You're not alone
Together we stand
I'll be by your side, you know I'll take your hand – Avril Lavigne
Sookie POV
"Who called Karin, Pam," Eric asks, his voice so low it's scary. Pam doesn't answer him at first, which is probably a mistake because it only causes him to growl out the question again. "Who called her, Pam," he asks and if he was talking to me with that voice, I'd be singing like a canary.
Pam on the other hand, seems to be still trying to protect her maker because she doesn't seem to eager to answer his question. That tells me how right my guess of who called Karin this evening actually is. And that has me thinking ahead a bit. I'm not so worried about who called Karin; my question is more why he would call Karin.
"Eric," Pam says trying but failing to calm him.
"Who," he says, his voice empty of all emotion as he takes a step away from me.
Pam looks away from him and speaks just loudly enough that I can hear her say, "Appius Livius Ocella." Her voice is just as pain filled as Eric's face as she say that mouthful of a name. "I don't have the privilege of calling him anything other than his full name yet," Pam says answering my unasked question. And here I though I was the one with telepathy.
"You should not be calling him anything," Eric says his voice still low but starting to shake. I move towards him not being able to see him like this and not offer comfort. He moves away from me though, all the while giving me a look of apology. He flexes his hand and I remember how volatile he was after we got back from Jackson, how reactive he was even in Jackson when I was hurt. I know he must be feeling something similar to that now. But he isn't alone and he knows that now. So I keep taking slow steps toward him until I can reach the hand he has clenched, the hand that I know he is imagining is clenched around something else than his own fist. He lets me take it and I bring it up to my mouth to kiss it before I gently unclench his fingers so that I can interlace my fingers with his.
I can admit to be afraid for a second that he will pull away from me in his anger and the fear I know he is feeling for Karin. And this may have been his reaction months ago but now he takes a breath he doesn't need to take and that works to collect him. He leads me back to where Pam is standing and wraps his free arm around Pam. "When," he asks sticking to his one word questions.
"The time differences make it a bit tricky," she says. She explains that Karin got the phone call just shortly after sunrise here, which suggests that Appius was counting on Eric not being told about this phone call for hours. Karin is currently in an area that receives little sunlight, which has me feeing even worse for the vampire. She has had more time with her thoughts and more time to worry.
"What did he have to say," Eric asks. I am going to stop thinking that I've heard the scariest voice Eric can offer. Every time I do, he breaks out another one. If I were the target of that voice, I'd be waving my white flag in surrender right about now. But if Appius heard him using that voice, he'd probably consider his little call a job well done.
"Oh you know. He just wanted to talk about the weather," Pam says surprising us both. Or maybe it's just me that is surprised as I feel Eric tense up against me. He calls out her name again and it sounds like a warning but Pam just repeats, "The whole conversation lasted less than five minutes. Karin said he asked about the weather before abruptly hanging up. She said she heard someone else besides Appius, so that could be why he hung up so quickly."
Eric curses loudly and suddenly I know the situation just got a bit more worrisome. "Still, after all this time, weather is still his tell."
I know that term from all of the poker games Jason used to have with his friends in high school. Everyone has habits and the tell is the habits you have during the game, when you are bluffing or have a good hand. It's what gives you away. I'm not sure what Appius' tell means but given what I know about him, it is not good. And even though I have yet to meet Karin, the fact that he used it on my vampires' family, only gives me another reason to put a piece of wood in his chest.
Eric curses again before doing the vampire version of pacing and taking three steps from me. I can see the muscles tense in his back and down his arms and I know it is taking everything he has right now to not explode about the situation. Pam is looking at him looking for answers. I imagine the look on Thalia's face is similar to the one on my own. We are hurting because our loved ones are hurting and, at least at the moment, we can't do anything about it.
I think that is worst of all.
Eric brings his hand up and looks like he will hit the countertop again, and the motion brings me back to what feels like years ago when he broke the countertop at his house feeling the anger of the situation. Instead he opens and closes his fist before bringing his hand back to rest at his side.
"My maker, he used to," he begins before stopping. "It appears he still does. When he was planning to attack someone, he would ask them about the weather. The weather always fascinated him. He thought of the weather as the emotions of the Earth. He always wanted to attack when he felt the emotions would work in his favor. The fact that he asked Karin about the weather means that he is going to be making a move soon."
"On you or on Karin," Thalia asks.
"A move against Karin would be a move against me. He knows that as he knows the pain it would cause me for him to do so."
