CHAPTER 38

Sookie infiltrates the coven's lair with Eric and Thalia. What will they find?

EPOV

I rose for the night alone in my bed, but my mind was filled with foreboding and worry. I opened my eyes to see the source of these feelings sitting in the chair off to the side of my bed. The memory of the first time I found her in my day chamber ran through me and I thought about how far we had come since that night, but the memory was dashed by the feelings of anxiety within her. I turned toward her and sat up in my bed, leaning back against the wooden headboard.

"What troubles you Lover?" I asked.

"Tonight." She said in a soft voice. I remained silent to let her expand on her answer, "I don't want anything to happen to us."

"You have nothing to fear my Sookie." I said calmly, "And your feelings are good for you to have."

"How is it admirable to be nervous in the face of uncertainty?" She asked.

"It means that instead of being reckless, you have thought about what you are going to do. I will not allow us to go in without a plan and I think the information you have obtained today will help us in this endeavor. Will it not?"

"Yes." She said in a nervous voice.

"Come." I motioned to her with her hands to come to me. She left her place at the chair and crawled onto the bed until she was seated next to me.

She looked down at her hands and then turned to me to say, "Are you hungry?"

I met her gaze and responded, "Yes, but I will not take blood from you tonight. You need your strength. I would like to give you some of my blood."

"Thank you for the offer, but I don't want to rely on your blood to keep me going."

I was not surprised by her response. I wouldn't want her to become dependent either, but it might have helped to soothe her mind.

"Sookie?" I said her name in question.

"Yes." She said in a timid voice.

"It is not your body that concerns me, it is your mind that I want to be sharp. When I rose for the night your feelings were and still are a bundle of anxiety. You have over 2000 years of survival instinct between Thalia and me with you tonight. I will not let anything happen to you. Come sit with your back against me."

"I don't want any blood Eric." I knew she was only being curt with me because of the strain in her mind, so I let her tone go without comment.

"No blood." She looked at me assessing the truth in my statement and positioned herself as I had asked. "Just relax. Close your eyes."

I felt Sookie relax into me and I ran my hands up and down her arms in time with her breathing. When I started to feel her heartbeat return to its resting state I placed my thumbs on her cheekbones close to her ears and gently applied pressure. I continued to rub the soft spot between the corner or her eye and her ear. I felt her body release some of the tension it was holding and her breathing became slower. I gradually moved my fingers along her hairline, using firm pressure and tiny circular motions along my path till they met in the middle of her forehead. I continued my ministrations all along her scalp until my hands cradled her neck. Her head slumped back into my hands and I tilted her head until I could lay a soft kiss on her forehead.

She opened her eyes and said, "Thank you."

"You're welcome. How do you feel?"

"Better."

"Good. Now go back to the chair over there, before I am tempted to release the tension you have caused." I teased.

Sookie removed herself from my lap and crawled across the bed, glancing back only to giggle at the state she had left me in. Her laughter made me smile, even if it was at my own expense, because I knew some of the stress that had filled her had subsided. I hurry her along with a swift slap on her pert little ass.

"Are you sure you don't want me to help you with that?" She pointed to the monster she had awakened in my lap.

"No," I said and adjusted myself and tamped down my lust, "It'll be my incentive to move quickly on our mission tonight."

I rose from my bed and dressed quickly. My outfit mirrored Sookie's as we both were adorned in black leather jackets and dark denim. I went to sit on the ottoman in front of Sookie to hear what she had been able to obtain from Colonel Flood and Ms. Broadway.

"We have about twenty minutes until sunset. Let's hear it."

She pulled a folder from the side of the chair and gave it to me. I opened it up and she began her report, "Colonel Flood provided me with that file on the coven. They have been watching them for over three weeks, but have stopped a few days ago."

"Three weeks! We could have squashed this before it had escalated to possible Fellowship involvement." Stupid Weres. I should have known they were keeping things from me.

"Yes. I let him know straight away that it was a mistake on their part. I met the Were that was tasked with the surveillance and she was able to make sense of the items you'll find in there. It's a lot of code and jargon."

"This is a waste of paper." I shuffled through all the useless forms and pulled out diagrams that I easily deciphered of the property.

"I know. So I went to the source and she was able to tell me that aside from Marnie's were weaknesses she has two things that she values; her younger brother Mark and "V"."

I immediately fixated on the "V" problem. Someone in my area was supplying a were-witch with the blood or I have some drainers in my area. Too many possibilities, I needed to isolate this problem first.

"Eric?" Sookie interrupted my internal train of thought.

"This is good." I said flatly.

