I keep saying I'm almost done with this but this time I really mean it. One more chapter to this little fic left with a possible short addition afterwards.
Enjoy!
………………..
Chow was dead.
He had died his final death on the battlefield at the hand of a clever witch with a very sharp wooden knife. Pam inspected it closely as she retrieved it from what remained of Chow's once decorated body, now a bloody heap of matter on the floor, and then placed inside the black plastic bag she was carrying. She had brought the bag along and was now scavenging around the room as she picked up leftovers and any incriminating evidence before she set everything aflame. It was things we would need, she had said, and she did not want to destroy something that would later be important. After all, we still needed Hallow to lift the spell she had cast on me and we would need anything we could gather.
Though we only lost Chow, there are many of our kind that are gravely wounded and need their rest. Bill had been among the lucky but he had opted to stay behind in Shreveport and take Chow's resting place for the night. I had been offered the same by Pam. Now that Hallow was no longer a threat to me, I was free to roam about as I wished though it was unadvisable until I was fully restored. Pam gave me that option before she had gone out to fetch the gasoline she would use to burn the place to the ground. It is merely suggested in passing and she is far too occupied to wait for my reply as she makes her way outside. I suppose a part of her assumes I would be all too willing to accept her offer to be back with my kind.
When she returns, she goes about covering the entire place with the liquid and the stench of it begins to fill the air. There is the smell of gasoline, magic, and death; a vile combination.
With the cries of the dying gone, there is a eerie calm the pervades the room. There is blood everywhere around me and though the sight of it is tempting, I have not forgotten the savage bloodlust nor the many times I could have perished. I could have easily been that pile of flesh and blood on the floor, no longer recognizable by anyone. Sookie had almost been killed and her escape had not gone according to Pam's plan. But in the end Pam had been right, as I hoped she would be. I had sorely misjudged Sookie's own ability to defend herself in case of danger. It was, after all, one of the main reasons why Pam trusted her to keep me safe all along.
"Feel any different now?" My lover's gentle voice lures me back from the dark thoughts that have begun to drag me down again.
I shake my head in reply and look at Hallow. The loss of blood and an effective sedative administered by Pam has rendered her weak and harmless. The death of her brother has done nothing to restore even the smallest part of me and it is all in the Pam's power to bring me back. These witches tonight had proven to be clever and I would not trust Hallow to take defeat so easily. I doubted whether she could be broken enough to fully break the curse. And I have to wonder whether I would truly be the same once everything was back to normal. Everything feels the same as it had before we had come here. Nothing had changed and I was worried that perhaps it never truly would. No matter how much Pam and the others tried to restore me, there it was again… a feeling that something crucial had changed this night.
Sookie checks her watch impatiently as she lingers around the room and though the night is far from over, she needs to rest after tonight's draining experience.
I can feel her exhaustion added with my own and I can echo her desire to return to the quiet of her home. Before she is ready to leave, I go through the back exit of the building to retrieve the jacket that I have hidden away. It is safely tucked behind an old barren tree, free of the blood and horrors of this night. It smells of wood and smoke and the lingering scent of my lover's home. I inhale the scent and anticipate our journey home.
When I go back inside the building, Sookie is no where in sight
No one seems to know where she went and they are far too occupied with cleaning up the evidence in the building to notice if a mere human has left. I wonder if she has gone away with Bill now that he has returned but remember that Bill has decided to stay in Pam's home and has already left with Bubba. Perhaps now that I am no longer in danger she has left, happy that she can move on with her normal life without me as burden. But no… though she is nowhere, I can feel that she is anything but happy.
For the first time, I am able to make a fully conscious choice on whether I should stay with my kind or go back with Sookie into an uncertain future. But it is not my kind that has cared for me or taken me in when I was weakest. It is not my kind that bathed my feet and held my hand as I lay on a stranger's bed, terrified of who I was.
The choice is an easy one.
I go outside and do not look back at the others as I walk out to search for her. She is not hard to track and I find her walking by herself in the night. Her arms are hugging her body as she shivers against the cold air of the night. Even if she does not want me, I must know from her own lips whether that is her final decision.
"You weren't there. I just looked around and you weren't there," I tell her as block her path. "Where are you going? Why didn't you tell me?"
"Please," she says as she holds up her hand and closes her eyes. "Please." Her eyelashes sparkle in the night with the first few drops of unshed tears.
"Let me go home with you. I don't know them," I beg her. Her eyes open wide as she looks up at me intently. We stand there, two lonely people in the night, staring at each other in uncertainty.
"Sure, come on," she says softly though her voice cracks as she begins to cry.
Though the walk to the car is not far, I pick her up and cradle her against me. Her tears fall silently and mix in with the blood on my shirt.
"You have blood all over you," I whisper in her ear in hopes of stopping the tears.
"Yes, but don't get excited about it. It doesn't do a thing for me," she retorts. "I just want to shower."
"You'll have to get rid of this coat now."
"I'll get it cleaned."
The magic has begun to ebb and with it my worries have gone along with it. I set Sookie down and she fumbles for her keys again, though this time her hands aren't shaking from the cold. The night has been taxing on both of us and all we desire is to go home.
