Disclaimer: Charlaine Harris owns all.
Rated M for several reasons.
Chpt 66 Kitchen Sink Diplomacy
SPOV
I risk a glance at Eric who is smirking at Mississippi in a way which would make a lesser man's skin crawl off his body and slink out the door.
What did I miss?
Apart from breakfast lunch and dinner? My headache is back and the 'we're alive' adrenaline rush that animated me earlier is evaporating out of my pores like sweat. Suddenly it's all I can do to stay upright and ignoring the powerful supernaturals gathered in my kitchen, and my manners, I pull out a chair and fall into it, wishing with all my heart that Niall taught me how to pop coffee instead of apples.
"Please, sit." I offer belatedly, waving my hand vaguely around the Stackhouse table.
Then I scrub my face vigorously with both hands, trying to get some life into it, leaning slightly on Eric as he pulls his chair alongside mine.
Mississippi's mind is going too fast for my sluggish one to keep up with and despite the recent leaps and bounds I've made with my 'disability' I've a feeling I'll only be catching snippets of his thoughts at best.
Trouble.
I'm not equipped to deal with any more trouble, I don't think I could summon up even the merest glimmer of light right now if my life depended on it. Which, knowing my luck, it probably will.
I'm so tired . . . .
"I have questions." Mississippi states.
Niall smiles at him politely. Eric briefly quirks an eyebrow and the Ancient Pythoness studies the label on her bottled blood with a look of mild horror on her face.
After a pause Mississippi decides to treat our silence as assent and take the situational bull by the metaphorical horns.
"The AVL guards?" He asks first, opting to dodge the elephant in the room.
"I am a European Vampire." Eric shrugs. "I did not trust the motivations of the Council and some of my former Monarchs were in agreement with my assessment. They pledged only enough support to attempt a fair hearing."
Mississippi mulls that over for a moment.
"Understandable." He allows.
He's not happy about it though. Despite the innate care of the more sensible members of the Council, which is everyone apart from Washington, they had failed to consider Eric's political connections in their assessment of the risk in supporting Felipe's fabrications. They underestimated him and apparently so did I.
Eric snorts quietly and I'm guessing he's picked up on my thought somehow.
Now Mississippi's wondering if I really can read his mind.
"I can."
"As can I." Niall informs him.
"I also, can read your mind." The old crone pipes up.
Eric, Mississippi and I stare at her like she's grown another head and she cackles.
The way the vampires regard her fascinates me. They respect her age, though none of them seem to know exactly how old she is. But she isn't their leader, in fact she plays a fairly inactive part in their affairs, ratifying contracts and offering advice on thorny political issues mainly. Yet I'm pretty sure if she asked Eric and Russell to jump they'd both brace and want to know how high. And I can understand their shock, after all I've seen that reaction a time or two myself, over the years. Can she? . . . . What was I thinking about? . . . . Shit! . . . . Really? . . . . No way!
For me it's different, because I thought reading minds was just a fairy trait. Is that why I can't read her? Because I can't read Niall either . . . .
"Yes." She says succinctly.
I blink a very surprised way, clearly I've been hanging out with vampires too long, and my poor exhausted mind starts marshalling questions. Mississippi beats me to it however.
"Your Grace?" He enquires, his voice respectful but tight.
"I can read your mind Russell." She says surprisingly gently. "I have always been able to read your mind."
Ah. Awkward silence.
"In Pompeii." She continues. "When you were carrying Bartorelli from the devastation."
He blinks.
"I knew why." She finishes, her eyes fixing him to the spot.
Oh. My. God.
I remember Pam saying that he and Indiana were fond of each other but, pfft, they're vampires, I'd no idea any actual caring would be involved.
Mississippi is torn. He'd love to refute her claim, mention that her deductions are obvious. But he can't, because they aren't. He and Indiana have been ruthless in hiding their connection over the millennia. The vampires might know that their current one hundred year marriage is based on mutual regard, some might even remember that they've entered into such contacts before. But none have any idea that each would give, or do, anything to ensure the wellbeing of the other. Vampires don't advertise their weaknesses.