Pam takes and unneeded breath before asking, "Does he feel close to her?"
Eric shakes his head no but still closes his eyes and I know that he is searching out his connections to the two vampires just to make sure. "No," he says, his voice sounding confident in his findings while wavering with the stress of the conversation. Quite the mix.
Eric makes to grab his phone off of the counter. But he soon finds his hand empty as Pam takes the phone right out of it. I don't know what she's thinking right now and I hear Thalia let out a whistle. "We have to think about this, Eric," Pam says while putting his phone back on the table.
"There is little to think about at the moment. He called my child. The call alone is a threat, made worse by what he said to her. I want my child here, where I know she is safe."
"Don't you think that's exactly what he wants," Pam asks, her voice wavering. I know she's torn. A part of her agrees with Eric; she wants her vampire sister here just as much as he does. But as much as I tend to agree with both of them that Karin should be here, we have to make sure we are thinking about this the right way.
Pam obviously thinks she is on to something.
"Eric he knows how much you care for her, how much you care for those you love," she says and her voice catches on the word. "If you have her come here for her protection, you'd be playing right into his hands. That's what he wants. That's exactly what he expects you to do."
"I cannot just leave her there."
"The last Appius knows, he ruined the relationship between you too. He knows you would never stop caring for her but he also knows that you blamed yourself for what happened. He still could think you have no contact with her. Think about it. Karin did. She called me, Eric. She called me knowing that you would find out but worried if she called you directly, she would be giving Appius exactly what he wanted. We have to make sure we don't do that."
"I cannot just leave her open to an attack like this," Eric says and you can hear the pain in his voice. Hell, I can feel the pain in his voice.
"I'll go," Thalia says. "I will help her."
Eric looks at Thalia with admiration and love in his eyes before shaking his head. "You do not know how much I appreciate your offer but that would put us at a disadvantage here. If we lose Louisiana then it means that I can no longer be of use to Karin anyway. I will send others though to watch over her before I can bring her here. As soon as it is safe, she will be here with us," he says, his voice leaving no room for question, though no one in the room would think of questioning what he is saying.
"Pam could you and Thalia handle Fangtasia tonight?" At her nod he turns to me to explain he will be making phone calls for most of the evening and will understand if I would rather go to Fangtasia with Thalia and Pam.
"As long as you don't mind, I'll stay here with you."
"I will never mind that," he says pulling me into a hug. I put my arms around him doing what I can for the moment for him. We wish Pam and Thalia a goodnight before making our way into his office.
True to his word, Eric is on the phone a lot, and not all of it is in English. I keep him company though, wanting to help in any way that I can. I must fall asleep in the chair though because I wake slightly when Eric picks me up and carries me into bed. I am back to sleep as soon as he puts me down, though it does not escape me that he does not get into the bed with me.
I also don't miss however, the kiss he presses to my forehead when he finally comes to bed just before sunrise.
Eric POV
I am worried about what this evening will bring. Lately, they have been bringing nothing more than bad news. There have been a few exceptions to that rule of course, but there have not been enough of them, even if those exceptions were some of the best nights of my existence. I vow to make sure we have more of those nights.
Sookie is still sleeping when I wake for the evening again. I wish this meant that she was getting plenty of the sleep her mostly human body requires, but I can tell she is in a restless sleep. Her forehead is wrinkled; her heartbeat and breathing rate are accelerated. I have seen her calm and in a relaxing sleep and this is certainly not it. I swear to see her in a more restful sleep soon, and to do whatever I can do to make sure that happens.
We are heading to Fangtasia tonight. No real surprise there. For now, it is best to behave as naturally as we can. We have to concede the fact that we are probably being monitored and watched. The more natural we behave, the less information we give away. So we go about our usual business, or appear to at least. Most of the night will be spent trying to get information all the while behaving as if we do not know we are being watched, which is a lot more exhausting than you think.
Hence, the sleep Sookie sorely needs.
Though now my night will have another item added to my list. I will be worrying about Karin this evening, more so than usual. Sure there are others on my list to worry about but at least I can see them, be with them, be ready to protect them. Karin is on another side of the world and though I know she has friends and allies, I also know that none of them are me. But Pam was right, now is not the time to be making any big moves. As much as I want Karin here with me now, that is not the best way to handle what is going on with Appius and with what is going on with the other threat at the moment.
But that is not stopping me from sending some of my allies to Karin. I pick them carefully, hoping neither Appius or de Castro, as he is our only lead right now, would know that they are connected to me. One can hope they scattered arrival times will keep anyone from connecting the dots.
