Spellbound
Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing. I'm sorry to say that I've lost a few readers because they said that the story is going too slow. I don't want to rush it and things will be revealed soon. I'm really not trying to depress anyone or make the angst too much to bear. It's getting there. I just need a little time.
P.S. Gran's not the bad guy. You'll see.
Sookie could feel Claudette's eyes burning a hole into the side of her face.
She knew.
Though Sookie hadn't told her cousins that she was planning on leaving Eric, she knew that they knew. All morning, she could hear that they wanted to ask questions but they remained silent. Not that she was afraid to tell her cousins about him; that was never Sookie's concern. She knew that they would've supported her decision to leave him. She just didn't want to hear Claudine's gloating and singing her mantra of 'I told ya so'. She wasn't in the mood for Claudette's teasing. And she wasn't in the mood for talking about Eric.
Not tonight.
Today had been a good day. It wasn't the time for talking about Eric and their problems. She wanted a fun night. They'd had a great day of spending time together. She didn't want it to end it with a discussion of Eric.
Because Claudette continued to stare at her, she began to feel nervous. "What?" Sookie asked. "What are you staring at? Why are you looking at me like that?"
Claudette shook her head and said, "Nothing. You, everything. How's your marriage going? Is it getting any better?"
Sookie looked down at the countertop as she shrugged her shoulders. "It is what it is."
Claudette placed a loving hand on Sookie's shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. "If you need me, you know you've got me. All you have to do is say so. I'm here for you. You don't have to go through this alone."
Sookie almost jumped out of her skin. She loves her cousins dearly but they've never been the lovey dovey types; especially not Claudette. They're the types that will kick you while you're down and laugh at you while you're trying to get up. They've never done it to her but she's seen them do it. Sookie eased from underneath Claudette's touch and stared at her.
"Are you dying?"
Claudette cackled. "Hell no," she answered. "Nothing's going to kill me. I'm far too mean to die. I'm just letting you know that if you need me, I'm here for you. I can help you with things." Claudette almost looked shy when she said that. She's never been one to show much emotion; unless it's anger.
Her kind words did put a smile on Sookie's face. "Thanks."
Bumping Sookie with her hip, Claudette said, "Anytime."
When the microwave beeped, Claudette took the popcorn from it and poured it in a bowl before heading back to the living room. Sookie was behind her carrying a tray of blueberry fizzies. The lazy cousin, Claudine, was sitting in the chair with her 'swollen' feet propped up on the ottoman.
"Give me the popcorn," she whined. "I'm hungry and I'm pregnant. I shouldn't have to wait to eat."
Claudette looked at Claudine and rolled her eyes as she handed her the bowl. "You are getting on my last nerve. You could've gotten your ass up and made the popcorn yourself. Now quit being a bitch and chill out."
Sookie giggled. Her cousins always acted like this. They've always argued with each other. That was what their relationship was based off of; love, arguing and name calling. It had gotten worse since Claudine had gotten pregnant. She has become even more demanding and even more spoiled than she was before.
"Stop it!" Claudine yelled. "You shouldn't tease pregnant women. You shouldn't laugh at them either, Sookie." She began to cry.
"Oh God," Claudette said as she rolled her eyes. "Are you kidding me?! No wonder Colman went back to Fae. He couldn't wait to get away from your moody ass."
Claudine cried even more. "You're right," she whimpered. "I'm a terrible mate. I've driven my husband away with my mood swings and my huge bottom. My nipples are sore and I can't wear a bra. My boobs are going to be so long that I'll be able to tuck them in my mom jeans pants pocket. Since getting pregnant, I can only fit in his sweatpants and big shirts. He's not coming back," she wailed.
Sookie looked surprised. She'd never seen Claudine like this before. "Why is she acting like this? Claudine never cries."
"Fucking hormones," Claudette replied.
"Oh," Sookie whispered. "Why did Colman go back to Fae?"
"He went to get the cry-baby some of her things from home."
"When did he leave?"
"This morning," Claudette replied.
