Chapter 10:
Flight was a gift both Eric and Mia took for granted and thought nothing of the sensations it brought on. To the rest of the group, it was an extremely unpleasant experience, even Bill felt uncomfortable as they landed, but this could be attributed to his prolonged intimate proximity to Eric. Sookie and Jason were shivering, chilled to the bone from their journey through the night air. They had arrived in the parking lot outside Fangtasia, Eric lead the way to the back door, not wishing to deal with the crowd in the bar.
"You're sure we're safe here?" Jason asked with urgency in his voice.
"For the time being yes. I have a superb security system in place, if she comes anywhere near us, we'll know. It should at least give us enough time to rest, and plan the next step." With his final statement Eric turned to Mia who had been silent, since their departure from Bill's house; her fingers were tracing absently along the spine of the book she held.
"And relay all pertinent information." He said, his eyes locked on the top of her bowed head. At these words she lifted her gaze to look at him. Some of the clouds seemed to have left her vision, she nodded her consent to him.
"Of course, let us not waste any more time." She stated. Eric noted how her speech became more formal when she was scared, it made her sound like Godric. Shaking that thought away Eric opened up the steel door and ushered in the small group.
In the back of the club, the music was muffled to a persistent pounding as if the building had a heartbeat. Here Eric kept a small apartment, for guests, with a basement room for himself. As he brought the group into the small, simple living room, his eye caught the bed in the room beyond. He wished he could banish all companions but one and just collapse carefree onto the mattress; but instead he again turned his thoughts back to the task at hand.
"Some refreshments?" Eric asked, gesturing to the stacks of liquor boxes and bags of bar snacks, inventory for the club. Cases of Tru Blood covered one whole wall. Bill opened a bottle of O negative, Jason mumbled something about a nearby McDonald's but ripped open a bag of peanuts. Sookie stared at both of them the question in her eyes clear: "How can you be hungry at a time like this?"
"One of the funny and infallible truths about living." Eric said, interpreting Sookie's glance and sidling up behind her. "Those annoying needs pop up even at the most climactic of times. It's not like the movies dear Sookie, can't tell you how many people I've witnessed with a life and death situation impending and their first priority is finding a bathroom." His eyes darted over to Mia whose gaze had wandered to Jason's neck. "Or a food source." He left the aggravated blonde who was about to come up with a snappy comeback of her own, but all his attention was now solely on the hungry vampire before him.
"Tru Blood?" He asked, whisking a bottle out of a cardboard case and holding it temptingly in front of her face. She grimaced at the scent.
"I prefer to eat organic." She replied brushing back his hand and the offending bottle. "But I will do without for now, we need to get to work."
Mia crossed to the center of the room, a low coffee table was set in front of a white leather couch, all had elegant clean lines, much like their owner she noted. She set the book down on the table opening it to a page near the middle. The group peered over her shoulder but none could decipher what they saw. Hieroglyphs were printed, intricately and neatly in long vertical rows down both pages, the borders over each page were surrounded in pictograms, but again too small for anyone to see what they portrayed.
"A fire would be helpful" Mia requested. This was easy to accommodate, a fireplace was set in the wall opposite the coffee table, gas powered. With the flick a switch the flames leapt to life filling the room with a warm glow and causing shadows to dance gleefully about. Eric also turned of the overhead bulb, it gave the room a more mystical quality and seemed better suited to their purpose.
"Godric informed you about our history together yes?" Mia inquired. The group all nodded their answer. She gestured to them to join her sitting around the table, and they did so. Sookie sat to Mia's left and Bill beside her, holding his human's hand tight. Across from Bill Jason perched, next to Eric who placed himself on Mia's right.
"I wish to fill in the gap in his memory, the time from his departure to my imprisonment in my stone form, I think it will shed some light on what were dealing with."
"How?" Jason asked bluntly, but Sookie shushed him. She was just as curious but wanted Mia to carry on.
"I am not skilled in the ways of spinning a tale as my sire, I also do not think I have the credibility of honesty that he does, so we shall ensure that you are able to perceive this story in its raw form and glean your own truth from it.
"What?" said Jason, even more confused now. Mia smiled at him.
"I am going to show you history, not tell you." She stated simply. Then her eyes shifted down onto the text in front of her, muttering softly to herself.
"Ah, here it is." She said a few moments later, she lifted her head taking in each person around her.
