I really just don't know what possesses me to start things like this when I haven't even updated any of my other stories… well tell a lie, my Digimon has been so but I doubt you lot are interested in that.
What you will be happy to know is that 'The book never mentioned this' will finally be getting its twentieth chapter tomorrow (Yay) so hopefully that will make up for my abysmal absence these past few weeks/months.
But yes, this new story. I happened across that was roles reversed and for the life of me I could just not get it out of my head… so new story time! It's also a little AU, with some creative differences made clear in the story, I hope that won't put you off to much.
I hope you all like it. Happy reading!
I don't own True blood.
London, 1826
Pamela ólzen slowly turned the corner and resumed her stroll down the street as she continued on with her moonlit walk through the city of London. Having arrived in Kent a few weeks ago, the blonde had taken up residence with an elderly couple who she had glamoured into letting her stay in their basement.
Reginald Brookes and his wife Margery was a delightful pair, so full of stories and laughter even at their age. The scant few time she had forgone sleep if for an hour or so, she would hear them speak and she was able to hear the adoration in each of their voices, the love they held for each other.
On the rare occasions that she woke and was about to leave, she would often catch him shuffling about in the kitchen, making a cup of hot cocoa or tea for his wife when her arthritis kept her awake at night. She would sit with him and listen to his tales on how they met, how they married and the life they built with each other.
She would hear about their kids and grandkids, how they sometimes visited, the look on his face spoke of just how much they both lived for those visits, the joy in his eyes and the way he spoke so fondly told her that he was a man who loved his family so very much.
It was those times that she looked back over the course of her life, both of them – one having been literally a lifetime ago and the distant memories that would come when she sat with him and pictured her own family. They too had been a close knit family and her childhood had been a happy one.
Living by the sea she often went out in her father's boat as he hunted for their dinner, how she sat with her mother and helped to mend frayed patchwork. Well she tried, not that she could claim to have been any good at it and a few times had actually destroyed the material more than repaired it.
All in all they had been a peaceful family, one that lived just on the outskirts of the settlements. Not for having done wrong and so was made to live there, but so they could raise their animals and enjoy the scenery more as opposed to living in close quarters with other families.
The whole settlement in fact was like an extended family to her and as much as hearing him speak of his family and the good memories it brought to her, it had also brought back the longing and regret at what had happened, the pain and anger she felt at seeing her beloved family taken from her, and her own demise in the forest.
She sat in silence, a mixture of fondness and melancholy often stirring inside her cold soul. Normally she would have gotten rid of anything that reminded her of her home, the past opening up and causing her pain was not something she found pleasant and so by now, would have snapped his neck or simply drained both him and Margery dry.
But she saw that neither was long for the world much longer. The aches and pains that ailed his wife would only get worse in the coming months, when the cold set it and with heating hard in such times it would only be time before she fell to its icy grip.
She suspected that when she did, he too wouldn't last. She likened him to a swan, one who would flounder when his mate left his side and without the love that had kept him going, would wither and follow her into an ever sweet and eternal slumber.
Another reason as to why she had kept them alive was because they made her think. She often looked at them and wondered, not for the first time, just how she would have looked had she been allowed the chance to grow old. How her face would have aged and creased with lines and wrinkles that told of a life well lived.
If like the pair she resided with, would have been a life full of laughter and love, perhaps with children of her own and grandchildren that followed as they grew and went out to find lives of their own, not that she liked kids. It wasn't so much that she abhorred them, it was just that she wasn't in any way a maternal being.
But as it was life back then wasn't about choice, it was about necessity and procreating was a natural part of that, it was the key to their survival after all and so if she had gotten married then it would have been certain that children was her future.
She didn't know though, maybe she would have grown to love them as they would have been hers after all, that was what she had heard from people before, how those who hated kids only felt that way because they simply didn't have any of their own.
She found herself vehemently disagreeing with that sentiment. She was positive that even with having kids of her own they would only serve to remind her of a life that had been chosen for her and of constraints, a chain that stopped her having any freedom and she was all but certain that she would have resented them for it.
Not that it would have been their fault but as she just wasn't a child person then any hopes of her growing to love them was slim to none. So was glad that the chance to have them had been taken from her early on, any she might have had would have only suffered emotional neglect from her lack of love.
She also needed to get finances in order, a new country meant new opportunities, but it also meant starting from scratch, something that she did hate with a passion. Having accumulated a lot in her extraordinarily long life, her monetary assets were something only a banker could dream in his sleep and kill to have in his vaults.
But seeing as this was an entirely new country to her, all her current money was still in mainland Europe, and until she found a way to get it over here then she was stuck in Kent where she had departed the ship that sailed from France.
