Spellbound
I don't own the characters. They belong to Charlaine Harris. The idea is mine.
Sookie couldn't believe what she'd heard. Her most beloved grandfather has destroyed her marriage but why? What would he get out of it? He had nothing to gain from driving Sookie and Eric apart. How could the man that she's admired all of her life betray her? She closed her eyes and listened as her cousin talked.
"Fintan is the main reason that your marriage is in the state in which it is. Gran found out the other night. She overheard him on the phone talking to Eric. He confronted Fintan about the lies."
To hear that Eric called her grandfather was news. It was shocking to Sookie to hear that they kept in contact with each other. To hear that Eric was confronting Fintan about some lies; that was even more shocking. "She heard him while he was talking to Eric? Did she know for sure that it was him? What did Fintan say?"
"Yeah, she knew. Fintan called him the vampire. What other vampires do we have close ties to? Gran said that Fintan began laughing when Eric told him that you were leaving him. Fintan thought that it was funny. It was amusing to him to hear that he had destroyed your marriage. He doesn't care that you love Eric. He's never cared."
"He wouldn't …"
"Stop it, Sookie. He would and he did. Unbeknownst to either of you, you two played right into his hands. Let me tell you what Gran said."
As Claudette talked, Sookie listened. Never in her wildest dreams would she have imagined that this is what Claudette had to tell her. She thought that she was going to tell her that Colman was betrothed to another faery and that Fintan knew about it. Or maybe that the elves aren't as weird as they had all believed them to be. Fintan had placed spells on all of them and come to find out, they were as normal as the faeries were. She probably would have been able to handle any of that but to hear that her beloved grandfather had sabotaged her marriage … that was something that Sookie had never expected; not in a million years.
"Fintan made him believe that you'd bamboozled him with your magic touch. He made Eric believe that your love wasn't real. You were making him see what you wanted him to see." Pausing, Claudette added, "You can do that, you know?"
Sookie ignored her cousin's smart remark. "But I did love Eric. I loved him the moment I met him. I saw something in his eyes and I was gone. I was his. Fintan told Eric that there is no way that I could really love him?" Sookie asked.
"Yes. He told Eric that every feeling that you'd ever felt for him wasn't real. He said that there's no way that you could ever love him. Faeries can't love vampires. He told Eric that life can't love death. You'd manipulated him in order to get the vampire do whatever you wanted him to do."
Sookie winced as her hand clutched at her chest; not because of what her cousin had revealed to her but because Eric could have believed Fintan's lies. Looking at her cousin, she said, "He believed him."
Claudette hated to see the pained look on Sookie's face but she needed to hear what type of man of grandfather is. If she could have, she would've taken the pain away. "Sookie, you've seen our kin in action when it comes to getting what we want. We will resort to anything. When Eric would visit the palace, Fintan would have him watch you. He would have him watch how you mingled with certain guests. Take the night of your engagement party, for example. Remember Sheena?" Claudette asked.
Sheena is the most hostile elf to have ever lived in Faery. No one ever invited her to any type of function. When she's around, there's usually a fight or a death. Sheena is usually the cause of one or both outcomes. She never gets along with anyone. She's extremely violent and she very rarely smiles; that is until she met Sookie. Fintan invited Sheena to the palace on the night that he and Adele were going to announce Sookie's marriage to Eric.
Sheena is a prominent figure in Faery and she has worked closely with the royal family before so it was really shouldn't have been a surprise that Sheena had been invited but it was. She and Eric were celebrating their pending marriage and Fintan invited the worst elf possible to the party. Sookie didn't understand that but she never questioned her grandfather. At the time, she figured that there had to have been a reason; just not the reason at hand.
She looked Claudette in the eyes and said, "He invited her to prove a point to Eric."
Claudette nodded in agreement. "That's what Gran and I think. The more we talked, the more we could clearly see what Fintan was doing. When Sheena entered the ballroom, she was fussing and carrying on. She threatened anyone that brushed against her. Never once did she smile when she heard a joke or if someone said something even slightly amusing. She almost gave poor Periwinkle a heart attack when he offered her a drink. She would have been mad all night long if …"
"Grandfather hadn't insisted that she was going to ruin my engagement party if I didn't take care of her," Sookie finished. "He told me that I needed to handle her. Eric and I were laughing and talking when Fintan came to me and made the suggestion. They both watched me as I walked over to where she was."
Going back to that night, she recalled how Fintan was whispering in Eric's ear as he was watching her. Sookie could only imagine what Fintan said to him as she replaced Sheena's feelings of anger and malice with calm and love.
Claudette touched Sookie's arm. "Did you notice that quite a few of the guests were guests that you needed to handle? It was a set up, Sookie."
