A/N: Thank you for such wonderful reviews! :D Sorry it's so long! Hope it doesn't bore you :D I'm planning on having a funny chapter with Jessica leading Ruby astray. What do you think? Because personally I love the idea! I'll start writing it straight away, and hopefully if all goes well it will be up tomorrow! :) FF always stops working on me when I really want to post something, lol! I can't wait to write the next chapter with Jessica :D
Enjoy! x
Chapter Seven – I Don't Wanna Know
"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed."
- Albert Einstein.
Before we left to go see the Magister, we had to stop at Fangtasia. Eric was preparing himself, and Bill sat at the bar where he killed Longshadow, nursing a TruBlood with a deep frown. I waited in the office for Pam to arrive, when the phone rang. I blinked. Should I answer it? I edged towards it, almost as if it were a bomb about to go off.
Carefully I lifted the phone from the cradle, putting it to my ear.
"Hello?" a voice said.
I didn't recognize the warm tone. I considered hanging up. How silly was I? Being nervous of answering a phone? No one could crawl out of it and attack me. I needed to get rid of my fear and bad nerves. I straightened up and held the phone tighter.
"Hello!"
I smiled for good measure. The person couldn't see me, but it made me feel better. I wiped my dark brown eyes tiredly, even though we had hours left until dawn. Pam usually answered the phone in a seductive, false voice in case it was a tourist on the other end. She said things like 'This is Fangtasia, where life begins at night'. Always sexy and professional, that's what Pam had to be on the phone.
"Ruby?" the voice sounded surprised.
I was equally surprised. Phones interested me as much as things like television did, because when I first came to Fangtasia, I couldn't recall what they were for. They were just weird, foreign objects that had been wiped from my memory. I sat in Eric's leather chair, pushing my foot against the table to push myself around in circles.
"Yes, I am Ruby!" I smiled. "Who are you?"
The voice sounded even warmer once they knew who I was. "It is Godric. Do you remember me?"
I hummed as I thought. I knew of Godric, but I didn't know him. I had seen pictures. He was as pale as me, with snow white skin, and dark brown hair and grey eyes. He had tattoos, I had seen them in the photos. Eric said he was two thousand years old, and I had got on with him brilliantly when we first met. We bonded over history and humans. He was the only other vampire I knew – had known – that thought vampires and humans could co-exist. Or so Eric had told me. In the past few hundred years, Eric had told me that Godric was reconsidering the ways of vampires. He thought humans and vampires could get along.
I must have been silent for a long time, because Godric spoke again. "I will take this as a no." He chuckled even, probably trying to relax me. "Eric has told me of what has happened to you."
I nodded, staying silent.
He couldn't see me nod. I keep forgetting. "Yeah. I lost everything."
"He mentioned you like humans a lot. Is this true?"
Godric was being very kind. I held the phone tightly, as if it were a weapon. I'd never used a phone like this before, not that I could remember anyway. It was weird to think a 2000 year old vampire handled technology better than I could. Then again, Godric still retained all his memories. I bet he'd like to forget some though, because a vampire's existence is never easy. Trying not to nod, I murmured, "Yes. I like their TV shows. I've tried talking to humans, but they don't seem to like vampires very much."
I heard him sigh again, but it was happier than the last. I was finding it easy to talk to Godric. Maybe answering the phone wasn't such a bad thing. "Humans are afraid of vampires Ruby. Surely you can understand their fear? Is there something that scares you now that you don't remember anything?"
He was reasoning with me, being friendly.
"Loud noises," I said instantly. "I hate them. Ginger is a waitress at the bar, and she screams all the time."
I felt like scolding myself then, because I sounded so childish. Vampires shouldn't fear anything. Eric never jumped at loud noises. Pam didn't, either. They weren't afraid of anything. I was spinning in circles on the chair, happy that the phone didn't have any wires to get tangled in when the door swung open.
Pam strutted in, pausing when she saw me on the phone.
Godric chuckled on the other end of the phone. It was rare to hear him laugh, I could tell. He seemed sad somehow, so I was glad I made him laugh for even a second. "You have nothing to fear my Child. Not with Eric worrying all the time."
