Remy was clearly an experienced hunter; he lined up the shot to my heart automatically and immediately squeezed the trigger. Hunter was screaming loudly, but I couldn't make out his words.
Oh, shit, I thought as the gun went off, my eyes closing involuntarily.
There was no time to dodge. I kept my eyes closed, not wanting to see the triumph on Remy's face as he killed me. I couldn't save myself now, but the police had been called and when they saw what he did to his friend and his son in a drunken rage, I was certain they would call child protective services to have Hunter removed. Finding Hunter's aunt dead in the house as well would only add to the case that he was too violent and alcoholic to have a child in his care, so I had succeeded in what was important: saving my nephew from his father.
I wasn't sorry to die this way. I knew I would have to sacrifice myself to help Hunter tonight and I had chosen it willingly. I would gladly die to save someone I love. It was a nice bonus that Eric wouldn't be able to turn me if I was already dead, so doing this also saved me from an eternity of vampire crap. I had said goodbye to Quinn, and I knew he would take good care of Hunter for me. It was my dying wish for him to look after my nephew, and he was honorable enough to keep his word.
I was at peace.
I felt no pain, not even when a second shot rang out, and I was thankful for that.
It was taking me longer than I expected to slip away though, and I began to wonder if this was going to be slow and painful after all.
"Enough," said a familiar icy voice, shocking me out of my thoughts. My eyes snapped open, and I was stunned by who I saw. Eric.
I stared at him in shock. He was directly between Remy and I, standing about a yard from each of us, facing away from me. I glanced down and realized I wasn't going to die. I was completely unharmed; Eric had taken bullets meant for me, yet again.
"Make it look like an accident!" Hunter yelled. "Cops are coming."
Eric moved faster than I could follow, and I didn't realize what he had just done until Remy screamed. With a little help from the Viking, he had just punched the wall hard enough to break many of the bones in his hand. He crumpled against the wall when Eric let him go, nursing his hand and whimpering. He certainly wouldn't be shooting anyone for a while. His injuries didn't look accidental, exactly... but he also didn't look like a vampire had squeezed his fist to a bloody pulp, which I 'heard' from Hunter was what my bonded had initially planned to do.
This will look less suspicious, I thought. The police will think he punched the wall and broke it himself.
It all rushed in at me then. The police would be here any minute and Eric was bleeding, holding Remy's gun. I hoped this wasn't going to turn out like one of those shows on TV, where the crime scene investigators analyzed the blood spatter to figure out what actually happened.
"They won't," Hunter answered me. "Make a t-shirt."
I knew what he meant right away, and snapped my fingers. A duplicate of a red t-shirt I owned appeared in my hand and I rushed to Eric, pressing it against his chest to soak up the blood that was slowly seeping from the two bullet holes, so none of it ended up on Remy's pale brown carpet. As I carefully checked that all the blood was being soaked up, my eyes wandered over Eric's washboard abs, up his defined pecs, over the slight peaks where his nipples pushed the thin fabric of his black t-shirt out just a little...
Focus, Sookie, I told myself, snapping out of the haze of lust just as Eric noticed my wandering eyes and smirked at me. Dammit! I thought. He was going to be even more insufferable now... but I could deal with that later, I decided. I put his hand on the t-shirt and took mine away.
He used the corner of the shirt to wipe two fingerprint-sized spots on the gun, and I realized he was smudging his own prints away, while leaving all the others intact. I didn't want to know where he had learned to do that, and I especially didn't want to know how he'd learned to disarm a gunman while leaving only two fingerprints on the weapon himself. I wasn't at all surprised he knew how, though; it was probably a basic life skill in the treacherous world of vampires.
He dropped the gun behind the big cupboard that housed the TV, and I realized it would be easy for the police to find it there, but would take long enough to get to that nobody would use it again before they got here. I was relieved beyond measure... but we still had to get the bleeding vampire out of here, and remove any traces that he or I had ever been in the room, before the police arrived.
How long have we got? I silently asked Hunter.
They'll be here in ten minutes, he replied. They didn't care about the fighting. They didn't come 'til there were gun shots.
The brief mind-to-mind contact told me that Hunter was OK now, apart from the pain from his broken arm; the dizzyingly-unstable state of the world had righted itself somehow, so the number of possible futures stretching in front of him was manageable again.
