Checking the time, I go to get dressed more appropriately and return to the foyer just as someone starts knocking on the front door. Disengaging the alarm that Eric had figured out how to set the night before, I see a man in blue work overalls with a clipboard. Wilma and Warren are at my back, behind the door as they evaluate the visitor.

"Good day ma'am, I'm here to deliver furniture, are you Mrs. Northman?"

"Yes." I sign a form on his clipboard, and from there I start showing them where to put the furniture that they are unloading from the truck. As I'm moving things by inches and deciding exactly where I want different pieces in each room, I task Wilma with thinking about what she would like to purchase from the grocery store.

The large delivery truck is making its way back down the driveway, which I just noticed has been freshly paved, and when I ask Wilma she says it was done just after sunrise. Resetting the security system, we leave in the SUV and spend nearly three hours in the store getting enough food to fill the storage capacity of the car. It seemed like right when we thought we were almost done, one of us would think of something new, and end up picking out several more things along the way.

Unloading the bags and boxes only takes a short time, and soon Wilma is filling the cabinets at nearly a vampires speed. I leave her to it as I return to my bedroom, and Warren goes to his room as he sees where I'm headed.

Eric hasn't moved, and I return to his embrace, slipping between the arms that I had twisted out of earlier in the day. The sun isn't quite close to setting yet, and I'm oddly tired so I don't hesitate to let myself start drifting off. Hands are playing in my hair when I wake, and I enjoy the feeling of his fingers against my scalp as I lay back against him purring. "You are more like a cat than a vampire." He mutters, and I chuckle a little.

"I could always change my body with time, take on cat ears, a tail and claws. Would you like that?" He laughs, and I feel him think of it for a second before he feels quite negative about the thought.

"If I understand correctly, you taking on those features would mean that I would do the same, and I would rather not have that look for myself." Thinking of him sets me into a fit of laughter, and I project the image to him. Metaphorical storm clouds would be hanging over his head if it were possible, and he leans up over me with a grin. His hands are dancing across my sides a second later, and I cackle as he doesn't let up with tickling me. Shoving my hand against his chest, suddenly I am sitting on top of him, holding his wrists above his head. I can feel him increasingly struggling against my grasp, but somehow I am able to keep him from moving. "Lover?" He asks, and a feeling of realization strikes him. "It would seem the bond has made you adopt my strength."

"Yes… I noticed." I leer over him, and he doesn't seem pleased as I don't release him. The feeling of an order comes from him as he tries to get me to free his hands, but I refuse and balance myself carefully as he bucks up against me. "It feels quite empowering, having you at my mercy." I purr, and he stills as I start nipping at his chest, pulling his shirt with my teeth.

"What am I going to do with you?" He moans as his shirt disappears, and I lick up the center line between his pecs. My fang slips back down the same line, drawing a trace of red, and I suck it away hungrily as he heals the fine nick.

"Mmm…" I lean up, still holding him down. "The finest red wine. However could I resist?" The growl rises in my chest without hesitation, and I bare down on him as I tease his skin delicately between my teeth. "You are mine." I growl, and my bite is harsh as I dig deep into his neck.

His mouth is locked to my skin a second later, and it's almost two hours later when we're popping into Fangtasia, Antonio going out to take up a post at the end of the hallway. Eric sits down to check his email, and I take a position on the throne as Wilma follows me for a second, before disappearing into the crowd. Warren sits in my lap in puppy form, and I notice that he is being eyed by several vampires and people in the crowd. "This is Warren. He is one of my guards." I say at a low volume, loud enough for the vampires to hear, but too quiet for the humans to understand. "There is also a demon in this room, Wilma, and these two belong to me."

Several subtle nods catch my attention, and as I look over the crowd for the first time, I notice that there are several different people watching me. These seem to be wearing more regular clothes, and look more normal than the fangbangers or fanatics.

I was told to wait, just how long will this take? One of them thinks it rather loudly, and the rest are asking similar silent questions. Sifting through some recent memories, I find that these people are candidates for our house keeper, and I take it upon myself to start listening in to them. It doesn't take long before I have sent three different woman out the door, two for their lewd thoughts towards Eric, and one for planning to steal small valuables over time. Moving on to the fourth woman, I skim her thoughts and seeing her busy personal life, I move right along.

