Disclaimer: I am not the owner of these characters. The original story and the characters belong to Charlaine Harris. I am only borrowing them for a little while.

Chapter 13

What's Claude up to? Let's see…

Sookie's POV

I screamed, and my coffee mug went flying.

When I could speak, I said, "You. Do. Not. Do. That. To. Me." He must have come in through the unlocked front door. He had keys, anyway, but I would have heard then in the lock and had some warning.

"Cousin, I'm sorry," he said contritely, but I could see the amusement in his eyes.

"Claude," I said, "things haven't been going well while you were gone." I struggled to make my voice level. "Some of your fae workers have been restless."

Claude poured himself a cup of coffee and pulled out a chair. His actions weren't threatening, but I was looking at the man who'd sent Kym Rowe to her death; for all I knew, he was the one who'd killed her when she hadn't gotten Eric to do the job. Claude's sudden reappearance – without Niall – would have been enough to raise the hair on my arms if I hadn't known about his collusion with Jannalynn.

Why had Claude returned by himself? There was something in his face that hadn't been there before. I needed time to think what to do next; yet, I didn't have any.

"Where is Niall?" I asked, picking up my mug, which amazingly hadn't broken. After I put it in the sink, I got a wad of paper towels to mop up the spoiled coffee.

"Still in Faery," Claude said.

"Why?" I asked him suspicious, "Did Niall get the letter I sent?"

"I don't know," Claude said.

I was bewildered. "I thought you went back with Niall to investigate who'd cast the crazy spell on Dermot," I said. "He's been spending lots of nights at the club and trying real hard to keep things running." I was frightened for myself, of course, but I was frightened for Dermot too. I hoped Dermot was awake by now; Claude wouldn't take my word for it that Dermot wasn't there. He'd go up to check.

"So what have you been doing in Faery? Did you ever find out who cast the spell?"

"Niall and I have had some disagreements," Claude said, his beautiful dark eyes flashing up to meet mine. "I'm sorry to say that Niall believes it was me who cursed Dermot."

I was left with no response, since I was by now pretty sure myself that Claude was the culprit. "I think that's awful," I said, with absolute sincerity. He could take it as he chose.

Dermot came down the stairs at that moment, "Did I hear Claude's voice?"

"Yes, he's home," I said, in what hoped was a natural voice.

When he saw me, Dermot's blue eyes, so like Jason's, widened in shock. I guess my voice wasn't even after all.

"Claude," he called. "Where have you been? The other fae are champing at the bit to hear your news." He started toward the kitchen, but he met Claude coming into the living room.

"Dermot," said Claude. His voice was so cold it stopped Dermot dead.

"What's wrong? Why have you returned without Father?" Dermot said.

"Grandfather has issues he must deal with," Claude snarled. "In Faery."

"What did you do?" Dermot asked. He was brave. "What did you do, Claude?"

"I thought that when I went back with him, I would find support for our program," Claude said.

Uh-oh. I didn't like the sound of that. I took two more steps to my left. What should I do? Dermot wasn't armed. He was wearing sleep pants and no shirt.

My shot gun was in the closet by the front door. Maybe the closet should be my goal.

"And you didn't?" Dermot said. "I'm not sure what program you mean, Claude?"

"You naïve simpleton," Claude said scathingly. "How hard have you worked at ignoring what was going on all around you, so you could stay with us?"

Claude was just being mean now. "Claude Crane, you are just being an asshole," I exploded. "And you shut up right now!"

I'd succeeded in startling Claude, and he turned his gaze on me for just a second, but Dermot took advantage of that second to hit Claude as hard as he could, which proved to be plenty hard. Claude lurched to his right, and Dermot kept punching. Of course, the element of surprise was gone after the first blow. Claude had another skill besides stripping. He could fight dirty.

The two launched into it, two beautiful men doing something so ugly I could hardly bear to watch.

Right at that moment my back door flew open and Bellenos bounded through my kitchen and down the hall. He had a true sword in his hand, instead of his deer-hunting spear. Gift was with him, long knives in both her hands. Three more of the Monroe fae were with them: two of the strippers, the fairy "policeman" and the part demon who'd worn leather when he'd come onstage. The curvy ticket taker followed. She hadn't bothered with looking human today.

"Help Dermot!" I yelled, hoping that was they'd come to do. To my overwhelming relief, they whooped with excitement and threw themselves into the brawl. There was a lot of unnecessary punching and biting, but when they were sure Claude was subdued, they all began laughing. Even Dermot.

"Would someone tell me what's going on?" I asked. I felt (as usual with the supes) two steps behind the crowd, and no telepath enjoys feeling that way.

"My dearest sister," Bellenos said. He smiled that disconcerting smile at me. "Claude was trying to incite us to rebel against Niall," he said. "Sister, I'm surprised he didn't try to test your loyalty, too."

In the meantime, Claude was lying on the floor in a painting, bloody bundle. There was still plenty of fight in him, from the glares he was throwing around, but he was so clearly outnumbered that it seemed he'd given up… at least temporarily. The ticket taker sitting on his legs, and the two strippers were each pinning one arm.

