I picked up the phone and said, "Yes, Victor," in a way that was probably far less respectful for one in his position called. It was the best he was going to get from me at that moment. I was of the opinion that respect was something that one earned; it was not just something that was freely given without a reason. Victor had done nothing to earn my respect, and I doubted that he ever would, even if I gave him the opportunity and I had no plans to do anything of that kind.
Moreover, if that made me a bad, bad vampire, so be it.
However, it was not Madden on the phone and I did not have much respect for the vampire who was on the receiving end. Unfortunately I did need to fake it somewhat a bit more when I dealt with him. I only hoped it was for a little while longer.
"Not exactly the best way to answer a call from your Regent, or at least from his phone," Felipe's voice rang out. That was when I realized I had been set up. The problem was I that was no closer to determining just who, in fact, had arranged it. It could be either of them. At this point, I was just trying to determine whom I first needed to finally kill. However, at the time, it did not seem that I would be able to only kill one of them.
"My apologies, Your Majesty," I bit out; doing my best to make sure it did not sound as if I was saying it through clenched teeth.
He hummed in response and I did not know him enough to understand what that meant. If it had been Sophie-Anne, it would have meant to duck and cover indicating it was a sign that she was not pleased. With Sophie-Anne, I would have also had an idea of how to respond in a way that would have diffused the situation. Unfortunately, that was most certainly not the case with current monarch and his regent.
Nothing that I had observed from Felipe made sense in all I had heard about him. It really made me think that Victor was truly the one with the power. When it came to me that was not a good thing. The two of them seemed to have very different opinions regarding my survival after the takeover. Felipe seemed open to having me in his retinue, excited about it even, provided I fully supported him.
Victor was making that difficult, if not damn impossible.
"I am here at your bar waiting on you to discuss something very important as to the safety of our states. Imagine my surprise that at this difficult time, an hour after sunset, neither you nor or your child have yet to show."
I showed restraint when I did not point out that he, himself, was the reason that we were in this 'difficult' time and, if were up to me, he could get himself out of it and try to knit these states together. On the other hand, I had a stake I could let him and Madden borrow to end them, and it might be enough to get us out of this mess.
"I am heading there now," I told him, or I would be as soon as I hung up this damn phone. If Felipe was there, I could not afford trying to put him off as I would have if it were simply Madden who had called.
"Good, good," Felipe said, and I did not like the tone I heard in his voice. "There is something important I need to tell you."
I did not miss his use of the word 'tell'. He did not say 'discuss'. He did not say 'let you know'. He said 'tell'. Already, even prior to the actual discussion, he was trying to ensure my control was limited. If he was going to tell me something, that left very little room for me to try to maneuver around something that I most probably would dislike.
At least that was his hope.
However, the more interaction I had with them, the more I was learning about them and the ways in which they worked as well. That was something that I could use to learn how to outmaneuver them in their own situations.
At least that was my hope.
"I look forward to it," I told him, lying through my teeth. It was something he would expect. He would expect me to fight back in any small way I could. Right now, I had to do what he expected and allow him to believe he had more control than he did.
More as if I could imagine that I had more control than I did if I was honest with myself.
I decided to fly to Fangtasia. I was tempted to drive as that would be the slower choice, but ultimately I decided not to prolong the inevitable. In reality I had thought the sooner I arrived and dealt with what was sure to be a torturous meeting, the sooner I could get back home and to all that was there.
In theory anyway. It could have also meant that I just had to suffer longer, but I was willing to take my chances if it got me home sooner.
I should have driven.
I could take Madden. Sure, it usually took all of my carefully taught control to not rip his head from his shoulders, but Victor alone I could tolerate. It turned out; Victor with Felipe was something that I could not take as well as I could take Victor alone. The vampire was bad enough when it was simply him I had to deal with; throw in the monarch, or at least the monarch in name, and Victor's arrogance tripled while my patience was cut in half. Honestly, it was more like cut in a third.