"Please hold hands." They obeyed
"Now, I need you all to chant together, you must say this both in your heads, hearts and mouths. Sookie please open up your mind and listen to everyone, make sure we speak as one. We say:
Sah-yana yah-tra
trih-tee-rah nih-yah-nuh
pik-ah-nay ha-la-kah
path-ah-nah "
Mia chanted in a lilting singsong voice, it sounded both beautiful and scary.
"What is it that?" Bill asked a slight tone of apprehension in his voice. "I can concentrate better if I know what it is I am saying."
"Roughly translated it means: Illuminate the journey, flood light upon the chosen inner eye. Essentially it's asking the powers to let us travel through time and space into the mind and memory of one. That person is me, and if I concentrate hard enough we should all hopefully be transported."
"Is it safe?" Sookie asked, her eyes big.
"No, nothing that is important is every really safe, but put your heart at ease, the danger and the cost is mostly focused on me as it is my mind we wish to enter. Think of it for you like…" She paused rifling through the memories she adopted from Godric for an adequate reference. "It is similar to what the gentleman Scrooge experiences in 'A Christmas Carol'."
"I guess if that sweet little Ghost of Christmas Past can survive it so can we" Sookie said, trying to sound braver than she felt. Bill lovingly squeezed her hand. She returned his gaze then took a deep breath. "Ok then, let's give this a shot, Mia you're going to have to say that rhyme for us one more time."
Together the group sat and muttered for the better part of an hour. It seemed like nothing was happening except leg cramps in the humans for sitting on the hard floor for so long. Mia's jaw was set with grim determination. She felt the pull but something was grounding them, she could not take the whole group into her mind.
"We must chant and think as one!" She barked at them.
"We are!" Jason snapped back, grumpy and aching.
"It's not enough to be in rhythm, we must breath together, move together, one heart, one mind one body-" Mia stopped short her rant. Her eyes shot up and looked at Bill.
"You gave me your blood to heal from the church fire correct?" She asked quickly
"Yes…" He responded back, having no idea what that had to do with what was going on now. "And Eric you and I have tasted each other." She said this as a statement of fact, not a question. His lips twitched at the memory of their intimate relations.
"But the Stackhouses have never had my blood, nor I theirs. I am not human I have no mortal soul inside me to attach to, my one connection is through blood." Quick as lightening Mia dropped Sookie's hand and bit her own wrist, she placed the bloody appendage in front of Sookie's mouth.
"Drink" she commanded
"What!" Sookie cried out, backing away and getting to her feet. "No way! I know about the vampire-human blood connection, I am Bill's and only Bill's and no other vamp is getting their way into my thoughts and feelings!"
The rest of the group stood, but Mia put her hand up into the air stopping any of them from advancing on Sookie.
"Let me speak with Sookie and Jason this is between us." She said, still sitting on the floor. Eric and Bill moved to the other side of the room, while Jason joined his sister together looking down at Mia.
"I understand I ask a great deal. This is powerful connection, one I have only had with one other and I know the weight of it. I hope you can understand I do this now to only help us in this time of need, and I swear to never take advantage of the feelings of yours that I will share. As for the dreams, Sookie you are in love with Bill so the occasional dream about another woman will not distract you from your male lover, and Jason…well let's not deny that those dreams were going to happen anyway." She wore a wicked little grin as Jason blushed.
"I don't know too much about this connection y'all are talking about but if this will help save our town and Gran's house, then yeah I'll do it. Hell I already had a dude vampire suckin' on my arm so this can't be worse cuz your're so pretty." He gave Mia a sheepish grin, she returned it.
"Will it be like when I did 'V'? Like will it be a high like that?" He asked
"In some ways yes, but more lucid, no hallucinations. I am drawing you into me as well so there will be a balance. Sookie, what do you say?" She turned to the girl who had stayed silent and stiff against the wall during all of this.
"I want your promise that whatever happens now, whatever we learn you will do everything in your power to help us get rid of Maryann. And that you and Eric will leave me and Jason and Bill alone when this is all done."
"Agreed." Mia stated soberly. With a little nod of her head Sookie went to the she-vamp and pressed her lips against the gash in Mia's wrist. Mia's eyes closed as Sookie drew in a mouthful. When Sookie released she subconsciously flicked out her tongue to catch any stray drop, licking at Mia's wound, causing her to shudder. The two women's eyes caught at this, for the first time Mia looked vulnerable to Sookie.
"And now if I may have some of you." Mia requested. Sookie held out her arm. Mia took Sookie's hand gently in her own. Instead of biting into the offered wrist she barely pricked the tip of Sookie's thumb, and sucked a few drops into her mouth. All the men were watching, jaws open breath frozen.
