XII.

I guess it was hard to say who was more caught off guard. As stunned as Niall looked that I went after him, I'd have to say I thought Eric was even more surprised than Niall. I guess on some level Niall had that sense to remember there was still Brigant blood running through my veins, even if it was vampire tinged. The Brigants were a pretty fiery lot at times. It had always taken a lot to make me lose my temper. But when I did, it was fairly epic. Losing it twice in less than two weeks was really something. The first time surprised the two of them. The second time surprised everyone.

It started out as a civil conversation in which we discussed Hunter, and Niall's dubious plan of trying to strengthen the potency of my blood and thereby my ability to bind Hunter to me. We were in the conference room at the compound. I was initially pretty silent while Niall spoke. The more I'd thought about his suggestion that Hunter should be bound to me, the more I questioned his motivations. Hunter resisted vampire glamouring and he could read me. He had long ago locked onto my thought signature and even if I was undead, he had been able, with assistance, to lock onto it again in a different 'frequency' range. We kept it quiet, since I had told him it was very useful though it could be dangerous because vampires were not going to like a teenage telepath reading their thoughts. I thought that Niall might know about it, though. It occurred to me that perhaps Niall thought he could use Hunter as a conduit of information that I might not be willing to share with him. Hunter's ability to read me would likely be enhanced further by being bound to me. Although, I had become quite adept at shutting myself down and insulating myself from others when I needed to. When I'd been shot last October, no one with any tie to me found out until later. Not Claudine or Pam or even Eric. I had really tried to cultivate that vampire inscrutability. Hunter couldn't get past that. I was sure that Niall didn't know that and I certainly wasn't going to tell him. I hadn't spent the better part of a decade hanging out with Eric for nothing.

But it didn't matter. Not surprisingly, Eric did not like Niall's nebulous plan. I think that our odd sire/child bond already posed enough challenges for Eric. The thought of adding some fae blood, and whatever magic Niall had planned with it, did not seem to be a welcome prospect. Eric said no. So I told my Grandfather that it was a big 'no' and that if he wanted Hunter protected he at least needed to tell us why and from what. But Niall still wouldn't say exactly why Hunter needed to be protected. It was clear there was something else going on. Was he worried about vampires? Humans? Other Fae? I had a very hard time envisioning Hunter being at risk if the Prince of the Fae decided to confer some serious protection on him.

His anger over the fact that I simply wouldn't trust him on the issue was quite evident. Niall's thought signatures were sometimes a challenge to read, but I was very sure there was more to the plan than just some desire to protect Hunter, or even than providing a window into my mind. I got snippets of information. The most disturbing was that something had been promised to someone? He wasn't happy about it. He didn't want to play along with whatever that agreement entailed and part of his scheme with his blood dealt with trying to elude that situation. I was concerned about the fact that my Grandfather was coming as deftly close to lying to me as I'd ever seen or even read about anyone Fae doing. It made me even less inclined to agree to his plan.

When Eric rose and politely asked Niall to leave and Niall refused then told Eric to keep out of his way, I was already very much on edge. Eric being polite when angry had never been a good sign. He'd had that manner with a couple of Louisiana vampires who had questioned one of his edicts just last year and both ended up dead in this very same conference room. Eric, with additional stakes and silver dagger in hand, had politely asked the remaining members of their group if there were any more questions. Thalia stood by that night smiling, while Hubert and Rico, unglamoured, stared down at the three remaining vampires who trembled in their shoes. Yes, polite Eric was equal to extremely frightening Eric in my book. What could happen if Niall and Eric had a fight and Hubert and Rico came in the room? I felt as queasy as a human even thinking about it.

But Niall simply ignored Eric, though his eyes were flashing and he looked a peg brighter than usual. Instead he continued to argue directly with me, ignoring Eric while reiterating to me that I should really take his offer very seriously. So I finally just told him the simple truth. I didn't trust him and that I knew that he wasn't telling me the whole truth. I could read enough of his thoughts to know he wasn't being forthright. I tried not to call him a liar to his face, but he got the point.

My point made him really angry. I got the feeling that he had every intention of even forcing some sort of exchange on me if that was his only option. As the arguing escalated, Niall looked angrier and angrier that I was sticking with Eric on the issue. Finally, he made the mistake of again mentioning Eric as my sire and that there was an option to fix that problem.

