Godric's Propensity - Chapter 4

"Sheriff", Godric looked up from his book and saw Isabel smiling from the door of his library, "New vampires in town have come to check in."

He nodded and placed a slip of paper to note the page and closed his book, he'd taken to reading into the many volumes of Descartes' publications. He'd agreed with most of his work, disagreed mildly with some. He wished the poor bastard was still alive so he could pick into his mind about his thought process. Godric wondered belatedly, why no one thought to change the man into a vampire. He was brilliant and too far ahead of his time.

Godric followed Isabel out to the living room, where he took his supposed chieftain's seat by the fireplace and observed the new vampires. Two newly turned vampires, babies. They looked young in their human years too, one male, the other female. He frowned inwardly, and gestured for them to approach. They did so apprehensively.

"Welcome to my nest. I hope you find Dallas well?", he asked politely and they nodded, still quiet. He was pleasantly surprised at their present docile demeanour. Baby vampires tend to be wild and off the hook.

"How long ago have you both been turned?" he looked from one youth to the other.

"Sixty years", "Twenty", were their replies. Godric nodded thoughtfully, "Who are your makers?" he ventured the question.

"Matt Wellington, sir.", the male replied while the female chose to remain silent.

"Are you siblings then?" he looked to the female and she nodded. "And where would your maker currently reside at?"

He had not heard of a Matt Wellington before.

"He is in New York, sheriff. He'd sent us here and said he would follow up shortly in a few months with our new born sibling." the male elaborated. Godric's face now slipped into his infamous impassiveness as he contemplated on this piece of information. He eyed the two vampire siblings neutrally.

"And how long does your family intend to stay within my area?"

"Maker says he intends for us to sink our roots here, if he finds the environment suitable", the female piped up, her voice light and lilting.

"Very well. Has Isabel given you the briefing and guidelines to follow while you reside within my jurisdiction?" He asked lightly, new vampires were always welcomed into the community, and he could always do with more placid, friendly vampires. They shook their heads in negative and he nodded once, his gaze moving to look at Isabel who nodded at him.

"Isabel will assist you in finding proper accommodations for you both. In the meantime, you may wish to reside within my nest for a few days. Do make it a point not to feed on unwilling humans while remaining within the area. Punishment is most severe for that. Also, I do not condone the feeding on minors. I would prefer if the peace between our community and the humans to remain undisrupted." He looked back at the pair pointedly, letting a fraction of his authority seep as he regarded the pair. Best to prevent than to fight it.

The siblings nodded quietly and murmured their thanks at his welcome before following Isabel to the other side of the living room. He wondered briefly at their upbringing. They were an intriguing pair. Perhaps he would study them in more detail when Isabel decides to have another one of those nest parties.

Godric stood up from his seat, and made his way into the kitchen to warm up a Tru Blood for himself. He watched from a sidelong glance from the kitchen entrance that the two baby vampires were animately asking Isabel questions, and she was answering their curiosity sincerely and patiently. Much older vampires would only take a few minutes but he supposed being babies, they were much more inexperienced. It was a welcome change to the nest to have inquisitive minds.


`
It had been a little over two weeks since Godric had last met with Briony. Circumstances occurred such that they did not have the opportunity to meet each other. He'd made it a point to constantly watch over her and study her life on some nights. The nights he had little work, she was so busy that she all but crashed into bed the moment she'd gotten home. Many nights he'd watched her from outside her bedroom window as she slept through her exhaustion. He tried waking her up, tapping at her window, even so much as to sneak in and poke at her shoulder once. She slept like the dead, and he would have been more worried at her lack of consciousness, if not for the fact that her heart still beat steadily.

He'd been genuinely surprised that finally, there was someone who was busier than he was. He recalled the evening when he'd showed up at her apartment unannounced, not believing that this tiny slip of a female human, barely a fraction of his long old existence had more things to do than his never ending sheriff duties. She'd answered the door, dark eye circles around her eyes, hair pulled back into a messy bun, grumbling about flimsy plywood and styrofoam as she led him into her office and promptly ignored his presence and went back to her woodcrafter's desk, trying to piece together a rather intricate piece of artwork together. By the time she looked up from her table, he'd been drawn a chair up to her desk, staring intently at her concentration and being thoroughly amused by her. He had, however, noticed she was increasingly fatigued and exhausted, and was beginning to talk to herself while she worked. He wasn't too sure what to do for her, having no sense at human nutrition, to ease the fatigue.

