Well, we all know what's on the horizon for Sookie and the gang, but here's a little side step - a well needed intervention. It will add a whole new perspective on the situation.
I'm going on a little va-ca this week (Mexican cruise, cha cha) and then my sister is getting married on the 24th, so I have some busy weeks coming up. I'm gonna do a little poolside writing, so I'll post again as soon as I can.
Chapter Thirteen
It was decided that I should spend the rest of our journey in the closet.
As it turns out, Eric and Sorren were right. I don't make good decisions under pressure. But I figured that given my choices - trying to escape or being turned into a minion of evil - I'd opt for trying to escape. I didn't get far.
Eric and Bill were busy discussing our battle options, their heads turned together in a rare moment of cooperation, so I got up and started wandering around. One casual look over the side of the boat where we'd climbed up revealed a Zodiac dingy, tied off to the bow railing and just floating there, waiting for someone to make a hasty get away. Ask me where I thought we'd go, or what we'd do once we got down to the water. I had barely laid a hand on the rope, when Sergius zoomed out of the bridge in a blur and grabbed me by the arm.
Eric and Bill both jumped up and flicked out their fangs, then Sergius put a knife to my throat.
"Now, now," was all he said. He twisted the tip of the blade and it pierced my skin.
I gasped when I felt the sting and Eric growled deep in his chest, advancing toward us. Sergius pressed the knife against the fabric over my heart. "Step back, Viking."
Bill put his hand on Eric's chest and pushed him backward. I couldn't tell if Eric just let him do it, or if Bill was actually moving him. I knew that Marcus wanted me alive, and so did Eric. That bought him some time, and fighting with Sergius would eat up valuable energy. The sky was lightening now, and we'd have to make landfall soon or be stuck on the boat for the entire day while the vamps slept. Turning me before we even got there wasn't gonna cut the butter. Marcus didn't strike me as the anti-climactic type. I shrugged toward Eric and tried to smile a bit. He just shook his head and sighed as Sergius dragged me away.
He hastily threw me into a dark room and locked the door. If Eric or Bill tried to retrieve me, they'd have to walk past the bridge, so I was stuck. I felt around the doorway for a light source of some kind, and was relieved when my fingers slide across a switch. Light from the ceiling flooded around me and I realized I was in some sort of electrical room, with lots of blinking lights and panels - and an unconscious werewolf on the floor.
I knelt down and tried to rouse her. "Greta, wake up," I whispered, turning her head toward me. I realized that she'd been brutally hit over the right temple when I saw blood matted in her hair and smeared all over the floor. The skin over her eye was ripped open with jagged, meaty edges and I could see the sickening, slick shine of her skull peaking through.
I couldn't move her any further - who knew what the extent off her injuries were- but I did place my hand on her arm. I felt a low, dark hum coming from her brain, nothing more. She was alive, just barely. She'd need to get some vamp blood in her toot sweet if she was going to survive much longer. So I banged on the aluminum door and screamed at the top of my lungs until, after several long and noisy minutes, Sergius flung the door open.
Though he looked fairly peeved, his voice was flat and unemotional. "What?"
"I suppose you're responsible for this?" I asked, mustering as much sassy confidence as I could.
He looked over my shoulder and shrugged. "Collateral damage."
"She's gonna die."
"Probably."
"She needs some blood," I insisted.
He crossed his arms, propping the door open with his enormous foot. "You've got plenty."
"You know what I mean, she needs vamp blood."
"Well, she's not getting it from me." Then he smiled. "You wanna ask Marcus to share?"
Okay, I decided to try a different approach.
"Her father isn't gonna stand for this. He's pack enforc-"
"He's a dog, just like she is."
"You know tomorrow is a full moon?" I asked, knowing full well that he did. All supes felt the waning and waxing of the moon, including myself.
He leaned in a little, like he was about to tell me a secret. "You know tomorrow you'll all be dead, so it doesn't much matter, does it?"
"You can't just let her die," I cried, my frustration and physical exhaustion starting to rear its bitchy head.
