Author's note: I stick to canon as closely as possible for back-story (except ignoring DITF because it came out after I started writing) but I couldn't find anything re how long Felipe had been King. For the purposes of this story, his reign began relatively recently; fifty years ago at most. If that's wrong, sorry, fellow canon nerds! ;)
As Quinn burst into the fairy meadow, I 'heard' the guilty expression on my face register immediately.
Can't leave you alone for a second, can I babe? he silently chuckled, certain that nothing had actually happened while he was away, since he'd only been gone a couple of minutes and Hunter was right there in the meadow with Eric and I the whole time.
It's just a hug, I told myself, a goodbye hug. Between two people who aren't exactly friends, but sure have been through a lot together. It's OK to hug someone you might never see again. I wasn't doing a very good job of convincing myself. Sure, it was just a hug... but it felt intimate somehow, emotionally intimate, and that made me feel even more guilty than the physical intimacy Eric and I had shared the night before.
What are you feeling so guilty about this time? Quinn asked, taking my hand so I could silently answer. He sniffed me a little, realized some sort of physical contact had taken place, and then pulled me close so he could subtly rub against me to scent-mark me as his own again.
Eric hugged me goodbye and I didn't stop him, I babbled silently. He held me for about 30 seconds and we talked a bit and he rubbed my back and kissed my hair and I'm really sorry, really really really sorry.
He actually laughed aloud at that; simply couldn't help himself. You are allowed to hug people, he told me silently. As long as there's no groping or dry-humping going on, I really don't mind. And kissing your hair... well, as long as there was no tongue involved, I think we can still call it friendly.
I started giggling too then, amused by the tongue comment.
"So what is this big secret?" Eric interrupted, little hints of fury playing all over his face as he watched Quinn replace his scent on me with his own.
I could feel something from him now, despite the bond being closed, and it completely perplexed me: his face said 'angry' but the vibe I was getting from him said 'hurt'. Really, terribly hurt. Heartbroken and devastated and hopeless and ashamed, all rolled into one. I figured it couldn't have been a very accurate read of his feelings, when they contradicted what I saw on his face so completely.
Quinn pulled his laptop out from under his arm and attached some little device to it. Hunter immediately walked over, touched the plastic thingummy for a second to give it some spark of magic it needed to work out here, and then Quinn started doing something on the computer.
A few moments later, security video was all over the screen, showing six different rooms in two neat little rows. Felipe de Castro was in one of those rooms. Quinn clicked on that one and it filled the screen, voices suddenly coming out of the laptop's speakers.
"And forasmuch as his nutritional and sexual needs may be less satisfactorily met in her absence," de Castro's voice proclaimed, speaking so quickly I could barely follow, "I will generously provide him a female Zurzub he is known to enjoy, for the duration of his bonded's visit with his King. Said Zurzub comes from my own personal collection, renowned for containing only the finest and rarest of bloods, and has market value far in excess of his mostly-human telepath. She is my gift to him for his exceptional service, in making such wonderful tribute to me. Next line."
He seemed to be dictating some kind of letter. He spoke into a tiny black box on his desk, which I guessed was a tape recorder. Or one of those newfangled devices that I heard had replaced tape recorders. They did exactly the same thing, but you never had to put a tape in them. (Not sure how that worked...)
"As per our agreement, he will receive one-tenth the fee for each one sold, in consideration of the expenses he incurred in securing the telepath as an asset for my Kingdom."
"That is Felipe's office," Eric marveled, pressing something on the computer so the speakers were suddenly quiet, although he kept watching the screen from the corner of his eye. "That is what he is doing right now?" he asked.
Quinn just nodded.
"You installed this in his palace?" Eric sounded almost dumb-founded.
Quinn burst out laughing. "Right, I sneaked all those cameras in and spent a few weeks chasing cables into walls, and not one of the security guards ever noticed," he shook his head. "The previous King put them in. Felipe left so few of his people alive, there wasn't anyone to tell him about it, and the system's so well hidden I don't think it's been found yet. All I added were transmitters."