Beside me Eric, who clearly doesn't need to read minds to work out what's going on, is quashing the reaction that's threatening to break out on his face.
And I know why.
Because Mississippi's reaction isn't to lament his secret being out. It's to eliminate anyone who knows it.
Not that he wasn't already leaning toward getting rid of Eric and me. A vampire Monarch bonded to a fairy, and an apparently important one at that, is a risk that he and his fellow Monarch's on the Council are disinclined to tolerate, they've already discussed it and as soon as he gets back he's going to throw his support fully behind their plotting.
The level of suspicion and machination that vampires seem to deal with on a daily basis is too much for me right now and I lean further into Eric, who lays his arm along the back of my chair, the pads of his fingers tracing soothing circles on my exposed shoulder.
In my experience it's going to take another couple of seconds for the implications of his situation to fully dawn on him, but then he's a vampire so maybe it won't take that long . . . .
Ah, there it is.
Mississippi's eyes go wide.
The 'Oh Shit' moment that is one of the more entertaining aspects of mind reading.
Yes, we caught all that and no, there's nothing you can do about it now.
"Well." Niall says brightly, leaning forward over his hands which are clasped on the table. "If you are done asking questions Russell perhaps we should conclude our business of the evening?"
Please, I can barely keep my eyes open and I'm terrified I'm going to fall asleep and miss something important to Eric, to us. And I'm not going to let that happen, despite the disturbingly vivid mental image of me curled up safely in Eric's lap which keeps appearing in my head like a subliminal message.
There's a flair of frustration in our bond and Eric snorts pulling me closer so I can at least rest my head on him.
"Obviously." Niall continues. "My concern here is for the safety of my Great Granddaughter and her Mate in this realm. There are a number of ways this can be accomplished and just like you Russell I prefer to protect my secrets by minimising their exposure. Since I altered the memories of all present two nights ago there are only five Vampire with knowledge of Sookie's heritage."
Two nights? Two? No wonder I could eat a scabby horse and drink my own weight in French roast!
Pay attention Stackhouse, the Fairy is talking . . . .
"I could rely on ownership and claim. Sookie is my bloodline, a Princess of the Sky Fae and as such she belongs to me. Louisiana belongs to her, therefore he also is mine. As are his child, all who owe him fealty and some of his employees. An act against any one of them is an act against me. An act of war against the Fae."
Ouch. No wonder Mississippi thought he was in trouble when Niall introduced Eric as mine.
"So, you and your fellow Council members would be obliged to protect them with your own resources in order to prevent bloodshed on a scale we have not seen in recent years."
A beat of silence.
"I could, also, if I wished, seek to re-enforce this contractually and with appropriate compensation."
Mississippi blinks.
"If I trusted you Russell, which I am afraid I do not. I am now fairly certain that no matter what we agree you at the very least will be plotting harm against what is mine in the hope that I will not find out you are behind it. Which I will, by the way. And though I have no qualms about granting you, and any of your kind, the true death, it rather defeats the object of the exercise. Which is for Sookie and Eric to have a long and happy life together."
Another blink.
"Speaking of the true death." Niall continues, sitting back and focussing on the empty beer bottle he's twirling in his large hands. "I could, of course, simply send you and your four fellow Council members to meet yours, thus ensuring that my secret is kept and the threat you represent is neutralised."
Mississippi doesn't blink this time, he's sure that covering up the disappearances of five powerful Monarchs is more than Niall is willing to take on.
I'm not so convinced but instead of being appalled I fight back a yawn and snuggle deeper into Eric, inhaling his scent with a dopey smile on my face. Because the solution is obvious, really . . . .
