I Have Gone Out (Part 13)
Wow has it really been over a month since I updated. Eeek! Thanks for sticking around for the show.
Characters: Ensemble
Pairing: Sookie/Eric
Rating: R, adult themes
Summary: Would you eat from the tree and have your eyes opened or stay a happy child in the garden forever? Follows the events of Dead and Gone with answers and questions. Part 13, a creepy deal with a creep vampire and then some more creepiness to boot!
Spoilers: For all books up to Dead and Gone
Chapter 26
“What?” Bill and I were in chorus and it might have been funny if it wasn't so gosh darned serious.
“It is quite simple. I held Mr. Walker at his own request. The arrangement was mutually beneficial initially. He provided a valuable service and I provided a measure of security.”
“Security for whom?” Bill asked. He'd recovered pretty quickly from shock and awe. I was still working on it.
“Mr. Walker, of course. When he came to me with the arrangement, he expressed concern for the safety of his sister should she find him, as well as concerns over his own self control.”
“Why'd he go to you?” I asked a little rudely but I couldn't help it. There's was something creepy about Victor (not Andre level creepy, but still) and it was more pronounced when he was trying not to be creepy.
Victor waved a hand at the cell, summing up the chains and blow torches and cinderblock walls. See? Creepy. “I had the power to hold him and lacked the desire to kill him. You should thank me Miss Stackhouse. Eric Northman was also a perfectly viable option.”
Not quite, I thought ruefully. Adam probably thought twice about asking the Infernal Serpent to lock him in the basement.
I scooted away from Victor who was just a little too close for my comfort. “But everything you just said....”
“Tragic, yes, but what do you say? Ancient history.”
Well, Eric had said his bosses were forward thinkers. Maybe I should just start operating on the idea that Eric was always right. And possibly Satan.
I could see emotions rippling across Bill's face that was usually so tightly guarded. He probably wanted to say all the things I did right now. The difference was, Victor was kind of his boss. Sometimes it pays not to have a place in the pecking order. “Is the only reason I'm here really to play chauffeur to a dangerous, supernatural killer?”
Victor arched a a delicate brow. I wondered if he waxed. “I was under the impression that you came to defend your husband.”
Was Victor making a joke? “Oh come on! I bet even they know the trial is bogus,” I said, pointing at Thing One and Thing Two. I was simultaneously angry, ashamed for pointing, and proud of myself for using such a silly sounding word as 'bogus' correctly in a sentence.
“Sookie,” Bill warned.
Victor made an exaggerated show of being caught. “But she is correct Bill. Though I should warn you Miss Stackhouse, such little displays of bravado are not as endearing as they are on television. Were I someone else, I might be rather nonplussed at your hostility toward the agent of a King who holds you in such high regard.”
Nonplussed? Wow, scolded and then shown up in vocabulary. Victor had quite the way of telling the human her place. I had a lot more questions but-- “When are you letting Eric go?” That one wasn't going to wait.
“At the conclusion of the trial, of course.”
“But you just said--”
“Mr. Madden,” Bill interrupted calmly but just then I experienced another kind of an interruption. I hadn't put my mental shields back up since I was in a room of all vampires (unless you counted Simon who was half-asleep in the bathroom) and my vision suddenly went shimmery. I threw my hands up to rub at whatever had gotten in my eyes and realized too late that I was seeing the Walker returning.
Bill and Victor both turned at my sudden movement. “I take it my guest has come back” Victor said. “Miss Stackhouse, your talents are many. I find myself constantly charmed to have made your acquaintance.”
“Mr. Madden,” Bill repeated and I was glad. I didn't need to hear anymore about my charms. “You are asking a human woman, one who has been invaluable to His Majesty in the past, to involve herself in considerable danger. Isn't freeing Eric reasonable compensation?”
“Sookie, don't do this,” Jack said. But only I could hear him.
“She has also been very costly,” Victor said, smile never faltering. “Vampire lives have been lost defending hers.”
Clancy. I felt pretty bad about that.
“And she has saved vampire lives as well,” Bill argued staunchly.
That would be Felipe and that was definitely a point in my favor. I'd saved Bill and Eric a few times too, plus warned a whole bunch of vamps that the Pyramid of Gizeh was about to explode but that tended to get overlooked (except by the FBI, they'd noticed).
“I'm not going anywhere without him,” I said, in case anyone cared how I felt about it. Fat chance. I stood up and crossed my arms so I was looking down at Victor.
Across the cot, Jack was mirroring my position but giving me the stare down. “Sookie, this is the worst thing you could do.”
“You lied to me,” I told the Walker.
“I never did,” Jack said levelly, like he didn't care if I believed him or not.
“And what assurance would I have that you would deliver Mr. Walker to Emma Asli?” Victor asked like I hadn't just been talking to an invisible man.
“Make it an order,” I said. “Eric's always been loyal hasn't he?” It was true. Victor and Felipe had only been making up reasons not to trust Eric, he hadn't given them any. Unless you counted sneakily marrying me when they probably didn't want him to.
“He has,” Victor agreed. “Though I don't know that 'always' is an appropriate descriptor for a few months' service.” He nodded succinctly. “Done.”
“Done?” I needed some clarification here. “You're going to let Eric go, right now, and order us all to take Jack to his sister in Bon Temps.” I spoke very clearly and slowly, making sure there were no loopholes in the deal because it looked like I was being given what I wanted and ordered to go home. That was a little too good to be true. Scratch that, way too good.
“Yes,” Victor said.
“And drop the charges laid against Eric,” Bill added.
“Yeah, cool it with the trial,” I said. Good one, Bill.
“That will require some contract negotiations with the Discovery Channel,” Victor said and I was about to protest but then he added, “Which Simon will be happy to take care of, I'm sure.”
“So that's it?” My adrenaline level was starting to dip. My body really wanted to believe Victor because then maybe there'd be a little break from all the danger and it could sleep. I willed myself not to yawn. This was such an inappropriate time for yawning but think too hard about yawning and....
“The hour is quite late for all of us,” Victor said when I yawned so loudly that my jaw cracked. “Are we agreed then? I will arrange a flight to Louisiana for the two of you, Mr. Walker, and Mr. Northman and you will deliver Mr. Walker to Emma Asli and make certain that she holds to her bargain with me.”