Yet he was unmovable. "You're the faery. You figure it out."
The door slammed shut in my face. I sighed, bowing my head. You're the faery. "Yeah, a lot of good it's doing me right now," I grumbled.
Well, I knew some basic first aid from working in a bayou bar prone to late night brawls, and from watching the nurses take care of my various wounds over the years. I figured that there was no time like the present. Big girl pants officially on. I was about to bend down to Greta's side again, when there was a strange fizzling sound in the tiny room and then a barely audible "pop." Wait, I knew that sound...
My uncle was standing next to me.
"Uncle Dermot?" I cried, immediately realizing my voice was too loud.
"Hello, niece," he said in a mild tone, taking me in his arms. I was shocked as a frog in boiling water seeing him suddenly materialize, but I leaned into his embrace none the less. Just breathing in the air around him and feeling his aura touch mine put me at ease. (It's a fae thing, don't ask me to explain it.)
"What are you doing here?" I whispered.
"Helping you with your vampires again." His voice was kind, but it still made me feel childish and guilty.
He looked at me with those eyes that were so familiar. Not just because he was the spitting image my brother, but because he'd been living with me for almost two years and I'd become sort of dependant on seeing the compassion in his eyes every day. I'd become used to his simple ways - how he chuckled every time the phone rang, or how he misused slang words with often hilarious results. He was stuck between the human and faery worlds like I was.
He'd been addled by a spell when I first met him, and I could only assume was back to his normal self. He was still a little slow out of the gate sometimes, not unlike like Jason. It seemed to fit them both well enough. A touch on the dim side, but every once in a blue, they'd open their mouths and little golden nuggets of wisdom would just roll right out. Before Claudine died, she'd once told me the two of them were very alike, sort of kindred spirits. That's why my great-grandfather, Niall, didn't bother with either of them.
Thinking about my faery kin made me long for home. I felt terribly guilty for leaving without so much as warning Dermot or my cousin Claude, who also lived with me. We made a strange little family, the three of us. My life had become unusually normal after Eric stopped coming around. Even Jason had started hanging out sometimes, when Michelle was working or when he was hungry. Really though, I knew he felt a secret desire to be with his family, to feel the love that only a family could give you. We all did.
"I'm sorry I didn't call you or anything," I said. "You've both been so busy at the club, I sort of forgot."
"It's alright. I was very worried when I came home and smelled vampires in the house, but Sam called early in the morning and explained everything," he explained. "Oh, turns out, your cat doesn't take kindly to shifters."
My eyes widened. I was a terrible person, I'd forgotten all about the cat. "Elsa?"
"Don't worry, she likes Claude and I well enough. We're caring for her, but she pretty much runs the house now. She's very unique, that cat. But you knew that."
I shrugged. "Eric gave her to me."
"Hmm," he said with a little nod. "She has fae blood in her, your blood I suspect."
"Yeah, I sort of thought that too," I sighed, regrettably. Why couldn't he just get me a cat? Why did it have to be a super cat? I would've gladly taken one from the ASPCA. Just when I'd even been reminded of a normal life...
A few seconds passed, and Dermot added, "You are far wiser in the ways of this world than I, and I'm sure that Sam spoke to you of the dangers you are facing."
I rolled my eyes. "Of course."
"So I'll just get on with it then and tell you why I'm here." Dermot took a deep breath. He grasped me by the shoulders and, preparing to scare the utter shit out of me, he said, "Niall sent me."
I was astonished. "What?"
"He came to the house, told me what was happening."
"I can't believe it," I mumbled. "Why didn't he just come himself?"
"Wasn't in the mood for starting any vampire business," Dermot said, "But he watches over you, especially since..." Since Claudine died.
"Oh." To my knowledge, Niall hadn't stepped foot in the human realm for over two years, not since he'd closed the portals between our world and his. That's how Dermot had got stuck at my place. We hadn't exactly left things off very well, but I wasn't really surprised at the news of him poking around. "What'd he say?" I asked.
