DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN TRUE BLOOD!

Divine Intervention

Chapter 8

The meeting-cum-gathering was in full swing by the time Anamaria came back downstairs. When they had all arrived back at Godric's house – or 'nest' as per vampire terminology – the Sheriff had asked Isabel to find Anamaria some fresh clothes, seeing as how Gabe's assault against her had ripped her pantyhose and the top buttons off her dress. Finding some well-fitting clothes had been a small ordeal, given that Isabel was taller and slimmer than Anamaria was. Isabel had suggested a dress or skirt, as they would sit on the human's wider hips easier than jeans or leggings; the Latina politely declined, explaining that she didn't like showing her legs. With a pair of elasticated leggings and a long-sleeved tunic shirt, Anamaria headed into the bathroom and got changed, adjusting her cleavage in her new shirt. She quickly ran a brush through her hair, dabbed just a little perfume on her chest and wrists – knowing too much would offend the senses of the vampires downstairs – and then headed to the gathering.

Anamaria forced herself to breathe calmly, trying not to let every vampire know how intimidated she was to be in a room filled with the creatures. A few vampires, she could handle; a few dozen was a different story. Fortunately for her, Eric found her and took hold of her arm.

"I see Isabel found you some clothes." He stated, taking in her outfit.

"Nothing gets past you, huh?" She whispered, nervously looking around the room. Every vampire was dressed in black leather, with a few human 'companions' milling around. It reminded Anamaria of Fangtasia, making her oddly homesick. "So, what's the protocol here?"

"Protocol?" Eric smirked at her, amused by her nerves.

"Yeah. I mean, do I do small talk with people? Offer refreshments? Sit quietly in a corner?"

He chuckled, cupping the back of her neck. She smiled; cupping her neck seemed to be his signature move. It was comforting. "Anamaria, if you go around 'offering refreshments', many vampires might get the wrong idea."

"Oh yeah, of course!"

Saving her further embarrassment, he gestured across the room. "Go get yourself a drink from the kitchen; there are humans there who can help." He gave her a nudge in the right direction, and then walked off.

"Oh just leave me then…" She mumbled, knowing he'd hear her anyway. His chuckle told her he had. Her cellphone vibrated from inside the small clutch bag Isabel had lent her. Taking it out, she saw she had a few missed calls and a text. The missed calls were all from Adele; the text was from Danny, a friend from college. He was studying Communication Technology.

'Stop or keep rolling?' The text read.

Anamaria tapped out a response. 'Keep rolling, you never know,,you getting everything?'

A reply came back immediately; he'd probably been waiting for her to reply. 'Loud n Clear bae'.

'Good boy xxx'.

Smiling smugly, Anamaria slipped her phone back into the clutch, heading into the kitchen. The human companions were nice enough, though not overly friendly with her. They probably thought she was just another fangbanger. But they were the ones walking around with fang marks on their necks; not her.

Her phone buzzed again. Adele was calling her. She answered it with a smile, stepping out into the garden through the sliding glass doors in the kitchen. The entire house was très chic, not quite Anamaria's style. "Hola, abuelita." She cooed happily. She needed to tell her about—

"Don't you start with me, young lady! You didn't call me this morning, or last night! What in God's name happened to you?"

"Calm down, Adele, calm down. I'm alright."

"What happened? I was out of my mind with worry!"

"It's a long story, abuela, and I'm kind of busy."

"Busy? Busy doing what?" She snapped.

"I'm at a kind-of party."

"Well who's hosting this ridiculous event?"

Anamaria paused, trying to keep her immense happiness in check long enough to have this conversation. Taking a slow deep breath, she whispered as tears filled her eyes, "I found him."

There was a stunned silence on the other end of the line, followed by an intake of breath. "You found him?"

Anamaria nodded, but then realised Adele couldn't see her. "Angel. I found him." A happy sob burst from her chest, making her press the back of her hand to her mouth. "He's in the house; it's his house, actually."

"Have you talked to him? What's he like?"

"Not much yet. He's someone important here in Dallas, there's a queue of people wanting to talk to him." She turned around and looked through the glass doors to see Godric sitting in an armchair in – what looked like – his office, a line of vampires waiting to get an audience with him.

