Chapter Twelve: Rest in Peace
After showering I headed back out into the room in my pyjamas and I saw Clara had joined us, and the three of them were chatting. Clara was sitting on Eric's legs and my guess was that he wouldn't move them when she asked, so she just sat. That was Clara for you, she never did care about the consequences of her actions, even if they included sitting on a much older Vampire's legs.
I only noticed her when I stood back up from towel drying my hair; it now puffed up from my head in messy strands, some already partially dry. At first I was startled then I smiled, "Hey Clara."
She turned and was immediately in front of me, touching the bared skin of my arms, neck and face. Her hands were cool and gentle as they made sure I was not broken until they finally rested on my cheeks, my face tilted up to look at her.
"How do you feel?"
I laughed at my sister, "I swear, if I had a nickel for every time someone's asked me that today, I'd be richer than I already am."
She laughed too, "ah, she's fine," she said this as she ruffled my hair.
Clara continued to speak as I threw my towel into the bathroom and grabbed my brush to tame the tangled mess of my hair, "So…it's a Friday night."
"Yeah? What's your point?"
"Let's continue our tradition."
I gave her an odd look; the brush paused at the crown of my head.
"Oh come on, Shae, its Friday night, neither of us are working, I don't have to sleep until sunrise, we don't have any neighbours that will be annoyed…."
I grinned widely, finally getting what she meant and I turned to Sookie, "care to join us Sook?"
"Join you in what?"
"Oh, you'll just have to wait and see."
Clara paused for a moment, "hey weren't there rules?"
"Rules?" I repeated and then nodded excitedly, "Yeah, the number one rule…." I started again and then turned to the two lounging Vampires on the couches, "No boys allowed."
"What's that supposed to mean? I don't see any boys in here." Eric drawled, not even bothering himself to look at Clara or I.
"No males allowed," Clara corrected me.
Bill gave a wary look, "I'm not so sure about this…"
"Ah don't worry about it Billy, you can leave Sookie's side for one night." I grinned, nudging him out of his seat while Clara pulled on Eric's arm. The difference between the two men was that Eric was entirely too stubborn and wouldn't leave quietly, Bill on the other hand would, but not without doubts.
"You two are grown men, entertain yourselves for one night," Clara snipped before giving Eric one last shove so he could join Bill out in the hall, she then shut the door in their faces and locked it, "alright, it's just us girls tonight, Shae, did you bring music?"
"I did," I said, then pulled a stack out of my bag.
"We've got a music system already, I'll just call room service for some food for you two, and then we'll get this party started."
As Clara disappeared Sookie turned to me, "What's going on?"
I smiled warmly at her, "Before the whole…disappearance of Clara last year we had this…ritual, I guess. Every Friday night we would take the night off and hang out together. Every light would be on in the house, and we would blast music as loud as it would go. These nights were spent dancing, and no complaint from our neighbours stopped us."
"Really?" Sookie asked, a smile tugging at her mouth.
I grinned back and nodded enthusiastically, "Oh yeah, it's so much fun. And it's just us girls, no guys, no stress, just us, the music and food."
"That's just what I need.
Clara stepped into the lounge area, still clad in her night ware and was pleasantly surprised by the back of a familiar blonde's head. She grinned to herself and made a running start before jumping over the back of the couch and landing right beside the blonde.
He jumped out of his skin and Clara laughed, "Hey Jason."
"…Hello Clara."
"Did I scare you?"
He gave her a slight glare, "No…you just startled me."
"Whatever you say," she snorted, rolling her eyes.
Clara could feel him staring at her and she pretended not to notice, but out of the corner of her eye, she watched his face.
"Like what you see?"
Again he jumped but not nearly as high, "Wh-what?"
"You were staring."
His eyes widened, "Oh… uh, I didn't…." He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, "Sorry."
Smiling, Clara punched him on the shoulder softly, "Don't worry about it. It's been known to happen."
"Besides," Clara said as an afterthought, "Shae's told me all about you."
"Oh yeah?" He smirked, he raised his eybrow, "hope it wasn't anything bad."