“Which is to kill his maker,” Jack put in. “And return all the vampires she's taken.”
Okay, so maybe that was the catch. But there weren't exactly a lot of other options.
##
In the lobby of Sanguine Hotel and Casino Bill drew in a breath of fresh air even though he didn't need to. I knew exactly how he felt.
“Mr. Madden has asked me to take you to Mr. Northman and to arrange a flight to Shreveport for your party,” Simon said, back in tour guide mode. We'd been there when Victor had given him these instructions but Simon was working under several layers of glamor so I couldn't blame him for forgetting.
“And you'll be getting Mr. Northman another room,” I said.
“Of course,” Simon replied easily. “If his current room isn't suitable, we'll be happy to provide him with different accommodations.”
We boarded the elevator and I felt better and better the farther we got from Victor. He'd stayed behind to have a few words with Jack. As for the Walker, he'd returned to his body before we left the dungeon but hadn't exactly been talkative. If the two were talking now, I was pretty glad I wasn't there for it.
The elevator doors opened way sooner than I expected. In my head we were bound for one of the towers or at least for a residential floor. Instead we'd only gone a few floors up. Simon led us briskly down a hallway that was carpeted in a lush emerald green carpet and straight through a set of dark wood doors. “This is one of Sanguine's lesser ballrooms,” he said.
At least, it usually was. Now the place was crawling with men and woman loaded down with camera equipment. Huge lights sprouted from an array of poles like a bizarre lightbulb forrest. There was saw dust in the air from the newly made portions of the set that now took up most of the space in the ballroom. If I had to guess, I'd say I was looking at an Inquisition era court room.
Simon left us for a moment to talk to a woman who was off in one corner, pinning a hodgepodge of fabrics to a vampire who looked decidedly familiar but who was also decidedly not Eric.
“I guess they're going to have to find someone else to put on trial since they built this whole set and everything,” I said.
Bill shrugged. “Felipe was turned during the Inquisition, I'm sure they'll put it to use for other aspects of the documentary.”
“They should just film it in the dungeon,” I said. “It's pretty mush set up for an Inquisition.”
“Not enough space for the equipment,” Bill said.
Then Simon was back and I could see a few pictures I didn't care for in his head. “Why did the guards drag Eric out of here?” I asked, not at all in the mood to politely pretend I couldn't read his mind.
“It seems Mr. Northman became agitated about an hour ago during his fitting and the guards, as you said, escorted him out.” Simon shrugged. That really was all he knew. “Melinda was taking his measurements, she says she has no idea what happened. No one spoke to him and he'd seemed fine up until then.”
“Victor came into the basement an hour ago,” Bill said quietly. “Eric would have felt your anxiety.” I wondered how often Bill still felt my 'anxiety.'
“Blood bond,” I said. “Right.” And then to Simon, “So where is he now?”
“He's most likely been shown back to his room.”
Eric's room, it turned out, was in one of the towers-- at the top, if you can believe it. Sanguine had dungeons and tower cells.
While we were riding up once again in the elevator, I remembered the vamp who'd been getting fitted back in the ballroom. “Simon, that vampire that was with the wardrobe lady... he looked an awful lot like you.”
“That's my brother,” Simon said easily but his thoughts were more conflicted. His brother had been turned a few years ago it seemed as a reward for his services to Felipe De Castro. He and Simon were twins. “We won't look alike for too much longer though.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” Simon said, “I'm getting older and he's not.”
##
Eric's room was the only one on the floor. The elevator opened into a small vestibule. In that vestibule was one ordinary looking door and one extraordinarily large vampire. “James,” Simon said and nodded to the guard.
“Where is Caedmon?”
“Feeding,” the vamp guard replied in a voice like a cement mixer. “He sustained an injury while transporting the prisoner.” I smiled a little to myself. Eric wouldn't have taken being 'escorted out' very well at all.
On closer inspection, James was definitely a separate entity from the guards who'd come into the basement with Victor (he was also a little rough around the edges like he'd recently gotten a little too close and personal with a Viking) though no less imposing. They must just grow them like that in Nevada.
“Not a prisoner anymore, James,” Simon said.
And just like that, the vampire giant stepped aside. They are obedient, those vampires.
Simon keyed in another number sequence at the door and it opened with a whoosh. The room inside was fairly ordinary except that it was rounded at the back due to the shape of the tower. Oh, and the walls and the inside of the door appeared to be coated in silver. Deadly and expensive.
Eric was standing calmly in the center of the floor. I felt the familiar rush of contentment come over me and with it, something else: Eric was ready for a fight. “What are you doing here, lover?” He asked lightly, belying the tension I could feel over the bond.
“Oh, you know, rescuing you,” I replied just as lightly. “Sort of.”
Chapter 27
Vampires like to think of themselves as being more evolved than humans. And it's true that they're stronger and faster and some of them can fly. But when it comes to instincts, the whole 'fight or flight' thing, vamps are way more in touch with their animal sides. Like when I told him we were on the next flight out of Vegas, Eric Northman, Sheriff of Area Five, calm, collected, older than empires vampire did a pretty good imitation of a badger.
Not that I'd ever tell him that.
Living in Louisiana all my life, I'd never seen a badger except on Animal Planet. But once Bud Dearborn came into Merlotte's fresh from a visit with family out west. He said he'd gone hunting with his son-in-law and seen a badger take on two coyotes that were trying to block the badger from its den. In the end, the badger shuffled off home and the coyotes went away bleeding. The moral of the story: never try come between a badger and his hole.
Eric was incredibly reluctant to leave his room. And you haven't seen incredibly reluctant until you've seen Eric do incredibly reluctant.
“Come on, Eric,” I said for a second time when he ignored the first prompt.
He didn't say anything, just stood calmly, eyes searching both Bill and me for... injury? Some hint of betrayal?
I guess I shouldn't be surprised or annoyed since I hadn't exactly wanted to explain the circumstances of his release in front of Simon and the guard at the door. So for all he knew, Bill and I had been tricked and were about to lead him into a far worse predicament. So I shouldn't be annoyed that he was being so stubborn. But I was. And the fact that Bill and I really might have been tricked and really might be leading him into another predicament didn't make matters any better.