You lived, he told me happily, and in his mind, the stability of the whole world depended on me.
For the first time, I realized how big a commitment I was making, raising Hunter myself so he would be around people who understood his abilities and weren't scared of him. I loved him and would do my best for him, but all I could do was hope it would be enough.
You'll be a great Mom, my nephew reassured me, smiling broadly at the thought of coming to live with me.
Eric was watching us curiously, and I knew we had to talk aloud from now on or he'd get suspicious. I just hoped Hunter didn't say anything that tipped him off about his special abilities. I didn't want any vampire knowing what Hunter could do, not ever. I couldn't handle the thought of him getting caught up in vampire politics the way Quinn and I both had, and I would do anything to keep him clear of it. Heck, three minutes ago I was going to die to keep him safe, because I'd rather meet my death than bring Eric here to see Hunter... Hang on, why is he here?
"What are you doing here?" I asked Eric, suddenly realizing how odd it was that he was standing in Remy's living room. I was so used to him appearing to save my life that I almost took it for granted now. That wasn't good.
"I received a threat, telling me I must come or you would die."
I arranged my face in a look of surprise, even though I knew immediately that Hunter had sent it. Quinn bought a cell phone for him and programmed it with the numbers of everyone who would come to my aid in an emergency, which I gave to him the night before. Clearly my warnings about vampires hadn't got through to him at all. I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, especially when Eric whipped out his own phone and sent a message, moving so quickly I couldn't stop him. Of course, it was Hunter's phone that beeped seconds later.
Eric went over to Hunter, who was still tucked in the corner where I put him earlier. He had to step over Remy's neighbor Rob, where he lay unconscious on the floor, as he crossed the room. Remy had hit Rob over the head with a table leg before, and I was relieved to notice his chest rising and falling rhythmically; I hadn't had a chance to check if he was still alive while I dodged Remy's improvised baseball bat myself.
"It was you who sent the message," Eric stated, gracefully crouching to talk to the child.
"Please to meet you, King Eric," Hunter greeted him, nodding his head slowly. "I swear feel-tee to you." He sounded the word out carefully.
I almost chastised Hunter for calling him that after I told him not to, but thought better of it and bit my tongue. Eric stared at him, and the hint of expression on his face seemed to be some mix of astonishment and horror. Then he burst out laughing.
"Child, I am not a King," he chuckled.
"You will be." Hunter told him. "Soon."
"I don't want to be." He wasn't laughing now; he sounded almost petulant.
"But you're meant to be. You're the oldest and the strongest. Everyone will follow you. All the Supes. They want you as King, not Felipe."
"But I don't want to be King," Eric repeated.
Hunter shrugged. "Aunt Sookie doesn't want to be the Miss Airy. Quinn doesn't want to work in your palace. But you have a destiny."
Apparently all that meant something to Eric because his eyes bugged out momentarily. Then he shook his head, as though dismissing some ridiculous thought. "Nobody has a destiny any more," he snorted.
"You do. So do Aunt Sookie and Uncle John."
"What is your name, strange child?" he asked curiously.
"Hunter."
"Why did you send me that message, Hunter?"
"My Dad was going to kill Aunt Sookie. You could get here in time to save her. Only you could."
Eric looked him over again, studying him like some curious specimen. "Your Dad told you he was going to kill her?"
"Exactly," I said quickly, 'hearing' that Hunter planned to answer honestly. "So he warned you."
"My bullshit detector reads that as false." He stared suspiciously at me. "This child is something special."
"Then your bullshit detector is still broken," I snapped back.
"No it's not!" Hunter protested. "I saw it! He didn't tell me, I'm a-"
"Hunter!" I snapped. Shut up right this second. Do not say another word. Vampires aren't cool, they're dangerous. You can't trust him.
Hunter rolled his eyes. "He won't hurt me, Aunt Sookie. He'll protect me and be my Dad. I told you, remember? He'll love me, like he loves you."
I crouched down next to Hunter, shooing Eric away with my hand. He didn't move, so I had to squeeze in beside him instead. Hunter was completely surrounded now, with walls on two sides of him, Eric on one and me now filling the last of the free space. It was a claustrophobic arrangement, being so close to a Viking who seemed equal parts confused and pissed off... confused by Hunter and pissed off with me.
