Chapter Fourteen
"Eric will not be pleased." Pam pulled a disgusted face. "And I hate children…you know that…the smell alone" She disapproved of Sookie's choice of meal, putting one freshly manicured hand to her nose as if to stop the smell. Oliver sniffed twice but couldn't work out the fuss.
"Pam, please. I wasn't going to hurt him."
Pam looked at Sookie then behind at the child that clung to her. Something clicked as she took them both in together. She wasn't planning on feeding from the child, she was planning to turn him, to make up for the one she couldn't have.
"Sookie, off the child." Pam snarled. Sookie bolted upright and held on tighter till the boy squealed. "Swear to god, right now. If you make me pull you off him I will, but I won't apologise for anything I break. There are Rules against this Sookie. Does he look over 13?" Sookie knew of these rules, they protected their existence. They rarely approved of turnings under 13, and advised them to be over 18 for the best. Children, especially young children that are turned are extremely volatile and are ruled by impulses not reason and thought. It has lead to mass murders in the past and called for the laws to be in place.
"And don't you even think of using 'crocodile tears' on me, or whatever it is you call them. Hand over the child. Now!" Oliver whimpered at Pam's tone. Her face agreed with the no-nonsense orders. Sookie stepped left and in seconds Pam had the child in her arms and back in her original space.
"Pam stop, his mother left him, he has no-one." Sookie tired as Pam knelt to glamour the child. Pam growled and snapped her jaw in response. Sookie stayed bolted in her shoes. Pam found the boys address and glamoured him to carry away his memories and fall to sleep so she could carry him home. She ordered Sookie to not move a step. Sookie complied wiping at her eyes and blinking away the start of red tears. It took no longer than a minute for Pam to return, sans child.
"You better have a fucking good explanation!" Pam challenged slamming Sookie's body to a lamppost pole. "Whatever that's child's problems were, they were HIS to deal with. You are not some sort of savour. It is not your place to save him." Pam let go of Sookie's throat and ran her fingers in her long hair, stressed out. "Eric's going to fucking kill me for this." she muttered then whirled back around. "You, explain now! Or I'll end you here and now. Fuck what Eric thinks about you!" To prove her point she ripped the branch from a nearby tree and poised it ready for the attack in a split second. Sookie's arms came up and tears rolled down.
"I wanted him. I can't and I wanted someone who needed me." Pam lowered the branch and Sookie continued. "My brother was always in trouble and needed help out of it. Sam needed me at the bar. Now. I don't have anybody who trusts me enough to need me. I don't have any job that needs me. And Eric's the only thing I have. But he cares for himself."
"You wanted someone you could spend time with you mean. Someone who needed you as much as you needed them." Pam's tone had suddenly dropped all anger, and was in a far away place. "This was not the way." she told Sookie and walked off, Sookie following like a scolded puppy with no other option.
It was silence all the way to the midnight covered deserted parking lot, with only Pam's car left in. Sookie was still streaming fresh red tears from her eyes. They both got in the convertible but Pam hesitated in starting the car, then shut if off completely and turned to face Sookie. Her eyes were rimmed in red, but Pam didn't cry.
"Fuck it." Pam whispered. "Listen, you're not the first to do this, and you won't be the last. So I won't tell Eric, but you better get a fucking grip on yourself or we'll both be screwed." Sookie just nodded but Pam still didn't start the car. They sat till Sookie had the strength to speak.
"Is that why you don't like children…because they are unpredictable and they need us so much?" Pam turned but the hostile answer didn't have her usual tone.
"Shut the fuck up. You don't know anything."
Sookie wasn't deterred she knew Pam was cracking, somehow this had got to her.
"Then explain to me." Even the dead eye that shot into her was without feeling. She waited but the car still did not start. Pam took an unnecessary breathe.
