Last Chapter : News went from bad to worse as Sookie finds out just what is happening to the vampires around her. Worst of the day's news was that Pam was hurt, and it was enough to overwhelm even Eric.
This Chapter : Sookie discovers why Xan and Cory haven't exactly been truthful to her about their position in Nevada, but it seems that it might actually be a good time to have friends such as them.
"How bad is it?" I asked Bill softly, still wrapping my arms around Eric. I had shifted to kneel behind him on the bed and was sort of hugging him from behind, my chin resting on his shoulder as I ran one of my hands over his hair. Eric wasn't speaking and his eyes were fixed on some distant point as he tried to process what we had just found out. He had stopped crying but there were still two red streaks running down from his eyes marring his marble face. I didn't want to move away from him to find a tissue.
"Bad. Eric said you talked to Quinn?" Bill was shifting restlessly back and forth on his feet.
"Yes, he said that there were vampire hunters coming after the Nevada vampires. I asked him if the Louisiana vampires were considered part of the attack and he didn't know enough to tell me one way or the other. If I had known…I might have pushed him harder for an answer." My voice trailed off miserably as the ache in my body worsened. I was feeling only a fraction of Eric's pain but it was gut wrenching. To be honest I hadn't thought vampires were capable of feeling so intensely but I obviously needed to reconsider that assessment.
"Even if you had somehow found out a few hours ago, there was nothing we could have done," Bill said, trying to soothe my guilt. "Fangtasia was burned well before sundown and any daytime guardians that might have been stationed there ahead of time would probably have been dealt with violently. Pam was hurt at home, but Rasul managed to wake up in time to get them into the safe-room in their basement. But…" He looked at Eric in apparent sympathy. "She was on fire when he woke, and didn't want to touch her for fear of catching himself ablaze. He found one of those fire blankets, you know the ones they started making that you can wrap around burn victims to stifle the fire? And managed to put her out. But the damage…" He couldn't finish the sentence.
I felt my own tears starting to well up but I knew that if I started crying I wouldn't be able to stop so I bit down on my lip to hold them in check. "Was there anything that we could have done?"
Bill shook his head. "The only thing that might have made a difference would have been if Eric had been in Louisiana. Even vampire hunters know better than to agitate a 1000 year old vampire by harming his favorite child." I raised my eyebrows a little at the mention that Eric might have other children.
"Well at least we don't have to worry about the stupid ceremony tonight, and by the way one of you really should have told me about it. I had to find out what it meant from Cory."
Bill looked confused. "You think Eric's suffering will halt the king's plans?"
I looked a little shocked, but then realized I hadn't told Eric the other part of Quinn's news. "No, although I would hope you guys might be that considerate of each other. But no, the Nevada Sheriffs, or at least most of them, were personally attacked today. At least three had their…err, their human significant others taken. And Quinn mentioned that some private homes were burned to the ground. Cory and I had to run for our lives this afternoon when some nut-jobs took a shot at us."
"They tried to grab you?" Bill stepped closer to examine me for any evidence of injury.
"No, they shot at us. I barely heard them in time to duck."
Somehow that bit of information snapped Eric out of his trance. He turned in my arms to look directly into my eyes and I was taken aback by the vulnerability I saw there. "So I almost lost you, too?" he said, almost too quietly to hear.
"Eric I'm fine, really." I hadn't meant to give him another thing to worry about. "Cory and I got away, no problem. In fact it was the driver from the car you arranged that got us out of there before anything else could happen."
Eric closed his eyes and tilted his head so his forehead rested against mine. I had no idea what was going on in his head but for once I really wished I did. It scared me to see him this way. "Eric?"
The concern in my voice made him open his eyes. They seemed to blaze with an inner resolve and I shivered involuntarily. Eric was not going to sit idly by and watch as everything that mattered to him was destroyed. No, it was time to defend, and the best defense is a good offense. It was time to talk to Felipe. Time to make the hunters pay.
It took me a second to realize that those were Eric's thoughts in my head, and my eyes widened in shock. Thankfully Eric was so caught up in himself he didn't seem to notice but I saw Bill's eyes narrow dangerously.
"So what now?" That seemed to be the question of the day.
There was a knock at the door but it simply fell inward to reveal Xan and Cory standing in the hallway. Xan looked amused at the state of the door but Cory was genuinely concerned. Eric stood and I uncurled my legs so I was sitting off the foot of the bed.
"Sookie, you ok? We didn't mean to intrude but," Cory gestured at the door as they walked in. Xan bent down to put the door back into position. "What happened in here?" She was looking from me, to Bill, to Eric, and was trying to figure out why we were all so tense. She did her best not to stare at Eric since he was still shirtless and it tended to be distracting.
"We had some unfortunate news from back home," Bill said quickly. "It's of a personal nature so you won't mind if we don't explain further." I wasn't sure that Xan was going to buy that, judging from his reaction but Corry soothed him with a hand on his arm.
"Fair enough," she said. "We came to tell you that tonight's plans have changed. The King will be holding an assessment meeting at 11:00, so we have a few hours to make our way to his main building. We're meeting in his stronghold, in the mountains. Mt. Charleston."
Somehow I wasn't surprised the King had a more remote home to hold conferences in.
"And what assurances do we have from the King that his security has not been compromised?" Eric was looking directly at Xan as he asked, his tone contemptuous. I wondered if Eric was trying to push their buttons or if he wasn't entirely in control of himself. After the past few minutes either was possible.
Xan glared at Eric and let his fangs run out partially. "You have all the assurance you need, Northman. No harm will come to you or your party at the King's residence."
