chapter seven

                Rachel was happy when she got the call from Skyller asking if she could come down and drop some things at the apartment and spend the night, even though her lease did not take effect for another two weeks. Since the shop was shut waiting for Rear Window Glass to come and replace her window, she saw this as a break from her aggravation over the whole thing. Rachel also had her date with Bill. She was mildly surprised she was actually excited.

                Bill had been as good as his word and a human representative of the AVL had called her and had taken her statement and made a request for the police report and the insurance information. They would be handling her case gratis, as the publicity stemming from the situation would be more valuable than any money they would make. Rachel made a mental note of some questions she wanted to ask Bill about the AVL.

                Rachel enjoyed chatting with Bill. He was sociable, and seemed comfortable in her presence. It was of course new territory for the both of them. She longed to ask him questions about his relationship with Sookie. She mainly worried he was still attached to her. In all the vampire novels she had ever read, she knew vampires tended to carry a torch. Of course this was based on human stories about vampires but Rachel was not interested in being the “rebound” girl.

                Skyller arrived around noon. The first thing she noticed was the plywood attached to the frame, which once held the plate glass window.  “Hey, what happened?”

                “One of those Take Back the Night people broke it yesterday. How was your trip up?” asked Rachel.

                “Fine, you can tell you are really done with the bustle of Baton Rouge when you actually feel yourself relax when you cross the parish line,” she said. She was out, opening the trunk of her car. She had a couple of boxes and a plastic zip bag with her bed linen and a few odds and ends. “I know I could actually have waited for the move, but I just wanted an excuse to come up.”

                “Can I help you carry stuff up?” asked Rachel.

                “I never turn down free labor,” she said. She grabbed her bed in bag and a Target bag with three thick pillows and Rachel grabbed a box. They went through the shop and out the back and up the stairs. Sky unlocked her door and the women went in and they sat down their load and went back down and grabbed the last of her stuff, some bags of toiletries and an overnight bag and some new towels. The laid everything down.  “Hey you want some iced tea or a cold beer?” asked Rachel. “I have some down in the fridge in the shop.”

                “Tea would be great,” said Sky. Rachel went to fetch the tea and Sky went to work, making the bed first. By the time Rachel was back, she had the bed made, colorful with its big smiling renaissance style sun and the darker colored burnt orange sheets and pillowcases and shams.  Sky was going through a box and setting up a couple of blood red lamps for the bedside tables. Rachel put the bottle of tea on the bar for Sky and opened her own.  “Did you call the AVL?”

                “Yeah, my friend Bill Compton is helping me,” she said.

                “You know Bill Compton?” asked Sky, a bit shocked.

                “Yeah,” said Rachel. “In fact, we are sort of talking.”

                “You caught yourself a real important person in his community. He developed the North American Vampire Registry. He has made a mint of money with that program,” said Sky.

                “Really? I just thought he was a local business man,” said Rachel.

                “Well he is that, but in his own world, he is pretty affluent,” explained Sky. “Vampires have a lot of structure in their world. Who’s the Sheriff around here?”

                “Sheriff Dearborn,” she said.

                “No, his Sheriff,” said Sky.

                “I don’t know, unless you mean his superior, he introduced me to him, Eric Northman,” she offered.

                “That’s very likely his sheriff. They have kingdoms, usually a single state, led by a king or queen, then each kingdom is broken up into areas and these are overseen by sheriffs.  There has been a lot going on with the state of Louisiana for the vampires. They have a regent in charge in the name of some out of state ruler and there has been a real shake up of the power structure here. Humans don’t know a lot about it, vampires are pretty private,” said Sky.

                “Well, I know a lot more about it now I have spoken with you,” she said. “What do you think are the pros and cons of dating a vampire?”

                “Well I can’t speak on a personal level, I have never gone out with a vampire. But …don’t let them get away with too much, they are used to humans sort of “serving” them, they are mainstreaming now, they have to be considerate.,” she said.

                “Bill seems real nice, old southern manners,” said Rachel.

                “I am sure he is, but you have to know, he very likely has a lot of responsibilities, and there may be times when you may have plans and he will call you and cancel at the last moment without a whole lot of explanation.  If this Northman is the sheriff, if he says jump to Bill he has to ask how high,” she said, her voice full of warning.”But, on the pro side, when they really commit to a human, they really commit, and they are super protective and  generous and the more progressive they are, the more thoughtful they are about your daytime life.”

