Spellbound

Thank you all so much for your time and your reviews. I especially want to thank you for understanding that it will take time for things to transpire. Enjoy the chapter.

Meanwhile, back in the land of Fae …

She couldn't believe it. She didn't want to believe it but she had no choice. She'd heard him say it. She'd heard the ugly words come from his very mouth. She'd heard him with her very own ears. How could the man that she's loved for many centuries be so harsh? So cruel to one of his own? His very flesh and blood.

Adele sat in her parlor and reminisced of the day that she became Fintan's wife. The gossip mill was running rampant in her hometown. The entire town thought that the Stackhouses were a different breed. They were considered low rent, white trash. At times they were considered to be lower than white trash. It didn't matter that her father had hundreds of acres of land or that he owned his own feed store; two as a matter of fact. Her family has always been seen as 'different'. That's what makes them Stackhouses. The Stackhouses knew that they were talked about but they didn't care. What the townspeople thought or what they believed didn't matter. They were proud of who they were. But when Adele ran off with Fintan, the town really started gossiping then. They talked trash about her parents because they 'allowed' her to run off with a complete stranger.

She knew that it wasn't normal for a woman to run off with a complete stranger and marry him. She didn't care. It was her life. It was her decision. It was her choice to go with Fintan and she did what she felt was right. To her, it was right. He was her destiny. How did she know? He made her happy. He fulfilled her every dream; her every wish. Every fantasy she'd ever had was turned into a reality because of him. What more could she have asked for?

Adele dropped her head and sighed.

"Lady Brigant," Serene said as she entered the room. "Are you ready for your tea?"

Adele looked up and smiled at the young servant girl. "No, thank you," she replied as she shook her head. "I will have no tea tonight. I request that you leave me in peace."

Serene bowed to Adele as she left the room.

Adele walked to the opened french doors of her parlor and stood on her balcony. She looked out at her most dearly loved garden. Every flower that danced in the winds of Fae in that garden, were planted by Fintan's hand. It was a wedding gift to her. He told her that he'd been watching her and he knew how she loved the sun and the flowers. Tulips, lilies, roses, gardenias, chrysanthemums; every flower known to man, Fintan planted in Adele's Garden. That's what he named it…Adele's Garden. He told her that there was no other suitable name.

"A beautiful garden deserves a beautiful name."

Just like all other nights, when she looked out in that garden she saw the very love that he felt for her. It was once a love that she trusted with every fiber of her being. She'd never known such love before in her life.

Cruel; how could he be so cruel?

Adele never expected to fall in love with Fintan Brigant. He was arrogant and rude. He stalked her. He didn't approach her father as a normal suitor would have. He was everything that a future husband shouldn't have been. What normal man behaves had he did?

She chuckled.

She didn't find out until later that he wasn't a normal man at all but in the end that didn't matter to her either. He loved her and she loved him. Until Fintan, she never knew what eternal love meant. She didn't know anything about love until she met him. She never imagined that their love would be an eternal love … a forever love. When she was with Fintan, she was at peace. He loved her, honored her, and cherished her. They'd built an entire life together. It was built on love, trust, and honesty.

Or so I believed.

Even after all she'd found out, she loves him and she can't stop. When she was around Fintan, Adele couldn't seem to control herself. She always has the need to touch him; to be close to him. She needed to feel his love. She loved the way his lips kissed her skin. When he would inhale the scent her hair, the feel of his heartbeat would quicken. She thought of the sweet things that he would say to her. She thought of the questions that he has always asked her when they are alone in the parlor or walking through Adele's Garden. The sweet things that he would say to her as they walked over the little bridge that hung over the pond as the swans swam underneath always made her feel special.

"You know that I will love you forever?" he would ask.

"Most certainly," she would answer.

"We are going to grow very old together."

"How old?" she'd ask.

"Very old," he'd say. "We are going to walk through this garden every night under the moonlight just as we did on our wedding night."

"Is that a date?" she would ask.

"If you'll have me," he would answer.

Every night she would take his hands into hers and she always said the same thing. "I've loved you since the day you stepped onto my daddy's porch. Neither my daddy nor his shotgun was going to keep me away from you. So yes, my dearest love I will have you."

"Forever?" he asks.

"Always," she answers.

Was that a lie too? Was everything that he'd ever said to me a lie? What about the things he'd done for me? Was it real? Was any of it real?

