"I was pretty miserable," I said slowly. "And I was even more miserable last night."
"And here I am," said a voice I recognized. "I've come in response to your letter, which opened my eyes to many things."
He was glowing. My great-grandfather hadn't troubled with his human appearance, either. The white-blond hair floated in the air around him. His face was radiant, his eyes like fairy lights on a white tree.
The little cluster of fae in my living room fell to their knees.
He put his arms around me, and I felt his incredible beauty, his terrifying magic, and his crazy devotion.
There was nothing human about him.
He put his mouth right by my ear. "I know you have it," he said.
Suddenly we were standing in my bedroom instead of in the living room. "You gonna take it?" I asked, in the smallest possible voice. Those were fae in the living room. They might hear.
"Don't even show it to me," he said. "It was from my son to his loved one. He intended it for a human. It should stay in human hands."
"But you really, really want it."
"I do, and I have very poor impulse control."
"Okay. No looks." Danger. I was trying to relax, but it's not easy loving and being loved by a powerful prince who has no human frame of reference; furthermore, one whose great age has kind of unhinged him. Just a little bit. From time to time. "What will happen to the fae in my living room?"
"I will take them with me," Niall said. "I have taken care of a lot of things while Claude was with me. I never let him know what I already understood about him. I know what happened to Dermot. I have forgiven Dermot."
Okay, that was good.
"Will you close Faery? For good?"
"Soon," he whispered, his lips again uncomfortably close to my ear. "You have not asked yet who told your lover that you have the ... object."
"That would be a good thing for me to learn."
"You need to know." His arms grew uncomfortably tight around me. I made myself relax against him.
"It was me," Niall said, almost inaudibly.
I jerked back as if he'd pinched my butt. "What?"
The brilliant eyes bored into mine. "You had to know," he said. "You had to know what would happen if he believed you had power."
"Please tell me you didn't engineer the whole Appius thing?" That would be more than I could bear.
"No. Eric is unfortunate in that people feel the need to take him down a peg, including his own maker. The Roman wanted to keep control over so vital a being even after his own death, which became far more likely once he turned the child. So unstable. Appius Livius Ocella made mistakes in his whole long existence. Perhaps changing Eric was his finest hour. He created the perfect vampire. Eric's only flaw is you."
"But ..." I couldn't think of what I'd been about to say.
"Of course, that's not how I perceive it, dearest. You are the one right impulse Eric has had in five hundred years or more. Well, Pam is all right. Even Eric's other living child does not rival her maker."
"Thanks," I said numbly, the words not sinking in at all. "So you knew Appius?"
"We met. He was a stinking Roman ass**le."
"True."
"I was glad when he died. Out in your front yard, wasn't it?"
"Ah. Yes."
"The ground around your house has become soaked with blood. It will add to its magic and fertility."
"What happens now?" I said, because I simply couldn't think of what else to say.
He lifted me and carried me out of the bedroom like I was a baby. It didn't feel like the times when Eric had carried me, which had had a definitely carnal edge. This was incredibly tender and (like a lot of things about my great-grandfather) incredibly creepy.
He put me on the couch as carefully as if I were an egg. "This is what happens next," he told me. He turned to the other fae, still on their knees. Claude had stopped thrashing and was looking up at Niall with resignation. For the moment, Niall ignored his grandson.
"Do you all want to go home?" he asked the others.
"Yes, Prince," said Dirk. "Please, with our kindred waiting at Claude's club? If we may? If you will."
Dermot said, "With your blessing, I'll stay here, Father."
For a moment they all looked at Dermot incredulously, as if he'd just announced he was going to birth a kangaroo.
Niall folded Dermot to him. I could see Dermot's face, and it was ecstatic, frightened, everything I had felt in Niall's embrace. Niall said, "You won't be a fairy anymore. The American fae are all leaving. Choose."
The conflict on Dermot's face was painful to see. "Sookie," he said, "who can finish your upstairs work?"
"I'll hire Terry Bellefleur," I said. "He won't be as good as you, Dermot."
"No television," Dermot said. "I'll miss HGTV." Then he smiled. "But I can't live without my essence, and I am your son, Niall."
Niall beamed down at Dermot, which was what Dermot had wanted his whole life.
I got up because I couldn't stand to have him leave without a hug. I even started crying, which I hadn't expected. They all kissed me, even Bellenos, though I felt his teeth scrape lightly on my cheek, and I felt his chest move in a silent chuckle.
Niall made some mysterious signs over my head and closed his eyes, just like a priest giving a blessing. I felt something change in the house, the land.
And then they were gone. Even Claude.
I was stupefied. I was willing to bet that over at Hooligans, the bar stood empty, the doors locked.
The fae were gone from America. Their departure point? Bon Temps, Louisiana. The woods behind my house.
Chapter 16
As you can imagine, it wasn't easy to go on and have a normal day after that.
I hadn't slept all night, and the traumas had just kept on coming.
But after I showered and straightened up the living room, which had suffered a bit during the fight, I found myself sitting at the kitchen table trying to absorb everything: last night, this morning.
It was taking a lot of energy to do that. About halfway through setting my mental house in order, I had to think about something else. Luckily, there was something right in front of me that would serve.
Among the presents I'd tossed to the table last night was Pam's little box, Bill's box, and Sam's envelope, which I'd never examined. Pam had given me perfume, and I liked the smell of it very much. Bill had given me a necklace with a cameo pendant. The likeness on it was my gran's. "Oh, Bill," I said, "you did great!" Nothing could top such a gift, I thought, as I reached for Sam's envelope. I figured he'd picked a fancy birthday card-with, maybe, a gift certificate enclosed.