Chapter 11-15

A/N: Okay, I might not be as good at explaining things as I thought. In chapter 8 while Sookie is explaining the purpose and origin the mark, she clearly states, “The appearance of the marks is the only way to conceive a child.” There is no way the child could be anyone else’s. I am often very mutual in the stories but I’m not sure why some readers are against Sookie, like Eric she never wanted to mate. That’s why she chose a vampire, her odds for mating and getting pregnant were slim next to none.

These two are ‘Lone Wolves’ that got unknowingly stuck together and the situation is getting progressively dangerous. Their proximity is forced, their personalities are strong and will undoubtedly clash and there is a whole lot of sexual tension and sudden intense and confusion feelings. No one should feel like I’m blasting them off. I’m just trying to explain things that I feel I failed to do in the writing. If anyone thinks I should change or edit the summary, let me know. I would hate for folks to feel like I’m “Baiting and Switching” or misrepresenting.

Anyway, as promised here is the daily dose. So far so good, I’m proud of myself for delivering on my promise so far. (Crosses fingers,)

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Chapter 11

Broken

The next night, I thought I would still be angry, and so would my mate, but she wasn’t. Sookie was waiting on me with a bottle of blood in hand. It was human, just the right temperature, and she served it with a smile that made me feel as if I was the only man she desired. She always had a smile to offer me. It warmed and eased me, and I hated every ounce of that comfort. Clearly, sniffing the stench of were for so long was making me delusional.

The way Sookie smiled at me was the same way she smiled the guards that protected us. It was the way she smiled at cashiers and passersby in the street. She was simply beautiful when she smiled. I was sure everyone who had been on the receiving end of it felt like they were special, too. It always tasted good, not as good as her but better than anything could, considering , I was sniffing two-natured filth.

Our journey continued. The fastest way west from Louisiana to Hawaii was to go through Texas, then cut straight through Mexico toward the Gulf of California. It sounded easy enough, but there were several difficulties we were facing. After the incident at the rest stop in Dallas two days ago, we’d had no more trouble. When we hit Socorro, Texas, we had to decide if we would go northwest toward El Paso and enter New Mexico, or shoot straight into Mexico.

Hawaii and Mexico were autonomous in the division of Vampire Kingdom of the New World. Vampires in Hawaii governed themselves. There was no Regent. They protected one another and maintained their own peace and they took care of law breakers to retain their autonomous status. Mexico was just as independent, but ten times more hostile. It was probably the only place in the world where the vampires were all the same race. Yes, it was that bad. My title as an Enforcer for the Pythoness would do no good because the vampires in Mexico didn’t recognize the Ancient One’s authority. The Pythoness allowed their preference. It was either that, or wage war to subjugate them. Many of them never got over the loss of the Texas Revolution. It wasn’t worth it. Instead, she formed a truce with them under penalty of war.

Mexican vampires could have their way if they did not allow their country to become a safe haven for fugitives from the rest of the New World. For a bounty, they caught, and or, executed any lawbreakers who entered their land. Flying would allow me to avoid Mexico entirely. The one variable I couldn’t account for was the most crucial; I didn’t know if any vampire there flew. Chances were there was at least one. Ordinarily I would risk it, but with a pregnant woman on my back, I needed to find another way.

“We want to avoid two-natured in that country same as you,” Alcide said. “They tend to bite first and ask questions after everyone is dead and bleeding.”

“We should take New Mexico and then Arizona,” Sam said, dragging a stick in the dirt to illustrate our path. “It’s longer but safer.”

As our trek continued, I found the lack of physical distance between my mate and me dulled the emotional ties of the mating marks. The less Sookie needed the more peace I found. I welcomed it. Still, every night when I woke to her playing cards or laughing with one of the two-natured on duty, it managed to irritate me. She didn’t want them. The way she treated them was polite and friendly, but not overly so. What riled my fury was the fact that they wanted her. I had a claim to her, but it was a claim I didn’t want, so I refused to allow it to exert influence over me.

“If it comes to a fight during the day,” Sookie said. “I can make sure we win.”

Calvin Norris, the ever silent of the two-natured, spoke. “With all due respect, I’d feel lower than dirt having a pregnant woman fight my battles. I’m sure they all would too.”

“We have to try now before I get any weaker,” she said. “It’s the fastest way. If things go bad, then we head back north of the border.”

“You want to throw a Hail Mary in the second quarter,” Alcide said. “That should be a last resort.”

I knew what made the most sense. I could sense the differences in her. They were slight and would be unnoticeable to anyone else, but I knew her body well enough and had insight to her fatigue. She truly was getting weaker. It wasn’t just the physical changes I noticed; it was her mental and emotional changes as well.

Things that didn’t tire her out at the beginning of the trip were wearing on her now. It wasn’t noticeable to everyone to everyone else but I knew. The instant she became fatigued that gnat in my head returned to tell me so. . It was reasonable that we should risk danger knowingly when she was strong, as opposed to when she was weaker and the threat was unexpected. It rankled that I knew what the best thing was, but I couldn’t even begin to contemplate the idea. I couldn’t do logical; I had to do what posed the least harm to her.

Sookie had gone to bed, so I then had planned the course of the journey to avoid Mexico entirely. Avoiding that lawless land was the way to go. I offered the two-natured an additional hundred thousand on top of what Sookie had already offered without my permission. I rose at first dark the next night to pure mayhem. It was an all-out brawl. I wasn’t in the trailer. It was burning. Bodies of two-natured littered the desert and vampires were closing in on the scene. I was confused. Unless New Mexico had dropped the first portion of its name, I was in Mexico, the one place I had charted our course to avoid.

The first thing I searched for wasn’t my knives or danger. It was my mate. She was in pain and her fear was heavy. It felt like I was being burned and stabbed. Sookie was terrified. It was because she thought her child would die. The panther was trying to talk her through it. She was huddled in a corner with Calvin Norris holding her. It wasn’t only to protect, it was to calm.

“Send him to his room so he’ll calm down, and you can do the same.” The voice belonged to Calvin Norris. Unlike Quinn who loved to hear himself talk, the panther spoke so rarely that the sound of his voice was distinct when I heard it.

There was a breathy, “Okay,” from her and a whimper. It wasn’t of pain, it was of fear.

“Forget about them, suga’,” he murmured, clouding her view of the fight, but there was nothing he could do about the sound. “The baby only wants out because you’re scared, and you’re scared because you think your baby wants out. Both of you are wrong and if you can’t calm him, he’ll die.”

“I’m trying,” she said with a sob. “I’m trying.”

Her tears hit the air. That faint fragrance shouldn’t have registered despite all this blood, but it was all that registered. Her hopelessness and despair shot through me. I knew the look on her face. It was like the one she had worn while the mating mark had tortured her for raising her hand to me. She was trying to escape, but she couldn’t manage. Danger was too close. She couldn’t disengage, so her body continued the natural process.

I snarled and flew over the scene. Someone was going to bleed. That what my mate needed. She needed her child to calm down and remain in her womb. Flying Sookie away should have been the first thought in my mind, but it wasn’t. I wanted to show her that she was safe. I wanted her to see that her enemies were no more. That was the last thought I had before the bloodlust came.

All I saw were figures, faces, and weapons. I dismantled them all. I flew into a rampage that was worthy of my status, not only as an Enforcer, but an S7 vampire. I moved so quickly that not even I took note. I could feel the blood coating me. I could hear the cries for mercy, and the screams of pain. All that was left was the two-natured. I was about to attack them. Then one voice called me back.

“Help,” Sookie whimpered. “Eric, help.”

The tenor of her voice wasn’t desperate or frightened. She was simply calling me to her. It was as if a switch had been flipped. I saw her curled into a corner. Thankfully, her pain was less. In the darkness, his eyes like emeralds, the panther had shed his human form and he sat at her feet. I didn’t have to tell him to move. He stood aside, so I could gather the unexpected object of my affection into my arms. I was ready to fly her away, but she tapped my hand. I knew she wanted to say goodbye.

“Calvin, Sam, Alcide, Quinn,” she nodded her head as deeply as my embrace would allow. They returned it. “Thank you,” she said.

She pulled out another bag from inside her own and I knew it held the agreed-upon sum. Despite the magic propensities of her bag, I’d assumed I would be paying the price to get her to safety. That wasn’t the case. She had their payday ready. In this moment, it was safe for her to offer and for them to take it.