I caught in his mind that he wasn't telling the whole story. He actually had to get everything hooked up to electricity again, without anyone detecting the power usage... or rather, Frannie did. He had her do it because de Castro's guards thought her stupid and weak so they barely watched her, and she was never punished for 'getting lost' all over the palace (whereas Quinn was watched constantly and threatened for even the smallest infraction). She'd been able to wander everywhere, camera phone in hand, taking photos of anything that interested him, and the guards never caught on to what she was doing. Apparently she had enough tiger genes to be almost as stealthy as her brother. The hardest part for Quinn was sneaking in the parts they needed, when he was allowed out so few times and checked so carefully when he came back - and while that was difficult, it was nothing compared to sneaking into de Castro's bedroom in the daytime like his sister did.
"Who else knows about this?" Eric interrogated. "How long do you think it will be until he discovers it? Will he know it was you watching?" He seemed almost flustered.
Quinn just rolled his eyes. "Enough with the questions already. I know what I'm doing."
Eric was giving him a really weird look now, some peculiar mix of suspicion and newfound respect. "You do this often." It wasn't a question.
Quinn gave no answer to that. Not a look, not a gesture, not a word - nothing.
"He was talking about us, wasn't he?" I asked Eric. "And what's a Zurzub?"
"Vamp food," Quinn answered the second question bluntly. "People bred to be extra-super-tasty to the blood-suckers. Part-fae, of course."
"Ew," I screwed up my face. "And you've already 'enjoyed' it," I added tartly, glaring at my bonded. "Her."
"Yes, he was talking about you and I," Eric replied, ignoring my other question entirely. "That is why you must leave."
"Give me one good reason why I should?" I seethed with rage at the thought of de Castro sending Eric some specially bred vamp-food lady to meet his 'nutritional and sexual needs' while I was subjected to whatever the King had planned for me. For a moment, lightning crackled in my hand, but I was able to control it this time.
"Do you wish to have children, Sookie?" Eric asked, completely changing the subject.
"I don't see what that has to do with anything," I retorted, then waited for him to say something else.
He didn't. He just waited patiently, clearly not intending to say another word until I answered his question.
"Fine," I huffed. "Yes, I want kids. Why is this so important, all of a sudden?"
Eric looked genuinely shocked. "You wish to have children?"
"Yes," I snapped. "That's what I just said."
"Then why do you choose only men who cannot or will not have children with you?"
"Who says I won't?" Quinn interjected.
"She's not a weretiger. You cannot breed more of your kind with her." Eric spoke slowly and clearly, as though my boyfriend were a slow child.
"I don't care whether my kids can shift or not," he retorted angrily. "Children don't have to have some special ability to be worth having."
I gave him one of those gooey, 'I love you so darn much' smiles, and he grinned right back at me.
Eric looked even more stunned. "You wish him to impregnate you?" He shuddered in revulsion as he said it.
I sighed loudly. "We've only talked about it a little, and we don't have any immediate plans... but yeah, we wanna have kids. Not right away, but some time soon."
I was suddenly very glad Quinn had thrown some clothes on when he went back to the house for his laptop, because as soon as he heard me tell my ex I wanted him to 'impregnate' me, he was ready to do it right that second. He was standing behind me again a moment later, his arms wrapped around me, planting little kisses on the top of my head with his crotch pressed against my back. He was trying to string words together to silently tell me how honored, and thrilled, and excited, and delighted he was that I would let him be the father of my children, especially the part about 'some time soon'.
I meant 'soon' like the next few years, I pointedly told him, not the next few minutes.
He chuckled then, still holding and kissing me. Any time, he managed to think two coherent words in a row. Any time.
"But not Barry Bellboy?" Eric clarified.
"What?" I exploded. "No! Of course not! This isn't a general invitation to anyone with sperm! I want to have kids with my boyfriend, who I love, who loves me and wants to marry me, is good with kids, and will be a great father. Not with some guy I barely know!"
