A/N: I've started using my LJ (link in my profile) to discuss questions that come up frequently in reviewer comments. No direct spoilers, but sometimes I'll give hints. And in light of the recent dust-up regarding stories getting removed from FFnet, I've beefed up my WP blog (also linked in my profile) and am getting better about making sure the stories are up to date there.


Eric POV

In all the time I had known her, I had never seen Sookie leave a conversation the way she'd just done. She was no coward. My gut response was to charge after her, to make her talk to me. It was Godric's hand on my arm that kept me from going up those stairs.

"Give her time," he said. "She has much to consider, and we can't be the ones to tell her."

He sat back as I nodded.

"Her Gran must be something else if Sookie felt she could threaten you with her wrath," Godric said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"It's not her Gran that's something else. But Adele, her Gran, definitely knows. The first night I met her, she sent Sookie out of the room and informed me that if I hurt her, 'forces you can't imagine will be set into motion.' That's a direct quote."

"Adele did not give you specifics, then."

I shook my head and gave him a brief explanation of how I'd come to believe that Sookie was part fae: her scent, her taste, her ability to influence people, and the death of her great-uncle Bartlett.

"You did not mention anything of her parents. Are they still alive?" Godric asked.

"No. They died when she was quite young, in a flash flood."

Godric sat and pondered that for a moment. "The uncle died from the sky, the parents by water."

Fuck. How had I missed that?

"If you love her and want to keep her out of the fairy feuds, you should consider a blood bond with her. If not more."

Did I love her? I knew I wanted her with me at all times, and for as long as I could have her. Forever, if she would let me. Lust was no small part of that equation: never before had I met someone who so easily satisfied me and yet left me wanting more.

I had strong feelings for Godric and Pam, and perhaps that was as close as I had ever gotten to love. They were my maker and my child; of course I cared for them. I would kill for them. I have killed for them. I would kill for Sookie in a human heartbeat, but my feelings for Sookie were different; they were not borne by blood.

A blood bond might be a deterrent, but it wouldn't guarantee her safety. All it meant was that if anyone caused her harm, I would be within my rights to take revenge on her behalf. It would be expected. Even the fae would respect that, but any retaliation on my part would only escalate and get me involved in their centuries-long infighting.

If Sookie were made vampire, she could more easily protect herself when I was not with her. Would her abilities survive the transition, perhaps even grow stronger? If she was then able to read vampire minds, there was no telling the amount of trouble she would face. For that matter…

"Godric, how is it that are you able to silently communicate with her?" I asked.

"That is an interesting question. I take it that you cannot?"

I frowned. "No. The first night I met her, I had tried to test her ability by thinking some very graphic scenes at her. She had no reaction. I can sense it when she is using her telepathy and influence, which no other vampire seems to be able to detect."

Godric smiled. "I had not known that gift was passed down to you. Pamela does not have it?"

"I suspected you might say that. No, Pam cannot detect it either. Seems an odd ability to have. Any idea where it came from?"

Godric nodded, but did not elaborate. "If you'll excuse me, I have phone calls to make. Is there a phone in my room?"

"There should be. If not, you can bring up the one from the kitchen, it's a cordless."

I wondered if Sookie was ready for a distraction yet. I knew I was.


Sookie POV

I could feel vampire eyes following me as I left the room; I wasn't normally one to flounce out the way I'd done, but I was just on overload.

There was a lot to think about. The things Godric had said about the Fellowship of the Sun were certainly worth pondering. I'd grown up seeing the effects of fear and hatred my entire life; people were scared of me because I was "Crazy Sookie", and no one was sending me any gift baskets. No sleepovers for me, as a child.

As something of an outsider with my black sheep status, I was able to more easily view the subtle caste system that develops in a small town in the South. Old money vs new poor (there wasn't much "new money" to speak of), employed vs unemployed, white vs everything else... Some of these things were subtle, some of them not so much. People were more inclined to move away from Bon Temps than they were to move to it, but it took a generation or two before the "newcomer" status really wore off.

All of that was relatively easy stuff, I thought as I started filling the bath. At the very least, it felt less urgent. It had become clear that whatever Godric thought I was, it was something Eric had also given much thought. What's more, Eric had reason to think that Gran was aware of it.

I could forgive Eric for not sharing his thoughts with me, but why would Gran hide something like this from me? If I wasn't fully human, shouldn't I have a right to know about it? Was that "simple" thing the reason for my abilities? And if so, why didn't Jason have anything like that?