Fintan had changed her life. In that one day of meeting him, everything that was important to her came second to Fintan. Every thought was of Fintan. For Adele, every moment revolved around their life as one. When it came to the love that they shared, it strengthened her heartbeat; her life line. Spending time together alone at home is their greatest past time. When the doors would close behind them, they never wanted to leave the room. The world seemed to vanish when they were together. Their words were whispers. Their bodies, their souls, even their breaths became one.

"I live only for you, Adele."

Adele looked out at her garden and said, "That was the way our life was always supposed to be. It was to be no other way."

As she thought of the love that she and Fintan once shared, Adele thought of her parents. She pitied her mother. She wished that her mother could have experienced the love that she had with Fintan. Adele loved her father but he never loved her mother as Fintan loved her.

He never gave his wife flowers. He never gave her candy. He never wrote her love letters; not even notes that he could have placed neatly on the fridge. There was no sharing of secrets or sneaking kisses between the two of them. No sneaking of the love pats that the kids weren't supposed to see.

Adele only knew that her daddy loved her mama because he always took care of her and made sure that she had all that she needed. She didn't know for sure but her daddy never gave her mama anything that she wanted. Until Fintan, she never knew that a man could love a woman so deeply. She didn't want a marriage that appeared to be loveless. From that moment on, she was determined that anyone that she loved was going to have what she has with Fintan.

"I can't imagine spending my life with anyone but you," he said to her. He says that to her every day. Was it true? Was he going to ruin her life by throwing her to the side as if she never mattered? Was he playing with her life just as he's played with others? Was he playing with her life as he'd played with Sookie's?

Has everything been a lie?

It suddenly dawned on her. Maybe her daddy did give her mama what she wanted. Maybe all she wanted was a stable home for her family. It could have been her mother's dream to marry a man that would provide for her. What right did Adele have to question the love that her daddy had for her mother? Just because they didn't love the way she and Fintan did, didn't mean that her daddy didn't love her mother just as much.

She and Fintan would spend hours together and not have to talk to each other. Just holding onto one another was enough. Being in each other's presence was like standing under the summer sun for the first time. The gazillionth kiss that they shared was like the first kiss that they'd ever shared. Adele knew that what they had was true love. Or so she'd thought.

I should've confronted him. I should've told him that he was wrong. I should've let him know that I am and will forever be ashamed of what he has done. If I had, I know what he would have done. He would have denied it all. He would have told me that I didn't hear what I thought I'd heard. He would have given me a line and I probably would have fallen for it.

Adele chuckled.

I've always fallen for his lines.

Oh, Fintan's lines always made her swoon. Her heart would skip beats and her pulse would race. "His lines," she murmured aloud. "I loved those lines." She shook her head as her idea of true love began to die.

"There was no life before you, my sweetest Adele."

"Everything that I am is because of you, my dearest love."

"The love of my life," he said. "Come to me and let me hold you."

Standing together, dancing cheek to cheek, whispering words that only the other could hear; that's what he did for her. He made her feel loved and wanted. He told her that he adored her. Even after centuries of being together, he still wanted to make love to her every night. He still wanted to hold her hand every day. And just like clockwork, no matter where he was, he always told her that he loves her. Every day since they've been together, he's told her that he loves her.

How could he mean it? If he can lie to me, how can he say that he loves me?

As she looked out into the night, tears of sadness fell from her eyes. He'd taken her trust and destroyed it without as much as a second thought. He has left her shattered and broken. His professions of undying love and loyalty were nothing more than lies. How can they can go back to the way they were before?

Adele believed that if he truly loves her, he wouldn't have lied to her. He wouldn't have betrayed her. He would be the man of honor that she married. He would be the man that he'd always promised to be. He wouldn't have destroyed their granddaughter's marriage the way that he's done.

Eric loves her. Sookie loves him. What right does Fintan have to do what he's done?

When she heard him ask Eric if he and Sookie had stopped sleeping together, Adele knew what Fintan had planned. If Eric and Sookie stop making love for a certain amount of time, it opens the door for Sookie to take another lover; a fae lover. She can then breed pure fae babies. Once Eric's scent is removed from her, Fintan will pounce and there's nothing that Adele or anyone else can do about it.