Although it was thoroughly fascinating, he worried for a moment if her brilliance had been touched by insanity. 'It would seem quite likely, these genius minds tend to fray too soon.', he mused as he thought back on all the geniuses he'd come across during his stay in Europe back in the late 1800's and early 1900's. It had been booming with creative minds that ventured beyond their years. He wondered briefly if it was due to the water. Or the air. Or maybe the quality of their food. He remembered that the blood of humans tasted supple and robust during that time.

He decided to go into the city again tonight, just to check in on her for a while tonight, and took off in the direction of her apartment, floating just outside her unit, and saw that she was looking at the family portraits on the wall in her living room, muttering to herself. The only light was from the moon shining into her apartment through the windows. He blinked at the sight. 'Has she truly lost her mind?'

Floating closer to the living room window, he then smelled rather than noticed, her salty tears, her lips trembling minutely, speaking to herself quietly.

"...shouldn't have left.. we were supposed to be together.." She shook her head sadly, her eyes trained on the picture in the left side of the frame. The one with her dead parents. "... so lonely... why didn't you take me with you, papa?"

Godric looked on for a minute, floating mid-air, his face impassive and arms crossed over each other, as if he were trying to study an intricate piece of art work on display in a gallery. He tilted his head in observation, much like how he had the night he saw her attackers attempting to rape her. 'Is she upset over her parents deaths? Did she not say she had looked past it and moved on? What has caused this sadness? Humans do like to swing from one emotional spectrum to the next and back...'

He wondered if he should just tap on the glass pane. He could see she was upset, but he wasn't sure how to process that information as he shifted his weight from one heel to the other still roughly ten stories above ground, as if his current float-and-watch night time musing was a normal thing to do. He hadn't realised humans would freak out at the sight of a floating vampire, standing mid-air outside an apartment complex. Until someone from the block across the road shouted over at him.

"What the fuck! Vamp! Oi, vampire in the air!"

Godric turned to face the human male shouting at him. He floated a few feet over to the male who shrunk back into his window.

"What the fuck are you doing floating in the air? You're not spying on a girl while she's showering, are you?" the human frowned at him. It seemed Briony lived in a vampire-friendly estate, her neighbours certainly didn't take it too hard with vampires from the way he was being addressed right now. He shook his head and watched the human male close his window, but not before a warning that he would call the police if he tried anything indecent with another human.

Godric smirked in amusement, 'Who are the police going to tell on then? I'm the vampire sheriff...'

He turned his attention back into Briony's apartment and tapped on her window pane, causing her to stare at him wide eyed for a moment before letting out a surprised scream. He floated away from the window so she could see that it was only him and watched as she hurried over to open the window for him.

"Are you mad, Godric?" she finally managed to squeak out at him as he dropped his feet onto her floor, grinning at her.

"No. I do like flying. I mean, who wouldn't if they had such a handy ability, no?" He truly did enjoy flying, and when he'd learnt that it was a hereditary trait, and that both his progenies and their progenies could take to flight, he'd been most smug about it.

He watched as Briony shuddered from the evening chill, shaking her head at him. He shut the window tight.

"I don't know whether to freak out at you, or appreciate at your eternal boyishness.", he let his grin spread wider over his face and she chuckled, her earlier sadness temporarily forgotten at his arrival, "What brings you here tonight, dear wise friend?"

"Just paying you a visit, little one." he replied as he took a seat in the armchair. He quite like sitting in her living room. "Do you not miss me?" He let on a mocking pout and she laughed harder at his attempt.

"Briony, it has been over two weeks since we last talked, and even that last time, you seemed to me rather maddening while you worked on your art project." he continued dismissively, but concern flashed over his eyes as he regarded the young woman. She looked thinner, and paler than two weeks ago. Her cheeks streaked from dried tears.

