"Amelia apparently has my clothes and stuff. She lightly robbed me this morning." Sookie said as she flopped down in a large chair by the door.

The room was small and dark, no windows. Just a large bed, a night stand, 2 chairs with a lamp between them, a dresser, and off to the side it appeared to be a small bathroom. She was not offended by the less than luxurious accommodations, she was just grateful for a place to rest and was hoping they could make it a couple of days without anything else happening. She felt desperate for everything to slow down.

"Well, for once a robbery gone right. You can get your things tomorrow, here." He walked over to the dresser and pulled out one of his shirts. "You can change into this for now."

Sookie took it and walked into the bathroom shutting the door behind her. The lightning in the bathroom was much brighter. She looked in the mirror and absolutely looked like she had been through a war. She was bloody, her clothes were tattered, her hair was matted and had a clump of dirt and grass in it. Only her left French braid had survived, barely. Her eyes finally landed on her neck. She brought her hand up and cautiously touched the mark that had been burned on her. It said Fae. Not human, or mostly human…. Just Fae. That was what she was. She sighed and stripped off her clothing. Part of her shirt had somehow melted onto her skin. The stupid cheap fabric. She couldn't bring herself to rip it off, so she tried to gently tease it away. When that didn't work she walked out of the bathroom, with her shirt hanging off one arm, filthy and in just her bra which had a strap broken and her underwear.

"Eric?" She asked from the door way.

He was flopped on the bed, with his legs bent feet on the floor. His arms splayed to his sides. He popped his head up and said.

"Yes?"

"Ummm, Im not sure how it happened, but the sleeve of my shirt is melted to my arm. I'm too much of a weenie to pull it off like a bandaid. Can you rip it off quick?"

He got up and walked over taking her arm and looking at the situation. He looked up at her and said.

"No."

"Oh, okay." She turned to go back into the bathroom. Thinking if she put the rest of the shirt stuck in the door then she could get the courage to quickly lean away. Eric stopped her though and said.

"No, I won't just rip it off. It will hurt you."

"Well, I can't just live with this as part of my body forever." She smile at him.

"I know. lets just try to get it off without hurting you more. Come."

He led her into the bathroom and got a wash cloth and wet it with warm water. He gently blotted it and it got the edges to lift, but she started bleeding. He turned and turned on the shower and reached behind her and unclasped her bra.

"Hey!" Sookie said trying to cover herself.

"You need to step in the shower, have the water run on it I think it will help. Nothing I haven't seen before, Sookie." He smiled

Sookie rolled her eyes, but it was true. He'd seen her naked probably a dozen times over the years. She was too beaten down at this point to really fight him. She just slipped off her underwear and stepped into the spray. Eric held her arm under the water and painstakingly teased the fabric off of her skin leaving a large, red, oozing burn. He pricked his finger on his fang and dripped the blood on the burn, rubbing it over it. It healed and closed, but it surprised them both when it left a scar.

"You were hit with magic." Eric said with a sigh.

"I'm not surprised. There was a lot happening at once. Whoever was casting that did a piss poor job. Not only did they only hit my arm, they only left a minor burn. Apparently, they couldn't get the talented witches on their side. Sucks to be them." Sookie smiled.

Eric let out a full laugh and said.

"Yes, sucks to be them. I'll let you finish your shower now." He closed the shower curtain and walked out.

Sookie finished her shower, washing her hair and body. She got out and was still trying to brush the mats out oh her hair when she walked into the room. She went and sat on the bed next to Eric and said.

"I can't believe Niall is dead."

"I am both surprised, yet I get it. He was unwilling to…. He didn't like the kind of progress the council was keen to create. The Fae weren't united, he was playing too many positions. He also felt very secure, which is often deadly." Eric said not moving, his eyes closed and arms still spread.

"Am I a bad person for being relieved he's gone?" Sookie asked. This caused Eric to sit up and look at her.

"I dont believe so. Your relationship was, strained at best." He said as he took the brush from her and started helping her untangle her hair.

"Strained is a polite way to describe it." She said with a snort.

"I could have said he was constantly using you as a bargaining chip and threatening you with death or turning you into a broodmare."

"I'm definitely a lot safer with him dead, that's for sure." She replied with a giggle as Eric worked the last of the knots out of her hair and started putting a new braid into it.

"Fintan is not like Niall." Eric said putting an elastic at the bottom of her hair and turning her towards him. "He left his position to protect the children he had with your grandmother from afar because he loved her deeply. I believe he may also love you, at very least give a shit if you are dead or alive."

"Ive only met him a couple of times." She shrugged.