When I was growing up, it never occurred to me to think of myself as anything other than human. I'd read all about magical creatures of legend and lore, but there'd been no proof of their existence… Just like there'd been no proof of telepaths, either. Shit. When vampires came out, I'd figured there had to be other things out there, but by then I was long past questioning my own self.

I looked through our selection of bubble baths and oils, opting to go for the former. I was going to need all of the light and fluffy I could get. For that matter, I wished I'd had some Mr Bubble. Gran used to buy that as a special treat when we were kids, and the smell was always comforting to me. The mental image of Eric picking up something as silly as that made me smile.

Once the tub was full and bubbly, I pinned up my hair and got in.

One thing at a time. Godric and Eric seemed to believe I was something other than human. If vampires were real, what other creatures could be real? What else had I read about? Bloody hell, that was a long list. Knowing that vampires had their own campaigns of disinformation, to help them keep them from being discovered, made it even more complicated. The other races (species?) would likely have done the same.

As much as I hated to admit defeat, I recognized there was just no way for me to sift through some list and come up with a sufficient label. On to the next matter. I may not be able to figure out what, but I might be able to figure out how.

Whatever they thought I was, Eric seemed to have reason to believe that Gran was already aware of it. Like a light bulb over my head, it occurred to me that Gran's threat to Eric must have something to do with all of this. She'd had no problem putting him in his place in front of me when we were all living here; whatever she'd said to him while I was out of the room that night, she hadn't wanted me to know.

What was it? Think. Okay. How would Gran know about anything supernatural? She was born and raised in Bon Temps, married my grandfather and had two kids. While I hadn't really gotten a chance to know him, my dad was normal by all accounts. Before he met and married my mother, he'd just as much of a ladies' man as Jason. So which tree did my apple fall from?

I knew even less about my mother: she'd been an only child and her parents died when I was very young. That seemed pretty mysterious to me, but she and Gran were never close. My mother had always been jealous of anyone that she viewed as competition for her husband's time and affection, including Jason, Gran and myself. So if she was the key, it was a dead end. There was just no way for me to get more information about that side of my family.

My aunt Linda was also fairly normal; besides, she'd died of cancer a few years ago. My cousin Hadley was a wreck after that. We'd never been close, since she was afraid of me just like the other kids, but she and Jason got along well. She was a few years older than me, and had we hadn't spoken since she went off to college. Whatever I was, neither she nor Jason carried the same traits. Even so, it was easy to see the family resemblance between the three of us. Hadley could have been my sister; we looked that much alike.

Poor Gran. A mother should never outlive her children. She'd been through so much with her kids, what with Dad dying in the flash flood and that mess with Aunt Linda and Bartlett.

Wait. Bartlett. Mysterious death. How does a person fall hard enough into the ground to leave a crater, when there was nothing to fall from? Gran had been mad enough at him to learn how to shoot a gun, which to my mind took her out of the running for being supernatural herself. If she'd been able to toss him around like that, there was no need for guns.

But Gran knew something.

What if Gran hadn't learned to shoot because she wanted to kill Bartlett, but to protect herself from whatever it was that had killed him? That was a tempting possibility to consider, but didn't feel quite right. I scrunched my forehead as I tried to remember the timelines. If Bartlett had died – no, been killed – before he'd molested Aunt Linda, then there really was no telling as to the motivation. But if he'd been killed after the fact, then his death could have been one motivated by revenge. In which case, the killer would have been someone who cared deeply for her. In either scenario, Bartlett's killer most likely wasn't human.

Was it a relative or a friend of the family? I rolled my eyes at my own self for that one. Obviously, if I wasn't entirely human, then this had to be a relative. Christ on a biscuit, my brain was so fried.

Okay, so it was a relative. And if they were part of Gran's threat to Eric, that had to be a relative who was still alive. Right? Unless ghosts and spirits exist, too. Fuck me.

With a sigh, I realized that Godric and Eric had been right to not tell me. Any anger or resentment I had towards Eric for withholding that kind of information would go down the drain with the bathwater. It wasn't his place to tell me my family's business.

The trick would be getting Gran to fess up.

Just then, there was a quiet knock at the door. "Mind if I come in?"

Eric was knocking? This was a weird night. "Get in here, you silly vampire."

He walked in and shut the door behind him, smiling at my light response. "How goes the thinking?"

"Ugh. First off, I'm sorry I walked out like that. I was just…"

"It's okay," he said, interrupting me. "It's been a stressful few days for us both."

That was nothing if not an understatement. "True, but it was still rude. And whatever I am, it's not your responsibility to be the one to tell me. I need to talk to Gran."


Disclaimer: All of the characters contained in this story are property of Charlaine Harris. I don't own them; I just like to play with them a bit.