The man was laying only a few hundred yards from my property line so I got to my house and back in no time. When I get back he is laying exactly where I left him and he looks almost asleep. So I make sure to make some noise walking up to him so I don't scare him and start working on his bite wounds.
"Did you get a look at the vampire that got you?" I ask after working in silence for a few minutes.
"Kind of, it was quick but I could tell he was old by the size of his void, he was tall though, and blonde. He had an accent that I think was Scandinavian" thank the lord I already had my shields up to respect his privacy or he'd know that I know he's lying. I know most of the vampires around here, and I know there's only one that fits that description. Why is he lying though?
"How'd you get away from him?" I hope I'm doing a good job of pretending like nothing is wrong.
"Blasted him." He says while making a vague hand gesture of what my hand looks like when I use my light. Then it was quiet while I was doing his bandages until he chuckled. Is this guy crazy?
"What?" I ask.
"Nothin' it's just you remind me of someone."
"Who?"
"My first love in high school, you seem nicer though."
"You probably banged your head along with your other injuries."
"Ahh, she couldn't take a compliment either."
I just ignored his last comment and continued putting on the bandages. When I touched his skin our fairy light literally sparked and I got a feeling of warning. Whatever that was, the fairy in me doesn't trust him any more than the human in me does. It seems though, that he didn't get the same warning I did. He looks happy like it gave him a feeling of warmth.
"What's that about?" I ask before I can stop myself. That never happened to me when I touched another fairy.
"I have no idea" he sounds amazed. "I know we just met, but I can tell you're a good person. Thank you for helping me. I didn't mean to impose on you" he starts trying to get up but stumbles a little bit, eventually, he does get up though.
"It wasn't an imposition, I'm glad you're feeling better." I get up myself and am waiting for him to leave, I don't really want the guy to know where I live.
"I'm sorry I know this is probably mucking up your plans, but It's not often you meet someone like us. I'm sorry to see it ending so soon."
Well, that was a line if I ever heard one. He wants me to say something like 'well we can keep hanging out' or 'why don't I get your number so we can hang out again?' For about half a second I thought about telling him about the fairy club, but I thought better of it. That warning feeling was so strong, I'm going to take it seriously. I also thought of a way to get home fast while also not letting him know where I live.
"Well, maybe I'll see you around sometime," I say and pop to Eric. When I pop back Eric's eyes are open, wow he's been waking up so much easier lately. He starts to sniff a few times.
"Lover, you smell different, more fairy than usual but also I smell vampire on you"
"Vampire? That can't be right Eric, it's still broad daylight out there. I met a halfling fairy today, he was attacked by a vampire and needed first aid… although he did describe you when he was telling me who attacked him"
"Sookie, I didn't"
"Hush, I know you didn't, it made me mightily uncomfortable when he described you, I knew he was lying and got out of there as fast as I could. Either way, he wasn't a vampire."
"Maybe I'm smelling the vampire that attacked him, but that doesn't make much sense."
"Let's not add another problem to our plate, I'll probably never see the guy again. No, now the daylight is burning. I think it's time to test how high your SPF is." Somehow he looked excited and uncomfortable at the same time.
"Yes, I think you're right."
So he gets up and puts some jeans on, for those five seconds it takes him to do that, I consider just staying in bed. After his pants are on, I can think again without my hormones being involved. We walk downstairs and I go over to the window and open the curtains. I can tell from the bond that I am way more nervous than Eric is. Once it is open, I gesture to Eric and he walks over. Slowly, he puts his hand in a sun ray and nothing happens. I can tell he's uncomfortable, I mean who wouldn't be after 1000 years of avoiding the sun?
"Does it hurt? Do you feel anything wrong? Are you tired or uncomfortable?"
"No to all other than being uncomfortable because I haven't done this since I was alive."
I feel this small but incredibly strong wave of excitement, joy, and astonishment coming from Eric. It's growing bigger too, along with those there's also a heaping portion of disbelief. I'm a bucket of worry, I'm too scared to look away from his hand because if I do, I might miss it if he starts burning. Eric takes his hand away and starts walking to the front door. He's not really trying to walk outside, is he? That can't be safe, we just started testing this out!
"Eric!" I yell and he stops to look at me, I feel annoyance coming from the bond, he's not happy I stopped him. "What are you doing?! You can't go outside yet, it could be dangerous!" The annoyance goes away in the bond and he feels understanding and love now. He then vamps up to me and cups my cheek and leans in to give me an earth-shattering kiss.
