Chapter10

“The telepath, everyone wants the telepath. But she is my asset and belongs in my kingdom.”

Eric watched as Felipe tried to negotiate  a deal with Freyda. She had come to visit all the way from Oklahoma just to see if she could get him to marry her. She visited his workplace, Fangtasia just to try and seduce him and when he refused she threw a fit.

Eric managed to get Felipe on speed dial and alert him that this queen was in his territory without his permission. Freyda had nearly  been chained up in silver because she broke protocol . Felipe accused her of a takeover and she denied it saying she was here because she needed to speak to Eric. But regardless she broke a rule.

 Eric would rather die a million true deaths than to be near Freyda.

She continued to spew crap at him telling him they were meant to be together.

But Eric knew better. She wanted power, she wanted one of the oldest vampires in the country to be at her side in order to make her Queendom strong and powerful. In a sense Eric couldn’t blame her. Sophie Anne had been ecstatic when Eric had arrived in Louisiana to be part of her Queen dom.

But Eric had a tiny problem. Godric had owed Freyda’s maker a debt, but the two  vampires had long departed this world and so the debt fell onto his shoulders and he owed Freyda.  In the vampire world, it was up to the progeny to complete the debt of the makers, when the makers met their true death.

She wanted to marry him, and thought that as a debt it was within her rights to get what she wanted. But she had thought wrong. Eric had already chosen his mate for life and he wasn’t about to let her go and he wasn’t going to be forced into a marriage with a crazy vampire like Freyda.

“Eric is part of my Kingdom, and one of my greatest Assets, Freyda. You cannot come here unannounced and harass one of my assests without the proper protocol. For all I know you could be trying to overthrow me and my kingdom and I could see that as a threat, Freyda.”

“He owes me a debt, and I’ve come here to collect it. He needs to pay and what better way than becoming my consort?”

A growl nearly tore out of Eric.

“As far as I know, it’s not that serious of a debt, Freyda. My maker had called in for a favor and in turn I owe you. Though I wish it were not the case. If you need a favor  that requires my assistance then I will grant it. But I will not betray Felipe by marrying you.”

Freyda looked angry and Felipe seemed satisfied by Eric’s answer.

“There you have it Freyda. Now, if you can just leave then by all means. But if you go near any one of my assets ever again I will strip you from your Kingdom and leave you to rot away.” 

Of course she threw a tremendous fit but they paid her no mind. She was just another Sophie Anne except maybe a little more crazy.

Felipe turned to Eric.

“Fifty years. I got you out of that ordeal with Freyda, now I want you to work with me for fifty years as my area investigator. You must leave your little human telepath behind in order for that to work. If you don’t then I will sign that contract and have you repay your debt in the way Freyda wants to. Her contract has a two century deal on it. Eric, I would suggest you do the wise thing and come for me, other wise, I will be taking you up to the council for a blood offense.”

It was either this or become married to Freyda and he wouldn’t betray Sookie like that, no never with another woman, he’d rather live with the King than become a slave to Freyda.

“Very well then, I agree to your terms.”

–

Whenever I looked at Sookie, I was reminded of that night. Within 50 years  Sookie would still be alive. She would have raised our son all on her own, perhaps he would still be alive considering what he was, but Sookie wouldn’t be as she was.

Or would she? I often wondered if the Fae in her would allow her to live a long life. I would at least hope so, and in turn those 50 years didn’t seem bad. But right now I couldn’t imagine being away from Sookie for so long. I had barely survived my time at Felipe’s palace last week, I would have died my true death.

I looked down at Sookie’s sleeping form,  and then I laid down next to her, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her towards me so that her head was up against my chest.

I was home, this is my home, Sookie is my home. Wherever she is, I know I will always be home. This was our house, our bedroom, our bed. Ours, everything that I owned was hers, I was hers. I could never belong to another.

I could no longer tell Felipe that the Fae had committed a blood offense against Sookie, they were her Kin, and in his eyes, she wasn’t truly mine.

But she was mine, she never stopped being mine. Sookie gave birth to my son, our son. He was just as mine as he was hers and therefore, the fact that our son was harmed gave me every right to bring terror upon the Fae. He may be my son’s family but I was his father and it was within my right to seek retribution.

I would do the same for Pam.

Sookie, Pam and my son, I would live and die for them and I would bring down Empires for them.

I wouldn’t care who would step in my way.

I felt Sookie stir, and she moved turning her body so she could face me. She pulled my face down towards hers, and she kissed me. I welcomed the kiss, and kissed her back with as much need and want.  Sookie pulled away, catching her breath. She looked up, there was a smile on her face.

“Hey there.” She whispered.

“Hey yourself.” I said kissing her forehead. “Did you sleep well?”

“Better than I have in a while.” She said with a small smile, while curling up against me.

“I had a nice dream.” She whispered.

“Oh? Wanna tell me about it?”

