Updated: 8/6/11

PART FOUR

Unlikely Heroes

A cold chill ran down Sookie's spine. Everything about the scantily dressed fairy in front of her was off. She resembled a deranged praying mantis. There was no doubt that this fairy probably had devoured a few lovers. Her teeth were abnormally filed into sharp points. Her eyes were glossy and her gaze far away. She looked crazed; evil.

Sookie decided that she needed to start carrying a water pistol loaded with lemon juice.

"You really should have those teeth looked at," Mór clipped . "Why don't you bring your preddy lit'le self over here." He gestured with his sword. His tone suggestive. "We could go to my place if you'd like."

"Sorry dwarf," the fairy leered. "You're not my type."

"That's right, we're not related," Mór quipped. "You like to keep it in the family." Sookie's head snapped toward Mór, eyes wide. For a second her jaw hung open. "Where is your crazy brother?"

"Why don't you ask him for yourself?" Neave smirked.

Before Mór could react to Neave's comment, something hard smashed the back of his head. Sookie yelped. Instinct kicked in. With the hose still in her hand, Sookie's arm jerked up. She squeezed the trigger to the power nuzzle, shooting a focused blast of water into the other fairy's face.

The drenched fairy, Neave's brother Lochlan, dropped the large rock in his hands, shielding his face from the sudden stream of water. "You're going to pay for that," he growled, surprised and choking on the water spray. In a flash he moved away from under the water.

"It's pointless to fight, human," Neave sneered.

"You best go back to where you came from." Sookie kept the power nozzle active, shooting water in a fluid side-to-side motion. She knew it was useless. She just needed to figure out a plan. "Niall will kill you if you don't."

In unison, the fairies cackled like hyenas.

"Niall doesn't favor killing other fairies." Neave sounded pleased with herself. "Breandan will kill him, like he'll kill you."

"Slow," Lochlan added. His voice was all honeyed.

"Look." Sookie aimed the power nozzle at Lochlan again, eliciting a few irritated growls from him and cackling from Neave who was still standing in her position near Sookie. "I won't say a word if you just leave now." Her eyes frantically darted between the two fairies.

"Oh." Neave licked her lips like a porn star ready to go down on a man. "We'll be leaving real soon."

In a blink, the water shooting out of Sookie's garden hose was involuntarily redirected in an arch toward Neave's hands. She was a water fairy. Wide eyed, Sookie realized she was way out of her league. Her hand went slack on the trigger. The water cut off, leaving only a basketball size sphere of water in the fairy's hands.

Distracted by his sister's water antics, Lochlan was oblivious to Amelia's form appearing behind him. She'd heard the entire exchange from the kitchen. While she was showering, she'd heard Sookie's scream. By the time she made it out of the bathroom and into the kitchen, wrapped only in her towel, Sookie and Mór were already outside.

Quickly, Amelia emptied her small purple spray bottle she kept water in, for when she ironed. In its place she poured in the entire contents of the glass bottle of concentrated lemon juice that was in the refrigerator.

It took one squeaky squeeze on the trigger.

Lochlan spun around, his feet staying firmly on the ground. The movement startled Amelia, but her arm was true. The fairy dodged the stream coming at him. It was too late. The thin stream of lemon juice grazed his shoulder. A throaty scream rang through the night. Lochlan stumbled out of range from Amelia's spray bottle. Having planned on using the water ball on Sookie, Neave rinsed off the lemon juice from her brother's burning flesh.

Amelia rushed to Sookie's side. Her legs told her to grab her friend and make a run back into the house. But, Mór; she couldn't leave Mór unprotected from the fairies. Amelia held out the spray bottle with trembling hands.

"You bitch," Neave snarled. She straightened from leaning over her brother. Her glossy dark eyes focused intently, menacingly, at the two human women. For the sheer drama of it, Neave, in a commanding voice, ordered, "Aquam mihi surge et imperium."