"I know you are worried min kara, but do not forget I am just going on the porch, I am fast enough to get inside without me getting hurt. Do not worry please, I am well and will continue to be so." I know he's right I just still don't feel comfortable with this.
"I'm scared Eric."
"Trust me dear one, I will not allow myself to get hurt, so please do not worry."
"I'm still going to worry Eric, but I do trust you. Let's do it!"
Now that I talked about my worry, I can think past it. Now I feel the excitement and happiness that Eric gets to experience this. I take the lead and open the front door and walk out first. I want to see his face when he stands in the sun, and I want to make sure I'm watching so I can make sure he's not burning. He takes maybe a half step out, still avoiding the actual sun rays, and takes a second to center himself and calm down.
I can't even tell what emotion he's trying to calm, he's feeling so many of them at once, from excitement, nervousness, anxiety, the self-preservation instinct, to joy and so many more. Finally, he takes one step into the sun and I realize he might have also been trying to block out my feelings because I'm feeling all that he is too. He stands there for a minute tense, ready to vamp to safety, but nothing happens. Finally, I see his shoulder relax and all the scary emotions go away, now all that's left is joy, wonder, and excitement.
He takes another step and another until he's standing on the grass with his hands held out at the side, his face tilted to the sun, his eyes closed, and the biggest most sincere smile I've ever seen on his face. I walk up next to him and when he opens his eyes he lets out a 'whoop' of joy. Then he turns to me, grabs me by the waist, picks me up, and spins us around in circles. Now I'm 'whooping' too! I wrap my legs around his waist and hug him tight.
I see the second his eyes darken with lust, I'm always surprised how the love can still shine so brightly in them even with the lust raging in him. We spend the next few hours making love in the sun. After we're finished we lay out in the grass and I finally realize we're laying naked in my backyard. I jump up and start looking for my clothes.
"Eric, get up! We're outside naked, anyone could come out here!"
"Relax lover, I will be able to hear if anyone comes." Although he does get up and puts on his pants. Now that we're not naked, I can stop panicking. It makes me remember something Niall said.
"Hey, didn't Niall say that you wouldn't have total immunity from the sun? Why do you?"
"I do not know, and I doubt we'll ever find out honestly. We're in a unique situation."
"Yeah, that is true. Best not to look a gift horse in the mouth, I guess. I just don't want it to randomly start happening when you can't get inside fast. I'm always gonna worry about your safety. I know that might sound strange to a 1000-year-old Viking vampire, but oh well." I say with my hands on my hips, daring him to complain. He just smiles.
"We must keep this quiet Sookie, it does not matter that you can only give this miracle once. They will hunt you, for even a chance to have this, it will not matter how many times you say you can't do it again." He looks at me seriously, making sure I know that I have to take in what he's saying, once he's sure that I understand, he continues. "Come, let us go for a walk. I used to think that I couldn't be surprised anymore, lover, but since I met you, you've proved me wrong many times."
He says this while looking at the sun, his face showing a childlike wonder. It's almost as if I'm looking at amnesiac Eric again. So I take his hand and we start walking. I made a plan to pop home if the sun starts affecting him, so he can pop to me. That's the best I can think of to keep him safe. When I'm with Eric or any vampires in general, I leave my shields down, they take work to keep them up. When I was working at Merlotte's I was plum tuckered by the time I got home trying to keep them up all the day. Since they were down, right away I noticed when we were getting close to the man I helped earlier. I just realized I still don't know his name.
"Eric, I think it's time we turn around."
"What? Why would we do that?"
"We want to keep your day walking a secret right? Well the man that accused you of attacking him is up ahead" Eric's fangs clicked down at that, and it looked like he was ready to attack. I'll be honest, it was a little because I couldn't see Eric kill someone like me, but it was mostly because of the rush of jealousy I felt when I thought of him drinking from another fairy, that made me stop him from attacking.
"No, Eric don't. Let's just go, if you want to keep walking let's just change directions," I plead.
I grab his arm to stop him. He looks at me for a good long while, I almost think he's going to ignore me until his shoulders relax and he nods his head. He turns us around and we start walking back toward the house. When we get back he gives the sun one last longing look and then walks inside. I feel strong anger well up inside me because of the man that stopped Eric's joy from continuing and I just about decide to turn around and end him myself when Eric puts his hands on my shoulder and turns me to face him.