"What's going on, little one? Come, sit with me." he implored her, moving over to where she was seated, taking her small hand in his. They were close acquaintances by now, and while he couldn't feel everything she felt the way one would through a blood bond, he'd been studying her behaviours so much that he could read the emotions on her face quite well now. It had been a successful study, he was now able to tell apart a human's micro expressions quite well, he'd tried testing his observations with his day man and day maids. They were mildly amused by his attempts, but were surprised when he was successful and told him so. He only hoped they were being honest about it. Briony mentioned that he should try watching this TV series called 'Lie to me', it was filled with the study and application of micro expressions. She commented that it was rather informational for about four episodes, but after that it was mostly repetitive. He'd watched it on a few evenings, and found it intriguing. The humans truly knew how to entertain themselves.

Godric studied Briony's sad eyes and lightly squeezed the hand clasped within his own. "It's my parents death anniversaries today. I'd forgotten about it. I shouldn't have, but I did. And then, I started thinking about that night. It was awful. I couldn't stop myself from remembering everything from that night. I want to be with them even now. They left me. I don't want to be here."

She sobbed broken heartedly and Godric patted her back gently. He was a little alarmed at her words. 'What did she mean that she wanted to be with them even now? Is she depressed now?'

His back patting didn't seem to ease her crying, so he tried rubbing her back in a circular motion. He was alarmed when she sobbed even harder, but kept at it for a few minutes, remembering that she'd cried a lot that night he brought her back home from the hospital. Her sobs quietened after a long while, but her tears did not stop.

He petted her head, and she hiccuped noisily. For an instant, he felt her little noises were a little endearing and smiled inwardly at it. She used her long shirt sleeves to wipe at her cheeks and eyes, finally done with her crying and sniffled quietly, taking a deep breath and expelling it quickly, her habit at releasing her stresses.

Godric knelt down to look up at her, knowing she wouldn't want to move to look at him, and sent her a tentative but warm smile, "Feeling better, little one?" she nodded woodenly back at him. "Do you wish to speak about it?" she stared back at him blankly, unwilling to respond. For a moment, her lack of emotion eerily reminded him of himself.

"Perhaps you need a hot bath or shower..." She let him lead her to her bathroom, and watched as he filled her bath tub with warm water. Somehow, he managed to find a bottle of bath bubbles and had added in a few drops. The bathtub was filled with vanilla-scented foam bubbles within minutes. He inhaled the familiar scent. No, his sense didn't take to that warm scent the way it used to. He noted secondarily that his senses tingled as it gleaned Briony's scent given their proximity to each other. His desire flared lightly.

"Can you handle undressing yourself?", he asked gently and watch in amusement as she blushed lightly and nodded, allowing her to push him out of the bathroom. He warned her that he would be waiting in the living room but he'll come barging in if she wasn't done in an hour.

He knocked on the bathroom door exactly one hour later, and asked if all was well inside and heard her call out that she'll be done soon, the water sloshing around as she moved to get out of the tub.

Godric was reading the same book on Descrates that he'd taken from her bookcase in the office and was lounging with his legs stretched out over the length of the couch when she came strolling out of the kitchen with a cup of tea in one hand, a Tru Blood in the other. Although he didn't need to feed on one, he accepted the bottle nonetheless. He would indulge her tonight and watched in interest as she poked at his foot to make space for her to sit on the other end of the couch. It was a comfortable silence as he continued reading and she'd turned on the TV to flip though the channels in a lazy fashion. He would occasionally sneak a peek at her from whenever he looked up from the book, and she would sigh ever so often.

He gave up pretending to read after twenty minutes and put the book down on the coffee table, and scooted over to her side, forcing her to give him her full attention.

"Stop sighing, child. It is unbecoming of you."

"I'm sad for tonight, old man. Don't stop me from my one annual night of depression." she grumbled half heartedly as she felt his cool arm wrap around her shoulders.

"I understand that, but I think you're wasting a perfectly good night sighing away like an old woman." He took hold of her chin and turned it towards him, "You are a brave child, one who works harder than I have on some occasions, and honestly your brilliant mind intrigues me more than I've had known before. Your parents would be ever so pleased and extremely proud of what you have become. Please," his eyes searching hers, "Talk to me."

She stared into his eyes, and for a moment, he felt as though she was staring into his deep dark soul, if he had a soul.

"Is that your attempt at telling me you're bored?"

"Well...", he smirked, tapping her nose lightly, "now that you put it that way, I suppose I am."