The three of us did make it through the meeting though. Saying that it was close to being not true would have been quite the understatement. I wanted to rip their heads from their shoulders. I could feel their skin, their shirts under my fingers. It would have been so simple for me. However, the reason that they left my office with their heads still firmly attached to their shoulders was that the consequences of their deaths would have been anything but simple. I had not yet had the opportunity to plan for all the contingencies their deaths could have potentially caused, to ensure that everyone I cared for would not only have survived their deaths, but were in a good position afterward. That was the only reason that they survived that meeting.
My desk chair was not so lucky after they left my office.
I left the club feeling dejected. I had no control over any of the situations in where I'd found myself, and that was a rather daunting feeling. Not only did I have no control, I could not even stop them from spiraling even further out of control. I had seen this coming. I knew what they would do, what I would do if I was in their position. Though I had other motivations, it was one of the reasons that I had Sookie present me with the knife and become my wife. I had done it to protect her although it was most certainly my love for her that kept me wanting to ensure that she was protected. It was a mistake.
Not wanting to protect her, nor wanting her to be my wife, those were not my mistakes. In fact, those may have been my two best decisions, if you could call love a decision. My mistake was the way in which I had her do it with no explanation, with none of my feelings exposed, and then coupled with little to no contact over the last few months, it was no wonder she had left the message she did on my phone.
I like to think of myself as reasonably intelligent. I doubt that I could have survived a thousand years if that statement was untrue. Yet when it came to Sookie, I did not think that was something I could say.
There was one thing of which I certain, one hundred percent certain, even if I did not yet have a solid plan. Neither de Castro nor Madden would get their hands on my wife. I did not care in what form we were discussing; they would not lay a hand on Sookie.
Felipe wanted Sookie to use her ability. It was something that I had been expecting and something that I had been counting on. I, however, did not plan that he would want her to listen to every single human employed by vampires in the three states. I did not plan for her to be a mere child when he requested this. With all my planning, with all my backup plans, I never once thought either of these scenarios would happen.
Yet, here I was, faced with the both of them.
I would have barely allowed de Castro and Madden to use Sookie and her ability if she was a consenting adult. I would not have been able to give an outright no; Sookie would not have been able to give an outright no as an answer, but I would have fought to make sure she was protected. I would not have had it any other way.
However, with Sookie as a child, that was not someone that I could ever simply just hand over to them. That was something that I could never even let them have any awareness about. I did not even want to imagine what they could do with that information, what kind of control they might try to exert over Sookie and myself. If this was something they would continue to push, and there was no doubt in my mind that they would, I had very little time to try and resolve whatever the fuck happened to Sookie. I would delay, and that would probably cause them to push even more.
This would cause me to push them over a cliff if need be to protect Sookie. That meant I had to come up with contingency plans sooner than I would have liked. Hurried plans tend not to be the best plans and that was something that concerned me. I also needed to plan how to make Madden and de Castro become sludge in the ground.
I had so many plans to make.
I landed in a yard, and it took me a second to realize where I had flown. It was a yard that I recognized, but it was not one of my mine. It was Sookie's. I should have been surprised that I had mindlessly flown here, but I was not. I had been drawn to Sookie since she had first stepped foot in my bar. Sure the reason for the draw may have changed, but I was not about to lie and deny its presence.
Having taken that into consideration, it was no surprise that this was where I ended up after having left Fangtasia. It should have been a shock to me that when I felt like this, I would go toward something that I was drawn to; something that this draw to had been increasing almost nightly. I could not be with that person, not really anyway, but I could be somewhere where I felt close to her.
I took Sookie's keys out of my pocket and unlocked her front door. I had taken to carrying them with me since I had discovered them at her house the night I found her in the woods. I did not want anything to happen to her. I did not want anyone, or anything, to gain entry into her house.
I went in and I watered the plants she had inside, not wanting her to come back to dead plants. I noticed then that there were dishes in the sink. Okay, it may have been more that my nose followed this horrible smell to the sink, but once I got there, I saw what had produced the smell. I washed the dishes to ensure that Sookie would not come back to a smelly house.
It may have been the first time I had ever washed dishes. If it was for Sookie, it may not be the last.