Barely noticing her, I almost miss the small, petite woman at the end of the bar. Her mind is quiet just like her demeanor, but past events keep flipping through her mind like the pages of a book.

You did this faster than I thought possible!

Here's a tip for being so thorough.

When do you want to work again?

Each of the people I see in her mind's eye are happy with her work, and she only says meek thank you words, slightly ignoring their comments as she doesn't see herself very well. The second I start looking her over, I delve deeper, and am surprised to find that she is worrying about something. A little more searching finds it, and I grin as I know she is just right. "Pam."

Hearing the tone of my voice, Pam doesn't move from the front door, but turns to look at me. "Bring her to me… gently please." Pointing to the small girls, she gives me a wicked smile that has me rolling my eyes and a second later she's closed the front door as she moves towards the bar. Several humans are watching with interest, and I see a few jealous faces when the young woman is ushered up onto the stage and awkwardly left there.

Throwing up a sound barrier, I give her a wide smile, and invite her to pull up a chair. "So. You're hired."

Her eyes widen marginally as she looks at me. "R-really?" She stammers, and it seems that I've blown her away but a small smile starts to form on her lips. She'd only come to interview for the job on a whim, not believing that luck would actually be on her side. A chair appears behind her with a snap of my fingers, and she takes it without a thought, smiling genuinely as Warren jumps from my lap and goes to sniff at her hand.

"Yes. You see, with your mother the way she was, I know that you will be more accepting of certain things than most people, Tesni." It depresses me to see that she has no family left, but the thought of her living with us appeals to me as I get an urge to take care of her.

"M-my mother?" Her brows knit together in confusion, and she then mentally questions how I know her name when I casually tap my temple. Shock passes through her, but it only takes a second for her to understand. "You're like her." It's not a question, as she's whispered it more to herself than me. Her mother had been part fae, but at least to the girl's knowledge, her mother didn't actually know it. She had been 'allergic' to lemons, and had a small ability of telepathy, but it always tired her out to use it. Her spark was likely very weak, and I watch the memory as the police tell a fifteen year old that her mother has been found murdered in a man's garage. The woman her mother had worked for took pity on her, and trained and hired her to clean offices and houses part time while she struggled to finish high school.

"Can you do anything special?" I ask gently, pulling her from her downward emotional spiral. There's the smallest hint of a spark in her, and it only makes sense since her fae blood has been strongly diluted. But spending time with me will strengthen her blood, and I wonder what will pop up in the future.

Shaking her head, she thinks of how plain she is, and starts to question herself on why I want her around.

Asking myself the same question, it doesn't take long to find an answer. "I feel the want to care for you, and I feel that I can teach you. You can live with us, and I'll help you get stronger, if you want to. I'll also tell you what you are, besides human. Perhaps you'll end up as my friend, I'm not sure, but I'm willing to find out. That's why I want you around."

She has chocolate brown eyes, and they seem to shine as she stares at me. I feel her acceptance before she says it, and give her a broad smile as she looks back down at the pup at her feet. "He's special too." Doubt is obvious as she chuckles, and she only frowns slightly when she realizes that I am completely serious.

Eyes are burning against us from all over the room as we are watched leaving the stage, before we finally disappear down the hallway and into Eric's office. "This is Tesni. She's perfect." I say as I enter, and he beams at me from behind his computer screen.

It doesn't take long to start employment paperwork, and Eric starts asking her generic questions as I step out into the hallway. I can tell that he is doing his best to seem approachable to the girl, since he can feel how much I already care for her. Antonio is quick to appear when I say his name, and I sense Wilma trailing behind him as she enters the hallway, invisible. Giving him a list of what I need him to get, he gives me a quizzical look as I prattle off the specifics, but doesn't question anything as I tell him to buy himself something and hand him my debit card. Wilma shimmers into visibility as soon as he is gone out the back door, and gives me an impish smile. "How about you go home and start dinner? I'll be bringing Tesni home soon to show her around and get her introduced to Antonio and you. I have a good feeling about her, and there isn't any deception in her." She nods, satisfied, and dissolves into a whiff of blue smoke.

