SPOV
"Miss Stackhouse, what a lovely surprise to hear from you again!" Russel Edgington says in a jovial tone.
"Er, yeah, it's great talking to you again too," I say while twisting my finger around the phone cord, trying not to sound as awkward and uncomfortable as I feel.
Apparently, spending hours at my kitchen table making a plan with Karin, Pam, and Niall, while trying not to let my anger at my grandfather show, ignoring his arrogance, trying to keep the peace between the fairies and vampires, and accepting my place as a princess of the faery was the easy part. It sure as heck didn't feel like it at the time, mind you. Now comes the second part of the plan, campaigning, but not like really campaigning, I have to be sneaky about it and only talk to people I can trust because as soon as it gets out what I'm trying to do, Freyda will find out and start working on a campaign of her own.
If that wasn't complicated and difficult enough, being that I'm from the other dimension, it turns out I trust people here that I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole in my old world. Enter Russel Edgington, in my old world he was a crazy, psychopathic insane, deranged, unhinged, nutty 2000-year-old vampiric lunatic. Okay, I know that's just a lot of words for crazy but I'm just trying to get my point across and still, I don't think it's enough to really explain how psycho that vampire was. Overall, he just wasn't a good guy and tried to kill me many times. Oh, and at one point he wanted to lock me away and only take me out when he wanted to take a stroll in the sun. Anyway, from these new memories, he's not like that here, I'd go as far as to say we're almost friends here, or at the very least, on friendly terms. He really seems to like Eric too, and he's helped us out a few times before. Plus at one point I put myself in a lot of danger and even got myself staked to save the life of someone close to him, so he owes me, and getting him to say he'll be on our side for this vote shouldn't be much of a problem. That doesn't mean it makes this conversation or seeing him any less weird for me.
"It has been a while, Ms. Stackhouse. I was sorry to hear about the dissolution of your pledging to the Northman. Though he is not one for soft sentimentalities, I've known him for a long time and I've never seen him look at anyone as he looks at you."
I feel a strange mix of hope and despair at his words, of longing and regret, the butterflies in my stomach can't decide if they're flitting around or if they're as heavy as lead dead at the bottom of it. I take a deep breath, stand up straight, pull back my shoulders, and put my big girl pants on, this is no time to feel bad for myself, this is to save Eric and that is what I have to focus on, what has to be foremost in my mind. "Actually, that's why I'm calling."
"Yes? Do tell." The giddiness and excitement in his voice make me think that he's been waiting for such a call.
"Eric and I are still legally together, to my kind anyway. His marriage to the…" I clear my throat and hold back the mess of mean words I want to use to describe Freyda, "the queen is illegal and I'm going to get my husband back. I'm hoping to have your support."
"Forgive me if I'm wrong but I did not know that you and Eric were married in the eyes of the humans. I'm sure it's illegal for humans and vampires to wed in Louisiana, did you travel out of state to get married?"
"No, we had not gotten there yet, though it was in our plans. I'm not speaking of the human part of me."
"Every time we speak I become more and more intrigued by you. Please, speak plainly, I need to know what we're working with so that we can use every strength we have to our advantage to get Eric home."
The breath I feel like I've been holding since I got to this dimension comes out of my mouth in a sigh of relief. It sounds as if I already have Russell on my side even though he didn't explicitly say so. It makes me so happy I have to work hard not to do a little dance of excitement. The reality that I'm going to have to admit I'm a princess dulls my happiness a little. This is the first person I have to say it out loud to so I take a deep breath before opening my mouth again. I simply say, "Fairy."
"Ahh yes, I had thought as much, I did not know that you knew of your kind's ceremonies. I thought you were a human that just happened to have some fairy somewhere in your ancestral line, I did not know you were in touch with them."
"Oh, I wasn't until a few years ago. For the longest time, I thought I was just a human with a strange quirk. It makes much more sense now, knowing about fairies. It's good to have more family too, you can never have too much family."
"Interesting, are you saying you and Eric are bound by the light?"
"Er, yeah…" I clear my throat and send a silent promise to Niall that he's going to get it for not giving me enough information about the fairie's version of marriage. "Yeah, that's right, so you see, unless we end that, which I have no intention to, he cannot legally get married to anyone else."
