Bring on the Fairies,…

Part 24

She stepped out of the shadows looking breathtaking, except for the fact that I did not have breath to give her. She was six foot tall with willowy legs that showed off exceptionally well underneath the liquid looking drapery she wore. Her hair was long, and flowing and dark and I could just imagine the delicious points of her ears hidden beneath the strands. Her skin looked like fresh milk, and almost glowed with an internal translucency that set off her red lips and almond eyes. To describe her as exotic would not have done her justice. I knew, without hesitation that I was in the presence of a full blood fairy, or perhaps, it was that she was standing in mine.

"And to what do I owe the pleasure of this interruption?" Her blood sang to me, but not nearly as powerfully as I might have thought it would.

"I came to see just how addled your brain has become, drunk on the blood of my people."

"And by insulting me you believe that you will find an answer?" I had not even bothered to stand up from my seat on the concrete bench. I was not giving her that acknowledgment she must have craved. Though I noted that she obviously knew about Sookie's background, which made her valuable to me as a source of information.

"Whatever it takes to get your attention Vampire." The wolf at her side growled at me, and actually took a step towards me. I looked it right in its yellow eyes and snarled, dropping my own fangs.

"Be quiet dog. I have a thousand years of blood and cunning on you, do not doubt that I could snap your neck long before your mistress here could draw that sword at her side and even pretend to do me harm." I'll give the young thing credit, it didn't back down, but it grew silent.

"Boys." The fairy began, "I did not come here to watch you two play useless games of one-upmanship."

"Then why did you come?"

"Your inability to solve the simplest of problems has me astounded Vampire."

Now I growled at her.

"You have had many days and still you have not uncovered the truth of the matter."

"You are speaking of Sookie Stackhouse then?" I raised my eyebrows and cocked my head in a most condescending manner at her.

"I was given to believe that you were an intelligent creature Vampire."

"Again you insult me Fairy. If you have answers why don't you simply give them to me? And if you do not, then I wish that you would leave."

"That is not the way things work between our kinds Vampire."

"I am tired of games and word play." I stood up, finally, collecting the papers and made to leave.

"Stop!" She roared out at me.

"Really? I do not take orders from you Fairy."

"Don't you want to save her?"

"She is safe Fairy, with me. And what concern is it of yours?"

"I have been charged with her wellbeing."

"Ah, so you are her Fairy Godmother then? Fine job you have been doing! Bill Compton nearly killed her twice. She's been locked up by the Fellowship of the Sun and nearly raped. She's been hunted by Kings and Queens for her blood, and now a witch has stolen her memories and is using her as a pawn to attack me. And you are supposed to be protecting her?" That seemed to unhinge the fairy just a little.

"She isn't dead, is she?" She yelled at me.

"No thanks to you!" I was angry, how dare this creature presume to tell me she was looking out for Sookie? She had done nothing to save Sookie from the heartache of the last year or so with Bill.

"Vampire!"

"What?"

"I have given you everything you need to find the answer, right there in those papers."

"Oh, so you are the one who called Mr. Cataliades are you?"

"I had someone do it."

"Just to keep at arms length from actually helping a Vampire eh? Do you have rules about that? Do you people value those rules over helping one of your own?"

"There is only so much," she began.

"And if you had not interrupted me from my reading perhaps I would have the answer by now."

"You should have had it from the beginning."

"Then tell me so I can help her!"

"Do you know what the greatest love of all is Vampire?"

"A terrible rock ballad from the eighties?" I did that on purpose, just to piss her off.

"My god you are the most frustrating creature I have ever had the misfortune to have come across Eric Northman!"

"So you do know my name." She ignored that.

"The love of a parent for a child Eric, that is the greatest love, and that is your answer!"

A parent? I tore through the documents again as she watched me. I found the Death Certificates, one, not two. The mother. Oh gods, it was the witches' mother. I looked back at the fairy, and she saw the revelation in my eyes.

"Yes Eric. You have it. Simple revenge."

"But why Sookie? How has taking Sookie's memories away harmed me?"

"I do not have an answer for that Eric. But the witch will, when you find her."