"Was he the missing vampire Mr Northman asked you to find?"

"Yeah, as it turns out."

"What does he look like?"

"Perfect." Anamaria gushed in a loving whisper. "Exactly as he always has. But he looks bored right now." She giggled gently.

"Well you get back in there and you talk to him!" Adele paused for a moment, before speaking seriously. "You've waited years for this opportunity, sweetheart. Don't worry about messing it up; just do what feels natural, and everything will be fine. Everything happens for a reason."

"I know, mama. You know, it's weird…If I'd never…" She paused, a lump in her throat forming as she thought of her past, "If I hadn't done those things, I would never have seen Angel. I wouldn't have known how much he cared for me, and I wouldn't have recognised Godric tonight."

"Godric? His name is Godric?" Adele laughed joyfully. "Anamaria, sweetheart, this man can only be good for you! Even his name sounds wonderful!"

Anamaria laughed herself as her grandmother's tone. The sliding door behind her opened and a cool hand came on her shoulder. She turned around and saw Eric, holding out a glass for her. "Drink." He ordered. "Gin and tonic; I believe that's your drink."

She nodded and smiled gratefully. "Thank you, Eric."

"Is that Mr Northman?" Adele called from her end of the line.

"Yes, Ms Stackhouse." He grumbled clearly enough for Anamaria's phone microphone to pick up his voice.

"Are you looking after my granddaughter? Why didn't she call me this morning? I thought she'd died!"

"Okay, mama, I have to go now!" Anamaria rushed out, saying a quick 'I love you', making a few kissing sounds, and then hanging up. As she put her phone back into her clutch bag, she couldn't stop her blush. She always felt that Eric judged and mocked her relationship with Adele, and she hated herself for giving into it. "She asked me to call every morning and night." She explained quietly as she took the gin-tonic from Eric. The vampire didn't speak, just watched her. "When I was in the basement, I obviously missed the calls. She got worried."

"Evidently." He commented dryly.

Anamaria nervously cleared her throat. "Shall we go back inside?"

When she tried to walk past him, Eric stepped in front of her. "First things first. How do you know Godric?"

"Um-"

"Don't try and lie to me, Anamaria. Back in that basement, you clearly recognised him; how?"

Anamaria paused, waiting for her Angel's – or rather, Godric's – voice to come into her mind and tell her what to do. But nothing came. There was nothing but her own thoughts and the sound of her blood rushing through her ears. She laughed nervously. "This is so weird."

"What is?" Eric asked testily.

"I don't know if I can tell you yet. I mean, he isn't telling me I shouldn't, but something still feels weird about it, like I should wait a while."

Eric took a threatening step towards her, making her tilt her back to look at him. "'He'? Godric?"

She took a small step back, looking into Eric's eyes so that he could see that she was being honest with him. "Eric, tonight was the first time I have ever seen Godric in the flesh."

"But you have seen him before?" He took another step towards her.

"Uh…Kind of…"

"What do you mean, 'kind of'?" He demanded. He took another step forward.

Anamaria squeaked nervously when she realised she had been backed up against a wall of the house. "It's…It's quite hard to explain-"

"Anamaria," Eric spoke firmly, looking deeply into her eyes, "You will tell me everything you know about Godric."

Out of nowhere, her head started to pound and her eyes ached in their sockets. She closed her eyes. "Eric, stop it!" His cold hand reached up and grabbed her chin, forcing her head back up. She opened her eyes again and was forced to meet his intense gaze. Her head hurt again. "Eric, you're hurting me!"

"You can't be Glamoured?" He whispered, almost in awe.

"Hey! What's going on here?" The two of them turned their heads and saw Jason standing in the doorway, looking pissed off at Eric.

The vampire spoke smoothly. "The hero of the hour."

"I ain't no hero." Jason insisted, stepping out onto the patio. He looked to his almost-sister. "You okay, Ana?"

Eric spoke when Anamaria gave Jason a nod. "You're a hero for this town, at least. And you have my gratitude for helping Anamaria in the Church." Jason gave his own nod, acknowledging Eric's thanks. "That being said, go away. Anamaria and I are talking."