"Good that she's hopped up on "V"?" She said in an incredulous voice.

"Yes, it will make her erratic and also careless. I am thankful it is Flood who is taking care of her directly this night instead of us. Tell me more about the brother?"

"Since he is the second born, he is not a Were, but he is a witch like his sister. He more than likely will be there tonight."

"How did the Were say we should approach?"

"You'll find a diagram of the actual building and one for the surrounding area in the folder." I pulled out said diagrams and placed them on my lap. "The sightlines from the building are too clear. Our best bet would be to approach from the roof. From a distance we could see if there is a guard there and isolate them without alerting the others inside."

"You mentioned Flood has ceased the surveillance. Why?"

"Wards must have been put up to deter his watcher. Has Thalia mentioned anything during her watch over the last few days?"

"She can watch from a greater distance than the Were, she could have been just on the outside of it, so to not feel its effects. What did you obtain from Ms. Broadway?"

"This." She pulled a pendant necklace from her neck and placed it in my hand.

"It's a typewriter key." I moved the chain around in my hands and brought the pendant up to my face for closer inspection.

"Taken from an enchanted typewriter that was tasked with writing a very powerful spell book. It will detect wards and also absorb spells that were contained in the book. She was unsure how much magic the key will be able to absorb."

"How did you obtain such a trinket?"

"Would you believe me if I told you it was a birthday present?"

"I would. You are just full of surprises."

"This next one you might not like. When I had asked her about trap spells, she had told me that our only option is to not touch anything. How are we supposed to search if we cannot actually search?"

I thought about how to respond, I knew this was one of the things that had concerned her and she needed me to help her through this, but what she didn't know was that she was the answer to her own fears.

"How good are you at that freezing thing?" I asked, both curious and hoping to infuse some confidence into her.

"I froze you." She said proudly. There was that fire and spunk that had been missing earlier.

"Yes, you did. You won't need to freeze this person long, just enough so either Thalia or I can glamour them."

"We're going to use the humans to search for us, clever."

"And hopefully point us in the right direction. The one we need is the brother. He would know the most. Would you be open to using your telepathy on him?" I asked carefully.

I had curtailed my desire to use Sookie as solely a telepath, because she had asked me too; but the more I got to know of her and her other abilities the more I saw the truth in her statement. She was more than a telepath and every night I became privy to how much more she was.

"Yes, that would be fine. If you glamour him to comply during the search we can be more efficient." She said, a calm coming over her as the pieces to our plan began to fall into place. "What about the other materials we bought yesterday?"

"Oh, I plan on using them. Are you feeling a little rebellious tonight?"

"There's nothing like smashing a few windows to relieve some stress."

"Are all the jammers charged and ready to go?"

"Yes, they'll never be able to reconstruct our movements this night."

"Good, we'll go meet Thalia now at Fangtasia and see if she's done putting together our little welcome to the neighborhood present."

SPOV - Fangtasia

As we drove through the streets of Shreveport on our way to Fangtasia, we refined our plan and the earlier thoughts of panic and dread at our task had faded to a distant memory. I felt confident that we would succeed and be able to find the information we needed. In between shifting the gears, Eric held my hand and I felt his calm run through me. I could tell him I didn't want to come and he would let me stay behind without question, but I knew he needed me there. He probably had done things like this hundreds of times before and feeling him in the bond; his strength became my own. At the last stoplight before we turned the corner to Fangtasia, he gave me one last kiss. The bond pulsed with reassurance and love. The light turned green, but we didn't move. Eric brought his hand to my chin and lifted it until our eyes met.

"If you know the enemy and know yourself - you need not fear the results of a hundred battles. Just be you, Sookie."

"Jag vet." My words came out confident and strong, because I knew I had my vampire supporting me. [I know.]

Eric put his foot back on the accelerator and we drove the short distance to Fangtasia. I followed Eric into the back entrance and into the main bar area. The only occupants of the bar were an Asian vampire that I immediately identified as Chow (from the pictures Eric had shared with me) and my former bartender, Thalia.

"Thalia, Chow, this is my Daywoman Susannah Stackhouse."

We exchanged nods of acknowledgement and Eric turned to retreat back to his office. Thalia trailing behind us. I went to sit on the couch and Thalia sat in a chair in front of Eric's desk.

"Ms. Stackhouse was able to obtain some information about our target tonight that you will find most useful." I handed Eric the folder from Flood and he in turn handed Thalia some of the documents for her to review. I returned to my previous position on the couch.

She scanned through the documents and said without averting her eyes from the pages, "Will Ms. Stackhouse be coming with us tonight?"

