PART ONE

The Ruse is Up

After leaving Preston alone in the bathroom, naked and wet, Sookie leaned against the door. She didn't trust what she was feeling. The last man to affect her so strongly was Quinn. The first time Quinn had touched her, actually licked her leg, had been one of the most erotic experiences of her life. Even with Eric around, who makes any woman of any species go weak at the knees, she only felt her own desire for Quinn. But Preston hadn't touched her in any way that was provocative. It was just the sight of him that made her insides rumble with desire.

It was this sensation that she didn't trust, because last time listening to these feelings didn't turn out so well for her. It was this stirring heat that got her to sleep with Bill, and with Eric, and with Quinn. It seemed to her that her feelings always led to disappointment, and she wasn't up to repeating her mistakes—again.

With only a door between her and this stranger that made her feel mushy, she was determined not let herself fall into bed with Preston. She took a few steadying breaths, pushed her back off the door, and went into the kitchen. Preston had left a trail of blood stains on the floor from his foot. As she cleaned the floor, her thoughts were occupied with many questions about the sexy stranger in her bathroom.

How did he end up on her property? What exactly had he done? Who attacked him? Was there anyone he needed her to contact? So many questions and no answers, "Yet". Once her task was done she went to her room deciding to change into a fresh set of clothes.

Quickly, she pulled on a fresh tee and her favorite yoga pants. She remembered she had a pair of men's socks she never returned, and decided to offer them to Preston. Though the prospect of seeing Preston wearing nothing but the socks was enticing, she searched through her closet and drawers for something that might fit him. But unless he was a woman's size 10, there wasn't a thing that would work. But her eyes caught the nice silky floral robe still on its hanger on the back of her closet door. A mischievous grin decorated her face. She removed the robe, and figured she would offer it. It had been a Christmas present from Amelia.

On her way back toward the kitchen, she slowed when she approached the bathroom. For a few long seconds she stood in the hallway staring at the bathroom door. The water was still running. The scent of strawberries lingered outside the door. Unconsciously, she breathed in the aroma. A sense of contentment warmed her. The house always felt different, she felt different, when there was a man in the house. Their energy, sounds, and scents were like comfort food to her.

With a smile on her face, she returned to the kitchen and began rummaging through the cabinets, not sure what to offer him. It would take too long to make something fresh, so she did the easiest thing. She pulled out some leftovers and heated them. Not knowing what he might like to drink, she decided to brew a pot of coffee and boil some water for tea. Happily, her mind was occupied with these tasks and she loved being filled with purpose.

Quietly, Preston walked in to the kitchen. Sookie was lost in thought, not noticing him at first. He stood, admiring the way her hips swayed and listening to her softly humming. She was happy. It made him feel good in a way that nothing else ever had. Instead of the floor falling out from under his feet, he felt the earth appear firm and steady beneath him. This odd feeling coupled with watching her was something he knew he could spend years feeling and doing and never grow restless from. Hesitantly, he let the door close behind him, and the sound drew Sookie's attention.

She turned, seeing him nude and wrapped only in a towel; she felt her private areas throb. Immediately, her resolve weakened, and she wished she would have experimented with her other present Amelia had given her. Since she was man-less, Amelia had given her a sex toy to help ease her frustrations. What Amelia hadn't said out loud, but Sookie heard nonetheless, was that she hoped it would improve her mood for both their sakes. When she unwrapped her gift, Sookie had flushed at least three shades of red.

"Here you go," Sookie went to the table and handed Preston the socks, "I thought your feet might be tender."

"Yes," he said taking them from her.

"Oh, and this is all I have that might fit," she handed him the robe. He gave her a doubtful look, but he took it and laid it on his side of the table. Slowly, since he was still in a little pain, he bent over to put the socks on.

"I can help you," sensing he was still in some discomfort, Sookie automatically knelt in front of him.

"No, its ok," Preston's breath rushed out.

"I don't mind," Sookie insisted. Seeing his feet, she couldn't help wince. They were scratched, swollen, and red. As gently as she could, she guided his socks on. Preston couldn't take his eyes off her. Her tenderness melted something inside him, gluing his eyes on her.

