Sookie Stackhouse Boxed Set (Books 1-8) - Charlaine Harris [853]
Lots of kids in our neck of the woods call their grandfathers “Papaw.” I’d love to see his reaction to that. The idea helped me recover my scattered sense of self.
“Please explain,” I said very politely. The waiter came to inquire after our drink orders and recite the specials of the day. Niall ordered a bottle of wine and told him we would have the salmon. He did not consult me. High-handed.
The young man nodded vigorously. “Great choice,” he said. He was a Were, and though I would have expected him to be curious about Niall (who after all was a supernatural being not often encountered), I seemed to be of more interest. I attributed that to the waiter’s youth and my boobs.
See, here’s the weird thing about meeting my self-proclaimed relative: I never doubted his truthfulness. This was my true great-grandfather, and the knowledge just clicked into place as if it fit into a puzzle.
“I’ll tell you all about it,” Niall said. Very slowly, telegraphing his intention, he leaned over to kiss my cheek. His mouth and eyes crinkled as his facial muscles moved to frame the kiss. The fine cobweb of wrinkles did not in any way detract from his beauty; he was like very old silk or a crackled painting by an ancient master.
This was a big night for getting kissed.
“When I was still young, perhaps five or six hundred years ago, I used to wander among the humans,” Niall said. “And every now and then, as a male will, I’d see a human woman I found appealing.”
I glanced around so I wouldn’t be staring at him every second, and I noticed a strange thing: no one was looking at us but our waiter. I mean, not even a casual glance strayed our way. And no human brains in the room were even registering our presence. My great-grandfather paused while I did this, and resumed speaking when I’d finished evaluating the situation.
“I saw such a woman in the woods one day, and her name was Einin. She thought I was an angel.” He was silent for a moment. “She was delicious,” he said. “She was lively, and happy, and simple.” Niall’s eyes were fixed on my face. I wondered if he thought I was like Einin: simple. “I was young enough to be infatuated, young enough to be able to ignore the inevitable end of our connection as she aged and I did not. But Einin got pregnant, which was a shock. Fairies and humans don’t crossbreed often. Einin gave birth to twins, which is quite common among the fae. Einin and both boys lived through the birthing, which in those times was far from certain. She called our older son Fintan. The second was Dermot.”
The waiter brought our wine, and I was jerked out of the spell Niall’s voice had laid on me. It was like we’d been sitting around a campfire in the woods listening to an ancient legend, and then snap! We were in a modern restaurant in Shreveport, Louisiana, and there were other people around who had no idea what was going on. I automatically lifted my glass and took a sip of wine. I felt I was entitled.
“Fintan the Half Fairy was your paternal grandfather, Sookie,” Niall said.
“No. I know who my grandfather was.” My voice was shaking a little, I noticed, but it was still very quiet. “My grandfather was Mitchell Stackhouse and he married Adele Hale. My father was Corbett Hale Stackhouse, and he and my mom died in a flash flood when I was a little girl. Then I was raised by my grandmother Adele.” Though I remembered the vampire in Mississippi who’d told me he detected a trace of fairy blood in my veins, and I believed this was my great-grandfather, I just couldn’t adjust my inner picture of my family.
“What was your grandmother like?” Niall asked.
“She raised me when she didn’t have to,” I said. “She took me and Jason into her home, and she worked hard to raise us right. We learned everything from her. She loved us. She had two children herself and buried them both, and that must have about killed her, but still