He chuckled when she growled lightly in return, and let her go, but she leaned into his shoulder and he felt a little cheered at her need to be close to him.

"What does that tattoo below your collarbone stand for? Is it possible for vampires to get tattoos?" Briony curiously asked, as her fingertips brushed along the exposed part of his tattoo. He fought the urge to shudder from her touch and took to petting her hair.

"It was meant for protection. I was to be a fisherman, before they decided to make me warrior in my tribe. We were to go to war with the Romans. Vampires can't get tattoos. The skin heals too quickly, the ink does not sit in well. This was done before I was turned.." his mind wondered to the times when he was inked and branded. They were painful processes. The tattoos, he was proud of. They were a part of the time he spent as a boy in his tribe.

"How many do you have?"

"Four", he replied nonchalantly, "and a brand mark"

She sat up and looked at him, "Brand mark? You mean, someone took a red hot poker to your flesh?"

He blanched at her bluntness and nodded twice, she grimaced as well and laid her head back onto his shoulder. "That's cruel. Sorry you had to go through that."

Godric blinked, "Why would you apologise for that?"

"No one should have to go through such atrocity. I guess I felt compelled to tell you how sorry I feel about it." she explained quietly, breathing in his scent. It was a very comforting scent, she'd just realised. She felt safe just inhaling it. She suppose she shouldn't be feeling that way, but Godric has been nothing but kind towards her. Even Aunt Sandra had been pleasantly surprised when she told her how much of a caring person he'd turned out to be.

"Thank you, little one. That was very kind of you to say that."

She smiled warmly at his reply, finally feeling calmed down from the night's tumultuous emotions and sighed deeply again. Godric had somehow picked up the book he'd been reading earlier and was now flipping through the pages again, picking up from where he'd left off just now as he absent mindedly rubbed circles with his thumb on her the side of her arm where his arm was wrapped around. The repetitive action lulling her to sleep.

He heard Briony's breaths slow into her slumber and let her sleep on his shoulder while he read. He had a few more hours into the night, and he could spare some hours of her quiet companionship while he read, even if she was snoring lightly against his chest. He didn't need to breathe, but ever since he found he quite enjoyed her scent, he had been greedily inhaling and exhaling regularly to take in her scent. It was as close an encounter as he could get with the young human and he will take what he can.


`
For once, he had truly lost track of time. Godric was too engrossed in the book he had been reading, and was content with a sleeping Briony next to him, that by the time he was aware that dawn was fast approaching, he realised he didn't have enough time to get back to the nest. It was extremely rare for him to be this comfortable outside of his home.

He was worried he wouldn't be able to find a suitable resting place for the day. He had to wake Briony up. Now. He jostled her shoulders and she woke, a little sluggishly for a moment before blinking and was wide awake in an instant. If he had more time on his hands, he would've been a little more amused.

"Briony, I'm afraid I have lost track of time. I fear I do not have enough time to get back to my nest for the day." He told her hurriedly as he stood up to pace, staring at the dark sky beyond the window.

"Oh. Um...", she tried thinking quickly. He could see the gears in her mind cranking up.

"Come with me. I think I might have a solution for you.", he paused in his step and turned to look at her as she stood up. His eyes wide in surprise. 'A solution?' he followed behind her closely as she led them through the storage room next to the kitchen and pulled at a heavy vault door.

"Why do you have a vault door in your apartment?" he blinked back at her and watched her shrug as she flipped a light switch, the tungsten flickering to life. He was surprised to see that there was a small cot at the end of the tiny room, as well as two plastic containers filled with emergency supplies a human would require, and at least a dozen huge bottles of water.

"This is the bomb shelter. For emergencies. Light tight, has a separate air supply that is filtered. Just don't turn the ventilation switch off if you.. oh right, you don't need to breathe." she mumbled drowsily, noting her mistake belatedly. He smiled kindly in return. This room would be perfect.

"Briony, you are god-sent. You've just saved me from meeting the sun." He sat down on the cot. Even if he didn't close the door, the store room would keep the sun rays out. His phone buzzed, Isabel was worried. He texted a quick message back to her telling her not to worry, he'd found suitable accommodations for the day.