I’d thought she would be afraid, but five minutes in the air, she was asleep with her face burrowed in my chest against the whipping winds. The carnage below provided all the cover I needed to get us across Mexico and back into the states. I moved as fast as my body allowed to get us into Arizona, bypassing New Mexico entirely.

All during the flight, my fury was growing. That shouldn’t have happened. The fact that it had would bring me to the attention to Pythoness a lot sooner than anticipated or desired. Of course, that wasn’t what I was most concerned about. It was the sleeping woman in my arms.

I’d already broken into the hotel room I wanted and I’d tucked my mate into bed. It wasn’t until an hour before dawn did I go to the lobby to pay for our rooms.

I was in the middle of prepping a place to rest when Sookie woke. It wasn’t quite dawn, but it was close. “Hi baby,” she greeted.

I frowned. That term of endearment had affected me since she first whispered it in my ear, just the memory of it made me tingle and ache.

“How the hell did we end up in Mexico?” I asked. “I explicitly ordered otherwise.”

She shrugged. “The order was made to them, but not to me. I rose, made the call, and they followed.”

I snarled and my fangs extended spontaneously. The nerve of this woman! What should matter was that she was racing toward our common goal. That wasn’t the case. What made me angrier wasn’t her contradicting my orders. It was the fact she had endangered herself. I shouldn’t care about that but I did, more than I did about anything else.

“You didn’t make a judgment call.” I yelled. “You made a fucking mistake.”

“I’m getting weaker. If we had run into that kind of trouble further down the road, I would have been useless. I wanted us closer to where we had to be,” was her calm retort. “And that’s what I did. So with all due respect, you can take your opinion wrap it in sunlight and shove it up your ass.”

I don’t think I’ve had anyone go back and forth with me like that in a long time. I wasn’t thrilled by the prospect of meeting my smart mouth equal. I was pissed, so I left. Sookie and I didn’t speak to each other. She fell fast asleep. When dawn came, I rolled under the bed when all I wanted was to spoon with her in bed. That was stupid.

All she would do if I couldn’t calm her was hit me. The good part was if I were dead for the day, I wouldn’t feel it. I had no reason to trust her solely with my safety during the day. If not for the mating marks, I wouldn’t. Yet, I placed my eternity in her hands. I left her a note informing her of where I was, in case she woke and was in search of me. I was such a fucking idiot. I rose at first dark the next night, so I supposed I wasn’t as stupid as I feared.

We stole a car and used it to continue our travels that night toward California. Our speed was cut in half due to sun but it drew less attention.

It took us a night’s trek to go from Douglas, Arizona to Quartzsite. With the weres we would have been halfway to San Diego by then. Sookie couldn’t spare the energy to drive and watch over me during the day. I drove us to a place where we could find safe lodgings for the day and we only traveled at night. It was an hour so before dawn when Sookie and I checked into a hotel in El Centro, California. That was where the Old Bat found us.

Like always when she came looking for me, I felt her in the air before I saw her. I looked around the motel room half expecting her to be seated at the desk but she wasn’t. She was outside the door. She must have known I knew because she didn’t knock. She simply stood outside, patiently waiting. Before I went beyond the veil, I really had to find out how she always managed to find me.

“It’s okay,” I told Sookie, as she moved to stand behind the door. “This is a different kind of pain.”

I opened the door and there she stood, hands folded in her lap, head held high. Somehow, she still managed to look like a waif in the cool night air. There was just something in the way she held herself. She moved me aside without really touching me. Her authority was blatant and I moved. It was that, and I didn’t want her hanging out in front of the door.

“I seem to be suffering some technical difficulties,” she said in hello. “Perhaps you can be of assistance. I pointed my gun, but it did not shoot. When it did, it was in the entirely opposite direction.”

I rubbed my face because for once, I didn’t have the energy to devote to antagonizing her but I gave it a good try. “Misfire,” I suggested. “It can happen sometimes.”

Since our bargain, I had never refused an assignment. She turned her head toward me as if my words didn’t compute. They probably didn’t. Then she spun on her heel, and faced Sookie where she was still lying in wait in the corner.

“What is that?” the Pythoness said, walking toward her. Her face was pulled in grimace as she tried to identify Sookie’s scent through the many others in the room. She looked both confused and alarmed.

“Is it a full moon?” I asked the Pythoness.

“You guys probably have things to discuss.” Sookie said, moving for the door. “I’m gonna go,” I caught her eye so she would see the look on my face that called her a coward. She shrugged to show no remorse on the issue.

“Sit down,” the Pythoness ordered.

“I’m just…”

“Sit,” the Old Bat repeated. Her tone was the kind you heard when she was saying, ‘Off with his head.’ You couldn’t help but give it your full attention.

“Sitting,” Sookie replied raising her hand and finding the closest chair. “Okay, consider me sat.”

Slowly the Pythoness made her way to Sookie. As not to frighten her, she lifted her hand and tilted her chin upward. It was as if she was looking for something. Her fingers traced the curve of Sookie’s face. Apparently not finding what she sought, she leaned in closer as if she were going to kiss her. Had it been anyone else I couldn’t say I wouldn’t have claimed their head such as it was, I was smiling at Sookie’s discomfort.

“Boy, this is awkward,” my mate mumbled.

At that exact moment, the Pythoness dropped her hand as if Sookie’s face had suddenly burst into flames. In the same instant, she let out a horrified hiss and skittered across the room. Her back was against the wall. One hand was thrown over her mouth as if she was afraid she would scream, the other was thrown over her un-beating heart.

“Was it something I said?” Sookie said, trying to smell her breath as if it offended.

“That is not only a Sin Eater, it is a God Killer,” she pointed at Sookie as if she were sunlight wrapped in silver.

“Want to tell me what that means?” I said. I was getting tired of her odd behavior, amusing as it was. “Or will you bay at the moon first?”

“The nether will rise and the heavens will fall,” The Pythoness said with a haunted look in her eyes. “The darkness will come and it will devour us all.”

That shit didn’t sound at all good.

A/N: Okay, alright I’m scolding myself. I will send myself to my room immediately as penance for not keeping the time table. (Hangs head in shame…gives puppy dog eyes)

This chapter packs a lot of information and it might help clear up confusion from past chapters.

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Chapter 12

It Just Keeps Getting Better

Neither Sookie nor I knew what that meant. Seeing there was no place for this conversation to go but down, I began with getting the worst news out in the open. “We are mated.”

I hadn’t expected her to know what that meant, but if the horrified expression on her face was any indication, she knew, which surprised me.

“No…that is…no,” she whispered. Then slowly, cautiously, she walked over to me. Her frail fingers traced the mark through my shirt.

“Oh shit!” she hissed. If the situation weren’t so fucked up, I would laugh at her use of profanity because it was an absolute first but I knew anything that could reduce her to this spelled a pain in the ass for me.

“And more Sin Eaters are after her,” I added.

“Oh shit!” she repeated. At this point, she was shaking her head as if it would break the illusion. Well, she could join the club of, ‘Impossible’. I was in line to be President.

“For more good news, she’s pregnant.” It was assumed so I didn’t need to specify that it wasn’t my child.

It was at that point that the Old Bat crumpled to the floor. Sookie reached for her, but I waved her off. In her state I didn’t know she would react to someone unfamiliar touching her. I carried her and sat her on the bed. Clearly, she was choosing now to have her mid-millennium crisis.

She just kept hissing, “Shit, shit, shit…” she went on and on like that for a while.

“What’s a God Killer?” Sookie whispered, looking at me.

I rolled my eyes. “Why are you whispering?”

She gave the Pythoness a pointed look. “I don’t want to freak her out.”

“It seems a little late for that,” was my sarcastic retort.

“I would most certainly say so,” The Pythoness replied. “Allow me to explain the gravity of the situation.”

She sat straighter with the same regal, elegant veneer that painted everything she did. Then she began one incredibly long and sordid tale.

“Once the Fae walked this world in abundance and their species thrived both here and in their home world. Deforestation, industrialization and natural toxins of this world, ” she waved her hand. “Take your pick; their numbers declined. Then they fought a war against our kind eons ago and became nearly extinct.”

That last bit of information was something with which I was actually familiar. It was more like an old tale vampires passed around for fun. It might have been incredibly petty, but I liked that for once I knew something Sookie did not. Since she came back, I’d always been a step behind. Yes, it was petty, but comforting all the same.

“The War of the Night?” I asked. The name was cheesy, but no one consulted me as they were picking it out.