Sookie starts to shift in her sleep in the way that she does when she is about to wake up. Not surprisingly, seconds later her eyes blink open. They close for a few more seconds before opening again, which is another part of her wake-up routine. She is not fully awake until the sleepy smile appears on her face when her eyes connect with mine. Though I cannot say for sure what her wake up routine is when I am not with her, but I make sure that is not often.
"Good night," she says with a little giggle. She finds wishing us a good night instead of a good morning each night funny. It still makes her laugh all these weeks and months later. I suppose I cannot say anything about her habit though, because I still find it adorable.
I take my finger and gently stroke it along the side of her face before wishing her a good night as well. She stretches before rolling to her side and facing me. For a few minutes we are quiet, simply taking each other in. I am finding comfort in the fact that Sookie is here, right in front of me. I can hear every breath she takes. I can take a breath and breathe in the scent that is hers alone. I can reach out and touch her. Those facts along with the bond I feel with my children, added with the knowledge that I can ear Thalia moving around in the kitchen, most likely to make Sookie something to eat, is what will get me through the evening. They will be what helps get me through subsequent evenings.
That is what I have at the moment. And I know realize just how important, how monumental what I have actually is.
Before anything else can be said though, the door to our room swings open and a blond flash is launching herself on the bed, right in between Sookie and I. Luckily, I have just enough time to push Sookie away a bit to create enough room for my child who has dove right in between us. She throws her arms around our shoulders and asks, "Well, are you two ready to stop behaving like an old married couple?" Sookie's response is to hit her on the head with her pillow.
Yes, this is what will be getting me through the nights.
I quickly throw Pam, maybe a bit too literally, out of the bed. Then it is me who throws the pillow as she stops at the door and starts to say something. The smile on her face tells me it is nothing we would want to hear.
I just hope I did not dent the molding when I threw the pillow. It would be worth it though.
I wait until Sookie is in the shower before starting to get ready for the evening. We have learned that if we dress in the same room at the same time, we usually have a very late start to the evening. And though I would like nothing more than to sneak into that shower with her, it is not the best idea at the moment. Though at the end of the night when I take my shower before I go to rest, all bets are off.
I go into the kitchen to try and grab some food for Sookie and I see that my earlier thoughts were correct. Thalia did fix up dinner for Sookie. Now, I just have to figure out who is going to fix my kitchen from Thalia's adventure of making Sookie dinner. And here I was thinking my kitchen was a mess after our food fight. But Thalia is standing there, proudly holding out the dinner she made for Sookie and I find myself unable to say anything about the bomb that must have gone off in my kitchen. And as I see the smile on her face as she walks past me, handing me Sookie's dinner, I know that is exactly what she wanted.
These women just may be the final death of me yet.
As I bring Sookie her dinner she is dressed with her hair still in a towel, sitting on the edge of the bed. The look on her face tells me she wants to talk about something however, as I am learning, it is never quite that simple. This is her face where she wants to tell me something but at the same time is worried to bring it up. I know she will though and I give her time to as I set her food on a table brought in just for her. I start to unravel her hair from the towel and start to run my fingers through it, as Sookie starts to take a few bites of her food.
It only takes her two minutes to bring it up. As I am reaching for a brush, having gently gotten all of the tangles out of her hair with my hand, she says "When you brought the stuff over from my Gran's house." I can hear the hesitation in her voice, as I understand what is coming. I am surprised it has taken her this long to ask about it actually. "Did you get that charm?"
I do not falter as I start to run the brush through her hair as I say, "Yes," and leave it at that. I am not sure if she simply wanted to know or if there is more to her line of questioning. The fact that she is still not relaxed tells me that she has more to say.
"Where is it?"
"In my safe," I tell her. I have been meaning to tell her about it and to give her the code in case she has things she would like to put in there. Until we know what that charm is and the magic it holds over her though, I am less inclined to do so.
"Are you keeping it from me," she asks. My experience coupled with the tone in her voice tells me that I have to tread very carefully with how I answer that question.
"Not purposely," I tell her and that is the truth. I have not kept it from her on purpose but I am not going to lie and tell her I am not happy it has taken her this long to ask about it.
"Does it scare you?"
"The only thing that scares me about it is the possibility that it could do something that hurts you. It is the unknown that worries me."
