Chapter 4

The feisty waitress had stopped screaming as she managed to climb over the gate of Sookie's house. She had not even thought bout using the intercom at the gate, she was terrified of what was coming eventually behind her. Bloodied and bruised by her fall over the gate, Ginger had fallen out of her flip flops and was racing barefoot to the front door where the rand the bell and knocked on the door as fast and as hard as she possibly could.

"What the hell, Ginger!" Sookie exclaimed as soon as she had flung open the front door and saw the scatterbrained waitress looking pale. Pale and scared. Her annoyance fading, Sookie let the woman in who was now wringing her hands anxiously and it was clear she was wanting to say something but clearly having trouble as to how to begin. "Calm down Ginger, what is it?"

Ginger was pulling at her shoulder length dirty blonde hair, her eye make up smudged giving her the look of a raccoon. "He….it isn't him, do not, for heaven's sake do anything with him, go anywhere with him….in fact, get yourself and the kid out of here before-" she took a tissue from her pocket and wiped her eyes, taking somewhat more normal than usual before removing the tissue from her face. "It ain't our Viking, Sookie. I think he did something to the others and I don't even know it they are still alive or-" she was cut off by a sturdy hand on her shoulder, a hand that turned her to face the source.

"Now whatever would possess you to say such a thing, besides the fact you were drinking. Clearly. Maybe you should scoot off to bed, Ginger before you get yourself sick."

Ginger took enough steps backward for her to get right to Sookie's side, the little one in the adjacent room off the entry hall they were all standing in now could be seen playing, oblivious to the drama playing out. "Sookie, you and I are friends, right? As your friend, I beg you to listen to me. He ain't right, something is wrong and you of all people should be able to sense it."

"Ginger, how much have you had to drink tonight?" Sookie asked gently, trying to be patient with the woman but was eager to have her friends over this evening. But deep down, her instinct was telling her, urging her, to listen to what the woman was saying.

"You've a bond with him, right?" Ginger blurted out as she was being led away and towards the front door by the seemingly concerned Viking. But as their backs had turned, Sookie had closed her eyes, concentrating on the connection, the blood bond that she had with Eric and she felt him….the problem was, he wasn't in the room and yet, she felt he was, the last lingering remains of his blood still within the vampire she was gaping at. Her hands alit with her magic.

"Who the hell are you….." she asked as he shoved Ginger aside and started towards her. She stood her ground but couldn't; deny that seeing the demented, twisted look on the face of the vampire that looked so much like her own was certainly unsettling. She met the terrified eyes of Ginger, who nodded and made to silently escape, to find help or even see about the fates of Ginger and Pam. But instead, Ginger found herself grabbed by the throat and thrown into the floor, knocking her out cold, a ugly gash on the side of her head leaking blood slowly onto the carpeted floor. "I really didn't want to hurt anyone, you know. But they were obstacles that I truly needed to get rid of and I can not let the plans go awry. So. By now you have realized that I am not him. And that that idiotic waitress was right. We thought that by putting some of his blood within me it could mask the fact I wasn't him but clearly, that didn't last for long, if at all. But it doesn't matter now, does it? Because you are not only going to come with me willingly. With the kid in tow, but you will give the child to the man I have been working with and love happily ever after with yours truly. Living to do whatever I ask of you."

She kept her light around her left hand as she crept backwards, trying to get to her daughter. All it would take would be a instant and she and Aurora could be out of this house, safely away from whoever this was. Then she noted the way he pulled up his right sleeve, revealing the strange mark he bore. That he seemed unconcerned with her moving slowly closer to the child made her pause and sure enough, he touched the mark which started to change and glow moments before in the foyer, appeared a impeccably well dressed man who looked at her with amusement in his eyes and nodded at his accomplice.

"I was watching from the manor and was not surprised to receive your call." the man gestured to the tattoo on his right wrist that had stopped glowing and had reverted to being a mere black pentagram outline. She had seen the glow, the blood that had dripped from it when the vampire had touched his and she knew it was some kind of means of communication, a alert of sorts. To her horror, in a few moments, he had somehow gained the toddler, holding her gently in his arms and muttering a incantation, put the child to sleep. "Turn off that light, my dear. I have not, nor have I ever planned on harming you or the kid. What I want is her power. I need a newborn for this to work perfectly and you will soon forget your troubles. Your terrible losses of your daughter to me and your own murder of your own beloved. To say nothing of you going on with your life so blissfully unaware of the truth. With him."

There came a haunted look over her face as she reluctantly made her light go away, looking at her daughter in fear, in worry. "What are you saying? That I would kill him….that I would go with…..who are you two anyway?" she was flustered and wanted so badly to take her daughter from the arms of the man in the suit. But she sensed the power radiating through this man and knew it would be foolish to act. At least she could get the story straight. And so the man, introducing himself as Ezra, explained what he was planning, and where he had come up with the doppleganger.

"It took a lot of dark magic to make him look exactly like your Eric…unfortunately I couldn't duplicate the skill set. Mind you, he is not one to be trifled with." Ezra said as he walked to the living room and took one of the child's fleece blankets and wrapped it around the slumbering child. "Only weeks old and appears to be a two year old, remarkable. But where are my manners, let me introduce myself and my friend here. My name is Ezra and very soon it will be a name to fear. And this strapping figure with me is the

She said nothing but walked over to the vampire that looked so much like her own and yet, she saw he had put aside the masquerade of caring for them, that there was nothing but coldness to him, literally and figuratively. "Where is he? If you don't tell me I-" she was stopped by a pain in her back and turned to see the man, Ezra, had let loose one hand, careful of the child in his grasp, to cast a stinging hex of sorts at her. To distract her long enough for his accomplice to do that which would seal the fates of her and her family. And so her fate was sealed as the false Viking forced his lips upon hers and as she tried to fight him off, her light reappearing, ready to attack, it also faded again quickly, her fight draining from her body, her eyes and there came an almost dullness in her bright brown eyes, a sense of giving up. And it was by seeing that that Ezra clapped merrily.

"It worked….she is all ours….soon to be just yours, until that which needs to be done is done. Let's get out of here, shall we?"

Grinning at the prize that was now his, the doppelganger followed his companion from the house, and it was now only a matter of time before he was to be the last Viking standing.

To Be Continued