"Or." Niall looks back up at Mississippi, smiling. "I could alter your memories to match those of the others. Eric's heroic unveiling of the King of Nevada as a traitor, his gracious declining of his territories, gifting them to Chicago and New York instead, his eminently sensible decision to complete his bond and pledge with his talented and beautiful human."
"No." Mississippi gasps, pushing his chair back from the table.
"No?" Niall queries, raising an eyebrow.
No! The vampire's mind is practically screaming it. How can he protect himself, Indiana, if he has no idea who his enemies are? He, they, they'd all be sitting ducks. He believes Eric will want revenge for the Councils actions. He thinks it's possible that Eric will use his alliance with me to place himself above his peers. The idea of having information so vital to his survival removed without his consent is terrifying to him. Which is pretty ironic since glamouring 'lesser' beings is something vampires have no problem doing whenever the fancy takes them.
And though it's a rude thing to do I can't help but laugh at the sight of his horrified face.
He's thinking about making a run for it and I tense but before the thought's fully formed two enormous chainmail wearing fairies appear behind him, gripping his shoulders and pushing him down into his chair. I don't even have enough energy left in me to be startled . . . .
His eyes swivel to the Ancient Pythoness, beseeching her to help him.
"Surely it is better than being dead?" She offers.
"I will still end up dead!" He spits out. "How can you allow this?"
"I neither allow nor prevent anything Russell." She says gently. "That is not how this works."
I tense again, expecting Mississippi to react to her words with violence, such was his level of desperation, but instead he's blinking sleepily back at me, his thoughts dwindling away to nothing.
"No time like the present." Niall observes, sounding like he's at the end of a very long tunnel.
I can remember Gran's voice doing that when she was talking to her friends and my child self was falling asleep on the couch.
I try to follow him into Mississippi's mind, to learn from the master, but I'm too tired and what he's doing is too complicated for me to follow, a far cry from the 'hack and slash' job I was so proud of doing on that cop in Fangtasia . . . .
Disappointed I fall back into my own mind. Lulled by the sound of Gran's clock ticking and the occasional chink of chainmail from the fidgeting fairies, my eyelids flutter closed and no matter how hard I fight they're just too heavy for me to force up again. It doesn't help when Eric lifts me into his lap, wrapping his arms around me tightly. He's proud of me for fighting my exhaustion as long as I did, for not showing weakness in front of Russell, but it doesn't matter anymore and he wants me to sleep.
I'm nothing if not stubborn though, drifting in and out of consciousness as the others talk.
". . . . brother . . . ."
". . . . cannot believe it . . . ."
". . . . not controlling . . . ."
". . . . must leave for Chicago soon . . . ."
". . . . back where we started . . . ."
" . . . . take you wherever you want to go . . . ."
". . . . rest . . . ."
". . . . send Ludwig . . . ."
". . . . do not need to be thanked . . . ."
". . . . should be thanking you . . . ."
". . . . son . . . ."
". . . . working on contract . . . ."
". . . . let me down . . . ."
Eric's chest is expanding and contracting in time with my heartbeat, I can hear the air flowing in and out of it, my own, personal, unavoidable, lullaby . . . .
…..
"Sookie, Sookie, Sookie."
"Mmm?"
I don't open my eyes. He wanted me to go to sleep and now he's trying to wake me up? What's wrong with him, is he trying to be funny?
"Are you ready to go home?"
"Am home."
"It could be." He responds doubtfully.
"No . . . . stupid . . . . home's where you are."
"Ah." He's amused by my sleepy confession.
I try, and fail, to open my eyes. There are things I really need to know, questions I have to ask but my brain isn't being any more cooperative than my eyes. So tired still . . . .
"Are we safe?" I mumble, at least getting to the crux of the matter.
"As safe as we will ever be, yes." He replies softly, rubbing his nose along my cheek. "Go back to sleep. Wherever you wake up, it will be with me."
"M-kay."
But only because I know you don't make promises you can't keep.
His rumbling laugh vibrates through my body, following me back down to the inky depths of blissful oblivion . . . .