She knew last night when she visited Sookie that she and Eric were no longer sharing a bedroom or blood. The bond was still there but the connection between them is weak. Fintan's plan had worked. He had won.

But he can never know. There was but one thing to do.

Adele squeezed her eyes closed and said, "I should have known." She began to cry. "I should have known."

When Sookie came home to tell them that she was tired of the way that Eric was treating her and that she wanted to come home, Adele thought that Sookie was giving up on love. She thought that her granddaughter had decided that the faery tales weren't real. She believed that Sookie had let the vampire's true nature win out. She didn't know that evil was involved.

Adele didn't realize that Eric was withholding his affections from her because he was led to believe that Sookie never loved him. She didn't know that Fintan had told him that lie. The night that Sookie came to them, Adele honestly believed that Eric's vampiric ways were the problem and that Sookie would get used to it. She believed that Sookie would understand that Eric really loves her but he couldn't show it. He's a vampire.

"It's as if he's ashamed of me, grandmother. When we go to summits or parties, I work one end of the room and he works the other. That's not how it's supposed to be. Why is he ashamed of me? What have I done to deserve that?" Her pain was evident and it was heartbreaking.

"They never show their affections in public. It is a sign of weakness for a vampire to show anything or anyone love." Adele had warned Sookie before she married Eric what to expect.

Sookie understood.

Adele had never been so wrong and so sorry for what she'd done to Sookie when she turned her away. She wished that she could go back to that night. She would take Sookie into her arms and hold her and love her the way a grandmother should. She'd let Sookie down but she wouldn't make the same mistake twice. She was going to make sure that Sookie got what she wanted.

Quickly glancing over her shoulder, Adele waved her hands over face and the tears were instantly gone. He was coming.

"My sweetest Adele," Fintan said as he entered the room. "Are you not well? I thought that I could feel your despair. If there is anything wrong, tell me, my sweet. I can make it better."

Adele's heart broke a little more with each word he'd spoken. She didn't know whether to believe him or not but she couldn't show him. She was going to have to play the dutiful wife in order to give her granddaughter what she wanted. Sookie wanted Eric and she was going to have Eric. If it wasn't too late, Adele was going to do everything in her power to make it happen.

She turned around to face Fintan with a glowing and loving smile on her face. "I am fine. I was just standing here and admiring my garden. It is beautiful."

"Anything for you, my Adele," Fintan said as he wrapped his arms around her.

"You do love me, Fintan, don't you? You wouldn't lie to me about that, would you?"

He stepped back from Adele and looked into her eyes. His eyes showed that he was hurt that she would question his love. "I can't believe that you would ask me that. I've never loved anyone but you."

She swallowed deeply. The next question would tell her what she needed to know. "You would never lie to me, would you? Hide anything from me? No matter how insignificant you believe it to be? You would never lie to me. If you love someone, you can never lie to them."

He didn't answer her. He pulled her into his body and tightened his grip on her. "I love you," he whispered.

She turned her back to him in order to admire her garden. "Cool night," she replied.

He still had his arms lovingly wrapped around her. "I do love you, Adele."

"I wish that everyone could have the kind of love that we have; honest and true."

Fintan dropped his head in shame; though Adele couldn't see it.

"I hope that Claudine and Colman have what we have. I hope that sweet, Claudette gets her true love. I hope that Sookie and Eric have what we have. They deserve it, don't you think? Sookie deserves to be happy. After all that she's done for her people, who deserves it more than she?" Adele asked. "Eric makes her so happy. He loves her, Fintan. He truly loves her."

"Everyone deserves love," he replied. Shame filled him. He knew that Sookie deserved love but she couldn't find that love with a vampire.

Adele closed her eyes as she talked to Fintan. "It makes me happy that Sookie is going to give Eric another chance. I hope that she never gives up on love. He loves her and hopefully, he'll open up to her. It isn't too late for them. Love always finds a way."

Fintan pressed his body closer to Adele's. "Not everyone is as open with their love as we are. Eric is a vampire. Sookie can only expect so much from him."

"She didn't believe that at first. She can't believe it now."

Fintan kissed the top of Adele's head. "It may be too late for them."

Adele went along with what Fintan said. "You might be right. It might be too late." She patted his hand as she stared out into her garden.

Adele was going to do what she had to do. She was going to save Eric and Sookie's marriage; even if she had to go behind Fintan's back in order to do it.