The Pythoness shook her head. “It was written in our history as such, but the true name is ‘The War for the Worlds.”

I supposed she could call it what she wanted. It didn’t change the fact that Fae were owned. I didn’t know how it had begun, no one really did. All I knew was that a large group of vampires opened a heavy can of whoop ass on some Fae. Be they of the Water or the Sky, I did not know.

“The disadvantage of the Fair Ones is obvious. It takes three days to raise a full-grown vampire, and almost fifty years to rear a Fae child to adulthood. That fight cost them dearly so they admitted the battle was lost, but not the war. Ever since, both the Princes of the Sky and Water collaborated, and devised a plan to help them win.”

“That makes no sense,” Sookie said, shaking her head. “The Sky isn’t at war with anyone but the water and the people that help them hurt half breeds.”

Even with all her outward signs of refusal, I felt her doubt. Her doubt might not have run deep, but it was there and now she was being forced to face it. If she had truly believed, she would have never run.

“You’re wrong. Fishes don’t fly and birds don’t swim. The Princes of the Sky and the Water can’t work together.”

“You are a faery who is mated to a vampire; that alone proves that there are exceptions to every rule.” The Ancient One said dismissively.

Sookie opened her mouth to issue a rebuttal, but she had nothing. The fact that we were bound together was plain crazy. While she could deny everything she heard, she couldn’t reject the tattoo on her shoulder or mine.

“What exactly are they trying to win?” I asked. “What have they to gain?”

“The moon and the sun,” she said.

“Are you being literal or figurative?”

“Very literal,” she said, with a grim nod.

Okay. “How exactly do they plan of doing that?” I asked. “What has the power to grasp the moon, never mind the sun, which a ginormous ball of fire?”

She shook her head. “This, I do not know,” she murmured rubbing her temples. I couldn’t tell if she was trying to calm herself, look into the future or if she was still freaking out. Either way, I didn’t ask.

“Get me parchment and a quill.” She ordered.

Reflexively my mouth opened to give her a smart-ass response but it was just too easy. “I have motel stationary and a stubby number two pencil.” I handed her the items. “Make do.”

Blind as she claimed to be, The Pythoness began sketching a photographic portrait. The diagram she was drawing was something similar to the diagram of the earth’s solar system, except they formed a circle and had series of ethereal looking threads that connected them. Above that were the clouds of heaven and below were the flames of hell.

“This is the universe,” she said, holding the picture out to us. “The law that binds it is known as The Origin. The Origin is absolute. No power in any and all the worlds will ever overshadow its law, and it is upon that law that all worlds are created. There are seven worlds that run parallel to our own,” she pointed to the very top of the page where white clouds floated above and a fiery abyss raged below. “There are many names for heaven and hell, but the souls of all species shared the final resting place.” I’d only heard a fraction of this tale. Already I knew it was well beyond my pay grade.

“All the laws of all the worlds connect,” The Old Bat said, pulling me from my ruminations. “The link isn’t always reciprocal, but it does exist so long as it does not violate the law of Origin. That is why sprites of Eindelle can travel into this world but giants and dragons of Underhill cannot.” she tapped at the small darkly shaded sphere on the left.

That sounded like a raw deal. “So almost every other creature in the universe can dock here and raise all kinds of hell, but we cannot visit theirs.”

She nodded then drew two straight lines that began from the center of each world. One ascended toward heaven and the other descended toward hell, and they formed a dagger’s tip. While all the others faded along the way, the lines that originated from earth reached both surfaces. Yes, definitely above my pay grade. I ran a hand through my hair. I had no idea what a headache felt like but if it were possible, I would have one.

“Our Law of Origin is the strictest because it binds all the others.”

“Is it me, or does this sound strangely apocalyptic?” I wondered.

The expression on her face was grim. “It sounds like an apocalypse because it very well could be.”

One more thing to add to my list, though I suppose I should bump this up a few notches.

“They need to literally take hold of the earth’s moon and sun. Once they have them, they can dictate the laws of this world and it will allow them to control all others. They can make the ocean the sky, regrow forestlands, purity the oceans, take away gravity and oxygen, or keep the sun up nonstop. Nevertheless, I think the goal is to make all the worlds like they once were; make it like their home so their population once again can flourish. Those who cannot survive the change will perish.”

“That’s not true,” Sookie murmured.

It was as if she was speaking to herself. Her face was empty, her tone was desperate. She wanted us to tell her she was hallucinating or that she was crazy. That didn’t happen and so I felt her anger rising. I pulled her against me. It wasn’t to comfort her; it was to restrain her. The other vampire in the room was ripping apart all that made her who she was. Being as stubborn as she was, she would have a need to defend it. She regained control and put the width of the room between herself and the Pythoness.

“Niall wouldn’t ever do that. He isn’t a purist. He doesn’t care about power, just protecting those in danger from Breandan.” She nodded as if that would convince her and us. “That is the only reason we fight.” she looked up at us and our silent, stony expressions were all she saw. “It is…right? Right?”

“Lover,” I said, going over to her.

She flinched. I couldn’t tell you why. But the sickly, prickling feeling washing over me was telling me she needed something. I had no idea what would do if not my touch. That was often enough.

“It is,” she insisted, nodding but she was trembling all over.

The Pythoness waved an errant hand. “What they told you, and what I have just said are not contradictory.” She explained coolly.

I was starting to get the feeling she didn’t very much care for my mate. While I understood it, it was making my aggression flare. She had recently been talking about diversifying to help other species in the not to too distant past.

“Have you ever faced a full blooded Water fairy?” she asked Sookie. “Have you ever fought an enemy that wasn’t human, undead, daemon or one of your own?”

Sookie looked at me and she was begging me for help. I had no idea of what to do. Several emotions ran across her face, a twisted mixture of, guilt, shame, pain, anger, and in a cocktail of other sickening emotions that I couldn’t even identify. I held my hand out but she refused to come to me. She was taking shaky steps backward as if to distance herself from the what she had heard.

“You know I speak the truth. In your heart, you feel it. It is why you show compassion to your targets. It is why you have always questioned authority. It is why you ran. They did not train you to fight fairies of the Water. You are to defend them from the night children because it was us that stopped them from destroying our food sources so long ago. They did not lie; they cannot. They deceived, two very different concepts”

“No,” she said.

“Sin Eaters are the Fae equivalent of vampires. You were not born, you were created. So were your parents and their parents before them.” she continued. “You are the result of countless centuries of selective breeding,”

“Shut up,” Sookie said in that icy tone. “Shut. Up!”

“That would not change what or who you are,” the Old Bat said. “By your power level, your lineage is old, which is surprising. You often die young.”

“Niall is my great grandfather…he…he wouldn’t,” Sookie mumbled.

From the sound of her voice, that one thing might have given her pride, but now it made bile rise. I knew that was her last shred of defense against her world caving in about her. Her mouth opened and closed as if she wanted to speak, but afraid she would vomit.

“If that were true, he would have strangled you with your birth cord before you drew your first breath. The blood of the Sky Prince is not in you. Niall would never. To create a Sin Eater, they steadily feed a human woman fruits from the eternal tree of Faeria all throughout her pregnancy. The child would be more than human, but not really Fae. It would be powerful, useful, but most of all it would be expendable. When they usurp one unborn child, they breed them with others like them to avoid drawing attention to the process. Over several generations, the offspring get stronger.”

I looked at Sookie. Her eyes were tear-filled. She seemed to be in a place where nothing and no one could reach. She was literally falling apart. The damage was so bad that not even the mating mark knew how to guide me. It told me she needed me, but it held no indication as to what I should do. It was like facing a mental fork in the road. It was the same one that told me what her favorite color was, except this time, there was no nudge one way or another. I was as lost as she was.

“Are the marks cursed?” I asked the AP. Aside from it being unwanted, it didn’t feel wrong on me. I had asked Sookie, and she had said no. Now I wanted to double check, because there was much she didn’t know.

The Old Bat shook her head. “The marks are for population control. They appear when a Sin Eater’s power reaches a certain level, not a certain age. This way only their strongest can breed amongst each other. The weak ones that do not die in combat never mate and no one thinks anything of it.”

Sookie made a noise that was between a gag and a cry. It felt as she was being ripped apart. There was nothing I could do, and not having information we needed wouldn’t help her.