"Normally I'd agree with you, Ms. Stackhouse but you see, we are speaking of not only royalty but contracts signed by Eric's maker. I'm not sure even being married first is enough to break those types of contracts, especially because we're talking about two different types of bondings, you did agree to the breaking of the pledge, did you not? And you also broke the blood bond before you even knew there was someone else who wanted Eric, yes? Good on you for that, by the way, I didn't even know it was possible to break a permanent blood bond, that must have taken a lot of time and determination. You must have really wanted away from Eric, which leads me to the question, why do you want him back now?"
Damn, is my whole relationship with Eric public news? He's a king of Mississippi, he has to have more important and interesting things to focus on other than me. "Well, it's less that I wanted to get away from Eric and more I wanted to make sure that I did want to stay with him. He didn't blood bond in the most normal of ways, neither of us really had a choice and it was before we were together. I was worried that my emotions for him weren't my own. I had all intentions of bonding with him again but there wasn't a chance. Anyway, would it make a difference to you if I told you I took my rightful spot in my fairy family?"
He hums interestedly, "Rightful spot? Please, do tell. Though I must warn you, unless you are of some royalty yourself, I don't see it making much of a difference."
"Funny you should say that my great grandfather is Niall Bridgent, I'm a" I work hard to choke the word out because it still feels so wrong and like it's a lie. "Princess of the sky fae."
Russell laughs delightedly and I'm pretty sure I hear him even clap, "Ahh yes, my friend, I think we can work with that. I've known Niall for a long time, we've both gotten each other out of hot water a time or two. Is he involved in your plan?"
"Yes, he's the one that helped me work it out and gave me the idea to call you. Speaking of 'getting each other out of hot water' he told me to tell you since, at this point, you are the one that owes him, he'll take the debt payment in the form of keeping quiet about this whole thing until the time is right."
"Sure sure, don't tell him this because I don't like owing anyone anything, I would have kept it quiet without canceling out the debt simply for you, Sookie. As I said, I owe you as well for saving my second and helping me in the past."
"You know I didn't do it for anything in return, it was just the right thing to do but I'll take your help, I need all of it I can get right now."
"As I said, I need to know what you need help with, other than keeping quiet, of course. You still have not told me what you plan to do."
"Right, well, I'm going to march over there and tell her that she can't have him because he's still married to me. She'll fight it of course but that means we'll have to take it to the supernatural council…"
"Of which I am a member."
"Yes, exactly."
"Oh, how droll. Of course, you can count on my vote. Unfortunately, I was hoping for something more exciting, is it too much to ask for a little bloodshed?"
"Yes well, we're prepared to if it comes to that, though I hope not. Is there anyone else on the council that I can count on for a vote? Or at least any names who might be good for me to ask? I need at least two more votes, preferably more." I'm not going to tell him that I already almost assuredly have the Ancient Pythoness on my side. I know Niall, Pam, and Karin all thought it was good to call him and ask him these questions but even though I know he is different than the other dimension's Russell, I can't trust him implicitly, word of the day today.
"Hmm, interesting question. I assume you have Niall's vote if he is helping you, as well as you have mine. The wolf on the council is very by the books, he'll go with what is right and by the law no matter what. This case is unique though, you both have certain laws and contracts on your side, and certain against you. You both have legal rights and in each of your eyes, he's your spouse. I don't think it will hurt to call him and plead your case but certainly not before the petitions are filed and you are doing things on the books. Going to him now will just make him most definitely want to vote against you."
"Okay, yeah, that's a good point. Anyone else?"
"The AP already knows about your plans and knows who she's voting for. I don't know about the witch, she's new, I've only met her once, stay away from Pheobe Golden, the other vampire on the council, she'll tell Freyda, they are lovers and friends. Sherman Costaliate, he is the new demon that was voted onto the council just this evening. He's another I don't know much about though I have met him a few times, he is a stereotypical demon, he most likely will not be too fond of the idea of a vampire and fairy mixing together, they think that each species should stick to themselves."
"Okay, then I probably can't count on him. Do you have the wolf and the witch's phone number or email? I'll wait to contact them but I want to be able to when the time is right."
"Yes, yes, sure, I can do that for you. Now I must be going my dear, I will keep an ear out for such a council meeting and eagerly await the vote. If you decide to go a different, more bloody route, do not be afraid to call. It's been too many centuries since I've been in a real fight, and I've never liked Freyda, she's always been too whiny and needy."
I giggle lightly, "Okay, will do. Thanks for all the help, your majesty, I really appreciate it."
"Any time my dear. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm quite parched and Bartlett is looking like he's quite hungry for something else altogether. See you soon, Sookie."
