Ch. 13

While I would have liked to talk to Claudine tonight, I didn't want to run the risk of running in to Claude. Though I knew I would have to take my lumps eventually, better to get it over with. But I was Just. So. Tired. I perused the parking lot when I pulled in, didn't see his car and breathed a sigh of relief. I got up to the flat as quickly as possible. The light was on at their place, but I needed my strength for the conversation that was sure to follow. So, I did my bedtime rituals and slipped in to bed, and passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

When I awoke the next morning, I had that same dream that was melting away the more I awoke. Eric and I were in his office. This time he was more than shirtless and I definitely wasn't wearing sleep clothes, like my last dream. What I could recall was us on the desk, him hovering above me, fangs out, asking me if I was ready. In response, I reached up to pull him to me by his hair, and-that was it. I ached in my girl bits and my neck, as if something had been there, but went away. Must be what blue balls feels like, I chided myself. That was a powerful dream.

I stretched and hopped out of bed, feeling a little stiff in the leg that had been injured last night. I felt a little shiver as the memory washed over me, but I shook it off. I'm not the asshole that tried to kill a bitch. My life or his. I win. I cheered myself at the reminder of my planned date tonight. I was excited, nervous, fearful. The first two I didn't question-that seemed normal. What was I afraid of? Oh, yeah. I was afraid my grandfather would forbid it. I was afraid my family would disown me for consorting with our sworn enemy. I was afraid my family would face consternation from others because of my choices. I was afraid I would face the wrath of The Council for a failed mission, or that they would punish my grandfather for it. I was afraid we would want to go further than just a few dates and then where would we be? I was afraid Eric and I would become distracted by our desire for each other, and lose sight of the severity of the turmoil around us. I wish I had spoken to Eric about this last night, but I had been so tired. Oh well-spilled milk. It was almost 1pm. Better get a move on.

I did my morning work out, ate a small breakfast then headed over to my cousin's. I figured I should stay sweaty, in case Claude was going to seek revenge and it got messy. I snuck in, just trying to keep the upper hand a little longer-Claude was nowhere to be seen.

Claudine was in her huge closet, poofing things from here to there, color-coordinating clothes and shoes. She didn't even turn around when I sat down on her bed. "Hey, Cuz. How was your first night on The Job?"

"Ah, interesting, to say the least. Is Claude around?"

"He ran a few errands. Don't worry, he'll be back soon to give you his paybacks."She rolled her eyes at me. She was like the mother of us two petulant children. "Another adventure-filled night with the blood suckers?" She poofed on a lovely blue, skin-tight dress and examined herself in the mirror, then modeled for me. "What do you think?"

It was an aqua-teal blue jersey material with spaghetti straps, that criss crossed in the back. The straps were braided which continued along the neckline and hem and had a braided belt around the waist. Simple, but sexy. "You look gorgeous. But it looks a little short for you. The tightness is good but with the length, it's a little too much. Or, in this case, too little. Sorry."

"Meh, I didn't like it anyway. You take it." She poofed on a purple one next and the blue one was suddenly neatly draped across my lap. "Thanks." I picked at the dress nervously, "Maybe I could wear it tonight on my date."

She spun around and was suddenly going a mile a minute. "A date? With who? Where did you meet? Where are you going? What will you wear? You must try on that dress for sure now!"

"Claudine! Take a breath."

She plopped down on the bed and grabbed my hands, "Tell me everything!"

"Let me start at the beginning of the night and make my way up to that, okay?" I filled her in on the entire night (I left the part out about Longshadow trying to kill me) to the point where I was thirsty after so much talking. Instead of telling her about Eric's brother being held by Breandan, I said only that he was being blackmailed with threat of harm to someone he cared about.

At that, she gasped, "We never even thought of something like that!"

"Probably because we have never really thought of them having feelings or friends or family. We've only ever considered them these monsters-fairy killing machines. Which to a degree they are, but only by nature's design. They can't help how they were made. It's like hating a cat for killing a mouse or a bird-you want to, but is it really his fault?"

She was looking at me with a mix of shock and laughter. "Uhm, Sookie are you running for president of the vampire fan club?"

I blushed, "No. I'm just saying-I've gotten to know Eric and Pam really well the last two nights and I am really shocked. Other than what they choose to...eat" I wrinkled my nose "they are SO much like us. They are funny and prank each other and they're fun and silly..." I trailed off, realizing how much I was incriminating myself and she was giving me that look again.

"I see. Well, I will take your word for it. So, does this conversation happen to be leading to who you're going on a date with tonight?"

I got a knot in my stomach and couldn't look at her to answer her. "Yes."

