A/N: This chapter and the last were supposed to be one. Since I didn't want to leave anyone on pins and needles, you get a double scoop.

As this Fic is reaching it's end I wanted to take the time to first and foremost thank my Beta's (Rebecca and Ms. Buffi) without their eagle eyes my fat fingers would be making all of your eyes bleed :D.

I also want to thank everyone that took the time to review and help me reach my goal of breaking 1000. This is my most popular story to date and it wouldn't have been possible without each and every one of you, so thank you.

Eric

Chapter Thirty-three

Someone had their arm around me, trying to pull me away. I looked and saw Batanya, still battle worn, attempting to do her duty. She need not have bothered. I was a danger to no one. There was nothing left in this world for me to fear. With Sookie gone, the monster I was had been broken. He was as broken as the humanity she had awakened in me. I was a hollow shell of a creature.

The world around me was fast slipping away. Nothing was registering as it should. It was because that pool was rising, the tides of my grief were crashing against my numbness. I couldn't let it. Sure as I knew my name, I knew that if I moved or let myself feel then this would be real. My mind and heart would no longer be able to reject what my head was telling me. The struggle brought me to my knees.

Lynx appeared by Sookie's bedside. He looked into her face and his eyes glowed. "Lynx keep Ashai spirit from shadow." He said climbing onto the bed beside her. His shadow seemed to hold hers by the hand and but the physical limb was pressed to the middle of her chest, causing her body to jolt. Then both of them became eerily still. She wasn't breathing but my undead life no longer registered her as dead, undead, or living. She was in between.

"How long?" I asked, feeling an ounce of hope. He was trapping her spirit to this world. I knew what he was doing was a stall tactic. It would buy me time that the sun had stolen.

"Shadow not fight moon," he said. "When it rise, it pull away all spirits not belong on this world."

Sundown was only seven hours away. That was all the time I had to make something happen. I rose and went over to Sookie. It was so wrong to see her so still. But I had hope and I would take every shred of it and every minute Lynx could buy me. I had no idea what could be done but I knew I would do any and every thing I could for her.

"I will save you," I told her, kissing her head. "I will save you."

Maybe I couldn't save her from the monster I was or the twisted love I had for her but I could save her from death. That much I could do; no matter the price I would pay it. Money could buy many things. Fear could motivate and power could tip any scale. I put all of it into motion, every contact, every asset, and every resource.

Batanya called Ludwig and the witch I used. There was nothing Ludwig could do. Nothing Octavia, the witch, could do that would restore her life and her spirit. Desperation and hopelessness were setting in but I refused to let them, not until the clock ran out. I used Sookie's phone and made a call to Niall.

Sookie might be mostly human but she was also other. If there was any hope of saving her then it would begin with her supernatural heritage. When it came to communication Niall and I kept it formal. I had someone summon him or he, me and we responded if we so chose. He wasn't going to get that choice today.

"This is Northman," I said once the line connected. "Send Niall to me now or I will be forced to come looking for him."

I hung up and the phone was still in my hands when it rang again. "Faery at the gate."

"Let him enter," I said.

Niall didn't bother walking. Once the wards around the house lowered to let him in he was in my office. He looked around curiously at the space he had appeared in. My body was thinking that a Fae was within arm's reach and distracted I would have good chance to drain him. No other part of me cared. I knew the instant he caught the scent of her blood. He stiffened.

"You were never to harm her," the Sky Prince hissed. He cocked his head. "She is dead," and it wasn't a question. Of all the heartbeats in the house moving and frantically working, none of them were remotely human in nature.

"Not beyond recall," I said. "You can help me bring her back."

He shook his head. "My kind does not have the ability to cheat death by changing from one species to another. When our life force is cut, we return to the homes of our forebearers in the Summerlands."

"Give her more time," I ordered. "Like your kind."

"I do not have that power," he said, rubbing his face.

He had something and if he didn't then he could search for someone that did. I just had to make him. "I have a female fairy here." I told him. "Dark hair, green eyes and fights with the style of your house."

His features turned to stone and the frail old man fell away. His row of sharp teeth and pointy ears made an appearance. "We have an alliance," he told me.

"It died with my wife," I told him. "Find a way to help me or the first casualty in my war against you will be the dark haired female."

