6. Acquiring Andrew
Rhiannon steadied herself, and reached deep for the power of will that she had generated from refreshing herself with the human guards. The next few moments would be crucial, and would require extreme endurance and tremendous reserves of power.
"You know," she said, applying the power to her voice, "the Book of War states that one should know his enemy. He should be prepared to fire upon her at any instant. He should keep her in his sights, and end her life the instant she moves. And because your enemy is a vampire, you must fire the instant she moves, else she flits to you and destroys you before you can stop her."
Rhiannon cocked her head, sweeping the room with a gaze. "The enemy is known. The enemy is certain."
"Yes, we get the idea," one of the vampires at the other end of the screen drawled.
Rhiannon continued as if he hadn't spoken, "Your enemy is dangerous. She is brutal. She threatens your families. She threatens your life. She threatens your livelihood. She will steal from you if you let her move. She will rape your children and eat your wives."
"Oh, shut up," Nan said.
Rhiannon chuckled. "Your enemy wishes to silence me so that you cannot recognize her. She does not want to be known. But I will tell you. You can trust me because I expose your true enemy, who will destroy your family, your country, your very life."
She pointed triumphantly at Nan. "Your enemy is Nan Flanagan!"
Tracer lights blossomed like tiny red pansies over Nan's heart as every human in the room switched allegiance instantly, as well as several vampires.
Before she could move, before she could speak or signal, Rhiannon leaped to the balcony above where the vampire held a gun trained on Eric. She ignored the silver on him that screamed along her nerves and burned her flesh. Fangs out, she sucked his blood from him, draining him in seconds as he fought to save his own life.
He exploded into a slop of blood and gore. She felt his evil course through her, his blood only adding to her power. Momentarily crippled with pain from the silver burns, she shook her arms as if to shake some of the blood off of herself. The stench of charred flesh bit at her delicate senses.
"Who's next?" With blood running down her face still, and the carnage of their predecessor at her feet, none of the other vampires present was willing to face her down. All but Nan and Bill flitted from the room.
"Ah, how capricious life is!" she told Nan. "How quickly the winds of fortune change!"
She took a cell phone from one of the guards and dialed it.
"Hello?" came a voice from the other end.
"Seize the assets immediately. Wipe the records of this phone." She clicked it shut. Then, for added measure, she crushed it to powder and bits of wire.
She opened the cage to let Eric and Pam out, forcing herself to touch the silver to display her power—false as it might be. Long, long ago she had learned that the appearance of power became the reality of power. For Eric's sake, she had to display powers bordering on the impossible. Any weakness before The Authority would leave him vulnerable.
She did not acknowledge Eric yet, though her heart ached to continue the silence toward him.
As she released Pam, pandemonium broke over the other end of the monitor.
"What have you done?" one of them demanded, his voice filled with fear and rage.
"I have left you penniless and had all of your Progeny or Makers impounded," she replied. "You see, you made a grave error in your approach to life in general. You think that, because you are vampires and you are powerful, you have utter control. You have ignored the jockeying of the humans for power amongst themselves.
"But the inventions you use—the computer you are speaking over now, the chairs in which you sit—are mostly all invented by and controlled by humans. And while you have cultivated ultimate power over vampires and seen humans as useless insects... I... Well. Suffice it to say that I have consolidated my power amongst humans.
"And now, your money and your families—what pass for families for most of you—are in my care and under my control. Had you not threatened Eric, you would have lived the rest of your lives in ignorant bliss. You would have never known that I wield the power of life and death over your families. Nor would you have known to whom your money actually belonged.
"You should have worked a little harder to appreciate the power that humans have over you, by the fact that they effectively control your wealth and because they are daywalkers. I have had spies in every one of your households for thousands of years. You had managed not to make me use them." She smiled, a rapacious, cruel smile. "Until now."
"You'll pay for this," the woman's voice snarled as she broke and ran from the room. The others ran as well a moment later.
Rhiannon flitted over and clicked off the computer attached to the monitor. She turned to Nan. Grasping her by the chin, Rhiannon's fangs snapped out again as she locked onto the younger vampire's will and easily overcame it. "Your life is tied to Eric and Pam's lives," she told the glamored vampire.
"My life... tied.. Eric and Pam..."
"If you do not protect them with everything you have at your disposal, your life is forfeit."
"Protect them... yes. I will."
