A/N: I love the fast pace of this Fic. As promised, here you all are.

Chapter 7

When it rains, it pours

Pain and rage filled me. "What did you do to her?!" I roared at Pam.

Seeing Sookie in this much pain made everything she'd done since she woke seem minuscule. I had no idea why or how, but nothing was more important to me in that moment than ending her pain. Her suffering must have ratcheted up because she could no longer remain in that position. She rolled onto her right side and curled into a ball. By the rigid set to her jaw, she was trying not to scream. Not even when she'd shown up stabbed and bleeding to death had she looked to be in this much pain. Her eyes were tear-filled and she stared up at the ceiling as if trying to escape.

All my sister did was blink dumbly at me. I didn't give my sister a chance to respond. I pushed her aside. I picked Sookie up and she couldn't choke back a scream as my hand brushed against her shoulder. Looking down, I saw that a hole had been burned through her shirt. On her shoulder blade was the same mark that had magically appeared on mine, except hers was on the left, where mine had been on the right.

It was identical in the intricate marking to the last detail, except hers was a violent shade of red. It pulsed, and with every beat came the scent of burning flesh. The tattoo just glowed brighter and brighter. There was no blood and the burn wasn't spreading. In all my years, I'd never seen anything like this.

"What's wrong?" I asked, stroking her face in an attempt to soothe her. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Can't hurt you—" she panted, and she could no longer keep her tears unshed.

Her breathing was shallow and sweat was dotting her brow. It was if she was on the receiving end of hells torment, but there was nothing I could see, so there was nothing I could do.

"Say...forgive…cover mark with right palm."

The thought that I could be burned didn't enter my mind. I placed my hand over the sight instantly. The was hot, searing even, but it caused me no harm.

"You are forgiven," I said immediately. The words were magic, her body thawed. "I forgive you." I repeated.

I rocked her against me, keeping my hand where it was, and I told her repeatedly she was forgiven. She clung to me and I was awed as the mark began to cool under my palm. From between my fingers, I watched as the fierce shade of red began to fade to resemble mine. It made the mark look alive as it danced through every curve and line of it. It receded like blood circling a drain. It flowed through every branch of the tree. Finally, her body sagged and the pain abated entirely.

"I'm not even going to ask," Pam said. She dusted her hands against each other. "It's entirely too early in the evening for this level of weirdness. I'm going to work." With that, she walked out the door.

I heard my sister continue ranting as she walked down the hall. "…Me and my big mouth! Move in with me I say. It will be fun I told him." She made a derisive noise. "Then his crazy bitch girlfriend tracks blood all over my office. Don't give her blood I say. Does he listen? Nooo…He never listens. Then he's surprised when she breaks both our necks and steals my damn shirt! The bitch has a fit that burns a hole through my Nicole Miller. Gah…" she went on and on until she was out of hearing range.

I just sat there with the object of my frustration in my arms. She was in no hurry to move and I didn't want her to. I held her against me, again unable to understand the urge, but unable to resist it. Having her so close made me realize how worse off I'd been. There had been restlessness to everything I did because I felt off kilter.

I'd found no peace in resting, feeding, or even sitting in my own skin. Now, the steady drumming of her heartbeat centered me. Her scent soothed me. The weight of her in my arms brought me a deep sense of tranquility.

I removed my hand from her shoulder cautiously. Her mark was now identical to mine. I traced it with my fingertips. It was smooth like mine. For the millionth time, I asked myself what the hell I'd gotten into. The marks didn't allow her to control me, at least not in the physical sense. It didn't mean it couldn't influence my emotions and it was definitely doing that. I wouldn't give any woman this much care no matter how great she was in bed.

Sookie wasn't out to do me harm and the mark on her back—on both our backs—tortured us if we did attempt to harm one another. The distribution of power seemed even. It begged the question, what did she want? What did she have to gain in branding us both? I was a great lay, but I couldn't be that good.

Honestly, if she had tracked me down just for sex that would have been great. It was the intense and sudden devotion to someone I didn't know that was unsettling. I've been here before and it didn't end well. I never wanted to go back. Yet, it seemed the pain from my last encounter from a serious relationship with a human had taught me little; either that or I was a masochist.

I could work through all other aspects of this cluster fuck, except the attachment to her. That, I couldn't deal with. I wanted nothing to do with it. "You aren't going to make me ask, are you?" I asked.

She pulled away to face me. "How do you like your bad news?" she asked.

"In a sandwich," I said. "Put whatever good you have in the middle."

That wasn't the response she had been expecting. She blinked as if stunned, then chuckled softly. Just hearing that sound made me happier than anything in recent memory. "Then this is gonna be all bread," she replied. "Sorry."

I smiled at least she still had a sense of humor. She looked down at her almost chest. Before she could attempt to salvage the scraps of her destroyed top, I gave her my shirt. Then I gave her a bottle of water. I still had no idea how I knew she needed it, just that she did.

"Okay," I said. "Let's have it."

"We're mated," she said, jerking her thumb over her left shoulder.