"Before I was turned…" Sookie could hardly believe Pam was sharing. "I got pregnant…" It was slow and in pieces but Sookie finally knew something more about Pam; she would do nothing to shut her down again. Not now. "I was expecting a boy, 3 months along and I start to show. My boss says I'm having an abortion. He gives me no option about what I wanted." Sookie knew a little about Pam's past life, that she was a prostitute, she assumed this 'boss' was her pimp of sorts. "I told him no and tried to find myself a life outside his work. He found me at my 7th month and dragged me to a back alley doc. He told him I was his wife…that I was hysterical, that the baby had to go before it killed me. The next thing I know, I'm waking up covered in blood and missing a piece of myself. In the trash outside was a bag of flesh and blood. That was my baby boy. They put my baby in the rubbish." Pam choked back some sobs and tightened her grip on the steering wheel till it creaked and snapped her back a little more. "I was shoved back onto the streets with a whole in my self and enough pain to go insane. Each customer tore me apart some more till my body had had enough. The boss found me bleeding out on the cold winter floor. He made me beg for help then when I refused, shooting abuse to him he just turned and left, telling me I was broken now, I was costing him more than I was worth. He pulled a pistol and shot me, thinking I'd die of the bullet or the internal bleeding already in place. As it turned out, someone else had been watching me for a long while, taking an interest in my 'zest' and 'attitude'. That monster changed my life from then on." Pam turned back, her eyes clear and usual glint back. "Want to take a guess who my first kill was? I'd let you guess how I killed him, but I think it would ruin your innocence." Pam laughed turning to her self defensive way of dealing with her past. Sarcasm, wit, and years of other memories to hide behind. Sookie took a breath.
"I'm sorry." she whispered. Pam raised her eyebrows and turned back to the car.
"Speak a word and-"
"You'll stake me where I stand?"
Pam smiled.
"See, I knew you still had room in that tiny brain." She patted the top of Sookie head and the car burst alive speeding out of the lot and onto the road.
Needless to say Eric was a little more than peeved that she had left the home. A little even more so peeved that Pam had been the one to bring her back, and it wasn't kicking and screaming. They were actually smiling. Sookie steeled herself and stepped out crossing over to an angry Eric, arms crossed high on his chest. But the movement tore across her stomach and she fell, blood staining the white dress from between her legs. Eric caught her, Pam assisting.
"Pam. Get Ludwig." Eric growled.
"No need." The dwarfed female crossed over and scanned Sookie up and down. "Get her inside. I'll need better light." she grumbled and turned back into Eric's home. Sookie moaned as they lifted her. It was a bad thing that vampires couldn't black out, because right now, more than anything she wanted to go away, to not feel every muscle pull and ache as she was moved and jostled in Eric's arms. She wished to not be blinded by the dining room lighting as she was laid on the table. She wished to not have to look into Eric's blue eyes, tormented by his lover's pain. She wished not to feel, to just black out. But the vampire brain resisted. Pam, Eric and also Sookie felt their fangs descend as Ludwig cut off Sookie's dress. The doctor took charge.
"Both of you. Out." Eric of course put up a fight.
"I stay. You work."
Ludwig said something strange, in a dialect Sookie had not heard ever before. It was complicated, fast and spoken through her teeth. Eric ground his teeth, kissed Sookie's lips and told her he would return shortly. Sookie watched as Eric took Pam by the arm and guided her out, closing the door. Sookie heard their voices move away. Pam also curious as to what Ludwig had said. Eric didn't reply, just kept walking further and further away.
"Eric… where's he going?" Sookie spoke between broken screams as the doctor poked and prodded at her swollen stomach.
"None of your concern. And just so you know. This will hurt." Sookie screamed as the goblin placed burning silver to her belly. She could hear her skin tear and sizzle, but it still split apart with ease, trying to reform around the silver. As the healing tried to work around the scalpel it kept burning and the stench hit the air with a morbid ferocity. Sookie clawed to get up, to spit out the blood choking her mouth. Ludwig was a lot stronger than she looked pushing her back down and slamming her head to the table.
