Family

X.

By 1 am the house was crowded with vampires. At least 20 of them, in addition to our group of four. I held my position near the doorway of the library with Polly, chatting with her. I learned she was one of two children and that her brother was really messed up from service in the war and was currently in a treatment facility. It made me think of Terry. I knew she had gotten a business management degree from UA at Little Rock and was working on an MBA program online. I knew her favorite color was purple, Faith Hill was her favorite singer and that she thought Victor's sense of humor was his best feature. That she'd picked out his suit and the rose colored shirt he was wearing this evening. That she thought Victor had an incredible fashion sense and when she first met him she thought he had to be gay to dress that well. She knew Victor had done something to her memories and she wondered if I knew what he tried to erase (that was a hard one to evade her on). She was sure they had been together for at least seven months but had trouble remembering, so she was sure she had been glamoured. He said he'd make it up to her, but what she really wanted were her memories back. She also pumped me for information about whether vampires really stuck with their humans longer than they did with their made children, because Victor had evidently told her that he had absolutely no intention of making her a vampire when she asked him again. She was sure she'd asked him before but couldn't remember that clearly either. We talked about sire/child bonds and how you sometimes got a bad surprise when you made a vampire or that a sire and child could end up hating each other. I talked to her, without mentioning names, about the Bill and Lorena saga which had played out right in this very compound as example of how wrong the sire/child bond could go.

After a while I felt Eric's interest drawn by Jonathan's entry into the Library. Jonathan was wearing a black jacket, which zipped up high. It was impossible to see what he was wearing underneath it. To my amazement, Mrs. Hodges entered the room and asked various guests if they would like to give her their coats and jackets. Jonathan unzipped but not facing me. I was on pins and needles. He carefully removed the jacket, finally revealing a mint green raw silk shirt. My eyes were huge. Eric glanced at me and then at Victor. My heart was pounding. Eric sent me warm and fuzzies from across the room. Stay calm, Sookie, stay calm.

Although I stayed loosely listening to Polly chatter on, I tried to stealthily feel out Jonathan, who had originally been in Felipe's employ and one of the scouts sent to investigate me when Felipe was taking over Louisiana. When Victor took Mississippi, Jonathan had worked with him and had stayed with Victor. I wasn't sure how that worked, since he had sworn fealty to Felipe. There were certain subtleties to vampire allegiances that I didn't quite get and sometimes, as in the case of Victor, sworn allegiance might mean little. Jonathan had always seemed a relatively innocuous character. In fact I was surprised that Victor had kept him on because Jonathan was small, and not in my estimation particularly skilled, as I remembered his trying to glam me ardently when standing outside near my car after Halleigh and Andy Bellefleur's wedding. That night was the first time I'd seen my grandfather. I reflected on the fact that when Jonathan followed after me, my grandfather had appeared behind him. Niall really had wanted to keep me safe… No matter how upset I was with him, I knew that was the truth.

My cautious forays into Jonathan's mind were slow work. He seemed to be a very odd thinker. Maybe it was a language thing, I couldn't tell. I tried to scope out if he was really on Victor's side and couldn't really get much out of him. It almost seemed as if he liked Victor as in the attracted to him sense. But it was very confused. He seemed very watchful and was also keeping an eye on Eric, which made me think that he was up to something. Eric was the oldest vampire in the house, the biggest, and even though Victor was the King, Eric was the most powerful in the physical sense. If Jonathan was keeping tabs on Eric it was either because Eric was an impediment, or Eric might guarantee safety. I just couldn't tell which was the case. Why would Jonathan be glad that Eric was there to keep us all safe?

About twenty minutes later, it started. A vampire I'd never seen before wheeled around and lunged at Victor with a wooden knife. Victor deftly avoided the wooden blade and spun to grab his silver daggers from the wall and went at his attacker. But then there were three more out of the group who started to move forward. I grabbed Polly and made her stand behind me, bracing her against the wall. She peered around me, straining to see Victor, filled with fear for him. Eric snatched the sword of the wall and dispatched two of the attackers from behind, then surveyed the room to ascertain there were no more with the four. The remaining two were still after Victor and none of the Mississippi vampires appeared to go after them to defend Victor. In a flash Jonathan moved to Victor's side as if to assist him and Victor said something to Eric about these two definitely being Hanson's men. Just as Jonathan queried "Who's Hanson?" he was stabbed with a wooden knife by the second vampire, who was trying to work his way to Victor. Poor Jonathan. He tried to protect Victor. Victor stabbed the vamp who got Jonathan but didn't kill him. This one was going to be alive for questioning. I cringed to think about it. Eric had already taken out the fourth man. Victor looked at the Mississippi vampires around the room. They had not come to his aid. Other than Jonathan, who was already starting to flake, his lone supporter had been the Area 5 sheriff from Louisiana, who was his guest. Betty Jo looked taken aback but hadn't even lifted one of her well-manicured hands to help Victor.