                “I think Bill is pretty thoughtful,” said Rachel. “At least so far he seems to be.”

                “He’s really active in the vampire community,” she said.

                “Well, if I am going to go on a date, I need to go and get ready, iron my dress, curl my hair,” she said.

                “Good luck, tell me how it goes,” she said.

                Sookie stood there, her mouth open. “Why do they want to speak to me?” she asked.

                “Bill said he just needed to talk you about something that might be going on that could affect you,” said Sam. Sookie had come in to do the inventory and work her shift. She simply could not believe he was telling her this. “Sookie, I think it is important. Bill really hated to do this.”

                “I hate this,” she spat. “I just want them to leave me alone.”

                “I know,” he said. “But hey, I have something to tell you. That guy, the one you couldn’t get a read on, he came in last night. I made his acquaintance. His name is Preston Pardloe. “

                “That name isn’t a local name is it?” she said.

                “No, he said he’d only moved here a year ago and he worked at the library in acquisitions I think, he seemed real nice Sookie,” said Sam.

                “Did you get a line on him? I mean, is he two natured?” she asked.

                “I don’t know, maybe,” he said. “I didn’t come out and ask him.”

                “Well, that is interesting news,” said Sookie.

                “Hey, the quicker you talk to Bill and Eric, the quicker you can get them out of your hair. And then you can move on,” said Sam.

                As Sookie finished her inventory and then went to start her shift, Bill rose from his resting place under the floor of his house. He really should do something about that. He was mainstreaming now, no reason to lie on the ground anymore like in the days when he was made. He went up and ran his shower and checked his phone. He speed dialed Rachel.

                “Hi Bill,” she said.

                “Hello Rachel. I wanted to call you and tell you I would be a little late this evening, I have a meeting to attend, I hope you don’t mind,” he said, his voice was smooth and soft.

                “Not at all. I am just about ready so I will go over and chat with my tenant. She is moving some of her stuff in,” she said.

                “I will meet you there then,” he said.

                “Nice, you can meet Sky,” she said.

                “I’ll look forward to it,” he said. He hung up with Rachel and stepped into the bathroom and into the shower. He stood there under the spray and the warm water ran down his body. The heat and steam and the water warmed his skin and made his pallor pink. He reached for the soap and began to soap himself up cleaning the lingering soil on his body. He always went in nude when he laid down in his sleeping space. Lorena had never suggested vampires should do anything different. This was the way vampires were supposed to sleep.

 Times had changed though. He was mainstreaming now, he should make his bedroom light tight and sleep in a bed. Even Eric slept human and preferred it that way. Bill put his face to the water and scrubbed it with his hands and then soaped up his hair. He had not had it cut in over a hundred years. Contrary to popular superstition, vampires still had growing hair, it just took a long while for their hair to grow back. He needed to shave. That too took a long time. He turned off the water and stepped out and grabbed a towel and dried off. He went to the sink and ran some warm water in the basin and got out his straight razor. It had been nearly eight months ago since last he shaved. He made soap in his shaving mug and brushed on the foam and then carefully ran the edge of the razor over his scruffy cheeks and chin and throat. There, he looked fresher. After he rinsed his sink, he went out to his bedroom to finish dressing.

                “You look great Rachel,” said Sky, looking her over. “That shade of blue really suits you. And I love your long straight hair.”

                “I was about to tell you I love your curls, and that shade of red,” she said.

                “And the temper to go with it,” she said. “I believe I am part Irish fishwife.”

                “Well, you will at least keep some man on his toes. Bill called me and said he had a quick meeting to attend and would pick me up here. Would you like to meet him?” she asked.

                “Absolutely,” she said.

                Eric landed effortlessly behind Merlotte’s and waited for Bill to arrive. In no time, the lights of his car splashed over the Viking as he pulled in to a parking space. The two vampires gave one another a brief nod and headed for the rear entrance and walked through the corridor and out to the dining room. Sookie was standing at the bar, her tray in her hands.

                “Sookie, Sam told you to expect us?” asked Bill.

                “Yeah, I guess this couldn’t wait or you couldn’t just drop me a note,” she said, less than enthused.

                “No Sookie, it could not,” said Eric tersely.