“I dreamt of him, my baby boy…our son.” She said after. “He was so beautiful. He had your eyes, and our hair. He was brave and proud just like you..” She started tracing circles around my chest.

“And there was a little girl too. She was so beautiful , Eric.” She stopped tracing circles around my chest and she looked up at me, all teary eyed.

“Do you think it’s a sign that we could be parents again?”

Her question had caught me off guard. Did I really believe that? I think I did, the circumstances had brought us together, and Sookie was able to give birth to our first child, and I was sure that she would be able to give us another chance. Perhaps the fates weren’t so cruel at all.

“Perhaps.” I said. “If you were able to get pregnant, then I don’t doubt it.”

“These dreams are pretty cruel though.  They keep giving me an image of Alrik,and then when I wake up he’s not here.” Sookie sighed.

“The loss of a child is a pain can never leave us. Children died in my day, my mother lost her son when he was born, he was stillborn. My parents mourned the loss for many days and years after. My parents always prayed to the gods so they would keep him safe.—I’m sorry if this doesn’t sound reassuring, but there’s nothing I could say because even now I feel grief that I was not there to watch my son grow within you.”

“Oh…Eric.” Sookie sobbed, and I pulled her close. I let her cry on my chest.

–

SPOV

Planning things is one thing, executing the plan is on a whole different level.   Once I left the comfort of Eric’s arms I dreaded what was going to happen. I usually did, ever since he had left I was always looking over my shoulder to see what or who may be after me.

Tonight was no different.

It was an entirely new thing that I was going to have to get used to.

Though now, I needed to focus on the task at hand. I had dressed up quite nicely; courtesy of Pam of course, and the two of us made our way down to Hooligans; Claude’s strip bar. It wasn’t really Pam’s cup of tea, since the club catered mostly to women, but  I did hear that Claude was trying to get women to work as well.

Wasn’t sure if he’d done it yet.

If he did, then I’ll take Pam as a treat for helping me out, or I could just go and buy her some new designer shoes. Or maybe both.

The bouncer that greeted us at the door was a Were , I could tell because I tried looking into his head and I got the same signatures from him that I usually get with Sam or Alcide.  He recognized me  as Claude’s cousin and let me in. It felt kind of cool to have these kind of connections, but maybe in another time or universe I could actually come to a strip club to enjoy myself.

The Strip club was so much different than Fangtasia. It was a complete opposite. Instead of the tacky red and black colors that adorned Fangtasia, Hooligans was classier. With the different shades of blue that adorned it, it made the club feel like one of those upscale clubs that the rich people usually went to.

Hooligans

 

But I reminded myself that Claude was a fairy and fairies liked the elegance and extravagant things. From the time I had gotten to know my cousin, I knew he was basically the male equivalent of Pam.

“Not bad.” I heard Pam say. “Too bad I’m a lesbian.” She added, and I nearly snorted at her answer. I looked up to see the show that was being put on for a group of ladies, and I had to agree with Pam.  They weren’t bad at all, appeal wise. I probably would frequent this place if I didn’t have my own personal male stripper at home.

He was very excellent at stripping off clothes alright.

I also had to remind myself that getting too close to these men might have Eric in a frenzy later. He was already pacing the house like a caged tiger when I left. He wasn’t too happy with the idea of me going to a club that was filled with half naked males.

It didn’t help that I teased him by saying that I was going to slip a hundred dollar bill into one of their underwear.

In midst of recalling today’s earlier events, I finally spotted Claude. He was coming out of his office and when he spotted me, he sure seemed pretty shocked to see me. Or maybe it was because Pam was here with me, I had forgotten that Fairies and Vampires don’t really mix.

“Sookie.” He said trying to smile. “You don’t look  like a nun today.” Well, I could take that as a compliment, but I wasn’t here for that.  Claude hated my clothes and actually approved of the clothes Pam had gotten me in earlier months.

“Yeah, thanks and all….but we really need to talk” I said.

He was about to come up with an excuse and I stopped him before he could say anything.

“Claude if you take one step over there I will use the vampire next to me. She’s feeling hungry today.” Pam flashed him a fangy smile and he finally complied and motioned for me and Pam to follow him out back to his office. When the door was closed behind us, I got straight to the point.

“Where is Claudine?” I said cutting straight to the point.

“I don’t know where she is.”

“Okay then, Claudette, where is Claudette then?” If Claude didn’t know then I had a chance in finding Claudette and getting her to find Claudine instead.

“Sookie, I haven’t had any contact with either of them, so I can’t say where they are.”

I took a deep sigh. “Then where is Niall?” He had to at least know this one. I wasn’t going to walk out of this damn strip club without some valuable information first.

“Listen, Sookie I’ve been out of the loop for a while. I spend my time here and with my employees. I have no need to contact Niall, so I don’t know where he is.”

This was going to be a long night.