"Sookie, are you going out with Eric Northman tonight?"

"Yes," I said hesitantly, then blurted, "If you think it's not the world's most horrible idea!"

"Why would I think that?" I started spewing out my words as fast as I could form them, not sure if I was trying to convince her or myself or both. All my fears about why I shouldn't and what would happen if we did and if it went further, since I could really see myself liking him, and was I an embarrassment to my race for liking a vampire and on and on till I ran out of steam.

My tirade was met with silence. When I looked at her she seemed to be struggling for the right words. "Sookie, if you tell anyone I told you this, I will deny it. This MUST stay between us, not even Claude knows." I warily nodded. Damn, now what? "When Grandfather first brought you to our realm, and plead your case before The Council, they tasked you with this assignment, but also the Ancient Pythoness had a bit of a prophecy about you. I will not tell you the exact words it contained, as telling them to you could alter the future. Suffice to say, we always knew you would never permanently stay in Fairy, Sookie. That is a large part of why you were trained so well. We knew you were destined for a more...diverse life. You never bonded with any of the males, or the girls either, for that matter. We knew you wouldn't be happy if you stayed there forever. But, you didn't like staying only on the human side, either. You would light up when you got the occasion to meet other Supes that came to see Grandfather. I always thought you would be a great ambassador of sorts, the way you never seemed to judge any one species or have the air of superiority that most of us have for our own. The only ones we couldn't expose you to were the Vampires, for obvious reasons. Maybe this was your final test. And you passed."

I quietly absorbed that. Is that what this whole "mission" was about all along? If it was, for fucks sake, why can't they just come out and tell me this in the first shitting place. Arrrggghhhhh! But that question had been asked a million times and never answered.

She continued. "So, if you're asking for my blessing, then you have it. Even if what I just said isn't true, you should still be allowed to live, Sookie. And I don't think Grandfather would begrudge you that. Of course, he always wished you would pick a nice fairy male, but that never happened. We understood your mixed heritage might make you hesitant to breed with a full fairy. Even Kvelin had made him hopeful. Cripes, you've lived quite the Spartan lifestyle up until now. You should be able to have some fun. As long as you stay on guard and don't let your emotion or hormones sway you against us or cloud your judgment." She hugged me tight and we sat there for a few moments in an embrace. I few tears slid down my cheeks, though I wasn't sure why, other than I felt a huge weight off my shoulders to know that they wouldn't all blackball me.

Enter Cousin Claude, with his usual awesome timing. "Hey look who's here. Her Royal Brattiness, Princess Pranks-a-lot."

"Not now please brother, we're having a moment."

"Hmf, fine!" He gave me the double "I'm watching you" V-fingers, pointing them at his eyes, then mine, and he was gone.

"So, Eric has asked to speak with Grandfather, to tell him about Breandan in person. And I would like to visit. How do we go about that?"

She looked away for a second and I got a flash or two of something from her, but couldn't quite grasp onto it. "Things are heating up at the palace right now. Breandan has attempted a few, foolish moves to get to Grandfather. It will be hard to say when he can get away. But, if he has news that can help us, he will find a way. But we definitely don't want you going back there right now. Promise me that!"

"Claudine, what the hell? If there's trouble, we must go back! I don't want he and Celighn and the others alone." I stood up, agitated, and paced.

"Sookie, come on. You know they are well prepared to defend Grandfather. His orders were for you to stay here, at all costs. If I have to go back, he will call for me, but Claude will stay here to guard you-"

"Whaaat?! Are you nuts? Let me go! I was trained for this, you're royalty."

She looked offended. "Do not think we weren't all trained for times of war, Cousin. Claude and I have, unfortunately, been through a few. You have not." I immediately felt bad. I know they had lost a lot in the last Fae war, including their parents.

"I'm sorry, Claudine. I'm an ass. I just meant...well, you're full fairy. You can have full fairy children-Brigants to fulfill the throne. I can't. I can fight and I want to. It's you and Claude that should be guarded. They will want Royal blood, not mine."

She grabbed my shoulders. "You are a Brigant, too! Regardless of the dilution. And you have been tasked by The Council. Unless they say otherwise, you will stay here, with your vampire." My vampire? When the hell did he become mine? Before I could ask that question, "I will let him know Northman needs to speak to him and it is urgent. He will tell me and I will tell you. Since it is about Breandan, he will probably attempt to get here as soon as he can get away."

I sulked."Okay, and send my love."

"Will do. Now, this outfit yes or no?"

Sigh...fairies. Talking about our family at war in one breath; about clothes, in the next.