Until she could properly pay her way she would have to rely on glamouring. Something her Maker had often chided her about but seeing as he wasn't here he had no say in the matter, so it by a stroke of luck that Edward, one of Reginald's sons, had come to visit. Well naturally he would have been suspicious from the start seeing an unknown woman sitting with his elderly parents and so it was with a bit of a reluctance that she once more glamoured them.
Too much and it would screw their minds permanently but it had to be done and so when he did arrive, she was naught but the next door neighbour who had come round to see if they needed anything and just happened to catch him by on his day as well.
As the norm when they did get acquainted when Reginald introduced them, he was charmed. But as a gentleman brought up by the humble older man, he was courteous and charming even with his thrall laced introduction.
They all sat in the living room and talked. Countless centuries had afforded her the skills that no vampire around her could achieve and so rather than give in to her bloodlust and drain them all like another would have done, she was able to hold a conversation with the warm-blooded and much alive people around her without so much as a fang dropping.
By the end of the night she had successfully won him over, so much so that he even extended an invitation to the local playhouse with him and his wife. Despite her many friends there could never be too many he joked to her and so deciding that it would at least be a break from the monotony of walking around, she accepted.
So that was how she found herself sitting in the second row watching something called the 'Death and the maiden' over the years she had cultivated a taste for the arts, moving around she had witnessed many an era rise and fall, she had been there when the age of Viking's had died and Christianity took over. She had seen what the religion brought and what it inspired and what it had destroyed. The countless books, arts buildings and plays all in the name of the one god.
She had never been a big believer in gods. Not even her own though her family prayed to them on most days to bless their fortunes. But it wasn't the gods that had killed her family that day, it had been an enemy settlement that had come to plunder, pillage and slaughter… her Mother and Father was just in the way.
The gods did nothing to help though they had spent all their lives worshipping them, she knew on that day as she watched the colony burn, she knew that too hold stock in such abstract deities was useless and so vowed to never again believe.
So when her homeland was taken by the wave of this religion that had swept the entirety of Europe thanks to the Emperor Constantinople, she knew it was time to leave and so made her way inwards to Russia and from there down the Baltic regions, adopting each of their customs in order to fit in, though she was never seen preferring to hide within the shadows.
One of the good things she could say about herself was the fact that not a lot of people knew who she was, humans more so but vampires as well. She had kept to herself and it was only when she had been with her Maker that she had any form of company at all, she liked being alone.
The solitude gave her time to think and to contemplate, the endless wandering brought forth a loneliness that she filled with her thoughts and that suited her just fine. She also used her infinite time to immerse herself in the ever changing cultures around her, learning and moving – those two things, always the same.
She imagined that it would be the same with this country, it might have been new and so would hold her interest for a while, but nothing that would keep her here indefinitely as she sat back with her new found and dispensable friends as they observed yet another play brought forth by the danse macabre, an era she found particularly enjoyable.
It was also there she found herself mingling with some of the upper class of society, the bankers, the solicitors, doctors and other wealthy businessmen who ventured to the theatre. Her outstanding beauty and gracious charm immediately endearing her to the male population even if they did hold themselves with better grace then most she had come by in the past.
Though her height and her accent did startle some, nevertheless she soon found herself the highlight of the 'after party,' if one could call it that as she spoke of her life before making the trip to England. Soon she made enough connections that everything that had been an obstacle to her before, was no longer an issue now.
Making friends with the banker soon saw her money that had been tied up in places dotted along the eastern parts of Europe brought together in the Swizz bank, before being wired directly to the bank he was the manager branch of. She was so happy at his quick work that she even added an extra five percent on to his international transactions fee. Something she could have avoided altogether with one trick of the mind, but she was an honest vampire, her ideals had never changed and before she had, her family had taught her the values of being a hard -working, honest being.
So she was adamant to pay her way, hence why she didn't bat an eyelid at the amount he took when she signed the form, the extra five percent was sort of a bonus commission and something he was extremely happy about that he didn't even question about the home visit or why it was so late on at night.
Now with her substantial fortune at her will, she knew it was time to move on. So making plans she didn't bother with goodbyes, having never done so in the past as she knew this would be the last time she saw any of them again, sentimentality had no part in her life.
But she did leave Reginald and Margery with enough to money to last them well until next winter. She didn't know what it was about them that brought a small sliver of warmth to her long cold psyche, there had been countless others before them and not once had she done something so generous for those who fleetingly came by her way.
Perhaps it was how they looked at each other with such love and affection, perhaps it was the way they carried on the day despite the lack of vital necessities any human would need and still had a smile on their faces, or maybe it was how they shared their lives with her, even if it had been for a brief moment to her, but she had seen.
Seen just how deeply their emotions went how dear they held each other to their hearts and in turn invited her into a lifetime of joy, sadness, happiness and love that had lasted up until their near end. For those few weeks she was with them, they had made her feel.
