Chapter 2
5. Louisiana
Molly slowly counted to 1-2-3 when the cameras appeared on Cassandra's screen. She then quickly disconnected them. That should be enough. She couldn't risk more with so many vampires in the house who had nothing better to do than to watch each other.
"Sorry," she typed in the chat window, "I accidentally connected you to the surveillance cameras."
"I noticed" Cassie replied, and Molly felt much relieved. She might've been going out on a whim here, but she had the feeling that Cassie didn't only mean the cameras in general. A several millennia old vampire was surely quick enough to see all that those videos showed.
"A glitch?"
Molly pondered on her reply a bit. Cassie needed to know the seriousness of the situation (and she was sure it wasn't just her mind playing). Salome and Nora had been visiting the vault for quite some time now and Molly noticed how much they've changed.
"We've had some of those recently" she typed in finally. She was a supervisor in security, she knew when to be suspicious. For now, there was nothing else she could do. The balls were in Cassie's court now. But Molly was optimistic: Cassandra had a history of winning the games in the end.
6. Canada
John woke up with a pain in his back and a loud banging in his head. He moaned as he sat up on the bench of Cassandra's kitchen. In a large house like this, they should have a much comfier seating, he thought. His head was spinning. Maybe he had drunk too much this time. But even the usually scornful Eileen gave him at least two cans of beer, so he mustn't have been that bad, now had he? He stood up slowly, keeping a tight grip on the table to help him balance. Nah, he didn't overdo it, he was quite alright, he thought. But he needed coffee, lots of strong coffee, and soon. Like now. Looking around, he noticed the fancy coffee-maker, its aluminium parts sparking an invitation at him. Why not, John thought, let's try it.
"Yay!" he said a little too loud for his headache when he found the machine was already prepared. He pushed the big, red switch and fell onto the closest chair. Mornings were too exhausting.
When he finished his coffee, he felt much more confident to keep his eyes open.
"Where's everyone?" he thought, the smell of the coffee should've woken up the whole house. Maybe not the blood-sucker, he added with a scorn. He was debating whether to leave or wait for others when he noticed the envelope on the table. It was addressed to Eileen and Robert but it wasn't closed. Well, it wasn't closed completely, he thought, so same difference.
Opening the envelope, he found it filled with American dollars.
"Typical" he murmured. The bitch didn't realize they were in Canada. Still, it was a lot of money, he thought. There was a short letter as well, saying that Cassandra left and didn't know when she'd be back but she appreciated all their services so she was leaving them a bit of a bonus. John made a quick decision: he took the bulk of the money, closed the envelope with the rest and left the house .
7. Louisiana
Pam had a fucking bad day. Again. Eric still kept his grudge with her because she wanted to save his ass by blowing up the house of the witch that was on to kill all vampires in the areas. And why the huff? Because the precious little whitetrash of a pussy was in there, too. That Sookie Stackhouse brought them nothing but bad luck.
She shifted in his armchair that overlooked the whole bar. Fangtasia was buzzing with its usual crowd: vampires, curious little humans, fangers and fangbangers. This whole voluntary business of exchanging blood (and other bloody fluids) made her sick. But it'd made them excellent money, she shouldn't complain. Who would've thought that after all these years she'd end up being in a brothel again.
When the tall, brown-headed woman entered, Pam noticed the difference immediately: she had an ancient air around her that made all the vampires in the place keep their distance even though she wore a friendly smile as she walked to the bar. She sat down so gracefully that Pam almost could see an army of servants around her, who no question, helped her with every single movement during her early days.
The little princess ordered a drink before she looked around, taking the whole scene in. She watched the woman carefully. She didn't drink her True Blood. Pam was sure she didn't come here for a pull or a suck. It was time to take things into her hands.
"What do you want?" she asked the visitor, appearing by her side. The woman took her in in a split-second, Pam noticed, and felt her tension increase. She knew the type and she fucking had enough of sissies like this looking down at her!
"Straight to the point" the woman remarked with a warm smile. Her sparkling blue eyes shone at her with curiosity instead of condemn. "You must be Pam. I'm Cassandra, an old friend of Godric's."
She offered her hand and Pam reluctantly shook it. What to make of this?
"Are you still Eric's only progeny?" Cassandra asked.
"None of your business" Pam barked back, even though it felt good to be known as the only vampire Eric Northman had ever made. Cassandra hid a smile.
"Is he around? I need to speak to him" she replied with a smile. "It's of personal matter."
Pam honestly had enough of women appearing at her bar, wanting to speak to Eric "of personal matters". As if she didn't know what it meant.
"He's busy at the moment" she said, and decided to walk away.
"When does this bar close?" Cassandra added before she had time to leave her.
"Why?" Pam became suspicious.
"I was thinking we all could have a little chat. You could all come around, I'm renting this house just a couple miles south."
She handed her a card with the address on it.
"It's a lovely, quiet place and we could talk there in private, away from this chaos" she said, dismissing the clamour of the bar with a graceful gesture.
"Are you from the Authority?" Pam asked curiously.
"Oh, no, not at all" the woman said laughing. "Please, make Eric come with you, will you?"
Pam watched the woman walking out of the bar, her elegance as out of place as it could be, and played with the card absentmindedly. Cassandra was definitely interesting, and both her and Eric could use a night away from the bar. But what the heck did she want?