"Why did you never tell me this?" Eric looked like there were storm clouds forming all around him as he watched Quinn and I together. "Why did you keep this from me? You have always wanted this, have you not?"
"Sure," I admitted, "but it's not like you and I ever had that kind of relationship."
"Because only this," he waved his hand at my boyfriend and I, "is a real relationship. You could not have anything real with me."
"Oh, right," I huffed. "I should've asked you to father my children. You could totally do that, if I just asked."
"There are places that sell genetic material, these days," he sniffed. "You can select exactly what you want: height, build, coloring, intellect, skills, ethnic origin... and the child is exposed to any blood the mother takes as it grows... it can be born already bonded to a vampire, so it takes on their qualities... if you had told me this was something -"
"And vampires are just so keen to get attached to mortals." Quinn was being sarcastic; I 'heard' that there were about three vampires in the world who'd done what Eric was describing, and they were viewed as soft-headed and weak by other vamps, at best.
"You never told her this could be done," Eric accused. "You told her I could not give her what she wants. This is how you convinced her that-"
"If she didn't know, that ain't my fault," Quinn fumed. "She's your bonded, you should've told her."
Eric actually looked contrite then. "Perhaps I should," he muttered. "She would not throw this away so lightly, if she knew what she was-"
"Let it go, Eric," I snapped. "We're not going to talk about us. There's something going on with your King that makes you think I'm in so much danger I should leave right now, and you need to either tell me what that is, or go away and let us sort it out."
Quinn forced his mind back to the topic at hand and quickly came up with an idea. "He's trying to breed telepaths, isn't he?"
Eric nodded.
"What an idiot," Quinn laughed. "Does he actually think that'll work?"
"Apparently," Eric answered, looking almost amused by the idea, too.
"Uh-huh," I took it all in slowly. "So you're saying de Castro plans to make babies with my eggs and Barry's sperm, in the hope they'll be telepathic? He's dragging me in for some sort of involuntary egg donation scheme?"
"No," Quinn corrected gently, "IVF doesn't work so well for Supes. Physical contact is needed for any kind of magic to transfer from parent to child... so for your children to have any of your gifts, they have to grow inside you, and to have the father's gifts, you have to be making physical contact with him when they're conceived. Ideally you'd have physical contact with the father right through the pregnancy."
"Oh." My head was starting to spin. "So I'd have to... with Barry... more than once... Ew."
"No, not necessarily sex," Quinn clarified. "A turkey baster and a hug'll do it, if the parents are just friends." He seemed really pleased to know that, like it was some Special Shifter Secret he was lucky to have been let in on.
"Barry has insisted that will not be necessary," Eric muttered darkly. "That he is up to the task."
"I'll bet he is," Quinn growled, suddenly furious.
"But why?" was all I could think to ask. "Why breed telepaths? What would he even do with a whole bunch of telepaths?"
"Sell them," Eric stated, as though it were the most obvious thing ever.
"Why?" I sputtered. "Who wants to buy telepaths?"
"A dozen vampires, so far. A telepath would be a valuable addition to their retinue. They have seen what you can do, and Barry as well."
"I save a bunch of vamps," I cried, "and they thank me by making me have a whole lot of babies they just take away from me when they're born? A dozen... that's twenty years of my life, I'll be churning out babies for him."
"No, he has a doctor," Eric clarified, "who promised you will have at least two or three at a time, with his treatment. They will be smaller, but still usable."
"Usable?" I yelled. "Usable? That's a baby you're talking about! My baby... not some- some- shoelace that's a bit short!"