When she said that, she and Sookie burst out laughing. Sookie expected her to say that he left two weeks ago and hadn't called or anything. Claudine continued to cry.
"Don't talk about me like I'm not here! When you two have your babies, I swear to you that I will not treat you the same way that you are treating me."
Sookie and Claudette looked at each other. They knew that it was a lie as soon as it left Claudine's mouth. She teased them about everything that they've ever done. No matter how big or small it was Claudine always had something to say about it.
Claudette laughed as she pulled Sookie down onto the couch with her. "Ignore the child," she said as she propped her feet upon the coffee table. "What are we watching tonight? I hope that you picked a decent movie this time, Sookie. Please don't let it be another love story. I'm sick of that shit. I want a little adventure or something to scare the hell out of me. If I watch 'It Happened One Night' one more time, I'm going to fucking scream."
Whenever it was her turn, Sookie always chose love stories but tonight she had a surprise for her cousins. "Tonight we are going to watch a new movie, The Avengers. Chris Hemsworth is in it and he's hot."
Claudette was impressed. "Good choice. No crying and snotting tonight." She looked at Claudine and turned up her nose. "Well at least from us two."
"You are so bothersome, Claudette. Why are you always so difficult?" Claudine's bottom lip began to quiver. "You have been teasing me since this morning. Can't you see that I'm in a delicate state?" Claudine began rubbing her huge baby belly. "I'm very fragile."
"Stop with the dramatics, Claudine," Claudette replied. "You are the biggest ham …"
Claudine gasped. "Are you calling me a pig?"
"I was going to say that you are the worst actress ever but since you've mentioned it." Claudette looked at Sookie and winked her eye.
"Enough you two," Sookie said. She walked over to the blu-ray player to get the movie started. "Why do you two have to fuss every time we have movie night? Let's just eat some popcorn and enjoy the movie."
When Sookie walked back to the couch, she reached over to take the bowl from Claudine's lap but there wasn't much popcorn left. She looked from Claudine to the bowl and back to Claudine again. She could see that Claudine was embarrassed so she didn't say anything but she had to wonder when she had time to eat any of it. She hadn't stopped crying long enough.
"It's okay. We don't need any popcorn," Sookie whispered before she sat down. Unfortunately, Claudette heard her.
Claudette didn't agree. "You've eaten all of the popcorn? Great! Just great! I needed some popcorn. What's the point of having a movie night when we don't have any popcorn?" She took the almost empty bowl from Sookie and sighed. "What am I supposed to do now?"
"Get some chips," Sookie suggested. "I saw some in the cabinet over the fridge. There are some Oreos in there too."
"I want popcorn," Claudette said as she pouted.
"Well, we don't have any more popcorn."
"Because fatty ate it all," Claudette exclaimed.
"You bitch," Claudine spat.
Claudette snapped her fingers and she soon had the bag of chips in her hands.
Claudine began licking her lips. "Can I have …?"
"No," Claudette said. Claudine was about to start up. "Okay, you can have the chips. Do you want some Oreos too, Cici?"
Claudine nodded and smiled.
With a snap of her fingers, Claudette had the cookies and handed them over to her baby sister. She poured her some chips in the popcorn bowl. "Take your time so that you don't choke."
No matter how much they fussed and argued, it could never be disputed that the faeries do love one another.
Claudine burst out laughing. "Thanks, Cissy." She got up from the chair and waddled over to the couch to sit with her sister and cousin. "Move over," she said as she crammed herself in the middle.
"Shut up, you two," Sookie said. "The previews have started."
Within seconds, the arguing and the niceties had stopped and the three faeries were huddled together on the couch and enjoying each other's company. They were only getting started with the movie when there was a knock at the door. Claudette and Sookie looked at Claudine. She couldn't believe that they were looking to her to answer the door.
"I'm pregnant."
"It's your house," they said in unison.
"But I'm pregnant," she repeated.
The cousins looked at each other and crossed their arms over their chests. They were determined not to budge.
As she struggled to get up from her seat, she complained. "You two are something else." She grunted and groaned as her sister and cousin pushed into the standing position. She even wiped her hand across her brow as if she was sweating buckets.
