CHAPTER FOURTY SEVEN

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          IT WAS AS IF SHE HAD NEVER LEFT IN THE FIRST PLACE, LOOKING EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE DAY SHE HAD DISAPPEARED. Well, according to Lafayette right before he and Jesus took their leave for the evening.  Not thirteen minutes later, Jason Stackhouse had burst through the door and into the home in his work uniform. 

Dakota hadn't even had time to speak with her cousin as she galavanted through the home, in awe of the renovations. Sookie was babbling on about how on earth she had managed to do this within a day. It was as if she didn't even know how long gone she had been.      

The blonde watched as Jason embraced his sister, looking at her in disbelief as he squeezed her close, scared she would vanish into thin air.

"Jason, why are you dressed like a cop?"

"Jesus Christ," he gaped. "we thought you were dead! We've been lookin' everywhere for you. We figured a vampire must have did it. Bill, or maybe that crazy tall one."

Dakota held back a grin, shaking her head in amusement knowing fully well Eric had nothing to do with her disappearance. The vampire had been too busy forcing blood down her throat to even think about kidnapping the fairy. Besides, he couldn't care less what would have happened to her cousin.

"Hold on, hold on." Sookie frowned, taking a step back. "Stop a second. What is today's date?"

"Today is October twenty-first." Dakota commented, sharing a look with Jason as they stood in the living room. The blonde had tried to tell Sookie moments before but she had been too busy taking in the home to even hear her.

"I've been gone two weeks?" she wondered.

"No, Sook." Jason furrowed his brows. "You've been gone twelve and a half months."

"That's not funny." she stated, glancing around the room at her family. 

"He's right, Sook." Dakota muttered, chewing her bottom lip. "You disappeared twelve and a half months ago. We've looked everywhere for you, but you were gone."

"We put up flyers." added Jason. "We called TV stations, we did everything we could think of. We even made up a website. But after you were gone so long ..."

Sookie rubbed her palm over her face and sat down on the couch with a sigh. "I swear it felt like ten, fifteen minutes at the most! The place that I went, time just works differently."

"Where did you go?" asked Dakota, curious.

The blonde fell silent for a moment, knowing how crazy it was going to sound when she'd have to say it out loud. The woman didn't know if her cousin knew they were fairies, she guessed Eric would have told her but she couldn't be sure.

"You wouldn't believe me." she said, carefully looking at her brother.

"Try me." urged Dakota, taking a seat beside her. 

"It was like ... a different dimension." she began, eyeing her cousin for a reaction. "There were other people there. Faeries."

Jason choked out a laugh as he sat on the edge of the coffee table, trying to hold in his amusement. Dakota didn't, she slowly nodded her head knowing which world she was talking about it. The woman had been there too, in a dream.

"Faeries?" Jason bit back a grin. "You expect me to believe that."

"Yes," nodded Dakota, pushing her hand toward him as a flicker of blue light rested in the palm of her hand. "like this."

"Jesus Christ." he gaped, stumbling off the table and onto the rug below.

"Eric told you." Sookie guessed, turning away from her brother. "Bill told me."

"Hold up." Jason got to his feet, glancing at his family in confusion. "You're telling me both of you are goddamn faeries? Does that mean that I am also ...?"

"I think the gene skipped you." shrugged Sookie.

"What was it like?"

"Amazing at first!" Sookie gushed. "It was absolutely beautiful and I thought I never wanted to leave. They had this fruit, and it lit up when you touched it, but when you ate it it meant you could never leave again and I didn't want that. We had to run and Claude helped us escape!"

"Claude?" Dakota furrowed her brows. 

"You know him?" she asked.

"I think so, yes." Dakota nodded, thinking back to her dream that had felt all too real.

Jason pulled a face, sitting back down with a frown. "Sook, if you start telling people you time traveled to a land full of faeries, they gonna put you away."

Sookie let out a small sigh and reached into her pocket, holding up a pocket watch. Both Dakota and Jason fell silent at that, and she traced her fingers over the gold carefully. Jason turned to look at his sister in disbelief.

"Where the hell did you get that?"

"I saw grandaddy." she revealed, giving him the watch. "He was there. He wanted you to have it. He swore he'd only been there a few hours. He looked just like we remember him. Time stands still there and no one knows it. It is how I lost a year of my life and grandaddy lost twenty."

"But, where is he?" frowned Dakota. "You didn't leave him there, did you?"

"He's gone, i'm sorry." she muttered. "He wanted me to tell you he loved us all, and he never meant to leave us."

"What time you got?" Jason asked, small smile on his face as he adjusted the watch to the current time.

"Six-thirty-five." said Sookie, glancing at the darkened sky outside. "Which means ..."

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DAKOTA ROLLED HER EYES AS SHE TURNED ON THE TV. It had been a few days since she'd seen her maker and now his face was all over the screen, Fangtasia in the background. Pam had told her about this and she decided to see what he had to say.

"Good evening, ladies and gentleman." he began, smile on his face. "My name is Eric Northman. I'm a tax-paying American and small business owner in the great state of Louisiana. I also happen to be a vampire."

"Idiot." she sighed, but in truth she knew every single human would it up all his words eagerly. 

"Now the past year, there's been a lot of inflammatory talk from politicians warning their constituents not to trust vampires." he continued. "But think about it for a second. Who would you rather trust? A vampire or a politician? The truth is, vampires are different from each other as humans are, because we were humans, and we ask only to be treated as such."

Dakota let out a humourless laugh at that. 

"And we welcome you into our world as well. We're always more than happy to serve humans here at Fangtasia, and I don't mean for dinner."

The blonde turned the screen off, no longer interested in whatever she wanted to see before. Dakota got up from the couch and stalked up the stairs to her room, taking her hair out of the towel to let air dry.

Dakota grabbed a clean pair pyjamas and threw them over her chair before shrugging off her bathrobe and throwing it over her shoulder.

It took her a second before she realised the material never fell to the floor and she grabbed an empty box from the chair and threw it at him with all her might, hitting him square in the chest as she tried to hide herself with her nightgown. 

"Get the fuck out!"

"Come now," Eric grinned, holding her robe in his hands as his eyes raked over her body. "I didn't think the image I had in my head would still be the same, I was wrong."

"Yeah, well." she began. "You no longer have the right to look at me like that."

Eric tried to hide his smile as he sat down at the edge of her bed, eyes not leaving her own. God, he was infuriating. 

"Aren't you supposed to suck the authority off or something?" she snapped.

The viking's brows almost disappeared into his hairline at her words and a snort left his lips. He had been trying to get back on her good side for a year now, and he never once blamed her for her anger directed at him. Dakota had her choice taken away from her, which is why she was angry, but he'd do it again in a heartbeat.

"You're funny." he grinned.

"Why are you here?" she pulled her nightgown tighter to her chest.

"I wanted to know how you were doing?" 

"I'm fine," she said. "now leave. I can't do this right now."

"Come on, Dakota." he got to his feet, taking a step toward her. "I know you. There's two of you. One, who still clings to the idea of being merely human, and the other who's coming to grips with the fact that she is now so much more than that."

"What will you think happens when I come to grips with that?" she raised a brow. "You think my legs will magically open for you again?"

"Well, that was saucy." he guffawed, proud. "Must have been vampire Dakota talking, I like when she comes out."

"I don't." she argued.

"Let her." he said. "The more you let her speak for you, the more likely you are to go on living. And you want to live, don't you? You said so yourself. You just need to let me help you this time."

Eric brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and placed a soft kiss on her forehead, Dakota let him.