Sookie absently glanced up. She admired his dark hair and how it covered his shoulders, and his chest. Her eyes continued down, toward his waist where the blue towel rested low. He was nice and clean. "Wow," she thought. He looked like he had just stepped out of a pinup calendar. Privately she was nodding her head in disbelief. Gently, she slipped the other sock on his foot.

"Thank you," his voice was soft and gentle. She lifted her chin and was drawn in by his warm and kind eyes.

"You're welcome," she smiled straightening up. Under his soulful eyes she felt more of her self control evaporate. "Are you hungry?" she asked.

"Yes, it smells really good."

"It's just leftovers," she warned him. Carefully, she placed a plate in front of him with a fork, "Would you like something to drink?"

"Tea would be nice," he said.

"I don't keep lemons in the house, sorry," she smiled, placing the tea in front of him. Her great-grandfather and Claudine, her fairy godmother, had no tolerance for lemons. It was some kind of fairy allergy. Lemons had actually killed Claudine's triplet, Claudia. This was why Sookie was paranoid that lemon juices and pieces would accidentally get on something she offered them, so she just didn't keep any in the house.

"That's fine," he smiled. Sookie turned and poured herself a cup of coffee, and took the chair across from him.

"It's real good," said Preston. The aroma and taste of what she served him was divine. He was always real hungry when he was healing and he felt grateful that she had offered him something to eat.

Sookie nursed her coffee as she wondered whether or not he was married. A quick glance at his hands told her he wasn't, but it didn't mean that he didn't have a girlfriend. He looked up and smiled at her. His eyes were the warmest and lightest shade of brown. They were so gentle and yet there was a heat to them. She felt an instant zing sensation. Her hormones surged and Sookie's heart beat spiked. Scared of what she felt, she quickly looked at her mug and took a drink.

"You should let me see your shoulder," she said. He nodded. She stood up from her chair and went and stood next to him. Carefully, she brushed aside his long hair, the color of melted dark chocolate. When she lifted the towel, her delicate fingers glided against his bare skin. Sookie heard his breath catch in his throat. The sound gave her another zing of electric butterflies.

Preston was afraid of looking up at her. She was so close and so warm. He feared that he wouldn't be able to resist the temptation to seduce her in her own kitchen. His experience with human women was limited, but he knew fairy women well. They wouldn't give themselves to a fairy male unless they had proven to be loyal and ardent with their love. But Sookie was human, and he knew he could use magic to influence her into taking him into her bed. However, secretly, he wanted more. He shifted in his chair. Her small feminine fingers made him nervous and dizzy.

A smile spread across Sookie's face as she examined his shoulder. She wasn't sure if Preston felt the same way or not, but she liked the way his skin felt under her finger tips. Quickly, she erased the smile off her face, remembering her resolution. Focusing on his injury she was surprised by what she found. His shoulder, where there had been a deep gaping wound was healed. Young pink skin now covered it.

"You're able to heal?" she asked. She knew vampires and shifters could heal, but not this fast. He nodded. "How quickly?"

Preston shrugged his shoulders. "It depends," he said.

"How did you get hurt?" she asked him and he started to explain how he'd been caught up in a skirmish while conducting negotiations for payment. Supposedly, Preston had offended the Packmaster's daughter by turning down her romantic attentions, and now the Packmaster was demanding compensation. Though his story sounded believable, she knew he wasn't being entirely truthful.

"What are you?" she asked.

"A Were," he persisted. Sookie didn't understand why he kept insisting that he was a Were. She could see from his brain signature that he wasn't.

"I know you're not a shifter," she said matter-of-factly. Suddenly, Sookie saw his mind go from a smooth thick pattern to a classic jagged Were rhythm. She had never seen anything like it before. It was impossible.

"What else could I be?" he asked holding out his hand. Effortlessly his arm rippled from his shoulder to his fingers. It was the most elegant transformation Sookie had ever witnessed. There was no sound; no crackling of bones and muscles and ligaments.