“Listen,” I said, reminding myself that it would be really childish to stamp my foot. “We're on the next Anubis flight out of here but you need to come with us so Simon can go arrange the flight. Unless you want to spend the day sleeping in a silver room.”
I regretted that patronizing little threat immediately. There was something feral and excited and almost panicked in Eric's eyes. I knew that look from the fairy war. He'd definitely been gearing up for a fight to the death.
“There are tactical advantages to this room,” He said finally.
I tried to look at a locked tower room, the surfaces of which were coated in silver, from Eric's always logical stance. There was only one entrance, so he couldn't really be surprised. And I guess if it came to a fight, the silver was just as dangerous to any other vampire and Eric was a pretty skilled fighter so he'd probably manage to use it to his advantage. And, about the whole tower thing, if he did get out of the room, it wouldn't be that hard for him to break through the wall. Then being on a tower would pretty much be 'game over' for any vamps picking a fight with him since he could fly and most of them could not.
So we basically had a badger in his den scenario.
Now how to get him out? All the silver was making me nervous. After the fairy war, I'd been pretty banged up for a while (obviously) but even through the cuts and bruises, I started noticing something pretty strange. My skin tended to sort of itch and tingle when I touched certain pieces of metal. Eric's assertion that we'd almost hit the point of no return with the blood exchanges suddenly became real when I realized I was developing a silver allergy.
The point being, if the silver room was making me nervous, Eric and Bill should be having conniptions.
“Eric, things here are not what they seem,” Bill said helpfully. “Sookie will explain later.”
Bill's attempt to reason with him didn't go any better than mine had.
How to get the badger out of his hole... I sighed, rolled my eyes, and tried to keep a smile off my face. There are two things in life sure to get Eric's attention. The second one is a good fight.
I put on my best frozen smile, turned back to Simon and Bill to indicate that, given a minute or two, I'd settle this.
Then I approached Eric very slowly, knowing he'd have a pretty good idea of what was on my mind due to our bond. He relaxed (a little) when we were toe to toe and I put my palm flat on his chest. “Eric,” I said very quietly through my smile. “I've spent a very long night trying to make sure we all get out of here in one piece. And we're going to. But if you don't take me back to my room and have your way with me at least three times before the sun comes up, I will leave you here to play dress up in Felipe's movie. Got it?”
He did.
##
An hour later, I was starting to suspect that Bill had paid Simon to give us the run around. I'd decided it was bad manners to ask my former lover to relocate so I'd have a private space to get it on with my current lover. I mean that's basically the definition of rude.
It quickly became apparent that light tight rooms were in short supply. The smiles of the staff members at the front desk of Sanguine were strained as they hastily clicked through databases and whispered slightly panicked suggestions to one another. The vibe in the lobby reminded me of a bride-to-be trying to do the seating arrangement for her reception in a way that will magically prevent murder amongst the in-laws.
I asked Simon if the hotel was always at full capacity like this and he said business was good. Of course, I could also hear loud and clear that it wasn't usually this good. “Alright, spill,” I said.
Simon gave me a smile that I knew all too well. I used it at Merlotte's to say, 'Thanks for being patient with me folks, your drink will just be a minute' or 'I'm just going to pretend that I don't know you're staring at me like that because you heard I'm crazy and involved with vampires.' What Simon said was, “We get a lot of human and supernatural guests here. Now that they're out, sometimes Shifters request the light tight rooms since there is added security on the light tight floors. Plus, the film crew brought some vampire consultants with them.”
“Simon,” I pressed. “Really, what's going on?”
And Simon, who knew I'd get it from him one way or another, cracked. Usually you adapt to a job and get better at it, he thought. But I think I come closer everyday to getting myself killed. “The attacks by the Sons and Sisters have gone on all night... and they've gotten more aggressive. Two vampires have been injured and there's a rumor that one's been killed.”
Simon and I exchanged looks that said it all, how strange it was to be facing a threat to instead of from vampires, how weird it was to have a small amount of immunity just because we happened to be human. Speaking of which... “What about humans?”
“The attackers seem to be making a point not to injure any human bystanders but I don't have any word on how many casualties they've had.” Simon was keeping his voice low and smiling for the benefit of the handful of guests checking in at the late hour. “This isn't the first time there's been, well, attacks by humans with unexplained abilities on vampires in Las Vegas. But it's never lasted this long or been so widespread. And, well, they seem to be getting more dangerous. Felipe's called the Nevada vampires in.”
“I require my possessions at once,” Eric said behind us. Eric had immediately demanded that I explain the terms of our release once outside his cell. He clearly didn't trust the situation but he also hadn't given me much grief. Eric wasn't the type to waste time on how things could have gone better, his M.O. was always to deal with the problem at hand. Since our problem, for the last hour, had been finding room at the inn (and he'd come to grips with the fact that I wasn't going to have sex with him in one of the tower lounges to pass the time even if they claimed to be “private”) he'd quickly gotten bored with all the clumsy human efforts and dropped into down time. But apparently Simon's assertion that Felipe had called in the troops had caught his attention.
I shook my head, trying to clear the fatigue and stress-induced fuzz that was wrapping my brain. It didn't help seeing Eric, who'd been playing statue, suddenly spring into action like a nightmare at Madam Tussauds. Simon sent a human lackey after Eric's cell phone and everything else that he'd had to hand over on becoming a “guest” of the King of Nevada but Eric took off anyway and I was left to smile back at Simon while he tried to finagle us a room. He tried a joke about Eric and Bill bunking together but it fell pretty flat.
Finally Simon worked some magic and I was showed to a new room on a light tight floor while Simon stayed at the front desk to put out a few more fires.
The new room was exactly like the old one which, in turn, was exactly like a nice hotel room without any windows. I put my carry-on in an unoccupied corner and sat down on the bed to think about how light in vampire hotels is weirdly uniform and how even though the lack of windows makes it impossible to tell what time of day or night it is, I was developing a pretty decent dawn instinct of my own. I guessed there was at least two more hours till dawn.
I thought about changing into pajamas but it seemed like an overly optimistic move. Even though everything seemed to be progressing toward a state of crisis, the sun would rise soon and put a damper on a good portion of the scheming and panicking. That's the thing about vampires, they can leap tall buildings and recover from speeding bullets but they just can't hack sleep deprivation. Who knows what I might need to do when the sun rose?