Clara shook her head, "nothing too bad, she basically told me that if I were a male I'd be you."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jason spoke indignantly.
Clara laughed out loud and then grinned, "It means, young grasshopper, that you and I are both infatuated with the opposite sex."
"That's all?"
"Mmhmm." She paused for a minute then spoke again, "excuse me, I'll be right back."
Jason waited patiently for her to come back and when she did she plunked an open bottle of Tru Blood on the table in front of them, and he couldn't help but stare at it.
"What?" Clara asked him.
He grimaced, "That. I don't know how anyone can drink blood… I mean, I know you have to… but it's just so gross."
Clara leaned over and grabbed the bottle by it's neck, "don't knock it until you try it," and then she took a swig from it.
Jason continued to grimace, "you're right."
Clara look at him with confusion and he didn't bother explaining himself, he took the bottle from her hands took a swig himself and then started to cough and the thickness crept down his throat, "ugh, that is gross, just like I thought it would be."
Clara stared at him in amazement and took the bottle from him, "Well now you know what it tastes like…I mean, it's not as good as it is from a live human but I don't necessarily like to take from the living."
It was Jason's turn to be confused, "Why?"
"Well for one…it's rude. Two, I didn't like it when Luke forcefully took from me; I guess I don't want to put anyone else through that pain. You know? Unless they wanted me to take from them, but even then it would take some serious persuading on their part."
"Well that's… good, I guess…" Jason appeared to be awkward.
There were a few moments of silence between the two before Jason decided to speak again.
"What's it like, being a Vampire I mean?"
Clara didn't speak immediately; her gaze was focused on something in front of her as she thought hard on how she would answer his question, but the fact of the matter is that she didn't know how to answer his question.
"I…it's hard to explain. There are days when all I want is to go back to normal. Where I can age and eat normal food and know that I need to breathe out of necessity rather than habit. Those days I have to stop myself from going back home to see my friends, and my family, I knew I couldn't go back because they wouldn't accept me, they'd make me an outcast and try to kill me. These feelings that I have for humans are so damn strong because I haven't been away from that life long enough, I still remember what the sun feels like and what iced tea on an extremely hot summer afternoon tastes like."
"But those were the days of my human life, I have to get past them and start living the life I have now, at night. So the days that I don't yearn to be completely normal again are quite similar to the ones I had before…all of this. Just everything is done at night, I drink blood instead of eat food, I'm inhumanely strong and fast and I have fangs. Now don't get me wrong, being strong and fast has its perks…"
"Like what?"
Clara leaned back against the couch and hummed to herself, "let's see, there's the fact that I don't need to depend on anyone to pick things up for me, I can defend myself better and I can win every race I enter with human competition."
Jason chuckled, "yeah, I suppose those are good things."
Clara smiled at him, "but you wanna know what the best thing about being a Vampire is?"
He raised his eyebrows as an answer and Clara smirked, "You can go for a really long time kissing someone without needing air."
Jason's eyes widened but before he could say anything people began to spill into the lounge area, causing the two of them to look around in confusion.
"DAN!" Clara called to a small blonde boy, when she grabbed his attention she waved him over.
Moving swiftly through the crowd of people he caught up to them in no time, "Hey Clara."
"What's going on?" She asked him, gesturing to the increasing crowd of people.
"The Sherrif's going to deal with that Luke character."
Noticing Clara's sudden downcast look, Jason spoke up, "If you don't want to be here, we can go upstairs or something…"
Clara gave him a look of gratitude and spoke, "no…I think I should be here…"
Dan nodded and sat down on the other side of Clara, subtly offering his help by staying with her.
From across the room, Clara caught my attention and our close bond allowed us to communicate with just our looks. I knew exactly what Clara was asking and I shrugged, shaking my head slightly. From behind me a hand touched the small of my back and I sucked in a breath then turned my head to the side.
"I'm sorry I startled you," he spoke as his breath tickled my neck.
"Its fine," I murmured, pressing my lips to Godric's cheek, "What's going on?"
He remained silent as I stared at the side of his face, "Godric?"
"I'm going to need your help in a minute."
"With what?"