Eric stood with his hands on the sword, which was point down into the carpet. He nodded to Victor and then looked at me and at Polly and gestured that we should leave. I took Polly's hand and went to the kitchen. Mrs. Hodges and I drank tea while trying to keep Polly distracted. I really didn't want to think about what was going on in that room. I had clearly foreseen six dead vampires in my vision and when we left there were only four dead. There were a bunch of rather disloyal Mississippi vamps, and an injured one who was likely not going to be around for very long. After about 45 minutes, Mrs. Hodges informed me that I was wanted in the library and suggested that Polly should stay with her. I was now certain that she had some kind of telepathy thing going with Victor, even if her telepathy wasn't exactly like mine.

I moved quietly across the house and heard… sounds I was not to fond of hearing. I cringed near the doorway to the library and called out for Eric. He came to the doorway. His shirt sleeves were rolled up and he looked like he had been busy.

"We need you to 'interview' a few people."

This did not sound like something I was interested in doing. Was this the pre-torture interview? The post-torture and we really can't quite scope you out yet interview? The last chance before we kill you interview? No, it was the interview that Sookie Northman was not going to do.

I shook my head. "I just don't think I can get involved in this, Eric. Whatever you're doing in there, you know that's not me. I can't do this stuff. I'm sorry."

"You're already involved, and you're the one that wanted Victor safe, right? We'll bring them out to you."

I really didn't like this idea. I was sure I couldn't do it.

Eric chose wisely. The first person he pulled out was Betty Jo. It looked like she had been slapped around a bit but she had started healing. It still freaked me out though. She looked at me wide eyed. She was one of the first vamps outside of my Louisiana vampire friends who knew I could read vamp minds. So Betty Jo had been afraid of me since Memphis. I had saved her life in Jackson several years ago but what she remembered of me was that I could plow through her mind and that that I had scared Isaiah of Kentucky within an inch of his dead life and incinerated someone in the supe court in Madison. She was looking at me as if she wondered if she was better off back in that room.

"I didn't have anything to do with it, Sookie. Tell them I didn't have anything to do with it." She was very frightened and I was her one chance.

I touched her forearm gently and looked into her. Her fangs came down at my touch and she met my eyes with her own. Of course, she really hadn't had a thing to do with it. But I was more curious about why she hadn't come to Victor's aid. Was she hoping to take over if Victor was killed? Nope. Betty Jo had come to the conclusion that Victor had quite the reputation for screwing people over and she wasn't sure she was willing to risk herself to save her new King if he'd just throw her under the bus whenever it was convenient. The chickens had finally come home to roost… Victor had done all this work to get this amount of power and now no one trusted him enough to work for him in any serious capacity. The every man for himself attitude was prevailing in Victor's regime. That must have been what Victor was sensing was the big problem all along.

"She's fine," I said to Eric. I gestured her to the other side of the room as if telling her to go stand away from us and away from the library. "Can you please tell Victor I need to talk to him?"

Eric went back into the room and I saw him pick up the charming sword again and it appeared he must be pointing it at a group of people while speaking to Victor.

Victor appeared in the doorway with a vampire who had an improvised bandage over his left hand. Or should I say where his left hand would have been. I felt nauseated just looking at him. Regrowth of appendages was supposed to be very painful.

Victor ignored my reaction and just pointed his dagger at the vampire, who was very young when turned, and looked like he thought his end was near. I guess Victor assumed I would just read this guy for him and tell him whether to kill him or not? The vampire looked rather apprehensive of me.

"I'm not going to hurt you," I said softly, looking him in the eyes.

I didn't even have to touch this one to see what he was thinking. He was thinking that Victor was turning out to be not that much better than Russell. He hadn't moved to do anything because Betty Jo hadn't and he trusted her not Victor. There was fealty and then there was trust. Without trust, fealty was just a bunch of words.

"Victor, while I sympathize with your situation, I'm just not going to go reading people one by one so you can find out which ones you want to kill, okay?"

Come to think of it, other than Eric and Victor, I could now only see six vampire minds including Betty Jo, and there had to have been at least another ten who were in the room when Polly and I had left it. I looked at Victor partly not comprehending this. They had killed fourteen vampires in that room? Bloodshed indeed.

Victor returned my gaze as if he knew exactly what I was thinking and there was nothing much wrong with what he'd been doing. "They weren't loyal. With these remaining, we aren't sure. Really, if you can't tell me, I'm thinking I'm getting rid of all of them." He looked over at Betty Jo as if wondering why I had her apart from the others. He gestured to the vampire next to him to go back into the library to Eric. The guy was crazy desperate to get out of the house and out of Mississippi. Victor continued to eye Betty Jo.

I glanced over at Betty Jo. How was she going to be assured that Victor wouldn't do to her what he had pretty much been doing most of his vampire life? And how would he have the loyalty of the remaining Mississippi vamps without Betty Jo stepping up? She'd been here a long time. She might not be my fan, but I knew she was damn good at her job and an asset to Victor's state. But I certainly could give her no reason to believe things might be different with Victor this time. This was an unqualified mess that I wanted absolutely no part of.