"You don't have to be bound by Eric's wishes. I don't have to be bound by his wishes for you. In fact, if he is an impediment..."

Eric growled and, from where he sat, Niall threw some sort of magic at Eric, constraining him. It smelled like burnt cinnamon, like that web of energy that he'd used on me. I cringed, remembering how it had burned me. And Eric struggled in it. It would hurt him if he struggled, as I knew too well, and I saw welts start to rise on his bare arms.

And that was all it took to finally get me angry. I might keep it buried in a very deep well, but I was after all, still a vampire. And I was on Niall faster than a hornet, standing over him and grabbing his long hair, exposing his throat and snarling at him with my fangs down and with what I guess must have been very wild eyes. He was caught totally flat-footed and it seemed like it must have been a while since he contemplated the prospect that I really was a vampire. I might have mastered all the urges but that didn't mean I couldn't draw on them when necessary.

"Let him go. Let him go now," I snarled, meeting his eyes. I felt this surge of aggression funnel through me.

Niall just stared at me, looking quite surprised. I was mere inches way from his throat, fangs run down. He had been far too trusting by letting me get so close to him.

"Don't think I won't do it. You have utterly misread me if you think I would let you harm Eric in any way, Grandfather."

"I have sworn to protect him as you recall," Niall said with an edge to his voice. I felt tendrils of his trying to glamour me into releasing him. I pushed them aside, as if I was pushing hair out of my eyes.

"Don't insult my intelligence. Can you really think I am so naïve and stupid? You and your children swore to protect him from others but gave me no promise that you wouldn't harm him yourself. And you are kidding yourself if you think you can glamour me. Release him." I pulled harder on his hair as I wrapped it tighter around my hand. "Now."

He released Eric but not without causing him some discomfort, from the sounds of it. Niall looked at me oddly then, as if quite caught off guard by something more than just my going after him. He plainly couldn't believe I wasn't susceptible to his glamour. My resistance to magic had grown as the months rolled by.

Eric regarded the two of us and was simply speechless. Literally. And for Eric that was truly a rarity. He looked at us with wide-eyed fascination. Niall was not the only one who had suddenly noticed that maybe I really was a vampire after all.

I still hadn't let go of Niall's hair. Niall glanced at my nose to see if I was even seriously tempted, but I was interested in something entirely different from warm fairy blood. I stood staring eye to eye with Niall and bore into his thoughts with every bit of energy I possessed because it to so much to get into his head. He met my gaze with intensity but seemed to shiver slightly at the onslaught.

What I saw was rather disconcerting. I was not the first part-Fae vampire my grandfather had known. There had, in fact, been several, most of whom it appeared, he had killed or had someone else kill because they were hard to control. The were effectively sireless. 'Aberrations.' 'Rogues.' None of the others were telepaths, though. All were risks because of their ability to keep pace with the Fae, with a more than passing ability to do magic that wasn't part of the normal vampire skill set. That vampire in Seattle had been allowed to live because his only Fae-borne skill was teleporting. Harmless enough. However, if I hadn't been his own flesh and blood, I think Niall would have been troubled enough by my mere existence to have done me in. Niall thought I was different, however. I could see he had genuinely trusted me, up to the point he'd threatened Eric again, of course. He was, in fact, very proud of me. He was quite taken with my ability to control my hunger and urge to feed, as well as my expanded telepathic abilities. But this wrinkle, my growing resistance to magic, was a surprise to him. There was more to his thoughts as well… First there was the fact that he had basically foreseen most of the struggles that I would face if I was turned. That left me stunned. He had known?

I did not relax my grip on his hair as I said, "You knew? You knew when I was turned that all this could happen? About the teleporting? That I would be more resistant to a sire's call? About all of it? You knew and yet you never said anything about what you knew?"

"Would he have turned you if he had known? And clearly from what I see now, you would have told him. Yet you are fine. Everything has turned out well. And you wanted to be turned. Much sooner than you were willing to admit to yourself. You wanted to stay with him. You told me long ago to pay better attention, to learn about you as Claudine did. Your decision about this was made years ago. You were just working your way there in your mind. It was the only choice to extend your time with him. Did I know that it might not be simple? Yes. I would not have stood by and let you come to grave harm. I knew it would be difficult. But I knew, even in those early days, that things would work out. Even if the beginning was difficult. You were too strongly bound to have done anything as rash as your thoughts suggested because it would have harmed Eric. Even now, you cannot stand the thought of any harm to him. Look at you." He gestured to my hold on his long silvery hair "I was silent about what I knew because it was in your interest to be so. When you disappeared I tried to help you. You recovered quickly. In the end, things have worked out, have they not?"