He didn't need to answer me though because the doors had opened and Stan and Eric stepped in dragging a struggling Vampire between them. The crowd parted so the three of them could enter without obstacle, instantly I knew what was going on and my head whipped around to look at my sister. Her eyes had widened and she was staring at the three of them and at that instant I felt so bad for her, watching her maker go through God knows what. My attention was pulled back to the three in the middle of the crowd as Stan and Eric pushed Lucas onto his knees. He was silent during the entire assault and he continued to stare at the floor which he now kneeled upon.
No one said anything and all that was heard was Lucas's ragged but unneeded breath. Godric was silent and then he sighed, looking down upon the obviously younger vampire.
"I believe that you are not a Vampire that resides in this area, what was your purpose here?"
Lucas did not answer at first, instead he continued to look down at the ground that was until Stan decided to kick him in the ribs and Lucas was thrown to the side.
He groaned and pushed himself to his knees and this time he looked straight into Godric's eyes, "I came to find my child."
Godric quickly cut in, "And in the process you attacked a human and in this Area I will not permit that, because not only did you attack a human, but you attacked my human."
Lucas's head shot up and the two of us stared at each other and his face was in total shock, "I…I didn't know…I had no intention-."
"Not only did you harm Shaelynn, in doing so, you also hurt your own child. Not to mention that I'm quite aware on how you turned her," Godric hadn't raised his voice but his tone was of complete authority and listening to him was in your best intentions.
"I only wanted-."
"I don't really care what you wanted, forcibly turning a Human into a Vampire for your own selfish reasons has penalties."
Lucas looked from me to Godric and back again, "what penalties?"
Godric shrugged and looked behind him, "Your consequences aren't up to me. I'm leaving your fate up to Eurithe."
My head snapped in his direction and I spoke at the same time as Lucas did, "What?"
Godric walked over to me and took my hands in his, "It is her right to deal with him. She respected my authority as Sheriff when you and I both know she could have stopped him. I am giving her the chance to do so, but only with her consent."
As he spoke I was staring into his eyes and when he had finished I closed mine and sighed.
Eurithe?
What is it little one…?
Godric is asking you to-
I know what he's asking me to do, but what do you think I should do?
I don't know…but what ever you do, make sure Clara is OK with it.
I promise I will.
With those words I sighed and retreated back into my mind and not seconds later I felt her power increase and my skin became warmer than it usually was with the sudden golden light surrounding me, the tearing of skin and muscles from my back started and I let out a hiss of pain and as they came to their full size the back of my shirt was torn to shreds.
Her eyes opened to reveal the brighter orbs of gold and they swept the floor, landing upon the dark haired Vampire crouched before her, "Lucas?"
He stared up at her, his eyes widening at the sight of the large white wings and the swirling golden light that seeped from the pores of her bared skin. He did not speak and only remained sitting there with his mouth hanging open.
After a moment he swallowed and spoke shakily, "So..it is true. You actually are real."
"I am."
His eyes casted downwards, "oh shit."
"Lucas, I hope you have realized the error in your ways?"
He remained silent and Eurithe went on, "You have managed to hurt two people in one day, Lucas. Two people that I happen to care very much about, do you understand the severity of your actions?"
His head tilted up slightly but he still wouldn't look the Angel in the face, "I do," he whispered.
"I'm glad that you do, Lucas, because if you truly mean that then maybe you will be given another chance to change your ways."
"Clara?" Eurithe suddenly asked, her head turning towards the black haired girl, "I do not mean to put you on the spot but he is your maker, I want to make sure you are okay with this."
Clara stared into the face of her sister's, but the person inside definitely wasn't Shae. She then shifted her gaze to her maker who would not look at her and a pair of blood tears dribbled from her eyes, "He is my maker Eurithe, I will never be okay with it because at one time I did love him…"
At this Lucas's eyes jumped to his child's face in hope, Clara then started up again, "On the other hand he hurt my sister, and she's my world. He could have killed her…and for what? To find me, he risked hurting me forever just so he could have me back in his existence." She turned to face Lucas, "I loved you once, I really did and then you destroyed me and you ripped my heart to pieces when you abandoned me. No, Lucas, I will never love you again, so Eurithe do with him as you please, he hurt my sister and my loyalties lie with her."