"See," Sookie said. "I knew that you could do it."
"Pause the movie," she ordered.
Once paused, Sookie began thinking about the great time that she'd had with her cousins. The shopping, the lunch, the gossiping; it was a great day. Sookie turned to face her Claudette and placed her hand on her leg.
"Thanks for today. I'm glad that you called me this morning."
Claudette blushed. "You're family and I love you." After an awkward pause, Claudette said, "You know that if you ever need anything you can count on us. Just as I said before, I know things. I can help you."
At first Sookie thought that Claudette was talking about bad marriages. She'd had one of the worst. She'd killed her mate; not because she wanted to. She had to and she'd enjoyed it. He'd planned on killing her and taking control of her earthly territories. When she'd gotten wind of his plan, there was no stopping her. She killed him and his minions. She did it without any help from her kin. Sookie thought that was the type of help that Claudette was offering her but from the look in her eyes there was more to it than that.
"What do you mean?"
She almost didn't say what she wanted to say but she appeared to have changed her mind. "Things are changing. You can't run to grandfather for help. Not now. All is not as it seems," she whispered. "Gran will take care of everything."
"What do you mean?" Sookie asked her again.
"Do you trust me?" Claudette asked. Sookie could hear the seriousness in her voice.
"You know that I do. If I can't trust you, I can't trust anybody. What's going on?" Sookie asked as she turned to face her cousin. "You're scaring me."
Before Claudette could answer Sookie, Claudine came back into the room. She could sense that something was happening but didn't address it. There were more important things that needed to be tended to. "Sookie, sweetie, don't get mad."
Sookie smiled and said, "Why would I …?"
Eric was standing behind Claudine.
Claudette jumped up from the couch and said, "Why are you here?"
"I came to see Sookie." He walked past Claudette and sat beside Sookie. When he sat down, his thigh rested against hers. He leaned back onto the couch and threw his arm over the back of it and asked, "So, what are we watching?"
"The Avengers," Claudine volunteered. She went back to her chair and propped her imaginary swollen feet upon the ottoman. She eyed Eric and said, "What's with the surprise visit? We've invited you to movie night at least a million times and you never wanted to come. Why have you come tonight?"
"To be with Sookie," he replied as he stared at her. He scooted closer to her; crowding her with his body as he relaxed. Sookie thought that she was going to have to sit on the arm of the couch in order to have some room.
"She doesn't want you here." Claudette's shimmer was bright. Sookie could feel the danger in the air.
"It's okay, Cissy. I'm fine. We're not going to let him ruin our good time. Let's start the movie and enjoy ourselves. We can pretend that he's not here."
They all looked at Eric. He looked at them and smiled.
Doing something out of the ordinary again, Claudette calmed down a lot quicker than expected. "If you wish, Sookie," Claudette said. Looking at Eric, she said, "You'd better behave yourself while you're here."
Eric smiled and said, "Of course."
Claudette sat on the other side of Sookie. She grabbed the remote and started the movie. The ladies were soon relaxed as they enjoyed the rest of the movie. They 'ooh'ed and ah'ed' at the fascinating parts of the movie. They jumped when they were surprised. They'd done a pretty good job at pretending that Eric wasn't there. That is until he spoke up.
"This movie is pretty good," he said. "The Iron Man character is quite entertaining. He seems to be a very smart and conniving human. Is that his normal personality or does he behave in that manner because he's the smartest of the bunch?"
"That's just his personality," Claudine answered. Rolling her eyes, she added, "How do you think he became Iron Man?"
"Interesting," Eric replied. "I would love to see the development of his character. Would it be a problem if we rewound the movie so that I can see the development of his character? Would that be …?"
"NO!" the three faeries said at once.
The room was quiet once more. Only this time, Eric pretended to need to stretch and let his arm fall onto Sookie's shoulder. Her body stiffened at his touch. Claudine giggled when she saw the very human and very uncool move that Eric made on her cousin. Claudette rolled her eyes and mumbled the words lame and idiot.