"Ruby what are you doing?" Pam asked, looking at the phone, and then back to me.
"I hear Pam has arrived," Godric said. He could hear Pam even over the phone? Well. We did have great hearing. Goodbye then, Ruby. It has been nice talking to you. I am sure we will speak again." I wished I had more time to talk to him.
"Bye, bye Godric." Pam watched me as I hung up, and she seemed surprised.
She composed herself pretty quickly. "Come on. We need to stop at Merlotte's so Bill can say goodbye to Sookie."
I put the phone down, feeling better now that I had spoken to Godric.
The moment I met the Magister, I knew I didn't like him. Not only were we surrounded by unfamiliar, hostile vampires, he also had a cane. Canes like that are never good. I doubted that was to help him walk or anything, from the way he licked his lips and grinned at me. Out of habit, I stayed very close to Eric. He didn't mind at all though. I can't help that I'm afraid of these new vampires. Heck, I'm afraid of some humans too. I don't know anything about them. In Merlotte's, they all seemed so nice. Then they whispered words like 'bloodsucker'. It seemed that no matter where I went, humans didn't really like me because I was a vampire.
How can they judge what they don't understand?
"Looky here," the Magister smiled. "Ruby, isn't it? My sweet, I can recall the last time you were here."
Unfortunately, I couldn't.
That's both a good and bad thing. Good, because I don't want to remember anything about this man. Bad, only because he might ask something that a normal vampire would know. Hopefully that doesn't happen. I watched Pam and Eric, trying to copy everything they did. I wished the Tribunal would just hurry up and end.
Bill was clearly distressed. He stood beside me, eyeing the large crowd of vampires behind us.
"What do you think of life as a vampire?" the Magister drawled.
I have no idea, because I don't remember any of it, Mr Magister, sir.
Of course, I didn't say that. "It's just…dandy," I muttered. He gave me a sick grin before turning his attention to a vampire being dragged through the crowd, held by chains. I watched, amazed. Eric squeezed my hand, keeping his eyes on the vampire in question. Eric didn't want me to see anything like this. He knew that I didn't like the ways of vampires, and he wanted to show me that we weren't all bad.
This was clearly not the way to go about it. Having to watch a vampire being de-fanged hardly made me think we were the good guys. I watched with wide eyes as he was thrown to the ground, landing on his knees. I wondered how old he was. There was a female vampire dressed in leather, using pliers to rip out the man's fangs. I gasped, wanting to go to his side. Eric must've guessed my feelings, because he pulled me back and hissed in my ear.
"Ruby, please, stay still. Do not give the Magister any reason to suspect something is wrong with us."
He was right. But listening to that poor vampire scream was horrible. The female vampire in leather held his fangs up as if it were a prize, as if we should admire her for her wonderful deed. I immediately disliked her, wishing I could help that poor vampire. So far, nothing about vampires seemed very nice. No wonder humans hated us so much, we were so…evil.
The other vampires cheered. Could Bill have his fangs taken out?
I was afraid of the other vampires, and the one I feared the most was the Magister. I was out of my depth. He sat in a throne similar to Eric's, that was placed in the back of a pick-up truck. I felt cold, wishing I was at home watching old movies with Eric. But he stood tall beside me, the image of a fearless vampire. Usually Eric dominates everything, though I knew it was the Magister who controlled this place. No one stepped out of line around him.
Pam caught my eye, but she didn't smirk or anything. She knew I hated every second of this, totally unused to seeing people suffer like this.
"You fed on a human that wasn't yours. Three months of starvation should teach you manners. Brothers and sisters of the Tribunal, is this fair?" the Magister smirked at the vampire being punished. I wanted to shake my head, tell him that this wasn't right, but Eric gripped my hand as if he had guessed what I was doing. The vampires roared in approval, all looking at the Magister with bright smiles. Eric looked down at me, staring into my eyes.
"Ruby. Do not make me say it again."
"But Eric, that's just cruel-…"
"Do I have to command you?"
"It could save that vampire's life!" I took a step, but he yanked me back beside him.