My body was just really settling into a nice post-adrenaline heaviness, warm and sleepy, when the locking mechanism on the door whirred to life and Eric stepped through. His presence made me even warmer and sleepier-- inconvenient since we needed to finish our scheming before the sun came up. “What did Pam have to say?” I asked. I'd figured out pretty quickly, when Eric had perked up at mention of Felipe's precautionary measures, that he wanted to know the state of things back in Louisiana. With Felipe, Victor, and Eric out of the state and the other sheriffs all new to their offices, Pam was pretty much responsible for all of Louisiana. At least as far as I could reason.
“There have been more attacks in Louisiana. Bill showed me streaming footage on the internet. It's more of the same, humans who are stronger than humans can be.” Eric's face didn't betray anything and even the bond was calm.
“What's Pam going to do until you get back?”
“She's ordered the Area Five vampires to go to ground. Sunrise is nearly upon them and it would unwise to confront the enemy until we know more.”
“Do you know more?” I asked.
Eric nodded and sat next to me on the bed. “Several news productions sent reporters to Fangtasia since it is a known vampire-owned establishment but hasn't been attacked. Pam went out to give them a statement to try to prevent the media from helping these skirmishes escalate to the point of a national vampire emergency. She was attacked on her way back to the employee entrance.”
“Oh no! Is she--?”
“She is fine,” Eric said as if there hadn't been any other possible outcome. “She did not kill the attacker because there were cameras present but she did taste her. She said she tasted vampire influence in the woman's blood but the taste was not right for one who has been drinking vampire blood. One of the injured Nevada vampires reported the same odd taste.”
I rubbed at my temples, trying to focus on all the little bits and pieces of information that were playing pinball inside my brain. “So that tells us...?” I was definitely at the 'sleep on it' stage. “Absolutely nothing?”
But there was more.
“You know prisoners were being held here.” Eric said. It was almost a question. I hadn't told him yet about the men from the anti-vampire gangs being held in the dungeon but apparently he'd found out.
I nodded.
“The King had their homes searched. The searchers found these in the refrigerators.” Eric held up a screw top container of clear plastic that was about the size of his hand. At first glance, the cylinder appeared to be full of ice chips and... “Worms?”
“Leeches.” Eric corrected.
And what I had assumed were ice chips was actually a clear gel (for keeping the leeches alive, I guess). “Ew. Why?”
Eric looked at the little leech farm almost thoughtfully. “I met a vampire called Du'an Kocic maybe a century ago, who was intensely interested in the practice of using leeches to draw off bad blood. He said that certain breeds of leeches seemed to be partial to vampire blood and if applied to a human who'd had vampire blood the leeches would diminish the effects of the blood. He claimed that he had prevented a human from turning by leeching the body while it was undergoing its three days of burial. The human died, of course. But the vampire-- he was well on his way to becoming a renouncer, it seemed-- hinted that he hoped to continue his studies and perhaps one day use leeching to reverse a vampire's turning.”
“Are you kidding me?” I was pretty fully awake now.
“No. I am not,” Eric replied, missing or ignoring the rhetorical nature of the question. “Shortly before beginning his experiments, Du'an turned Victor Madden.”
If I hadn't already been sitting on the bed, now would be the time for sitting down hard. I could practically feel my brain trying to form new synapses, trying to sort out the right connections. “So you think... Eric that's kind of big a leap, isn't it? To assume Du'an whathisname is involved.”
Eric just looked at me steadily, maybe watching to make sure I wasn't going to pass out from all the stress of the past few days or something. But I felt oddly calm. It occurred to me that someone should start marketing blood bonds as an alternative to Paxil. While our bond had a whole slew of problems of its own, currently it was just doing a pretty great job at reassuring me that everything was going to be alright.
“It was Victor who made the leap.”
Okay. Maybe that made the leap a little smaller consider the whole maker/child thing. “How does he know?”
Eric held up the leech farm again. “He tasted one.”
“Seriously?” I eyed Eric warily just in case he was having similar ideas. I remembered all too vividly what had happened the last time Eric decided to eat a leech.
But Eric just shrugged. “These attackers have proven to be quite dangerous to vampires here and in New Orleans who are under Victor's protection. Another vampire sampled a leech but was unable to discern any useful information. Victor thought he recognized the scent of the blood....”
“So he ate one.” Maybe my opinion of Victor was a little biased so maybe it was unfair that I was shocked over Victor taking a risk for the benefit of anyone besides Victor. But if ever there was something to make me go 'hmmm' this definitely qualified.
Then I remembered something. “Wait, didn't you say Du'an was a renouncer? Shouldn't he have met the sun already?” Obviously he hadn't since there was that whole deal with Emma about killing him.
“I would have assumed the vampire I met a hundred years ago would've engineered his final death by now, yes.” There's was an almost expectant look on Eric's face. I was busy enough thinking about what might change a renouncer's mind that I almost missed it.
“What?” I asked, making a face of my own. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I am waiting for you to use that obnoxious aphorism about assumptions and donkeys.” Eric answered, smirking.
It took me a second to sort out his attempt at vernacular then I broke into a grin. “Oh, what? 'When you assume it makes an ass out of you and me?'”
“That's it,” he confirmed. “And it is as trite and irritating as I feared.” He leaned forward and kissed me in a long, lingering kind of way that made it clear he had no intention of stopping there.
The night had been packed full of all kinds of adrenaline with nowhere to go. Humans are just not made to fear for our lives and then sit around dungeons discussing politics and history. Adrenaline is meant for fighting or fleeing. But it seems it can be diverted pretty easily to another activity that begins with 'f.'
“Eric,” I said a little breathlessly (tearing myself away from the full attention of his lips was no small feat). “As nice as this is, shouldn't we figure out what to do next, you know, before the sun comes up.”
Eric kissed me thoroughly, pulling my bottom lip between his teeth and grazing it with the tips of his fangs. I took that to mean 'no.' “Don't worry, lover,” he said finally. “I have a plan.”
My resolve cracked when his hands started stroking my ribs and circling upwards. My pent up adrenaline didn't much care if there was a plan or not. The thinking part of me just hoped that whatever his plan was, it extended at least slightly beyond getting me naked.