"Well, he wouldn't have gotten very far!" I said. "I would have thrown him out in a New York minute!"

"Then see, that was intelligent of you, Claude," said Bellenos, bending over to speak to Claude face-to-face. "One of the few intelligent things you did." Claude glared at him.

Dermot shook his handsome head. "All this time I thought I must try to emulate Claude, because he had been so successful out here in the human world. But I realized that when he thought people were pleased with him, he didn't perceive that it was only because he is beautiful. Much more often, when he talked to people, they came to regard him with dislike. I couldn't believe it, but he'd done well in spite of himself, not because of his own talents."

"So… Claude really was locked out of Faery, along with you-all? That wasn't a lie?" I asked.

"No, not a lie," said Dermot sadly. "My father hated me because he thought I'd always worked against him. But I was cursed. I thought he's done the cursing, but I see now it must have been Claude all along. Claude, you betrayed me and then kept me trotting behind you like a dog."

Claude began to speak in another language, and then the fae moved with an unbelievable speed. Gift yanked off her bra top, and Harley stuffed it in Claude's mouth. It would have been petty of me to take any notice of Gift's bare chest, so I rose above it.

"That was a secret fairy language?" I hated to ask, but I just wanted to know. My days of ignorance were over.

Dirk nodded. "We speak to each other that way; it's what we have in common: full fairy, demon, angel, and the half-breeds." That was another thing I was in disadvantage.

"Dermot, did you and Claude really come here because of my fairy blood?" I asked Dermot. Claude's mouth was otherwise occupied.

"Yes," Dermot said uncertainly. "Though Claude said there was something here that attracted him, and he spent hours when you were gone searching your house. When he couldn't find what he wanted here, he thought perhaps it was in the furniture you sold. He went to that shop and broke in to examine all the furniture again."

I felt a little bubble of rage float to the top of my brain. "Though I was nice enough to let him live with me. He searched my house. Went through my stuff. While I was gone."

Dermot nodded. From the guilty glance he gave me, I was pretty damn sure Claude had enlisted my great-uncle in his search.

"What was he looking for?" Harley asked curiously.

"He sensed a fairy object in Sookie's house, a fairy influence."

They all looked at me, simultaneously, with sharp attention.

"Gran- you-all know my fairy blood comes from my grandmother and Fintan, right?" They all nodded and blinked. I was sure glad I hadn't been trying to keep that secret. "Gran was friends with Mr. Cataliades, through Fintan." They nodded again, more slowly. "He left something here, but when he stopped by a few days ago, he picked it up."

They appeared to accept that pretty well. Claude trashed on the floor. Clearly, he wanted to put in his two cents' worth, and I was glad the bra was in his mouth.

"Claude, I know you tried to sabotage me and Eric. But I don't know why."

Dirk raised interrogative eyebrows. Did I want him to remove the gag?

"Maybe you can just let me know if I get something right," I suggested, hoping that the gag stayed in. "Did you go to Jannalynn for help because you wanted to enlist a shifter of some kind?"

Glaring at me, Claude nodded.

"Who's that?" Dermot whispered, as if the air would answer him.

"Jannalynn Hopper is the second of the Long Tooth pack in Shreveport," I said. "She's been dating my boss, Sam Merlotte. But she hates me, which is a long story for some other time, though it's pretty boring. Anyway, I knew she'd love to do me a bad turn if she could. And the young woman who got murdered in Eric's front yard turned out to be half-Were with a death wish and severe financial problems, ripe for a desperate plan, I figure. Claude, you have her some of your blood to make her alluring to Eric, I think?"

The fae all looked absolutely aghast. I couldn't have said anything more abhorrent to them. "You gave your sacred blood to a mongrel?" hissed Gift, and kicked Claude heartily.

Claude closed his eyes and nodded.

Maybe he wanted them to kill him on the spot. Kym Rowe hadn't been the only person to develop a wish to die.

"So I get how you did it… but why? Why did you want Eric to lose control? What benefit to you?"

"Oh, I know that one!" Dermot said brightly.

I sighed. "Maybe you would explain."

"Claude told me several times that if we could get Niall to return to your side, we could attack him here in the human world, where he wouldn't be surrounded by his supporters," Dermot said. "But I ignored his scheming. I was sure Niall wouldn't return and couldn't return, because he was firm in his resolution to stay in Faery. But Claude argued that Niall loves you so much that if something happened to you, he'd come to your side. So he tried to ruin Eric, thinking that at best you and Eric would fight and Eric would hurt you. Or you'd be arrested for murdering him, and you'd need your great-grandfather. At the very least, you would throw Eric aside and your misery would bring Niall running."

"I was pretty miserable," I said slowly.

"And here I am," said a voice I recognized. "I have come in response to your letter, which opened my eyes to many things."

He was glowing. My great-grandfather hadn't troubled with his human appearance, either. The white-blond hair floated in the air around him. His face was radiant, his eyes like fairy lights on a white tree.

The little cluster of fae in my living room fell to their knees.

