Some people had wandered outside for fresh air but we all assembled in my living room again. Eric had claimed most of the couch except for the space between his legs where I was no doubt sitting. Bubba sat on the small remaining space on the end.

I folded into my readymade position and Eric's arm circled my waist. I nuzzled my head against his chest, breathing in the scent that was uniquely him. "Was it bad?" his asked, his mouth trailing my ear.

"Just images but they were pretty traumatic, reflecting on tonight," I said.

Pam stood next to the chair by the armrest, "would it be acceptable if I remained right here for the rest of the meeting, Uncle Eric," she teased, putting emphasis on 'Uncle Eric.'

"Pamela, you do not require my permission as to where you stand or sit as you are fully aware. However should you call me 'Uncle Eric' again, I will rip out your tongue and feed it to the wolves," he threatened but there was the undertone of teasing that lilted his voice.

She bowed her head, "I understand Farbror Eric," and she sat cross legged in front of us, her back pressed against the couch.

He chuckled and I savoured the vibrations of it in his chest, "only you would come up with a loophole that challenged my word." I loved when he laughed with me in his arms, it was soothing. He could be laughing at something completely grotesque for all I cared, his laughter was that harmonic. I could have moaned right then but I reined it in. I felt a slight hardness against my back, Eric knew what his laughter did to my body and he was responding.

The last few people entered the room, the fairies second last to Jason who had been fixing drinks for everyone and was now leaning against the fireplace. I'd thank him later.

"Amelia's wards were never to the strength which I have put into place, partially because we never needed them to be this strong. The wards will only work against the supernatural races and those that possess any magical spark," Claude said, getting straight into it. "Sookie is associated with too many humans that are oblivious to the real world to set up wards against them. Sookie's house is generations old, if locals can't get to it all of a sudden even the dim-witted will figure something is amiss. The only Supe's that can cross them are those that have gained permission from Sookie. To simplify this, any Supe previously invited into Sookie's home or onto her property still hold this invitation. There are problems within this but it was best this way and Sookie may revoke any invitation at any time she sees fit. "

"Oh I know," Eric muttered darkly and I erupted into a fit of laughter. It was hard to believe that had only been last night.

"You've tried?" Claude asked with interest to see if his wards were doing their job.

"Last night," I gulped, wiping the joyous tears from my eyes. How was I still producing tears? I should be all out by now. "I decided to play a cruel game. I rescinded Eric's invitation for just a couple of minutes and he was propelled way beyond the porch. Shit, Victor has been on my property before." That wiped the smile off my face.

"Then you will have to be extra vigilant at night, keep your mind open. I'll be living here but I can't be here all day everyday so it would be wise to have a constant guard on the house even if both Eric and I are present," Claude said and Alcide, Calvin and Eric nodded in agreement. Damn.

I hated body guards. "If it wasn't for Hunter being in the next room I would be refusing even though you would probably do it anyway. If I'm going to have protection then I want to set some conditions."

"State your terms," said Alcide.

"I'm still human, I lead a human life- even though sometimes it's like I've stepped into a crazy dream- so I can't parade around town with a Supe pinned to my side all the time. Even walking around with Jason all day will start looking suspicious. I ask that whoever is on guard shift do so from a distance or undercover for the most part. Also I want to be informed of who is going on and off duty before and after every shift. I need to be able to recognise exactly who my guard is supposed to be, I don't want to be unnecessarily panicked."

"That is a reasonable request I am willing to comply to. I'll send Toby and Lacey to take the first shift starting at dawn until some kind of roster can be made."

"Good. Um Claude, can we do something about the wards so that any guards on duty can escape the notice of any prowler on the outside? The Were that was here today knew Alcide was with me and if it wasn't for the fact that Alcide was a powerful wolf, the Were may have escaped and reported something back to Victor. Add an element of surprise? If they all think the way that one did today then they don't deserve the opportunity to escape anyway."

