Chapter Two
"How do we stop him?" I asked.
"We don't. We are going to help him." Eric was serious.
"Come again? Shouldn't we be helping Felipe de Castro kill Victor, if that's what he's planning?"
"No. Do you remember our conversation about the North American clans?"
I nodded, "We're in Amun?"
"Yes, good. And Nevada is in Narayana. The strain of ruling in two divisions is taking its toll on Felipe, both financially and in terms of manpower. Victor sees this and has been quietly petitioning the Amun board to allow him a coup against Felipe to claim sovereignty over Louisiana and Arkansas. Once that happens, any promises made by Felipe are void."
Promises, like my protection for saving his life. "All the more reason to help Felipe instead of Victor, right?"
"No. Victor will succeed." Eric's blue eyes glinted and there was malice behind them. I was beginning to feel nauseated from the waves of hostility flowing through our bond. Eric moved closer and reigned in his rage.
"I don't understand."
"I know. And I cannot explain everything to you now. But I will, and soon. This much at least you need to know. We are siding with Victor until his ascension."
"Okay." So not okay. "What do we need to do?"
"There is someone we need you need to read. He is the human companion of a member of the board for Amun." Eric stood.
"What, now?"
"The sooner the better."
I didn't move. My head was swimming, and not in the good way it had been a few minutes ago.
"Sookie, Dearest One, you need to be strong. I know you can do this." He took my hands and pulled me to standing.
"Okay." Still not okay. "I need to read this guy. Then what?" Eric hadn't let go of my hand yet, which was good since I felt pretty sure I would just fall back down on the couch if he did.
"Just read him and tell us what he's thinking. We need to earn Victor's trust, or at least the illusion of it. This will be a good start. At the very least, he will understand your value."
It wasn't too long ago that Victor had sent his minions to kill me and Pam, so I suppose I could see Eric's point, even if I didn't like it. I nodded, "Okay."
"I have to warn you, it won't be pleasant." I'm never happy when I see Victor, nothing new there.
"Why not?" I really shouldn't have asked.
"Victor has been torturing the man for days to get the information he seeks."
Not okay. So not okay. Hyperventilating here, not in a good way. "Eric! I won't be a part of this. I won't be part of torturing someone!" I stumbled backwards, away from him. Was he really asking me to do this?
"I know, sweetheart, I know. That's why you have to come. You can get the information Victor needs in a more – humane – way." He stepped towards me wanting to comfort me, but I backed further away.
"Will they let him go? After I read him? Will they let him live?" Again, shouldn't have asked. I already knew the answer.
"No. I doubt he would want that at this stage anyway. But I promise his death will come quickly after we have the information we need." The concession was for my benefit. I could tell Eric didn't care about the man's fate. Vampires. I thought of Eric as different, though I'd seen this side of him many times before. I remembered my first flash of his thoughts, the first vampire I'd ever heard with my mind, and I recoiled.
Seriously, not okay here. I sat back, not realizing I had walked past the couch. Eric caught me before I hit the floor. Despite that I wanted to hate him right now, along with every other vampire I'd ever met, I needed him. I needed him to hold me and comfort me. So I let him. Then I heard him again. I heard that he didn't want to ask me to do this, that he knew what it would cost me especially since the Fae War. But he knew it was the best way to keep me safe. Eric always used the best means to achieve his goals, and right now, that goal was my safety. And the best means was taking me to see a man being tortured. There was no choice.
"Come," he said, half carrying me out of the house. He was holding me close to him and kissing every part of my head he could reach in this position. He was doing his best to comfort me and calm me down.
Eric opened the passenger door to his red Corvette and helped me in. He fastened the seat belt around me and kissed my forehead. We drove in silence most of the way with Eric holding my hand. He knew what this was going to cost me. He knew, but he still asked me to do it.
We stopped outside of an old warehouse in Shreveport. "We aren't going to Fangtasia?" I asked.
"No. This is Victor's base in Area 5. Though I've known about it for some time, he has only recently told me of it." He leaned over to kiss my cheek. "I would not allow torture in my bar." Eric had strict rules about Fangtasia. But then I about his words. Where would he allow torture? Thankfully I was smart enough not to ask that one out loud.
I heard the screams as soon as we entered the building, but they weren't out loud. I felt a fresh wave of nausea roll over me and I bent over. Eric wrapped his arms around me and tried to force his strength into me through our bond.