Pam was right. It was entirely too early in the evening for this level of weirdness. Vampires didn't mate and if we did, it was by choice via marriage, it was often temporary, and came with ulterior motives. If we were mated and it seemed like we most certainly were, it was a fairy thing. Yet, she couldn't have been that in tune with that part of her heritage because she'd taken a vampire home and allowed said vampire to feed on her. No fairy, deaf, blind, or crazy would do that.

After a quick drink she continued. "When we met I was um…"

"In heat." I supplied.

She nodded. "Yeah," she replied, hiding a blush. "It was my first time."

I arched a brow. It wasn't to say, 'Bullshit' it was more like conveying confusion and slight disbelief. "With a man or ovulating?"

Neither seemed likely, but then I thought back to the first night and how she had bled. I attributed it to my roughness, but it had been her innocence. The skill and the way she knew just how to touch me also belied that notion. However, a fully-grown woman would have blossomed long ago, and so that shouldn't have been her first time going through that phase. Every question she answered seemed to add a layer of confusion.

"Both," she replied, rubbing the back of her neck. That was the second time I caught the gesture. It was a sign of discomfort. I wondered what had brought it on. The first night we met she had been carefree and open. Then again being stabbed was a personality changer for some.

"Before that I was asexual. I had no sex drive or libido."

"How old are you exactly?" I wondered.

She chuckled. "Don't worry; you're not robbing the cradle. I mean, mathematically you are, but not subjectively. I'm twenty-three. Eighteen, twenty at the latest is the normal onset age. I thought I was just one of the few it didn't happen to. It's rare but it happens" She ran her fingers through her hair and didn't seem to know how to continue. "When it did I couldn't fight it, so I choose you because I thought you…."

If I had to finish that sentence, I would guess that she thought I could protect her. Before I'd even gotten her case, she had to know the agents were after her. Since I'd turned them down, her case had been reassigned to another Enforcer. Normally I enjoyed being right but this irritated me. It wasn't that she needed help. I could deal with that. I've done a good deed here and there over the ages. Being an excellent tracker made me equally efficient at disappearing. I would have helped her if she had asked. Instead, she had been deceitful about it.

She was lying. It was what all women did. They were the fairer sex, but their power was so much deeper and dastardly. I didn't probe into the deceptive maneuver she'd had used to gain my protection. I'd enjoyed every minute of that weekend. If I hadn't, what difference did it make? We were mated. For the time being I was stuck. Plus, I didn't want her to continue looking into my eyes as she told me lies. That would make me angry.

"Give me the absolute worst of it," I suggested. I functioned best by thinking of the worst-case scenario forward. It helped me plan for any eventuality, or so I thought.

"I'm pregnant," she said, wrapping her arms around herself. "There's a kill order out on me. That wouldn't be so bad except carrying your child short circuits my power. I'm barely staying ahead of the hitters. With every day that passes I'm growing weaker, and slower, and they're getting closer."

More lies but this one was a flagrant insult to my intelligence. I was a thousand-year-old vampire; I'd been shooting blanks since before the Dark Ages. That was part of the freedom that came with immortality; sex had no long-term consequences. I looked down at her. Several things ran through my mind. None of which were profane free, I wanted to tell about all the ways she could go to hell.

Then the dreams I had of her hurting, hiding, and alone flashed in my mind. The memory of her showing up here in search of me, bleeding and broken, and then of her writhing in agony on the floor followed. As long as I was branded with her mark, I felt compelled to shield her. The mere idea of abandoning her made me cringe no matter how badly I wanted to, and I really wanted to.

"Explain the mating and the marks," I said, moving on. "Can they be undone?"

She smiled and nodded. "That's an upside. Death is the only way to break the bond, but there is a loophole. I just have to jump worlds to trick the marks into thinking I'm dead. The downside is I can't teleport while pregnant."

I nodded. I don't know why I believed her, but I did. I think it was because when we had parted ways I had thought her to be like the wind. She didn't want this connection any more than I did. That was comforting. I would protect her and when this was over, we would go our separate ways as we should have after that weekend.

"You're the first fairy I've heard of to willingly bed a vampire."

"I'm not really a fairy, but I'm not quite human either," she said, shaking her head. "I come from a long line of ‛halfsies'; many generations of humans who are part-Fae in some way only mixing with others like them. That makes us a target."

I nodded. There are two sects of fairies, the purists of the water and the tolerant of the sky. They could lie to you without speaking an untrue word. That raised my guard all over again. Their species had been on a steady decline. It made no sense that they fought and killed each other over something as petty as selective breeding. Fairies were perplexing that way I supposed.

"Water fairies want us exterminated but the Sky Prince protects us no matter how little fairy blood we have in us. He takes us in, trains us to fight, to hide, to survive so we can defend ourselves and those who defend us. They call us 'Sin Eaters'."

Not at all what I was expecting. I knew of fairies, with them it was always Water Fae against Sky Fae or Water Fae hunting half breeds. This was the first time I was hearing about this faction. Being a thousand years old that was saying something.