Sookie got up from the couch. "I'll be back."
She ran to the kitchen and paced back and forth. She couldn't believe what was going on. What game was he playing with her? Why was he trying to be her husband all of a sudden?
"What is he doing?" she asked herself.
"I'm trying to show you that I do want to be with you."
His voice surprised her. She swallowed her heart as she turned to face him. "How did you know that I was here?"
"It's movie night. You and your cousins have movie night every week." Softly, he added, "I knew that."
"Oh." She didn't realize that he knew when movie night was. He always seemed so uninterested.
"Just give me a chance, Sookie. All I'm asking for is a chance. I don't expect you to trust me right away. I don't expect you to fall at my feet." He walked slowly to her as not to make her run away from him. "I just want a chance." His voice was gentle and soothing.
She almost believed him.
"Will you please give me chance?" he asked when she didn't say anything.
"Why?"
"I want us to work." His face was soon close to hers. His cool hands were resting against her cheek. The sound of his words sent tingles throughout her body. Against her better judgment, she leaned into his touch and closed her eyes.
"Open the bond, Sookie. Let me know how you feel. Let me know if I have even the smallest chance of reclaiming you as my lover," he said.
"There is no bond," she said as she stepped away from him. She wasn't speaking of the blood bond either. From the look in his eyes, he understood perfectly well what she meant.
He stepped in closer to her. "We need to fix that."
"I feel nothing."
He smiled as if he didn't believe her. "Let me get to know you all over again; without any interference of family or friends. Can we start over? I want to be with you."
She shook her head no. "I don't …"
Interrupting her, Eric said, "If things don't work out, I swear to you, I'll let you go without so much as a single word. We can stay married for the sake of the alliance but live our lives separately if you still want out. We'll have the traditional supernatural marriage. I only ask that you give me another chance. Let me prove myself to you. That's all I ask."
Tears fell from her eyes. "I believed in you the first time. It's too late. I can't do this with you anymore."
"It's not too late," he said simply.
She looked into his eyes as she spoke. "You can't force it. You can't make me want to stay with you. If it happens, it'll happen on its own."
"Are you saying that you'll do it?"
Sookie looked past Eric to see her cousins standing in the doorway. Claudine's swollen ankles didn't appear to be swollen anymore. She was patting her foot and shaking her head no. Claudette was giving her the thumbs up and nodding her head rapidly. She was mouthing the words do it.
"I'm not saying anything." Sookie used her cousins' appearance at the door to escape. "They're waiting for me and we're missing the movie." She walked past Eric and out of the kitchen and back into the living room.
Once they were all seated in their original seats and the movie was playing, Claudette leaned over and said, "You can't see it at the beginning of the movie, Eric. It's not in this movie."
"See what?" Eric asked as he leaned forward to look at Claudette.
"How his character came to be. Iron Man has his own movies. You'll have to watch the first one in order to see how his character was developed."
Eric smiled at her. "Thank you." Resting his arm on the back of the couch and not on Sookie's shoulder this time, he said, "Maybe we can get together and watch it."
Claudine began to rattle the Oreo pack. "Pregnant lady here and she is trying to watch the movie."
"Shut up, Cici," Claudette said. "Sookie, do you want to watch the Iron Man movies? If you don't, we could watch one of your sappy love stories." Looking at Eric, she said, "Your wife loves love stories."
"I know," Eric said as he looked at Sookie.
Sookie said, "I'll let you know. I might have plans."
They all knew that she was lying. She had no plans. She never stood her cousins up on movie night. It was their special night.
Eric looked at her and said, "Just let me know when are free. We can watch it together. Maybe we can watch it at home."
Snidely, Sookie said, "You might be busy." She knew from history that when it came to her, he was always too busy.
"I won't be," he said as he stared at the side of her face.
Sookie frowned as she looked at him. Claudette was smiling. Claudine was frowning as she crammed Oreo after Oreo into her mouth. Eric was proud. He knew that he'd made a little headway. Telling Sookie that he loved her wasn't the answer. He was going to show her; prove it to her. He wasn't going to lose her.