"That is her guardian," he said, and power was rolling off him in waves. It was barely contained. He wanted to attack me but we both knew how that would end—at best, we would end each other. "She would want no harm to come to her."

"You don't know her," I said. "You don't know anything about her."

He growled. "You are too old to be playing a romantic. She is dead. There is nothing to gain in going to war with me. It won't bring her back."

"No but a war with me would cost you everything," I replied. "Find a way to give me what I need at a fair price and we will part on good terms once more. I swear it."

With a parting growl Niall disappeared. I knew he would return. I went to the guest room where the female fairy was being kept. She had been treated and the worst of her injuries were fading. She'd been given clothes and food. Kind as her treatment was she was still locked down. The chains around her ankles were iron lined with lead. It kept her where she was without causing her harm.

She watched me approach with wary eyes. "I don't want to hurt you," I told her. "I want information."

It dawned on her that while she had warned me it hadn't been enough. Her face fell and she looked grief stricken. "She is gone. Nothing I can tell you will change that."

For her sake I hoped that wasn't true. "You are my only bargaining chip to force the Prince's cooperation."

While I didn't want to hurt her, I would if it meant getting what I needed to save my wife. There had to be a way. I knew there was and it was rooted to Niall. If my wife was human enough then I could have turned her. For that matter, if she was human then she wouldn't have been able to give me a child. That thought made grief knot in my chest. That was the last thing we talked about and I hoped it wasn't the last conversation we'd ever have.

"Okay," a voice called. "Let's all play nice and put away our fangs."

Another fairy materialized from where the voice had originated. Had I not been watching his powers at work I would have sworn it was Jason, Sookie's odious brother. Yet it wasn't. This was a fairy.

The female shook her head and sighed. "May the Summerlands grant me peace for I have never known it with you as my ward," she said disparagingly. "I told you to leave."

"I'm trying to save your neck," he said dryly. "But give me a reason to change my mind, Claudine, and I will."

She said nothing and he looked to me. "Listen to me very carefully. There will be a lot of holes in what I tell you but if you can fill in the gaps you might be able to save her."

Before he could blink I was in front of him, fangs bared and my hand around his neck. The flare in temper and the sudden roar of thunder outside brought Batanya into the room.

"Do not toy with me." I warned coolly. "I assure you it will not end well."

"Eric," she called taking hold of my wrist. "This is a waste of time, stop."

I released him because she was right.

"Fucking vampires," the fairy complained. "Bite first and when everyone is dead ask questions."

"Talk," I said, stepping towards him.

"Try to fill in the gaps," he repeated. "Sookie has—" his body shuddered as if he'd been shocked. He hissed and gasped for breath. "Fuck, that hurt. Okay, let's say hypothetically," he spoke slowly, carefully as if testing what words would cause him pain. "Hypothetically, there is a thing that was created specifically for someone. This thing is—" His eyes bugged out and he wrapped his hands around his neck as if he was choking.

"He is trying to tell you something that he has sworn in blood to never to speak of," the female said, looking at him. She paused and repeated his last sentence to herself over and over. "This thing is rare, valuable?" she asked.

He nodded and I heard a bone in his body give way. He cried out and doubled over. "Fuck you Fintan, you bastard!"

Batanya was beside him trying to keep him upright. She and I shared a confused look. I had no idea what was going on. The one person that was willing and able to help was physically incapable to do so. After giving him water and sitting him down on a couch, my guard fitted him with the same chains the female had. It was nothing personal, we just needed to contain both of them for the time being.

"Who is Fintan?" I asked the female.

"His twin and Sookie's grandfather; he died before she born. His love for her grandmother was…" then her eyes grew wide. "Cluviel Dor!" she exclaimed. "It has to be. Very old magic, it is known as the deepest show of love. It is created specifically for one person that fits the entire criterion proposed by the creator. Few have the power or hearts pure enough to create one and because of that the Cluviel Dor isn't bound by many laws."

"Including death," I said, feeling my hopes renewed.

"Its value is immeasurable because all you have to do is wish your heart's desire," she said with a nod. "The only way to get one that wasn't made for you would be if the true owner is dead. Once Dermot passed it to Sookie as his twin intended, he could never speak of it, otherwise she wouldn't have been safe from anyone."

"So where is it? What does it look like?" I asked.