                “Come on then, let’s get this over with,” she said impatiently. They followed her back through the corridor and to the office. She opened the door and went in and sat in the big chair and Bill and Eric took the visitor’s chairs. She looked at them both. “Well? What is so all fired important?”

                “Sookie, Tom Latesta is in Bon Temps and we think he has renewed his interest in you and may be involved with others who are interested in your talents,” said Bill.

                “So? That is something we knew when we finished in Oklahoma,” she said.

                “Further investigation suggests he is caught up with the Fellowship of the Sun and the Take back the night movement,” said Bill. “You heard about the vandalism at a store in town.”

                “Yeah, that health food place,” she said. “So? Vandalism by those people happens everywhere in this country.”

                “We caught Latesta watching the place,” said Eric finally.

                “Well, the dead speak,” said Sookie.

                “We are doing you a favor, Sookie,” said Eric. “We want you to be careful.”

                “The less I have to do with you, the better I will be. Is that all?” she asked.

                “Have you noticed anyone new coming around, either at the bar or your house?” asked Eric.

                “What’s it to you Eric? I am no longer yours, you gave me away! Bill comes into my life with all his lies and he turns my head and breaks my heart, then you, you do the same. Why didn’t one of you just drain me, it would have hurt far less.”

                “Bill, can you leave me alone with Sookie, I would like an overdue word with her,” said Eric.

                “Eric…” he said, a warning sound in his voice.

                “Now,” he said.  Bill stood up and walked out. Sookie stood up and walked around the desk as if to go and Eric stopped her. “No, you will not turn on your heel and leave this room until I have said my piece.” He took her by the shoulders and pushed her to a chair and sat her down. He pulled the chair Bill had vacated in front of her and bracketed her chair seat with his own long thighs. He leaned in close and inhaled deeply, closing his eyes. Sookie did not like this closeness. It reminded her too much of the night he told her about Bill being held hostage by Lorena.

                “Move back Eric,” she said.

                “You used to like me this close to you. In fact, you used to love me this close,” he said, moving a fraction closer, his nose almost touching the skin of her neck. “Did you ever love me?”

                “Did you?” she asked. “You left me.”

                “And you chose your…friend…over me, over us,” he said.

                “That is always the problem with you, you never felt empathy for anyone,” she said.

                “I felt empathy for you,” he said. “I loved you, I would have killed anyone for you.”

                “But you couldn’t love me enough to refuse the claim your dead maker made with Freyda. You threw me away and you never even explained to me, you never even tried.”

                “And you know I couldn’t,” he said. He was looking at her now, his blue eyes were crystal and blazing with frustration and anger. “I thought you knew how much I loved you. I thought you would be able to look through the situation and see the truth. I guess not, I over estimated you.”

                “Maybe you did,” she said.

                “You broke the bond, if you had preserved it instead of going to that witch and breaking it, you would have felt my intentions through it,” he said.

                “I was not my own person, I was not in control of my feelings Eric, and I felt like I was always second guessing every one of my emotions because of the bond. I was glad when it was gone, I was glad when I couldn’t feel you anymore, it was a relief,” she said.

                “I can’t do anything but think about you, and I have to wonder why. I have heard vampires do get addicted to fairy blood. Now come to think of it, perhaps it was the fairy blood that held my interest. Oh you were a lovely distraction and your body was beautiful, but really what else could you offer me. Deep down, you hated what I was; you hated what I have been for a thousand years. And yet I kept coming back to you, night after night, fucking you, drinking your lovely blood. It certainly wasn’t for your mind, dearest Sookie,” he said. He watched her eyes fill with tears and stared until a tear slid down her face. He made a satisfied sound in his throat and stood up and turned and opened the door. Bill and Sam were in the hall waiting. “I shall not bother you again, Sookie. Let’s get out of here Bill. I think you were right,  it was the fairy blood after all.” Bill growled in his throat and went past him into the office.

                Sookie had her hands over her face, sobbing. Bill came over and stood in front of her. This was a mistake, to bring Eric with him. He reached in his pocket and pulled out his handkerchief. He handed it to Sookie. “Just leave me alone Bill,” she said in her hands. “Just go away.”

                “Sookie…” he began.

                “Bill, let’s go, you two have done enough,” said Sam. Bill nodded.

                “Sookie, I am sorry,” he said, and left her alone.