“That you two have mated is…” words failed her. She ran her hand over her face as if she was tired though it wasn’t even nine in the evening. “You were made to kill each other off. Eric, you are the top Enforcer for the Ancient Pythoness and Vampire Law. She is a God Killer. Once you fought on opposing sides of a war that decided the fate of this world. Now, I fear you will be forced to do so again.”

“If you knew all this,” I asked. “Why haven’t you done anything about it?”

She opened both her palms out to me in a gesture of capitulation. “It is a limitation of my ability. I cannot see my future and as I am part of this world. I cannot see it’s fate. Even if I could, how do you suppose I get into Feary to thwart their plans? The pure breeds do not come to this world. They send the Sin Eaters to do their bidding.”

I sighed. This just kept getting better and better. I had unwilling and unknowingly mated with a faery, and now said faery was claiming to be pregnant with my child. If that wasn’t enough, she wasn’t just a Sin Eater, but a God Killer. We were on the run. She was all but dead weight as I tried to get her to safety. Our haven was still several thousand miles away. My mate also just had her entire identity ripped to shreds. I supposed adding Armageddon to that list was fitting.

I felt it as all of this registered with Sookie. I saw as she accepted it, and I knew she couldn’t handle anymore. I let her go and she ran to the bathroom. She heaved and was violently sick. Her turmoil clearly wasn’t physical, it was emotional. They had used her throughout her whole life. They had made her sacrifice everything for their cause, a cause that would have ultimately taken her life.

“You must make a choice, Eric.” The Pythoness said, rising to her feet. “If you do not return with me, I must put out a warrant with your name upon it.”

I sighed. It really just kept getting better and better.

Hurt

As I’d feared, in addition to the Sin Eaters we would have Enforcers after us. I would also no longer have her protection. I didn’t resent her for it either. She didn’t just have to uphold the law. While I always bent the rules, I never broke them. Making an exception for me or anyone else would call her integrity into question. She was the law. Going completely off her grid had to result in a warrant that bore my name. What with the end of the world coming, we just didn’t need that. I still had one more question:

“What exactly is a God Killer?”

The Old Bat shook her head and rubbed her eyes. The milky film that coated her eyes seemed thicker. It looked as though she was fighting to keep her sight, which was odd because she was already blind.

“All I know is that every realm has one, and a God Killer can end their world or it can save it, but I know not how.”

I might have reached my rock bottom because I took that bleak bit of news as something good. “Then how do you know it’s her? You could be mistaken. She might just be a powerful Sin Eater like any other.” Even as I said it sounded weak and little desperate to my ears.

The Pythoness gave me a look that stated plainly and snidely, ‘Are you fucking serious?’ I suppose I wasn’t. “In her right eye, I saw heaven and in her left, I saw the bowels of hell.” She said.

The Pythoness held her hand open for me when she reached the door. Knowing what it would cost me, I shook my head and took a firm step back. There was no question about what my choice would be. It was a reflex that was as natural to me as breathing was to a human. Keeping Sookie safe was paramount. Once her child was born and our bond was broken that would no longer be the case. We would once again be strangers, strangers who should have never been anything more. That was later.

In this moment, I seized the opportunity to add a layer of protection for her unborn child. I couldn’t trust myself to do so later. We would soon be marching to our places in a war that neither of us had a hand in declaring. What side she would be on? I had no idea. I knew where I would be. It would be where the Pythoness sent me.

“How much of a head start can you give me?” I asked.

“I am an old lady,” she said, opening the door. “I forget things, sometimes for one, two days at a time.”

“In return, I will not recklessly endanger or maim any of the Enforcers you send after me,” That would also help my case in court. I knew at some point after this was all done, I would turn myself in. “In addition I make you this offer. Until you release me or the true death claims me, I will sit in your cabinet and wear your colors. I will become of Captain of the Enforcers.”

The Pythoness stilled and looked up at me. “What do you desire in return?” she asked.

“What are you not willing to give?”

“I will not look into your future or hers. I will not dismiss the warrant that will hold your name.”

I nodded. I didn’t want any of that. The future was a fickle thing, and having her take a glimpse for me would only show me things I didn’t want to know. Either that or it would have me fighting something that should be.

“When her child is born, you will take him to your home, and keep him safe. Ever will he and his be under your protection. You will treat him as you treat your own.”

With one more look toward the bathroom where Sookie was washing up, she nodded her agreement. “I accept your terms.” She was on other side of the room when she added, “I hope you know what you are doing.”

For some reason that statement made me laugh. It was probably because I had no fucking clue what I was doing. The Old Bat must have known, too, because this was the first time that she didn’t insist I see her to her car.

I left Sookie alone as long as I could. After a half hour of silence from the other side of the door, I heard the shower turn on. Twenty minutes later, with no end in sight, I went in. The door was locked, but it didn’t stop me. I mangled the knob and forced my way in.

My mate was huddled in the tub, naked, sitting directly under the jetting stream. She didn’t blink, not even as water entered her eyes, and rained down her face. She stared blankly ahead and she looked like the soul had been snatched from her, her spirit had been torn asunder, and she was numb.

From the amount of steam rising from the air, the water had to be piping hot. She didn’t seem to notice. The first thing I did was adjust the water temperature. Then I simply sat beside the tub. I didn’t say anything. I didn’t touch her, I could see that she was barely holding what was left of herself together. “This is where we part ways,” she said, as if speaking to herself.

“I am going back, and I’m going to kill them all. Niall, Breandan; everyone that had ever fed me this lie, and anyone that gets in my way.”

The expression on my face was a little doubtful, and more than a little condescending. It was a front to hide my horror. Since she found me, the only thing she wanted to do was keep her child safe. Not to mention I just signed away my eternity. I would kick her ass myself. “I suppose you are going to beat their fists with your face and bleed all over them to subdue them?” In her condition, that was all she could do. “Effective.”

“I will be the last thing they see before they all die,” she said.

Her expression was nothing like when she woke from a night terror. It wasn’t cold. A razor’s edge didn’t glint in her eyes, and murder wasn’t on her mind. On her face was a look that I had worn once so long ago. She didn’t accept what was true, not after she had lived a beautiful lie.

“You don’t want to kill them,” I said honestly. “You want to die.”

She looked at me, her face crumpled, and she cried. I pulled her out of the tub, wrapped her in towel, and held her to me. “They took everything,” she said. “I loved them. I shed blood for them, so much blood. I have bled, I would have died, and for what?” She looked so very lost, so broken, and hurt. “For what?”

Her racking sobs were that of someone who was dying or coming alive; someone who was breaking and becoming whole all at once. She gagged and I was sure if there was anything in her stomach it would have come up.

“I believed everything they told me. That my survival was based on obedience. It was easy to believe because everyone who took their chances without them died, and now I know why. We are…I’m a monster. I’ve don’t things that felt wrong for the sake of others like me, so we would be safe from Breandan.”

“They owned you before you were born. They robbed you in the worst possible way. They lied, they used you, and now they hunt you. It sucks but you can’t control it. You can’t rewrite the past because it doesn’t do shit for the pain. It only makes you dumber. Your life is one thing that they want, don’t let them have it, not without a real fight, not now.”

I wiped her tears and kissed her head, but held her tighter. She clutched to me as if nothing in this world could tether her to its surface.

“Believe me when I tell you I know how bad it hurts,” I whispered, pulling her head into my chest. My cheek rested on her head. “I know love.” And it sucked silver.

She looked up at me doubtfully. “Everybody plays the fool sometimes,” I smiled and rolled my eyes to ease the intimacy of the moment. “Okay, in my case it’s more like always, but you get the point.”

She smiled. It wasn’t much, just a slight curve of her lips. Seeing such a little thing eased the ache of watching her hurt so badly but being unable to do anything about it.

“A betrayal that runs this deep makes you ask yourself what is it you have ever done to make someone you love want to hurt you so badly. How could they want to hurt you when all you ever did was love them? You wonder how you could have ever been so stupid. How could you have trusted and followed so blindly?”

She nodded. “I guess sometimes is always for me too.”

I winced, and shook my head sadly. “We’re screwed then,” I said dryly.

She laughed and laid her head in the crook of my neck. While I had made her smile, I knew the pain wasn’t gone. I just held her and the longer her scent and the heat suffused my senses, the more I needed to get away. I tried to ease her off me, but she stilled and looked up at me slowly. Sookie leaned into me. I saw her intent and I pulled away.