"Not much honestly. Just gave me orders to help you out and told me that he'd open the portals for only fifteen minutes. If I don't get back in time, then I'm stuck where ever I land." His voice betrayed the bitter sadness he felt. Niall was his kin as well as mine, but the older faery had no love for Dermot, who was half human and had once sided with an enemy of Niall's. (Faery politics blow vamp shit out of the water, by the way.)
"I don't know how can you help me right now, unless you can zap all of us off this boat with you." My face lit up and my shoulders lifted. "Can you do that?"
"No, niece. You know my power isn't as great as it once was, especially with Claude working all the time and with you refusing to practice."
I frowned. Practicing made me feel like a bigger freak than I already was.
He sensed my frustration. "You aren't without powers of you own, Sookie. You need only access them. You have been given this gift of a sixth sense, this telepathy you call it. It can be used in other more...cunning ways."
"Such as?"
"Shaping people's thoughts."
I blinked. "Like glamouring?"
"In a way of speaking, yes."
"Will it work on vamps?" I asked quickly.
"It's possible, with practice."
"I don't have time to practice, Uncle Dermott." I pointed down at Greta. "She's dying. Can you help her?"
"I'm not a healer, niece-"
"But can't you just try, anything?" I pleaded.
He puckered his lips together for a second, then blew out a big puff of air. "You'll have to help me." He knelt down next to her and motioned for me to join him. "Faeries that have healing powers use their own energy and transfer it to another person. Perhaps if we both try..."
"Anything," I nodded, copying his movements. I placed my hands on her arm and closed my eyes.
"Concentrate on your aura," he said in a hushed voice. "See it all around you. You are strong and healthy. Imagine giving part of that strength to this child, see it moving from your body to hers. Give it freely to her and the power will flow between you."
We stayed like that for a few seconds, my eyes clenched, thinking harder than I ever have. I pictured my aura, and I imagined a beautiful misty pink color surrounding my body. Now, my brain usually works the other way - I keep my thoughts and other people's thoughts nicely separated, or else I'd go crazy. When I actually felt my essence moving around me and slowly flowing in the opposite direction, I gasped and almost let go.
"Easy, easy, it's working." Dermot said.
My hands tingled as I felt part of myself flowing into Greta. When I opened my eyes, I saw my uncle glowing sunny yellow. Greta's aura, which had been gray and mottled, began to lighten as a faint golden glow swirled under our hands.
"Holy shit," I whispered.
"Faery shit," my uncle corrected.
After a minute or so, I felt a stir from Greta's brain. She wasn't healed physically, but I knew that she wasn't going to die. It was like she was sleeping. Her breathing deepened and she let out a long sigh as her aura gradually blended back to its normal deep red color. Then the colors all began to fade. I blinked, and they were gone, invisible to my eyes once again.
I squeezed my uncle's hand, as I sighed with happy relief. "Thank you."
"Quickly now, I don't have time to waste." We both stood up and he took my hands in his own. "This will have weakened any possible powers you have."
"I know, it was worth it. Now how do I do the mind thing?"
"It's more difficult, takes more control, especially if you can't touch the other person," he said. "But it's the same. Imagine your aura flowing around that person. Instead of sending them strength, send an overwhelming desire, a strong emotion. Make them feel what you are feeling, imagine them like a sponge soaking up your will."
I nodded, though the idea of actually doing that to someone seemed just awful. "Okay, I'll try."
"Do it on a human first, or don't do it at all. They won't be able to feel you prodding their brain. A vampire will feel it coming a mile away, if you do it half-assed."
I smiled a bit. Jason had taught him half-assed. He'd be proud to know Dermot had used it the right way this time.
"There's one other thing, something Niall asked me to give to you," Dermot said.
A gift from Niall? My heart leapt at the very thought, and I realized in that instant how much I really did miss him. I wanted to be near him and talk to him and ask him a million questions, but the longest time I'd ever spent with him was over dinner in a Shreveport restaurant with Eric outside, waiting to drive me home in the 'Vette. That day had been the start of a lot of things.
