Spellbound
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The lack of food wasn't what was wrong with Sookie. She knew it when she woke up this morning. She was going to keep quiet because she knew that it wouldn't change what's wrong between with her and Eric. It made her all the more determined to want to end this marriage. And she couldn't trade one loveless marriage for another … not with what's happening with her. What good would that do? That wasn't the answer. She couldn't see herself being married to Godric or Stan.
With what's going on, she had no choice but to stay married to Eric. That was the only solution. They could stay married but lead separate lives. That's what they've always done. They could continue doing it.
Sookie had realized that she didn't want to go back to Faery either. It's always nice to be around her kin but that's not what she really wanted. She loved the earthly realm and all that it has to offer. She has friends here. She has a life here; even if it was without Eric. It was a life that she enjoyed. She loved the shopping and the people. She loved the many things that the earthly realm has to offer. This was her home now. She knew that she would be able to make it on her own.
As Sookie basked in her thoughts, a feeling of discomfort and pain wracked her body. She fell onto her bed and wrapped herself tightly in her blankets. Her teeth were chattering and she couldn't stop shaking. Her heart was beating in an irregular rhythm. She was in so much pain that she tried choking back her tears. It didn't work. Sookie felt the warmth as it began to fall down her cheeks. She knew what was happening to her. Her life was changing.
Eric began banging on her door. "Sookie!" he yelled. "Sookie, open the door!"
She closed her eyes in order to drown out his banging and his voice. She was hoping that the darkness would hide the pain and the noise but it didn't work.
"Sookie!" he called again.
"Go away," she whispered. "I'm fine."
"Let me in!" he yelled as he continued to bang.
"Go away," she repeated. "My grandmother is coming." Just as the words passed her lips, Adele Brigant popped into Sookie's bedroom.
Adele walked elegantly to the bedroom door and opened it. Eric was standing on the other side looking wide-eyed and concerned. Just as she did only a few short years ago, she reached out and placed her wrinkled yet soothing hand to his face. "You can go on, Eric. She'll be fine. Gran's here now."
He tried looking past her in order to see Sookie but she was out of view. "But I want to be here," he said. "She might need me. She's my wife. I need to be here with her. I can hold her."
Adele could see in his eyes and hear in his voice that he meant it.
"I don't want you here," Sookie replied in a feeble voice.
Looking over her shoulder, Adele said to her granddaughter, "You stop that, now. This may be your home but I will not tolerate rudeness. I didn't raise you to be that way. You always take the high road, young lady. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes ma'am," Sookie replied. She'd quickly humbled herself to her grandmother.
Turning back to Eric, she smiled. "I know that you want to be with her but I'm here. I'll take care of her for now. Just give her time," Adele said as she looked into his eyes. "All she needs is a little time and she'll come around."
She didn't give Eric a chance to respond to her. She closed the door in his face but she did it with a smile. Adele walked over to Sookie's bed and lay down with her. Scooping Sookie into her arms, she began to cradle her.
"It's going to be alright," she said.
As she nestled into her Gran's embrace, she asked, "How can you be so sure?"
"Because I'm old that's why," she said.
Sookie laughed as Gran kissed the top of her head and her pain began to slowly subside. It was then that Adele decided to entertain her with the stories of old. "Have I ever told you the love story of Fintan and Adele Brigant?"
Sookie shook her head no. Gran had told her that story a million times over and Sookie loved hearing it every time. "Will you tell it to me?"
"It's the love story to end all love stories." Adele began to caress Sookie's head. "It was 100 degrees hotter than hell that day in June. The breeze only made things worse." Adele's old world southern twang always made an appearance when she told the love story of Fintan and Adele Brigant. "But on this particular hotter than hell day in June, this handsome young man appeared on my daddy's back porch. He didn't wait for daddy to say come on up and have a seat. He didn't wait for daddy to offer him a cool drink. He didn't even say hello. No, he did none of the things that a gentleman caller is supposed to do. He sat down in the rocker next to daddy's as if he was at home."
Sookie looked up at Adele and asked, "What did great granddaddy do when he did that? I'll bet that he was as hot as fire."
She started laughing. "He was. Daddy looked him up and down and said, 'Boy, don't make me go and get my shotgun. Get off my damned porch.' Fintan sat there and smiled at daddy. That made him even madder. Daddy hollered out to me and said, 'Dele, get my gun! Bring me two shells.' Any other gentleman caller would have fled just as soon as daddy asked for his gun but not Fintan. He smiled at daddy and didn't budge an inch. He looked daddy square in the eyes and said, 'Mr. Joseph Hale, I'm not going anywhere. I've come here with a proposal. I want to marry your daughter.'"
"What was the proposal?" Sookie asked as she giggled. She knew what was coming next.
