Most of my day was spent in Eric's library. No one had come to bother me—not even when the sun had set for at least an hour. Varying books were scattered around me on the floor. I hadn't read more than a sentence of any of them. There simply wasn't anything in me that wanted to concentrate on literature badly enough to snap my mind into focus. And so I had read a few words of each before tossing them aside and selecting another. But none held the words that I was looking for. What exactly was I looking for?

I finally stood with a sigh. "Nahla," I called out hesitantly. "Nahla, I know someone's watching me. If it isn't you, I demand your presence."

When the air around me remained calm and still, I furrowed my brows.

"Goddammit, faeries! I demand some sort of faerie presence, now." A few of the books on the surrounding bookshelves fell off with my conviction.

With a chilled pop Bahari appeared before me. "Nahla should be here shortly," he reassured me. "She didn't think you would ever want our presence again."

"I didn't either," I remarked lightly. "But I figured we should have a meeting of the minds." I studied him. "You might want to mask that faerie scent. The vampires are up."

Bahari nodded. A few seconds later, Nahla appeared. Worry laced her voice: "Aline? What is all the fuss about?"

"I'll explain. Mask your scent and follow me."

"You wish for us to accompany you near the vampires?"

"'A meeting of the minds,'" Bahari quoted me. "I think we owe her at least that much." He strode by me without a care in the world. Nahla's face twisted into a distinct look of discomfort before she followed me, sulking the entire way.

I descended the stairs, finding Michael reading in the living room, sprawled neatly on the couch. He put down his book, looking at the three of us with raised eyebrows. "Michael, have you seen—," Eric began, walking into the living room. He stopped short when he noticed the faeries at my side. "Who are they?"

"My faerie godmother, Nahla," I motioned. "And Bahari."

"Ah, they must be the compensation for making my maker so sulky," he smirked at them, clearly sensing Nahla's terror. "They're rather small, but I guess they'll be adequate snacks." His fangs extended, glinting dangerously. Nahla took a leap behind me. Bahari simply stood there, raising a slender dark eyebrow. "Godric! Aline brought us some snacks."

Godric appeared beside Eric, raising an eyebrow in curious confusion. Sookie, hearing all of the commotion, came into the living room with the rest of us.

"Thanks for making my job of summoning everyone easy, Eric," I shot him a look of light amusement. "But I thought that we should all sit down and swap information." I gave Michael a stern look. "You, too. I know you can do it."

"I'm not supposed to," he shook his head. "We've been thrown out for less than what I did last night."

"If anyone has a problem with it, they can take it up with me," I waved him off. "You must know what's going to set it off, right?"

"Aline, I cannot tell you—"

I threw a collection of water energy at him, thoroughly soaking both him and Eric's couch.

"At least it's leather," Eric quipped with an eye roll. I shot him an unamused stare. Clearly I was trying to make myself appear superior to Michael. I didn't need Eric undermining my authority with his sense of humor. Next time, I'm going for the suede, I decided silently. The Viking must have sensed a change in my resolve because his smirk turned into a look of caution.

"Really? You're throwing metaphysical water balloons at me?" Michael grumbled, trying to wipe the water off of himself. I stared evenly.

"Share."

"I was warned that you could be a bully, but I didn't think you would—" Ice cold water splashed him in the face.

"Aline, is this really wise?" Nahla asked anxiously. She clearly didn't like me picking on an archangel. But this method had worked before. Maybe I could force him to talk again.

"That's cute," he muttered at me darkly. I blew ice onto his hair, effectively freezing it into place. He was getting irritated now. I could tell from the way his nostrils flared. A devious grin flashed on my face. "Alin—"

Soon, I was pelting him with as many hydrokinetic ideas as I could possibly come up with. Ice coated water bombs. Water bombs with an icy center. Pure water. Freezing water. Water and then ice. Ice and then scalding hot water.

"ENOUGH!" The archangel roared, standing to his full height, wings visible and extended behind him. I stood eyelevel with him, refusing to back down, keeping my breathing even despite his huffiness. "I know why I was chosen for you now," he said slowly. "Gabriel and Samael surely would have killed you by now. Or themselves."

"Lucky you have a stronger backbone than that," I replied evenly, a light smirk gracing my lips.

"A vampire is going to drain one of the faeries," he relented. Nahla took a terrified step back, hiding behind Bahari. He shot her a disapproving look even though she was clearly his superior. "This will cause a retaliation. The faeries will begin to trick vampires into extinction."

"How is that even possible?"

"Drinking our blood allows a vampire to walk in the sunlight for varying periods of time," Bahari supplied. "However, it is like alcohol to them. It impairs their judgment. Quite a few vampires have met the sun without ever realizing it because of this."

I stared at Bahari, shocked by this knowledge, and then back to Michael.

"They will recruit the help of whatever witches are willing to take a stand. And, I'm sorry to say, necromancy is becoming rather popular again since vampires have revealed themselves to the world." He paused. "Vampires have many enemies. Simply a fact of nature or one that has been earned over time. They will have no hesitance in joining the fae in their quest to rid the world of their existence."