He looked back up at Briony as she looked around the room and stifled a yawn. He could feel the pull of the dawn arising, and the sleep of the dead was taking over. He smiled at her tiredly and pulled off his shoes as he lay down to die for the day, "Thank you, little one."

"Welcome, Godric. See you this evening." She exited the room and shut the door gently, but his eyes were already closed as he'd died for the day.


`
"Ms Keyson, Bree, are you home? Helloooo...?" Hannah's voice floated into the home office from the living room as Briony heard the front door shut.

"In here!", she called out to her assistant, standing at her woodcrafter's desk, haunched over as she attempted to saw at a particularly stubborn piece of plywood. She was making scaled model of the chicago sky scrapper they'd been commissioned to do. The designs were just finalised two days ago. The junior architects were usually in-charge of making the models, but Briony decided to take on this one for her own pleasure of making a model. She'll leave them to fill in and mount on the surroundings when she was done.

"Oh, this place is such a mess!" Hannah chided as she started cleaning up as she made her way over to her boss, "Seriously, Bree, don't you ever clean as you go?"

Briony grunted absently. Whatever. The part-time cleaner can deal with it. Hannah opened a window and a breeze wafted in through the office. Briony could smell greasy oil fried food and a thick cream based cuisine and paused in her work to turn to look at the conference table. Food. She raised her eyebrows.

"Yes, I've brought you food offerings, princess. Lunch." Hannah answered her unasked question.

"Yeah, later. Gotta get this done first." It was the most she'd uttered from her lips ever since she'd left Godric in her closet of a bomb shelter. She turned back to the wood in front of her.

Knowing that Briony would not be swayed from her current task until she literally swayed on her feet, Hannah quickly set the home office into a semblance of neatness before excusing herself, promising to check in on her tomorrow. She heard Briony 'hmm' at her distractedly, and left the apartment quietly, locking up behind her.


It wasn't until Briony started squinting in the rapidly fading darkness that she raised her head up to flip the light switch, and saw that the sun had just set. 'Godric should be awake soon, if he hasn't woken up yet.', she thought.

Just as she finished her thoughtspeak, the young looking 20 year old - '20 year old -ish', she mused - vampire came strolling into her home office, his face set in a disgusted scowl as he sniffed the air. She watched him sniffing the air and blanching as his eyes zoned in on the food on the table.

"Hey, sleep well?"

She stood from the stool and stretched out her stiff limbs. She'd sat at that table for ten hours. Her back was aching, her hips feeling too sore, her butt was numb, and her legs were stiff, pins and needles shooting down to the soles of her feet. Her head blanked momentarily as she felt a heady bloodrush as she staggered away from the table, the filling tool clattering onto the floor loudly. Godric sped towards her, getting to her in less than a blink of an eye, preventing her from tripping over the tool.

"What happened here, child?" He deftly picked her up and moved her across the room to the sofa next to the book cases. She groaned as she watched the room spin around her and buried her face into his chest, trying to stop the dizziness.

"Hello to you too, Godric." she muttered hoarsely, embarrassed at her less than graceful plight. Her cheeks fanning out a light blush as she felt his eyes take in her whole form.

"Good evening, Briony. And yes, I slept well. Thank you for your hospitality." he replied cordially as he stepped back, his eyes roaming from her scalp to her feet, trying to assess if she'd been in any danger to herself. He could find nothing wrong in that glance. He didn't care much for the well being of others beyond his progenies, and even then, he did not have to care of their health in decades. However, ever since striking up this odd friendship with this equally peculiar human, he found himself keen on her welfare, even if he did not outwardly show it.

"Well? What has happened that you can't stay on your feet for more than a second?" He turned around in the room to observe their surroundings. The office looked messier than he'd last seen it last night, and spotted the intricate woodwork on her craft desk. He raised an eyebrow at the human seating before him.

"I was working since this morning and haven't had anything to eat yet?", she blushed profusely at her confession, managing to look contrite, "I tend to get sucked into my work." Briony chanced a glance at the vampire who had pursed his lips.

"You don't say" he muttered as he walked over to the conference table and began rummaging around the bags of food, taking some out and putting it aside while placing the rest onto a paper plate.

Briony didn't get to ask what he was doing as he vamp sped out of the office and only returned a few minutes later, a warmed up burger on one hand, and a steaming bowl of mushroom creme soup in the other and placed both on the conference table before bringing her over to the table.