8.
Cassandra didn't like straight True Blood. Even warmed up it felt too raw, too artificial. But with the appropriate spices it was an interesting dish, one that was worth to experiment with, and oh, did she like experimenting with her food! Mixing, adding and even creating flavours was so much better than biting into a dirty skin. Drinking the same human blood decades after decades quickly made her bored and killing was as easy as it was pulling out of the wings of a fly. It never was such a passionate, crazy hobby for her as it'd been for her maker and her brothers. She was born an aristocrat and she stayed one throughout the centuries.
Her guests might have dined differently but in Cassandra's house meals were sophisticated and prepared creatively. The dining table wasn't a prop, and her dishes were never served raw. Or alive, as even some of the other royals allowed. He had of centuries of practice to be a snob, and she never felt ashamed of it.
The best luxury she had was the only vampire wine in the world and she kept the recipe a well-guarded secret. A bottle was already by the fireplace, waiting for her guests. She needed their help after all, so some pampering would be in due course, and this wine was perfect for that. Only her vampire servants were left around for the dinner – she knew Eric was a "mainstreamer" as they called it nowadays, but Pamela looked too raw and Cassandra didn't want to test those vampire instincts too much.
Her guests kept her waiting longer than she'd expected. Cassandra was reading Shelley's Frankenstein in her favourite armchair but didn't pay complete attention. But when she saw Eric, her little annoyance disappeared. He looked worse than she'd ever seen him and in an obvious need for a good time. Cassandra greeted both him and Pamela with a warm hug. She pricked her ears for a moment but obviously Godric was not coming tonight.
"Good to see you, please sit down!" she said, showing them to the comfortable sofa by the fire. She sat back to the armchair she'd been reading in.
"Your bar seems very popular" she told them, carefully addressing both her guests.
"It's pathetic, isn't it?" Eric answered as Pamela placed herself into the position of an observer. Cassandra laughed.
"Darling, I remember your days at Whilton's, don't forget!"
Eric's genuine smile made her content; this was what she wanted to achieve with her guests: relaxing.
"I was the pathetic then, wasn't I?" Eric said jokingly. "Though you weren't better either! Remember the poor little man you kept bothering with recipes and the sources of different spices and whatnot!"
"Joe Diego? Of course I remember! He was a genius, Eric, a natural genius!" Cassandra said and turned to Pamela. "I'm kind of a spice-snob, you'll see!" she explained it to the quiet woman.
"I hope you learnt to limit the number of dishes after all these years!" Eric said "She used to have these dinners with like a thousand bowls, all blood with one spice or the other and would feel offended if you didn't try them all!" he explained to Pamela.
"Do you think that's why people stopped coming?" Cassandra asked good-heartedly.
"I think it had a lot to do with you living in the middle of nowhere up north!" Eric replied. "Do you still have that palace of yours in Canada?"
The dinner went on in good humour and it was good to pick up where they left off with Eric. Cassandra noticed that even Pamela had one or two genuine laughs during the dinner which must've been an achievement in her world.
When they were back in the living room, Cassandra poured them wine.
"The infamous Casso, is it?" Eric asked and Cassandra smiled. The name was Eric's invention.
Pamela looked at her glass hesitantly but when she had her first gulp she looked at Cassandra surprised.
"What is this?" she asked. Cassandra shook her head.
"I'm sorry but it's a trade secret!" she said and they all took time to sip the spicy liquid.
"You must really want something from us" Eric joked. Cassandra put her glass down and looked deep into Eric's eyes.
"I do, Eric. I need an enormous favour, and I know you won't want to do it at first. But hear me out."
Eric nodded and Pamela looked nervous again.
"I talked to Salome today and I really think Roman's in danger. I need to go the headquarters."
"Since when are you guys talking again?" Eric asked thoughtfully.
"We're not. Roman's still not forgiven me. That's why I need to go there personally and see it with my own eyes" Cassandra explained.
"How do you think we can help? I don't have any good side with them, Cassie."
Cassandra took a deep breath.
"I know you don't. But Godric does."
Eric stood up and Pamela put her glass down, sitting up tensely.
"He's dead" Eric said quietly, his back towards the room. Cassandra walked up to him and put her hand on his shoulder gently.
"He's dead to the world, I get that. And I respect that, Eric, I really do. But I need him. Please, ask him to come out of his hiding for me. He has his ways with Roman and all the others respect him…"
Eric shook her hand off his shoulder and turned to face her. His face was conjured in pain and his eyes full of bloodtears.
"Don't you think I need him, too? Don't you think I'm lost without Godric's guidance? But he's gone, Cassie, he's gone. He's not 'dead to world' as you say, he's met the True Death!"
Cassandra slowly sat down to the coffeetable.
"But… No. I talked to him after the explosion, Eric, he was alive!"
Eric turned back to the fire. The heavy silence was broken by Pamela.
"He didn't die in the explosion as the official record says. He walked in the Sun."
Cassandra looked at her in horror. She understood what it meant. Godric wasn't in hiding like she'd thought. He chose his death. He didn't want to live any more. He was gone and she didn't even know. He never said good-bye, he never even told her he was so unhappy. One of her best friends left without a word, without an explanation, without a sign. It was infuriating to feel that powerless.
