Sitting in her leather chair, Wendy nervously smooths down her slacks. Connor comes up with his bone, and she smiles at him. “Such a good boy. Now lie down so Mommy can work on this, ok?”
She chuckles to herself as he plops down at her feet and uses her leg to steady his super large bone. She picks up her iPad that she plans to make notes on; it also holds all the questions for this interview.
This is something her Queen of the Betas and her WordPress Whisperer came up with, and she has been excited about it. She had put a poll up on the group page in Facebook, and it had come down to In The End and Niall. This was not what she had expected, really. She had thought that Eric or Godric would have been the ones chosen to be interviewed. But nope, her group had picked Niall.
So she asked him to come for this interview, and he had cheekily replied, “Of course, Sweetums!”
She had even reread her fiction to see where they were, because she has no doubts that Niall would try to slide by with answers that would give away huge plot points.
Looking at the iPad, she wonders how the Fae Prince would appear.
And with that, she jumps as he appears in the armchair next to her, dressed in his normal all black attire. He grins cockily to her. “Hello, my dear Wendy.”
She smiles nervously. Connor had jumped up and barked, but as he talks to her, he holds his hand out to Connor.
Connor sniffs, and, once he realizes he is friendly, is soon walking in circles under Niall’s hand, petting himself.
Niall laughs at the dog. He looks up at the author who had requested this meeting. He had been having fun in her story, and he has the feeling that she will not fail to amuse him this time either.
Wendy swallows. Then she gets herself together. “Hello, Niall. Thanks for joining me.”
He grins. This is the woman he has become fond of as she crafts their story. “No problem. I am honored to be the first one you are going to interview for your site.”
She grins. “I figured you would be happy about that. So, I gotta ask before we get to the questions, are you going to play fair or am I going to have to edit this thing like crazy before I give it to Rissa?”
He laughs. “If you promise to ask me the questions that give away too much plot later, I will play fair… Just don’t forget to ask me. You don’t want me to send some brownies to you, do you?”
She bites her lower lip as she thinks. “Will they clean better than the elves you sent? They seem to miss my desk all the time.”
He laughs. “And that is why I love working with you. Nothing makes you back down. But I will have a word with the elves to do a better job. Can’t have my favorite writer having to clean her desk when she should be writing.”
Wendy grins. “Niall, I am the one who dreamed you into being. And if you aren’t nice, I won’t give you all that I planned to.” She raises an eyebrow.
He grins back to her and raises an eyebrow, “Did you dream us into being, or did we give you the dreams?”
She blushes as she clears her throat and ignores her dog who is being petted under his hands. “We have a few questions to go through. Then the group thought up some questions and voted for what they liked.”
He shakes his head, “Not as much participation as I thought there WOULD be. But I will make this good on my side.”
Wendy shakes her head as she opens her iPad. Looking up at him, she raises an eyebrow as she asks, “You ready?”
He leans back in his chair, the perfect vision of laid back masculinity, and tells her, “Fire away!”
She can’t help the snort. She tells him, “You know, while I am publishing the entire interview, only your answers will be in your bio. But I think Robin may link to this so people can see how you are in person.”
Niall smirks. “Are there going to be some of those fun pictures you have of me?”
Blushing, Wendy tells him, “Nope. Those are mine. Now, get it together, we have quite a few questions to go through. Karen and Robin have put together quite the list.”
He nods, still smirking at her.
She asks him, “What is your full name?”
He laughs. “Right now, Niall. But that is subject to change in the future. But it is the one I am using right now.”
She lifts an eyebrow, “No family name?”
He shakes his head. “I use Brigant sometimes, but that is not my real last name. I simply don’t have one. But in this world nowadays, they get upset if you don’t have a middle name, much less a last name. So I make up one to satisfy the curiosity of mortals.”
She notes his answer, her fingers dancing across the iPad. “Ok, what are your nicknames?”
He lifts an eyebrow. “This is one of those questions I think you are going to edit.”
She laughs. “Probably. But answer and later we will put in the right answer.”
Sighing, he hooks his hands around the knee he has crossed, “Xxxx, Xxxx, Xxxx, Xxxxxx, Xx… Do I need to continue?”
She shakes her head. “Nope. We get the idea, and that one will be edited. I have to check with Rissa on it.”
She goes to the next one, then rolls her eyes. “This will be unanswerable for awhile.”
He lifts an eyebrow.
She tells him, “Job.”