"Eat." he commanded her quietly, and she complied, still light headed from the lack of food. She had to admit, it felt good to have the piping hot soup in her stomach. She drained the water from the tall cup he'd brought greedily.

She felt a little self-conscious as Godric sat across from her, watching her eat, but couldn't stop a loud moan as she bit into the burger. It was her favourite portobello cheese burger. She saw his lips twitch into a slight smile as she sighed into her next bite, relishing the flavours that exploded over her taste buds. Her head clearing and she was starting to feel much better. Why she didn't think to eat was beyond her, but when she does, she always made sure it was tasty. Or at least, Hannah made sure of it.

"You make it sound like it tastes really good." Godric piped up, watching the human chew. It was unnecessary for vampires to chew. They slurped and gulped, sucked, suckled and swallowed. Some times he wondered why they had teeth and molars if they had no use of them. He imitated her jaw movements and heard her chuckle at his action. His lips pulling into a boyish smile.

"What are you laughing at, human?" he asked jokingly, and continued watching her feed. He had never bothered watching a human consume a full meal. Even at his nest parties. The stench of human food was undesirable. It was of burnt rotting meat, heavily smothered in savoury scents. He would keep away from it at all costs if he could manage it. The smells of her current meal was what caused him to frown the moment he woke up, and realise he was not, in fact, in his nest.

"Y'know, Godric", she took a pause to swallow her food and picked up a fry, pointing it at him as he tilted his head at her gesture, "You. You're funny."

He raised an eyebrow at her, his chin jutting out at her. Who was she to think he was funny? No one's called him funny. He *was* death. He stared at her, willing her to continue her sentence.

"You seem to forget you were once human." She bit into her fry, chewing on it thoughtfully.

"And that is funny, because...?" Godric had his hands clasped gently on the table.

"I thought it was rather peculiar that vampires could forget that they were once living, breathing humans too." she cocked her head to the side, her brows furrowing lightly, "How hard is it to remember that?"

Godric shrugged nonchalantly, unsure about how to respond to her question. He had to think about it. He is a vampire who, by his own admission, is starting to think in very non-vampire ways thanks to this little one sitting before him.

"Our sense of hunger is different. We thirst instead of feel the need to chew, I suppose. It's like a different switch got turned on like on a switch board."

She nodded slowly, trying to imagine it. She supposed it would've been the same as being parched of water and only water. At least, humans could survive on countless food sources, vampires only had blood. A thought sparked in her mind and she looked at him eagerly, "Are you able to feed on animal blood? It's still blood, is it not? Why only human blood?"

The ancient vampire chuckled at her curious mind. He had tried drinking from animals before. They just didn't satiate the hunger as well as a human's blood could. It was sort of like drinking a really watered down version of Tru Blood. He laughed when her nose scrunched up at the reference.

"At one point, not even five gorillas could sate my hunger." he told her, and imitated her swallowing action, gulping at nothing. His own thirst was dull, what with the bottle he had the night before, he could go another week without feeding currently. He shared a smile with her.

Godric gestured for her to continue with her meal as he walked around the office, and made his way over to the scale model on the wood craft table. He picked up the tool that she'd dropped earlier and placed it next to the other tools and studied the woodwork. He was impressed at the level of detail she had put into it. Each tiny window was handcrafted and not pasted on with paper the way some developers would have done. Only where it was too minuscule did she stick on a paper equivalent.

He went back to the table as she started clearing up the food boxes and helped her.

"Your wood work is impressive, Ms Keyson." he complimented her and she gave him a bright smile in return. She made her way out to the kitchen while he excused himself to take a call. He glanced at the screen. It was Eric.

"Son, are you alright?"

"Godric, I'm standing in the middle of your living room at your nest and I have just been told you haven't returned since last night" Eric's concerned voice came from the earpiece. Godric suddenly felt like a guilty teenager. "Where are you right now? Do I need to come and get you?" his progeny demanded.

"I am at a... friend's.. place." He ran his fingers through his short hair. He could feel Eric's surprise through their bond.