"I don't know," She said regretfully. "I have only heard of it in stories and there is no exact image, sometimes it's an ax other times a pebble. The only constant is that it has a pulse as if it's alive but that's all I know."

"She would have kept it safe." Batanya said. "Bank vaults, safes—"

It didn't matter. "Let's go," I said, pulling my guard out of the room.

The search began. I pulled in all my guards to search every inch of the house. Cypher and Tavorian traveled to Bon Temps to search Sookie's farmhouse, her woods, her brother's home, her former job, and her friends homes. By three that afternoon the bleeds had begun. I was getting weaker and weaker but it did nothing to slow my search. Niall returned around four.

"There is a chance that she could be reborn if I took her back to our world," he told me. "If it works you can never be with her because she will be as all fairies are." And I would have to fight the urge to drink her dry every time she was around.

I nodded. Like my attempt to turn her, Niall's solution would be a last resort. I knew Sookie wanted to remain who she was. "You may leave with your son as a show of my goodwill."

Clovache escorted the male fairy out of the guest room and Niall scowled in recognition.

"I want the female," he said. We all knew she was more valuable.

At the flagrant disregard for his safety, the other fairy simply rolled his eyes. "When we are alone I'm truly going to enjoy bursting your bubble," he sounded as though he couldn't wait.

"Come back at seven this evening," I told him. "If I have nothing then I will accept your offer. I will pay you with the female."

Niall would either be leaving with the female fairy because I'd saved Sookie or he would be leaving with my wife because I'd failed. He nodded and departed with the other fairy in tow. Five o'clock came. Only two hours now remained and I'd still found nothing. By six-forty, despair was setting in.

I could feel the sun falling further and further behind the horizon and never had I longed for daylight as I did at this very moment. I went into the master bedroom. Like all the rooms in the house it had been ransacked. It felt like I'd come so close. I'd been given a way to preserve the one thing I wanted most but I simply fell short. I always fell short when it came to my wife. I sat on the bed with my face in my hands. I wept not for myself but for my wife because once again, she was being robbed of her choice and I was the one to do it.

This was the worse punishment I could have ever been dealt for all the crimes I'd committed. It was my most intimate interpretation of hell. I'd loved her and fought to earn her love and she'd placed herself ever beyond my reach in the light of day. I never thought I would ever have more to lose than Pam and Illeta. But Leta was gone and it was just Pam. For Pam I would exist but it was for my wife that I lived. After everything that had passed it was her, it has always been her.

Sitting in the place where I was, I wished I'd simply killed to gain residency and not wed. It was true that I loved my wife. To spare her from this fate and the pain I caused her, I would have been happy to have left her in peace. If she came back I would let her go. I could live in a world where she wasn't with me, I just couldn't remain in a place where she wasn't.

Resolved, I cleaned my face. Out of habit I turned the lights on as I left the room. Sookie always preferred them on. That was how the faint shimmer from the vanity caught my eye. It came from behind the rows of perfumes lined across the front. Something incandescent was shining from behind a round bottle of perfume. It was a fleeting glance so I played with the light switch, clicking it on and off, and the strange shimmer flickered in tune.

If I'd been thinking clearly I would have known better than to look anywhere near a safe. Shrewd as my wife was she wouldn't hide anything in an obvious place. Instead she'd kept it in plain sight. I'd walked past it a thousand times and never knew it. The tumultuous emotions of this ordeal rained over me in full as did the mania from the lack of sleep. I laughed so hard tears escaped my eyes. My laughter drew everyone in the house to my location. They all shot me expressions that ranged from disparaging to sympathetic. Batanya looked flat out scared.

"I found it," I told them. "I found it!"

The minute I took the little green stone in my palm I felt it fluttering. I couldn't hear the beat of a heart but I knew it was alive if only spiritually. There was only one desire in my heart. It was so strong that the words barely left my lips before I felt the powerful magic unfurl and engulf the room.

It was going to bring Sookie back. I could feel it. Relief flooded me and I dropped down into the closest chair, feeling every ounce of angst and fatigue. I sat at my wife's bedside and waited. I didn't want to miss seeing it the instant she opened her eyes because the second after that, I was going to strangle her myself!

***Spoiler Alert***

I'm excited about the next chapter. Eric goes all big bad on Sookie.