Fellowship of the Sun Church/ Light of Day Institute/ Soldiers of the Sun Headquarters
6:58pm
"What time did she say she would be gettin' here?"
"7 o'clock, honey. I've told you a hundred times already."
"I know, but... Why the hell did you agree to do this? I mean, to actually invite one of them in here? It's so crazy. It's like lettin' in the Devil himself."
"Listen, if you're gonna keep goin' on like this, I'm gonna have to ask you to sit this one out. I got everything. Under. Control."
Steve Newlin, now the leader of the Fellowship of the Sun since the recent death of his father, reined in the look of sheer irritation he had been about to give his wife, Sarah. Instead, he flashed her a brilliant, reassuring smile; one that the viewers of his television broadcast would have been very familiar with.
"What time is it now?" Sarah asked as she scurried after him towards his office. She was more scared then she would care to admit, but the thought of a vampire, the thing they detested the most, coming into their church and spreading its evil around was too much to bear.
Steve paused and looked at her, his irritation chomping at the bit once more.
"It's 6:58," he told her, glancing at his watch.
"Good. So we still have about five or ten minutes."
"That is, if it decides to show up. Who knows if these things actually have the ability to keep appointments," he chuckled, "Or if they even have the nerve to come near us."
The clock that sat on the wall above his desk struck seven o'clock, giving off a pleasant melody. Sarah would have enjoyed the sound if wasn't for the sudden eruption of voices and footsteps coming from the hallway outside. The door to the office swung open, revealing a pale-faced young man. In one hand he held a crossbow loaded with a wooden stake, while the other hand was nervously tapping his thigh.
"She's here," he announced, before glancing to the left, down the hallway outside and taking a few steps in the opposite direction, eyes wide.
Steve stood up from behind his desk and Sarah did the same from her seat in front of it, her expression quite similar to that of the so-called 'Soldier of the Sun' that had just left. But he was one of many 'soldiers'; two of their more brave boys stepped up to the office door, flanking their guest.
"Reverend Newlin, Mrs. Newlin. My name is Persephone. Thank-you for seeing me."
Steve woke up in a state of disarray. He glanced at his wife, who was asleep beside him, and then tried to recall the dream he had been having. Ah, yes; the vampire. That fucking abomination that they had allowed into their place of prayer. Why had she, (No, 'it', his subconscious whispered), suddenly appeared in his dreams (nightmares)?
That unfortunate meeting had been months ago, not long after his father's death; a fact that he found highly suspicious. All he had wanted to do was humor the thing; maybe even get some more material for his sermons...or perhaps get a shot at ridding the world of one more piece of evil. And, sure, it had been interesting to meet, in the same kind of way that it would be 'interesting' to meet a serial killer.
Maybe she would have been nice if she was human (It. If it was a human). She hadn't threatened them or spoken disrespectfully. She had only seemed intent on keeping some sort of peace between them.
No. What was he thinking? He shook the thought from his mind. He really needed to do more services and less travelling; he was spending way too much time with the general public. Those damn vampire-loving breeders of evil; just like that stupid blonde bitch and the vampire-fucker, Hugo, who were both well-secured in the basement below the church. And the joke was on them, all of them. They were the ones that would have to answer to God when their time came. He on the other hand, was pretty much guaranteed a spot behind those pearly white gates.
With this thought in mind and a smile planted firmly on his face, he closed his eyes and found that it was easy to drift back into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.
While the Reverend slept, Persephone sat up in her bed. She had been resting, but now she felt something wasn't quite right.
Sam.
It was almost like déjà vu, only this time she wouldn't even be able to visit him to make sure that he was okay. She began looking for her phone. She could at least call him.
She found it in the pocket of a pair of jeans she had left discarded on the floor of her room after the first night of her arrival. She was silently grateful that they had exchanged numbers during their brief two weeks of a somewhat peaceful relationship. MISSED CALL: ERIC flashed on the screen when she opened it, but she ignored the notification. In a matter of seconds, she had called Sam, waiting patiently for him to answer. His voice came on the line, but it was just his pre-recorded message. She tried the number for Merlotte's, but once again no one answered. Someone was bound to be there on a Thursday night, surely.
"Who ya calling?"
She hung up the phone and tossed it onto her bed, her thumb and forefinger rubbing her forehead but offering no relief, merely an old habit when she was concerned by something.
Stan stood in the doorway, blood dripping down his neck and covering his mouth and chin.
"Saved you some, in case you were hungry," he told her when she didn't answer his question.
"No thanks."
"Aw, come on. You haven't eaten since you got here."
"I don't need to feed as much as you do," she said, staring down at black carpet. He stepped towards her and put his arm around her, the blood from his hand smearing over the bare skin of her shoulders.
"Cheer up, Pers. Won't be long before things are the way they should be."
"You mean 'back the way they should be'," she said, eyeing him with suspicion.
"Sure."
"As your maker, I command you to answer this truthfully. Did you have any part in Godric's disappearance?"
Stan let go of her and took a step forward, chuckling at the question. He spun around to face her, smiling, but with an almost hurt look in his eyes. He couldn't care less about Godric; hell, good riddance he said. But knowing that it would cause her so much grief? He would never do anything to provoke that. You could say that it was the one thing he and Eric had in common; neither of them could stand seeing her hurt.
"No. Hell, no. Why would you even ask me something that?"
She raised an eyebrow at him, a clear indication that she knew him too well; that was why she would ask him something like that. Her expression softened and she looked down at her arm, where he had left a few smears of blood. She wiped at it before licking the residue off of her finger.