He chuckles. “I can give the vanilla answer and we can revisit if need be. I am the Ruler of the Fae.”
They share a glance, then they both chuckle. Wendy nods her head. “That’ll work, Donkey. That’ll work.”
Niall groans. “We have to listen to this stuff in your head – are you going to say it out loud too?”
Wendy laughs. “Sorry. Blame Marty for that one.” She is blushing like crazy. She never meant to say that out loud, but hey, she is used to these people in her head.
Niall sighs, then rubs his face. “I guess it can’t be helped. You do think this way, so we are used to it. But, hey, you are getting more relaxed!”
Wendy laughs. “Yep. Now, we need to get back to this. A lot of people are waiting for this to be given to them to read.” She looks down at her iPad and then laughs. “They want to know you Date of Birth.”
Niall just shakes his head. “I will just refuse to answer that one. It will give way too much away. Maybe later?”
Wendy smirks. “If that is the answer you want to give.”
He gives her a look, but she is already noting his response. Then she asks, “What is your height?”
He frowns as he shakes his head. “Is this an interview or an application?”
Wendy holds her hands up, “Hey, I am just the one asking the questions. I had nothing to do with creating them.”
He shakes his head as he closes his eyes. He sighs and answers, “5’10”.”
Wendy notes it, then smothers a laugh.
Niall looks at her with the eyebrow raised. “What?
She looks at him, “Just remember I didn’t make this up. I am only asking the questions.”
Closing his eyes, he shakes his head again. “And why can’t you just answer them if they’re ones you know I will comment on.”
She grins at him evilly, “Cause that is what the fun is. Your sarcastic comments!”
He drops his head back. Staring up at the ceiling, “The things I do for you, woman!” He sighs then lifts his head enough to look at her and tells her, “Just ask them. I can’t wait until we get to the interesting ones.”
“Hey! These are interesting to the readers! They want to make sure you are in their dreams with the right proportions!” Then she blushes as she realizes what she said.
He just laughs. “Gods, I love your brain! Fire away, Wendy.”
She grins, “Here are the ones you can answer quickly. They want to know: hair color, eye color, and build.”
He frowns. “What are they…never mind. I don’t want to know what Karen or Robin need this for. Hair color is black, eye color, well blue, but you call it ice blue, don’t you? Use whichever you want to use. And build? Umm…good?”
Wendy laughs. “I think they want muscular, skinny, lithe, runners, swimmers. Use your imagination, Niall!”
Groaning, “This is not what I thought I would be answering. But I am not warning the rest of them about it. They can find out the same way I did. But, handsome, lithe, and muscular. But not overly.”
Wendy can’t resist the biting of her lip as her eyes sweep him and then notes the comments on her iPad.
He just chuckles at her. “Don’t worry, Wendy, I know what you’re thinking. I do have the luxury of living in your brain.”
She just sighs. She can’t deny it. “And you know why, too. So let’s go on. Significant other?”
His eyes darken. “Yes.”
She lifts an eyebrow, “Yes?”
He nods. “I’ll answer that one later.” And the look he gives her has her nodding and moving on quickly.
“Parents?”
He smirks, “Not applicable.”
She looks up. “Not applicable?”
Niall’s smirk grows. “Not applicable. You didn’t give me any. So…not applicable.”
She grumbles, “We will put that one off. Children?”
He smiles softer now. “One.”
She sighs, “This is not helping Niall. One? What type of answer is that?”
He laughs. “It is one where I’m not giving too much away. Remember your request of me?”
Wendy bites her tongue and goes, “Ohhhh yeah. Forgot about that.”
He just laughs at her. “I didn’t. Now what’s next?”
“Best friend?”
“Hades.”
She looks up. “Hades is your best friend?”
He nods. “He knows everything about me, and I him. He has been by my side throughout it all, and we talk to each other. Is that not Best Friends?”
She quirks her head to side considering it, then nods. “Yep. That works. Enemies?”
He growls out, “Mab at one point. Now there are others, but again, we don’t want to ruin the story, now do we?”
Putting the tablet down, Wendy glares at him, “You can answer that one in more detail. Yes, you can’t give it all away, but the readers have been exposed to some of them.”
He laughs. “I love your fiery attitude. Reminds me of someone. Very well, there is the bitch queen with her incompetent followers. And there is that idiotic self-proclaimed King of the Desert and his idiots. And then there is that fucked up church, too. Is that enough?”
She is laughing at him. “Yep, that will be enough.”