“We shouldn’t,” I said, cupping her face in my hands. It was a show of comfort, but it was also to keep her from coming closer. Already the scent of her desire was rising. It was something I hadn’t sensed in so long. It was sharper and more potent, if that was possible. I didn’t have much willpower. I wanted her.

I knew what sex with her meant for me, and for us. She had explained it to me. The sad part was that being bound tighter to her wasn’t what made me refuse her. It was because I didn’t want to take advantage of her. The weekend we met, she had been in heat and simply couldn’t help herself. Now she was in pieces and wanted to feel something other than pain. I also understood that. After Freyda, I gave ‘Grief Banging’ a completely new meaning.

“Please, Eric,” her bottom lip trembled and her eyes rimmed with tears. “Please just this once, just for a little while.”

That was it. I was totally undone. With a groan of defeat and desire, I pulled her to me. Rejection from her mate was something she just couldn’t handle right now. Honestly, it wasn’t something I could do; whether or not it was the bonding marks, I couldn’t say. I had wanted to taste her lips since the day she stormed back into my life.

For so long now, I’d been yearning to crush her body to mine. With every week that passed while we had been racing to Hawaii, I saw her glow. I saw her figure fill out even more as she grew fuller. Thankfully, she wore loose clothing most of the time. It helped tamp my hunger for her. It wasn’t enough to rob me of my desire for her; nothing could.

Effortlessly, I rose with her in my arms. Her legs were around me, but she refused to part her lips from mine. Kissing her ignited a fire in me that only she could call forth. I would have her there and then, but I forced myself to make it to the bed. If it was going to be just this once, I wanted to savor it. Foreplay consisted of us simply touching each other as we got reacquainted. Her fingertips grazed over the surface of my skin, and I was purring and leaning in to seek more. I nuzzled her neck and rubbed my cheek against hers, and she moaned.

It added something more to this encounter, making it better. Admittedly, wanting to make love was something I shouldn’t want, but with the mating mark wrapping me in a cloak of adoration, affection, passion, and warmth, it was all I wanted. With her smoldering blue eyes locked on mine, with her lips whispering passionate words in my ear, and with her body undulating urgently beneath mine; no, I couldn’t help it.

Everything seemed as very right as I touched her, but it wasn’t, it so wasn’t. The end of the world was dawning, we were being hunted, but none of it mattered. It didn’t matter because she was my world. Later, it would, but now I wanted to be inside her. I wanted to ease her, I wanted to hold her and never let go. Simultaneously, it wasn’t what I wanted. It was the mark at work. These feelings weren’t real, but I couldn’t even make myself resent it while in the heat of the moment.

The scent and taste of her was intoxicating. Our fingers intertwined. Her legs cradled my hips as I lay on top of her. Our eyes held as I entered her slick folds. I saw the look in her eyes as she took my body into hers. It was a beautiful blend of devotion, wonder, and utter bliss. Slowly, I surged into her.

I was asking myself how this time could feel better than the first. Her body was tight, so very tight, just as I remembered. The only difference was that there was no blood or pain. I felt her stretch to take me as I filled her. I growled from the effort to keep from riding her harder and faster so I could get a glimpse of heaven.

Sookie moaned and reached up to pull my lips to hers as I claimed her. I found that I didn’t miss that blazing need that had hung over us the first time. It burned slower and heated deeper, but it was just as consuming. When she came, it was because I made her, not because she couldn’t help it. My name and her cries of desire tumbled from her lips. I was getting lost. We had to stop.

“Better?” I asked, slowing.

“Ye…yes,” she moaned nodding.

“Okay,” I kissed her, and began disentangling myself.

It took everything I had not to suck her lip into my mouth. I’d been ready to cum the instant I felt her wetness. It took every shred of fortitude, but I pulled out of her with my cock fully erect and aching to get back in. Ignoring the way she whimpered at the loss of me and my groan of parting with her warmth, I moved to the bathroom. It felt criminal to wash away her scent and the evidence of her pleasure, but I had to. Already, I was feeling things I shouldn’t, things I didn’t want, things that weren’t real.

Killer Couple

Our journey continued, but Sookie wasn’t herself. The person she thought she was, the life she thought she had lived, had all been a lie, and she was lost. I knew what was bothering her but there was nothing I could do. I began developing a theory out of sheer frustration. Vampires could form blood bonds with humans after three mutual exchanges of blood. Such a thing was entirely up to the vampire involved. With their blood, they could influence emotion, track location, and in some cases, exert full control over the human’s will, though the human could sense and interpret and influence the vampire’s emotions as well.

Perhaps the mating marks were similar? I found myself poking and prodding at the intuition that told me when Sookie was tired or hungry. All I could decipher were her needs, but I was getting better. I knew when to make pit stops, and, if faced with a choice, I knew what she wanted to eat. There was nothing I could do for her mood.

I couldn’t exactly tell what she was feeling. I just knew it wasn’t good and I couldn’t comfort her. What was worse was the mark on my shoulder wasn’t able to act as my guide. I tried to tell myself she needed time, however; knowing she was unhappy wasn’t making me unhappy, it irritated me endlessly. It went a little something like this:

“Red light, brake; green light, go; left turn, Sookie needs something.” On and on it went in an endless loop. “Have a blood, shower; change my clothes, get in the car; Sookie needs something,”

It was as if there was a fly swooping through my brain every few minutes; just when I thought it was gone, it simply came back again.

“What do you need, baby?” Sookie asked with a frown.

Deciding to test the extent of the bond, I was intentionally cryptic, “What do you think?”

“Can’t figure it out…I think it’s cause you don’t know…” The latter half of her sentence was a guess.

She was right, I had no idea. “I want you to stop moping,” I told her. “It’s irritating me.”

The familiar mirth danced in eyes. It wasn’t to indicate she was going to smile, but she was thinking about it. “It’s because the mark is making you feel you have to do something about it, but you don’t know what,” she replied.

I nodded. “So will you give it a rest now? You’re ugly when you sulk.” I teased.

She swatted my arm, but I did get a smile out of her. “No wonder you’re single,” she said.

“Who says I’m single?”

My voice was solemn, and I knew she was going to fall for the trick all over again. Sure enough, her featured turned to one of dismay, and she covered her face with her hands.

“Oh man…please don’t tell me I’m a home wrecking hussy?” she begged. “That’s the last thing I need.”

I laughed and threw my arm around her. “No, the Old Bat is as close as I get to a steady girlfriend.”

My response had been honest and evasive. There was no way I was going to tell Sookie the first woman I ever loved had ruined me for any other. I wasn’t about to delve into the fact that said woman was a sociopathic, conniving, murderer who played me for a fool. Admittedly, Sookie and I had a similar sense of humor and some shared some character traits; but I wasn’t going to get into my personal business with her. I wanted her to do me the same courtesy. We were just two people heading in the same direction. Fortunately, we were similar enough to share laughs along the way.

This time when Sookie smiled at me, it was bright and very much her own smile. “For the life of me, I can’t imagine why.”

I grinned, “Unbelievable, isn’t it?”

Her fingers intertwined with mine where they lay draped over her shoulder and she leaned into me. For the first time since the visit from the Old Bat, she was relaxed. What she needed came to mind: a distraction. The future would come, and, when it did, we would face it no matter what it was. In this car, right now, there was nothing we could do. There were a few hours of moonlight left and thousands of miles to cover,so, I engaged her in a game of “Twenty Questions—The Unwillingly Bonded Mates Edition.”

It was to distract her, but it helped me get a better read of the intuition that guided me to what she needed or preferred. Some things were easy. For instance, I knew her preference for chocolate over vanilla before I finished asking the question. Likewise, she knew I would take going to ground over a coffin. It wasn’t a safety thing, it was a just a preference.

Once we reached Alpine, we decided to stay two days while I called any and every daemon I knew. None of them could do anything that wouldn’t involve teleporting and Sookie couldn’t, not while she was pregnant. Already I knew I would have to risk flying. Moving on my power would get us where we needed, but I would be racing the sun. It was looking like our only option. I would take off as close to shore as possible.

On our third night in Alpine, when were ready to depart, trouble came. I rose and noticed Sookie had traded her usual sweats for jeans and combat boots. There was a wide array of knives on the bed. Her weapon of choice was a bow and it was slung across her body. Somehow, it looked both beautiful and deadly. It was mercurial blue. Intricate designs were etched in silver along the handle. Both ends were in the shape of wings, sharper than any blade I’d ever seen. That bag of hers really could give provide her with anything.

“They’re coming,” she said, stashing daggers in her boot.

