A/N: This is my 'big sis' Sheree's birthday and Christmas present. Hope you like it darling!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything True Blood. That belongs to HBO. And no matter how much my sis (and I) would like it, neither of us own Godric! :P
Fate's Cruelty
Dallas, Texas: Present Day
The yellow cab stopped outside the Carmilla Hotel. The cab driver, after his eyes had tightened at Sheree's choice of destination, had been silent the entire ride. But before the doorman could assist Sheree out of the cab he turned to face her and said in a hushed tones: "You're best being careful round these Vampires. Wouldn't want you to die on your first trip to Dallas, do we?"
Sheree blinked and scowled at the driver before getting out of the cab. Why do people automatically assume anyone who likes Vampires wants to or will die? Anyway it's not as if I haven't been around Vampires before. There are Vampires in Oz!
Sheree followed the bellboy up to her room and unpacked her suitcase. Fatigue pierced through her entire body, but she knew she would be unable to sleep with the stifling heat that clung to her body like a second skin. The ventilation in the room was good, but fresh air would relax her and help her sleep better; so she headed up to the roof and stood by the railings behind the stairs. The cold wind that blew cooled her body and also helped her body and mind to relax and unwind as she stared across the expansive area of buildings and random greenery.
At the sound of voices Sheree crept around the wall surrounding the stairs and saw a tall blonde fall to his knees at the feet of a shorter, dark-haired man. The first looked like a Viking, whilst the other, even in his white, clothes, had an air of Ancient Roman to him. As Sheree watched the smaller man placed a comforting hand on the blonde's head as a very good looking blonde woman appeared. The 'Viking' rose fluidly to his feet and after a glance behind at the dark-haired 'Roman' – standing on his own, in the middle of the helicopter pad, staring up at the sky – and a light, reassuring squeeze from the beautiful blonde woman; he left.
Sheree listened to the dark-haired man and the blonde woman talk. Tears pricked her eyes and she charged at this beautiful specimen of a man after hearing his plan for the coming dawn.
"You can't!" she screamed as he studied her.
"Corinna?" the dark-haired man's eyes widened as he recognised the woman in front of him.
"I'm Sheree, who's Corinna?"
"You are…or at least you were; a few centuries ago…"
"Tell me about it," commanded Sheree in a breathy voice.
"I can't. The sun will soon rise and my time on Earth will finally be over."
"Please."
He stared at Sheree's beautiful blue eyes and remembered the first time he saw them. He sighed and relented to her.
The door closed shut behind the blonde woman as the first rays of sun pierced over the buildings. At the bottom of the stairs he turned to the blonde woman.
"I know I have no right to ask this of you Miss Stackhouse, but could you go to Eric. He will need comforting."
"Of course Godric," smiled Sookie as she hurried down to Eric's room.
AMM*SR
"I was born Godfrey in Fthia, Thessaly. My mother and father died during my childhood and I have no recollection of them. There deaths left me as a slave to Bion. At the age of 21 I was given as a gift to Alexander, King of Brucheum, your uncle and guardian. He, in turn, passed me on to the High Priest Democritus. On my first day of hauling the jars of oil, incense and sacrifices into the Temple for Artemis, I saw you. You were on your knees, your head bowed and deep in prayer. You wore a simple deep blue robe and had a white shawl draped over your head. A few locks of hair hung forward and hid your face from view. I stood, between the stone columns, staring at your beauty…"
Brucheum, Alexandria: 150B.C.
"O what soft pleasure granted by the heavens is before me? Her beauty consumes that of the sun, the moon and the stars together. She is a precious gift from the Goddess of Love Aphrodite. She can be no mere mortal; her beauty is too great! It equals Aphrodite's own allure."
The slave blinked as the beauty before him arose. In the sacrificial fire her face glowed. Her slight-olive skin was perfection of the greatest the gods could ever create. Dark thick lashes framed the most beautiful blue eyes the slave had ever chanced upon. He unconsciously drew closer to her; almost as if a magnetic force was reeling him into her entire being. His eyes roamed over her form. Silently, he had reached her side. She only became aware of his presence when he used his thumb to wipe away the single tear that had escaped from the corner of her eye and shone as she stared into the orangey-red depths of the fire. The maiden's eyes widened suddenly, but an unusual calmness exuded over her body under the slave's touch and her shocked look turned into a quizzical smile. A soft angelic voice fled from her plump lips.
"Thank you."
"Godfrey, you lazy shit! Why are there still jars of oil sitting out in the entrance?" called Ares; a young soldier who was devoted to the gods.
Godfrey jumped away from the maiden and fell into a bow, crouched on the floor, just as Ares reached them. The maiden's eyes were startled as she took in Godfrey's form.