"It's okay min kärlek, it's not like this is a one time thing, we can go out again tomorrow. The sun is setting soon anyway. I think tonight I should stay up as long as I can, because the more that I think about it, the more I realize I have been putting myself to rest for the day. I was doing it to myself, maybe I can stay up. We should watch the sunrise together in the morning." He says and gives me a long passionate kiss before I have the chance to respond. We keep kissing for a long time, so long that I'm about to start taking off his clothes, and he looks like he's thinking along the same lines. Sadly he pulls away though, and I give him a questioning slightly hurt look.
"Do not worry dear one, I plan to continue this later, but the human sheriff is driving up our driveway."
I spare a few seconds to feel the warm tingly feeling that I've taken to feeling anytime he says 'our' when he's talking about the farmhouse. I probably would have felt it a lot longer if I didn't see the headlights of Andy's car coming. I wait until Andy puts his car in park before I wave and start walking up to meet them. When I see the girls get out of the car I realize they look about 7 years old now. That means that yesterday when Andy said they looked like 7 or 10 they had to look at most that they were five.
Eric is staying close to me, so he is right behind me now that I've walked up to our guests. He smiles when he sees all the girls run up to me but looks and feels surprised when they are just as excited to see him. They're smiling and crowding around us and they're all talking at once, so it's hard to take in what they're saying, I smile at them and see just how out of depth Andy is. He looks so overwhelmed but I hear from his mind that he loves each of them and just wants to do right by them. He just doesn't have the first clue how to do that. So I smile big and then speak loudly so they will quiet down and listen to me.
"Alright y'all, let's go inside. I'm planning on making fried chicken, collard greens with bacon, and cornbread for dinner. Are you hungry?" They all say 'yes' at the same time. " I'm gonna need you to speak one at a time, okay?"
They all nod and follow me. Once we are inside I lead everyone to the kitchen and take out what I need to cook. Everyone other than Eric takes a seat at the kitchen table. Eric just leans against the countertop, honestly, he looks and feels just as out of his depths as Andy does. I don't think he has a lot of experience with children. Once the food starts cooking, I look at the girls and try to figure out the best way to handle this conversation. After a few moments of thinking, I decide on a plan of action.
Thankfully, right before I start Claude pops into the room. This will go a lot easier with him here. Most of the Bellefleur family look excited at Claude for popping in, but Andy looks like he's on the verge of a heart attack. I can sympathize, this was a lot for me to take in when I was first brought into this world. At least I always had telepathy, so I knew there were things out there that most people didn't.
"Let's start with any questions y'all have." All the girls start talking at once, "One at a time, remember? Actually, that was rude of me, let's start with names. I'm Sookie, this is Eric, and this is my cousin Claude."
"I'm Charlaine"
"I'm Danika"
"Hi, I'm Adilyn"
"Braelyn"
"Pleasure to meet you," I say with a smile. "Let's start with Andy, I'm sure you have lots of questions."
"Why are they growin' so fast, and will it ever stop? Are they going to be old before I am?" I look to Claude because this is definitely more his expertise.
"They are half fae, they will grow like this until they look about the age of 18. Then their aging will slow so much that it'll almost stop. I myself am 150 and I'm still really young. The faerie is not a safe place with all the war between clans, that is why we age as we do. We need to be able to protect ourselves quickly."
"Do you know where Maurella is?" Andy asks
"She has left, the club is not the only safe place for our kind on this planet, she spends her time traveling from one to another. You are not the only person she's done this to."
"Is this normal for fairies to leave they're children after giving birth?"
"No, although parenting is a lot different for us. We are only children for so short a time that they are less like parents and more like guides." It was clear Andy had more questions, but Danika gets up and walks up to Eric, and grabs his hand.
"Wow, I can't hear you" she sounds mystified. Charlaine gets up and grabs his other hand.
"It is because I am vampire. Sookie cannot hear me either." They all looked excited.
"Well, we should just make lots of vampire friends then. I'm tired of feeling weird." Adilyn chimes in.
"No!" Eric, Claude, and I say in unison. I continue, in a more calm tone.
"Vampires are not normally safe for fairies, our blood smells and tastes too good to them. Eric is probably one of the only vampires that you will be safe with."
"Why is he special?" Danika asks, I can tell she's the outgoing one of the sisters.
