Come With Me Now-Epilogue

I looked down at Sookie asleep in my arms and buried my face in her hair, hiding the smile that seemed to spread across my face whenever I looked at her. She sighed, and snuggled deeper into my side, her hand clutching my shirt a little tighter as small snore escaped her lips. I had teased her about snoring the other night and she had refused to believe me. For a moment I looked around for my phone so I could record her and then at the last minute realized that I wanted her to keep her illusions. If she really thought she snored she might not be so willing to use me as a pillow. That would definitely be my loss, even if I won the argument.

"Very wise, my friend," Niall said from where he was seated in a chair to the right of the sofa. The fire was dying down for the night. We had talked most of it away, and I was wondering if I should add more wood to keep Sookie warm, while hating to disturb her when Niall rose from his chair and did it for me.

Thank you, I thought to him, not wanting to risk waking her by speaking. He waved my thanks away, taking his seat again and staring off into the flames. Do you think she is right? I asked him, wondering what his thoughts were on Sookie's suppositions regarding the connection between the Fae and the Light Elves of Alfheim. He took so long to answer I thought perhaps he was lost in his thoughts and had not heard me.

Perhaps, he finally sent to me. I was very small when my tribe was completely annihilated by Warlow, but I remember whispers among the elders that might have been about where we came from before this place. It is shrouded in thousands of years of the past and I can't be sure. I suppose the most telling signs we have are the similarity in your cultures designs to the tattoos that are inherent to the Fae.

Each of us who have the spark have some version of them unique to their elemental alignment. Just because I can't remember doesn't mean that she isn't right. He was silent awhile then, looking at her in my arms. I could tell that in many ways he still found her as much a mystery as I did.

Once we had returned to Sweden he had asked her to teach him what they now called The Guns of Light. She had been delighted to be able to share something with him for a change and had immediately sat down with him to disassemble her mechanical handguns as I had taught her to do when cleaning them, so that he could see the inner parts and pieces, the better to visualize them. In no time I had two gunslingers of light in my cabin, and told them in no uncertain terms to go the hell outside and practice when the painting of Sookie that I had done was wounded.

After calming down I had joined them and saw her also show him how to redirect bullets that were wide on the target. They huddled for a bit then, whispering between them and I saw her step back and close her eyes concentrating very hard. Suddenly in her hand appeared a sword of light and in Niall's hand a spear made of the same.

I watched them step back and bow to each other before entering into a furious session of sparring that had my fangs down and my fists ready to kick that old fairy's ass before I saw how beautifully she held her own.

Endless days and nights of training she had told me, and my suspicions of her beautifully toned muscles were confirmed. The only thing new here were they types of weapons they were using. Later, after they had worn themselves out and I had calmed down and retracted my fangs she explained that the weapons were made of their life force, and that to use them, especially in battle like that was very draining. It wasn't something she could do for long, but in a pinch, as with her guns of light, it could very well save her life.

That night just before dawn I had rubbed her aching muscles gently and soaked her in a hot bath with a cool vampire at her back. It was a combination that she told me she found more intoxicating than gin and tonic. Knowing her affection for the drink I had purred my pleasure at her compliment and set about making her drunker with soft kisses on her neck. It wasn't long before she forgot her aching muscles and started to be more concerned with mine.

Turns out a hot bath and a hotter woman between my thighs are better than B negative fresh from the vein. I think she purred at my compliment then, but I couldn't be sure between her moans of pleasure and could have only imagined her response. I had always had an active fantasy life when it came to Miss Stackhouse. However, the one that Mrs. Northman inspired made it the rudimentary imaginings of a small boy.

She slayed me, and then she brought me back to do it again and again. I prayed every night giving thanks for the bounty that was mine.

You will go with her then? Niall broke me from my memories of my glorious passionate Sookie.

I would visit all the nine realms with this woman if she asked me to.

Yes, I think I just heard you recalling several visits you have already taken out of this world. I smirked, glad that Sookie was missing this conversation. I had no wish to cause her discomfort, but the truth was the truth. When do you think you will go?

In a few months. She has more research she wants to do, and of course she still hopes to convince you to come along with us. He chuckled then.

I have lived most of life here, and made a world of my own. I cannot abandon them to search for a home that has never been mine. No, I will stay and continue what she has begun with Clinton.

When Sookie had left us in the desert to meet with Clinton she had told him of DeCastro's demise and asked him one last time to help her and us to protect the supernaturals from further abuse by the US Government. By some miracle he had listened, and with DeCastro no longer in his way he made moves to shut down the testing facilities and open talks between the New Authority and the US leaders.

It was a tenuous relationship, where at first each side had been waiting for a chance to jump at any excuse to turn around and head back in the direction they had been going. Clinton changed their minds, speaking passionately about what this country was supposed to stand for, a shining bastion of goodness and right to the oppressed and needy.

In just a few short months he had made giant inroads into forming a relationship that was built on mutual respect and honesty. The game had changed after the destruction of the First Authority and the tribes of Hep-V infected vamps that roamed the countryside. Each side acknowledged their mistakes and seemed genuine about more than just lip service to a solution that could benefit both the vampire and the human race.

It was a relationship further cemented when a vampire saved the Clinton from a terrorist attack led by the Fellowship of the Sun. He used that to bring home that evil not only existed here on home soil but the human race as guilty as any other race when it came to heinous acts. Clinton had kept the secret of the Fae and worked to destroy and discredit all the evidence that DeCastro had gathered.

The Fae were safe, and that is what mattered to me most, because they were my family now. Once again Sookie had proven herself more than a match for me by turning the tides on what I had been sure was the end of vampires, maybe all supernaturals due in no small part to my own foolish recklessness.

She had saved me again. She always saved me.

~The End~

A/N- Thank you Gyllene for inspiring me to try this! Thank you all for taking this trip with me. J