"Good for nothing slave!" said Ares as soon as he saw Godfrey on the floor. He did not see the maiden standing close by.
"Ares, I doubt that is language fit to be spoken in such a religious setting as we are currently in. Especially when this is a Temple for one of our most revered gods," said the maiden sharply.
"My Princess, forgive me. I did not see you," said Ares pompously.
Godfrey raised his head a little and flicked his gaze to the beautiful maiden. From his position on the ground he could now see the golden cuffs on her wrists with Alexander's insignia on it. Downcast, he turned back to the floor as the Princess slowly departed.
AMM*SR
Another slave of the Temple, Leonidas, offered Godfrey a place to stay. His house was modest. It had a main room which was used for eating, cooking, cleaning and sitting. There were two rooms off from the main room: one was where Leonidas' daughters slept, whilst he used the other one. It would be the latter that Godfrey would share.
Leonidas had three daughters: Thais, Agape and Xanthe. Thais was married and lived her husband and their two boys in a richer part of the town. Agape had a position within the King's household; she served on the Princess Corinna and was one of her closest confidantes. On that day she hurried home and arrived shortly after Xanthe had returned from the marketplace. While they prepared the night's meal they spoke conspiratorially about Corinna's demeanour after her morning prayers.
"She had a warm blush upon her cheek and was extremely and almost unnaturally silent. Every now and again she traced the skin at the corner of her eyes with a ghostly whisper of her fingertips."
"Did you find why?"
"Of course," she smiled slyly. "She met a man at the Temple."
"For the love of Zeus!"
"That's not the worst of it: he's a…slave!"
"May the gods save her," uttered Xanthe.
"Her look would suggest Fate works against her. She asked me to inquire after him -" Agape trailed off as Godfrey entered the room, making his presence in the house known.
The three fell silent. The sisters gaped at Godfrey, while he looked at Agape with great interest. Leonidas entered the house and saw them gathered. He smiled lovingly at his daughters.
"Agape; Xanthe, allow me to introduce Godfrey son of from Thessaly. He will be staying with us. I'm going for a walk before dinner. Godfrey, would you like to come along?"
"I'm rather exhausted. If you don't mind I'd prefer to stay here and rest some."
"Don't mind at all."
"Father, might I accompany you?" asked Xanthe.
Father and daughter exited the home leaving Godfrey and Agape alone. Godfrey knelt beside her. He stared at the floor as he spoke.
"Please…tell me of your mistress," he said in a low voice thick with emotion.
Agape talked whilst she cooked the food and they also arranged for Godfrey and Corinna to have some time alone in one of the storage chambers in the Temple. Godfrey found it difficult to sleep that night; anticipation warmed his entire body.
AMM*SR
At his lunch hour, Godfrey snuck into the storage chamber. In the depths a cloaked figure stepped out of the shadows. She slowly removed her hood and Godfrey automatically bowed. She raised a hand to signal him to stop.
"Please can we just be Godfrey and Corinna?" she asked quietly.
"I would like that. But we cannot escape our positions assigned to us by the gods."
"No we cannot. We also cannot escape Fate bringing us together as it has."
Godfrey smiled. "You have a point…Corinna."
Sitting on two crates they talked a bit. Or more Godfrey answered the questions Corinna put to him.
"Its going to be busy around here this week with the Festival," Godfrey sighed in annoyance. More work! That's all he needed.
Suddenly Corinna's eyes brimmed full of tears. Pain shone through her and burned into Godfrey's soul.
"No beauty such as yourself should be wrought with so much pain. Please, Corinna, tell me what is wrong?"
Corinna took a deep breath to calm her sobbing. She was about to answer when the High Priest's voice resounded through the Temple, calling to Godfrey.
"You must go," she said as she rose and crept out of the room through the hidden doorway.
AMM*SR
After returning from seeing Godfrey, Corinna had locked herself in her room until her tears had stemmed. The dull, empty-like throbbing in her chest persistently pounded through her chest. It was still there; as it had been since she was six. It had not failed her notice that the pain disappeared completely when she was around Godfrey. He cured her of her loneliness.
She realised, though, that it was unhealthy to remain in your room and so opted for privacy in her garden. As she sat on the stone wall around the fountain she allowed her fingers to trail gently through the water. She did not see Godfrey approach, but her body reacted to his close proximity. She calmed and the pain in her chest eased. She only realised he was there when his hand clasped hers under the water.
"Corinna, please will you tell me what I did wrong or what I said to hurt you?"
"It was not you. The Festival is on the anniversary of my father, mother, brother and sister's death. They were killed in our home, yet I was left alive."
"When was this?"