She can’t help but laugh even harder at the following questions. “Tattoos or scars?”
He shakes his head. “None.”
She is sniggering. “None?”
He shakes his head refusing to rise to her bait.
She then looks over the list, “The rest are interesting for you. The next one is favorite pastime.”
He grins. “Running as my other half.”
She lifts an eyebrow to him. “I know what you mean, but you need to explain it for the readers.”
He grins. “My other half is a wolf. I love transforming into him and going for a run in the woods. The freedom as a wolf is liberating.”
She nods. “That is what they are wanting. What is your mode of transportation?”
Niall laughs as he relaxes into the chair more. “Either I pop where I need to go or, very rarely, I go as my wolf.”
She nods as makes notes. “Weapon of choice?”
He raises an eyebrow. “Weapon of choice? My wits. But if they want an actual weapon, it would be a sword. But I rather rely on myself and beat people before it gets physical. It is much more enjoyable to outsmart my opponents. Even better when they don’t realize I have done it and the game is over for them, and they have no clue at all.”
Wendy’s grin gets bigger, and not wanting to stop the rhythm she asks the next one, “Pets?”
He chuckles. “None. Not enough time for one.”
She looks down at him petting Connor, and the absolute bliss on her puppy’s face as he scratches that spot under his ears. “Too bad. From the look on Connor’s face, you would be great.”
He chuckles as he leans forward to rub Connor’s head, “That’s because he is an awesome dog. And from what I hear, he has been made the Mascot of the Site, and is even part of your original fiction.”
She laughs. “The girls love him. He has grown up with tons of pictures on Facebook. Spoiled rotten he is.”
Niall laughs as he leans back, still petting the puppy. “Nothing wrong with that. And it ain’t like you don’t spoil him.”
She laughs as she looks back for the next one, “Best childhood memory?”
His eyes darken slightly. “Not applicable.”
She raises an eyebrow, and he gives her a look. She winces. “Yeah, that’s right. So no teen memory either. How about best adult memory?”
His eyes soften. “It’s a toss up, but I will say I lean more towards the birth of my child. Best thing in my life. Right up there with mating with my Significant Other. But the birth of my child is a happier memory all in all.”
She smiles at him, touched by his emotions in his eyes, shoot, in his whole being. She lets him remember that time as she looks over the rest. “Six more before we get to the ones they asked and voted on for you.”
He nods, “Go ahead.”
Wendy smiles, “Favorite scent?”
He laughs. “Favorite Scent? I need to ask these girls what they were thinking. I guess a crisp winter morning with a fresh snowfall as I run in my other form through the woods on a mountain. Or the scent of my mate, and the scent of my child. All of these are favorites.”
She laughs, when she looks at the next one, “Favorite movie?”
He grins. “I actually love the Usual Suspects. It’s an awesome movie, and a great one of how to use your brain to get out of trouble. No need for violence, though it is in the movie, but… well, you need to watch it.”
She laughs. “I have, and you know my brother loves it.”
He nods. “It is a great movie. Eric loves it, too.” Then he straightens, “But it is not his favorite.” He cheekily grins at Wendy. “Don’t want your fans to think they know something ahead of time.”
She laughs. “Whatever you say. The next question is if you could vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go?”
He leans back, thinking. He clarifies, “In this world?”
She nods, “I think that was the intent of the question.”
Niall nods, and after a few minutes of thinking he tells her, “An empty beach, anywhere. I would like to just sit there, with no one but maybe my family, just be able to exist without planning for the future while maintaining all the things I have going on. Just sit there and listen to the world as it turns.”
She nods, thinking of his answer. “It would be awesome.”
He laughs. “Wendy, you would go nuts.” Then he pauses, “Maybe not.”
While he muses on that, she looks down, “The next question is about how you spend your days?”
He chuckles, “Protecting what is mine.”
She lifts an eyebrow, “And the nights?”
He grins, “No rest for the weary, my dear. I spend a lot of my time protecting what is mine. The rest I visit when I can family and friends. I also play some tricks on others.”
She cannot help the laugh. “You? Tricks on others?”
He grins mischievously at her.
She shakes her head, and asks him, “The last one for the official questionnaire. What is your life aspiration?”
His eyes fade out as he answers, “To have my family be safe. I would do anything and often have to make this possible.”
She watches him, then gives him a moment as she puts the last answer in her notes. Looking over them, she makes sure she has all she needs to write this up. Then she looks up at him and grins. “Are you ready?”