                Bill walked out to the parking lot to get into the car. Eric was sitting in the passenger seat. “Take me back to Shreveport if you don’t mind.”

                “I am going to pick up Miss Westnight, we have a date this evening,” said Bill.

                “Fine,” said Eric. Bill started the car and drove out of the parking lot and onto the road, heading for downtown.

                “Why did you do that to Sookie?” asked Bill.

                “I don’t have to answer your questions,” said Eric.

                “That was unnecessary,” he said.

                “I refuse to care anymore about her. Just focus on our problem and deal with it without factoring in Sookie or her precious well being, I never want to talk about her again,” said Eric.

                “Look, I understand what you are feeling Eric, believe me,” said Bill.

                “You didn’t have a blood bond with her, you never felt that let go and put a dagger of fear in your heart, you never knew what it was like to feel her run through you like electricity under your skin. Don’t tell me you know what I am feeling,” he said.

                Bill did not say anything more. He drove silently through the quiet town and steered toward the shop and parked in the rear. He got out and Eric with him. He did not know why he was getting out but he did not ask. They went through the garden. There was Rachel and another woman in the garden, sitting on a lounge chatting. Rachel looked around and saw Bill followed by Eric. “Hello Bill,” she said. He took her hand in his and leaned down and kissed her cheek. “I didn’t know Eric was with you, hello again.”

                “Hello Miss Westnight,” he said stiffly.

                “This is my tenant Sky Faulconer,” she said. “Sky this in my friend Bill Compton, and this is Eric Northman.”

                “Pleased to meet you Bill,” she said, taking his extended hand and shaking it. “Mr. Northman.” Sky nodded toward him.

                “We have to go soon, we have reservations and I have to drop Eric at Fangtasia,” he said.

                “I can take Mr. Northman to Fangtasia,” said Sky.

                “I would not like to inconvenience you Miss Faulconer,” said Eric politely, if a little coldly.

                “Not at all, just let me run up for shoes and my keys,” she said.

                “We can take off then,” said Rachel.

                “Go on to the car Rachel I wish to have a parting word with Eric,” said Bill.

                “Of course,” she said. “Nice to see you again Eric, and please call me Rachel.”

                “Nice to see you again as well Rachel,” he said, with little or no inflection in his voice. She nodded to him and headed for Bill’s car. Bill stepped up to Eric.

                “Do not abuse the hospitality here, Eric, I am trying to make a new life for myself and I will not appreciate it if you do something to hinder that,” said Bill.

                “Do not presume to tell me what to do Bill,” said Eric coldly. Bill stared at Eric and then walked away.

                Eric was still standing in the garden, looking at the night sky when Sky came down. He took a moment to really look at her. She was a lovely woman. But that was all she was. He resolved to never let anyone get close to him again.”Are we ready to go?” she asked him.

                “Lead the way Miss Faulconer,” he said, motioning with his hand. She walked past him and he followed her to her car. She opened the door with her remote and he went to the passenger side and slid in and she opened the driver’s door and slid in.

                “Adjust the seat if you like Mr. Northman,” she said. Eric looked at the armrest of the door and used the controls to move the seat back a little. He looked forward.

                “Please call me Eric,” he said finally.

                “Then you should call me Sky,” she said. She pulled out and onto the street and headed toward Shreveport. “When we get into Shreveport, you will have to direct me to Fangtasia.” He nodded. “Have you lived in Shreveport long?”

                “I have owned a home here for fifty years and I lived some years before the Civil War in New Orleans.”

                “Did you always own a bar?” she asked.

                “No,” he said. She fell silent. He felt a little bad for that. “No, I owned a brothel in New Orleans and I have owned a few other enterprises, but when we had the Great Revelation, owning a bar was more lucrative than ever, so I bought the building and I called my progeny, Pam, to come and help me with it.”

                “Are you a sheriff?” she asked.

                “I beg your pardon?” he asked. He had never known a human who knew something about his kind. He looked at her with suspicion.

                “I teach vampire topics, I was a professor at Louisiana State, I taught vampire social studies and history and vampire feminism and social problems in vampire and human relations. I’ll be teaching at BTCC this fall,” she said. “A vampire colleague told me the basics of your social structure.”

                “Yes, I am a sheriff, you currently reside in Area Five,” he said.

                “And Bill?” she asked.

                “Bill is not only the bane of my existence but the special investigator for Area Five,” he said. “Do you like to teach about us?”