"That was it!" Adele said as she threw her arms out by her side.
Both women filled the room with laughter.
"Once I'd gotten daddy's gun and two shells, I sneaked up to the screen door and I eavesdropped. When I heard him say that he wanted to marry me, I was mad. He hadn't even called on me and he had the audacity to ask daddy if he could marry me. Daddy didn't have to answer him. I stormed right out of that house and looked Fintan in his eyes and said, 'I don't even know you. What makes you think that I would give you the time of day?' You know what he did?"
"Uh-uh," Sookie said.
"He laughed." Adele began to laugh at the memory. The look on her face told Sookie that her Gran could see it all happening as if they'd gone back to that hotter than hell day in June. "Though he was rude, I have to confess, he was quite nice to look at. I think it was his eyes that did me in."
"What did you see in them?" Sookie whispered.
Tweaking Sookie's nose, she said, "Everything."
Sookie giggled and swooned as she sat up in bed. "Then what happened?"
"I went outside on the porch just as he stood up. I stood toe to toe with Fintan and said, 'Even if my daddy says yes, the final say is mine.' He said to me, 'I wouldn't have it any other way.' I was beyond surprised, Sookie. This unknown and extremely handsome man wanted to marry me. I had never seen this man anywhere in town. I'd never heard the name at all but I was intrigued by him, I must say."
Sookie's heart began to beat faster as she listened to the love story of Fintan and Adele Brigant. It always made her feel better. "What did great granddaddy say? Did he say yes?"
Adele threw her head back and laughed. "He said 'Hell naw you ain't marrying my daughter! We don't know you or your people. I don't know where you're from. Hell, you could be that bank robber the cops are looking to catch. What makes you think that I'd hand my only daughter over to the likes of you?' Fintan looked at me as he talked to my daddy. He said, 'Because I'll love her until the day that I die. She will be my reason for waking up every morning. She will be the reason that I will always try and be the best man that I can be. She will never want or need for anything. I swear to you that she will be the only one for me in this lifetime. No one will ever love her as I do.'"
No matter how many times she heard the story, Sookie always cried. "And then what happened?" she asked between sobs.
"I walked over to my daddy and handed him that shotgun and put the two shells in the pocket of my dress. I then went back to where Fintan was standing and I said, 'I'm going to hold you to that.' I moved out of my daddy's house that day. We stayed in the area until my parents died and then we moved to Fintan's world. My life changed forever and your grandfather has kept his promise." A sad smile appeared on Adele's face but it didn't stay for very long.
"How did you know that he was the one for you?"
The southern twang was soon replaced with royal elegance. Reaching over and placing her palm on Sookie's chest said, "I could feel it here, just as I feel it now. After centuries of being with your grandfather, he is still the one for me. Just as Eric is the one for you."
Sookie nestled down in her grandmother's lap. "I used to believe that. You've always told me that Eric and I were meant to be but tonight, I found out something entirely different. Why did you never told me that there are two other vampires that could have had me? Godric said that Eric wasn't supposed to have me. He said that Eric was sneaky in his pursuit of me. He made it seem like …"
"What he was supposed to say," Adele finished. "Honey, there are things that have to be said and done in order to be sure that fate is not stopped. Godric is centuries older than your husband. Stan isn't but vampires are devious and sneaky creatures. They will do and say anything to get what they want. They're even sneakier than the fae."
Sookie was intrigued. "What do you mean?"
Adele stroked Sookie's hair as she talked to her. "If we hadn't told them that Eric was underhanded in his way of making you his, Godric would have gone after him. He would have set out to kill Eric and he would have succeeded. You're a faery princess, my love. With you in this world, an old and powerful vampire would have killed all competition to make you his. I said what I had to say in order to keep your husband alive."
"You lied?" That bit of information surprised Sookie. Her grandmother couldn't stand for someone to lie and then she turned around and told one.
"For good cause," Adele confirmed. "I believe that it's okay to lie for good cause. Anyway, he was meant for you just as Fintan was meant for me. Just as you've always been told, you were meant for him. Don't throw it all away, Sookie. Think about it before you act irrationally."
"How can you be so sure?" she asked.
She looked at Sookie and said, "Because it's happened. It wouldn't have happened if it wasn't meant to be."
Sookie thought about what her grandmother said. "It didn't happen on its own. You made it happen. Does it count?"
"Yes," Gran said with certainty.
"I don't know if I believe that. When I told you that I didn't want to stay married, you agreed with granddaddy when he said that I needed to stay married. You said that it was best for me to stay. Both of you turned me away." Even though she'd decided that she wanted to stay here, Sookie was hurt as she thought of her last conversation with her grandparents.
