Disclaimer: Charlaine Harris owns all.
Rated M for several reasons.
Chpt 36 Getting Down to Business
NPOV
Of course the Viking's club is empty when I get there. So of course I will now have to actually search for his child.
First, however, I rescue Thalia, who is trapped within.
I find her in the hidden basement, entombed in a silver coffin.
She smiles when I wrench off the lid, like we had been playing hide and seek.
"Prince's pleasure to rescue Thalia again after all this time?"
"Apparently so." I chuckle.
I offer her my arm and haul her out of the coffin, quickly stripping away the silver chains she has been bound in. She sways on her feet, wincing as the burns on her skin heal.
"Where is the Sheriff's child?"
"Gone, taken." She swallows thickly. "Our humans glamoured to trap us with silver."
She shakes her head, annoyed. "Such a simple plan, Thalia not worthy of Eric's trust."
"Where is my Great Granddaughter?"
"New Orleans, she summoned with Eric."
Calm. Remain calm.
I perform a summons of my own and Ortel pops up beside me.
"Your Majesty?"
"My Great Granddaughter?" I demand.
"Safe, the Viking has her, two of the guard are shadowing them."
"The attack?"
"Over. We were not seen. The Princess was taken by the one you call the 'oily little specimen'. We did not even realise she had been there until her vampire took off after her."
"Collect the guard sent to Bon Temps and return everyone but the guards on the Princess to Faery. I will be back shortly."
"Majesty." He nods, popping away.
I return my attention to Thalia, she is still weak but I am sure I can do what needs to be done without her assistance.
"We must find the child."
She nods and I grip her hand, popping us both to the roof of the club.
Fortunately I have been in close proximity to her once, in Rhodes, so I am able to discern her scent and follow it.
I am not a fairy from a child's book, I do not have wings and I cannot fly so instead I pop us to various points along the scent trail, a bit like playing Battleships, until the scent is strong and fresh meaning we are close enough to walk the rest of the way.
She is being held in a shack deep in the woods.
Unfortunately it is corrugated iron. I cannot go in there. Fairies and iron do not mix.
Beside me Thalia is still in no condition to affect the other vampire's rescue.
Stars!
This is extremely inconvenient.
"Thalia, you will need to take some of my blood."
She blinks at me and then turns her attention to the shack.
"Iron." She realises, looking back at me and trying to read my face. "You would give a vampire your blood to save another vampire?"
"I am old Thalia, and quite possibly going a little senile, are we rescuing her or not?" My voice is testy, I have become unaccustomed to being questioned.
She nods, dropping her gaze and before I can rethink my action I raise my wrist. The neck thing is just creepy in my opinion and besides, she cannot reach, she is a teeny tiny vampire, and I am certainly not leaning down.
It does not hurt but nevertheless she is a vampire and I am a full blooded fairy, after a few moments I have to gently but firmly disengage her.
She looks up into my eyes and I laugh quietly.
Her own are wide as saucers, pupils madly dilated and almost unfocussed.
"How do you feel?"
She giggles. "Strong. Invincible. Amorous."
Her voice drops on the last word and she steps closer to me, cupping my nether regions suggestively.
Oh. Ah. Awkward.
"Thalia." I huff, disentangling my nether regions form her hand and holding her wrists to keep her at arm's length. "Not at this particular moment. And not with me."
"Aw, Niall." She pouts. "You know you are a very sexy fairy."
"Thank you. But Thalia, the Viking's child, Pamela?"
She narrows her eyes at me and for a moment I think she is going to launch herself at me but then, with no small amount of relief, I can see awareness creeping back into her face. She is old, it will not take too long to master the narcotic effect of my blood.
After a few heartbeats she steps back from me and removes her sword from her back.
"Are you ready?" I study her intently, I do not want her going in there 'under the influence' and making the situation worse. I can enter the shack if I absolutely have to but it would be extremely dangerous and foolhardy.