He put his arms around me, and I felt his incredible beauty, his terrifying magic, and his crazy devotion.

There was nothing human about him yet it made me feel warm and loved. This feeling was something I was starting to get used to. Being around the fae.

He put his mouth right by my ear. "I know you have it," he said.

Suddenly we were standing in my bedroom instead of the living room. "You gonna take it?" I asked, in the smallest possible voice. Those were fae in the living room. They might hear.

"Don't even show it to me," he said. "It was from my son to his loved one. He intended it for a human. It should stay in human hands."

"But you really, really want it."

"I do, and I have very poor impulse control."

"Okay. No looks." I was trying to relax; I had so many questions for him. "What will happen to the fae in my living room?"

"I will take them with me," Niall said. "I have taken care of a lot of things while Claude was with me. I never let him know what I already understood about him. I know what happened to Dermot. I have forgiven Dermot."

Okay, that was good.

"Will you close Faery? For good?"

"No," he whispered, his lips again uncomfortably close to my ear. "You have not asked if your lover know that you have the … object."

"He does?" I was shocked. More than shocked.

"Yes. I told him. Would you like to know why?" Niall said inaudibly.

"Yes."

"You need to know." His arms grew uncomfortably tight around me. I made myself relax against him. The brilliant eyes bored into mine. "You had to know what would happen if he believed you had power," he said.

"Please tell me you didn't engineer the whole Appius thing?" That would be more than I could bear.

"No. Eric is unfortunate in that people feel the need to take him down a peg, including his own maker. The Roman wanted to keep control over so vital a being even after his own death, which became far more likely once he turned the child. So unstable. Appius Livius Ocella made mistakes in his whole long existence. Perhaps changing Eric was his finest hour. He created the perfect vampire. Eric's only flaw is you."

"But…" I couldn't think of what I'd been about to say.

"Of course, that's not how I perceive it, dearest. You are the one right impulse Eric has had in five hundred years or more. Well, Pam is all right. Even Eric's other living child does not rival her maker."

"I still hate Ocella. I hate King Felipe de Castro. I hate that vampire queen that is trying to steal him from me."

Niall looked at me with concern, love, and understanding. But didn't say anything.

"So you knew Appius?"

"We met. He was a stinking Roman asshole."

"True."

"I was glad when he died. Out in your front yard, wasn't it?"

"Ah. Yes."

"The ground around your house has become soaked with blood. It will add to its magic and fertility."

"What is this magic that I keep hearing about? Would you explain it to me?" I asked him.

"Your magic will manifest when you finally accept yourself and your blood."

I didn't know what to say. After a few silent seconds I continued, "What happens now?" I said because I simply couldn't think of what else to say.

He lifted me and carried me out of the bedroom like I was a baby. It didn't feel like the times when Eric had carried me, which had had a definitely carnal edge. This was incredibly tender.

He put me on the couch as careful as if I were an egg. "This is what happens next," he told me. He turned to the other fae, still on their knees. Claude had stopped thrashing and was looking up at Niall with resignation. For the moment, Niall ignored his grandson.

"Do you all want to go home?" he asked the others.

"Yes, Prince," said Dirk. "Please, with our kindred waiting at Claude's club? If we may? If you will."

Dermot said, "With your blessing, I'll stay here, Father."

For a moment they all looked at Dermot incredulously, as if he'd just announced he was going to birth a kangaroo.

Niall folded Dermot to him. I could see Dermot's face, and it was ecstatic and frightened; everything I had felt in Niall's embrace. Niall said, "Let's go home first and we will discuss about this later. I would like to spend time with my son."

The conflict on Dermot's face was painful to see. "Sookie," he said, "who can finish your upstairs work?"

"I'll hire Terry Bellefleur," I said. "He won't be as good as you, Dermot."

"I can't live without my essence, and I am your son, Niall."

Niall beamed down at Dermot, which was what Dermot had wanted his whole life.

I went to him and hugged him. I even started crying, which I hadn't expected. They all kissed me, even Bellenos, though I felt his teeth scrape lightly on my cheek, and I felt his chest move in a silent chuckle.

Niall made some mysterious signs over my head and closed his eyes, just like a priest giving a blessing. I felt something change about the house, the land, and me.

And then they were gone. Even Claude.

I was stupefied. Something felt off and I couldn't put my finger on it. What did Niall do?

The alarm on my phone went off, and I gasp at how fast time has gone. I left my presents on top of the kitchen table and rushed out of the house. The sun was still out, but not for much longer. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath; I enjoyed the sun's sweet smell and the sunlight felt good on my skin.

My heart pounded so hard; my hands shook out of the fear I was trying to control and failing miserably. From time to time my foot was too heavy on the gas which forced me to keep an eye on the speedometer. I had to fight the urge to speed up because I knew that if I didn't hurry up, I was going to miss the opportunity to kill King Felipe de Castro.

Note: I made changes to this whole Claude scene and the conversation between Niall and Sookie to set up the direction of our story. I also added several important clues here, now let's execute the plan! After reading this chapter, my only question is: Are you sure you're ready for what's coming up next? *evil smile*