"Why didn't I see it?"
"Why would you? None of us saw it. The guests were people that we've always known. They are important members of our world. If Fintan told you that they were going to ruin your and Eric's night if you didn't 'handle' them, what were you supposed to do? You wouldn't have known what Fintan was up to. None of us knew; not even Gran."
"Poor Gran," Sookie whispered. "Her poor heart must be breaking. He's not what she believed him to be. He not what any of us believed him to be." Placing her hand on Claudette's lap, Sookie said, "I need to see her."
"She's fine," Claudette said. But the look in her eyes told Sookie something entirely different. "Before we worry about anything else, we need to figure this out; Gran's orders."
"But she's …"
"Gran's orders," Claudette said firmly. "You can't go home. Not now."
They've never disobeyed Gran and when Gran gave an order, all of the Brigant offspring knew that it was to be followed regardless of your position in the land of Fae.
"Okay," she replied.
As the girls sat in silence, Sookie wondered why Fintan would do this to her. He knew how much it meant to her to be with Eric. She told Fintan that she saw something in Eric's eyes. She knew that he was the one. Sookie told him how much she loved Eric and how she wanted to be with him. Even without the contract, Eric was the one that she wanted. Sookie became angrier as she thought of the hug that her grandfather gave her after she told him how she felt about Eric.
"He told me that he was happy for me. He told me that he couldn't have chosen a better mate for me. I believed him."
"I'm so sorry cousin but he didn't mean it. He never meant it. Sookie, may I ask you a question?" Claudette asked.
She nodded.
"I know that you can't read our minds but you can feel things when you touch us. Why didn't you feel his true intentions?"
"He hid them from me. His hugs were always filled with love. His kisses were genuine. His blessings were true. I can only guess that he meant those things but only for me; never for Eric."
Sookie's anger increased as the reality of Claudette's words sunk in. Her grandfather had purposely destroyed her marriage. He'd led Eric to believe that she could never love him. Eric believed that he was nothing more than a pawn in a game that she was playing. Fintan never cared about her happiness. He only wanted them married because of the contract. It would benefit him and he was the only one that mattered. Sookie's brow then furrowed. Anger was soon replaced with hurt.
"Eric believed him."
Claudette nodded.
"Why would he believe him?"
"Because he felt that Fintan knew you better than he did and …"
"He believed me to be deceitful and manipulative. He believed that I would trick him into loving me. I would never have done that to him, Claudette. I would never want to have to resort to trickery to have a man love me; no matter how much I want him."
She knew that Sookie would never do that. Claudette only wished that Eric had followed his heart. "I don't know what to say."
Sookie looked down at her hands and said, "There's nothing to say is there? Do you know what he told me last night? Eric told me that he never wanted to lose me. He told me that I'm more than just another woman and that I hold the highest position in his life." She looked at Claudette and said, "I'm all of those things to him but he would willingly believe that I … that I would make a fool of him."
Looking into Sookie's eyes was more painful that she expected. Claudette wanted to take the pain away. She wanted to tell Sookie that everything was going to be alright but she didn't want to lie so she said nothing. Her heart was heavy and it was breaking. She knew what it felt like to be in love and then be betrayed in the worst way. She wanted to give Sookie the right answer but she didn't have it. For the first time ever, she didn't know what to say.
"I wish I knew."
Sookie decided to return to the subject of Fintan betrayals. "When I went home to tell him and Gran that I wanted out of the contract, he sent me back here to be with Eric. They both sent me back and that was before Gran knew anything about Fintan's betrayal. If he wanted me to be away from Eric, he should've kept me there."
"Gran told me about that. She feels awful about letting you down," Claudette answered. "She said that she believed that if you'd returned home, you would've been hurting yourself in the long run. She was thinking of your obligation to our races and to you. She's knows that you love him."
"She was wrong."
"Stop it."
"Well," Sookie began but didn't finish.
"Fintan wanted you to stay here so that you can hate Eric. He wants Eric to mistreat you. He wants your hatred for Eric to grow. He wants you and Eric to live apart. He doesn't want you to sleep with him or feed from him. He especially doesn't want the vampire feeding from you. He has a plan, Sookie. Fintan always has a plan," Claudette said simply.
Sookie looked almost confused.
"He thought that once you were clean of the vampire, you'd be suitable for what awaits you once you return home."
"Why?"
Claudette rolled her eyes. "It's springtime, silly."
"I know."
"Do you know nothing of our traditions? During the springtime, you grow closer to your mate. You become one. You are no longer one person; you and your mate will become one soul; one being. And because of that, anything can and will happen."