Disturbing, yes, but still, what was the other thing? His mind was occupied with something much more serious. My unique skills had drawn the interest of a specific individual. An individual that seemed to feel they somehow had rights to me, or to my service? But how could that be? I had not indebted myself to anyone…

"Who is it? Who is it that 'wants' me or thinks I owe them service?"

His eyes sparkled angrily. He was clearly not entirely comfortable with whatever plans with their plans for me. Not comfortable telling me about it. And he was not so comfortable with the fact that I could read so much of him when I put real effort into it.

"You're a telepathic vampire with that touch of fae blood. Your skills are unusual, dear one. Additionally, I am becoming aware of the extent to which you are resistant to magic…" He put his hand on mine. I didn't even flinch. "Sookie, let go of my hair. I released Eric. Just calm down. We are not arguing further." He sighed. "Unfortunately, I presently find that I'm in a difficult position."

And then I saw her, in a flash in his mind. Raedself? The Raedself. The Elf Counselor? I remembered her from eight years before. But what did she want with me? And she did want me. I let go of his hair and walked away from where he sat. I didn't need to restrain him. He was not my problem. What the hell did this woman want from me? This, whatever it is, I thought to myself, has been in the works for quite some time.

"When? How long ago did she make this plan?"

Eric moved closer to me but looked totally lost, as if he couldn't quite keep up with what I was discussing with Niall. He stood behind me and finally crossed his forearm across my shoulder and chest and stood looking at Niall. I looked down at the ugly welts on his beautiful pale skin and tried not to get angry all over again.

Niall was silent. Finally, his deep green eyes met mine and he said simply,

"Since Dieter. She has evidently been interested in you ever since you encountered and resisted Dieter. After she met you, she saw that you had resisted Dieter's magic so strongly. We asked her to help treat you as a favor and what she asked in return was… you. After you were turned. She is interested in your skills and your resistance to some forms of magic. And now… now you are immortal."

I felt an explosion of anger from Eric. He was plainly appalled.

"You let me turn Sookie, with the idea that she would be given to someone, like a possession?" he snarled at Niall. He looked like he was inches away from attacking him.

However, Niall looked at Eric as if he was an idiot.

"Of course not, Eric. When she did us the favor I did not know that what she would ask in return would be so… archaic. She did not ask it of me until Sookie was turned. She has kept track of Sookie. She knows of Sookie's being turned because Sookie is so active working with the Fae in the US."

"Grandfather, did you make an actual agreement with her?" I asked, trying to parse everything I knew about being indebted to the Fae.

"She requested your service to her, when she learned you were turned, in exchange for her having removed Dieter's magic. There was no prior agreement. I did not agree to deliver you to her. I was… evasive. I decided that if I could use some form of magic to increase your abilities, perhaps she would reconsider. It would make you a threat in some sense to her. She would be more inclined to keep you at a distance. As it is, I think your resistance to magic is beyond what she anticipated by far. I do not think she knows what she is asking for in this respect."

"What does she mean by my service to her? Are those her specific words?"

"Service as in you become her servant, you do her bidding. In Germany. You have to understand that, to the Fae, vampires are merely dead, inanimate, Sookie. They are not viewed as having any real rights. She looks at you as a very sophisticated tool, I think. From her perspective, she is asking me to gift her with a desirable and magically resistant tool- a dead telepath."

Eric was a wall of barely contained rage at this point. I reached back and rested my hand on his thigh, trying soothe him and to stop him from speaking.

"So I would not have attracted her interest if I was not turned. But I cannot be bound to serve if I am not truly Fae. Can I? I owe her no debt. This was your debt or Claudine's. The favor was not one I asked of her." Now I had the heart of the problem but also the risk in what he had proposed. Too much fae blood, with his magic and perhaps, dead or not, I was placed at greater risk of being bound to her service in spite of the fact that I would pose greater danger to her. Niall and I were family. His debts could become my debts, just as Eric's protection had been assumed by Niall's children. And I did not want to be bound to him, either. I didn't trust that it could have other implications, unforeseen. I worried about what impact it could have on Eric if he had my blood. I didn't like the entire plan. More Brigant blood was not a solution to anything.