"Now, please don't be angry with me, but Niall insisted."
"What is it?"
He spook with increasing speed. We could both feel his time ticking away. "A gift from your grandmother, bestowed to her from Fintan, my brother and your paternal grandfather. She hid it in the attic many years ago - Niall knew exactly where it was and told me to go get it. It was packaged with a letter addressed to you, from Adele. I didn't bring the letter because it's very fragile and it has information in it that Niall didn't want in the hands of his enemies."
A flash of Eric's letter, currently residing in the liner of my suitcase, passed through my mind. I nodded, my throat tight with tears. Clearing them away, I said, "Okay, I understand."
He reached into the front pocket of his khakis and gently pulled out a velvet bag that had once been red, but now looked crumpled and old. I cupped my hands and he slipped a small object out of the bag into my palms. It was round with a flat bottom, like a tiny Limoges box. It was a creamy green color with gold all around the edges.
We both stood there for a moment, staring at it with deep admiration. "What is it?" I asked wondrously.
"It's called a cluviel dor. It contains great power," he replied. "I've never even seen one before."
"What does it do?"
"There's so much to explain to you. I have mere minutes," he sighed. "Basically, if you need to use this object, it must be your absolute last resort. A cluviel dor can only be used once."
"How?"
"You make a wish. Not just any wish, but one that will change your life. A cluviel dor is given to someone as a gesture of great love, as a tool to grant that person's greatest desire. Your grandmother never used it, but her love for you was strong enough to pass the power along to you."
"Fintan gave this to Gran?" I asked, my voice humbled.
"Yes he did, but that story will have to wait for another day," he said. "You must remember - using this sort of magic does not come without consequence. Changing your fate is nothing to be taken lightly. Your desires will affect those around you as well as yourself."
"Okay, I understand."
He shook his head impatiently. "No, you can change everything. You can turn back time, right back to the day you were born if you wanted. You could forget everything that has happened to you since you met Bill Compton."
"And Eric," I whispered, eying the little box suspiciously.
"Me as well."
"But I'll still be fae." I mused.
"Yes, of course."
"That's a big choice you just plopped into my hands," I said with a sigh.
"It is, one that Niall thought you were ready for."
"Do you?"
He looked at me with pensive eyes for a moment, then cupped my cheek and smiled. "You will move where your heart takes you, my dear girl. But that doesn't always mean it's the best place to go. That is your burden to bear, and it always will be. You must choose your actions wisely."
Talk about a golden nugget of wisdom.
I closed my fingers around the tiny artifact and smiled at him. "Thank you, Uncle Dermot. You've risked so much just coming here."
"You have risked more for many people in your life, Sookie. This power rightfully belongs to you." He suddenly clapped together his hands. "I must go, wish me luck. The jump over the sea is a dooser."
I chuckled. "Doosie," I corrected. "It's a doosie."
He looked embarrassed and nodded. "Doosie, doosie, right." He quickly squeezed his arms around me (he's a big hugger) and I gladly squeezed him right back. "Be safe, niece."
"You too. Say hi to Claude and Elsa for me."
"Will do," he winked. Another Jason-ism. " See you later, alligator." One more fizzle and pop, and he was gone.
I looked down at the little piece of magic, now tightly clutched in my right hand, and muttered, "In a while, crocodile."
I sat down on the floor next to Greta and crossed my legs. Propping my elbows up on my knees, I stared down at the cluviel dor let out a long sigh. The darn thing had been in my attic this whole time. I wondered if Claude and Dermot had known about it, or sensed its presence in any way. It seemed to ooze fae essence, it practically quivered in my hand. Had Eric ever noticed it, or any of the other endless supernatural weirdos parading around my home? And if it was such a wonderful gift, then why had Gran never used it?
Gran. A letter from Gran.
I was glad I was in the closet, because I suddenly had a lot of thinking to do.
Review, review , review!
By the way, what did everyone think of the season finale? I already miss Jesus, but I'm so excited Russell is coming back! Any guesses as to Tara's fate?