"Well, he has a lot of faith in you. As do I. I'm going to go shower." He got up from the bed and walked into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.

Sookie crawled up the bed and got under the covers. She placed her pouch right next to her on her night stand and pulled out her phone. Scrolling through the news was difficult. Last night had been a global massacre, millions are presumed dead or finally dead. The government is blaming Supes in general and put the country under a curfew and martial law. Supernaturals not working with the Fellowship or government were being rounded up. The marks on the neck were being called a blessing by God to mark the enemy. This was going to be difficult to fix. She closed her phone and put it down when she started seeing videos of marked children being killed or used as leverage to capture their parents. She knew the first thing they needed to start on while they gathered forces was figure out where they were taking all these Supes. That is if they weren't just quickly murdering them all. Vampires were labeled to be killed on sight, too dangerous to capture.

Eric came out of the bathroom clean and completely naked. He strode over turning out the large lamp, leaving only the one on the night stand on and slipped in under the covers. Sookie explained what she had just seen in the news about the battle from today. He just pulled her close to him and said.

"We will triumph. Those lost will be avenged."

She nodded into his chest. He pulled her chin up and put his lips to hers in a tender kiss. Allowing his hands to trace up her sides up her shirt. Sookie pulled away and said.

"Wait."

"Why? Niall is dead, he's not much of a threat now. Our contract was void as soon as he went to the summerlands." Eric said, resuming his exploration with his hands and mouth.

"Yeah, true. However, Amelia gave me some insight as to why Niall may not have wanted us bumpin' uglies."

"Bumpin' uglies?" Eric barked out with a laugh.

"Umm yeah, anyway. She said its because all the different Supes utilize different kinds of magic. Faries and vampires have never mixed magic. There's no way of telling what the results would be. Good or bad." She said.

"And sex is a powerful catalyst for magic…." Eric said leaning back and looking at her understanding what she is saying.

"Yeah, so I just think maybe with everything going on maybe we shouldn't be….."

"Bumpin' uglies creating potential unknown consequences." Eric finished her thought.

"Yeah."

"But I want to." Eric said indignantly.

"Well so do I, but what if my cooter makes a sun beam when I orgasm or something and you get finally dead?" She retorted.

"But what if we both just have amazing orgasms and we just continue to have lots of sex?" Eric challenged.

"I think the issue is we dont know. We know demons can't sex up any species other than humans because they make other supes insides melt. We know were's and witches make hybrids that are more powerful than each race separately. This is kind of a hot situation and we both HAVE to lead our respective groups and together. We can't really be taking risks, and honestly, I'm scared to because I care about you." She said taking his hand in hers and holding it while she leaned against his chest.

"You are right." Eric said with a sigh. "We will have to remain just friends until this is over, or we get more information on the subject."

"We can be very best friends." Sookie said reaching down and wrapping her hand around his length.

"What does very best friends entail?" Eric whispered leaning his head back.

"Hand jobs, blow jobs, oral, 69, finger banging…. Basically anything where you dont enter me." She said in a very matter of fact tone.

"Finger banging, you have the most interesting phrasing for everything" he said with a smirk"I can work with that, just have to get creative." Eric said flipping her over with gusto.

And they went to rest that night after several bouts of raucous creativity.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next day Sookie heard a loud banging on the thick metal door. She got up and turned on the light and looked around for the shirt Eric had given her which had apparently disappeared into a clothing portal. The banging happened again so she just went and looked at the door. She wasn't even sure how to get out until Eric came back online for the night. A quick investigation of the key pad showed there was an intercom button so she pushed it.

"Ummm, yeah? Hello?" She asked.

"Hey, its Amelia. You need to get out here. Ummmm, you have guests and we need to figure something out for them before sunset."

"What do you mean? I dont even know how to get out. I dont have the code." Sookie said starting to look around to see if Eric wrote it down anywhere for her.

"I mean, there are 15 Faries who are marked who answered your beacon last night. I'm not even sure they are all from your clan. Three are hybrids with no spark or weak sparks. Apparently, the spell was blood magic because to marked everyone with certain blood and intentions. Thats actually good to know. It gets us closer to cracking the spell." Amelia said sort of rambling while Sookie dug through everything in the room.

"Wow, I mean good, but yikes. We need a plan. There are a lot of vampires here." She replied still looking.

"Yeah, even more showed up after you went to bed last night. We have like 75 vampires and 300 people in general. Unfortunately, there's a lot of children. Probably 50 or so. A fair amount are orphaned after last night. Mostly were's. It seems like the packs culled anyone not on board with their fucked up attempts to rebalance power, but spared the children. Probably thinking they could just put them in the homes of other traitors. I dont know. More people keep showing up every hour. I'm not 100% sure what the range was on our spell to lead them here."