He quickly took in the fact that I still refused his plan. Finally, Niall looked at me soberly and said,

"If you do not do this, she says she will take Hunter in your place, and have him turned. She assumes that he will be like you. I was trying to see if I could make you unpalatable to her needs, by increasing your abilities and to bind Hunter to you in a way that would prevent any other vampire from ever binding him or turning him to a different sire. I do not know why, but for whatever reason, she seems to want a vampire to do her bidding. I thought it wise to protect Hunter by binding him to you. Yet you refuse the best means to do so."

I looked him with dismay and said,

"He's a child! This isn't the Middle Ages! He isn't chattel to be branded or put to work. What you propose is just as disgusting as what she proposes. If either of you were to so much as look sideways at Hunter, I can tell you right now, I'd flat out kill you. And don't think I don't know how. I assure you, before I started working extensively with the Fae as a liaison, I did very thorough research. You can tell her I said so. And if you are hoping that I am so 'soft hearted' because I don't want to feed on anyone, or that I don't like violence, I'm telling you right now that it will be the biggest miscalculation of your long lives if either of you messes with Hunter. She would turn a child?! You had better tell her she will regret it if she harms Hunter. Seriously regret it. And you won't be very happy either."

Niall looked a bit taken aback by my words. Eric stood behind me, open-mouthed, fangs run down.

"I really do not see what you think, with your present ability, you can do to safeguard him," Niall said quietly. "I think you need whatever enhancement to your strength I can offer you."

"Oh, I have abilities that you don't see, Grandfather. I can do much, much more than any of you, even Eric, know. My strengths are not what any of you think they are. I know more about the Fae than any of you can imagine. From some very interesting sources. Before you could even kill me, I could do you more damage than you can ever possibly imagine. I am not one for idle threats. I would strongly suggest that you tell this Raedself that if she wishes to politely ask for my assistance in matters that concern her that I will be happy to consider it. But if her plan is to have a 'servant', to take me away from my home and my family, or to threaten my cousin's child in order to accomplish her goals, she had better rethink her plan. She had better find it in herself to be pleasant and gracious. And extraordinarily careful. Her time for telling people what to do is long past. You're the Prince. Fix your problem and don't you dare make it mine or Hunter's." My eyes bore into his as I said these words and he rose from his chair sharply.

"You threaten me, Sookie? You threaten me?" His eyes flashed with anger.

"No," I said firmly. "I give you my word!"

I said this looking directly into his eyes so he could take the full implication of what I was saying.

"You tell her what I said, Grandfather. It was your mistake, so you fix it. Because if I start fixing things, you're going to be a very unhappy camper. I can guarantee it!"

Niall looked at me with his eyes practically like glowing embers. He was so angry. And yet… he clearly didn't know what to think. I could see he was considering arguing further with me. I was done arguing, however. I walked over and looked up at him.

"Listen to me carefully, Grandfather. Sookie's Golden Rules. The Fae don't touch Eric. They don't touch Hunter. They don't touch anyone that you know I love, or that you can even think of that I care about or like. Don't even try. If they do, your entire world will come tumbling down. I promise you that you will be so deeply unsettled by my consequences that you cannot even begin to contemplate how you will deal with their repercussions… I have learned much from a whole host of Fae and those who do not, perhaps, 'appreciate' the Fae. So you just tell the Raedself that I strongly suggest she back off. You don't believe me? Try me. Just try. You'll both get the surprise of your very long lives. My answer is NO and that's quite final. Please make sure she understands that answer and all its implications."

I could plainly see that he was trying to figure out exactly what it was that I knew, and what I could do. He was concerned. What could I do with my abilities, that had not yet been revealed to him, to Eric, or to Claudine? Could I… open portals? Like the ancient one near Hotshot, which Claudine had so carelessly mentioned to me months ago? Where could I possibly have learned how to open a portal? From whom? What would happen if some of the Fae who were 'less attractive' were thereby revealed to the public? Where could I have gotten information that would harm them? What if I truly knew of the old ways, beyond iron and lemon, to kill fairies and elves? What if I knew some of the old magic. I was after all, a vampire. What if…

I've won I thought to myself.

If only the cost of winning hadn't been so high…