"Sweetie," I said tenderly. "I know you want a different Dad, but you can't just pick a random vampire and ask him to be your father. Quinn promised he'll help me care for you. He'll be a good father to you." And he can turn into a tiger, just like you can, I added.
"And I would not?" Eric muttered beside me. "You do not trust me with your kin. This child is Jason's, is he not? He smells like you both."
"Does he?" I asked, too brightly. "That's an odd coincidence. He's not Jason's, he just calls me Aunt, like an honorary title. He can't really call me his fairy godmother in front of people, can he?" I was trying hard to cover for Hunter, but he wasn't exactly helping.
"Hadley was my Mom," Hunter told Eric.
"Hunter!" I snapped. "Hush!"
"Aunt Sookie will be my Mom now," he added, ignoring me. "If you help us."
"What do you need?" Eric asked him, also ignoring me.
"Glamor my Dad, so he sends me to live with her."
"It was your father who broke your arm?"
Hunter just nodded.
Eric gingerly took his arm and examined it. His face twisted in rage as he did.
"This coward does not deserve to live," he fumed. "I can glamor him into pulling out his own eyeballs, if you'd like?"
Hunter giggled and shook his head. "You're funny." I was glad he didn't take Eric's offer seriously. "Just have him send me to Aunt Sookie's."
Eric nodded and got up, then stepped over Rob again to get to Remy. "Why did you hurt your son?" he asked, his voice heavily accented.
I slumped against the wall next to Hunter, knowing we were almost out of time.
"It's OK, Aunt Sookie," Hunter replied. "It's three minutes until the police get here. It's long enough, he's really good at this."
Eric glanced at us for a second, looking as though he'd just figured something out. My heart sank; I was pretty sure I knew what it was.
"Answer me," Eric said, the air around him shimmering with magic as he turned his attention back to Remy.
"He made his arm into a tiger paw," Remy started, his voice completely flat. "He shouldn't do that. If he does it in front of anyone else, the Fellowship will find out and they'll kill him. I had to teach him a lesson, so he won't do it again."
"You know your son is not safe with you," Eric murmured, "so you hurt him to make him hide what he is. Is that the right thing to do?"
"No, but there's no other way!" he insisted.
"There are others like Hunter. You could send him to them. They could protect him better than you can."
"He would be better off with his own kind," Remy murmured, as though he were repeating something he'd been told to say.
"Yes, he would."
"Then I'll send him to Sookie and that tiger guy."
"Good idea," Eric smiled, releasing Remy from his magic.
As Remy's rage abruptly subsided, he slumped against the wall and sobbed. He was hurting badly now - as well as the broken bones in his hands, he'd also done something to his other shoulder, when I tripped him and he crashed into a cupboard - but that was only part of why he was crying. Eric's glamor had taken away the excuses he'd used to justify his behavior, and without them, he knew exactly how wrong the things he'd done to his son and his friend were. He didn't know what to say, but he was sure nothing he could say would make things better. He was right.
Hunter turned away, not wanting to look at his father any more. I could 'hear' that he wanted to be gone already, to get on with his life without the specter of violence he'd lived with the last few months. I ruffled his hair gently to comfort him, because we both knew it would be a little longer before he could come home with me.
A moment later, Eric's head whipped around as though he'd just heard something. "The police are almost here. I must leave."
"I have to get out of here too," I added, standing up to go. "They can't know I was here, either."
"Wait!" Hunter yelled. "The bullets."
He held his hand out to Eric, who adjusted the red t-shirt and handed something to Hunter, which he promptly put in his mouth. I stared in confusion, wondering what on earth he was doing. After a few moments he spat out two bullets and gave them back to Eric.
"Polish them and throw them into the wall, like from a gun," my nephew instructed him, and to my shock, he did exactly as he was told.
I could hear the sirens myself now, which meant time was basically up. "We have to go."
Then I realized what had just happened.
"You bastard, you gave him your blood!" I screamed at Eric, trying to slap his face. Of course he saw it coming and caught my hand, but I was well-trained to deal with that. I shifted my weight just a little and kneed him in the balls as hard as I could, instead.
To my astonishment, he went down, hard - and didn't get back up.
He lay on the floor next to Rob, not moving at all, as the police sirens got closer and closer.