"It looks to me like you're scaring my sister, Northman."

"Your sweet sister has answers to my question." Eric snarled. "Now be a good boy and run along."

Before Jason could say or do something he'd quickly regret, Anamaria spoke up, putting her hand on Eric's chest. "Eric, I promise you will have answers to all of your questions, in time. I swear it." She said seriously. "Just be a little patient. Please." She looked at him pleadingly, hoping it would work.

Eric looked at her as he considered her pleas. "I'll be patient-"

"Thank you!" She gushed.

"-If you let me feed on you tonight."

!"!

Anamaria watched Godric from her spot in the kitchen. She had just poured her third gin and tonic, made necessary by Eric's surprising and slightly scary demand on her earlier. In the end, she hadn't had much of a choice. Even though her Angel hadn't told her what to do, all her instincts had told her that she shouldn't tell Eric anything about Angel/Godric. Not yet, at least. Perhaps she should tell Godric first. After all, he was the one whom she had been 'seeing' and 'hearing' for the past seven years; surely, he should be told first?

The line of people who had wanted to thank Godric had ended a short while ago, and the young-looking but ancient vampire had been sitting silently in his chair, not even watching the party around him. It was now or never. She put a TruBlood into the microwave and heated it, taking it out when the machine beeped at her. As she headed over to Godric, she found her stomach filling with butterflies the closer she got to him. When she was twelve or so feet away from him, he looked up and saw her.

His ice blue eyes locked on her chocolate ones, making her pause in her approach. Recovering, she made her way over to him and held out the bottle of TruBlood.

"Drink up."

"Miss Stackhouse-"

"I'm not a Stackhouse." She smiled nervously, unable to quell her nerves at finally meeting the man she had been in love with for so long. "I'm a Santiago." She gently shook the bottle at him. "You going to make me hold this all night?" Acquiescing to her, he took the TruBlood, but made no effort to drink it. "Jason's my brother, but not biologically. His grandmother kind of adopted me when I was younger; I've lived with them ever since." She noted wearily that he still didn't drink the blood. "It's A positive." She pointed to the bottle. "I didn't know what you'd like best – A positive or O – so I took a guess."

"Thank you, but I'm not hungry."

"Yeah, you said so in the Church." She mused unhappily as she wheeled his work chair from around the glass desk. Pulling it next to him and sitting with her legs crossed, she took a sip of her own drink. "Don't think I didn't notice how you dodged Eric's question."

He had been watching her curiously, intrigued by her casual attitude towards him. Most humans who came into his nest were either desperate 'fangbangers' Stan brought back or were outright scared of him. "Pardon?"

"You didn't answer his question. 'When was the last time you fed?' 'I require very little blood anymore'. Crafty. I only know because I used to do the same to my gran. 'Did you eat your lunch today?' 'I'm going upstairs, leave me alone!'" She smiled in spite of herself, but then looked at him seriously. "Please drink, Godric. Just a little." He still made no effort to lift the bottle to his mouth. Time to pull out the big guns… "If you don't like the bottled stuff, you could drink from me."

His head shot up, almost in alarm. "Miss Santiago-"

"It's 'Anamaria', and I'm serious. I'll open a vein right here and now if you'll drink a little." She declared solemnly. This man had saved her life several times in the past; if it took him feeding off her to help sate his hunger, she would gladly slit both her wrists for him. She knew how.

"Miss Santiago, I don't think you realise-"

"Excuse me, everyone! If I could have your attention, please." A man called from the main living room. Godric stood up and held his hand out to Anamaria. She took it without hesitation, hardly noticing the small jolt that occurred the second their skin touched. Heading into the large and open room, the whole party had stopped to focus on a young man standing in the middle of the room. A bad feeling settled in Anamaria's gut, making her squeeze Godric's hand nervously. "My name is Luke McDonald. I'm a member of the Fellowship of the Sun." Shit… "And I've got a message for you all from Reverend Steve Newlin."

He unzipped his jacket, revealing a torso loaded with bricks of C4 explosive, silver chains wrapped around him, and silver bullets aimed outwards.

He raised his arm, detonator in hand.

Then everything went black.