The words were utterly unnecessary. They served to give Amelia, who Neave recognized as a Witch, a few seconds of understanding; comprehension of what was about to happen to her. Before Amelia could finish her inhalation, the water which the ground had began to absorb, instantly lifted into the air. One powerful cannon of water shot out under Neave's direction, hitting Amelia. Her body lifted off the ground and collided against the side of the house.

"Amelia," Sookie cried out. She knelt next to her unconscious friend. In her peripheral vision, Sookie saw Neave approaching her. She may be helpless against the fairy, but she wasn't going to go quietly. "Stop!" Sookie held up Amelia's water bottle. All of her attention was focused on the fairy now. For the first time, Sookie wished she would have explored her telepathy more. Bill had always urged her to test her limits, but Sookie hated her telepathy. In that moment, she wished beyond everything that she would have. Just maybe she would have found something about her telepathy that could have helped her against this fairy.

"We can do this easy," Neave calmly stated. "Or we can do this the hard way."

"I'm going to smile when Niall kills you." Sookie fixed her eyes on the fairy, searching for the slightest change. Well, this is it, she silently thought. She charged at the fairy squeezing the trigger on the spray bottle.

In a blink, Sookie laid unconscious on the ground. The spray bottle lay unthreatening several feet away.

"Silly humans," Neave smirked.

"Are you done playing around?" Lochlan asked his sister.

"Oh okay," she giggled. "I'm just getting started." Neave reached down and lifted Sookie into her arms.

"Leave my great niece here." An elegantly modulated voice commanded.

"Cousin." Neave's voice was velvety and seductive. She took in the long graceful sword in Dermott's hand.

"I will not repeat myself," Dermott warned her.

"Breandan ordered we hold her as ransom," Lochlan explained.

As war etiquette dictated, Dermott knew they were not to use magic. Good thing for Sookie, Dermott was never good at following orders. However, he did think that his sword was a good looking weapon. It was a shame he wouldn't be getting a chance to use it.

"So be it." Neave handed over Sookie's limp body to her brother. Lochlan winced.

"Be quick about it," Lochlan told his sister. He juggled Sookie's weight over his good shoulder.

Confidently, Neave strutted toward Dermott.

About this time, Bill, Sookie's vampire neighbor and ex-lover stalked up. The sounds and smells of Sookie's burning car drew Bill to investigate. "What's going on here?" Bill's voice resonated clearly. His keen vampire senses quickly took in every detail of the scene before him. His nostrils flared, not exactly from the alluring fairy aroma, but from seeing an unconscious Sookie being carried away.

"This doesn't concern you, vampire," Lochlan shot out.

"She's my friend." Bill gestured toward Sookie. "And my bonded."

"She's ours now," Lochlan said .

"Then we have a problem," Bill informed him. His voice dripped with a challenge.

Lochlan positioned Sookie on the ground next to his feet. Cautiously, he took a defensive posture, revealing his silver capped pointed teeth. The glint of the fire light reflected off of them, catching Bill's attention.

Dermott and Bill met gazes for a slit second. Both supes in a flash had an understanding. Neither would be allowing Sookie to be taken.

With a strange effeminate grace, Lochlan leapt through the air like a spider monkey on cocaine. He latched on. Bill's powerful arms trembled with the force he exerted. He struggled to keep the fairy from sinking his teeth into his neck.

Several yards away, apparently from nowhere, a pair of curved blades of polished iron magically appeared in Neave's hands. She was lithe, a murderous gymnast; an assassin. With a battle shriek she charged at Dermott. Her hands moved in an elaborate dance.

Blocking every brutal strike, Dermott shifted his weight, knocking Neave off balance. He grinned. He was never one to follow rules. As a sky fairy changeling, his magic controlled the air. Neave was instantly encased in a vortex. She was trapped in a mini tornado, suctioning the last of the air around her.

The evil beauty was suffocating.

Her eyes, wide as saucers, stared at Dermott. Magic over one's element during wartime was against etiquette. Dermott lunged forward. His iron tipped sword sliced through Neave's abdomen. Blood bubbled up through her parted lips. She looked surprised. Slowly, her body slid off the blade, tumbling to the ground.