                “I do,” she said. “Of course the text books are terrible, but I use other materials and am actually outlining a text book. So you don’t like Bill?”

                “It’s complicated,” he said.

                “I didn’t mean to pry,” she said.  Eric turned and looked her. He was struck by how her hair looked alive, even in the darkness of the car. “You work with your child?”

                “Yes,” he said.

                “If you don’t want to talk to me, that is fine,” she said. Eric said nothing. Sky looked forward, watching the road.

                “You don’t want to know me Sky, believe me, and as lovely as I find you, I don’t want to know you, at least in a way you would appreciate,” he said.

                “Very well, Eric,” she said.

                Bill sat with Rachel as she made her way through a salad and now her entrée. “I hate to eat in front of you. Does it bother you?” she asked.

                “Some vampires are sensitive to it, but I have accustomed myself to it,” he said. “Please enjoy your meal.”

                “Is that blood any good?” she asked.

                “One accustoms himself to this as well,” he said.

                “Does it taste like blood?” she asked. He made a see saw motion.

                “Would you like to taste a little?” he asked.

                “Just a sip,” she said. He took the wine glass they brought him but he did not use and tipped the bottle enough to allow a few drops to land in the glass. He handed her the glass and she tipped it. She rolled the taste around on her tongue.

 “What do you think?”

                “Well, it tastes like blood but I know I am not getting the nuances you get from it,” she said.

                “To tell you the truth, we don’t get the same complex layers from synthetic blood as we get from human blood,” he said. “But TrueBlood is the best version, it will get better.”

                “Do you still drink human blood?” she asked.

                “From time to time,” he said. “I don’t think there are any of us who are on a synthetic only diet.” Rachel ate some more of her steak. “I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

                “What was wrong with Eric? I mean I don’t know him very well, but he looked very unhappy,” she said.

                “Eric is very unhappy right now. He was in a long-term relationship with a human woman and he loved her very much but there were insurmountable odds they ran up against. It is Eric’s fault, and truthfully, it is my fault as well,” said Bill.

                “How is it your fault?” she asked.

                “At one time, his lover was mine, my lover, and I hurt her deeply, I was unfaithful and I was dishonest with her,” he said. “Eric took her as a lover and he loved her very much, but he too hurt her, though his situation had more…altruisms…than mine, he still hurt her. She has every reason to be angry with us, I do not deny that.”

                “Are you still in love with her?” she asked.

                “I do care a great deal for her,” he said carefully. “And I always will. But no, I am no longer in love with her.” She relaxed noticeably. “But right now, Eric is very troubled, and he does not know how to move on,” said Bill.

                “Poor man,” said Rachel, sympathetically.

                “Take a right here and then go straight for about two miles when you see the Toys r Us. Fangtasia is beside it,” said Eric quietly.

                “Okay,” said Sky.  He looked at her.

                “I am sorry I was so abrupt with you,” said Eric.

                “You don’t owe me an explanation,” she said. “You don’t know me, I don’t know you.”

                “I was rude,” he said.

                “No, just honest,” she said. She spotted the toy store and then Fangtasia. She pulled up in the front. “Here you go.”

                “Thank you Sky,” he said. He looked at her and was again struck by her red curls and her green eyes.

                “Not a problem,” she said. He looked down at his hands. “Something wrong?”

                “Good night Sky, it was nice meeting you,” he said.

                “Same here,” she said.

                Sky pulled out slowly from the crowded parking lot. She stopped at the turn out, checked both ways, and then pulled onto the road, heading back to Bon Temps. Latesta was sitting in his car and he scribbled down her license plate. Probably some fangbanger of Northman’s. He noted the bar was busy tonight and counted the cars in the front of the building.  He longed to plant a couple dozen c4 with charges and blow the cinder block building up with the vampires and their humans all together. He finally started his engine and pulled out of the parking lot. He drove back to Bon Temps.  He drove out past the sleepy town and onto the country road that would lead to the cemetery which lay between the waitress’ house and Compton’s house. He parked in the little parking lot adjacent to the cemetery and got out.