I try not to shiver in distaste at his words but fail. Oh well, at least no one is here to see. It's not like I have a problem with men and men being together or two women, I support everyone's choice to be with whoever they want but that doesn't mean I want to hear about it. I'd react the same way if Jason had said something like that to me about one of his flavors of the week. I just have no interest in hearing any details about all that.
I shake my head and get back to business, I hang up the phone and take a step away. I start pacing to work out my thoughts. Okay, so I can reasonably count on Niall, Russell, and the Ancient Pythoness, that's three out of seven and I need four out of seven to get the majority vote to make Eric a free man. Well at least semi-free because then he'll be married to me and if we get the chance to do it again, I want to do it right, to live like husband and wife, to do the blood bond on our terms, not the terms of whatever queen or king's state we're living in, not the terms of the people in the town we're living in, or our friends and family's terms, just ours and what we want.
It'll be easier said than done but I think we can do it, from what I've seen from the memories, together we can do anything we set our mind to. I feel sadness wash over me because I don't know if he even wants to be with me, Niall told him I'm not the real Sookie, not the one he fell in love with, the one he gave up everything for. I hope for him I am enough, even if I'm different.
I walk outside and sit on the front porch to look at the stars. I do this from time to time, usually Karin will come up to the house and sit with me. After about ten minutes I realize she's not planning to, I lower my shields and try to figure out where she is but to my surprise, I realize she's not on the property at all. There's another vampire here, one that I've become used to after all this time,
"Bubba?" I ask with my voice raised but not too loud, vampires can hear really well so even though he's almost at the edge of my property I don't have to speak much higher than my speaking voice before he's vamping over to me.
"Evening Miss Sookie, how are you doing?"
"Huh? Oh, I'm good, great even. How about you? Long time no see, How have you been, Bubba?"
"I'm great, Sookie, it's mighty kind of you to ask. I miss Mr. Eric though, he always treats me nice and lets me stay in the territory longer than I'm normally supposed to and always makes sure I have as many cats as I want."
I interrupt just because I hate hearing him talk about his dinner, for some reason to me, it's worse to feed on cats than living human beings. "Yeah, I miss him too, Bubba, we'll see him again soon, I just know it. Anyway, where is Karin? She's supposed to be here today, well every day actually" I say with an awkward giggle.
"She'll be here later tonight, she's working with Pam on something,"
"Do you know what she's working on?"
"No, they don't tell me anything like that, just where I'm supposed to be and when."
I smile softly at him because he doesn't sound sad about not having any choices for himself, he said it like it was just a fact, there is nothing sad about it, just the truth. I can't help but wonder what they're working on, hopefully, the plan B in case the whole petition thing doesn't work. Because I can admit, most of the time my plans don't really go according to plan. Maybe I should call them. Yeah, that's what I'll do in a little while.
"Are you okay, Miss Sookie? I Should probably get back out there and make sure no bad guys are lurking,"
"Yeah, Bubba, I'm fine, thanks!" I say with the brightest smile I can muster even though most of my thoughts are focused on and worried about Eric. He vamps off and I stay where I am for a while before taking a deep breath and adjusting my weight, preparing to get up when I hear another telltale sound of a vampire vamping over to me. My shields are already down and it's a void I know well so I don't have to wonder who it is.
"Bill, how are you?" I'm not really in the mood to talk to him today, I have many more important things in my mind, in my opinion anyway but I can't be rude and he is my friend, so I give him a friendly smile.
"I'm quite well, Sookie, how about you this evening?"
"I'm fine, thanks for asking. What can I do for you?"
"I was hoping you might want to accompany me for an evening walk tonight. I've noticed Sam hasn't been around lately, am I right to assume you two are no longer an item?"
"Yes, you can assume that but that doesn't mean I'm available."
"Do you already have a new gentleman caller?"
"No, nothing like that, I just ended things with Sam because I realized I'm not ready to date anyone at all right now."
Bill's face falls, he doesn't like being reminded that Eric and I were in a serious relationship for a long time. "Sookie, you cannot tell me that you are sitting here pining away for Eric while he's out living the high life as the queen's consort in Oklahoma."
"I'm not sure how that's any of your business, Bill."
"I'm your friend, that makes your problems my business, I care about you."
"I appreciate that, Bill, really, but I'm fine, I promise. Thank you though." I stand up, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some things I must do before bed tonight."
He lets out an unnecessary sigh, "Okay, Sookie, sleep well, I hope to see you again soon."