"How many vampires exist?"

"Not nearly enough," Michael replied grimly. "Which is why you play such a necessary part. You are half fae and werewolf. Werewolves are, for the most part, natural enemies with vampires. And I'm sure you're familiar with the boundaries between faeries and vampires."

"So what exactly am I supposed to do?"

He hesitated. "You are supposed to become an activist. A peaceful one," he added quickly. His eyes connected with Godric's. "And Godric will help you with this cause." Then he looked at Sookie and Eric. "The two of you will also be up for some speculation. Similar to your President and his family."

"You did not just compare me to the President," I frowned. He shot me an amused, wry grin. "Okay, when is all of this supposed to happen?"

Michael paused, his eyes becoming as distant as they had when Bill was supposed to discover who I was and take me to the Queen. "Tonight, actually."

My eyebrows shot up. "Excuse me?"

Eric was instantly on his phone, calling in favors for information while I tried to get more information out of Michael. When he refused to tell me anything else, I made a dash for the door. His warm strong arms were immediately around me, holding me firmly away from the front entrance. "There is nothing you can do, Aline. If you go, you will be drained as well."

"You don't know that!"

"It's done," Eric reported, an angry look on his face. He stared at his phone in a mixture of disgust and disbelief. "Bill procreated and failed to properly educate his progeny on the ethics of mainstreaming it seems."

"Motherfucking Bill Compton," Sookie swore as I growled. Some day, I was going to have that vampire's head on a silver platter. Salome would have been proud, had she still been alive. (Surprisingly, I'm rather well acquainted with the Bible. At least the parts that were actually interesting and not psychobabble. Such as a seductress asking for a man's head on a silver platter.)

"He didn't even realize who the woman was or why she turned to dust," Eric shook his head.

"I'm going to stake that bastard," I declared.

"'An eye for an eye will make the world blind,'" Michael cautioned me.

"Fuck the world. We have Braille."

"I think Gandhi is a little far off for you, yet," Bahari mused. "We'll deal with this Compton man later. For now, we should be working on ways to fix what has just been broken." He turned to Nahla. "Nahla, go seek counsel from Kaelin. Explain to him the severity of the situation if he isn't already aware. I will stay here and help to contain whatever damage I can."

She opened her mouth to argue, but closed it again. Instead, she planted a kiss on his forehead. "Be careful, my son." And then she was gone. Sookie had stepped outside with Eric's phone to call in a few favors from the supernaturals that she knew. Eric had accompanied her to do the same after she had finished. That left Godric, Michael, Bahari, and I discussing possible plans of action.

"The American Vampire League will probably seek our help," Godric mused, earning a nod from Michael. "Which means that the majority of the Authority will probably want to get involved. They're very concerned about the wellbeing of their mainstreaming agenda."

"If all goes well, our Kingdom should stand apart from the rest of the faeries. I assume that Maab will more than likely head the vampire hunts."

"Maybe parts of the other kingdoms will stand in our alliance once Kaelin makes a decision to," I offered hopefully.

"It's possible. Maab would use this to her advantage to promote the destruction of the tether between our two realms. The opposition for this ruling has been steadily increasing."

"So it's a long shot, but it's a shot nonetheless."

"Yes." There was a pair of pops from kitchen. Kaelin and Nahla both entered the living room respectively.

"Maab has already gotten word that one of her granddaughters has been drained," Kaelin informed us. "She is campaigning for support to seek vengeance. And some of our kind are not hesitating in their decision."

"But we will stand with you," Nahla reassured me. "Queen Serphina and King Damek have also offered whatever support they can gain from their kingdoms. It is not as much power as Maab has behind her, but there is more conviction within our ranks."

"It's not much," Sookie replied as she came into the room, "but I've managed to call in a few friends. They're going to be recruiting within their circles." She glanced at me. "Sam was happy to hear that you were safe." At least for the moment, I added silently. The look on her face informed me that she was thinking the same thing.

"Thank you, Sookie," I replied honestly. She nodded, taking the empty seat next to me. Eric entered a few moments later.

"I found some people willing to help as well. They're also going to use whatever pull they can to get us more manpower." I nodded. "This is the last time I offer to baby sit mortals."

Thank you, treewitch703, Ericsbee, OrangePlasticGummyBear, and enigma013, for reviewing so quickly!

There will be more up in a few days, but I originally started this for Camp NaNoWriMo since I had no inspiration whatsoever for anything other than, well, fanfiction lately. And I simply enjoy writing this too much to stop now! :)

I should continue to update this fairly regularly (especially on weekends) up until maybe August if I do that Camp NaNoWriMo as well. I'll more than likely continue to update through August if I decide to do it anyway, though. It just won't be as frequently. (Maybe?)

But, until then, expect some more Aline and Godric.

~Lynn