“You don’t say?” I was already up and dressed. I was stashing enough weapons on my body to start a war. I supposed it was fitting.

Sookie rolled her eyes at me. She didn’t look anxious as she concealed several knives on her person. If not for the mating mark, I wouldn’t have known how terrified she was. She was going to fight Sin Eaters and she wasn’t at full power.

“You’re leaving,” I told her.

We were already packed to go and we always traveled light. I didn’t give her time to reply. I had her in my arms and was out the door. I wouldn’t be able to fight with her this close and this scared. That was part of the reason; the other was me wanting to keep her far from harm.

“Don’t stop moving until you hit Nevada. Go into the first brothel or casino you see. Ask for Felipe DeCastro. Tell him Eric sent you, and he is to personally escort you to the high court in Minnesota.”

The Spaniard owed me. Ruthless as he was, being a king, I knew his word as an immortal meant more. He would get her where she needed to be. I tried to shut the door of the stolen car behind her, but she stopped me.

“I can’t,” she replied, sounding pained. She pulled her shirt off partly to show me her tattoo. The green roots that encircled the blue tree were pulsing. “Red is to protect us from each other. Green is so we know to protect each other from anything else. They’re too close. It won’t let me leave you.”

I cursed violently. “Is there a reason why I’m just finding out about this now?” I hissed.

She shrugged. “It never came up,” she said, righting her shirt. “Can I get a lift back to the room now?”

I didn’t take us back to the room. Instead, I moved to the roof. Her backpack and mine were beside us. In the unlikely event we walked away from this fight, we could continue our journey with minimal delay.

There was no doubt that they had us beat in numbers. I pointed to the bow. “Can you use that thing?”

She huffed, “Nah, I carry it because it matches my shoes.”

I supposed I’d walked right into that one. “I’ll run decoy,” I said, thinking of our best strategic options. “I’ll watch your back.”

She grinned. “That’s just because you like the shape of my ass.”

I laughed and made no attempt to deny it. We stood back to back, and out of morbid curiosity, I asked her a question that didn’t matter.

“What is the blue for?” I wondered.

She reached for my hand and squeezed it. “It doesn’t matter,” she said, with a sad note in her voice. “I don’t think we’ll get that far.”

“Blue means ‘Lovers Eternal,'” a male voice called from the corner of the roof. “It only appears when the bond has been wholly formed and runs so deep not even death can undo it. It is rare.”

While I appreciated that bit of information, I threw my dagger at the voice without waiting to see the face that went with it. All that registered was the sweet scent of fairy. It was all I needed to know. The only thing that saved him was Sookie. She knocked my arm aside to throw off my perfect aim. Instead of landing in the target’s heart, it imbedded in a tree several yards behind him

“What is the matter with you?” she asked. “What about anything he said made you think, ‘Kill me, I’m dangerous?'”

I shrugged. “Just about all of it,” I replied unrepentantly.

I turned and found there wasn’t just one intruder, there were two, and they were identical. Like most full-blooded fairies, these two had skin just a few shades darker than my own pale complexion and curly blonde hair. Both of them stood a head shorter than me. If their scent didn’t give them away, their attire did; they were in boots, tights, and tunics. Only a fairy could make that look good in a setting so opposite to his apparel.

“Dermot, Fintan. There better be a good reason why I stopped him,” she said.

Sookie’s tone wasn’t friendly so I kept twirling two daggers that had their names on them. They weren’t wearing nametags, they were entirely identical from the length of their hair to the sound of their voices, and even their heartbeats were synchronized. I would just aim left and right then.

“We came to help,” the twin to the left said.

Sookie’s eyes turned to glass. “Help?” she hissed. “I know everything about what your help involves! Lying to me, making me believe I was part of your family, and making me think I was fighting to protect when I was just killing for you. That’s what you call help?” she shook her head in disgust. “I don’t want it, so you can go.”

The twin to the right looked shamefaced. “We swore an oath in blood to be secret keepers.”

Sookie waved her hand dismissively. “I’m not giving you another warning, Fintan, leave.”

“You may know much, but not all.” he replied.

“I’m a God Killer,” she surmised. “Yes, I got that too, heaven in my right eye and hell in my left.”

He nodded. “Yet you do not know that your blood is needed to claim the moon and the sun.”

She let out a hysterical peel of laughter. “Fucking perfect!”

“No,” the other twin said, shaking his head as if horrified. “It is bad, very bad.”

I rolled my eyes. Sookie was apparently the only fairy that got the concept of sarcasm. “The moon will fully blot out the sun and the barriers between all the worlds with merge. With your blood, my father will keep the portal open to make himself Master of the Universe.”

The other doomsday forecaster nodded. “You can destroy this world or you can save it,” he added. “We want to help you save it.”

“Why do you want to save it?” she asked, looking at the fairy on the right. She didn’t want to believe them. She had no reason to trust them, but I knew she wanted to.

“You remember when you were little and you stumbled into my mind while I slept?” he replied.

Hesitantly, she nodded. “There was a little boy in your arms and you were telling him goodbye. You were crying in your sleep and in the dream.”

He nodded. “That was my son. My father dealt him a death so merciless and so vile that his soul was too mangled and broken to find its way to the home of his fore bearers. To this day he roams this world and his spirit will never know peace.”

There was no emotion in his face except for his eyes. They were haunted. It was a good thing that I knew fairies couldn’t tell direct lies, otherwise I would have seen this as a ploy to gain trust through sympathy.

“What they did to his mother,” tears filled his eyes. “What they did to her, I have not the heart to tell you. In loving her, I condemned her to die because she wasn’t Fae. The fact that my son was half of me wasn’t enough to spare him because his other half was human.”

His brother took his hand and pulled his face into his chest. If not for the fact that they were fairies that would have been odd. Not only did they smell like all things delicious, that species couldn’t keep their hands to themselves.

“We have taken from you,” his twin replied. “It cannot be undone but we can save you, your mate, and your child from a similar fate. That and that alone is the only reason we have come.”

Sookie looked at me. We needed the help, but I knew if I didn’t agree she would turn them down. I shrugged. I would take the help, but it didn’t mean I trusted them or would turn my back to them.

Sookie stiffened and I tilted my head east. “Party’s here,” I said, with a wicked smile. “Let’s dance.”

Sookie moved to join me as I leapt off the roof. I gave her a look so menacing she threw her hands up and returned to her perch. From the ledge, I saw the loose circle begin to tighten. There were nine in total. None of the faces were familiar except Preston’s. Oh good! This was going to be fun! He looked up at me, and I grinned with fangs exposed in hello. He scowled and I knew he wanted to end me as much as wanted to end him. There was no talk this time. He was fast, almost too fast for me to keep up with, but not quite. I’d spent the past two hundred years fighting the worse fugitives the undead world had to offer.

He teleported and I knew he was going to appear behind me. It was a good call. I was waiting with my hand out and his neck literally appeared right in my grasp. His hands moved to break the hold, but it didn’t matter. We were already taking the short way off the roof. I was kind enough to use his face to break our fall. I picked him and broke his back across my knee just because he’d made me listen to his anecdote. Then I threw his limp form at his friends. They watched as if confused.

“Don’t be shy,” I said, holding my arms out to the rest. “I don’t bite.” From the rooftop, I heard Sookie scoff and mutter something under her breath. I chuckled.

The others must have been waiting for Preston to make quick work of me. When that didn’t happen, the blitz ensued. I threw two daggers with pinpoint precision. The first lodged in the side of a slim female. I threw so it cleared her ribs and punctured her lungs. It should have killed her, but it simply brought her to her knees. The other landed in the chest of the Sin Eater to her right. There was a crack of bone, again it should have been fatal, but it wasn’t.

The one thing I learned in the heat of this battle was that vampires and the world in general were in deep shit. Sin Eaters were serious business. I couldn’t remember ever fighting an opponent who had pushed me so close to the brink. I had suffered several deep gashes that were made with silver blades and the fight wasn’t even close to being over. Dermot and Fintan finished off those I injured. I couldn’t see them and neither could anyone else; I just saw the enemies I’d injured lose their heads.

“Ow,” I hissed. “That hurt!”

I reached behind me and grabbed the fairy that had perched himself on my back. He had bitten me. Being a vampire, I wasn’t beyond seeing the irony in that. I had him by the back of his neck, then I ran my knee into his face until I saw teeth and blood fly out of his mouth. For good measure, I crushed his sternum. I tossed him the air and by the time he bounced off the ground, there was an arrow in his chest that had him screaming in a way that my savage beating hadn’t.

