Sookie

Chapter X

This time waiting was harder than the first because I was seeing Eric everywhere. His article in Time Magazine was just the beginning. Overnight he had turned into a sensation that was the face of the atypical vampire. He was yet to wear black or leather. His affiliation with charities, commitment to ending world hunger, devotion to funding clean, renewable energy and his refusal of layoffs at any of his privately owned companies was an inspiration. The world was falling in love with him and the whole thing made me sick.

Three weeks later I did hear from Eric but not directly. I read that he made a decision from his interview with 'GQ' magazine in what was their fastest selling issue in history. They sold out and there were incidents of people getting into physical altercations over scarce copies. I found out it was because he was stating that he was officially off the market. He was quoted as saying, "It is serious."

He didn't give a name, which gave me hope, except Niall hadn't been by to see me nor had he let Jason go. I still partook in some wishful thinking. Eric had probably decided on someone else. I couldn't imagine him being intent on marrying someone who didn't want him.

The end of June meant being in the thick of summer. Despite the oppressive heat I was developing the best yard in all of Bon Temps. Outside of talking to Sam, I had been using hard work in sweltering heat to make me forget my troubles. I was doing such a good job that even Gran's rose bush was making a comeback. My grass was cut so evenly it looked like I used a ruler. Yup, my yard was in great shape as my life was falling apart.

I had been out back looking for nonexistent weeds and turning over the soil in the flower bed for the hundredth time when I felt his mind intrude on my solitude. Momentarily I tensed. It shouldn't have startled me but it did. He was just such a nasty surprise. As was his habit, Niall simply appeared unannounced and uninvited.

"You find peace here," he began. "It is a mark of our kind. The sun centers you and giving into the earth strengthens your spark. That is unique to my house." He said it as if that told him all he needed to know about me.

I didn't know what he meant but it managed to taint this activity that gave me a little bit of solace. Why couldn't I just enjoy the yard work? Why did it have to be some fairy thing that I liked being out in the sun? I held a breath in until I was almost dizzy and then I let it out. That didn't make me any happier to see him. It did make me a tad bit calmer.

"What do you want?" I asked facing him. His tights and tunic were back but they looked considerable lighter to accommodate the heat. His hair was tied in a series of braids and a silver clip held them together. Grudgingly I had to admit that he was the best looking senior citizen I'd ever laid eyes on.

"I have the terms of your union," he said. Just like that he had crushed my hopes. "It requires your signature."

It could have been my imagination but I thought he flinched as I flung the trowel with enough force to leave it stuck in the gravel. I marched past him and entered the house. I took my time taking a shower and getting changed from my bikini top and cut off shorts to something more appropriate. When I reentered the kitchen he was drumming his cane on my cabinet. He didn't feel a need to explain and I was at the point where I knew better than to ask.

"Can you read my thoughts?" he asked.

So Eric had told him I was a telepath. That was the last time I tell either of them anything I thought they didn't know. They could wade in the dark like I was forced to do.

"Not knowing things you ought to can be a pain?" I retorted. "I know all about that."

There was a pause and I knew Niall was angry. I wasn't looking at him but I could feel the danger in the air around me. Just like the other time it was only there for a second and then he covered it. Maybe he knew I wouldn't say a thing because he simply pulled the document out of thin air. It was hard to be impressed by that when all I wanted to do was throw lemon juice in his face.

Looking at the paperwork I frowned. I'd seen encyclopedias that were smaller. The thing had to be at least seven hundred pages long. I wondered why I should bother reading it. Even if it said I had eat coal for breakfast every morning I would still sign it for Jason's sake. I voiced that point to Niall though much more crudely.

"I'm not reading this shit." I told him.

He shot me a mortified expression. "If you do not read it you cannot argue the dowry, which is an insult to a woman of your stature."

He sounded annoyed and I knew it wasn't on my behalf. More than likely he was annoyed that Eric was trying to pull one over on him. Since they were locked in their Alpha male struggle all I had to do was stay out of the way. I didn't care what they decided on so long as I got my brother back.

"You also would not have the option to negotiate if he feeds from you and how often," Niall continued. "Nor can you argue his presence in your bed, your monthly allowance..."

Eww...I kept the shock to myself. I didn't even know vampires could have sex. I mean they were dead. I simply assumed they couldn't get erections. I hadn't been worried about having to actually to perform the act because I didn't think it was possible. Seeing I had a choice I leapt at the chance.

"I don't want him to bite me at all and I don't want sex," I said interrupting him so suddenly he stilled. Niall's eyes narrowed, practically sensing my desperation. I was cursing myself for not playing it cooler. He had me by the balls and he knew it.