Claude's perfect eyebrows frowned in thought, "I think it is doable. I'll modify the wards immediately and then return home to get some things so I can commence living here immediately." And he got up, kissed me on the cheek (very brave since that made him within inches of Eric's teeth) and left with Dermot. Dermot wasn't so brave and simply blew me a kiss.

"Your cousin is getting cocky," Eric said, his hardness pressing into my back again. His choice of words couldn't be a coincidence.

"I'll be sure to let him know," I returned, feeling a little embarrassed because everyone was looking at me.

"Look, Eric, just because I can't see what's going on in your pants doesn't mean I can't smell it. She's my sister, not cool," Jason piped up. It was suddenly hot in here and I didn't like it. I blushed too easy. To my relief Eric managed to gain expert control of himself, I couldn't help but speculate what he had to think of to do that.

"Sookie, what exactly was that Were thinking today?" Judith spoke up, it had been the first time she'd said anything all night. I was grateful for the change in topic, not the direction it was headed.

I fumbled around the question, "I, uh, he um, nothing that revealed anything about Victor other than the fact he planned to turn me over to Victor at nightfall." I waited for someone to say something but no one did. They knew there was more and was waiting for me to finish. I sighed, "he was thinking about his elaborate plans of what he would do to me personally the second I left the safety of the wards." I felt very, very small.

Eric read between the lines instantly, his anger flaring, instinctively pulling me closer to him. He seemed to be the only one who really got it, maybe because he felt the way it had made me feel. "Why didn't you tell me earlier? You were right, that scum died too fast. I wish you could have slapped him in to next week."

I was mad now; Eric's mood was influencing mine. "The opportunity never arose! It's not an easy topic to bring up. Hi honey, how was your day? Not bad, hung out the washing, bought some groceries and oh yeah, some crazy Werewolf tried to come after me and put his plan of raping me while I lay helpless, screaming and kicking while he enjoyed it into action before turning me over to the big bad vampire. No, that conversation was not going to just happen!" His rage hadn't abated, but no one had resorted to yelling. I thought of rainbows and butterflies and kittens in attempt to soften the anger flaring through the bond. I certainly didn't want another telepathic episode, one had been enough.

He cottoned on with what I was trying to do, "Shit, sorry," and his mood quickly changed to match his apology. "And you're right, I'm sorry I was a prude. Degrading women like that is the one thing I have never done, nor will ever do, in my existence and it angers me that any man can think it is alright to do so. We can talk about it later, this is not the place."

Pam got up and walked over to where Jason was standing and stared at us still on the couch, "I do believe I need to buy you a trophy Sookie. Two apologies and one admittance to being wrong in a single sentence, I never thought I'd see the day!"

"Thanks Pam, now get away from my brother."

Claude and Dermot's departure had really signalled that it was okay for everyone else to start leaving. Now that everything that could be said had been said they all left to return to their beds/holes/coffins/whatever pretty fast. Sam said I could take all the time off work I needed and Jason said he would stop by in the afternoon.

I closed the door and relished the fact that I was alone to do what I liked. Sleep was the top of that list but there was one thing I had to know before that.

"Eric, what the fuck is an alliance?"

Farbror is Swedish for Uncle (according to google translators).

This chapter was ridiculously painful to write and have it flow. My chapters are relatively short but that took ages! I just needed to oust them all out of that living room and send them on their way and still explain the wards and create the path for a few more chapters. It was a yucky corner to trying to get out of.

It's been just over a month since I posted the first chapter and the feedback has been brilliant! My first attempt at fanfiction has been great and it's thanks to all of you. I love to hear your comments, predictions, opinions, suggestions and advice. I get home from school on weekdays (on weekends I do it when I wake up) ,fire up my laptop and the first thing I do is read all my feedback before editing the new chapter for the day, post it and then write a new one for a few days down the track (writing chapter 37 and maybe even 38 tonight). It's become a routine. After that do I do all my other stuff. Some may say my priorities are the wrong way around, I beg to differ.