Preston was on his feet again and when he took in the bloodbath, he snarled and his fingers glowed. There was still a smile because I was the only one who saw the arrow that was inches from his back. The last thing he saw was my smile. Then he shuddered and dropped to the ground. He didn’t scream as the others had, but it must have taken everything he had.

I moved toward the fairy to finish the kill, to put him out of his misery and mine.

“No,” Sookie called. “Eric, please! Please don’t!”

I really wanted to kill him. It wasn’t that she didn’t want him dead that angered me. It was the fact that despite his flagrant attempt to harm her and end me, she still loved him. With a frustrated growl, I kicked him into a wall. I got Sookie from the roof. She just couldn’t leave without going to Preston. Again, I found my feelings divided in more directions than I cared to count.

“Remember,” she said, caressing his face. “Remember what I said to you the day we went to visit my parents grave?”

He made a gurgling sound. “Hush…you’re okay. You’re okay.”

“Not from where I’m standing,” I commented smugly. That fact made me feel better.

“Try to remember Pres,” she urged desperately. “If you do, you’ll know this is as wrong as it feels. You’ll know we were right.”

She kissed his head and rose to her feet. She took me by the hand and began pulling me toward the parking lot so we could borrow another car. I knew she didn’t trust me enough to leave him alone with me for a second. That was fair enough because I didn’t trust myself. A minute later, we were leaving the hotel and gunning toward San Diego.

Chapter 15

Are We There Yet?

“We need to get here,” Sookie said to the fairies, inclining her head to the island on a map.

We had traveled as far and as fast as we could and were now in a hotel in San Diego. My mate’s hands were busy scrubbing silver residue from my wounds. The Sin Eater who had bitten me had capped his teeth in silver. My body was working to dissolve the toxin. I was drinking a blood, but I was eying the fairies for dessert. Sookie knew letting me drink the fairies would ease my need and heal all my injuries. We both knew I shouldn’t, so I just kept on eyeing them as she rubbed my arm to soothe me and keep me from launching at the Fae twins. I didn’t see the big deal. There were two of them and I only wanted one.

They picked up the map and studied it closely. We didn’t need to explain to them the obvious obstacles that were in our way. We had finally reached San Diego. That was the good news. The bad news was that I still had no idea how we were going to get from the California coast to the Hawaiian Islands. If we flew, the Sky Fae would shoot her down. If we took a boat, the Water Fae would pull my mate to watery grave.

“You are certain you will be safe here?” Dermot asked Sookie.

“Yes,” I replied.

The tandem nodded. Their coordinated movements and the way they were finishing each other’s thoughts and sentences was beginning to get irritating. It was like engaging someone and his or her reflection in a conversation; creepy and confusing. If I didn’t see their lips move, I wouldn’t know who was speaking.

“Provide the most glittery pieces of gold and silver you can, a matched set if possible,” Fintan said, rising to his feet.

Sookie frowned. “How is Angus going to help?”

I didn’t have to ask her to fill me in. “Angus is a goblin who loves ‘Sparklies,'” she explained.

“He also knows how to travel in and out of just about anywhere without being detected.”

She reached into her bag, made the request, and then offered it to Fintan. He only took two pieces of opposing designs and returned the rest.

“We’ll tell him where we got it,” he said, pulling his brother to his feet. “Wait for him here.”

I arched a brow. “That seems unwise.”

Sookie shook her head. “He’s greedy and obsessive as hell. If the metal is shiny enough, he’ll sell you his own mother. When they tell him where they got it, he’ll take the location to the grave for fear of another person getting here before him.”

“If he does not come in a week, you must assume the worst and find another way for we cannot return to you,” Dermot said—or was it Fintan? I had no clue.

She nodded at him, then he faded. The other lingered, and he looked down at Sookie. “I have always loved you, and I have always kept you as my family, more so than the one into which I was born.” Then he too vanished.

I sighed. “I still think you should have let me eat one,” I complained.

She laughed and kissed my head. Then she reclined onto the bed and cradled my head in her lap. We didn’t speak. Our silence was comfortable, companionable. She ran her fingers through my hair and I played with her fingers. Nothing had brought me this much peace or scared me so much.

The next night I rose and for the first time, Sookie didn’t have a warm blood waiting for me. “I can’t anymore,” she said, remorsefully. “Using the bag is taking too much out of me and stressing him.”

The last thing I heard her ask for before the weapons and coins was fifty thousand in cash. That and the weapons was all my backpack held. Sookie carried the maps and her toiletries. We bought what we needed and ditched it once we got somewhere else. It had been more important to travel light and fast than anything else.

If not for the habit she had gotten me into, I would have taken a second to realize I wasn’t even in need of a drink. I just wanted it because she made it for me. Still, I should have known that it had been wearing on her. More things did with each passing day. The topic of her child wasn’t something we discussed unless it involved her health. I wanted to ask if she was well but I didn’t have to; I felt it, and I was more than grateful for our bond.

“I wish I could feed you,” she murmured.

“I know,” I said, taking her hand and heading for the door.

The thing was, I didn’t want her to offer me her vein. It would kill any shred of self-control I had left. Being with her day in and day out with our constant exchange of affectionate touches, and having her soft body over mine as she slept was already too much. At this point, I didn’t look past her neck. Sexually, I was frustrated. Emotionally, I was confused and overwhelmed. Mentally, I was tired, and all I wanted was space to deal with it. That was the one thing I couldn’t get.

We bought enough clothes and food for Sookie to last us a few days. Unlike the jeans and plain tees Sookie was fond of, she bought sweat pants and shirts. It wasn’t really evident that she was with child. The only reason I noticed was because I gave her a perverse amount of attention. I’d never paid any attention to pregnant women, but I noticed, despite my diligent efforts, the way her body was filling out. I noticed the minor growth of her breasts and the swell of her stomach. It made no sense to me that she was more attractive to me now than she was when I met her.

The continuous traveling had been wearing on her. She’d been sleeping less and was on edge more. With the few days off, she caught up on some sleep and got she got her strength back . The losses the Sin Eaters had suffered would undoubtedly result in them taking a few days to regroup.

This was a good a time as any to take a break, so we took the reprieve while we waited for the goblin, Angus. Yet, with every day that he didn’t show, I knew I would risk the sun to get us where we had to be. The longer we stayed, the higher the risk of Sin Eaters finding us. The warrant for me had gone out. It was only a matter of time before Enforcers found my trail.

The interactions between Sookie and me had were reverberative of a normal couple. I would go out with her while she had dinner at one of the many restaurants. She would linger in the bars as I looked for someone from whom to feed. Then we walked. It was mostly to scout the area, but we walked hand-in-hand and it felt nothing like reconnaissance. Despite all that was against us, those little walks and the way she needed to sleep in my arms seemed more important. I resented every bit of joy I found in all of it because I knew it wasn’t real.

It was our fourth day in San Diego when the Enforcers came. What was odd was Sookie caught their approach before I did. As we walked through the crowded mall hand-in-hand, her head tilted left. I casually scanned the area and nothing alerted my senses.

“Do you hear that?” she asked.

I shook my head. “What?”

“Vampires,” she said, pulling us into the next store. “I hear them.”

She pretended to peruse through the toy store. “Want to tell me how?” I wondered. While we talked, I was trying to filter through all the scents and sounds, and pinpoint where they were.

“I’m a telepath,” she said, as if she was telling me her shirt was blue.

I stopped and stared at her. “So you’ve been—” I began.

She shook her head. “You’re dead. I don’t get reception from you, just static. I don’t hear a lot of other supes either; the frequencies are too different, I think.”

“Anything else you want to tell me?” I asked, annoyed. “Now is the time to disclose.” I was sick of finding things out a few seconds before shit hit the fan.

She cut me a derisive eye roll. “Once I dyed my hair green. In the winter I wear toe socks. Anytime I walk by a carnival, I go in and ask for a job for a few days. That way I get all the fried dough and cotton candy I want.” After a brief moment, she added. “I don’t like raccoons. They have people hands and look like bandits. I don’t trust em’.”

I opened my mouth and found that for the first time ever, I was speechless; utterly stumped. “I’m starting to think you’re crazy,” I commented. I wasn’t sure if I was being serious or not.

She laughed and it made me smile. “You’re just getting that, huh?”