"Friend? Do I know this.. friend.. of yours?" Eric questioned, wanting to find out more. His maker hardly, if not at all, had friends. He grinned wolfishly. For as long as they were together, Godric kept no company for more than a week, and all his.. 'friends'... ended up dead by the end of the week.

"Godric, do we have to bury this 'friend'?" Eric ventured the question hesitantly, not really wanting the answer he was expecting. He heard Godric growl over the phone and his eyebrows shot up.

"Not that sort of friend, Eric. This one, I've managed to keep alive for almost three months now, thank you very much." Godric muttered darkly over the phone. There were times when their roles get reversed. They'd both no doubt who the maker and progeny was, but Eric certainly knew how to act the father figure, or brother when Godric felt weaknesses at. This was such a time.

Eric sighed, letting a wave of relief course through him.

"Well, okay. Are you coming home any time soon?" He still had the impression that Godric was having his way with whoever that 'friend' was, and wanted to know if his maker would take long to get through his desires. 'Almost three months' was definitely a long time in Godric's speak. He was impressed.

Godric must have felt his progeny's impending wrongful assumption and sighed tiredly and turned from the window when he heard Briony enter the living room. "Yes, I will be home soon. Stop with your assumptions, brother. It's not what you think it is, believe me."

He ended the call before his progeny could make a comeback, shaking his head and rolling his eyes in exasperation and heard Briony giggle at his antic. It was seldom that he found himself frustrated enough to roll his eyes. It was usually at errant baby vampires that irked him and tested his patience. Or Eric. Whatever that phone call was, it made him feel very much like his physical age for once.

She was starting to walk back to her home office when he picked up the Descartes philosophy book and childishly vamp sped into the room, "Last one in is the loser!" and chuckled when he heard her belated "Hey! No fair!" as she jogged into the room. She had a pout on her lips when she got to the door but had to smile when she watched as he jumped over the height of the sofa and landing into it with too much grace for a human his physical age. She made her way back to her wood work and they settled into their comfortable companionship once more.

Godric interrupted her a few times over the span of the next hour. Once to ask to use her charging dock - his phone battery was depleted. Another time to ask how much more she had to do with the wood work - just two more panes of wood, buildings tend to have four sides, she pointed out. And several times, just purely conversational, on what her opinion was on the parts of the philosophy book he was perusing currently. He also asked that she describe the difference between the uses of breath mint candies and medication.

"Really? You chose to ask that question?" she waved the saw in her hand and turned to look at him from across the room and saw him nod sincerely. She raised her eyebrows. Weird.

"The only difference is that breath mints are used to freshen your breath. Sorta like, a luxury thing. Medication is a necessity and was created in small sizes so that it would be easier to swallow. The medication had to be broken down from within the digestive tract in order for the compounds to break down in stages, so that it could work when it got transported around the body via the blood circulatory system.", she saw that a gleam of understanding flash through the vampires eyes, "Don't you read up on that stuff too?" He'd shook his head in negative.

"Never thought to do that. I had no need for medicine" was his honest reply.

She turned back to the pane of wood before her, unaware that the hand saw blade she was holding on to was directly over the back of her other wrist and had sliced it across her hand, a huge gash opening as thick drops of blood dribbled onto the desk quickly.

Briony let out a pained cry and dropped the saw on the desk, her eyes wide in shock. Within a moment, Godric was by her side, her hand in his as he looked at her wound. She trembled from the sudden pain and looked at the vampire whose eyes had darkened significantly, and a click followed simultaneously with a pair of fangs dropping from his teeth.

'Oh. Shit.'


a/n: Oh. Shit. indeed. Wait, whuuuuut!? D: D: D: cliff hanger, people, cliffs.

And hey, I thought about it, but I haven't decided if this would be something that happened before TrueBlood as we know it, or like, a totally different alternate universe. Either way, bon temps ain't even in the picture. But. Godric, in this story, as you might come to notice, is on the cusp to becoming the solemn and curt character we've come to love on TV. The whole intensely brooding vampire thing seems to rub off on me. Okay, alright, okay. Matt Wellington will come into the picture soon, yes? :D shocking. I might throw in the whole R21 sex she-bang-he-bang in soon. What romance is it without the sex, right? right?

Thanks for reading and commenting.. awww, shucks, y'all! you guys sure know how to stroke an ego. ;)