I continued to walk through the house, making sure I righted anything that seemed out of place or not up to Sookie's standards. That included dusting a few things. It may or may not have been my first time washing dishes, but I was positive that it was my first time dusting anything. However, Sookie took pride in her house, something I had gathered from conversations that her grandmother had taught her. Taking pride in something that is yours was something that I could understand.
Once the house passed my inspection and seemed like it would pass Sookie's, I sat down on the couch and made my phone call to the half-demon, Desmond Cataliades. I should have known he would not pick up the phone; no, I just had not been that lucky lately. I left a message asking him to call me back. When he had been working for Sophie-Anne, he would get back in a reasonable time. I hoped that that was a trend that would continue.
I did not know if I had enough sanity to keep Sookie's situation a secret, deal with Felipe and Victor while simultaneously plotting their final deaths, and search dimensions for a half-demon; that may have put me over the edge.
I would give him until tomorrow night, and then I would find out how over the edge it would send me.
As I was about to leave, I saw a bag just outside the kitchen, back behind where the laundry machines could be found. I moved closer to check it only to find it was a bag of laundry, but not Sookie's laundry judging by the clothes that were in the bag. They were clearly men's clothes and by the scent of them, they belonged to Sookie's brother. He had probably dropped them off thinking his sister would wash them. While part of me would be angry that Jason was assuming his sister would do his wash for him, I also knew it was something Sookie enjoyed doing for her brother. She did like to help others.
The bag of laundry did make me nervous though. Jason was intelligent, even if he appeared not to be at times. He would realize that his sister was 'missing,' at least to his knowledge. If he appeared to be looking for his sister, that would not be good.
Yet another addition to this situation that I would have to solve.
I took my leave of Sookie's house, making sure that I locked the door securely behind me. I hoped that I would not have to come back in a few nights to ensure the upkeep of the house. I hoped the next time it would need to be dusted or cleaned Sookie would be able to do it. Moreover, I would be there to help her.
I flew home, taking my time as I thought through plans, and I thought through all that I knew about demons. Demons did not necessarily hold much magic themselves however; there were species of demons that were close to beings that hold a good bit of magic.
That was the thought that almost sent me falling from the sky.
Fairies. Fucking fairies!
Demons and fairies tended to get along better than other species of Supernaturals, especially when it came to mischief. I did not know, especially with what happened mere months ago, why I did not account for the possibility of Sookie's Fae relatives. They should have been my first suspects! I could have blamed my shock of the situation, but I should have been able to have enough control to think clearly and determine this possibility.
This was something Cataliades should be able to help me with whenever he called me back. He knew demons and he knew fairies. At least I had some starting points. I could continue to research, and with hope, he would be able to fill in the blanks.
Come to think of it, the demon lawyer might also be able to help me with a few contingency plans. For the first time since the night of the takeover, I had hope. Sure, it was a minuscule amount of hope, but it was something with which I could work. It was something that I could make grow.
I got back to my house with only an hour left until sunrise. I quietly went in; sensing that Sookie was asleep and I did not want to wake her. I sat down on my couch in the dark. I expected the little footsteps when I heard them; it had become somewhat of a nightly routine. It was one that as much as I wished she would get some uninterrupted sleep, I was not about to do anything to stop. It was our time, our nightly time that I wished I could have given her in the months prior. I hated that it took this to make me see it.
However, it was not something that I was going to be stopping. It was something that I would enjoy while I had it. It was something that I would do anything to make sure continued once we figured out what exactly happened to Sookie.
Then Sookie opened her mouth and said something. I had not thought this situation could have made me any more confused, but I should have known better. That was something I was not going to think again. It was turning out to be a very dangerous thought. I was already confused, and the words that came out of Sookie's mouth only caused further that confusion.
"Princess Sookie and Prince Eric didn't ride a chair out the window. They rided on a coffin."
Hello dear readers. I do hope that you have enjoyed this chapter as Sookie's words leave us with something to ponder about. I wonder what they could mean…
Many thank to MsBuffy for looking this chapter over and her fantabulous editing.
I was able to upload this and the next chapter tonight before FF stopped playing nicely. Barring any other complications, it should not be as long as a wait for the next chapter over here.