"A-negative?" she asked.
"Your favourite."
It hadn't made her feel any hungrier, so she declined his invitation when he offered it again. She wondered how Eric was, especially after his reaction the night before. It was understandable that he had left in such a troubled state after what she had told him; she only hoped that it didn't change their relationship. She didn't care if she was older than he and Godric, she liked the way he acted around her; natural, relaxed, without restraint.
"So...how 'bout it?" Stan asked as he cleaned the remainder of the blood from his face.
" 'How 'bout it?' You're joking, right? That's how you ask a lady to bed? Your manners are by far the worst I have ever had the unfortunate chance of encountering."
"Was that a 'yes' or a 'no'?"
"No."
"You're practically naked anyway. Might as well," he said, as though it were only logical.
"Do I have to use my makership over you?"
She sounded like a mother talking to a stubborn child, which in a way she was, but this is not to be considered in the same way a human-family relationship would be. For very obvious reasons.
"Hm. Oh, yeah, Eric called before. Don't worry, Isabel talked to him, not me. He said that Isabel's breather and the other one-"
"Hugo and Sookie," Persephone said.
"Yeah, whatever. He said that they left this afternoon but they haven't been heard from since. Isabel's having a fuckin' shit-fit over it. 'What if they found out they're working for vampires and they killed them?'," he said, doing a very poor impersonation of a female voice that she guessed was supposed to sound like Isabel, "You wanna go and tell her to calm the fuck down? Or should I?"
Moments later, the four of them, (yes, the four; Persephone didn't like the idea of leaving Stan alone when he knew where she, Isabel and Eric were going, so she made him tag along), were standing on the property that belonged to the Fellowship of the Sun. They had broken into pairs in order to be less easy to spot, but since they were all dressed in black and there were barely any lights around them in the pitch darkness, it was hard enough to see them as it was.
"This is the Fellowship of the Sun?" Eric asked Isabel, with whom he'd been partnered, "A bunch of scared little boys armed with crossbows and bibles?"
Standing out the front of the main building, the one that housed 'the Sanctuary', in which all of the church services were held, were a few members of the Soldiers of the Sun. This was the Newlins' idea of protection from vampires, but they clearly didn't know a whole lot about what they were dealing with; if any of the vampires that were watching them at that moment wanted to, they could get past them and get whatever they wanted from inside in a human heartbeat.
"Don't underestimate them," Isabel replied, "Support for their movement is growing. Their leadership camps are overflowing with self-righteous extremists, all willing and ready to die for their cause."
"That can be arranged," Eric smiled.
Towards the other side of the church, Stan and Persephone observed the humans like kids observing an ant nest. They had both been there before, but the population of the congregation looked as though it had multiplied a dozen times since then. Stan was getting restless just watching them; it was taking every bit of restraint he had to keep from launching some sort of attack. And he knew that if he couldn't control himself, Persephone certainly could.
"What are we doing here?" he asked her, glancing in the direction of Eric and Isabel.
"Observing."
"Observing what, exactly?"
"Your inability to stop asking questions."
"Hardy-ha-ha."
"Why is Stan here?" Eric asked Isabel, turning his attention away from the other two vampires and back to the church.
"He is like an infant. He can't go unsupervised for longer than a few minutes."
"I don't understand Persephone sometimes. Have you ever asked what compelled her to turn him?"
"Have you ever asked Godric why he turned you?"
Isabel had a valid point; a maker's choice was theirs alone, not something to be questioned. It was disrespectful. Like asking someone's parents why they hadn't opted for an abortion.
"Hugo and Sookie have been in there for too long," he commented, changing the subject.
"Persephone thinks that no harm will have come of them. She may be right. I did feel something before from Hugo, but it has passed."
"Tell me, what is it that you find so fulfilling about human companionship?"
Isabel smiled, thinking of Hugo.
"They feel much more strongly than we do. Everything is urgent, exciting. Maybe because their lives are so temporary."
"Yes, they certainly don't keep well," Eric agreed, "Don't you find the idea of him growing old, sickly and crippled, somewhat repulsive?"
"No. I find it curious. Like a science project. Persephone found a human while she was away?" Isabel asked, guessing that this was the reason he was suddenly so interested in vampire/human relationships.
"She may have. That's her business."
Isabel gave a knowing nod, not fooled by his attempt at a detoured answer. She glanced back over at Stan and Persephone, whom she could hear talking. They were keeping their voices very low, at least the human equivalent of low, but the other vampires didn't have a lot of trouble picking up the scratchy sounds of chatter.
"Do you really believe that these fools could overpower someone such as Godric and hold him captive for so long?" Eric asked her.
Eric was still disturbed by Persephone's chilling comment, 'He doesn't want to be found'. He couldn't shake the terrible foreboding that such a statement induced within him.
"Stan is sure of it. Persephone...Well, she is always hard to read in matters like this. But I have known Godric a long time. It's hard to imagine that anything could overpower him."
Not that hard, Eric thought, looking over at Persephone, who was now approaching them.
"Not anything human," he said instead, to Isabel.
"Let's say we get the fuck outta here," Stan suggested, "My fangs are starting to itch."
Persephone caught Eric's gaze and held it for a moment, trying to deduce his mood. He turned away before she could find anything that might actually reveal what he was really feeling.
"Where's Bill? I thought he would have wanted to come here tonight for Sookie's sake," she asked as they began moving back towards the Hotel Carmilla to discuss their next move.
"He couldn't make it," Eric told her.
For a vampire, he was a very poor liar.
