit. He would win. Ownership of the states would be reverted to him and he would then bestow them upon me properly. That was one of the reasons I needed to borrow a lot of money from my brother. A Republic didn't a rich vampire kingdom make. I had to stimulate my economy.
That wasn't the bad part. The issue was this; had my ownership of Louisiana and Arkansas come on the heels of me reining Hell on Freyda, all would be smooth. I could institute my regime easily, but now that route wasn't feasible. I knew I would get resistance and, oddly enough, I didn't want to kill any of those vampires. They had every right to want to kill me, but that had been personal. We were even. I had been instrumental in the demise of their Queen and many friends. I wanted a new start.
"It will be messy, but we will do only what we must in taking Shy's states." Sai said. I was sure the amount of blood involved wasn't the motivation behind his suggestion. "There are very few Master vampires in residence there."
My father looked thoughtful. "It would take longer, but how you rule those states could pave the way to taking Oklahoma."
I didn't have to think about it. "It is not necessary," I said.
Three sets of eyes looked at me in question. "Minor setback," I said with a smile.
"In fact, it's easier this way."
It was more than that. I would get a front row seat into the systematic downfall of what was once a mighty Queen. I would watch as the world closed in around her and I would enjoy her descent into ruin and despair. I explained that much to my father. He smiled. Sai scowled. It made this new plan all the better.
Minor setback indeed. I just needed to be more aggressive but not physically. I had the money and favors to call in. My original plan would have satisfied my craving for brutality. This way, Freyda did the dirty work for me. If I did this properly, Eric would be back in my arms sooner than anticipated.
If I said it was easy to reconfigure things around the new development, I would be lying. However, using stealth may allow me to get what I wanted sooner. Instead of just using the eyes and ears I had in Freyda's home to get security information for a very hostile invasion, I would use it to isolate Freyda. Seeing she was a witch that drew from death, she would be weaker with every subject she lost.
I would be getting crucial and closely guarded secrets, and I would use them in a way that would make Freyda sure that someone closest to her had betrayed her. I would sit back and watch as she wrongfully accused and punished those that were dearest to her for treason. She would be distraught if only a little by the presumed betrayals, it would make her wary, paranoid, and so very vulnerable.
Speed was my niche so it meant waiting was my game. It wouldn't be long now. With Ocella lurking around, Freyda would make a mistake soon, and I would pick her apart one friend, ally, and business venture at a time, until she had nothing and no one left. That bitch wanted my husband, but she had reached too high, and when I was done she wouldn't have a single thing in this world to call her own.