"Bye, Bill." I walk inside and right over to the phone to dial Pam.
"Fangtasia, this better be important or we'll hunt you down and drain you dry." Wow, that was one of Pam's more colorful and violent greetings, it doesn't sound like she's in a great mood.
"Hey Pam, it's Sookie."
"Sookie, yes it's good you called though you should have used the phone I gave you for your birthday." She says cryptically. Oh right, she gave me a burner phone, that's what she called it anyway, to call her or talk to anyone about our plans with Eric. She also put her number in it to call when I had to talk to her this stuff because she said she had a feeling that people were listening in on our phone line. It seems a little silly to me, who cares about what a no-name waitress from bumfuck Luisianna has to say? I told her I'd do it because I don't want to take the chance to make anything worse or more difficult for Eric but I completely forgot, I even talked to Russell on my house phone, shit. Do better, Sookie!
"Oh right, sorry. I'll call you back." I say and don't wait for a reply although as I'm hanging up the phone I hear a sigh so long-suffering, I'd swear she thinks I'm the most annoying person on the planet. I run to my room and let out a sigh myself when the phone is dead. I search around my nightstand looking for the charger and with an 'Ah ha!' I plug it in when I find it. As soon as the phone turns on I call the number she programmed into the phone as hers.
"There was no point in hanging up the call, if someone is listening in, you've just have let them know that we're on to them." She answers dryly.
"Shit, sorry. I still don't think anyone is listening to me anyway."
"Of course they are, Sookie. Do you really think DeCastro is just over the thought of having a telepath? They're waiting for the time when someone breaks the contract so that he can swoop in and take you. The first time you reach out to Eric or let it be known that you're planning on getting him, that's that."
"Oh… I might have called Russell Edgington on my house phone by mistake."
Okay, so if I thought that last sigh was long-suffering, it was nothing compared to this one. At least this time, I deserve it. "Alright, we'll we already have plans and stipulations if something like this happens and there's an attempt to take you, I'll put the right people on alert but hopefully you're right and no one was listening today. Just keep an eye out and be careful. Have you been practicing your sparkily fairy light? I'm sure it's pretty but it won't do you any good if you don't know how to use it."
"Yeah, I've been practicing during the day today. Honestly, it wore me out, I'm going to need to go to bed early tonight."
"What did Russell say?"
I go on to tell her about the conversation with the king of Mississippi and she tells me about the meeting she just had with all the local vampires and other supernaturals who owed Eric favors, or just liked him. She tells me now that we have as many people on our side in the council as we can get without letting Freyda know, and the troops are rallied, it's time to move. She wants to set travel plans to Oklahoma within the week. She's spoken to Mr. Cataliades and he has officially set a petition to make the marriage between Eric and Freyda null and void as well as backdating the fairy binding of the light paperwork. He'll have it as late as tomorrow night and that's the earliest we can be on our way. I tell Pam thanks and to let me know when she has all the details along with letting her know that I'll update Niall because we already decided it'd be best if he were there when we went to the queen's compound and retrieved Eric. It would make my claim to the throne seem more legitimate. We let each other know we'll talk tomorrow night unless something else important pops up in the meantime before saying goodbye.
I can't believe it's all happening, we can have Eric home as soon as the day after tomorrow. I feel a few moments of excitement before all the worry kicks in. I need to get Gramps here tomorrow, he needs to help me get my fairy magic more under control because I have no idea what I'm doing with it. He gave me a few tips and I can pretty much call it up on command when I want to but I don't know how to make it stronger, I don't know what it really does at all, honestly. I need to call him. Thankfully, when I came home last night I noticed there was a note on my kitchen table, where we were all sitting when we planned last night, with his name and a phone number on it. I quickly call and leave a message with his rude secretary about the importance of seeing him during the day tomorrow and she tells me that he'll get back to me. I hope that's her way of saying he'll be here.
Now that that's handled my worry goes in a different direction, an Eric direction. What else is new? What if Niall has it wrong? What if Eric likes where he's at? Or what if he's right and we get him free but he doesn't want anything to do with me? What if she—I hurt him too much? And if that's true and he wants nothing to do with me anymore, what happens then? I'm about to go fight for a marriage he might not even want. So then what, I get him home but since we got him out because he's married to me, we have to live as husband and wife, but he doesn't want me so I just spend the rest of my life living with and loving a guy who wants nothing to do with me! Shit, this is a terrible idea, I mean technically, I don't even know this guy, he's not the Eric I know, and I'm not the Sookie he loves.