Quinn turned me around so I was facing him and hugged me tightly, so my face was pressed against his chest. As soon as he did, I started sobbing. I couldn't bear the thought of having to have sex with Barry, over and over, so I could get pregnant with twins or triplets that I'd have to give away to some horrible vampire who had bought them from Eric's King. When I dreamed of having children, it was caring for them and raising them that I dreamed of - not pregnancy and childbirth. Those were the price for having a beautiful, tender newborn in my arms, not the point of the whole endeavor. To carry a child inside me for nine month, to feel it grow and move as my body nourished it into being, then finally bring it into the world, just to have it taken from me... I couldn't handle that.
"What have you done to stop this?" Quinn rumbled, ready for a fight even as he held me gently.
"I told him the AVL would not like it, but he went and got their approval. I have-"
"They approved this?" Quinn exploded. "The AVL approved a 'vampires breeding people to sell to each other' scheme?"
"Yes," Eric confirmed, and I could hear the weariness in his voice.
"And they know it's her who's going to be bred?"
"Yes," Eric repeated.
"After all she's done for your kind." He was murderous.
"It has worked against her, unfortunately. Other humans do not consider her or Barry one of them any more, so the AVL expects no public outcry if the scheme is discovered. Plus Felipe offered them a generous cut of the proceeds, to cover their costs if there is any PR fallout."
"They'd throw her to de Castro for a few lousy bucks? Those twisty, two-faced fuckers."
"Three hundred thousand per infant," Eric corrected. "They are taking thirty percent, due to the risky PR situation."
Unlike me, Quinn wasn't at all surprised a child of mine would sell for that much. "What else have you done to stop this?" he growled.
"I have Mr. Cataliades researching legal reasons to prevent this, but he cannot find anyone to enforce the laws against breeding fae for our own purposes. The few who stayed in this world are scattered, not especially powerful, and do not wish to involve themselves in this matter."
"You mean the full-bloods don't care what happens to a halfling," he snarled.
"Exactly."
"How can you both discuss this so calmly?" I snapped, finally turning around to face Eric again. "Like all he wants to do is steal my car or something?"
"Lover, nobody wants to steal your car," Eric told me in mock seriousness. "I can assure you, your car is in no danger whatsoever."
Quinn couldn't help laughing for a moment. "That's classic," he chortled, before turning sombre again. "It won't do either of us any good to get too angry about this. I taught you to stay calm so you can think clearly when you're in danger, remember?" He smoothed a stray hair behind my ear. "That's all I'm doing, trying to stay calm so I can figure out a solution to this. If there's a moment when being angry becomes helpful, you'll see exactly how much this pisses me off."
I nodded.
Quinn turned his attention right back to Eric then. "What else have you tried?" he demanded.
"I have various stalling tactics organized, so the decree will be lost or destroyed two or three times before it finally makes it to me, but that will only buy time, it will not save her."
"You haven't tried to talk him out of it?" There was practically steam coming out of Quinn's ears, he was so furious.
"I am not in a position to challenge Felipe's orders," Eric admitted wearily. "I am already on... a probation of sorts. I have thwarted his plans too many times recently, I face the Silver Heart if he can prove any disobedience on my part."
My boyfriend just nodded. For some reason, he was accepting that answer on face value, as though it were a perfectly good reason not to help me.
"Ooh, the Silver Heart," I mocked, "sounds terrifying. What else might you 'face', the Purple Star? The Orange Square?"
"Sook." Quinn's sharp tone caught my attention right away, and he shook his head very slightly. Don't go there, he added.
"Why not?" I demanded. "I'm getting sent to be de Castro's new baby factory, and he won't even object to that because he's scared of some Silver Heart? And I can't even say how much that sucks? What's so bad about an effing Silver Heart, anyway?"
He opened one of those doors in his mind which was usually shut tight, and for a split second, I saw a bunch of his memories all at once. Things that happened at events he had run. Things vampires had done to one another, right in front of him. Punishments for crimes, large and small. And worse than any of them - so bad it was almost never warranted - was the Silver Heart. I felt ill. When he saw me pale, that door slammed shut again, the horrible images disappearing as quickly as they'd appeared.
"Sorry," he apologized, rubbing my arms, regretting that he hadn't found some other way to explain the gravity of it to me.