<
Next Chapter>>
Characters: Ensemble
Pairing: Sookie/Eric
Rating: R, adult themes
Summary: Would you eat from the tree and have your eyes opened or stay a happy child in the garden forever? Follows the events of Dead and Gone with answers and questions. Part 13, a creepy deal with a creep vampire and then some more creepiness to boot!
Spoilers: For all books up to Dead and Gone
Chapter 26
“What?” Bill and I were in chorus and it might have been funny if it wasn't so gosh darned serious.
“It is quite simple. I held Mr. Walker at his own request. The arrangement was mutually beneficial initially. He provided a valuable service and I provided a measure of security.”
“Security for whom?” Bill asked. He'd recovered pretty quickly from shock and awe. I was still working on it.
“Mr. Walker, of course. When he came to me with the arrangement, he expressed concern for the safety of his sister should she find him, as well as concerns over his own self control.”
“Why'd he go to you?” I asked a little rudely but I couldn't help it. There's was something creepy about Victor (not Andre level creepy, but still) and it was more pronounced when he was trying not to be creepy.
Victor waved a hand at the cell, summing up the chains and blow torches and cinderblock walls. See? Creepy. “I had the power to hold him and lacked the desire to kill him. You should thank me Miss Stackhouse. Eric Northman was also a perfectly viable option.”
Not quite, I thought ruefully. Adam probably thought twice about asking the Infernal Serpent to lock him in the basement.
I scooted away from Victor who was just a little too close for my comfort. “But everything you just said....”
“Tragic, yes, but what do you say? Ancient history.”
Well, Eric had said his bosses were forward thinkers. Maybe I should just start operating on the idea that Eric was always right. And possibly Satan.
I could see emotions rippling across Bill's face that was usually so tightly guarded. He probably wanted to say all the things I did right now. The difference was, Victor was kind of his boss. Sometimes it pays not to have a place in the pecking order. “Is the only reason I'm here really to play chauffeur to a dangerous, supernatural killer?”
Victor arched a a delicate brow. I wondered if he waxed. “I was under the impression that you came to defend your husband.”
Was Victor making a joke? “Oh come on! I bet even they know the trial is bogus,” I said, pointing at Thing One and Thing Two. I was simultaneously angry, ashamed for pointing, and proud of myself for using such a silly sounding word as 'bogus' correctly in a sentence.
“Sookie,” Bill warned.
Victor made an exaggerated show of being caught. “But she is correct Bill. Though I should warn you Miss Stackhouse, such little displays of bravado are not as endearing as they are on television. Were I someone else, I might be rather nonplussed at your hostility toward the agent of a King who holds you in such high regard.”
Nonplussed? Wow, scolded and then shown up in vocabulary. Victor had quite the way of telling the human her place. I had a lot more questions but-- “When are you letting Eric go?” That one wasn't going to wait.
“At the conclusion of the trial, of course.”
“But you just said--”
“Mr. Madden,” Bill interrupted calmly but just then I experienced another kind of an interruption. I hadn't put my mental shields back up since I was in a room of all vampires (unless you counted Simon who was half-asleep in the bathroom) and my vision suddenly went shimmery. I threw my hands up to rub at whatever had gotten in my eyes and realized too late that I was seeing the Walker returning.
Bill and Victor both turned at my sudden movement. “I take it my guest has come back” Victor said. “Miss Stackhouse, your talents are many. I find myself constantly charmed to have made your acquaintance.”
“Mr. Madden,” Bill repeated and I was glad. I didn't need to hear anymore about my charms. “You are asking a human woman, one who has been invaluable to His Majesty in the past, to involve herself in considerable danger. Isn't freeing Eric reasonable compensation?”
“Sookie, don't do this,” Jack said. But only I could hear him.
“She has also been very costly,” Victor said, smile never faltering. “Vampire lives have been lost defending hers.”
Clancy. I felt pretty bad about that.
“And she has saved vampire lives as well,” Bill argued staunchly.
That would be Felipe and that was definitely a point in my favor. I'd saved Bill and Eric a few times too, plus warned a whole bunch of vamps that the Pyramid of Gizeh was about to explode but that tended to get overlooked (except by the FBI, they'd noticed).
“I'm not going anywhere without him,” I said, in case anyone cared how I felt about it. Fat chance. I stood up and crossed my arms so I was looking down at Victor.
Across the cot, Jack was mirroring my position but giving me the stare down. “Sookie, this is the worst thing you could do.”
“You lied to me,” I told the Walker.
“I never did,” Jack said levelly, like he didn't care if I believed him or not.
“And what assurance would I have that you would deliver Mr. Walker to Emma Asli?” Victor asked like I hadn't just been talking to an invisible man.
“Make it an order,” I said. “Eric's always been loyal hasn't he?” It was true. Victor and Felipe had only been making up reasons not to trust Eric, he hadn't given them any. Unless you counted sneakily marrying me when they probably didn't want him to.
“He has,” Victor agreed. “Though I don't know that 'always' is an appropriate descriptor for a few months' service.” He nodded succinctly. “Done.”
“Done?” I needed some clarification here. “You're going to let Eric go, right now, and order us all to take Jack to his sister in Bon Temps.” I spoke very clearly and slowly, making sure there were no loopholes in the deal because it looked like I was being given what I wanted and ordered to go home. That was a little too good to be true. Scratch that, way too good.
“Yes,” Victor said.
“And drop the charges laid against Eric,” Bill added.
“Yeah, cool it with the trial,” I said. Good one, Bill.
“That will require some contract negotiations with the Discovery Channel,” Victor said and I was about to protest but then he added, “Which Simon will be happy to take care of, I'm sure.”
“So that's it?” My adrenaline level was starting to dip. My body really wanted to believe Victor because then maybe there'd be a little break from all the danger and it could sleep. I willed myself not to yawn. This was such an inappropriate time for yawning but think too hard about yawning and....
“The hour is quite late for all of us,” Victor said when I yawned so loudly that my jaw cracked. “Are we agreed then? I will arrange a flight to Louisiana for the two of you, Mr. Walker, and Mr. Northman and you will deliver Mr. Walker to Emma Asli and make certain that she holds to her bargain with me.”