Something like that had warmed her even if it had come and gone just as quick. Something like that couldn't fade from the world just yet and though they had lived a long life of happiness together, she felt the need to want it to keep going, it was maddening but at the same time made her smile.
So before she did leave she left them with money to pay for the warmth their house lacked and for the doctor to make visits to check on their health, she had also left instruction for the medicine to be bought and made sure these were met with no argument and then once that had been sorted, faded into the darkness and departed their lives.
It would be a good ten years before she returned to England.
Having seen what the new country had to offer, she allowed herself the rare indulgence as she drained yet another rapist she had been following for the past few nights. She wasn't sure why she went after those of the lowest calibre, there after all had been counts, dukes, princes and kings that she had dined with and on.
Their blood was glorious, though the taint of familiarity ran though their blood; the amount of inbreeding rampant with royals and nobles it was still a delicacy nonetheless. But she guessed that even with their fucked up ways of living, they would be missed, the man now hanging dead in her arms had set his sights on a ten year old child.
He would not.
So having spent a few years moving up the country until she reached Scotland, and with it the North Sea, the pain that lingered in her body thrummed madly as she stared at the crashing waves and looked to the distance where her homeland lay, she decided that her time here was up.
So making her way back down to London, it was there she boarded a ship heading for America. Having heard people talk about the place during her times in the pubs and taverns as she hunted her next meal. At the time it hadn't bothered her as she was eyeing up a well-known wife beater and so didn't give the story a second thought, but now though it had her curiosity peaked and so it was another two and a half weeks before she returned to the capital.
It was hard for any vampire to travel and even more so when it came to bodies of water, she cursed the fact that this voyage would take her across the Atlantic and began plotting as to how she could go about staying away from the sun as she sent one of the local paper boys to purchase a ticket for the journey.
So by the time she boarded the Etna, the year was 1836, she had spent a total of ten years in England and as she gazed out over the waters one night staring at the tranquillity under the moon she had to wonder just what she had spent those years doing.
Eventually she returned to the hulls of the ship where she had been staying, along with the rats and surprisingly a cat, who she named Thomas. The black and white moggy often kept her company, though at first knew there was something about her and like most animals wouldn't dare put a paw in her direction. But as the days went on and he realized that she wasn't going anywhere or hadn't attacked him like the predator he knew she was, he got brave enough to move closer.
Close enough in fact that he actually curled up and slept by her during the day, when she glamoured everyone not to enter a certain part of the ship where she slept and joined her at night as she observed him chasing the terrified rats who would scurry away from them both.
As a human she had adored cats, had three of them in fact and loved them with all her heart, nowadays they tended to hiss at her or try attacking her whenever she was near one, with the exception Thomas of course which was what endeared him more to her as they spent their time in each-others company.
She relished him so much that she wondered if he might come with her once their voyage was over, or would he stay on the ship when it made its return journey? She wasn't sure if having a pet was the right thing seeing as she would be on the constant move, but wasn't that just like a cat?
Did they not roam from one place to another, never settling and only doing so if the incentives were right. In a way she fancied them like kin for he too had no family, just himself and wherever the road took him. Scratching behind his ears they walked about on deck as the cold air hit them as she brought his furry body closer to her chest, and smiling at the low purrs leaving him.
She did so hope he allowed her to take him with her,
At long last the ship finally made land and as much as she tried to coax him into leaving, getting as far as taking him off the ship, he glanced round the masses of people waiting to see the large vessel come into port and leapt from her arms before racing back up the stairwell and vanishing into the sea of legs, presumably back to his hideaway deep below the decks.
She watched him go with a sadness that she had only ever felt a few times over the years, the last being the elderly couple from Kent whom she knew must have passed on and so found it ironic really that she loathed people on a whole when they were living, but found them so much more interesting when they were dead as she silently wished him a good life chasing the rats before leaving and carrying onwards.
If she was to travel then it was alone.
Standing under what she had come to learn was 'Lady Liberty' she mused on just what this new country was going to bring. From what she had gathered it was a far bigger place then England had been and was cautious about what lay ahead.
She wasn't fearful as she doubted there was a vampire around that could beat her age, but it was surely to bring a change to her monotonous way of living that had suited her for over nine hundred and fifty years. She wasn't as stupid as to think any new place wouldn't bring about some change or another, but she liked order.
As a child her Mother often joked that she was far too meticulous, choosing to sort out her toys and put them in order than play with the other children, as she grew that didn't fade and now as a creature with unlimited years on the horizon, she could never remove that trait even if she lived until the second coming of Jesus himself.
So on arriving in a place known as the land of opportunities, she knew she would have been a fool not to take it up on what it offered, but as she picked up her singular travel bag and turned from the glittering lights of the port and into the darkness, she could only hope that this wasn't the place that would be the end of her perfectly structured and most importantly, solitary lifestyle.
She didn't know how wrong she was.