Adele opened her arms for Sookie to come to her. She did as her grandmother wanted. "That was for your own good, baby. You weren't thinking. You were acting on emotions. How would you have felt if you'd come back home and things would have returned to how they used to be? You would've hated yourself. You needed time to think it over. I think that I know you better than you know yourself. You are a woman of conviction. You have never tucked tail and ran from anything in your life. You're not going to start doing that now. Think about it, Sookie. If you had returned home without so much as a second thought about the people that you represent, how would you have handled that? I know exactly what you would have done."
Sookie knew it too. She would have been ashamed of herself. She would have locked herself away in the royal palace for the remainder of her days. She wouldn't have been able to face anyone ever again because she would have let her selfishness win out. She never would have seen the outside of those palace walls ever again. That would have been a just punishment for what she would have done to her people, the vampires and the other supes.
"I couldn't allow that." Adele leaned in and kissed Sookie's cheek. "Plus, you didn't really want that. That life is not the life for you."
Sighing and looking down at her hands, Sookie said, "I've decided to stay in this realm."
"I figured you would."
With concern in her voice, she asked, "What am I supposed to do now?"
"Do what you have to do but don't be rash in your decisions. You love him."
Sookie wanted say that she didn't love Eric; not anymore. She wanted to say that she wouldn't have cared if she never saw him again. They would have all been lies.
"He loves you, too."
Sookie buried her face into her grandmother's arms. "No he doesn't. I don't think he's ever loved me."
"Men are very prideful. That includes your vampire. One day he'll own up to his mistakes and you'll see. You'll see," she said with a kiss.
"He's not my vampire." Looking in her grandmother's eyes, Sookie said, "I have something to ask you."
"Ask me," Adele replied.
Sookie sat crossed legged in the center of her bed. "It's happening to me, grandmother. Do you know why?"
"Because it's supposed to," she answered. "It's time."
"I noticed it a few days ago but I assumed that it was because the bond between me and Eric isn't as strong. Then I thought that it could be the state of my marriage. I'm not supposed to be sick, Gran. What am I going to do?"
"Oh, Sookie," Adele said. "It'll be fine. You're going to be fine. Once things return to how they should be, you'll be fine."
"I'm not fine. Fae women don't get sick. We've never gotten sick."
Adele didn't say anything.
"Since you've been here, I don't feel as bad as I did before. Do you think that if I come home for a couple of days that the sickness will go away? I can call grandfather and tell him …"
"No," Adele said quickly. "No," she repeated but only softer. "Stay here and recuperate. If you need to be around kin, visit your cousins. The feelings will pass. Besides, your grandfather has a lot of business to take care of and you know how he is when you're around. He can't focus." She shook her head as she chuckled. "He's a child again when it comes to you. You'll be home soon enough. When it's time, I will come for you."
That put a smile on her face. "Okay. I'll go and visit them tomorrow evening."
"Good. Now tell me, what are you going to do about Eric?"
She'd had a couple of months to think about whether or not she wanted the marriage to work and her answer was always the same. She didn't want it anymore. As far as she was concerned, the love part was over. There was no going back.
"I'll do what I can for appearances sake but that's it. I'm not wasting my time or my love on someone that doesn't love me. What do you think if I get a place of my own?"
"If you think that's best."
Sookie was leery of her grandmother's response. She and her grandfather didn't want her to come home because it wasn't the right time. The alliance would be jeopardized but now it's okay if she gets her own place? Wouldn't the other supes think it strange that she and Eric live in separate homes? Before Sookie could respond to her grandmother's weird comment, Adele stood up to leave.
Adele kissed Sookie's brow. "I have to go. Your grandfather's calling to me. I will see you soon."
Sookie looked up at her grandmother and nodded. "I love you."
"And I love you too, dear one. You go and tell Eric that you are fine and try to be nice about it."
"Yes ma'am."
Adele winked at Sookie and blew her a kiss. She started to laugh. "Though I've been doing this for centuries now, I cannot get over the astonishment of popping from here to there. It tickles me to death." Soon after, Adele was gone.
Sookie got up from her bed and went to Eric's room and knocked on his door. Within in seconds, the door was open. He looked down at Sookie and his face was filled with concern. "Are you alright?"
"That's what I came to tell you. I'm okay."
Relief filled his eyes. "I'm glad to hear that. Would you like to come in? I was only reading. We don't have to talk. We can just sit with each other. I won't do anything to make feel uncomfortable."
"No," she said. "I'm going to go bed. I'm tired. And I'm sorry for smacking you earlier."
"I deserved it."
She shook her head. "You did but I was wrong just the same. Goodnight."
As she walked away, he stepped out of his room to watch her. "Goodnight," he called out behind her.
She never looked back.