Grabbing a drink from the bar, I do another quick sweep and have a couple of people tossed out before I go to talk to Pam at the front door. "If you want to come see our house later tonight, I should have a present for you, as long as nothing holds up Antonio bringing me what I need."

"A present? Well what a caring mistress I have." She teases, and returns her attention to the patrons trying to get in as I go back to the office. She's signing her name on a piece of paper, and Eric pulls me into his lap to give me a kiss when I walk around the desk. Tesni looks away, blushing, and Eric ignores her as he tends to do with human staff.

"This will be your expense card, and as long as you don't go overboard, you can buy whatever you want for yourself as well as all of the supplies and things you need. These are perks, apart from your usual pay, and another one will be a company car which will arrive for you to use in the morning." He hands her a black card with no name on it along with a cell phone from his desk drawer, and looks at me, handing me a second set. "These are for Wilma." I slip them into my pocket as he motions at the girl across his desk. "She agreed for me to arrange for her things to be packed and transferred from the hotel where she is staying, to our house tomorrow at noon."

"Alright, well you do what you need to do, and I'm going to take her with me. I'll wait up for you." I grin and whisper the last part, giving him a wink. Tesni looks up at me as I stand.

"Put your hand on my shoulder." I tell her as Warren jumps against my chest, and she only hesitates for a second, but as soon as she's done it I take us straight to the front door of the house. "We're fae, and most of us can teleport." I tell her matter-of-factly as she stumbles forward and her hand pulls from my shoulder before she catches herself on the railing of the front porch. Giving me a wide eyed look, she turns her attention to the house and is feeling surprised as she follows me inside. I'm quick to deactivate the alarm system, and have her put her fingers one at a time to the screen to get added into the system. Her allowances are set, and she takes a look around the large open room where we stand.

"Warren? Would you like to get acquainted?" He jumps from my arms, growing to full size before he stands before her. She hesitates, fear obvious as she stares into the eyes of the massive wolf in front of her. "As fae, we at times will come across what we call guards. They are beings who will protect us with their lives, and we can create bonds with them. Antonio and Warren are both my guards."

"Can I touch him?" She asks, hesitantly, and I chuckle.

"That's up to him. He's pretty much as smart as you and I, so don't be afraid to ask him yes and no questions or tell him something as he will understand." I'm glad to see that she is accepting the information I keep giving her without a thought, and with a peek into her head I confirm that she is indeed retaining everything. Reaching out a hand, she stops a step in front of him.

"Can I touch you?" She asks him, and he gives her a stiff tip of his head. The fingers that twitch against his fur are gentle, and she strokes his neck a few times before dropping her hand and stepping back. "Sookie was right, you are special." She comments, and Warren gives her an appraising look before turning to me. I sense the approval from him, and I give her a small nod as I smile.

"Flattery, in this case, works. He likes you." Her mind betrays how happy she is with this news, and she follows without needing to be asked as I walk up the staircase. Warren of course shadows us both. "There are three guest bedrooms up here, and that room belongs to Wilma, my ward demon. She has bound herself to me as one of my protectors, and will be around most of the time, even if you don't see her. Do not go in her bedroom, no matter what you may hear or smell coming from within, as she has used some power of hers to make it a private space for herself." She mentally takes note to not go in there, and has a look into the other bedrooms before we are going back down the stairs. Opening the panel to the underground, she giggles and makes a joke about a James Bond movie, surprising me with the reference as we walk down the stairs.

The living room is now furnished partially, a couple of plush couches and a nice area rug sitting in front of the fireplace but nothing else has made it down here yet. "This room belongs to Antonio, who you will meet soon, and that one is Warren's sleeping area. This is mine and Eric's room. I will take care of our bedroom, and it is magically warded so don't try to come in without explicit permission. When you get a second to speak to Antonio, talk with him about whether he will clean his own room or not, and you don't have to worry about Warren's room. It will clean itself, so you should only need to check the living room here, and I will leave our laundry in the laundry room. That is a guest room, and I will let you know about cleaning it depending on whoever stays in there in the future."