"How does that correlate with your legal issues?" I wondered. "The day my mark appeared, I had been called to take a case with you as the target–"

"Wait, what is that you do for a living?" she interrupted.

"I'm an Enforcer of vampire law."

"This is…so very fucked up," she whispered.

I absolutely concurred. "They wanted you because of your association with something called 'The Outfit'."

From what she said, she was a person of importance in the Fae world. She would know better than to get involved with some crime syndicate that had attracted the attention of high-ranking human officials.

She snorted delicately and rolled her eyes. "Lattesta and his friends?" she scoffed. "Those buttholes couldn't find me in the daytime with a flash light."

I was following everything she was saying but that didn't make much sense. It took my presumptions and threw them out the window leaving me more confused. "So who hurt you?"

"Other Sin Eaters," she replied. "I ran and that is as good as a death sentence. If my own doesn't bring me in or bring me down, then the water fairies will catch up with me."

More confusion. "Your own is hunting you because of your affiliation with 'The Outfit'?" I asked. If she had been raising hell without their knowledge then that course made sense. It was the protocol of many other supernatural species.

"There is no 'Outfit,'" she told me. "I made it up. My first assignment was a lab that was funded by Breandan, Prince of the Water Fae. They were making iron spores and inhibitor collars. I was twelve and I had bad intel. Things went so wrong so fast. It was supposed to be empty but it wasn't and they attacked. If I hadn't fought I would have died.."

She ran her hand over her face as if she could still see it. There was nothing in her voice to indicate how she felt about it. My guess was, nothing, nothing at all. The look in her eyes was exactly like the picture Agent Lattesta had showed me, cold, dead, and so very remote.

"I got arrested so I made up a whole organization. They assumed abuse and I didn't contradict them so they let me off. Every time there was collateral damage or other incidents that Sin Eaters needed to cover, we led a dead end trail to 'The Outfit'. Sometimes we blamed things other people did on the fictional organization."

It was probably wrong of me but I couldn't help but laugh. She literally had an entire task force chasing ghosts in a fog. It changed things. The Pythoness couldn't help the humans bring her down if she had permission from the overseers of her species. It would be like one of them trying to sanction her Enforcers. That was one less complication.

"I didn't get the mark until weeks after you left." I asked.

She nodded. "I was too far away for the actual stamps to appear but I had the symptoms."

"What causes the marks?"

"The mating marks are a side effect of the Waters curse. It kept us from being able to procreate amongst each other. That way they could pick us off at their leisure or wait for us to die."

Going off her explanation, she should have never sought out a male that wasn't like her. I left that whole thing alone for the moment. Her posture was tired, vulnerable; like she had been the first night we'd met. I reached for her and pulled her against me without even thinking to do so.

"What happened just then?" I didn't have to elaborate on what I was referring to.

"Nothing can be gained without sacrificing something of equal value. This applies to curses, spells, just about anything. Curses often backfire or take on lives of their own. This evolved. Breandan cursed an entire generation by stopping reproduction. The marks began appearing as a way to balance the scales. It forces ovulation in women and sex drive in the males all around their eighteenth birthday. The appearance of the marks is the only way to conceive a child. It's wired to do any and everything to keep the pairs together. It does it's best to help them keep each other safe even from themselves."

That explained why thoughts and feelings of violence towards her made left me feeling physically ill. It felt like my skin was being pulled too taut over muscles and bones causing discomfort that I knew would quickly turn to pain. This just kept getting better and better. I sighed internally. All I needed was a silver bow to tie it all together.

"So when I raised my hand to you, I would have been the one on the floor." I asked already knowing the answer.

She nodded. "You didn't let me explain and if you'd done something harsh, you would have hurt without understanding why it wouldn't have imptoved your mood. Figured that wouldn't make you more apt to hear me out either."

"Yet you were able to break my neck without the same consequence," I said.

Her expression was equal parts regret and shame. "That's how I wake up. My body is first, not my mind. I didn't suffer the first time because I didn't recognize you," she said. "I literally can't hurt you intentionally. The thought alone…" she repressed a shudder.

Silence persisted and I saw the expressions on her face run unchecked. I tried to tune into her emotions but even with my blood, I got nothing. There was the constant glow of having her close, but I couldn't say what she was feeling. She told me.

"They took me in when I had nothing," she whispered into my chest. "I understand what I have to give back for the protection they'd given me my whole life," she said, wrapping her arm around her stomach. "I'll go back and I'll continue paying the debt till I die but, I will never let my baby become like me, not ever."

"What are you asking me for?" I asked directly.

"For you to protect me until I give birth," she said confirming my assumption. "Then I will free us both. It would be like it should have been."

There was no mention on what she would do with her child and I didn't ask. What did it matter? With the overwhelming urge I had to protect her and keep her close, I was helpless. I resented her for it, but I hated myself more. For the second time I was falling prey to a woman. At least I saw it coming this time. I knew she was a liar from the beginning. Surprisingly, I found that it wasn't so bad.