Part of me felt like I should thank the fairy, a small part, which was easily overridden, because I still felt the anger that she had not protected Sookie when she so easily should have been able to. Of course, if she had saved her from the spell then Sookie would not have been brought to me, and we would not have had the chance we had been given to discover each other. But still I felt as if something more ominous was looming ahead for us.

"Who are you?" I needed to know that at least before the fairy left.

"My name is Claudine, Sookie is my cousin."

"Then if she is family, please keep her from any further harm." I am not certain if my words sounded like an entreaty or an order, I imagine they fell somewhere in the middle.

"I will do what I can." She promised me, but somehow I was not convinced that what she could do would be of much help what with all these Fairy rules she seemed bound by. Having said that though, at least she was an ally and not another enemy or suspect. Her dog, well I couldn't speak for him, but I had to trust that if he had been chosen by the fairy that he must be trustworthy. Not that it meant that I was going to trust him for an instant.

"And you are certain that the Were here will not betray us? Marnie Stonebrook was a Were, he may have allegiances to her."

"He does not." I was assured.

"I am glad of your confidence Claudine. But as for my own."

The wolf quickly replaced itself with its human form, and standing before me was a young man, perhaps eighteen, with almost bright white hair and blue eyes; more suited to a malamute I thought to myself. His ability to shift seemingly at will was impressive.

"I have no ties to traitors Vampire." The accent was familiar to me.

He spoke well for one so young, and showed a pride that even overrode the shame of standing before me naked, and now unarmed.

"Daniel is not from Louisiana, or even North America. His sire was Swedish."

The fairy had chosen well, to ply me with one of my own countrymen was a good play. I nodded at him, willing to trust him just a little more.

"Very well. But if I should find him involved in any treachery I will kill him myself."

The growl that rose in his throat was still lupine, but I ignored it.

"I will take my leave of you then Eric, and trust that you will hunt down this witch and end this threat properly."

"You may be assured of that Claudine."

And with that, she and the boy wolf disappeared, and with them the sweet scent of her blood, which I had mostly forgotten during our conversation. Armed with the new information I took a trip to Mr. Cataliades' office and informed him of whom we were now hunting. Funnily enough he did not seem very surprised when I tossed the hospital file on his desk, you would have almost thought he had been expecting it.

I returned to Fangtasia feeling a little lighter of heart. Mr. Cataliades had assured me that he would put his best people on to the task of finding Marie Stonebrook; Marnie's mother. And I had also stopped by Papa B's place and told him the news as well. His happy smile, which he was rarely without, had broadened just a little bit to hear the news, and he asked if I knew where Marine and Mark were buried. I did not, sadly, but gave him the phone number for Alcide Herveaux. His pack had disposed of Mark for certain, and he would likely have a better idea than I would about the location of his remains. I wondered, as I flew home, how Alcide would feel about a phone call from a Mambo to ask about Were business. Hopefully Alcide had relaxed a bit since the last time I had seen him; he always had struck me as a little shy about his nature and life, when he should have been very proud as I saw it. There were not many Weres that I liked. Well, there was only one Were I could tolerate, and that was him.

Sookie practically flew into my arms as I entered the office.

"Eric!" Apparently she had had a good day, and she had taken out the ponytail. I swept her up, she really weighed next to nothing and I kissed her square on the mouth loving the way she tasted and the way she felt in my arms. No matter what curse might be laying in wait for me, having her arms to return to made it worth every challenge and battle.

"Hello my Beauty." I could not keep the grin from my face. "You seem very happy."

"I had a wonderful day with Diantha and Gladiola." I set her back down on her feet. "And we had a great dinner, and I bought all sorts of things." She gestured at the bags around my coffee table. Selfishly I was so pleased to see the black and pink VS bag in that pile.

"I cannot wait to see everything." Pam would have gagged, but I was absolutely serious. Sookie's mood made me forget about so many of my prevailing worries. For a few hours I was going to just let myself be happy, because before night's end I expected to hear from Mr. Cataliades and possibly Papa B, and maybe even Alcide Herveaux. I had not expected to hear from Sam Merlotte.