Moving back up the stairs, I show her the switches again as I open and close the panel for us to step up into the hallway. "You can pick either of these two bedrooms, and this room is the utility room. The laundry is in there as well. In here is the library. I'll probably start assigning you books to read when you're not busy so that you can pick up some basic supernatural knowledge." She picks up one of the books curiously, and scrunches her brow as she flips through a page.

"I can't read this, it's in a different language."

"That's actually something called Old Tongue. It is the language of the fae, our ancient language, and you should have no problem learning it as it should come naturally for you. Spoken correctly, it is also a language of magic and you can use it with your spark to cast spells. In time you will come to know your own limits, but even once I teach you the language, don't try anything without my supervision as you could easily kill yourself." I show her the sitting room, and then I show her through the study and the living room before we move into the dining room.

"This house is amazing." She breathes, looking over the mural walls in the dining room just as Warren is doing as soon as we come in.

"The fae built it for me, commissioned by my grandfather, Niall Brigant. Sort of my wedding present."

"You know I always wondered, if my mom was something else, but it never really came up while she was alive." She comments, but I can tell she doesn't want to go into that any further, and we move towards the door to the kitchen. Delicious smells are wafting out, and Wilma gives me a broad smile as I enter first. "This is Tesni." I tell her as the girl enters, and she pulls a third plate from the cupboard as she starts to place food on plates.

"Tesni, this is Wilma. She is my ward demon, and she is also the cook in this house. You're welcome to the kitchen whenever you want of course, but she'll probably prepare most of our meals." She is taken by surprise when Wilma is suddenly giving her a hug, but she returns the gesture, and the demons eyes examine her when she pulls back.

"I like you, now that no one else is in my way of seeing you. That bar is too loud sometimes. Just tell me if you're hungry, and I'll take care of it. Dinner will be ready in just a minute."

"Nice to meet you too." There's a disbelief in Tesni's mind, and when I touch a little deeper I find that it's because nobody is usually as open and friendly as we have been. Outside of work, she is used to being a wall flower, ignored until she is necessary to someone. Now she finds herself center stage and while it's not her usual cup of tea, she can't deny the excited bubbly feeling it's putting into her stomach.

I hand Wilma the black card and phone from my pocket, pulling from my apprentices mind. "This is your charge card and cell phone. Buy whatever you want, and Eric asks that you don't go overboard." Apprentice? Where did that come from? I ask myself, and realize that is exactly how I feel about her. She is going to be my apprentice, someone for me to teach and guide, and I find that I especially like the idea as I mull it over more.

Wilma closes her hand around the objects, and I try to hide my surprise when they disappear right before she grabs a ladle and starts to spoon sauce onto what looks like chicken on our plates. Giving Warren a confident pat on the head, she giggles when his tongue lolls out, and pulls out a metal pan of a small cleanly skinned animals from the fridge. "I caught you some rabbits, for a snack."

His bowl is empty less than a minute after it hits of floor, and all three of us carry our plates to the dining room and sit down at one end of the long table as Warren plops down behind my chair.

"This is wonderful." I tell Wilma, and Tesni nods her agreement with her mouth full. We chat as we eat, discussing her duties in the house, and other general things. All of our plates are soon scraped clean, and when Antonio comes through the front door, Wilma gathers our dishes in a flash to disappear through the kitchen door.

"Antonio, this is Tesni. Tesni, Antonio. She is a very small part fae, but I'm going to be teaching her to get stronger while she's also going to keep the house clean. Were you able to find everything?" He lays a multitude of bags on the table, and gives Tesni an accepting nod before handing me a stack of receipts and my card.

"You said a foldable table, and that's in the back yard. I put it by the pond like you said. The plants too."

"Thank you, and I think that there's some fresh blood in the fridge if you're interested." I think of quickly, and he goes off in that direction. I can practically feel it when Wilma freezes for the instant when he enters, before I'm sure she's now methodically handling the dishes she's rinsing for the washer with a stiff back.

"I want to try a few things as far as testing your spark, as well as show you some things, so let's go to the backyard." She grabs half of the bags, and I'm sure she'd have gotten them all if I didn't pick the rest of them up quickly.