"Yes. Aside from being very good at obtaining information, she has some talents that I believe will be useful for our mission tonight."

Thalia shifted her eyes to me. I didn't mind being assessed by Thalia. She like Eric had the right to be cautious of my merits. They had not survived centuries, by being careless. I look forward to proving my worth to her tonight. Her eyes finally returned to Eric, satisfied that I would not be a liability to her.

"Are you finished with the present?" He asked Thalia.

"Yes," She answered to Eric's inquiry on our back-up plan, "I have it stored in the basement."

"Send me the number you programmed for it."

Thalia pulled out her phone and I heard Eric's phone buzz with the incoming text. Eric lifted his phone to verify he had received it and a devious smile crept onto his face. "FU-WITCHES, Thalia?"

I wanted to laugh, but I kept my amusement inside to avoid angering Thalia. Eric told me she could be prone to violence and he it would be difficult to stop her. Who knew the ancient vampiress could have such a dark sense of humor.

"I thought it best to describe my state of mind after dealing with the stench of the ammonium nitrate."

"What is the mechanism housed in?" Eric asked. If she said broomstick, I was going to laugh. There would be no containing it.

"I needed a container that would mask the smell of the chemicals. I found this bottle in the supply closet that I thought would work well." That was unexpected, but quite shrewd on her part. They wouldn't notice a carefully placed bottle of cleaning product.

"Please, go retrieve it Thalia." Eric ordered.

She disappeared from the room and I remained silent because I knew she would be returning quickly. Eric returned to looking over the documents and I tried to get comfortable on the couch. She returned not a minute later carrying a purple spay can with a green top. When the recognition of the cleaning product hit me, I immediately covered my mouth.

"What is wrong with the Daywoman?" Thalia asked, giving me a contemptuous glare. What's wrong? What was wrong was you putting a bomb inside a can of Kaboom. I pretended to do something that sounded like a sneeze or cough, through spurts of laughter.

"She has allergies." Eric lied for me and I felt his amusement in the bond as well. "Ms. Stackhouse, please go outside and deal with your issue. Tell Chow to serve you anything you want."

I left the office and walked out into the bar. More of the staff had arrived and were milling about getting everything ready for the night. I went to the bar and took a seat at one of the bar stools and just let out the laughter I was holding in.

Chow approached me cautiously from the other side of the bar to help me. "What will it be Daywoman?"

"O-mizu o kudasai." I asked to put him at ease, since he had been taken aback by my laughter. [Water, please]

"Nihongo o hanashimasu ka?" Chow responded. [Do you speak Japanese?]

"Hai, hanashimasu." I answered. [Yes, a little.]

He got me that glass of water and looked like he was about to say something back to me, when Pam approached.

"Look who it is. The Daywoman has decided to become a Nightwoman."

"Hello Pam." I turned in my stool to face her. I could see Chow had removed himself from his place in front of me and gone to attend to some glassware at the end of the bar.

"I've come to make sure your little problem has been dealt with. Are we all squared away?" She said with an examining eye. I was not sure if Eric had told her about why I had been temporarily banished from his office.

"Yes, thank you." I said confidently, to assure her I was prepared to go back.

"Skratta inte åt henne. Hon kommer att bryta din arm." Pam whispered to me. [Don't laugh at her. She'll break your arm.]

"Thanks for the advice."

In a raised voice Pam said, "I can't have my employees fraternizing with each other out in the open like this. I might have to punish someone for breaking the rules." Chow tensed slightly at Pam's words. I guess Pam had found another victim to tease, now that Eric and I were off limits. "Now shoo." She turned my stool in the direction of the office and gave my shoulders a gentle nudge, only to disappear a second later.

I downed the last of my water and left it on the bar to make my way back to Eric's office. I entered the room quietly and listened to Thalia and Eric going over the plan we had already discussed on the drive here. I sat back on the couch and tried to ignore the purple can staring at me. They finished their discussion and Thalia left the office.

"Where did she go?"

"To get some blood and to suit up. Here are your gloves." Eric handed me a pair of leather gloves. The gloves were necessary to avoid leaving any fingerprints behind, because what we had planned to do was far from legal. I held them and felt how soft they were.

"Why are you not putting them on?"

"I want to test something first." I held both gloves in one hand and with the other I focused on my light. I sent a flare across Eric's office and I hit the magnet I was aiming for on his filing cabinet. It detached itself from the metal and slid to the floor.

"Impressive." Eric said and gave my hands a hard stare, "Do it again with the gloves on."

I tried to shoot my light with the material between my fingers, but it didn't work. I tried three more times before giving up.