Sookie had shown me most everything, except the Victoria's purchases, but she had shyly promised that I would see them soon enough. I loved that she was still acting a little innocent about letting me see her in lingerie; whether it was true innocence or not did not matter; I suspected that it was mostly true. She was still coming into her power and sometimes she was strong, and sometimes she was not. I was just so pleased that it was me that she let hold her when things fell apart.

As she was repacking things I saw the phone on my desk light up, it was the bar's line, not something I normally answered, but I just had a feeling and I picked it up.

"Fangtasia." I spoke into the receiver.

"Eric?"

"Sam." I recognized his voice immediately. Sookie looked up, she knew the name, but I had no idea of how much she remembered of him. "What can I do for you?"

"Jessica came in here bawling her eyes out tonight. She said you've kidnapped Sookie and stolen her memories."

Good gods, Bill you bastard! Why do you always draw others into your plots? Oh yes, because you are spineless and you prefer manipulating others to achieve your ends and keep yourself at arms length, not unlike that fairy woman. Now I personally had no problem using other people, but they were not innocent people; whether I believed in Karma or not, I enforced it.

"I have done nothing of the sort Sam."

"Jessica seems pretty upset."

"Please Sam, consider the source." I had no idea how much of the truth Sookie had revealed to Sam, about what Bill had done to her. But Sam had certainly seen Sookie's misery first hand as her boss.

"So she isn't with you?"

"No, she is here with me." I looked over at Sookie who had a concerned expression screwed to her beautiful face. "She is just back from shopping with some girlfriends, would you like to speak with her?"

"Well yes, yes I would." Sam seemed quite stunned at my offer; obviously he had thought there was a grain of truth to Bill's nonsense. I held the phone out for Sookie. I knew she was concerned about taking it, I could feel it in her mind, but I smiled and nodded and whatever wave of reassurance I could send her I endeavored to. She took the plastic from my hand and brought it to her ear.

"Hello Sam." I was proud of her; she didn't make it sound like a question, which I knew it was for her.

"Sookie, well thank God, Jessica had me really worried about you."

"I'm okay Sam. Sorry I've been away from work for so long."

"Oh don't worry about that Holly is enjoying the extra shifts and Jessica has picked up lots of nights, I think she's saving for a car."

Just if you were wondering, I was not eavesdropping on her conversation, it just was not hard to hear Sam on the other end of the line, being as close to the phone as I was.

"Is it true?" He asked her. "About your memory?"

She forced a smile for no-one's benefit but her own and answered 'yes'. I hated the dichotomy on her face, her eyes misted with sorrow even with the smile. And I knew it simply mirrored the confusion in her head about whether she wanted her memories back or not, Sam's reappearance not helping the matter.

"Eric's been really wonderful at trying to find answers for me Sam."

I heard his pause, and I was immediately thankful she had not said 'sweet' in describing me. I had an image to uphold, even if Sam Merlotte didn't fall under my jurisdiction as Sheriff.

"I'm glad Sookie. When do you think you're going to come home?"

"Not till we know who did this Sam, not till Eric thinks they aren't a threat to me anymore. I don't want to be scared in my own house."

"You could always stay with me Sookie." His offer made me clench my teeth, I hoped Sookie hadn't seen my jealous reaction.

"That's really nice of you to offer Sam, but, I don't really know you just now, and I just don't think it would be right and all, to impose on you that way."

Good girl. Okay, it was what I was thinking; I am trying to be honest here about what happened. I had no desire to let her go live with a shifter, or anyone else for that matter.

"Can you tell Jessica not to worry please Sam?" Sookie looked at me and somehow I knew what her eyes were asking without her having to say it. I nodded at her, not feeling foolish at all. "She can come up to Fangtasia any time she wants to see me, if it will make her feel better."

"I'm sure it would." Sam didn't sound completely convinced to my ears, but I let it go. "I'll stop by your place and pick up your mail. Maybe Jessica can bring it up to you when she comes?"

"Thank you Sam. I'm really sorry I don't remember you."

"So am I Sookie." And after a pause he hung up the phone. I did not know if he was going to come up, or Jessica, I'd have preferred her just then, anything else to unsettle Bill Compton before I killed him.