"Okay, fine" I said before he could ask. "I can only read humans,"

He smiled, clearly pleased with himself, the bastard. "I will meet with my lawyers and see what can be done."

I knew that wasn't a guarantee and the disappointment of not getting my way almost pushed my anger to the side and brought my fear to the surface. I refused to let it show, definitely not in front of him.

"Once I sign on the dotted line I wanted my brother back in his house, safe and sound," I said. "That's not negotiable."

~ooooo~

I was half asleep when Niall popped in the next morning. Instead of beginning his harassment outside, he was at my kitchen table as I scrambled to find some coffee. If I didn't detest him I would ask what managed to part him from his tunic and tights and forced him into a suit and tie.

"I have the renegotiated terms," he began. "He will not feed from you unless you desire."

I let out a relieved breath but it was premature. "However, for his kind to consider the union legitimate it has to be consummated but that will be the only encounter if you so wish."

I tried to keep the trembling from my body as that last bit of news settled in. Niall kept talking but I waved my hand for him to stop. Of course he didn't.

"Focus, for I have not the time to spare on your antics," he snapped.

I felt the need to be belligerent at his callous disregard but my heart just wasn't focused on anger. I was wrestling with my physiological reactions to the news. I felt hot prickles spread over my skin and my stomach turned.

"In return for that accommodation, your fidelity is nonnegotiable and his infidelity must be discrete." He reached into his breast pocket and slid a white envelope towards me. "That is what you will need to activate your new accounts. The monthly stipend has increased by ten percent. The dowry has also increased by thirteen percent."

In the silence I just continued to stare at him. The only thing I could feel was my heart thumping in my chest and my pulse thundering between my ears. I had no idea how to even begin absorbing all that he had said. I couldn't and he wouldn't give me the time. Then again no amount of time would do because it wouldn't make this better or change my decision. My hand shook but I signed the dozen or so pages that I needed to. The last of it was saved for the wedding day. Joy.

"You'll let Jason go now," I said, gently setting the pen down when what I really wanted to was stab him in the eye with it.

Nail nodded. "When you sign the last page at your wedding, yes." Then he vanished with the signed document, leaving me a copy before I could hurl curses at him. Damn that fairy to hell and back. I should have known.

That was not at all the way to start my day. I drank my coffee but it did nothing to help me feel better. The shock lasted all day. I was working through my shift when Alcide Herveaux walked in. I stood frozen behind the bar with my drink order in my hand. Sam wasn't here and I didn't know what to do. So I did my job.

"What can I get for you this evening?" I asked.

"I found your brother," he said, without preamble. "A real pretty boy, your color eyes, he's left handed but eats with his right."

"Where?" I asked half collapsing into the seat across from him. "Where is he?"

I looked around and I knew the whole bar was watching us. It was bad because no one was complaining about my lack of service. They were more concerned about me two timing Sam. I couldn't be bothered to tell them to mind their own business.

Alcide scratched his cheek where he had a day's worth of growth. "It depends," he drawled. He looked at me meaningfully. I knew he was waiting for me to recall his price.

"Bring him home," I said leaning across the table. "He's all I have."

"How come?" he asked leaning in as if to take a closer look at me. "What about him?" he waved his hand around the bar to indicate Sam.

Not wanting to make a liar of Sam or myself I said, "He doesn't change the fact that Jason is my only surviving relative. Nothing can."

He nodded and rose to his feet. "What time you get off?"

"One," I said, walking him to the door.

"We'll both be waiting for you when you get home." I wasn't even going to ask how he knew where I lived or even where I worked for that matter. "I hand him over and I have your word that…"

"Yes," I said. "I'll play shaman minus the drugs."

He stopped and narrowed his eyes at me. "I can do it," I insisted. "I will. I promise."

"You deliver on that I'll make you two friends of the pack, humans under our protection. No one will bother you anymore."

I nodded vigorously as new found hope surged within me.

Alcide didn't disappoint. I was barreling onto my driveway and there was an unfamiliar truck there. It didn't scare me because in the passenger seat was a very familiar mind. He was asleep but I would always know him. I took off at a run toward the car.

"Jason," I called.

I had my hand on the door when Niall appeared before me. He looked so frightening that I froze where I was. There was nothing calm or patient about his expression. He was a killer and by the glint in his eyes he was proficient at it. His hair billowed slightly behind his back offering a glimpse of his pointy ears. His teeth were sharp and exposed in a snarl so vicious that Alcide changed instantly.

"Filthy dog," Niall hissed turning to face him. "You dare steal from me?"

Niall didn't move a muscle. The next thing I knew Alcide was flung into the air. He fought but he was slammed off his truck's hood, then off the side of my house, then off the ground. He whimpered and I saw blood but Niall didn't stop. I didn't know I was screaming until a pair of hands wrapped around me, pulling me away towards the house.