I finished up in her room, then carefully poked my head in the kitchen, where I heard Claude fiddling around. "Hi, Claude. How are you?" I poured on my sweet, I'm trying to get out of deep shit tone.

"Oh, there's my sweet little Cousin who turned my teeth back yesterday!" He threw an apple at my head, but I caught it.

"Aww, I'm sorry." I tried not to giggle and failed. "Was it that bad?"

"Uhm, gee, I don't know, Sookie. I had black teeth for two hours! I didn't want to speak or smile that whole time." There were probably a lot of people who wanted me to thank for that. "It finally went away before show time, but I was really worried. You shouldn't mess with this." He gestured around his face. "Off limits!"

"Oh, honey, I'm sorry. I guess I didn't think my little prank would be that powerful." Vomit, I was pouring on my half-fairy me didn't know my own strength routine. "Amelia could have always done some kind of spell-"

"I will NOT rely on a human-witch or no witch-to help ME with magic."

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking about the awesome, handsome fury of your face when I did it. And how it might affect your job. That wasn't fair. My humblest apologies."

While he puffed up at my fake compliment, I knew I wasn't off the hook yet. "Hmpf-that's better." I smooched his cheek loudly before he could stop me. He always pretended he hated affection, or at least PDA from family, but I knew he secretly loved it. "Just so you know, this isn't over. I'm going to make you suffer, wondering when and what's coming for a while" He said on my way out of the kitchen.

"I would expect nothing less from you, Claude."

"Ha!" I heard him mumble "bitch" under his breath.

I was almost to the door, yelled out "Claudine, let me know as soon as you hear from Grandfather-"

"Wait! Don't forget the dress. Here take the shoes and this jewelry that goes with it."

"Oh yeah. Thanks, Cuz." I hugged her. "You're the best. Let me know if you hear anything though, okay? I mean it. I hate the mystery BS. If there's trouble I want to know. I feel bad enough sniffling over a silly date, when there's trouble at home."

"I promise. Now, go. Don't worry and have fun tonight. If I hear screams coming from your place-"

I flushed and held up my hands. "Stop." Musical laughter. Ugh, why did everyone know how to make me blush? I hated it.

I dashed to my place and tried the new outfit on. It fit like a glove, including the shoes, shocker. Strange, considering I was probably an approximate size 8 (on a good day) or 10 and 5'5" and my cousin was probably a size 4 and 5'11" at least. So, yeah, weird she would have just happened to have a dress and shoes in my size. For a date I just agreed to, about 10 hours ago. And I was the telepath. I packed it all up, hopped in the shower, dressed in my usual jeans, this time with my dagger strapped to my ankle. Hey, the truth was out now, and we had seen, twice now, my need for additional protection. I would let my vamps-I laughed at my own expression- know I had it on me. I patted it and and headed to "work".

I had been at work for a few hours and was not paying attention to time at all. I was downstairs, doing an inventory on the alcohol. I wondered if this had ever been done before, other than when they first opened this place. While I trusted that both Eric and Pam were fairly business savvy, I wondered if it wasn't more that they had a sense for businesses that were lucrative, rather than running said businesses with an iron fist. I think they just made money hand over fist here and didn't have to worry so much about the small details. Or trusted the wrong people to handle it. I saw Longshadow's name on a few of the order forms. He was probably in charge of inventory as well.

I was deep in thought about that, when in my ear, "Well, well , well. Looks like I found myself a delicious fairy-"

"FUCK, Pam!" I yelped and peeled myself off the rafters.

She grinned at me, pleased she scared me, "Don't you know you shouldn't be all alone in a vampire's basement?"

I was smoothing myself, picking the clipboard and pencil off the ground. "Fucking hell! Can you shuffle your feet or something? I'm going to have to get you a bell, if we're going to work together!" I heard a choked guffaw from the stairs and saw Eric's deliciously denim clad long legs coming down the stairs.

"Now that's a thought. Pam with a bell around her neck to warn the little birdy she's sneaking up on her."

From the poo-face she was making, she didn't find that funny, but then she got a glint in her eye. "Hey, this pussy would definitely eat-"

I held up my hands and interrupted. "Uh-uh. Spare me the contrived innuendos, please." I shook my head and twirled my pencil. "It's a wonder you guys get any work done around here. Bunch of over-sexed pervs."

"Spoken like an under-sexed fairy. Speaking of which, we need to have a little girl time. I hear you and my master are going on...a date." She practically choked the word out.

Eric had been looking around at the cases of alcohol. "Why do we have so much of this rum? We sell it, but 20 cases?! We don't need to have all that on hand at one time." He looked at Pam, who shrugged.