"It's worse than all that?" I was astonished anything could be.
He nodded. "They remove the heart and replace it with a silver replica. I'm told it's very painful, that it burns its way through until - " He stopped himself, figuring I didn't want to know the details. He was right. "It's does a lot of damage, physically, but that's not why vampires fear it so much."
I stared at him, waiting for him to continue, but he didn't. He didn't feel like it was his place to tell me this, at least not until Eric got a chance to tell me himself. I turned my attention to my ex, staring him down until he decided to tell me why he feared this so much.
"When someone has your heart in a display case, even an old one you have since re-grown, they can send you to your final death with but a splinter," Eric explained. "They can do it any time, no matter where you are. You are no longer your own person. You must do as you are told, or face immediate staking. You become the worst kind of toady, bowing and scraping just to stay alive..." he stopped speaking for a moment, his eyes begging me to understand. "You would not choose to be made a slave, and I cannot either. Even if I did, it would not help you. Were I under Felipe's control, his first order would be to hand you over... and if I refused, he would simply kill me and take you."
"OK, I get it," I sympathized. "You really can't do anything else. So we either come up with a way to stop him, or we run."
"How does he plan to bring her in?" Quinn asked, looking for solutions to this. "Is he the one Bill's been reporting to?"
"I suspect so," Eric answered. "I have not been able to confirm that."
"I'll go through the videos and see what I can find," my boyfriend offered.
Eric suddenly looked very interested. "You have recorded this?" he gestured to the laptop.
Quinn nodded. "I've got at least six months' footage though, so apart from checking the times Bill reported in each day... it'll take me weeks to sift through it all for anything useful. If you hadn't convinced me your King wasn't a threat to her..." he glared for a moment.
"Does this have a... a go faster button?" Eric struggled for the right word to describe it. He wasn't that much better with technology than I was, really.
Quinn tinkered for a few seconds, pulling up an older video. "I can run it at a few different speeds, but there won't be any sound."
"Try six times as fast."
"Your options are four or eight."
"Eight," Eric chose.
Quinn played the video at eight-times speed for a few seconds.
Eric watched intently. "Faster?"
Quinn clicked something and the video was running twice as fast.
Eric watched intently for a few seconds longer, then said "faster" again.
Again, Quinn clicked a button and the video was twice as fast.
Eric nodded. "That is as fast as I can manage," he admitted. "What speed is this?"
"Thirty-two times."
"So I can watch an hour in two minutes. Pam should be able to manage one speed down, so she can watch an hour in four minutes."
"Uh, no offense," Quinn started, "but that's not gonna help, just seeing who's in what room when. We need to know what they're saying."
Eric looked at him like he was stupid. "In the few minutes I watched, that... uh, flunkey... was telephoning people who owe Felipe money, to encourage them to pay promptly. I would not like to be a female relative of his debtors."
Quinn did a double-take, trying to figure out how he could know that. "You lip-read?" he asked incredulously. "At thirty-two times normal speed?"
"I am vampire," Eric shrugged. "We converse at that speed. Lip-reading is no harder." He was completely nonchalant about it, as though it were normal to have some weird skills like that. Perhaps when you'd had a thousand years to learn random things, it was normal.
"Uh-huh. So..." Quinn started calculating, "the best ones to watch are de Castro's office, his secretary's office outside, the three cameras in his private quarters, his second and his security chief's offices, and the main entrance to the compound... that's eight cameras. They're all on a motion sensor, so each one records an average of four hours a night... so you can get through a night's footage in an hour."
"I can have this week's tapes done by morning. I will enlist Pam to get more done."
"That would really help." Quinn was genuinely grateful. "If we know exactly what his plan is, we can find a way around it. I'll set you up so you can access all this. You can't mention this to anyone other than Pam, though."
Eric just nodded. "I am glad you have these videos," he added stiffly, and I got the feeling he was coming as close to thanking a shifter as a vampire ever would.