"Hand me some scissors." I stretched my hand out and waited for him to give me the scissors, but he didn't make a move to open any drawers.

Eric shot from his seat over to the door, locking it and sat next to me. Popping his fangs, he took each of my gloved hands and proceeded to take each finger into his mouth and expertly removed each gloved tip, until I had a pair of custom finger-less gloves.

"Try again." He whispered reassuringly in my ear and I had to fight to not to think of all the other things I wanted to try again with him.

Instead of trying with one hand, I lifted up both my hands and volleyed my light at two separate targets making contact with both.

"Excellent. You'll have to be careful what you touch, but you can still utilize your palms to hold doors. Stay here. I'm going to get Thalia and the rest of the items we need."

"I'll be waiting." I said, and smiled at him.

He gave me a peck on my cheek and left the office. I sat and rubbed my fingers together to get used to the feel of leather on my hands. I tightened my hair in its bun and made sure it was secure for the flight over.

Thalia and Eric returned minutes later ready for our mission. Eric came in carrying a large duffle bag that he had slung over his shoulder and Thalia was wielding her own array of weaponry around her waist. I think I saw a gun, a stun gun, and a knife. I guess she liked having options. She walked over to Eric's desk and secured the "kaboom" can alongside her other weapons.

"Thalia, you know where to go." And with that she left.

I pulled the necklace out from underneath my jacket and let it dangle in front of me. I followed Eric outside to the back of Fangtasia. He adjusted the bag on his back and motioned for me to come to him. He secured me in his arms and we were off. The air whipped through my hair and it felt good to breathe it in. The full moon illuminated everything and off in the distance I could hear the howling of wolves. I hoped one of them was Marnie.

EPOV

We landed on the roof of a warehouse downwind of the coven's location. I placed Sookie on the roof and she stood quite easily on the surface. She looked down at her necklace and it was now a faint blue in color. We've approached the first ward.

"Do you feel the compulsion to leave this place?"

"No. Do you?" I responded and tried to search my mind and my body for any signs of the wards pull.

"I feel something faint tugging at my mind, but it doesn't hurt."

"Can you tell how many are in the building yet?"

"No, we're too far away and there will be interference from the other occupants of the buildings in between."

I opened my arms to her and we floated slowly to the next roof. I looked down at Sookie in my arms and both or our eyes were trained on the small pendant that we were relying on so heavily. It intensified in color, but it was still blue, so we were not at risk at turning to dust if we moved past the ward. We landed on the next roof and we both crouched down low, because we were within view of the target building's roof.

"Turn on the jammers." I sent a text to Thalia to turn hers on as well.

Thalia had been instructed to park her car back where we had originally landed. After Sookie and I had secured the roof, I would fly back and get her.

Sookie turned her back to the building and slid lower down so her head was obscured by the roof wall. She closed her eyes tightly and I could feel her calm and focus in the bond.

"Ner!" She pulled me down with her and a beam of light hovered just above where we just were. It was apparent we were close enough to where she could read the roof sentry. We sat with our backs against the roof wall and I waited for Sookie. [Down!]

"Totalt fyra, två häxor." She whispered and I nodded in acknowledgement of her count. [4 total, 2 witches]

"Är där en människa eller en häxa på taket?" I asked, assuming human. The witches must be inside protecting the inner sanctum of the coven and not patrolling the roof. [Is there a human or a witch on the roof?]

"En människa." She answered. I let my fangs run out at her answer and gave her a swift kiss.

"Jag e klar när du e klar." [Ready, whenever you are.]

She put the hood up on her jacket and grabbed a hold of my hand. I watched as she calmed herself and her breathing became deeper as she began to focus on the mind of the human on the rooftop. She peered over the edge of the roof and I heard her whisper, "Now."

At her signal, I flew off the rooftop and straight at the human form on the adjoining building. The man didn't move at my approach. I faced his still form and pulled him under my glamour.

"You will not speak or make any noise that will alert your companions of my presence below. You will obey exactly what I say and after I release you from my glamour you will not remember anything except that you have decided to sever all connections to this group and go on to live a life away from the supernatural not out of fear, but out of apathy. Blink if you understand me." He blinked and I let the duffle bag slide off my shoulder to fall next to him. I walked backward slowly ensuring he was still under my glamour and I left him on the roof to retrieve Sookie. Her pendant was glowing strongly and she placed it underneath her jacket. Even with the full moon, the pendant still shined brightly. I confirmed Sookie was okay maintaining her hold on the man, only then did I fly to retrieve Thalia.