She nods and scowls, transferring her attention to the ramshackle structure where she can hear the three vampires who have the Viking's child.
"Just throw them out here." I heft my own sword. "And I will deal with them."
She attacks so swiftly she punches a hole in the iron sheet like a cartoon character. Immediately a vampire flies back out, sword flailing uselessly and I cut him in half before his body can even hit the ground.
There is some growling. Thalia has a chilling growl, incongruous in such an innocent looking little package.
The corrugated iron walls shake violently and a few bulges appear.
Then the double doors open and two vampires fly out backwards. Thalia follows, stepping lightly over the debris, swishing her sword with menace as they stumble to their feet.
"Thalia not like when woman tortured." She hisses. "Thalia not like be locked in silver filled coffin."
The two vampires are trying to calculate their chances of escaping such an obviously strong opponent when I cut them down from behind.
Thalia darts back inside to retrieve the Viking's child, laying her down on the grass at my feet with an apologetic smile.
Silver poisoning.
Fabulous.
For thousands of years I have been the scourge of vampires and yet suddenly, tonight, I am a one fairy blood bank.
The irony that I cannot take an iron supplement is not lost on me.
SPOV
The whole shower, coffee and food thing turned out to be something of a comedic turn.
Alcide and his pack were concerned with my safety and well-being, everyone else, including the vampires, were concerned with making themselves as useful as possible to the new King's human. There were five different kinds of coffee.
Everyone seems certain that Sophie Anne is dead and Eric will become King.
Apparently the only person not keen on the idea is Eric. Between slipping into the minds of the vampires who are trying to convince him, and Eric's increasing desperation to find an escape route, my own mood has brightened considerably. Even though I know through the bond that he really wants me to join him I take my own sweet time drinking coffee and getting dressed. I can work just as easily from up here.
I accidentally slipped into Andre's mind at one point. To describe it as broken is an understatement. The Queen is dead, but there doesn't seem to be any pressing need to share that news with Eric just yet.
I'm not really mad at him anymore. I just had a perfectly normal reaction to having my life saved by a handsome man, it's not his fault the resultant rush of hormones were all on one side. I'm glad he had the sense to break it off when mine had apparently gone absent without leave, our relationship is complicated enough as it is.
And anything else I may feel on the subject of Eric is my problem and not his.
Alcide finally managed to shoo everyone out of the room so that we could fill each other in on what happened last night. The noise of the battle could be heard across town with supernatural ears and they'd arrived at the Palace just as the defenders were mopping up, so they waited, assuming that if Eric and I were okay we'd be back. He was predictably outraged when I told him about Bill and his crazy Maker, pleased to know that Eric ended them both.
I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Bill had reverted to his normal self at the end, when Eric lopped his head off. So I should regret it I suppose, be mad at Eric for being hasty, but I don't think I do and I'm not. He was going to try to kill Eric and all I can bring myself to care about is that Bill's gone and neither of us will ever have to deal with him again. Jesus, I'm getting less human every minute.
"We'd better get down stairs." I sigh eventually. "The 'Soon to be Crowned' is getting angsty."
"Yeah." Alcide chuckles. "They were already planning the coronation while they waited for him to come back. There's a lot of respect here for your Sheriff."
"He's not my anything." I huff quietly as we make our way out of the suite and my new self-appointed entourage swing into step behind us.
"If you say so." Alcide chuckles again.
We find most of the action in what must be the largest office come library I've ever seen. There's a desk the size of two pool tables across one corner, couches and chairs arranged around the carpeted floor space and the walls are lined on three sides with floor to ceiling bookshelves, the fourth is a wall of thick curtains, probably hiding part of the range of huge glass doors opening onto the grounds I saw from the air.
Eric is sort of hemmed into one of the corners by a group of the other Sheriffs.
I pause in the doorway and he looks up immediately, favouring me with a brief, strained, half smile before jumping back into the conversation.
