Chapter 21 - The Squall

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Nautical Note: Squalls are common at sea. If you are observant you can see them rapidly approach. If you read the signs correctly, you can go below decks and have your oilskins ready so that when it rushes overhead you won't be soaked in the process. But if you are looking the wrong way, a squall can overtake you, lashing at you with rapid and impressive violence, and then depart just as quickly, leaving you drenched and shivering in its wake.

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"Déjà vu," Sookie thought when they pulled up to the beautiful house in the suburbs. It had been years since Sookie had been to Alcide's home.

Sookie found herself remembering the night she had come here with Jason to act as Shaman, the night that Appius Livius Ocella was made finally dead. The telepath couldn't suppress a shiver. Everything had changed after that night. The spiral of death had escalated. The contract with Freyda had become known. The assassination of Victor Madden had been planned. Each step had seemed designed to move her further and further away from Eric.

Sookie remembered the way she'd found Eric that night. He'd been in his beautiful home surrounded by death and destruction. Pam had been badly injured. Felicia was finally dead and Bobby Burnham too. As she looked back it wasn't the blood that she remembered, it was the hopeless look on Eric's face and the way she had reacted once she found him. Perhaps it had been for the best, the way she had manhandled him into action, but amid all the messed up circumstances the one clear thing Eric had asked was about her. He had come to himself for a minute just so he could ask what she had been doing and whether she had been sick. She had been the most important thing to him and she just hadn't seen it at all.

She thought about his face later at her home once everything was finished and his Maker was finally dead. In those moments before he left to sort out the mess, he had been almost vibrating with the power of Fae blood he had taken. She had known that it was helping to dampen the physical pain he was experiencing at Appius' passing. He could have rejoiced in his own freedom. He could have talked of Pam, his future, and all the things that would now be possible, but he hadn't. He had talked of coming back to her and making up for lost time. 'He loved you,' Sookie thought. 'He called you his wife and he meant it. No politics. No agenda. Just you.'

Sookie closed her eyes as the car was slowing and opened her bond even though she knew she was too far away for him to feel her, she thought with all her heart, 'I love you too, Eric Northman. I should have known that then, but I sure know it now.' The car door opened and Alcide Herveaux was looking down at her. Sookie placed her hand in his and allowed herself to be pulled from the car. As she walked to the front door she thought, 'One more step toward home.'

The place inside hadn't changed much. Kandace stood in the entry hall and nodded her welcome. Sookie nodded back. She wondered if the kids were upstairs, but she thought that for something like this they would send them to stay with relatives. Alcide walked her straight through to the living room and then turned around, leaving her near a chair. Sookie looked around with surprise. This room hadn't changed one bit. The animal heads still hung on the walls and the masculine furniture was in place. The bar was still positioned on the far wall. Sookie could see the patio outside through the garden doors. The patio furniture had changed, the cast iron was gone and replaced with something that held cushions, but the fountain was still there.

Sookie knew Alcide loved Kandace. She had seen his devotion in the way he had shown her pictures in the restaurant and how he had spoken of her. Still, there was something off-putting about walking into the house of married people and not seeing one trace of a woman's touch. Sookie felt the hair on the back of her neck rise and she couldn't stop herself from dipping into Alcide's mind to look for signs of the Packmaster his being an abusive spouse.

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