“How many of them are there?” I asked, moving her to the cash register to pay for whatever was in my hand.

“Six,” she said.

I frowned. “That can’t be all.” I’m an S7 vampire. I truly hoped that wasn’t all there were. That would just be insulting.

She shrugged. “That’s all I count in my range.”

“Keep shopping.” I told her. “I’ll be right back.”

Sookie took hold of my hand. I stared down at her and saw as she let the bond tell her how little danger I was in. I kissed her head. Through the employee only area, I was able to find a back way out of the store. I followed the corridors and found my way toward the loading docks. This was a nice quiet place to beat the shit out of Enforcers. There were three two man teams of S3 and a team of S4. I wasn’t even going to enjoy it.

It turned out there were eight. I saw the first of them slide out through a small grate. He was obviously a decoy. It didn’t matter; he wouldn’t move fast enough. Before anyone got a word out, I attacked. As I had promised the Old Bat, I didn’t end any of them or take any of their limbs. I put my hand through a few of them. It was positively sad that clean up took longer than the fight. It couldn’t be helped. I would get in more trouble for causing a spectacle than the actual fight. After I was done, I threw them in the dumpsters nearby. It would conceal their presence as they healed, or protect them from the sun if they didn’t.

Sookie was exactly where I left her. We went back to the hotel and when we arrived, she began packing.

“We can stay,” I told her. “This is the last place they’ll think to look for me.”

“I don’t care,” she said. “I want to get far away.”

“We need to give your Goblin friend a few more days.”

She stopped and stared at the ceiling in frustration. The urge to go to her didn’t fully register before I was acting on it. I carried her to bed with me and held her as she tried to control her fear. This was the first night she didn’t sleep on top of me. It would put too much pressure on her stomach so instead, she curled into a ball, and I lay beside her. It took longer, but she finally began to relax.

~ooooo~

By day seven Angus didn’t show. That made the choice for us. We left our clothes behind and I even ditched some weapons. I needed to move as fast as possible because I would be racing the sun. We were set to go when a knock came to the door. All I could smell was something really unpleasant.

“You bastard,” Sookie said with a scowl.

The unexpected visitor let out a delighted cackle and then he walked through the door. Presumably, this was Angus and he had a face only a mother could love. His fingers were longer than normal and covered with green fur. He was bald and his nose was more of a snout. His eyes were five sizes too big for his face and shone a bright yellow. That was before you looked at his ears. He could use them to air glide.

“Och! I’woolda wagered h’is lot ur yer woolda knocked yer pan in by noo!” His was a Scottish burr, and it was thick. He had a bright smile, but his tone was disappointed. “‘En Ah coods ‘ae me Sparklies.”

In case we didn’t get the point, he emphasized it by forming a finger pyramid of evil contemplation. Instinctively I moved to stand in front of Sookie, but she sidestepped me. Cleary she wasn’t worried about him. I wouldn’t trust this tiny troll to lead me to the lobby, never mind across a damn ocean.

“Do you want to kill him or should I?” I asked Sookie, in all seriousness. She had dibs seeing they were familiar.

“No,” she said, picking up her bag. “I’ll do him one worse,” then she turned to the goblin with a look of disgust. “I bet you have two pieces that I bartered to the fairy. I have their matches and eight other pairs too. Five of them have gold heads and silver tails.”

A dreamy, almost orgasmic, look fell over his face, making him look more like an inebriated gremlin, if you can imagine such a thing. “Let’s ‘ae a swatch ‘en,” he purred.

“No,” she snapped, angrily.

“Naw, lassie ‘ae a heart. we be best chums, ye an’ me aien’t we? Lit ol’ Angus hae a wee peek.”

“No,” she said. By the look on his face, she had indeed dealt him a fate worse than death. He blew a gasket, literally. Steam shot out of his ears, some bits of his fur singed. It didn’t make him smell any better.

“Pure techt, pure techt gantin, ool’ Battleaxe!” he shouted. His eyes had turned orange. He was jumping up and down like a child having a fit. “Gie it haur! gie it! Angus sparklies! Gimme!”

“No,” she snapped, “Just for that, I’m going to melt them into the ocean while you watch!”

She walked out the door and I followed, with Angus still throwing insults. When the door closed, he let out a piercing wail and began cursing in what I thought was Old Scots. I thought she was bluffing but she continued walking towards the elevators. Wordlessly I followed. I trusted her to make the right call, especially since she had experience in dealing with this particular creature and I didn’t.

Angus was waiting on the sidewalk. He looked composed and calm, but there was still a manic look to him. He cleared his throat in a deceptively dignified manner. “Ah micht haeoverreacted a tad,” he said, bowing his head so low his ears touched the ground. “Mah sincerest apologies tae th’ braw lass an’ ‘er handsome bloke.”

Sookie squeezed my hand and we kept walking. We pretended not to see him just like all the humans around us that could not. When the apology didn’t work, he had another full-blown tantrum complete with name calling. Neither of our mothers had been spared and according to him, they had a preference for fornicating with barnyard animals. It wasn’t infuriating, it was funny! I knew they existed, but this was the first goblin I’d ever met, and he was crazy as all hell.

“You know some really fucked up people,” I commented to my mate.

“Baby, you don’t know the half,” she mused.

We were at the boardwalk, and Sookie reached into my backpack to retrieve one of the coins. Angus was still with us and the instant he caught the shine, his rant died mid-insult.

“How far do you think you can launch this?” she asked me, twirling the coin between her fingers. Angus was watching as if he was hypnotized.

“I might be able to give a shark a black eye,” I replied, tossing and catching the piece of gold.

“Sparklies…” Angus murmured, inching forward. “So…very bonnie, so… shiny.”

“I can’t walk or drive, but I need to travel across water without a boat, plane, or teleporting,” she said, waving a coin in his face. “Any ideas on how I can manage that?”

He nodded, held his hand out, and she dropped the gold in his hand. I was really going to have to ask her about him later. This creature almost made Gollum look normal. He took the precious metal, rubbed it all over his face, and down his body. He let out a low purr of glee.

“Fossegrimen Lane,” he said, holding out his hand again. “Fussy fella, he is an’ reit mingin’ temper tay, but if ye play em a braw tune he’ll lit ye pass.” She paid him again.

“Play what?” she asked.

“Fiddle,” he moaned, molesting himself with the new coin he had been given. “Ur anythin’ wi’ a strings but he fancies th’ fiddle.”

Sookie looked at me as if that was it, as if I should know how to play the instrument. I was offended. “What makes you think I know how to play a fucking fiddle?”

“You said you were 1,000 years old. I’m assuming at some point you got bored enough to play all kinds of instruments.”

“That is not only presumptuous,” I fired back. “It’s offensive.”

She had the nerve to look momentarily shocked. When I scowled at her, she threw her hands up in surrender. You’re right,” she said, taking my hand. “I’m sorry. It was wrong of me to assume things about you.”

I harrumphed, though I found that she was already forgiven. “It was,” I said, “Plus, I play violin and guitar. Fiddles and harps are for minstrels.” I concluded in a distinguished fashion.

Sookie shot me a glower so deep I thought it would be etched on her face forever. All I did was grin. That’s what she got for assuming and not asking.

“Angus, my friend,” Sookie said reclaiming the Goblin’s attention. She scratched him behind his ear. He preened, purred, and his eyes rolled into his head. “I need a guitar,” she said. Using her free hand, she rubbed a gold coin across his cheek as she scratched him. Between the coins and the scratch, the little shit was having the best night of his life. “Let me borrow one that never misses a note and all my ‘Sparklies’ are yours.”

“Nae tak’ backs?” he asked. “Nae favors?”

She shook her head and held her hand out. “No take backs, no favors; all you have to do is take us to the road of Fossegrimen Lane and provide the guitar.”

“Lyre of Orpheus the Muse,” he said, leaning his head into her fingers. Unlike his initial presence, the fact that she was touching him made me want to kill him all the more. “Nofin’ else, guitar, tis nae but paupers harp.”

We had to spend one more night in San Diego. There were no hotels nearby so I invaded the beach home of an older couple. Sookie was conflicted about me using my glamour in that manner. The only other option was to risk her safety and mine, so choice was simple. I rested in the safety of the ward that guarded human homes from the undead. I didn’t have to worry about Sin Eaters, either, though I knew they were on our trail again. They’d had more than enough time to recoup. In the event they did come during our last night, they had to be stealthy. The area was much too public. It improved our odds, or so we hoped.