“Which is to kill his maker,” Jack put in. “And return all the vampires she's taken.”
Okay, so maybe that was the catch. But there weren't exactly a lot of other options.
##
In the lobby of Sanguine Hotel and Casino Bill drew in a breath of fresh air even though he didn't need to. I knew exactly how he felt.
“Mr. Madden has asked me to take you to Mr. Northman and to arrange a flight to Shreveport for your party,” Simon said, back in tour guide mode. We'd been there when Victor had given him these instructions but Simon was working under several layers of glamor so I couldn't blame him for forgetting.
“And you'll be getting Mr. Northman another room,” I said.
“Of course,” Simon replied easily. “If his current room isn't suitable, we'll be happy to provide him with different accommodations.”
We boarded the elevator and I felt better and better the farther we got from Victor. He'd stayed behind to have a few words with Jack. As for the Walker, he'd returned to his body before we left the dungeon but hadn't exactly been talkative. If the two were talking now, I was pretty glad I wasn't there for it.
The elevator doors opened way sooner than I expected. In my head we were bound for one of the towers or at least for a residential floor. Instead we'd only gone a few floors up. Simon led us briskly down a hallway that was carpeted in a lush emerald green carpet and straight through a set of dark wood doors. “This is one of Sanguine's lesser ballrooms,” he said.
At least, it usually was. Now the place was crawling with men and woman loaded down with camera equipment. Huge lights sprouted from an array of poles like a bizarre lightbulb forrest. There was saw dust in the air from the newly made portions of the set that now took up most of the space in the ballroom. If I had to guess, I'd say I was looking at an Inquisition era court room.
Simon left us for a moment to talk to a woman who was off in one corner, pinning a hodgepodge of fabrics to a vampire who looked decidedly familiar but who was also decidedly not Eric.
“I guess they're going to have to find someone else to put on trial since they built this whole set and everything,” I said.
Bill shrugged. “Felipe was turned during the Inquisition, I'm sure they'll put it to use for other aspects of the documentary.”
“They should just film it in the dungeon,” I said. “It's pretty mush set up for an Inquisition.”
“Not enough space for the equipment,” Bill said.
Then Simon was back and I could see a few pictures I didn't care for in his head. “Why did the guards drag Eric out of here?” I asked, not at all in the mood to politely pretend I couldn't read his mind.
“It seems Mr. Northman became agitated about an hour ago during his fitting and the guards, as you said, escorted him out.” Simon shrugged. That really was all he knew. “Melinda was taking his measurements, she says she has no idea what happened. No one spoke to him and he'd seemed fine up until then.”
“Victor came into the basement an hour ago,” Bill said quietly. “Eric would have felt your anxiety.” I wondered how often Bill still felt my 'anxiety.'
“Blood bond,” I said. “Right.” And then to Simon, “So where is he now?”
“He's most likely been shown back to his room.”
Eric's room, it turned out, was in one of the towers-- at the top, if you can believe it. Sanguine had dungeons and tower cells.
While we were riding up once again in the elevator, I remembered the vamp who'd been getting fitted back in the ballroom. “Simon, that vampire that was with the wardrobe lady... he looked an awful lot like you.”
“That's my brother,” Simon said easily but his thoughts were more conflicted. His brother had been turned a few years ago it seemed as a reward for his services to Felipe De Castro. He and Simon were twins. “We won't look alike for too much longer though.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” Simon said, “I'm getting older and he's not.”
##
Eric's room was the only one on the floor. The elevator opened into a small vestibule. In that vestibule was one ordinary looking door and one extraordinarily large vampire. “James,” Simon said and nodded to the guard.
“Where is Caedmon?”
“Feeding,” the vamp guard replied in a voice like a cement mixer. “He sustained an injury while transporting the prisoner.” I smiled a little to myself. Eric wouldn't have taken being 'escorted out' very well at all.
On closer inspection, James was definitely a separate entity from the guards who'd come into the basement with Victor (he was also a little rough around the edges like he'd recently gotten a little too close and personal with a Viking) though no less imposing. They must just grow them like that in Nevada.
“Not a prisoner anymore, James,” Simon said.
And just like that, the vampire giant stepped aside. They are obedient, those vampires.
Simon keyed in another number sequence at the door and it opened with a whoosh. The room inside was fairly ordinary except that it was rounded at the back due to the shape of the tower. Oh, and the walls and the inside of the door appeared to be coated in silver. Deadly and expensive.
Eric was standing calmly in the center of the floor. I felt the familiar rush of contentment come over me and with it, something else: Eric was ready for a fight. “What are you doing here, lover?” He asked lightly, belying the tension I could feel over the bond.
“Oh, you know, rescuing you,” I replied just as lightly. “Sort of.”
Chapter 27
Vampires like to think of themselves as being more evolved than humans. And it's true that they're stronger and faster and some of them can fly. But when it comes to instincts, the whole 'fight or flight' thing, vamps are way more in touch with their animal sides. Like when I told him we were on the next flight out of Vegas, Eric Northman, Sheriff of Area Five, calm, collected, older than empires vampire did a pretty good imitation of a badger.
Not that I'd ever tell him that.
Living in Louisiana all my life, I'd never seen a badger except on Animal Planet. But once Bud Dearborn came into Merlotte's fresh from a visit with family out west. He said he'd gone hunting with his son-in-law and seen a badger take on two coyotes that were trying to block the badger from its den. In the end, the badger shuffled off home and the coyotes went away bleeding. The moral of the story: never try come between a badger and his hole.
Eric was incredibly reluctant to leave his room. And you haven't seen incredibly reluctant until you've seen Eric do incredibly reluctant.
“Come on, Eric,” I said for a second time when he ignored the first prompt.
He didn't say anything, just stood calmly, eyes searching both Bill and me for... injury? Some hint of betrayal?
I guess I shouldn't be surprised or annoyed since I hadn't exactly wanted to explain the circumstances of his release in front of Simon and the guard at the door. So for all he knew, Bill and I had been tricked and were about to lead him into a far worse predicament. So I shouldn't be annoyed that he was being so stubborn. But I was. And the fact that Bill and I really might have been tricked and really might be leading him into another predicament didn't make matters any better.