"Fifteen years ago. And I am still upset by it. My uncle knows this and still he wants and expects me to attend the festival and put a smile on my face. He said I must be there on pain of death and I am forbidden from grieving."
"May Zeus' thunderbolt strike him down!" cursed Godfrey.
Corinna leaned in and kissed him gently. Godfrey softly wiped away the last traces of her tears. He leaned close to kiss her again, his hand caressing her cheek, when a noise came from inside. With a whispered goodbye, Corinna ushered Godfrey out of the garden for fear he would be caught and sentenced to death. Godfrey walked back to the house, dazed. But before he reached Leonidas' home he met a woman at the crossroads.
Her jet black hair paled her white skin even more. She wore a long crimson robe that had a slit on both sides, showing her pale, toned legs up to mid-thigh. The light breeze flickered her hair into an even wilder state than it already was. Her nostrils flared as Godfrey came to a stop to take her in. her hands reflexively clawed and in the blink of an eye she stood in front of Godfrey. Her eyes were chestnut brown and looked hazy with lust. Her strong fingers grasped Godfrey's shoulders as she pulled him to her. Godfrey gasped and began struggling when her canines became elongated and extremely sharp; but her grasp on him held and never faltered. Her mouth descended upon his neck and her fangs sank into the supple flesh of his throat. Godfrey tried to struggle, but she continued drinking. Once he was almost drained she dragged his body over to a hole she had dug at the crossroads. She slit her own wrist and forced Godfrey to drink some of her blood. Then she placed him in the hole, covered it up and left.
Dallas, Texas: Present Day
"As you can guess the woman was a Vampire and my Maker. Three nights passed and then she came back to help me out of the ground. She told me about Vampires and that I was one now.
"Then the night of the Festival arrived. My Maker brought me to it and brought me a human who had been entranced. She then left me to my own devices and that's when I saw a glimpse of you. I watched as you ate nothing but steadily drank more and more. You were very merry and my new heightened sense of smell informed me there were copious amounts of alcohol in your blood. Upon seeing me Agape left your side. She scolded me for not being there for you. After she had sad her piece we noticed you had vanished," relayed Godric to Sheree.
"I was able to follow your scent and tracked you to outside Leonidas' house. I timidly approached you, but found myself clinging back when you pulled me into an embrace. It was nice and I knew my feelings for you would never change," he said as a bleakness appeared in his eyes as the ending drew nigh.
"What happened?" croaked Sheree.
"In your drunken state you must have fallen over. You had a graze on your arm and I caught a whiff of blood and…reacted," said Godric hauntingly.
"So you bit me?" asked Sheree with nonchalance.
"Yes," sobbed Godric. "And I drank your blood. It poured into me from the bite. It was like nothing I'd ever tasted. I felt the blood working its way through my body and liking how it warmed me. It wasn't until it was too late that I registered you weren't struggling. Then I heard your pulse fade away completely. Something thick trickled down my cheek. When I reached up and looked at it I knew I was a monster and nothing would change that. I had killed the only woman I had ever cared about and sobbed blood-tears by her body. I couldn't bear to be near your lifeless body and so I fled."
Sheree reached out and took Godric's hand comforting him, while trying to stifle a yawn.
"You're not a monster," she murmured as she wrapped her arms around him.
He buried his face into her shoulder, hiding the pink-tinged eyes.
"Its late in the day," commented Godric.
"Lets sleep," suggested Sheree.
Godric helped her into her bed and held her until he felt her drift into a deep sleep. A few moments later though Sheree sat bolt upright with the feeling something wasn't right. She called out to Godric but upon receiving no answer, fear curdled in her stomach. She raced out of the room and up on to the roof. The door banged shut with a deafening thud.
Sheree stood stock still as blue flames burst across Godric's body. He glanced back at Sheree and smiled a mixture of bittersweet and peacefulness. Sheree understood. He regretted how he lived and this was his only option. But there was also the regret of leaving Sheree behind, alone. The letter he left for Eric would ensure Sheree would never be alone again, but he still regretted not being able to be the one who would save her from the loneliness as he had done before. Sheree watched as the flames flared around his body, tears streamed down her cheeks.
Finally the flames caused his body to combust. All that was left were miniscule ash particles that fled into the wind and were carried away. Her lips trembled and she shut her eyes against the scene. With a whispered "Goodbye, my love" she turned back to the stairs leading into the hotel, leaving her past behind her.
A/N: I hope you liked this. Its my first attempt at writing a TB fic that Eric plays a very minor part in. Its also the first fic I've written where Godric is the main character. Please click the green button below to R&R. Anonymous reviews are welcomed too.
~Anna-Margaret
xx