"Because he is mine," I say with a shrug of my shoulders, I don't really know what else to say. I don't want to talk to the girls about bonds of any kind right now. Eric smirks, he can feel the possessiveness that comes over me whenever I think about Eric getting blood from anyone else, and he likes it. I decide to steer the conversation away from bonds "Anyway, Adilyn, you are NOT weird at all. You are a fairy and you are growing exactly how you should."
"Yes, that is true. Have any of you shown signs of any more gifts?" Claude asks and Andy shakes his head 'no' but stops when the daughters start looking sheepish.
"Sorry we didn't tell you yet daddy, it just happened today." Then like it was choreographed all four girls stuck their hands in the air and brought up their light. Charlaine has moved away from Eric, but Danika is still touching him. I can tell he doesn't know what to do, so just decides to ignore it.
"You are already manifesting your light? That is great. It is one of a fairy's best tools. It can heal, stun, and if you are in danger, hurt. It takes practice but it will be worth it." Claude says.
"Can you girls do anything else?" Andy asks gruffly, still a little surprised that they didn't tell him about their light.
"No daddy." They all say.
"For now it will be best to stay in at night. At least until they learn to control their powers better, definitely until they are fully grown. There is a 6000-year-old vampire on the loose with a history of not being able to control himself around fairies." I warn.
"Yes, in fact, it will probably be best if I pop you home tonight and have Sookie bring you your car in the morning" Claude suggests, and I nod my head eagerly. I feel protective of these girls and don't want to see anything bad happen to them. What's strange is that Eric feels it too, I get a flash of irrational jealousy, but quickly move past it.
"We are hoping that the threat will be handled soon, but if something happens and you do not feel safe contact me. You are now under my protection." Eric says.
"And the protection of the fairies, we are not much help against vampires, but we will do what we can." Andy looks overwhelmed again but he nods his head anyway, grateful for whatever help he can get. We have to get this Warlow thing handled soon, it's one thing to have someone after me, but another to have four innocent girls in danger because of me. "If you'd like, we can have the girls come to the club once a week for a while so we can teach them about their powers. Just last week I taught Sookie how to teleport."
I wince internally because I was trying to keep that quiet. I don't know if there's a way to stop someone from being able to teleport, but if there is I don't want anyone to think they'd need to take that precaution for me. I don't get upset though because I know Andy means me no harm and won't go around talking about it.
"Oh, keep them away from lemons and iron, fairies are allergic to them," I remember to warn, and Claude nods his head.
I spend the next half hour working with the girls on what shields are and how they help. It's not nearly enough for them to learn it completely but it should make being in crowds a little easier. I promise to meet up with the girls later in the week to keep working on it and taught them how to train the muscles needed for the shields to work. They have to get them stronger or keeping up their shields will be impossible. Eric gave Andy his number and so did Claude. They told him to call if there was ever any danger or if a vampire ever approaches them. By the time Claude popped them home, I heard from Andy's mind that he was happy he came, that he feels his girls are safer now, and that he understands it better.
About an hour later Octavia came to set the more intense wards so I had to invite all of the Were guards, Pam, Tara, and Chow back onto the property. So now, unless someone is completely human, no one uninvited can come to my house. I wonder if I'll have to invite Jason? He's human but he has the same fairy blood that I do, he just doesn't have the spark. I also have to invite Niall and Claude in too.
Tonight is the night that Pam will change Willa, I can tell that Tara isn't happy about it. She hasn't said anything to me but there's definitely some tension between the two. Once they are invited in they stay for a few minutes and then take their leave. I can tell Pam is antsy to turn Willa, and Willa is right there with her. Is that what it's like for all vampires when they feel the pull? Has Eric been dealing with that too when it comes to me? No, I don't think so. He doesn't feel the pull to make me, he just made the decision to want to keep me by his side forever.
By the time everyone leaves, it's only a half hour until the sun rises. We decided that after we watch the sunrise, Eric is going to stay up as long as he can. He told me that he hasn't been forced into going to rest like he used to. He's just been doing it because that is how he has always had to do it. When we walk outside, Eric wraps his arms around my waist and flies us onto the roof. He sits down with his knees open so I can sit and rest my back against his chest. I'm still worried about him being out in the open, but he can get inside in enough time if the sun affects him. He pulls me close and puts his chin on my shoulder and that's how we spend the morning.