She takes that in as she finishes her dinner and pushes the table away. She turns herself towards me just as I finish the braid I had been working on in her hair. "Does it scare you enough to not let me have it?"
And there lies my conundrum. Sookie reacts to it or it reacts to Sookie, I cannot deny that. That frightens me but I also cannot deny that having it in her possession is probably the best way to find out more information about it. Do I think the little charm will hurt her? Something in my instincts is telling me no. But that does not mean she will not be inadvertently hurt with it. That thought is enough for me to wish I could just throw it in the bayou and be done with it already. But I know it is not that simple, in fact that would probably complicate things a great deal more.
"Why do you want it," I ask her needing to understand what she feels about it.
"Its hard to describe. I feel like it's mine, like it belongs with me. It made me feel tingly and happy. I don't know. If it is some fairy trinket that would make sense wouldn't it? And I know things didn't go the best with Niall, but is it wrong to want a connection, any connection to that part of my life, to that part of me."
"No, it is not," I tell her as I pull her into my arms. This is a drastic change from how she felt when she first found of her grandmother's indiscretion with Fintan and frankly, one I have been waiting for. After the denial and anger and those emotions pass, the need to know where you come from would take over, especially one with so little family as Sookie has, though she has certainly added to it lately.
So I stand up, holding her hand and bringing her up with me. I take her over to my safe and I show her the code to open it. "That's," she starts but I finish the sentence saying, "the day we met. It is the night you came to Fangtasia to try and solve who was killing those girls."
"When did you make that the code?"
"The next night. I did not want to forget that night. I had a feeling it was going to be a game changer for me. But I had no idea how right I was."
She reaches in to the now open safe and pulls out the charm. Moving over to the jewelry that she brought here, she takes a charm off another chain and replaces it with the unknown one. My eyes follow where it lands on her chest. I can see the smirk on her face as she sees this. "There," she says. "Now you can keep an eye on it all night."
"I do not need the charm to be looking there," I tell her, bringing my eyes up to see the humor in hers.
"Don't I know it."
"Promise me something."
"Anything."
"A dangerous thing to say to a vampire," I say to her.
"Not when the vampire loves you." She has me there.
"If you start to feel anything bad from that, you will take it off and let me know."
"I can do that," she says with a nod, just as Pam bellows through the house that we have to get going.
Maybe I can do without one of my children being so close.
But when I walk past the kitchen to find it sparkly clean, I know that it is Pam's work. Though I do not need to use the kitchen, I do not really like a mess, which is something Pam is fully aware of. And I am back to not wanting her to be anywhere except right here. Though, having her at her own house would not be unwelcome.
The trip to Fangtasia with the four of us is anything but quiet, though the women's chatter drowns out any music coming from the radio so I do not get to hear Sookie sing more on this car ride. I miss it but hearing the three of them talk is good enough for me.
When we get to the bar, Sookie and I head to my office so I can do the paperwork for the evening while Pam and Thalia head out to the bar area to keep watch there. Or at least that was the plan.
We are only in my office for enough time for me to go through one report, which thankfully has no bad news, when Pam enters the room. "The lawyer is here to see you," she says.
"Mr. Cataliades," Sookie asks to which Pam nods.
"Did he give you any idea to why he is here," I ask. Knowing if he is here on the behalf of Sophie-Anne or Niall, or someone else entirely would be helpful about now. But Pam simply shakes her head. I sigh and tell her to send him back. Putting it off would not help anything; in fact, it could make it much worse.
Sookie comes over to sit on my lap as we wait for the demon. It seems like the charm may not be the thing that worries me the most tonight.
Cataliades comes in and has a seat on the couch, wiping his brow. He gets something out of his briefcase, all without looking at Sookie and I, which does nothing to calm me about his unannounced visit.
Neither does the white color his face turns as he finally looks up at us. And just when I am worried that I may have to kill the demon for looking at Sookie on a place where he should not be, he says, "A cluviel dor? Where on earth did you get one of those," I see that I will not have to kill him.
Though it does bring my worry back to the charm that is hanging from Sookie's neck. Looks like it will be what is worrying me the most tonight after all.
Hello dear readers. I sure hope you enjoyed this chapter. We get a little information about the phone call and what it could mean, but we got a few more questions too. And, as most of you guessed, we know what the charm was that Sookie and Eric found. Now, we just have to see what it means.
This week is a little hairy so I will try to get the next chapter to you next weekend but it may be a little late.
To my guest reviewer – I am so happy you are enjoying this story. Thanks for taking the time to let me know.