Sookie blushed. "I've never had a mate in Faery. You know that. I wouldn't know what the springtime does to you."
Claudette made a silly face, "Sorry, I forgot that you had a white wedding. One more lover and I would have been wearing black. Claudine would have worn brown and poor Claudia would've gone naked."
The girls giggled at Claudette's words. Obviously, that was her goal because she winked at Sookie before she continued. "You don't have to have a lover in Faery. The one that you're with, the one that you've chosen as your mate, he is the one that becomes a part of you and you are a part of him. You don't have to be in our world to have the spring fever. You have to be fae and ta-da, you're fae. You're powerful, Sookie and for you, anything can happen. Because you love Eric, anything can happen. From what Gran has learned, as soon as the contact has expired, Fintan has already chosen another mate for you so that you can have little fae children."
"Why wouldn't he just keep me in Faery?"
Claudette began knocking on Sookie's head as if she was knocking on the door. "Have you not heard anything I've said? You have to be clean of the vampire. Think about it, Sookie."
Sookie's eyes widen. "It's springtime!"
"Exactly," Claudette said. She fell back onto the couch as if she was completely exhausted.
"Cissy?"
"Yeah?"
"Why did Eric call Fintan?"
"To confront him," Claudette replied.
"About what?" Sookie asked.
"You."
"Me?"
"He wanted to know why Fintan told him that you never loved him." Claudette shrugged her shoulders as she sat up on the couch. "He felt stupid for believing what Fintan told him, I guess. He should have felt stupid, the fucking idiot. Any doofus could have seen that you were in love with him."
"He told me that he didn't want to lose me."
Claudette looked at Sookie with a cocked eye. "I guess he realizes that he shouldn't have listened to Fintan. I believe that he doesn't want to lose you," Claudette said.
"Thanks for telling me."
"I wouldn't have wanted you to learn of this from anyone else. It's best that I am the one that told you."
"Why?"
"Would have believed Eric if he'd told you?"
Sookie shook her head without even thinking about it.
"If Gran had told you, would have believed her?"
Sookie was about to answer her with a big fat yes but she closed her mouth. She didn't know. Especially with Gran sending her back to Eric without listening to her plea, she didn't know.
"See," Claudette said as she patted Sookie's on the shoulder. "I have nothing to gain from any of this. The main reason I agreed to do this for Gran was because I believe in love and I believe in you."
"I know and I've always believed in you."
"May I ask you something?"
"Sure."
She kicked off her shoes and placed her feet on Sookie's lap. "Will you massage my feet? I've had a hectic morning."
Sookie laughed and said, "Yes but only because you made me such a delicious breakfast." She began massaging her tired cousin's feet.
As she began to relax, Claudette spoke again. "May I ask you another question?"
"Sure."
"Do you love him?"
Sookie wanted to say no but she couldn't. She loved Eric the very day they'd met. She loved him before she told him that the marriage was over and she loved him the day after she told him that the marriage was over. She loved him today. She wanted to fall out of love with him as quickly as she could but it hadn't happened as she had expected it to. She thought that she would wake up the next morning and every feeling that she'd ever had for him would be gone. The hurt, the pain, and the love hadn't gone anywhere.
"I don't want to love him," she said. "I want to hate him for making me believe that he cheated on me. I want to hate him for ignoring me at the summits and acting as if I didn't exist. He has an entire life, Claudette that I'm not a part of. If I had any sense at all, I'd hate him with every fiber of my being. I want to hate him but I don't."
"I know. It's hard to hate them when you've loved them for so long. You may not believe this but I hated killing Lucian but I knew that it was something that I had to do. It was either going to be me or him. I decided that it was going to be him."
Sookie knew how much Lucian meant to Claudette. He was her everything. She met him in the earthly realm. He was different and she loved that about him. She didn't care that he was a Were and he didn't care that she was a fae. He didn't care that she came from the royal family and that she was beyond wealthy either; so she thought.
"I loved him, Sookie." Tears fell from Claudette's eyes. "He made me laugh when I wanted to cry. He would talk to me. I loved it when he talked to me. He wasn't like the others. He didn't always have a 'yes' response for everything that I said. He didn't mind telling me that I was wrong. He stood up to me when the others would bend to my will. He was strong and I liked that."
Giggling, Sookie said, "I thought that it was funny that he could get you to shut up when no one else could. You'd be on one of your rants but as soon as he walked into the room your lips would find his and we would hear nothing else from you for hours. That was heaven."
She sat up and punched Sookie in the arm as they laughed together. When the laughing died down, the mood in the room changed. Claudette said, "I never got to tell him that I was pregnant."