"Stop." An angelic voice called. Sookie curled over on her side as the blade slid out. She saw a bright white light, almost yellowish. And the smell, oh my, the smell. It was heavenly. She completely ignored her pain to go closer to it. To smell it more. It drew her to it. To bite, to drink, to breathe. To live inside that smell. It didn't matter she was still bleeding and in terrible pain. This had the promise of healing everything and anything. This was the best.
"Sookie, please don't look at me like that. I'm trying to help you. I know I smell nice but…" The voice trailed on, but Sookie had long cut it off. Victims often did plead for their lives when danger took a bare footed step closer.
"Sook!" Sookie turned. That wasn't from the heavenly source….so she ignored it. "Holy fuck Sook. Snap out of it. She's you're cousin… okay clearly you've gone. So I'll apologise now. Sorry for doing this." Sookie suddenly felt herself fly backward, her back hitting the wall of Eric's dining room.
"Fucking fairies. I suppose you're a witch too." Ludwig's voice broke a haze and Sookie smelt the fresh blood disperse into the air fading as quickly as it had arrived. She had lost her drug and now pain returned, flooring her. She felt warm hands touch her arms and she could no longer move them.
"Amelia?" Sookie asked, recognising the rare perfume smell.
"Hey Sook. Listen. Ben called. He's a friend of Octavia's… anyway. We think we know what's happening. Claudine thinks we can help." Sookie watched as Amelia's shape turned to white. She could still feel and hear, but sight just went. Soon followed her limbs, leaving her catatonic and her back pressed to the table. Amelia's voice guided her through, her sight still gone.
"Ben, get the candles. Set up a casting circle." Ben was here? How many people? "Octavia, start marking Claudine." Octavia too? Oh. Sookie realised it was Claudine she had smelt. Oops. "Great. Good. Ludwig, was that you're name?" A sneer came from a corner. "Lovely" Amelia continued. "Either help or get the hell out." Silence again. "Good, glad you're on board. Mark Sookie." Sookie felt a cold pointed object traced patterns across her stomach. It felt like some sort of circle. "And for god's sake. Someone stop the bleeding, or at least give her more blood. She won't make it in time otherwise." Sookie felt a wrist be pressed to her mouth. It was hardly anything tasty, but it was already bleeding and tasted fantastic. A crackling along her tongue. Like old sherbet with that extra fizz. Sookie had tasted this before, she recalled. Ben's blood. She couldn't hold on and take more but he let her continue feeding. Amelia and Octavia kept barking out orders to each other, Ben and Ludwig. Claudine was still there but she seemed to be left much alone. Like Sookie. As Ben's wrist disappeared and he muttered a few words no doubt to stop the bleeding she heard a match stroke against its box, flaring alive and spreading across candles. Why did witches always use candles? Maybe they just liked the smell, maybe it was for heat…then again if heat is a form of energy, it could just be the energy source of the spell.
"Sookie. I am sorry we couldn't talk this over with you. But we thought it better to just act. Time isn't exactly on our side right now. I promise everything will be okay though." Claudine whispered and was then gone. What was happening?
"Right, okay… Ludwig, out please." Another grunt and footsteps leaving the room. The door slammed shut and Amelia handed the instructor job over to Octavia.
"Lovely. Right, Ames, take Claudine. Ben, you get Sookie. I'll keep everything channelled and balanced but it is essential you stay in time." A hell of a lot of magical jargon followed to which Sookie just let speed right past her. She trusted Amelia, yes, with her life. Which very well might be the case. But she wouldn't stay to find out. This time, she felt dead again, just floating. Her body below the water, clearly in pain, but her head was comfortably above, away from the pain, blocking all that she didn't want or need.
Her vision cleared to see her Gran. It was only a split second thing, but the intention was clear. The scene was an azure coloured nursery. A white wooden crib, carved and polished by hand. Inside a baby sucked its thumb, eyes shut and breathing deeply. Asleep. Gran was opposite folding a fleecy blanket and laying it across the sleeping form.
"Congratulation Sook. He's wonderful."
Then everything returned to its white purity, the child, and Grandmother no longer visible.