“Listen,” I said, reminding myself that it would be really childish to stamp my foot. “We're on the next Anubis flight out of here but you need to come with us so Simon can go arrange the flight. Unless you want to spend the day sleeping in a silver room.”
I regretted that patronizing little threat immediately. There was something feral and excited and almost panicked in Eric's eyes. I knew that look from the fairy war. He'd definitely been gearing up for a fight to the death.
“There are tactical advantages to this room,” He said finally.
I tried to look at a locked tower room, the surfaces of which were coated in silver, from Eric's always logical stance. There was only one entrance, so he couldn't really be surprised. And I guess if it came to a fight, the silver was just as dangerous to any other vampire and Eric was a pretty skilled fighter so he'd probably manage to use it to his advantage. And, about the whole tower thing, if he did get out of the room, it wouldn't be that hard for him to break through the wall. Then being on a tower would pretty much be 'game over' for any vamps picking a fight with him since he could fly and most of them could not.
So we basically had a badger in his den scenario.
Now how to get him out? All the silver was making me nervous. After the fairy war, I'd been pretty banged up for a while (obviously) but even through the cuts and bruises, I started noticing something pretty strange. My skin tended to sort of itch and tingle when I touched certain pieces of metal. Eric's assertion that we'd almost hit the point of no return with the blood exchanges suddenly became real when I realized I was developing a silver allergy.
The point being, if the silver room was making me nervous, Eric and Bill should be having conniptions.
“Eric, things here are not what they seem,” Bill said helpfully. “Sookie will explain later.”
Bill's attempt to reason with him didn't go any better than mine had.
How to get the badger out of his hole... I sighed, rolled my eyes, and tried to keep a smile off my face. There are two things in life sure to get Eric's attention. The second one is a good fight.
I put on my best frozen smile, turned back to Simon and Bill to indicate that, given a minute or two, I'd settle this.
Then I approached Eric very slowly, knowing he'd have a pretty good idea of what was on my mind due to our bond. He relaxed (a little) when we were toe to toe and I put my palm flat on his chest. “Eric,” I said very quietly through my smile. “I've spent a very long night trying to make sure we all get out of here in one piece. And we're going to. But if you don't take me back to my room and have your way with me at least three times before the sun comes up, I will leave you here to play dress up in Felipe's movie. Got it?”
He did.
##
An hour later, I was starting to suspect that Bill had paid Simon to give us the run around. I'd decided it was bad manners to ask my former lover to relocate so I'd have a private space to get it on with my current lover. I mean that's basically the definition of rude.
It quickly became apparent that light tight rooms were in short supply. The smiles of the staff members at the front desk of Sanguine were strained as they hastily clicked through databases and whispered slightly panicked suggestions to one another. The vibe in the lobby reminded me of a bride-to-be trying to do the seating arrangement for her reception in a way that will magically prevent murder amongst the in-laws.
I asked Simon if the hotel was always at full capacity like this and he said business was good. Of course, I could also hear loud and clear that it wasn't usually this good. “Alright, spill,” I said.
Simon gave me a smile that I knew all too well. I used it at Merlotte's to say, 'Thanks for being patient with me folks, your drink will just be a minute' or 'I'm just going to pretend that I don't know you're staring at me like that because you heard I'm crazy and involved with vampires.' What Simon said was, “We get a lot of human and supernatural guests here. Now that they're out, sometimes Shifters request the light tight rooms since there is added security on the light tight floors. Plus, the film crew brought some vampire consultants with them.”
“Simon,” I pressed. “Really, what's going on?”
And Simon, who knew I'd get it from him one way or another, cracked. Usually you adapt to a job and get better at it, he thought. But I think I come closer everyday to getting myself killed. “The attacks by the Sons and Sisters have gone on all night... and they've gotten more aggressive. Two vampires have been injured and there's a rumor that one's been killed.”
Simon and I exchanged looks that said it all, how strange it was to be facing a threat to instead of from vampires, how weird it was to have a small amount of immunity just because we happened to be human. Speaking of which... “What about humans?”
“The attackers seem to be making a point not to injure any human bystanders but I don't have any word on how many casualties they've had.” Simon was keeping his voice low and smiling for the benefit of the handful of guests checking in at the late hour. “This isn't the first time there's been, well, attacks by humans with unexplained abilities on vampires in Las Vegas. But it's never lasted this long or been so widespread. And, well, they seem to be getting more dangerous. Felipe's called the Nevada vampires in.”
“I require my possessions at once,” Eric said behind us. Eric had immediately demanded that I explain the terms of our release once outside his cell. He clearly didn't trust the situation but he also hadn't given me much grief. Eric wasn't the type to waste time on how things could have gone better, his M.O. was always to deal with the problem at hand. Since our problem, for the last hour, had been finding room at the inn (and he'd come to grips with the fact that I wasn't going to have sex with him in one of the tower lounges to pass the time even if they claimed to be “private”) he'd quickly gotten bored with all the clumsy human efforts and dropped into down time. But apparently Simon's assertion that Felipe had called in the troops had caught his attention.
I shook my head, trying to clear the fatigue and stress-induced fuzz that was wrapping my brain. It didn't help seeing Eric, who'd been playing statue, suddenly spring into action like a nightmare at Madam Tussauds. Simon sent a human lackey after Eric's cell phone and everything else that he'd had to hand over on becoming a “guest” of the King of Nevada but Eric took off anyway and I was left to smile back at Simon while he tried to finagle us a room. He tried a joke about Eric and Bill bunking together but it fell pretty flat.
Finally Simon worked some magic and I was showed to a new room on a light tight floor while Simon stayed at the front desk to put out a few more fires.
The new room was exactly like the old one which, in turn, was exactly like a nice hotel room without any windows. I put my carry-on in an unoccupied corner and sat down on the bed to think about how light in vampire hotels is weirdly uniform and how even though the lack of windows makes it impossible to tell what time of day or night it is, I was developing a pretty decent dawn instinct of my own. I guessed there was at least two more hours till dawn.
I thought about changing into pajamas but it seemed like an overly optimistic move. Even though everything seemed to be progressing toward a state of crisis, the sun would rise soon and put a damper on a good portion of the scheming and panicking. That's the thing about vampires, they can leap tall buildings and recover from speeding bullets but they just can't hack sleep deprivation. Who knows what I might need to do when the sun rose?