"Stop it!" I screamed.

The woman who had been used to entice him into this trap hugged him and he hugged her and walked away as if he couldn't hear my voice. "Get off him! Jason! Wake up! Wake up!" I shouted. Magic was at work, I couldn't reach his true mind. He was walking around wide awake but in his mind he was dreaming of his favorite things. "Leave him alone!"

I cried. No one listened. I sobbed and no one cared. There was nothing like hope to make torture last longer. I'd come so close to my brother and avoiding a fate I detested. I didn't want to cry about it but I couldn't help it. My face was buried in my knees and I cried. I heard Niall talking to someone. I looked up and saw Claudine. Her head was bowed and I knew she was in trouble.

"Ada, I swear to you, upon my place in the Summerlands," she said looking over his shoulder at me. "I saw nothing, even now I cannot see." She looked as confused as I felt with the conversation. "I do not understand," she whispered.

Niall turned to look but I turned back to my knees because at least that way I wouldn't be looking at a face I hated. "What have you done?" he asked. He was standing over me but I still refused to look at him. "Answer me," he growled.

"Go ahead," I murmured looking up. "Do your worst." I braced myself for the same treatment Alcide had received but nothing happened. "You can't can you because I'm no longer your property," I taunted.

Niall lost his temper. It wasn't the stillness in the air or his features growing more menacing that was the biggest clue, it was the fact that Claudine moved as if to shield me. He continued to glare and the lights flickered and the windows shuddered. There was a part of my brain that was screaming not to push him but I found that that was what I wanted most. I wanted to shake him. His calm while he ripped my life apart was a slap in the face.

"Sookie, stop this now." Claudine said from her place at his elbow.

"Or what?" I hissed at her. "What the fuck is he going to do that he hasn't already?" I asked, turning to stare him down. He could kill me I supposed but that might be an upgrade from his false stern but caring persona. "What else is there is there for you to take?" I chuckled blackly. "You're not my great grandfather. You're my pimp."

"You are a deluded child," Niall said. "I will rid you of your veils. You existed on the fringe of this town where you are the object of ridicule and scorn. You wile away, shutting yourself in this elegant hovel you call home," he waved a hand in a regal fashion to encompass the place where I grew up as if it were trash.

"You have never belonged," his eyes were were like glass and both orbs were trained on me "Valiant as your efforts have been they were for nothing. You will never belong and ever will they shun you for that fact."

I felt like he was seeing everything I'd ever known to be true since I was a kid, things I'd refused to acknowledge. Now he threw them in my face to make sure they did the most damage. He couldn't draw blood but he would hurt me all the same. He couldn't physically hurt me but this was worse and we both knew it.

"Not even with the people you called family did you have the ties you so desperately sought. Your mother loved your father and simply tolerated you." I didn't look away from him though I felt a part of my heart break. "Your brother, the one whose life you bargain for, we both know he loves himself more than he could ever love you so you sacrifice and you give in the hopes that that might one day change. "

"Ada," Claudine said moving towards him. "Do not speak in anger," she took his free hand in both of hers. Niall didn't so much as blink in her direction.

"I give you more than you could have ever dared to dream. At your feet I have laid a whole new world: wealth, status, respect, admiration, and power. All that and more is yours but you call it theft," he shook his head as if disgusted. "Your existence was so hollow, so bleak and so broken that I wouldn't wish it upon a stray dog. You were alone and that is how you would have died, you would have died with the knowledge that you had lived a meaningless life."

"Enough," she looked like she was digging her heels in to drag him off in the opposite direction but his hands didn't even twitch. "You go too far."

"That half life, that empty future is what you claim I stole but it is nothing. Nothing at all and so were you!" he exploded. "That is the truth."

It hurt more because I knew he wasn't lying. My lip trembled and my eyes stung but Niall wouldn't get the satisfaction no matter what he said or how low his blows were.

"I know I'm nothing to you." I said. "But that life was everything, maybe not to you or some ancient vampire or anyone else," I ground out. "But it was my life. Mine!"

The Sky Prince's incensed expression fell away and his patient expression returned. He opened his arms to me in a gesture that I thought was somewhere between capitulation and sympathy. It was hard to fathom that he was the same old man that had just ripped my heart to shreds.

"Not all of us are afforded this," he said gently. "Living your life for yourself only, it is a luxury, not a right as you so presume. Freedom is like all things child, it has its price. Unfair as it may seem a select few must pay it. In this we are alike," he concluded. He turned his back and vanished before his third step.

***Ten chapters in, let me know your thoughts. Are you more sympathetic or more sympathetic with the Sky Prince? After all he does have the entire sky Fae on his back***