"Eric, I don't think I can."
I felt his resolve falter momentarily. He kissed the top of my head and pulled me up to standing. "Sookie, my love, you must. You … we do not have a choice." He walked me further into the building and the man's screams were louder in my mind. I tried to close myself off to him, but his pain was too much to be shut out completely. We stopped outside of the room where they held him. I was trembling.
Victor emerged looking arrogant and aroused. "Ah, Sookie. Always a pleasure." He inclined his head towards me and flashed a fangy smile. He was loving this and turned on by it and I hated him for it.
I took some comfort when I realized the hate and rage boiling inside me wasn't just my own. "Victor," Eric said, his voice even.
"Eric. Shall we show your wife, inside?" He was loving my anguish at being a part of this. I could tell from his leer that he wanted nothing more than to do that to me, as well. He was evil, pure evil. More than ever I wanted him to die. I tried to focus on that thought, focus on seeing Victor, headless. Victor with a stake through his chest. Victor in the sunlight.
"Soon," Eric whispered to me. Then we both looked at each other, shocked. He had – had he just read my mind? "Victor," Eric faced him standing slightly in front of me, "she doesn't need to be in the room to read him. Ask him what questions you need, and she will hear the answers from here."
"Very well," he replied, clearly disappointed that he wouldn't get to glimpse my reaction when I saw the state of the man. Victor withdrew back into the room and the man screamed in fear, though again, only in my mind.
"Sookie, dear, just try to listen to his answers." I closed my eyes, trying to shut him out. The pain was too much, too close. "Look at me," Eric said, gently. "Lover, look at me." Eric pulled a chair up behind me and knelt on the concrete floor at my feet. "Look at me."
I opened my eyes and stared into his, blue and glistening. I gripped his arms as they rested on my legs and he gripped mine in return.
"Just keep looking at me. Good girl. You can do this. You must." He was almost pleading with me.
I opened my mind to the man and listened . . .
"You did so well. I'm so proud of you, my lover, my love." Eric was walking me back to the car, practically carrying me. I was still in shocked silence. I had given Victor the information he needed. I told him who on the board was stalling his plans and why.
Once I had pulled the names from the man's head, Eric said something in some foreign language and everything went silent. I knew what he meant before, about the man not wanting to live after this. I could read it straight from the man's thoughts. He wanted to die. And he did.
Tonight was what I feared I would be forced to do if Naill hadn't bribed the government to stop pursing me. Tonight was what I feared when I first had to work for Eric. I couldn't do it again. I knew that. I would not be able to go through this again.
We were driving home by the time everything that had just happened hit me. I was in complete hysterics and Eric pulled off the road onto the gravel. He leaded over to comfort me and I hit him. I beat against him with everything I had an he let me. Blood streaked down his face, but not from my ineffective blows. Then I felt my body just collapse in the seat. He came closer and held me as best he could in the cramped sports car.
"Please," I said in barely a whisper. "Please, just take me home."
He released me slowly and we drove back in silence. He could feel my despair and pain through the bond, and I could feel his. I knew he was suffering for me, but it gave me no comfort. I just wanted away from them all right now, even Eric. Maybe especially Eric.
I got out as soon as he stopped in front of my house. I staggered, shaken, towards the back door. He came around to walk beside me, but I said "No."
"Sookie, you should not be alone right now. You need me to stay with you tonight." I could feel through the bond that he needed to stay with me, but I knew I needed him gone.
"No. Please, Eric, just go. I can't stand to be near any of you right now. Please go." I staggered into the kitchen and closed the door behind me. I went straight to my bed without bothering to undress. After about an hour I had cried everything out that I could for one evening. As I slowly drifted to sleep, I knew he was still there, standing outside. I knew my words had hurt him, but I had too much hurt of my own to care.
By the time I awoke the next day, it was well into the afternoon. I had gone to bed pretty early, all things considered, but I suppose listening to the inner terrors of a man being tortured to death calls for a few extra hours of sleep. I shuttered. I wasn't sure what to do with myself in the few hours I had before my shift at Merlotte's. I took my time showering but didn't want to get dressed. My bath robe was in the hamper so I put on the brown one that had been Bill's and then Eric's. I thought of Eric and hurt.