He walked carefully and quietly through the bone yard and slipped into the darkness around Compton’s house. He followed the forest line, staying in the shadows and stopped when he saw a figure there. It was a man in the darkness it was hard to tell what he looked like. He appeared to be about 6 feet tall and dark headed. He squatted down and seemed to be looking at something. He began to speak to the edge of the forest in something that was not English. Finally, he stood up and Latesta thought he saw a glimmer there. Had he started a fire? Suddenly he turned toward a deeper area in the woods and seemed to melt into the shadows. Latesta eased around to the place he thought he had seen the man. There was no fire or smoke. Strange world now, Latesta, his mind told him. Vampires and two natured freaks were living among them. Not for long he thought.

When he made it back to his car, he got a call. He opened his door and slid into his car and answered the phone. He listened and for the first time since this ordeal, Latesta began to smile.

Bill reached out and took Rachel’s hand and marveled at how small and warm it was. They had eaten and then Bill took her for a drive around the park. They got out and walked around the water, enjoying the cooler night. Bill took her hand and held it, comfortable to be there with her. They talked about Bill’s house. “I still have some other bedrooms to do, I thought I would make one of them an office since I don’t share my home,” he said.

“Do vampires like to live together?” she asked.

“Some do, small nests of three to five, they create something like a family. Vampires run hot and cold as far as relationships with one another. I have lived in a nest for short periods before the Great Revelation, but since I have maintained my own residence. I lived with my maker for nearly 80 years which is unusual,” he said.

“Is your maker still around?” she asked.

“No, she met the true death,” he said. “I am free.” Those simple words had a haunted sound to them and she squeezed his hand a little and felt somehow…protective of him.

“What do you like to do?” she asked. “For pleasure.”

“I read a great deal. I like the movies. I play the piano, though not well. I work, “he said.

“Sky told me you developed some sort of directory of vampires?” she asked.

“Yes, I have collected the names and histories of thousands of our kind. I am about ready to set up a call center so vampires can have their names included in the data base and they can buy the database,” said Bill. “It is quite lucrative. I also own several businesses.”

“Do you have any living relatives?” she asked.

“I do, the Bellefleurs are my great great great great grand children,” he said. “They are not comfortable knowing that, but they are slowly coming to a resolve about it.”

“And Eric is 1000 years old. What a life he must have lived,” she said.

“Eric is a very successful vampire, not just financially or politically, but as a vampire comfortable in his own skin. He has not the angst about being a vampire. Neither does his child, Pam,” he said. “In many ways they were cut from the same cloth.”

“Do you have vampire children?” she asked. For some reason she was hoping not.

“No,” he said. “I have no desire to have a child. For many years I was with my maker and our relationship was strained. She turned a woman, Judith and made me a sister. Then I was on my own and I never desired to make a vampire. How about you? Do you have a child?”

“No, I had medical problems and I can’t have children. I thought I would miss that part of my life, but as I got older, I realized that I could do anything I wanted without answering to anyone,” she said.

“What a positive way to look at it,” said Bill.

“Well, what can you do,” she said.

“A health food store. What made you decide to do that and why here in Bon Temps?”

“Oh, well, I worked in a health food store. At the same time, I was taking yoga and all that, and I just liked the idea of offering people an alternative to the junk food and the crap they put in their bodies. So, when my granny died, she left me the money and gave my parents the house. I guess she thought I would use it for college, but I decided I wanted to take a two year business course and learned to teach yoga and all that, so I did that. But I was born in Bon Temps, and we moved away when I was little, but I always liked it here. So I took some time and found my store and my house and I got good deals for the both of them and here we are,” she said. “It took a while to get people in but now, I have classes, and people are regulars. I am pretty satisfied.”

“I am happy for you,” said Bill.

“So what was it like when you were human, what was the town like,” she asked.

Sookie was taking the garbage out to the back dumpster and she heard a noise behind her. She whirled around. “Whoa, please, I am sorry I startled you,” said the handsome dark haired man.

“Sorry, I am just jumpy,” she said. She stood there a moment and looked at him intently. She opened her mind up and tried to rummage around and only got an odd tingly sensation. “Okay, what are you?”

“I beg your pardon?” he asked.

“I can’t get a read on you and you don’t feel like a shifter or a were,” she said.

“My name is…” he began.

“I know your name,” she said impatiently. “What are you?” The young man looked away for a moment and then looked back at her. He pushed his curly hair away and showed her his ear, topped with an obvious point.

“I’m a fairy,” he said, his voice low as if in a confessional. “And you and I have met before.”