Seconds ago, the smooth pattern of his mind told her he was a fairy. Then, right before her eyes, his brain pattern changed. Then his arm changed. None of it made sense to her. Before he had gotten nervous, his mind was an amber color; almost gold. Now his mind was red and ragged like a shifter. From the smooth pattern his mind first gave off, she had thought he was a fairy, "But his arm transformed". Was it possible Preston was part fairy and something else, maybe part shifter? "Was it possible?"

Her mind quickly contemplated every possibility.

"Sookie," he said, "what do you think I am?" he asked again. Her unblinking gaze on him hadn't waivered. She hesitated to answer him.

It was a struggle to reconcile what she saw. "How did you do that?" she asked.

"This?" he said and his arm transformed again.

"No not that," she said, "with your mind. How did you do that?" Preston had a look of confusion on his face. "What are you?" she asked again.

"What do you think I am?"

"I…I…I don't know," she breathed. Her forehead wrinkled with concentration. She was struggling to make sense of what she was seeing with her eyes and with her telepathy. Without really thinking, she reached her hand out and rested it on Preston's normal hand. Touching sometimes helped to amplify any telepathic vibes. Almost instantly she hit the dense shield around his mind. She focused harder.

Expectantly, Preston felt himself lean forward waiting for her to answer. Her hand on his was surprising. His gaze locked on her soft feminine hand. He was glad that she felt comfortable enough with him to do that. He moved his gaze from her hand to her eyes and noticed Sookie's eyes had changed. Her clear brilliant blue eyes glazed over. Unblinking and expressionless, she stared at him; through him; into him.

Bewilderment wracked his mind. Niall had said she was human; she looked human. But at that precise moment, the frozen expression; her strange and beautiful eyes; Preston was certain it was her he was picking up pressing against his mind. Preston's eyes widen, and his expression was something between surprise and alarm. In an instant, he slid his hand out from under hers. "Who was she? What was she?"

"Maybe—some kind of fairy…" her voice trailed off as she studied him. Sookie noticed several emotions quickly wash over his face.

"A fairy?" he asked in the way that made her want to question herself. She couldn't be positive. All she was certain of was that he was either some sort of special super fairy or shifter.

She slowly nodded her head side-to-side. "A…fairy shifter..." she stopped. There was a tiny part of her that doubted her reasoning; her back stiffened. She wouldn't back down from her conclusion. This was her home, and he was her guest. Let her sound crazy.

With bated breath she watched Preston's face and lovely tawny eyes beam like he'd just won the lottery. Sookie wondered if she was right. Instantaneously, she saw his mind return to the smooth thick pattern he had when she first found him in the woods.

"How did you do that?" she gasped in wonder. In all her life, she had never met anyone who could arbitrarily change their brain signature. It was like a person changing their fingerprints; it was impossible. There were no shifters that she knew who could do that. She wasn't sure about fairies since she only knew three, her great-grandfather, and the twins.

Their exchange was suddenly interrupted with an eerie sound; deep guttural wailing. She shuddered.

Outside there were werewolves howling in the dark. Sookie jerked her head to look out the window. All she could see was black. The sound sent shivers down her back, and the hairs on her arms stood up. Without a word to Preston, she walked out of the kitchen.

Preston had forgotten why he was there, but hearing Ralph and Curt howling, he remembered. This was the part of Niall's script where he would be threatened and hunted, and he needed to act afraid. His Were friends would make a big pretense of looking for him, but would not succeed. Preston hated misleading Sookie. Hesitant to go through with Niall's ruse, he followed her.

She made a beeline to where she kept her Benelli rifle. When she turned around Preston was surprised to see her holding a shotgun. While his eyes focused on the rifle, Sookie's attention was on his nakedness. The towel he had wrapped around his waist had slipped off somewhere in the kitchen. She mentally shook the image from her mind, telling herself that she would have to think about what she just saw, later.

The phone in the kitchen started ringing.

Sookie supposed it was probably her great-grandfather. She had called him earlier from her cell phone, but the signal was too low and she dropped the call. Taking steps toward the kitchen door to answer the phone, the sudden pounding on the front door stopped her. Her heart palpitated at an alarming rate. Ignoring the phone, she made for the front door. Looking through the peephole she saw a big and intimidating werewolf in a leather vest on her front porch.