He lifts an eyebrow. “The questions from the group I take it?”
She nods. “Yep, these are the ones they asked and were voted to be asked. I told them no more than five, but it could be less. You get all five.”
He grins, “Of course I did.”
She shakes her head at him. “The first one is from is from Robin Shaw, our WordPress Whisperer. ‘If you could change any event in history, which one and why?”
He shakes his head, an impressed look to his face. “That is a really good question. There have been times I have wished to interfere in history, but it often doesn’t work well for those who do. But, if there had been something that didn’t affect history when I changed it, I would change when Godric lost his wife. That day will be seared into my memory for the rest of my very long life. The pure misery would have shaken anyone. The only other day I would change, well I can’t tell you about it. But I know that to change that day would have changed the future, and not in a good way. Things had to happen that way for the end results. And the day I wish to change in addition, well I suspect that there was a reason for that day, too.” The shadows in his eyes show the pain that those days had caused him, and the weight of knowing that preventing those changes would have been a greater tragedy shows on him.
Wendy nods, trying not to shed a tear, since she knows which two days he is talking about. She types in the answer. Then she had to ask, “Why not the Holocaust or something like that?”
He looks over, “Because they happened. And to change them, would have changed fate so drastically that the world would be in the position it is now. That right now, would be disastrous. It’s not something I am proud of, but I will live with the pain of those millions of people lost for the greed of a few. Hopefully, the prophecy does play out to the best ending, and those lives would be there as a lesson. We will see.”
She slowly shakes her head. “That makes sense. Okay, here is Karen’s question, well, actually, she has two. Tthe first is, “Can she have your babies?”, and her actual question is, “What was your favorite era in history?”
He laughs. “Karen, Karen, Karen. She knows the answer to the first. I think you ladies have certain people claimed already? I cannot be unfaithful to my wife. Silly woman.” He leans back winking at Wendy.
Wendy grins evilly, “Good answer. But for the real one?”
He laughs as he reaches down to throw the ball Connor just brought him, “My favorite era? Has to be now. This is the closest I have come to having everything. So…right now. Or actually, in the era that is coming. That will be the best. But I cannot say more than that.”
Wendy laughs. “I love it!!! Best answer.”
He grins conspiratorially with her. “Next?”
She is still grinning as she asks, “The next one is from Megan Amster. ‘If you could travel into the future what would you do?’
He looks impressed again. “These ladies have good questions! But if I could travel to the future, well, I wouldn’t. I am looking forward to it, but unless I am here to guide my part, it won’t be the future I want. But if all that were to happen, I would still be here. The future is my reward. And I am not one to eat my dessert before dinner. Or in this case, make dinner after eating the dessert.”
She can’t help but laugh at his analogy, but she knows what he is referencing to. “HEA?”
He grins. “Yep, and that is why we camp out inside of your brain.”
Wendy laughs. “That and you guys have some kind of link to Karen. I swear she has a link to my muse.”
He just laughs. “Next? We need to finish this.”
She gives him the look, “You’re the one commenting all over the place. The next one comes from Marie Chrissy, ‘What’s the one thing that you regret doing in life?”
His eyes darken intensely. “Not keeping a better eye on my family.”
And the tone of voice tells her that he is not going to say anymore. She quickly jots down his reply and then she tells him, “Last one is from Rissa. She wants to know how old are you really?”
He just starts laughing. “Didn’t I already answer this?”
She shrugs. “It had the votes to be on here. So answer.”
He grins evilly. “Nope. And she of all people knows why! Just wait until she reads this. I am going to pop over and give her a talking to about how rude it is asking someone’s age. And twice! Actually, I think I will visit Karen and Robin on this also. Some of these questions…!”
Wendy lifts an eyebrow. “Niall….”
He just looks at her innocently. “I know the rules, and so do they. But they need a talking to. Why all the details?”
Sighing as she puts the iPad to the side, then tosses one of the toys laid out around her. “They are doing character profiles, and this will give details that are needed in them. It wasn’t that painful was it?”
He leans forward to catch her eyes, “Nope. And tell the ladies that I thank them for voting for me first. Now I think you need to turn this in?”
She nods, captured as always by his eyes.
Niall grins. “Then I will leave you to it. I’ll be back. Later. And don’t forget to feed Connor.” With that, he kisses her cheek and disappears.
She laughs as she stands up, laughing at Connor and his disappointed face. “He’ll be back soon.”
And with that, she heads off to email the interview to Karen and Rissa.