The journey back to Bon Temps is peaceful and just as quiet. Though there is no one else but us inside the car, I hold back from arousing my lover until she is in a better mood. I am patient enough to wait and show her just how much I am glad that we have both made it through this evening intact once we are home.
The engine quiets as she takes the keys out of the ignition and she looks at me sideways and gives me small smile. I exit the car quickly and I am at her side as she exiting hers. Before she can say anything, I steal a kiss from her and press my body against hers in anticipation for what is to come. A sharp gust of wind distracts us and her body's shivering reminds me that she needs to remain warm. We make our way inside through the backdoor and I follow behind her, too distracted by the sway of her hips to even acknowledge to myself that I would follow her anywhere she went, as long as I went with her.
But any plans to enjoy the rest of the evening in celebration are cut short as soon as Sookie leans over to turn on the lights to her kitchen. Had I been human, I would not have been able to see Debbie Pelt sitting on the kitchen table, ready to shoot Sookie. But seeing as to how I am not, I could see the shifter clearly in the dark, sitting at the kitchen table and her gun aimed ready to kill.
Instead of wasting time in warning Sookie, I do what I must with the short time that I have been given. My quick reflexes allow me to take the bullet that was meant for my lover but I have made the mistake of letting it hit me in a critical place. Although I have saved Sookie from a mortal wound, I have been incapacitated and the shifter would soon recover from her shock at seeing me and attempt to kill Sookie again. But Pam's words ring true once more when there is sudden blast from behind me and the shifter's upper body explodes into nothing but flesh and bone.
The eerie silence that follows death fills the room and there is nothing but the quiet rumblings of the house and Sookie's labored breathing as she slides down to the floor. Meanwhile, I am consumed with an intense and burning pain in my chest as my body works at expelling the bullet that nearly pierced my heart.
"Eric," she calls out my name and I open my eyes to see her besides me as she props herself up on one elbow. Her face is a ghastly white and though she is holding her emotions back, her hands shake violently as she takes off her coat and touches her own chest for any wounds.
The searing pain that the bullet has left barely allows me to speak and I must ask her for blood. Impulsively, she raises her wrist to my lips before she thinks better of it and pulls away. Without much grace, she gets up and nearly slips on the blood that has begun to pool on the floor as she heats up a blood for me.
"Why not you?" I ask her as I try prop myself up and take the blood from her hand when she returns to my side.
"I'm sorry," she apologizes far too calmly, "I know you earned it, sweetie. But I have to have all my energy. I've got more work ahead."
While I am busy with my drink, Sookie inspects the healing wound in my chest in awe. Her warm hand lightly traces the area and the bullet that had been meant for her, lands on her hand as my body expels it. Her fingers close around it and she stuffs it into her coat pocket and looks up at me. There is a bemused expression on her face.
"Another drink?"
"Sure. How do you feel?" she asks as she takes the empty bottle from me and goes back to get me another.
"Weak." I reply.
I take the second bottle with more strength now that bullet is no longer causing me pain though I am still fairly weak. Now that I am able to fully sit upright, I can get a better look at the mess that was once Debbie Pelt.
"I know, I know, I did terrible!" Sookie bursts out in sudden emotion. "I'm so sorry!" The tears have returned and she covers her face with her hands. One of her hands is bloody from touching the bullet that was inside me as it smears her face and mixes with her tears.
"You might have died of the bullet, and I knew I wouldn't. I kept the bullet from you in the most expedient way, and then you defended me effectively."
"I killed another human," she says shaking her head in disappointment.
"You didn't," I do not intend to sound harsh but I find that it is best to let her know that she is not at fault here. "You killed a shifter who was a treacherous, murderous bitch, a shifter who had tried to kill you twice already," I add more softly. "I should have finished the job when I had her earlier. It would have saved us both some heartache; in my case, literally."
She mumbles something about a Reverend and being a good Christian. She has calmed down now and her tears have stopped.
"I was never a Christian," I tell her. "But I can't imagine a belief system that would tell you to sit still and get slaughtered."
She blinks and her eyes pierce mine again as she begins to calm down.
"Thank you, Eric," she says shortly after and kisses me on the cheek. There is a faint trace of a smile there though it does not reach her eyes. "Now you go clean up in the bathroom while I start in here."
I shake my head and get up from the floor. This is all partly my fault and I have as much to do with this as she has. The evening is full of many decisions and though I rebuke myself for not killing Debbie, I am also glad that I made the decision to follow Sookie home. Had I chosen otherwise, it would have been Sookie who would have been dead on this same floor.
I take over the task of disposing the body while Sookie takes it upon herself to clean the area. The shifter must have had a means of transportation and I search what is left of the jacket and then the pockets of her jeans until I find the keys to her vehicle. There is also a wallet and I open it up to see a picture of her and a younger girl together in a photograph. On the back of the photo, there is a short message:
Spring Break '04 was the best! Love ya sis!
With more reason now than ever, I must ensure that Debbie's body is nowhere to be found now that I know she has family that would look for her. I take any documents that could provide identification and remember to burn them once I return from burying the shifter deep into the woods.