"What do you want?" she called out through the door.

"Let me in," answered the large, burly man. Sookie scoffed at his reply thinking it was the stupidest thing she'd ever heard. Not just that, but his voice, which any person would have expected to be low and rumbling by the size of him, was high pitched. Sookie stifled several laughs at the irony.

"Does this have to do with you?" she asked Preston, not very politely, as she threw him a hard look. She knew he wasn't exactly a Were and that he hadn't been telling her the truth about how he ended up in her woods, or why he was attacked.

In thirty seconds or less, she first thought, "What mess had this fairy, part something else gotten her into? Her second thought was that she should have left him in the woods. And her last thought was to scan the mind behind the door. In a blink, she saw that there were only two werewolves outside.

With naked Preston standing in her living room, she flung the door open and pumped the shotgun. The threatening sound the Benelli made filled her with courage.

"Get in here," she barked at the Were. His attention was fixed on the shot gun. Sookie waved the muzzle for him to enter. He came in with his hands in the air. With a swift kick of her foot, the front door slammed shut. "Lay on your stomach," commanded Sookie. The large brute glanced over at Preston.

"Don't look at him," she said. It took the hulking man several movements, but he managed to get his big frame onto the hardwood floor. "Lay your arm out toward me," she instructed him.

"Look," he said with his high voice reminding Sookie of Mike Tyson the boxer, "I don't want any problems—"

"Then you shouldn't have pounded on my door," she interrupted him. "Now shut up and put your arm out." He carefully laid out his hand toward her.

"I just want that werewolf, and I'll leave peacefully," he said.

"Yeah yeah," she mumbled sarcastically, "if you try reaching for me, I'll splatter your guts all over my floor." Sookie needed to get inside his mind. Carefully, she knelt down to get in a better position to touch his wrist. "Don't move."

"What are you doing?" he asked nervously. "Look lady," he said. Quicker than a blink, by touching him, she was able to get inside his mind. His thoughts were cloudy, but she would just have to do her best to read them. "Who sent you?" she asked not caring what he said. She was more interested in the information the question would elicit from his mind. Hop scotching from one thought to the other, it took her only seconds before she picked up on Niall's name. Confused, she followed that thought.

"What does Niall have to do with you being here?" she asked.

"Hey," barked the Were, "what are you doing to me?"

"Look," Sookie stood up, pointing the muzzle of her rifle at him, "I'll be real put out if you get my floor dirty." Feeling certain, the large man would stay still; she knelt back down and touched him again. "Why are you here?"

His mouth said the same thing, he was here for Preston. But his snarly thoughts told her that Niall paid them to make a fuss looking for Preston. They weren't to harm Sookie or Preston or damage any of her property. "What the hell was going on?" she thought. "Who are you?" she asked him, but she read his name quicker than he was able to speak it. "Ralph," she said forcefully, "get up."

Backing away from the Were, Sookie watched him carefully get to his feet. "Go home. I don't want to have to tell Niall that I had to kill you for putting on a lame ass show." That was not the reaction the big brute was looking to get from her. He chanced a glance over at Preston.

"Ughm," was the sound that came out of the big Were as Sookie flung open the door.

"Oh," she said as an afterthought, "Ralph, tell Curt who's coming around the house right now, to get the hell off my property."

"I don't want any trouble," said Ralph waving his hands in peace.

"Well, I can't speak for Niall, but you won't get any trouble from me unless you don't get off my property." By this time Curt was standing at the bottom of the front porch looking dumbfounded.

"Preston?" asked Ralph.

"Just go," was all Preston said. Ralph stepped onto the porch. Sookie followed him with her shot gun and watched as the two Weres left.

Once they were out of sight, she switched to her telepathy. The two big men had parked their car over where Debbie Pelt had. Sookie was certain that the county really needed to do something about that abandoned road. Over the last year and a half that road had proven to be a thorn in her side.

When she was certain Ralph and Curt were gone, she turned and stepped inside the house. ~