In a very low voice I said "Victor, I just can't help you the way you want to be helped. Your reputation has gotten you to this point and I really don't know what to tell you. No one trusts you. Your big personnel problem is because no one trusts you. You screw over everyone and they all know it. Now I need to talk to Eric again and I'm not going in that room."

Victor gave me a look like he thought I was just being dramatic, but he went back into the library to get Eric. Eric came out carrying the sword and looked back into the room as I tried to pull him off to the side, near the stairwell. There was blood on the sword. Yuck.

"I don't know what the two of you are doing in there but I'm not getting any further involved. What I will tell you is this- part of Victor's problem with his vampires is Betty Jo. Betty Jo doesn't trust Victor because she's too well-informed. She's heard all about Victor's tactics and figures it's not worth it for her to risk herself if he's likely to turn around and do something to her like he's done to everybody else. But if he gets rid of her, he's done with his entire state's crew because they all follow her. So he needs to figure out how to turn over a new leaf. And I'm going back to the kitchen because I really don't want any part of this. Did he really kill another ten vampires in there Eric?" I looked up at him. Oh my God. They both did it, I could see. Geez. Eric looked completely unperturbed as if it was all in a days work. He sensed my revulsion.

"They were a risk to his operation, Sookie. They had to go if they weren't willing to stand for him." I could tell he was thinking I was just never going to come to terms with some aspects of the vampire way. He was so right… I was just not a bloodshed and maiming kind of person.

"You know, no one in their right mind will work for him if he doesn't figure out a better way, Eric. He's going to have to start turning people just to have the manpower to run this state if he continues on this path. He can't just kill everyone because he suspects them. It's immoral. It's disgusting." The sad fact was, though, that as King of his state, he could whatever he wanted with those serving him. I turned away without waiting for a reply, grabbed Betty Jo, and went back to the kitchen.

Polly looked at me walk in with Betty Jo and she thought about going back to Victor.

"Don't. Just don't. It's really ugly in there and it will just upset you. Just.. stay here."

Polly now looked at me as if she was finally seeing, maybe because of Victor's blood, that there was something really different about me. She could see I'd read her thoughts and all that stuff with pinning things to the wall. I was nice, but what the hell was I? And she still didn't want to believe my reply to her.

"What's so bad?"

"Um, let's just say there's been some attrition in the Mississippi ranks."

"Why?"

"It seems there were some concerns about loyalty."

"Well then good. Victor should kill them, any of the ones who didn't help him. They deserve it if they won't stand up for him," she said with a classic Little Rock accent.

In addition to the fact that one of those that didn't come to his aid was sitting right next to me, I was rather amazed that Polly thought it was fine to just start killing people because they didn't step up. Maybe she really was Victor's ideal partner. My own thoughts were I in her shoes would have been along the lines of 'there but for the grace of God go I….' But hey, that's just me. I glanced next to me, at Betty Jo, who was sitting as if she was constrained in silver.

"So what do you want to do Betty Jo? Stay, go?"

"I've lived here for over a hundred years. But I just don't know if I can stay." She glanced over at me with one of those vampire cool assessment looks. "He told me he kept me because of you. That otherwise he would have killed me. Is that true?"

I hesitated. "I told him once I knew that he was planning the takeover that if he did anything disgusting to you that I wouldn't forgive him for it. You know, a la Pam." She shuddered as I said that. "No- Victor isn't a cruel person, Betty Jo. But he definitely had… a reputation made for himself by the time he got to this point. The fact is that he needs a loyal second desperately. He can import people but that's the luck of the draw. You know the state, you know the operations. You should have a position of advantage. You need to play it right. It's possible to stay but look after your own interests as well. You could build it into an agreement or something."

Eric and Victor came into the kitchen, with their respective sword and daggers and looked at Betty Jo. At least they'd cleaned the blades, I thought to myself. I looked up at them with narrowed eyes and scowled. "She's trying to decide whether she's staying or leaving and you had both better let her decide."

I looked at Eric. Had he and Victor killed the remaining five? No, it looked as if they were letting them go and they were cleaning up in the room.

Victor nodded in Betty Jo's direction, "She doesn't have anything to decide. She's been demoted. I'm putting her in charge of Hattiesburg and the south of the state. You're Sheriff of Area 2, Betty Jo. Either take it, or leave it. If you leave it, you're leaving the state and not coming back."

Betty Jo looked at him as if she wasn't sure he meant it. But he did. He had just forged a deal by phone with Michael Cheney, the second to the Sherrif in Baton Rouge, to leave Felipe's service in Baton Rouge and come to Mississippi. Cheney would take Area 3, the north part of Mississippi, as Sheriff. Victor would run Area 1 and several riverboat casinos himself. Betty Jo would run the south, an area which included casinos in Biloxi, Gulfport and Tunica. I'd had my suspicions that Victor was getting into human owned casino businesses and slowly taking things over. He knew the gaming industry well from his years in Las Vegas with Felipe. If memory served many of the casinos in Mississippi were owned by Harrah's, which led right back to Nevada. Harrah's was privately owned now. Victor probably had connections within Harrah's upper management. He was, no doubt, a man with a plan and this weekend had just been a bump on the road.