"Thank you." Mia said huskily. Sookie nodded her reply then got up and went straight to Bill, he held her close but could not resist kissing her on her quivering mouth, after the arousing exchange between her and Mia.
"My turn." Jason said his voice halfway between anxious and excited. Mia held her wrist to his mouth. He clasped her wrist above the wound with his right arm holding it steady as he took several deep swallows. It was clear he liked the taste, Mia had to pull back her arm from him, before he got too greedy. At this Eric growled a bit in the back of his throat a warning to the eager young man to be careful. Jason took the hint and dropped has grasp on Mia's arm, his sheepish grin back on his face.
"Ok, you gonna drink from my elbow wrist or thumb?" He asked, half joking. Mia was licking a trail of blood off of her fore-arm, Jason was not as neat as his sister. When she looked up her tongue flicked out, glistening bright red as if she had just finished a cherry lollipop, and slid over her gleaming teeth. She crooked a finger at him and Jason, as if bewitched, immediately stepped close to her, craning his head to one side to offer her his fully exposed jugular. Mia pressed her lips against the fragile skin over the pulsing vein and let out a long breath that sent shivers of goose bumps all over his body. As she exhaled her fangs slid out, cutting into his flesh as smooth and as swift as a hot knife through butter. He gasped at the initial puncture and his body bucked slightly, as his eyes rolled back in his head. He was enjoying this.
Mia's eyes flashed open as she drew his blood into her body. She looked over Jason's shoulder directly at Eric. He returned her gaze with a less-than-happy expression. At this she removed her fangs from the boys neck and slid her tongue, still bright red and sticky, over his wound. Jason stood there blinking, dazed and not quite sure what to do. Eric took the boy by the shoulders and made him sit down at the coffee table again, a bit more roughly than he needed to.
He couldn't help it, watching this last exchange had made him outright jealous, and that upset him. He hadn't felt the sway of another over him since Godric, it made him nervous that she could illicit such reactions from him, even indirectly.
As if sensing his tension, Mia placed a hand on Eric's forearm, pulling him gently to rejoin them sitting in the circle. Before he did so, he took her hand in his and turned it over, this was her right wrist and though the wound didn't ooze blood any more it was still an open sore. He bent over it and licked it clean, slowly and thoroughly until it had closed itself. It was a petty move, a possessive move but she did not resist. As he finally sat down he caught Sookie's gaze across from him, she arched her eyebrows at him but did not say what she was thinking, Eric was grateful for that.
The group rejoined hands and began the chant they all knew so well now. On their third time through the short saying they could feel something happening. All eyes opened and focused on the book set in front of Mia. She was the only one not looking now, her eyes screwed shut in intense concentration. The flickering firelight on the drawn images gave them the sense that they were moving, even dancing. The images were more visible now, as if they had all put on glasses. The could clearly see figures moving, carrying trays along the edge of the page, turning at the corners to continue their journey along the next edge. A humming, became prominent, ebbing a flowing like a tide inside their ears. Jason heard a rustle behind his left shoulder. Startled he stopped mid chant and broke his gaze away from the performance on the pages to see what had crept up behind him. He was looking directly at Mia
She was walking toward him, an elegant, powerful walk with a hint of arrogance. She wore a long sleeveless linen shift dyed deepest black that hugged close to her form. A woven sash a vibrant purple, wrapped twice around her abdomen then tied in the front, the loose ends hung down in the folds of the dress and sashayed between her moving legs smoothly and silently. Atop her head was the crown of royal women, the Vulture Cap. A golden headdress, the head of the vulture staring forward at the top of her forehead, it's body laying along her crown and it's wings fully extended down each side of her pale face just behind the ears. In contrast her hair was starkly black, cut in a thick blunt bob just below her chin, bangs were cut as severely just above her eyebrows. Beads of gold were tied into the locks. Her final adornment was the golden cuff, it's current form now damaged and attached to Sookie's wrist.
As she got closer the rustle of her skirt brought in a breeze from outside, the wind caused Jason to shut his eyes again, breathing in the scent carried to him by the wind. It was the unmistakable smell of water, as if they were on a lakeshore or riverbank. Opening his eyes he craned his neck to follow the path of Mia, and was amazed to watch her walking down a long corridor of limestone. He could now see the whole group, still seated, and the Mia he knew included, awash in the moonlight of an Egyptian palace hall.