"I don't like to force you to do anything Ruby. But I am deadly serious right now, I will command you to stay beside me. I refuse to let you be put in danger, especially with someone as mean and vicious as the Magister. Do you understand? Promise me you will stay where you are and say nothing."
I gasped in horror when they ripped out his other fang. "Y-Yeah. I promise."
"Sentence passed and executed. Moving on…"
"Eric Northman, Sheriff of Area 5."
"Yes, Magister," Eric said, letting go of my hand and stepping forward. I was baffled, and instantly missed him.
Without memories to let me know what was right and wrong, Eric was the only one who could tell me. I mean, of course I could ask Pam, but sometimes the bond between him and I meant he just knew when I felt worried or sad. How would you feel if you had no real morals, only instinct? And in the vampire world, those instincts led you to do bad things like drinking from another vampire's human. There were rules that stopped me, rules I didn't fully understand yet.
Bill took his place in front of the Magister, stepping on the blood from the last vampire. Gross. One of his fangs had just been thrown aside, as if it never happened. I saw Bill looking at the blood with distaste.
"We have a murderer, I see," the Magister smirked.
I wanted to say it was an accident, that he was trying to protect Sookie. But I promised Eric. Promises meant a lot to me. I watched my Maker explain what happened in his bar. As Sheriff, this was his duty.
"You have broken a serious law, Compton," the Magister growled, idly playing with his cane. "Killing another vampire is such a serious offense."
Howls and cheers from the other vampires showed they agreed completely. The Magister frowned at Bill, eyeing him up and down. Humans were treated as food and nothing else, that they were inferior and we as vampires should take advantage of them. That's what the vampires here thought of them, but I thought we could try to co-exist. If TruBlood existed, why harm humans?
"You decreased our numbers at a critical time. That's bad. Very, very bad."
Bill tried to reason with him, but it was no use. They brought out a human girl. Eric seemed to know what this meant. I didn't understand what was going on. Were they not taking his fangs like the last vampire? Would they wrap him in silver and leave him to burn in a coffin for as long as it takes?
They threw the girl to the ground. The Magister looked pleased, and then he glanced at me. It meant nothing, such a quick and meaningless look before he focused on Bill again, but it did something to me.
Eric was holding me down, forcing me to look away from the Magister, making me look at him instead. I didn't want to look at Eric. I didn't want to be turned into a vampire, or lose my humanity.
The vampires were all around us, hollering and roaring in approval. Eric didn't let me look away from his eyes even though the Magister was speaking. I could barely hear him in my daze, but I knew he was telling Eric to turn me. Eric himself looked torn. If he went against the Magister, he'd surely die for it.
I loved Eric. I thought he loved me too, yet here he was about to bite me and ruin my human life. Though I knew I shouldn't blame him, when he was being forced into it too. I just needed something to take my anger out. I screamed and kicked at Eric, drawing blood on his biceps as I scratched at him and tried to get away from him. Mud covered my clothes and face, getting stuck in my hair and making it harder to see. The sky was an inky, pitch black, and I could see the stars and the moon.
"I'm sorry Ruby. I am so sorry, but I will make everything right. Please forgive me, you know I love you, this wasn't supposed to happen. Not like this."
A thousand year old vampire versus a twenty-eight year old human? No contest, but I don't give up without a fight. I had a potty mouth apparently, because I screamed curses at him, told him I hated him when I didn't. His fangs came out, his eyes dark and full of sadness. His fangs glinted in the moonlight. My heart was thumping, but that wouldn't last for long.
As soon as Eric's fangs plunged into my neck, that was it.
I was jolted back to reality. They had a red-headed human, very pretty, kneeling in the mud. Her heart was thumping just like mine had, I could hear it from here. My second memory wasn't as nice as my first. It was like I could feel the burning in my neck. Absentmindedly, I raised my hand to rub my neck. Eric was looking at me. Could he feel that tingling in my neck through the bond?
Another memory that had felt so real. I tried to focus on Bill's punishment instead of that horrible memory. The human girl was begging for her life, crying and snivelling.. Her eyes met with mine, pleading with me. My stomach twisted. Perhaps, if Bill kept her as his progeny, we could be friends. I could help her.
Being a vampire really sucked. This girl would go through the same thing that I had.