Stop spiraling damn it! I yell at myself. After a few seconds, I nod my head, I'm right. I have to stop spiraling, all it's going to do is drive me insane. There's no reason to think he doesn't want me, he's apparently getting updates from Niall about me because he cares about me so much still. And even if he doesn't want me anymore, that's no reason to leave him in that situation, I have to save him like the hundreds of times he's saved me. We'll figure out what happens next later. With that last thought I take a deep breath, get a glass of water, and head to my room to get some much-needed sleep.
EPOV
I feel her emotions stronger than before, thankfully nowhere near as strong as it would feel if we finished a full blood bond but I could not put off the second exchange any longer. I feel her satiation after our most recent round of fucking, her normal worries that she feels because of the crown on her head, and her affection, for me I think. That last one I'm not too fond of, is getting too close to love, I do not understand why she feels such things for me, it is not as if I ever give her a reason to even like me, let alone anything else. Then again, my Sookie has never overtly given me a reason to feel for her as I do. I cannot stop the rush of emotion that comes with thinking of her, the love, the longing, the want, lust, sadness, anger, bitterness, mostly love though.
Freyda has a smile on her face that grows brighter when Sookie enters my thoughts. That is until all the negative emotions I feel for her join in and she realizes it's not her I'm thinking about. She looks at me accusingly and I continue just looking at the ceiling as if I don't see her at all.
"Why do you do this to yourself, Eric? You have me here, with you. Someone who wouldn't forsake you, someone who wouldn't try to stop your vampiric instincts, wouldn't stop you from fucking who you want but would be here with you. I could give you whatever you wanted, I could put a crown on your head but no, you choose to focus all your longing and affection on a human that forsook you and never even fought for you when you were together. A human that's living it up with another man, a man that can give her the babies she wants Do you really believe she thinks about you? Think about what might have been? You're a fool if you do, she's happy where she is now, she doesn't care about all you did for her." She pauses to laugh, "Honestly, she's probably on her back right now being fucked, being perfectly happy, living it up while you're laying in bed next to me wishing I was her."
My fangs come down because even though Freyda doesn't know the true situation, she's completely right. My Sookie doesn't worry about me anymore, she's off somewhere I can never reach her with a husband another version of me, her friends, and children, living a happy life, not thinking of me at all. Before I can think better of it, I vamp on top of her, puncture her chest with my hand, and grip her heart. I'm about to pull it out and be done with her when her hands wrap around my wrist.
"Think this through, Eric, you'll never get out of here alive if you kill me. I have children here, they'll know the instant I die. You cannot leave without my say-so anyway, so getting out before they get to you wouldn't work. And even if you did get out, where would you go? Killing me is a treasonous act, you can't go back to your home, DeCastro wouldn't let you back. You're only options would be to live on the run or take the crown and to accomplish that you'd have to kill everyone in this building that would want to avenge my death. You're good Eric, really good, but are you that good?"
She doesn't have nearly as many people here who would go against me to avenge her as she thinks she does, but she has enough. She's right, I have to stop this, I can't let thoughts of Sookie make me do foolish and reckless things anymore. My position here is already precarious enough Still, I can't let her think I'm giving up without a fight so I squeeze her heart once hard to remind her how close she is to death and she groans in pain.
"Do not speak of things you do not know, dear wife. You will keep my Sookie's name out of your mouth. We might be legally wed but Sookie will always be my wife, my only wife to me in every way except on paper. Do you understand?" I squeeze one more time for good measure.
"Y-yes." She eventually says reluctantly. This is the first time I ever heard her stutter. Good, that means she understands how close to death she truly is, and how little it'd matter to me if she were to meet the true death.
"Good." I let go of her heart and pull my hand out of her chest cavity. I stand up and vamp to put my pants on. "Have a good day, my dear Freyda. I will be with you again as soon as the sun sets" I say, oozing affection and kiss her once deeply on the mouth just to fuck with her before leaving for my own chambers.
Fuck, I really hope that they figure out how they're going to get me out of here soon because I'm not sure how long I'll be able to hold off the last blood exchange. Scaring her tonight with her true death hopefully bought me a few days. I shower quickly before I lay down in bed and go into downtime while waiting for the sun to rise. Tonight more than most I can't get Sookie out of my head. She's usually the first face I see when I rise and the last before I die but tonight she simply hasn't left once.