Her eyes dance over the back yard, taking everything in as Warren disappears into the trees, and I lead her to a plastic table sitting next to the pond. I pull everything out of the bags, arranging it as I go, and adding it to the things already present on the table. She inspects everything as I pop the empty bags to the kitchen and return. "What could that be for?" It's a long coil of leather cord, sitting on top of a box of dark wooden beads.

"Eric is susceptible to sunlight, being a vampire, so I am going to craft him something that would protect him for a few minutes in case he got caught outside for some reason. Same for Pam." Popping to my purse, I grab it, and return to make her jump a few seconds later. Pulling out one of my special pens, I hand it to her, along with a notebook on the table that I had Antonio pick up. "Niall made these pens especially for me when I was just starting to learn. Only the person who writes with it can see what is written, and it'll never run out of ink, so use it to keep notes. The magic should never run out, so take good notes, and you could use them for reference later in life. One of the stacks in the library should be my notebooks, now that I think about it." I muse, and she opens the notebook to the first page. "I recommend dating all of your notes, so that you can keep your stuff in order."

"It feels like I'm back in school."

"Sort of. I am going to start referring to you as my apprentice. In the supernatural world that makes me responsible for you, and offers you a measure of protection, so try not to get me in trouble with any monarchs or anyone." I tell her with a grin, and she smiles shyly, both of us knowing that she's happy to just stay quiet in risky company.

"Firstly, I want to see if your spark is strong enough yet to see what family you descend from. There are several, and there are different ways to figure it out. Hold out your hands, just like this." I hold my hands up, facing her, and she does the same. I let my light flush into my hands, making them glow, and it only takes a second for a soft white haze to appear around her palms.

"That's your light. Close your eyes, feel it flowing from its source, and find where it hides inside of you. The sooner you open yourself up to use that energy, the easier it'll be to get stronger. Just the fact that it is reacting to me like this means that you are at least strong enough to find your element."

Dropping my hands, the glowing stops and she looks a little disappointed as her light disappears. I step over to the table and start. "You can try to pull it up like that any time you want. It shouldn't be too much to just hold it in your hands like that. Now let's see what family you're from." Picking up a small baby oak tree, I set it on the table, and she looks at it dubiously. "The deep wood fae, the fae that brought Warren to me, use their spark to sing to the trees and form their homes out of the wood and earth. They keep the wolves as their family, guards and pets. I am going to show you something, and then I want you to try and repeat it. I am able to do this because it is a form of their magic that I learned, but if you are wood fae, it will just come naturally without any real knowledge. If you are not wood fae, then nothing will happen." She watches closely, and I lean in as I cup hands around a branch of the sapling. I had asked Antonio to find a sapling growing in a fork, so that there would be two main branches for us, and as usual he followed my request to the letter. The soft glow from my hands seems to join in the center, a wash of light flowing into the wood as it excepts my energy and the small flow of magic that is ignited by my spark. Tesni watches with fascination as a new leaf sprouts from the branch, growing impossibly fast and opening to match the size of the other leaves. "Now you try. Just find that energy inside of you, and try to coax just a little bit of it into helping the plant grow."

She mimics my hand motions, and slowly, a glow starts to creep up into her fingers. Sensing her trying, and doing so correctly, I stop her after several seconds as nothing happens. "Oh well, no A-plus garden for me." Her joke is light hearted, despite the slight disappointment I can feel from her, and I smile as I quickly give the treatment to the other branch of the tree and put the sapling beside the others. It already looks a little larger than the other saplings.

"Now, the next test will be water, and this one should be easy." I go to the table, pick up a packet of sowing needles and hand it to her. "Prick your finger slightly, then just stick it into the water and try to speak through your light to ask the water to heal you. This won't work without a lot of practice and learning unless you are water fae." Opening the bottle of water, I pour some into one of the bowls on the table.

There isn't any hesitation as she follows my direction, and I'm glad to see that she doesn't flinch when she pricks her finger. Sticking it into the water, the drop of crimson dissipates into the liquid as she holds it there. Her wrist seems to glow for a second, but when she pulls her hand back, she frowns. "It didn't work."