Rhiannon stepped back. "Nan Flanagan is no longer your enemy," she said. The humans slowly lowered their guns, looking at each other in surprise and confusion. "Leave now." They turned to go and she released their wills.
Fangs still out, head down, she looked at Eric as Nan walked from the room in an apparent daze.
"Holy fuck," Pam said.
But Eric's face was a study in shock and betrayal. "Did you just glamor Nan?" he asked, his voice soft and filled with disbelief.
"Yes," Rhiannon told him, just as quietly.
"Have you done it to me?"
She'd known the question was coming as soon as she glamored Nan. But it still drove a stake into her ancient, decayed heart. "Not since I have loved you," she whispered.
She looked away from the hurt in his face and felt blood trickle from her eyes in fresh rivulets. Her fangs slunk away like chastised dogs.
"You are a broken thing, not capable of love," he snarled at her. He flitted away, and Rhiannon stood in the room with only Pam and Bill.
"Me? Have you done it to me? Can you teach me how to do it?" Pam demanded.
"Survive for another four or five thousand years, and get back to me on it," Rhiannon told her.
"Fuck," Pam was obviously unhappy with the answer. She followed Eric out of the building.
Rhiannon turned her head to Bill. She left the rage she felt showing clearly on her face. "Your faerie will be back. If you harm Eric again, I will rip her limb from limb and devour her in front of you."
"I do not believe you would do that."
"Would you destroy Eric to protect Sookie?"
"Without hesitation."
"Then you know my answer to whether I would kill Sookie to protect Eric."
She left through the roof, leaving a gaping hole in his mansion. She flew until she was hovering outside of Fangtasia. She listened and could tell from the relaxed atmosphere that Eric was not there. She listened closer, until she recognized the heartbeat she was there to find.
Still clothed in blood, dust, and debris, she went inside. She located her quarry quickly and walked up to him.
"Come with me," she told Andrew, sniffing to be certain that his drink was the customary lemonade. She didn't have the patience to deal with a drunk.
"Oh, sure. Of course," he put his drink down and followed her.
She flew him up on top of a far building so that they could look down on the city. "It's pretty up here at night," he finally said. "But I'm kinda scared of heights."
She chuckled and apologized. Picking him up, she took him to the park instead, where she alighted on a bridge that overlooked a miniature waterfall.
"You wanna talk about it?" he finally ventured.
She sighed. "I have come to ask you a favor," she began at last. "But it is no small favor, and it's not really on my personal behalf." She turned to face him. "It will be an opportunity to repay Eric and complete your debt to him."
"I'm in, then," he answered. "No questions asked."
She shook her head. "It's not that simple." She grasped his chin gently but firmly. "This is a very, very serious thing I'm about to ask of you. I have asked it of others, but they have always had months of training and mental and physical preparation. Some of them have gone insane for the year it lasts, anyway. Yet I am asking you to do it with no preparation whatsoever, no genuine understanding of the request, and little forewarning."
Guilt gnawed at her, and bloody tears streaked her face again.
"Well, I gotta make my job-"
"Will a million dollars allow you to drop your job and focus entirely upon what I ask of you?" she demanded.
He looked surprised. "Well, that would more than do it, yeah, but-"
"Give me your cellphone and your ATM card."
"I... sure." He handed them over with obvious reluctance.
She flipped the cellphone open and dialed.
"Hello?"
She read off the ATM card number to the woman on the other end of the phone. "Maintain this account at a minimum of a million dollars for a year," she said. "Wipe the records of this cell phone."
She crushed the cell phone and handed him the ATM card.
"Hey!"
"You can afford a new one. Now, listen. I have some specific things I need from you, and none of it will be easy or simple anymore."
He straightened. "If it's for Eric, I'll do it."
She kissed him on the cheek. "You're a loyal human. It gives me faith that perhaps not all humans are in the process of going insane. Just most." She pulled him over to a bench nearby and sat down with him. "From now on, you will spend every night at Fangtasia. You will not maintain your day job, because your entire job will be to do your best to make sure that Eric is alive and well every night. If anything unusual happens such as the bar closing down or being invaded by vampires, you call for me."
"How do I do that?"
"Just imagine in your mind that you're yelling for me, and I'll know."
"I didn't know you're telepathic," he said, blushing to the roots of his hair.
She chuckled. "I'm not, Andrew. Relax." Then she sobered. "I'm asking you, though, to be Mine."
He started to speak, and she cut him off. "There are things you have to know, first, Andrew. And I want you to listen up and really hear and comprehend what I'm saying to you. It's serious business. I mean that."