"Exactly why I'm down here. Looks like my old buddy Longshadow did a lot of the ordering. He obviously had no clue and just threw numbers on some paper. Look over there-ten more cases of vodka, on top of the twenty here."

He looked annoyed. "I thought he could handle this menial task. He helped his maker run a bar-restaurant business in New Mexico, so I assumed he knew what the hell he was doing."

"Well, water under the bridge. So, I was thinking you should run a drink special. Have a signature drink to use this stuff up fairly quickly. Call it something cheesy, like the Fangbanger or Bloody Fang or VILF or something."

We talked about the recipe particulars for a minute. "Pamela, get the bartenders working on a few recipes to try out on the humans."

She was off, but not before a meaningful smirk at me. "Don't forget girl talk."

Once she was gone, he was suddenly in front of me, hands around my waist. "Good evening, Sookie." He pulled me in and layed a gentle, unassuming kiss on me. He may have meant it as a sweet greeting or as a tease to make me want more. Because I felt the latter. I lay my head on his chest. "Hi." I found my nose sticking in his neck of it's own accord, taking in his scent. It was faint, but earthy and very distinctly him.

I must have made a noise in appreciation because I felt our friend pushing up against my stomach. "Mmm...Sookie. I could stay like this all night." I nodded. His hands wandered all over my back, pulling me into him. He backed me up to set me down on a case of booze and I laughed into his neck, my legs wrapping around his waist.

He growled and his fangs snapped down, which I felt right in all the right places. Who was I right now? I never acted like this before, not that there was ever an opportunity, but I found myself turning into some wanton sex kitten when I was around him. He pulled my head back and looked at me for a few seconds, before gently nibbling my lips. When I parted mine in invitation, he of course, obliged and we proceeded to act out with our tongues what we wished we were doing with our bodies. My core was feeling very hot and very wet and once he caught on to that, he broke our kiss. He started laying a trail of small kisses up and down my neck, down to my collarbone, whispering sweet nothings about my scent against my skin.

He was making tiny thrusting motions, pushing his hard length into me, which conveniently happened to rub against my nub. I gasped. "Eric!" My heart went to my throat at the feeling.

"Mmm...yes, my Sookie?" Some tiny bit of common sense existed apparently, as I fought to clear my head of the sex fog.

"Eric. Uhm, we need to talk" I panted. He never let up his kisses at my throat or his thrusting and I made a mewling noise when he rubbed just right again.

"If you keep making those noises Sookie, there won't be talking for a few hours." He slipped his hands under my bottom and thrust again.

"Ah." Jesus, a few more of those and I was going to be done. "Please, Eric."

"And you saying my name like that isn't helping."

"Well, neither is rubbing up against my...girl bits...until I, you know." At that he did stop.

He looked me right in the eye, "Really?" Thrust.

"Nngh-Eric!" My eyes rolled back and I shivered. When I opened my eyes to look at him, he his eyes were dark, full of passion. And determination. Uh-oh.

"So, if I-" thrust "keep this up" thrust "you are saying you'll come?" thrust. I was very, very close.

But, I grabbed his hair. "Eric. Stop."

He looked disappointed. And confused. "Why, Sookie? While, I admit, I would like us to have our first orgasm together, naked, entangled in my silk sheets, if I can so easily bring you pleasure before hand and you're so close right now, why not? I would like to give you such a simple pleasure." I got another shiver at that. "Wouldn't you like it?"

"I-yes, Eric. I would definitely enjoy it. I am enjoying it." He took that as his cue to return his lips to my neck, but I stopped him. "But I kind of wanted to talk to you before things got too hot and heavy, though it's a little late for that." He finally sensed my seriousness (or else humored me) and stopped.

"Okay, I'm all ears. Let's talk."

Okay, gird your loins and suck it up, Sook. "You know I grew up in Fairy since I was young. Well, the Fae become...active fairly early, at least in terms of courting and other flirting behavior. I spent a lot of time with my nose in books, or behind a broadsword and thought chasing males was a bit of a waste of time. Add to that, the fact that male fairies are about the most self-centered and absorbed creatures in all the realms and yeah, I wasn't so much interested. I was exposed to other creatures that peaked my interest, but the timing wasn't right and my interest wasn't peaked enough, I guess. It's always been my thoughts that I already had enough on my plate and I did not want to bring another mix or halfling into this world, especially with the politics that are going on right now. Which, remind me to update you on that, later."

Okay, stop skirting around the issue. He was looking at me like he shared that exact thought. "What I'm getting at is, I've never been with anyone, sexually..." I blushed like an angry tomato. "And, though I dislike the term, we have to call a spade a spade; I am a virgin."