Suddenly, Sookie caught sight of her hand and saw the code written on it. She rolled her eyes and said.

"I found the code to get out. I need clothes."

"I have them in my hand."

Sookie put in the code and used both hands to pull the door open. Amelia shoved her arm in with the clothes and handed them to Sookie who let the door go again and said.

"Give me 5 to get dressed and pee."

Within 5 minuets Sookie was in a long while maxi dress. She has no idea why THIS is what Amelia picked. Especially when she might have to fight for her life at any moment. She grabbed her pouch putting it around her wrist and went out. Sure to seal and relock the door.

"Why a long billowy white dress, Amelia? We're at war."

"You're going to go rally a bunch of left behind faries. It felt like the most regal thing I grabbed for you."

"Why did you grab it at all?" Sookie asked as they got in the elevator.

"Incase you wanted to Marry Eric on a whim. I like to be prepared." She said with a tone that said 'duh'.

"Vampires dont get married like that. The white dress thing wouldn't be relevant. Vampire weddings require a ritual knife and a gold chalice. I for get that its called though." Sookie said trying to smooth her hair.

"Its called pledging and I have those too." Amelia said pulling out a vampire pledging set.

"AMELIA!" Sookie squealed "put that away, dont let people see you with that. Especially not vampires. They dont like their artifacts in non vampire hands. Where did you even get that?"

"Where I got it from is my private business." She said condescendingly. "But since you asked, we investigated a final death in Arizona when we were traveling as investigators and I saw it and slipped it in my bag. Seemed like something I might eventually need."

"Well, you dont need it now, and you can't keep that. Just keep it put away until I figure out what to do about it." Sookie said with a pointed look.

"Why not just ask your boyfriend Eric?" Amelia shot with a sly smile and started thrusting and making sex noises at Sookie. Still going as the elevator doors opened.

"Oh my God STOP." Sookie whisper screamed. "Where are the faries?"

"They are outside. We thought letting them stink up the facility was a bad idea." Amelia said taking a more professional tone.

"Good call on that. How many people can this facility hold and what are the supplies like?"

"There are 3000 'resting chambers' all light tight. Most have 2 beds. There is a silver partitian and no doors up to the top 6 floors. I think they are rooms intended for faries, but we can't get in, because they just pop in and out and that keeps the smells in and vamps out. Again we aren't positive, Trey is working on an inventory. What he estimates between blood, food and other stuff 4 months, if we ration. They thing is this place isn't built for kids, its a damn death trap. We have orphans as young a 4 months. There's no formula. We started asking around if anyone was currently breastfeeding, but so far no luck."

Sookie nodded and thought for a minuet before speaking.

"Okay, take an entire floor for kids, have what parents we do have with their kids stay there too. Assign them all one or two orphaned kids to be their charges. They need to be up and sealed in that floor before sundown. I want that floor to require a pin to get the elevator there. During the day, have them in the cafeteria. Anyone who has children that are here will not be in the fighting force. Their purpose is minding the kids. We will get formula, we'll have to send someone out, which is dangerous, but we aren't letting babies die. I'm sure those top floors are for faries, just makes sense. Okay, you go get that arranged and I'm going to go meet the faries, I guess." By this point Sookie was shaking and starting to panic.

"Hey, settle down. You were born for this. Look how quickly yo just settled a bunch of problems? You have this under control. Hold on, let me delegate that task to Violet and give me a minuet and I'll come join you, okay? We're all in this together." Amelia said hugging her.

"Yeah, okay…. Thank you. Sorry."

"No problem, just give me a few minuets so we can get all that going so its done before sun down."

Sookie nodded and Amelia jogged off to go get Violet. Sookie was reeling, what was she even supposed to say? What if they aren't all Sky fae? Hybrids can't pop, where is she supposed to put them? Then it dawned on her that her brother would have gotten a mark. She had to push that thought away. She was just going to believe the spell would work on him and draw him here. That is if Alcide didn't already murder him personally. That hit her with a new wave of rage, and she had to just take a few deep breaths and not allow her brain to dwell on dark what if's. There were enough real problems on her hands. She didn't need to be making up hypothetical ones also.

Amelia jogged back, took Sookies hand and said "okay, lets do this. You're a princess, you're in charge."

They walked outside together, the bright Sun hitting Sookies eyes so she needed to adjust. Wind whipping at her dress, she put her hand up to shield her eyes from the sun to see. In the distance she saw the group of faries. As she approached with Amelia, one man broke off and walked to meet her.