SPOV

Once Eric left to get Thalia, I stared down the man in front of me. He was only doing this to make some extra money, so he was not privy to the actions of the coven. He would not be helpful in providing knowledge for our search, but we needed him and his hands to move through the building. I opened the duffle bag with my eyes still on him, pulled out the zip ties. I secured his hands easily in his frozen state and waited for Eric to return. I made sure to use the handkerchief I brought along as I pulled to not leave any trace evidence behind. The three people below were still oblivious to our actions and I kept monitoring them for any a signs of trouble.

Eric returned moments later with Thalia and I motioned for Eric to take our new companion to the roof door. I released him from my hold and he walked awkwardly at first in the direction that Eric told him to. The man entered the stairwell, followed by Eric, then me, and finally Thalia. We entered the second level and walked down the corridor. The hallway had two doors on each side and a window at the end of it. The diagram denoted them as offices. I tapped Eric's shoulder and he turned around and I put up two fingers, and then made an "X" with my hands signaling there were two witches on this floor. He nodded and I gave him my necklace. He vamp speeded to each door and used the pendant as his guide. He hovered next to the door on the left. It was the furthest away from us and pointed to Thalia and me to enter the doors nearest us. I went to the right; Thalia went the left, leaving the man alone in the hallway with Eric. I hovered in the doorway and waited. Eric came into my room and gave me my necklace that was a bright red. I put it back around my neck and Eric left to instruct the man to speak.

"Hey, Mark! Can you come out here? I think there's a car parked out back. Looks kinda suspicious. Come take a looksee and let me know what you think?" The man who I had ascertained was named Thomas parroted for Eric.

I heard a door open and footsteps. "Tom, what are you talking about? I haven't heard a car all ni…" His voice was cut-off. Eric had him. I heard a door open and close and he must have brought him into the door across from where Mark was.

"Mark? Hey Tom. Where did Mark go?" Said a female voice. "I ju…" Thalia had her now. I exited the room and entered the hallway to find only "Tom" standing there.

Both Thalia and Eric had cuffed both Mark and the female. Eric sent Thalia to deal with the other human. What we wanted was in that room the two witches had left? They wouldn't have warded it so heavily if it wasn't important. Thalia returned to our side moments later and I noticed her spray can was no longer on her person. She must have found somewhere to put it.

"Start with Mark." Eric ordered.

I walked over to Mark and touched his hand. I was filled with his panicked thoughts. He was worried his sister would get angry at him for not protecting the files. The word files kept popping up in his head.

"Where are the files Mark?" He didn't answer with his voice, but his mind confirmed the location in the room. "We need to get in that room. Order him to take down the ward."

Eric whispered his command, but Mark didn't attempt to do it. "Do it!" Eric urged, but he just shook his head. I read his thoughts as the glamour tugged at him to comply.

"He's not powerful enough to do it by himself. He needs his sister to take it down. Order him to go back into the room and retrieve the files."

Eric did as I said and we watched from the doorway as Mark went into the room. He didn't go to the filing cabinet, like I suspected he would, he walked to the computer. "Order him to shut down the computer and then remove the hard drive. We need to preserve the data" Eric spoke rapidly and Mark complied. Shutting down the computer and coming back with the files. My heart was beating faster as I watched him from the other side of the ward and I could feel the sweat on my brow. He finally returned with the hard drive. Eric pocketed it in his jacket and signaled for Thalia to begin phase two of our plan. She grabbed the duffle bag and disappeared back up the stairs to the roof. We gathered up all the captors and Eric glamoured them to leave the building and drive to Dallas.

"Ladies, first." Eric pointed to the window at the end of the hall.

I pulled my hand back to wind-up and sent a bright, white light at the window. It shattered into a million pieces. Eric scooped me up and we flew through it down to the ground floor to take a look at Thalia's handiwork. The back door had been pried open and hung ajar. The walls were covered in graffiti and the ground was covered in some sort of dirt. A breeze kicked up and I realized what Thalia has left behind.

"Nice touch with the fertilizer." I commented.

"It'll help mask our scent." She said, proud of the damage she had inflicted on the building. "I even tossed in a few beer cans for good measure."

"Thalia, go to ground. I'll contact you in a few days." Eric ordered and then she and the duffle disappeared from sight.

I checked the area for any other life forms and finding it clear; sent more of my light at the rest of the remaining windows. Eric crouched down and I hopped on his back to fly back to Fangtasia. I felt relieved and happy that we made it out without incident. I held onto Eric tightly and felt what I could only identify as pride coming off of him.

About half-way into our flight, I felt Eric slowing down. "Eric what's wrong?"

"I don't know." I barely heard his response over the air rushing past us.

We are falling.

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