Before her body began to turn to dust, Dermott moved toward Lochlan. The crazed fairy had his teeth buried deeply into Bill's shoulder. With his back facing Dermott, Lochlan didn't see it coming. His back violently arched. The fairy assassin glared down at the tip of the sword protruding from the center of his chest.

"Save yourself," Dermott barked. Lochlan's dieing body, bleeding onto Bill, would soon begin to turn to dust. "Be quick vampire before he turns to dust."

It wasn't as if Bill had a choice. He wouldn't have been able to stop himself even if he had wanted to. He pulled Lochlan toward him. His fangs punctured Lochlan's fairy flesh. With his next breath, a happy moan echoed in Bill's chest. It was honey. The sweetest most decadent blood he had ever tasted flowed like warm silk down his throat. Every inch of his body tingled. The blood was full of life. Effervescent.

While Bill was rightly distracted with his feeding, Dermott turned his attention to Sookie. Though he was half human, he was fairy. Concerned only with the life of his brother's grandchild, his kin, Dermott ignored Mór and Amelia. Carefully, he carried Sookie into the house. Being unfamiliar with the inside of Sookie's home, he wandered into Octavia's empty room. He knew it was not Sookie's room. It didn't have her scent in it. He turned and took a few more steps to the other room across the hall. That room was filled with Sookie's scent.

Gently, he tucked Sookie in to her bed.

With his great niece safely inside and protected by the wards surrounding her house, Dermott went back outside.

"Is she injured?" Bill asked . Though his voice was strained with worry, Bill glowed with life.

"Sookie is unharmed and safely inside," Dermott answered.

"You're not Sookie's brother." Bill only now recognized this fact.

"No." Dermott turned away from Bill making his way to Sookie's burning car. Had Bill been human, he would have found the half fairy's dismissal rude.

Dermott's attention turned toward the fire. The flames had moved, inching its destructive way toward the house. Two seconds, that was all it took for Dermott to distinguish the car fire. He didn't have influence over fire. But he did have control over the air. And without air, fire was powerless.

"Dwarf." Dermott nudged Mór with his foot. "Wake up."

"My head," Mór groaned. His hand automatically jerked up, knocking Dermott's foot away from his shoulder. He gave the half fairy a scowl.

"You are bleeding onto my great niece's lawn," Dermott pointed out. "I do not think she would appreciate the stench of dwarf blood." Truth was that fairies disliked the musty metallic smell of dwarf. A bleeding dwarf was even more repulsive to Dermott's sensitive nose. It made him grouchy.

"Where is Sookie?" Mór jumped up, his hand holding firmly the back of his bleeding head.

"Lochlan and Neave are in the Summerlands now," Dermott answered .

"And Sookie?" Mór glanced around. He spotted Bill who he didn't know, but gave him a quick nod of acknowledgement.

"She is unharmed," Dermott said, leaning over and turning off the water spigot. "However, you're human lover hasn't gained consciousness."

Mór had absolutely no idea how Amelia ended up outside, unconscious, and naked. He took the towel, which he assumed had been wrapped around her, and covered her up. "Amelia." Mór gently tapped her on her cheek. "Come on my little Witch."

"She might have a concussion," Bill said. "I can offer her some of my blood."

Mór's gaze darted between Amelia and Bill and Dermott. The half fairy shrugged his shoulders. It wasn't up to him to make that decision.

"Alright then," Mór said. He watched as Bill broke the skin on the inside of his wrist.

"Hold her mouth open," Billinstructed. He pressed his wrist close to Amelia's lips and milked his wound. After a minute he said, "That should do it."

Mór gingerly scooped Amelia into his arms and carried her inside.

"You may want to take to ground somewhere new for a few days," Dermott said. "You carry Lochlan's scent. His kin may come seeking vengeance."

"I understand."

Dermott turned and headed into the house. He felt tired. Being only half fairy, using his magic the way he had tonight, had left him feeling a bit drained. He hoped Claudine would arrive soon. Her presence would make him feel better.

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