My body was just really settling into a nice post-adrenaline heaviness, warm and sleepy, when the locking mechanism on the door whirred to life and Eric stepped through. His presence made me even warmer and sleepier-- inconvenient since we needed to finish our scheming before the sun came up. “What did Pam have to say?” I asked. I'd figured out pretty quickly, when Eric had perked up at mention of Felipe's precautionary measures, that he wanted to know the state of things back in Louisiana. With Felipe, Victor, and Eric out of the state and the other sheriffs all new to their offices, Pam was pretty much responsible for all of Louisiana. At least as far as I could reason.
“There have been more attacks in Louisiana. Bill showed me streaming footage on the internet. It's more of the same, humans who are stronger than humans can be.” Eric's face didn't betray anything and even the bond was calm.
“What's Pam going to do until you get back?”
“She's ordered the Area Five vampires to go to ground. Sunrise is nearly upon them and it would unwise to confront the enemy until we know more.”
“Do you know more?” I asked.
Eric nodded and sat next to me on the bed. “Several news productions sent reporters to Fangtasia since it is a known vampire-owned establishment but hasn't been attacked. Pam went out to give them a statement to try to prevent the media from helping these skirmishes escalate to the point of a national vampire emergency. She was attacked on her way back to the employee entrance.”
“Oh no! Is she--?”
“She is fine,” Eric said as if there hadn't been any other possible outcome. “She did not kill the attacker because there were cameras present but she did taste her. She said she tasted vampire influence in the woman's blood but the taste was not right for one who has been drinking vampire blood. One of the injured Nevada vampires reported the same odd taste.”
I rubbed at my temples, trying to focus on all the little bits and pieces of information that were playing pinball inside my brain. “So that tells us...?” I was definitely at the 'sleep on it' stage. “Absolutely nothing?”
But there was more.
“You know prisoners were being held here.” Eric said. It was almost a question. I hadn't told him yet about the men from the anti-vampire gangs being held in the dungeon but apparently he'd found out.
I nodded.
“The King had their homes searched. The searchers found these in the refrigerators.” Eric held up a screw top container of clear plastic that was about the size of his hand. At first glance, the cylinder appeared to be full of ice chips and... “Worms?”
“Leeches.” Eric corrected.
And what I had assumed were ice chips was actually a clear gel (for keeping the leeches alive, I guess). “Ew. Why?”
Eric looked at the little leech farm almost thoughtfully. “I met a vampire called Du'an Kocic maybe a century ago, who was intensely interested in the practice of using leeches to draw off bad blood. He said that certain breeds of leeches seemed to be partial to vampire blood and if applied to a human who'd had vampire blood the leeches would diminish the effects of the blood. He claimed that he had prevented a human from turning by leeching the body while it was undergoing its three days of burial. The human died, of course. But the vampire-- he was well on his way to becoming a renouncer, it seemed-- hinted that he hoped to continue his studies and perhaps one day use leeching to reverse a vampire's turning.”
“Are you kidding me?” I was pretty fully awake now.
“No. I am not,” Eric replied, missing or ignoring the rhetorical nature of the question. “Shortly before beginning his experiments, Du'an turned Victor Madden.”
If I hadn't already been sitting on the bed, now would be the time for sitting down hard. I could practically feel my brain trying to form new synapses, trying to sort out the right connections. “So you think... Eric that's kind of big a leap, isn't it? To assume Du'an whathisname is involved.”
Eric just looked at me steadily, maybe watching to make sure I wasn't going to pass out from all the stress of the past few days or something. But I felt oddly calm. It occurred to me that someone should start marketing blood bonds as an alternative to Paxil. While our bond had a whole slew of problems of its own, currently it was just doing a pretty great job at reassuring me that everything was going to be alright.
“It was Victor who made the leap.”
Okay. Maybe that made the leap a little smaller consider the whole maker/child thing. “How does he know?”
Eric held up the leech farm again. “He tasted one.”
“Seriously?” I eyed Eric warily just in case he was having similar ideas. I remembered all too vividly what had happened the last time Eric decided to eat a leech.
But Eric just shrugged. “These attackers have proven to be quite dangerous to vampires here and in New Orleans who are under Victor's protection. Another vampire sampled a leech but was unable to discern any useful information. Victor thought he recognized the scent of the blood....”
“So he ate one.” Maybe my opinion of Victor was a little biased so maybe it was unfair that I was shocked over Victor taking a risk for the benefit of anyone besides Victor. But if ever there was something to make me go 'hmmm' this definitely qualified.
Then I remembered something. “Wait, didn't you say Du'an was a renouncer? Shouldn't he have met the sun already?” Obviously he hadn't since there was that whole deal with Emma about killing him.
“I would have assumed the vampire I met a hundred years ago would've engineered his final death by now, yes.” There's was an almost expectant look on Eric's face. I was busy enough thinking about what might change a renouncer's mind that I almost missed it.
“What?” I asked, making a face of my own. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I am waiting for you to use that obnoxious aphorism about assumptions and donkeys.” Eric answered, smirking.
It took me a second to sort out his attempt at vernacular then I broke into a grin. “Oh, what? 'When you assume it makes an ass out of you and me?'”
“That's it,” he confirmed. “And it is as trite and irritating as I feared.” He leaned forward and kissed me in a long, lingering kind of way that made it clear he had no intention of stopping there.
The night had been packed full of all kinds of adrenaline with nowhere to go. Humans are just not made to fear for our lives and then sit around dungeons discussing politics and history. Adrenaline is meant for fighting or fleeing. But it seems it can be diverted pretty easily to another activity that begins with 'f.'
“Eric,” I said a little breathlessly (tearing myself away from the full attention of his lips was no small feat). “As nice as this is, shouldn't we figure out what to do next, you know, before the sun comes up.”
Eric kissed me thoroughly, pulling my bottom lip between his teeth and grazing it with the tips of his fangs. I took that to mean 'no.' “Don't worry, lover,” he said finally. “I have a plan.”
My resolve cracked when his hands started stroking my ribs and circling upwards. My pent up adrenaline didn't much care if there was a plan or not. The thinking part of me just hoped that whatever his plan was, it extended at least slightly beyond getting me naked.
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