"And what about the trip there?" Eric was matching Xan length for length with his fangs. I had no idea what he was doing and desperately wanted to say something to interrupt the face-off. Bill caught my eye and shook his head, keeping his mouth closed so I couldn't see if his fangs were out too. Cory hadn't moved but I could see her fear.
"We're responsible for ourselves until we get there. This is why Cory and I came to you. We're safer in numbers."
"You mean you're safer in numbers." Eric's voice was seething with threat.
Xan's gaze flicked to Cory for a second but she shook her head imperceptibly. Suddenly Xan laughed and relaxed. "You're informants were better than we expected, Northman. But what you need to fear is not from me. It's the women that could bring our destruction."
Eric had shifted so he was standing with his arms crossed across his chest and looking as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. "Perhaps you should enlighten me, shadowdancer." I guessed shadowdancer was a title, like sheriff. Xan looked impressed but Bill gave him a look of complete loathing that didn't escape notice.
"You will keep your opinions to yourself, they are not welcome with your elders," Xan said loftily. Bill looked like he would have enjoyed watching Xan's skin being peeled off his body but a moment later he appeared properly chastened.
Xan nodded in approval. "Better. Now to answer your question, it really is quite simple." Eric blinked slowly at the thinly disguised insult. "It is well known that our companions are gifted women. Today's attack was evidence of that. The humans want to remove their skills from the vampire toolbox, and since they do not have any use for things of another nature that means killing rather than capturing. The AVL would never approve the killing of such usefulness out of hand and would prefer to keep the women to serve their own purposes. This is why the attack on them had to be during the daytime, when the AVL had no chance to interfere. Cory has already shown me her brief glimpse of the shooters, but I was unable to identify them. I was hoping you might have better luck so we could get some idea who we are up against."
I'll give him credit, Xan did have a good point although I found it amusing in a dark sort of way that I had more to fear from my fellow humans than I did from vampires. Eric nodded slowly as he turned this over in his mind, then looked curious. "She showed you?"
I suddenly realized what he must have meant, and that implied a whole other mess of trouble. Cory had confessed to Xan that her ability worked on vampires. I wondered how that conversation had gone.
"Yes, I have a…gift. Like Sookie." She looked at me hopefully, wanting me to explain.
I sighed inwardly. "She's a projector, to use her own term. And she has a photographic memory. If she saw our attackers, she can show you using her gift." It was brilliant, actually, but I wondered how Eric would react.
"Your ability works on vampires?" He looked at me curiously and I did my best not to give anything away.
Cory nodded, "Yes." She stepped closer to Eric. "It works better if I touch you, may I?" Eric held out a hand and Cory covered it with both of hers. Well, she tried to. The size difference was noticeable.
"Now, Xan and I found this out the hard way, but you have to try not to scream instinctively." Eric froze.
"It won't hurt," Xan supplied helpfully, "But the, ah, timeframe might come as a shock." I felt the click in my brain as I got what they were implying. Our attack had been in broad daylight. Cory was able to show vampires the sun.
"Hold onto your hat," Cory said softly and I heard her thoughts take on the same concentrated pulsing as earlier when she used her ability.
I immediately knew that if they hadn't warned him, Eric definitely would have screamed. I'd heard his reaction to sunlight in Rhodes and it was a horrible sound for a vampire to make. He managed to keep his voice in check, but he did visibly wince and then clenched his jaw as his whole body went rigid with tension. After a few moments he relaxed and the look on his face took on an expression of rapture. Finally he relaxed into his normal posture. He had closed his eyes but they were flicking back and forth under the lids, presumably taking in the scene of the shooting.
"Can you pause it?" he asked. I almost laughed at the thought that Cory really was like a movie-projector. I wondered if she could show things in rewind.
"This is the best I can do," she replied, and the pitch of her thoughts went up another notch. She was straining to maintain the projection, and then suddenly she was collapsing backwards. Xan caught her deftly and lifted her to the bed. Cory looked dazed.
"She did this in our room, too, I told her not to try it again," his words were critical but his voice was soft as he gazed at her. I suddenly could understand why Cory had fallen in love with him.
By that time Eric had cleared his thoughts and he was looking at me attentively. "You are magnificent in the sunlight."
I couldn't think of a coherent response so I blushed.
Eric turned back to Xan. "I did not recognize the shooter, but I did see someone in the crowd that I have heard of in association to Philip Kundry."
"Really? I must have missed him." Xan looked thoughtful.
"Not him. Her." Eric gave Xan a significant look and I saw a whole conversation go by.
Finally Xan scratched his head, which was a very funny gesture for a vampire to make. "Well fuck."
"That would also be my assessment," Eric agreed with a trace of amusement. I found myself shaking my head. Everything is a laugh a minute to vampires.
"So who is Phillip Kundry?" I asked to no one in particular.
"Oh he's the top of my list," Xan said casually.
"List?" I was completely lost.
"Xan is a shadowdancer," Eric said gently. I got the feeling he wasn't sure how I was going to react to the rest of the explanation but I waited patiently.
Bill snorted. "He's a bounty hunter."
"But then why would…" My brain caught up to my mouth a second later. Xan killed people for vampires. "Do you go after vampires too?"
"Depends on the situation really, but no, most of the time it's humans and shifters." Xan grinned and there was nothing friendly about it. "I've been very busy lately."
I looked at Cory and she shrugged, but now I understood why she had winced at Quinn's stepping on toes comment. It was her vampire that had personally been doing the stepping.
Disclaimer : Charlaine Harris retains sole rights to the SVM and its characters and I am in no way attempting to infringe on the world she has created. Her characters are being borrowed as creative inspirations, and are being portrayed here merely through my interpretation of their interactions. Cory and Xan are my own creation solely for use in this fanfic. Thanks for reading.