"It's no big deal." I reassure her, and take her hand as I gently heal her finger with a flash of my light. "We aren't done yet." I'm uncertain as I consider whether or not I really want to do the next test, before reminding myself that it would be unfair to her if I didn't try.

Eric feels my uncertainty, and sends me a questioning feeling, but I return reassurance and a feeling that I'll explain it later. Understanding, he gives me a warm caress before returning to what feels like paperwork.

Pouring the sand into a metal bowl, I add a large amount of lighter fluid into the center, and light it with a lighter. The small flame hovers over the sand, and I give her a small smile. "Fire fae are the only fae that can hold fire. Hold your hand out, and if you are fire fae, then it should come to you. It will be attracted to you."

She puts her hand out, palm facing upward, and steps slowly toward the small fire.

There's a spark in the bowl, and I watch in fascination as the fire stretches up, arching towards her hand. She jumps when there's suddenly a flame dancing over her palm, resting in a small form as the bowl has extinguished and she stares in wonder. "Congratulations. You are a fire fae." I say, and her face tells me that my voice has betrayed me. Doing my best to give her a bright smile, I put my hand on her shoulder, and stand next to her as I direct her attention back to her hand. "This really is something to be thankful for. The fire fae have been slowly dwindling, and the news will bring new hope to their houses."

My emotions are in turmoil, and Eric tries to soothe me as he feels my sudden change.

"Close your hand." I tell her, making sure to keep my inflection light, and shove away the unwanted dread in my stomach as I start showing her how to make protection and warding charms. A puff of smoke leaves her fingers as it extinguishes, and I move the testing things out of the way as I start showing her how to make protection charms. Once I have what I need for Eric and Pam, I let her start making her own, and she's made herself a bracelet as I finish with what I was working on. "What was the intent?" I ask her, holding it in my hand and examining it with my light.

"Well, I tried to impress that it would help me sort of be ignored. Something so that people would feel deterred from taking any special interest in me. I thought that it would make it easier for me to blend in if we're at Fangtasia." Handing her back the bracelet, I smile, impressed.

"You seem to have a knack for this. It's a little shaky, but the wish of you the creator is clear, to go unnoticed. It should work, but when you're more practiced you should make another one that will be stronger." She nods, looking it over as she examines the beads braided into it.

"Now for the last one, I am going to make a necklace for you to hide your scent." She nods, and I slowly show her several different braid types and styles as I form an intricate design with the leather cording. "When you make these, use natural materials like leather, wool and cotton. Synthetic stuff just doesn't hold the strength, so make sure that what you buy is the real deal and not imitation." Her hand moves quickly, writing down what I'm saying, and from her hand movements it looks like she's making diagrams of how the necklace looks with different braids in each part.

When we've cleaned everything up, I take her to the library, and she asks different questions as I start sorting the texts onto the shelves. Tesni proves to be a quick study, and by the time I feel Eric is leaving Fangtasia with Pam, I've verbalized the entire fae alphabet for her to write down and start to memorize. She stays in the library as I go to the front door, opening it for Eric to come through as I feel him almost here. He walks through with Pam behind him several minutes later, and it only takes a second for her to disappear as she investigates the house. I hear a surprised shriek from Tesni as Pam flashes through the library for the first time to see the sitting room, and I chuckle as Pam returns to stand in front of us. "Where do I stay?" I blink, looking at Eric, and he just shrugs.

"You want to live with us?" He asks, and her brow rises as she gives us her most indifferent look despite the emotion I can see behind it.

"Why not?" The air she's giving off is that she doesn't care, but I can tell she most definitely does, and I just smile as I show her how to open the downstairs. She follows us down the steps, an unspoken acknowledgement coming from her as she's happy to be accepted into the house.

Pointing out the rooms, she disappears into her room for a second before coming out with a small smile. "At least the closet isn't ridiculously small."

"I thought we might be having guests with a lot of clothes, so I made sure there was enough closet space everywhere."

I don't miss the catch in her slight, unnecessary breath, but I don't say anything as we go back upstairs.