"Are you certain, Clara. I do not wish to make you angry with me."
"I am definitely sure, Eurithe," Clara sniffled, "I wont endanger Shae's life ever again."
Eurithe nodded at the black haired girl and then turned her attention back to Lucas, "I believe that tonight…will be your last."
Lucas whimpered but hung his head in defeat, "Please…make it quick."
Eurithe walked over to him, crouched down and placed a hand on his shoulder, "I assure you Lucas, someone will be there on the other side waiting for you."
With that she stepped back and watched as he stood his lanky body unfolding. The two of them stared at each other until Eurithe closed her eyes and lifted a hand so it lay flat as if she was asking for something. She could not see what was happening, but the others in the room watched, some in horror and others with no emotion.
The pain he was in was quite obvious, his fists were clenched tight at his sides and his jaw was firm, his eyes squeezed tight and his chest rose up and down rapidly. As the pain became increasingly painful his body started to twitch, first at the eye and then the jaw, then the muscles in his arms. The twitching morphed into convulsions where his body started to shake and then his head whipped from side to side in an attempt to shake away the pain.
Soon the agony became too much to remain silent, whimpers and groans leaked past his lips and soon he fell to his knees. He looked like something straight out of an Exorcism movie and finally with one final burst of pain his eyes shot open.
But instead of the normal whites and pupils, a bright yellowish white light filled his eyes and it shot out like a pair of sun beams and as quick as they appeared they disappeared and he slumped over like a rag doll.
Eurithe walked over to the slumped figure and bent down to peer at his face, his eyes now remained empty sockets. He had burned from the inside and she reached out a hand to close the eternal black holes that were now his eyes.
"May you rest in peace now."
Godric lay atop of me, his hands were firmly at my wrists and they slid up to rest upon my hands, his fingers laced with my own. I smiled to myself as he placed tender kisses to the base of my throat. The moment was so perfect and I couldn't help myself.
"I love you." I murmured and he paused, then lifted his head to look at me.
We stared at each other for the longest time before the smile on my lips slipped away. Rolling my eyes I spoke bitterly, "you don't have to say it back or anything."
Before he could stop me I pushed him off and stood, making my way quickly to the door, but he was in front of me before I could get there and he took my hand in his.
"Don't go."
I tilted my head up slightly, "I just professed my feelings to you and was rejected. What do you think I'm going to do?"
His hand found my cheek and he cupped it, "I'm sorry, but I am not familiar with Love."
I looked at him incredulous, "how can you-,"
He placed a finger on my lips, shushing me, "the only love I have ever felt was for my child, and that is a different type of love," he said.
I looked at his face, the familiar curve of his lips and the shape of his nose, the arch of his eyebrows and his high cheekbones, but most of all his eyes, so aged with infinite wisdom. The gentle curve of his jaw instead of the harsh one of his child made me want to plant kisses on it.
He continued after his brief pause, "but what I do feel for you, I am not sure if it is love as I have had no other experiences to compare."
"Does it feel like butterflies?"
"No," he shook his head, a small smile gracing his lips, "it feels like how the sun used to, all warm. Every time I hear you speak I can't help but listen and no matter what I always want to hold you, and there's always this feeling to jump for you, to throw myself in front of a moving train for you… to protect you."
I smiled up at him, this was better than just an "I love you."
"I feel like I'm a young fledgling again where I craved blood all of the time. Only this time it's not blood that I crave…"he trailed off, looking me in the eyes.
"It is you that I crave."
I beamed up at him, wrapping my arms around him.
"So, is this what love is?" he asked, his hands resting on my waist.
"It is"
His lips loomed over mine, and I could feel his breath as he spoke, "then…I love you too."
And his lips crashed against my own.
Author's note:
I AM SOOOO SORRY. I apologize a million time for the extremely long wait for this chapter. I've had project after project in my art class, at that seems to have taken up most of my time lately. I should be updating quicker from now on.
Thanks for tuning in, and remember to REVIEW.
THANX, xoxo.