I don't really understand his reluctance, surely it's better to be a King than a Sheriff, safer? And being in charge seems to come naturally to him, he'd make a good King.
My following elects to stay outside the room and Alcide and I wander in alone.
"What do we do now?" He whispers.
"Look like we belong I guess."
We gravitate over to the desk area where a group of vampires and humans are making and receiving phone calls on the bank of phones haphazardly set up there. Information and questions seem to be coming in at breakneck speed and from time to time one of the group breaks free and bears a written message over to one of the other groups.
Alcide and I roll our eyes at each other and settle into one of the couches.
My eyes find Eric again. He looks completely calm and in control, only our bond and my learned ability to read his face, lets me know he's on the verge of having the vampire equivalent of a freak out. He really, really doesn't want to be King but based on what's going on in the minds around him I don't think he's going to get much choice, unless of course you can just say no to something like that. Someone's provided him with a new shirt. It's too tight so he's left it unbuttoned. His chest is the last thing I need to be looking at, so I'll be looking away any minute now. Really, there's nothing to see here, I've seen it before, more than once, it's very attractive, but it's just a chest.
Oh hellfire and damnation. Apparently once I've started on the carnal wants where Eric's concerned they're clearly not going to go away easily.
Our eyes brush and I look away, suddenly fascinated with the weave of the couch, this is not going to be embarrassing at all.
"Are you alright?" Alcide asks quietly.
"No." I sigh. "I'm an idiot."
One of the phones rings and a vampire snatches it up.
"Palace." He snaps waspishly.
Pause.
"The K-Sheriff is busy."
Pause.
"His human is available, would it be sufficient to convey the information to her?"
Pause.
"Ms Stackhouse, Area Five wish to speak with you."
He holds out the phone and I get up and go over to take it, unable to hide my surprise.
"Hello?"
"Princess?"
"Thalia. What's happening, is everyone okay?"
"Yes and no."
"Um?"
"Is Eric well?"
"Define 'well'?" I query as another wave of his extreme frustration hits me.
"What is the problem?" She asks sharply.
"They're trying to make him King." I whisper and she breaks out into peals of laughter.
"That is delicious." She snorts when her laughter subsides. "Poor Godric would have loved to see this day."
"What's happening in Shreveport?" I press.
"We were attacked by Madden's men. They wanted Pam as leverage against Eric. Niall rescued us."
"Niall?" I squeak, just about managing to keep my voice low.
"Yes, Niall." She confirms. "Pam has silver poisoning and Niall gave her his blood."
"Is she okay?" I gasp, worried for her and Eric.
"As well as she can be. Fairy blood has considerably decreased her healing time but she is still likely to be sick for several weeks."
"Oh god." I groan.
"You will need to tell him but I suggest you choose the moment wisely."
"Thalia . . . ."
"Sookie. You will need to tell him everything, Niall's involvement cannot be hidden once he sees Pam, she reeks of fairy. I do too for that matter, he had to give me some of his blood as well."
"Niall's blood doesn't smell of fairy." I object, suddenly very scared.
"Not in Niall apparently, but it certainly seems to once it's inside a vampire. The local vampire usually avoid me but tonight I am like catnip. It is extremely irritating."
"Thalia, Eric and I aren't exactly in a position to discuss anything that personal at the moment."
"Then you will need to engineer such a position." She responds easily. "I do not know what you are afraid of, he will never hurt you or abandon you, Eric is extremely loyal to the people he cares about. Did he not rescue you from that cockroach Compton last night?"
"How do you know that?"
"Niall knew, it was his fairies that thwarted Madden's takeover."
Now my head is spinning, what the hell is going on . . . .
"Just tell him Princess, you are not a stupid woman by any stretch of the imagination and it seems to me that with Niall's determination to be involved in your life he is going to find out in the end anyway. I have to go, the pussy cats are circling again."
Click.
Fuck.