"Okay," he agreed.
"If you agree to become Mine, you will have to drink some of my blood-"
"Eww," he interjected.
She smiled, but there was no humor or joy in it. It was a hard smile, meant to sober him. "My blood is potent. It is more potent than any street drug on the market—or off the market. Overdose on them and survive it, and you will still not approach the potency of my blood. I am ancient beyond what you can imagine, and the magic in a single drop of my blood will give you strength and endurance you cannot yet begin to fathom. You can pick up a car or bend a railing with your bare hands."
"Really? That's awesome!"
"No, Andrew. It's not. By itself it sounds great, but you will have such strength even when you want to make love. If you want to hug someone tight, you could crush his or her ribs to paste. If you get angry and hit a wall, you can knock a building down. This is no joke, and it is nothing to take lightly."
He was looking at her with a growing sort of horror.
"It gets worse, Andrew. With the blood comes desires you've not even touched upon so far. At your most sexual moments, you had nowhere near the lust you will feel. Your hunger will be magnified a thousand times. I suggest raw meat, in point of fact."
He pulled another face. "Gross."
"You'll have acquired a taste for it before the night is through." She stood up. "You also must understand some other things. You will be as much like a vampire as a human can get. You will burn badly in the sun—though you won't die. You will have lusts and cravings far more potent than any that a mere human can feel. You will know rages so powerful that you will break and destroy things before you realized the thought occurred to you to do it.
"What I'm asking of you is no small sacrifice. It could cost you loved ones, even your own life and future. And you will crave me and dream of me."
He ran a hand through his hair. "We didn't really have sex, did we? You were too sweet to be a vampire."
"No, Andrew. I cannot have sex with humans. You are too fragile. I have even harmed Eric a few times, without intending to. I once..." she realized what she was about to say and sought a different way to say it, "I... he... he did something that made me react. I didn't intend to, but I... I hit him in the face with my head. I shattered his jaw and it took quite some time to heal." She smiled slightly as he touched his jaw in obvious sympathy. "If it had been you, Andrew, I would have pulverized your head. Humans can't heal from that."
"Uh, yeah. I mean no. No, we can't." He rubbed his face with his hands, resting it there for a few moments. "You need someone to look after Eric, don't you?"
"I do. And this is pretty huge. It's... I've roused the rage and terror of the worst and oldest elements of the vampire world. And he hates me now, too."
"Why?"
"He found out I can... well. Better you not know." She sighed heavily. "I need you to look out for him. I need you to call me if anything happens to him. The only way that can happen is if you've had my blood. I cannot hear your call unless you have."
She knelt at his feet. "I know you find it hard to believe, but I am asking you to take on a horrible, heavy burden, and I know it. You may hurt someone you love, and it will be the fault of my blood. My fault for how I endangered Eric and made foolish choices. But I can think of no one with a greater chance of doing this at all. I think that you have the strength to do it well."
"Okay," he finally said. "I owe him. I'll do it."
She opened her wrist and told him, "Dip a fingertip in it. No more, or it might kill you."
He dipped his finger and then grimaced. Closing his eyes, he stuck the finger in his mouth and licked the blood off. Pulling his finger out, he sat for a moment. "I don't-" His eyes opened wide and he lifted a hand. "Holy... oh my god! Wow!"
He started laughing. "Whoa!" He leaped up off of the bench and started chasing a fleck of dust in the air, laughing hysterically as it flickered away from him. With his new vision, she knew he could make out its crystalline structure now as perfectly as she could. He was mesmerized by the single bit of dust that had enraptured him.
"Oh, ho ho! Wow! This is unbelievable!"
She smiled. At least someone was enjoying himself this night. She watched his antics as he experienced the first taste of her blood. Enhanced perceptions, greater speed and strength... recklessness and impaired judgment.
"Can I yank this tree up? Like just pull it out of the ground?"
"Yes. But do not, or you may find yourself in jail. If you go to jail and break out, you will not be able to help Eric, because they will then kill you."
"Oh. Yeah. That's a good point. Whoa. You have got the nicest rack I've ever seen! Can I touch it?" He was already reaching for her chest.
She gripped him by the neck and held him away from her. "Get it under control, Andrew. If you touch my breasts, I'll rip your head off."
"Oh, well. Maybe next time," he dropped his hands.
She dropped him, and he grabbed her breast and ran, laughing maniacally.
It was going to be a long night.