"Your highness." He said with a bow.

"Oh, I just go by Sookie please, and no bowing outside for ceremony." She reached out to shake his hand and he cautiously took it with an amused smile.

"I am Solin, of the air Fae. Brendan killed out entire royal line. We seek refuge with the Sky."

"Okie dokie, request granted. Are you all Air Fae?" She asked.

"No, we have two sky Fae children, the hybrids are…. Who knows and, well you need to know we have a water Fae."

Sookie recoiled "okayyyy."

"He is an exile from before Brendans rule. He is my daughters husband." He said cautiously, but also understanding what he was asking her to accept after last night was outrageous.

"Well, we need everyone we can get. So, welcome." Sookie said with a bright smile.

Solin was shocked by how accepting she was and also impressed that wasn't drawing lines through the clans. Especially when the prejudice between the royal families of the different clans and their bickering is what got them to this place. He turned to her and asked.

"So, what are our orders?"

"Oh, umm no 'orders' yet." She said with air quotes "but there are a lot of vampires here. So, y'all see up there the top 6 floors? Thats where ya'll need to pop into and set up camp. We will set up a mess hall outside for your meals during the day, but y'all can't go in the main building ever. It could start a feeding frenzy. I need you to assign responsible members of your group to the hybrids, get them in and out of the rooms. If they have even a slight spark, try to get it fired up. Right now we are just getting organized. I'll have more information in the coming days and I'll brief you guys twice a day. You have to be up in your rooms before sun down. I need you to assign people to the perimeter during the day to do watch and to get incoming Faries registered and situated. Hopefully, there will be many more. This is Amelia, she and her husband Trey are my second in command during the day. If you need anything, get them." Sookie said. Amelia jumped right in.

"So i'll get you radios since you can't come inside to reach me, I'll be right out so we can register you and get a meal set up. Let me know about any special dietary needs."

"No lemons." Sookie and Solin said at the same time, causing them to chuckle. Sookie had one more thing to ask though.

"Umm, I have a big ask, and you can say no its not an order, but we have some babies here, but this place wasn't built for kids. We need formula and bottles. I know Popping is risky, but its less risky than going on foot. Could you get us some?"

At this point the man who she now knew was water Fae, who had very pale, almost gray skin and black eyes with Black hair walked up and said.

"I volunteer."

"Are you sure? It is not an order." She asked reaching out and putting a reassuring hand on his arm.

"I'm positive. I will go now." And with that he popped away.

They all stood on edge for what felt like forever, but in reality was about 10 minuets before he popped back with several bags full of formula, bottles, baby food and diapers. He was completely loaded down.

"Wow." Sookie said.

"Anything else? I have the skill of stealth." He said making himself blink invisible and back just to show her.

"No not for now, but thats a good skill. We're gonna need that. You stick with Amelia and give her some detail on the limitations of that. Good for you, that is cool." She said giving a little clap. "I have to go in and Eat and get some info on our supplies. Amelia will take care of y'all from here. I'll be back in the morning after I talk with the Vampires and were's. We have a few witches and Demons here so far too. They will probably want to come out and mingle. Please get to know people. We're going to have to all work together to get through this."

She shook all the hands, got all their names, then bid her farewell and walked inside. Se met Trey, who gave her a plate of food and a bottle of juice. He went over the inventory with her and explained it was ongoing. He has were's that can fly doing air patrols as well as some stations strategically inside and outside the compound. She let him know about the faries also patrolling.

"I think you need to organize the night security too. I want everyone going through you for both shifts." She said

"If you think the vamps will listen." He replied with a shrug.

"They better listen. There ain't gonna be none of that I'm better than you bull shit in here. We dont have the time or numbers for that. Security needs to be tight, you are in charge. Eric will back you up if you need it, but I hope you dont." She said matter of factly.

"Sundown is in 15 minuets. I need to go make sure the kids and faries are cleared." Trey said getting up.

"Okay, lets meet again at 12am, please invite anyone who's here who has been in a leadership roll within their race before, other than the faries obviously. I want to talk skills and strategy. I'm going to go fill Eric in." She said

"Or he'll fill you in." He snickered under his breath.

"You and Amelia really are made for each other." She scowled.

She went to the Elevator and rode it back up to Erics room, or their room. I guess she was going to stay in there for now. She made a mental note to get her stuff from Amelia later. She put in the code and pushed the heavy door in.

"Hello Lover, how was your day?" Eric asked brightly, laying completely nude on the bed with a grin.