When he stayed here then with no memory of who he was, I felt I really knew him. He wasn't a vampire, he was a man, lost and alone. He wasn't scheming, vindictive or evil. He was beautiful, fun and caring. But I knew the real Eric wasn't like that, not all the time. I'd known him long enough now to have seen all of his sides, or so I thought. Was he just as capable as Victor of something so barbarous? So evil?
I lay on the bed, crying again. Apparently I hadn't gotten it all out last night. I felt someone climbing onto the bed with me, but I didn't start. Claude put his arm around me and held me. I felt my pain and doubt subsiding as he held me, not saying a word. Claude, the most vain, abrasive, self-involved person I knew, just held me for a long while.
Bill once told me that being near fairy blood helped him, when he was recovering from his injuries during the Fae War. I'd seen it in his complexion that it was true. Now I realized that it was true for me, too. It wasn't just having someone close, it was having Claude close. Since he wasn't the most compassionate person and not my obvious first choice for someone to comfort me, I knew the calm I was feeling from his presence was because he was a fairy. Whatever the reason, I was glad for it. After several long minutes, I stopped crying.
"The ice maker is broken," Claude said and left.
I smiled after him. Huh, so I was going to be able to smile again after all. Good to know.
Merlotte's had the usual crowd for a Sunday evening. Not too rowdy or demanding. It was just the distraction I needed to pass the time. Sam could sense something was wrong, but had the sense not to ask about it. I caught a glimpse of his thoughts later into the evening, and he was hoping my melancholy mood was because I'd broken up with Eric. I hadn't, had I? No, I just needed some space.
Bill came in, alone, around 10pm. I stopped dead when I saw him. He continued over to one of my open tables. He sensed my anxiety when I came over, and I flinched when he reached to touch my arm.
"Sookie, what's the matter?"
"Um, nothing. Sorry. What can I get for you?"
"Sookie . . ." His voice was full of concern.
"I just had a rough night last night, that's all."
He reached out again and I stepped back out of his reach. He gave me a look that was equally puzzled and concerned.
"True Blood," he said.
I walked off to the bar to get his blood and my breath. This wasn't Bill's fault. Even the fact that he was a vampire wasn't his fault. This really wasn't even Eric's fault, though it still felt a little like it was. This was Victor's fault. Victor, who needed more than ever to die.
I went back to Bill's table with his True Blood and an apology.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"No. Maybe. But not right now. Please don't take it personal, okay?"
"May I come see you this evening?"
"Sure." I thought about it, and realized I wanted to be able to talk about this with someone. I knew I wasn't ready to see Eric again yet, so Bill was the best choice. "Yes, Bill, that would be nice. I'm done in an hour."
When I arrived home, Bill was waiting on the porch. It was a nice evening, so I sat next to him on the porch swing.
"Something happened last night?" He asked, but it wasn't really a question.
"Yes."
We sat there for a while in silence. I had thought I wanted to talk about it, tell Bill what had happened. But just sitting next to him in silence was enough. When I began to feel better, I noticed his skin was pale again instead of a ghastly gray.
"You look good, Bill. I'm glad to see you're finally better. You are better, right?" Bill had suffered silver poisoning during the Fae War. He wasn't able to recover on his own until Judith Vardamon, his sister, in the vampire sense, came when I asked her. Her blood was able to heal his.
"Yes, thanks to you." He smiled.
"How's Judith?" I asked.
Bill told me how their reunion was going, and I tried hard to be happy for him. I knew there was no future for me and Bill anymore, I'd known that for a long time. Still, he was my first love in every sense, so I felt maybe it was natural for me to be jealous of anyone he was seeing. Even if I had summoned her here to save his life. But Bill deserved happiness and I didn't begrudge him that.
"Her companionship has also somewhat appeased my loneliness," he said turning to face me, "but I still long for the night when I share your bed again."
Really? I couldn't help but smile. "Bill, you know that's not gonna happen, right?"
"I love you, Sookie Stackhouse, and I always will. Nothing can change that."
"It's nice to hear, Bill, and I do care about you. But I love Eric. I want you to be happy, I truly do, but it won't be with me. Not like that. Not for us."
After a while, he stood to leave. "Perhaps," he said, leaning down to kiss my cheek as he walked to the porch steps, "but I will not give up trying." He vanished into the night.
I went inside and poured myself the last glass of lemonade before bed. I rinsed out the jug so I could make sweet tea in the morning, deciding I'd wait at least a week before making a new batch of lemonade. I went to bed half expecting Eric to show up, but he stayed away and I realized I was glad.