Sookie stopped massaging Claudette's feet. She couldn't believe what she'd heard. Claudette never told anyone that she was pregnant. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"I never got to the chance to tell anyone. I'd found out that he was trying to kill me but I found out too late."
"What happened to the baby?"
"He fed me the deadliest fruit."
"No!" At that moment, Sookie wished that Lucian was alive so that she could take her time and kill him.
"I was almost dead. Eric found me just in time and he saved me." Claudette placed her hand on her stomach as she continued. "As you can see, I survived. My baby didn't."
"Oh, Cissy," Sookie said.
When she went in to give Claudette a hug, she raised her hands in the halt motion. "Don't; please." She knew that if Sookie hugged her, the tears would have never stopped. She didn't want that. Today wasn't about her or her marriage to Lucian. It was about Sookie and Eric. "After I was healed, Eric told me about Lucian's plan. He'd overheard him talking to some other Weres."
"Did he give you his blood?" She dropped her eyes to her hands so that her cousin couldn't see what was in her eyes. Sookie hoped that she would say no. She hated feeling that way but the thought of Claudette feeding from Eric made her jealous. It was too personal; too sexual to do with just anyone. That was something that should only be shared at the most intimate of times.
"No," Claudette answered. "He said that he did not share his blood with just anyone; not even his in-laws. He had Pam give me blood. He said that he has never given his blood to anyone but his wife and child."
Relief filled her completely but her face and body remained neutral. "I'm glad that she was there."
"I'll bet you are." Claudette laughed. "After I was well, we went on a roaring rampage and killed the traitors. I killed Lucian but not before I told him about the baby. He'd always wanted a baby. The look of pain on his face when I told him that he killed our child will be my sweetest revenge. To have him die filled with pain and guilt was more than I could have asked." Her eyes were a bright and deadly green. Her breathing had quickened. Her smile was evil. She was basking in the last moments of his life. Sookie gripped Claudette's hand and shared in her glory.
Lucian's dark black eyes were clouded over with pain. His agonizing screams filled the night air as he dropped to his knees. The sight of Claudette's sword sweeping through the air and removing his head as that very moment was the sweetest revenge. For all time, his face would hold his agony and his pain. His afterlife would be his just punishment.
"Beautiful," Sookie whispered.
"Glorious," Claudette said as she squeezed Sookie's hand. "I know that what he did was wrong and he never should've placed faith in anything that Fintan had to say but Eric's not all bad, Sookie. He helped me kill when he was supposed to have no part of it. He saved me. He's never cheated. He regrets what he's done to you; especially how he's made you feel. He's made mistakes. We've all made mistakes." Laughing, Claudette added, "At least he's never tried to kill you."
"For the record, no matter how you try to make that funny, it's never going to be. And as far as Eric goes, I thought that he loved me. What hurts the most is that I trusted him to never hurt me and he did." Sookie placed her hand to her chest and said, "You and Gran can't expect me to forget the way he's treated me. A few sweet words and the truth behind his treatment of me; they're not going to make things better. Eric had a choice and he chose to believe Fintan."
"I know that," Claudette replied. "You don't have to make a decision right now and you don't have to make a decision based on what Gran and I think. Look, I have an idea. You leave Eric a note and tell him that you're going to go a little sabbatical with me. It'll give us a little girl time and it gives you some time to think. You can make your decision then. What do you say? Me and you? A few laughs? My treat?"
Sookie loved the idea of a little stress-free time. It would give her the time that she needed to figure out what she really wanted to do with her life. Did she want to be free or did she want to make her marriage work? There was only one thing that she could do. She popped herself to the kitchen and grabbed a notepad and a pen from the utility drawer.
After she'd written Eric a note, she popped to her room and packed her a bag and grabbed her purse. Within seconds, she was back in the living room with Claudette.
"I'm ready," she said with a smile.
Claudette stood up from the couch and took Sookie's hand. "We are going to have a great time." Before they popped away, she looked at Sookie and said, "While we're there, you can tell me why you've been hiding secrets from me."
"What are you talking a...?"
"Look at my face, Sookie," Claudette said. "Do I look stupid? And if you say yes, I'm going to kick your ass."
Sookie began laughing.
"Anyway," Claudette said. "I've noticed your differences. I've never seen a faery look as different as you do. Your glow is off and your eyes aren't as bright. You're going to tell me why you've kept this secret a secret."
Sookie only stared at Claudette. She wasn't about to tell Claudette anything that she very well couldn't accept herself. "There's nothing going on and there's no secret. I've just been going through a lot lately and ..."
Claudette shook her head. "I'm not buying it." Shrugging her shoulders, she said, "We'll have a few days to ourselves. You'll tell me. You always do."