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Chapter 20
I see Sookie and Pam to the back exit and this is why I didn't want to be a king. If I wasn't, I could take her home myself, but I can't. I can only feel her terror from earlier ringing through me. I know she'll be okay and just needs to be home and feel safe but is she? Will she ever be? Can I guarantee that?
The sooner I deal with stuff here, the sooner I'll be able to get back to Sookie so it's time to get back to work. I don't know which is worse: sitting all night for human supplication or sitting around for vampire supplication. Once I have the kingdom in working order and people know their place, I'm doing away with a lot of this pomp and circumstance.
I walk back out and everyone immediately takes notice.
"Agostino, where have your underlings taken him?" I ask loudly.
"Basement. Your barmaid suggested it."
I nod and step up onto the stage. "I invited you all to hear the announcement and to provide my intentions and assurances that most of you will retain some power in your respective areas. However now tonight someone has made a move to take what is mine."
Most do look shocked or at least feign it. "If I find anyone in this room was involved in any way or had knowledge of this and didn't share, not having power will be the least of your problems," I growl menacingly. "If you have not given me a way to contact you, I expect you leave that information with my Tara at the bar. I must deal with a traitor," I announce as my fangs come out and I zip down to the basement.
I find him chained to the turn style, silver around his neck and I notice the blade is still in his spine, preventing it from healing and preventing him from moving his lower half.
I walk over and kick him to make him open his eyes. I lean over to get in his face and ask, "Who are you?" He spits at me. "Who are you?" I ask again, once more.
"Fuck you," he growls.
"I'm trying to be diplomatic here, but you're not making it easy. If you'd prefer the hard way, so be it." I stand and put on a pair of gloves before grabbing a blanket of silver chainmail. Wrapping it around his legs would be pointless right now since his spinal cord is severed and he cannot feel them. But I walk over and rip his shirt off him. "Last chance before we go with the hard way."
"Illa resurget. Proditores morietur. Non cessat semper." (She will rise. Betrayers will die. You cannot stop the end.)
"Latin? Really?" I ask and drop the blanket on his upper body. "No one speaks Latin anymore." He struggles not to scream as if it hurts me, but he will scream. But that explains this. I wonder if any other new Kings were visited by Sanguinista. That will have to be dealt with.
I unhook his neck and carry him to the silver lined coffin in the far corner and drop him inside. He screams a little more, even though he clearly tries to stop it.
"You will tell me the name and everyone involved in this little scheme, sooner or later." I pick up a silver gag and hold it up to him and he shakes his head.
"Illa resurget. Proditores morietur. Non cessat semper. Illa resurget. Proditores morietur. Non cessat sem-" I interrupt him by shoving it in his mouth and he screams and growls around it.
"She is not coming," I tell him. "She doesn't exist and staying true to your imagination is insanity and will only prolong your suffering. Perhaps spending the day here will give you some perspective." Then I slam the coffin closed and padlock it.
"Pam, I invite you in. Do you want a TruBlood? I got a couple today in case of emergencies."
"What type of emergency?" she asks as she follows me in. "Eric won't drink them. I imagine he drinks you while he's here."
"Do you want one or not?" I ask as I get a glass of water for myself.
"No. I'm fine." She crosses her arms and stares at me and I really wish I could get inside her head. I wonder if I drank her blood, if I'd be able to hear her too. I wonder if that's how it works or if she'd have to drink mine as well, like Eric and I have. Not that I'm crazy enough to do that. Lord only knows what dreams I'd have then!
"What?" I ask as she stares.
"What's holding you back? You obviously love him. I've watched him seduce royalty and super models and he's never shown any interest in keeping one around. He's clearly in love with you, so why are you waiting another second?"
"He kept you. What's to say in another hundred years, he won't meet someone else? And then what the fuck will I do?" I wonder as I dump the rest of the water out of the glass and storm upstairs. Why is she pushing this so much? You'd think she'd want me gone so she can have him to herself.
"He didn't choose me, Sookie. I chose him," she says as she races into my room ahead of me.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that I asked him to turn me and he refused so I cut my wrists open and I told him to turn me or watch me die. He didn't want me. He didn't choose me. I forced his hand."
Oh. I sit on the bed and process that a few minutes and she sits next to me. She just gave up on being human to be with him? Or to be a vampire? I just need to understand her. He says she doesn't affect us, but how can she not? Especially when I walked in on them the way I did.
"Look, Sookie, there have been many times when I was annoyed, jealous or pissed about his fascination with you. This obsession has been frustrating and often dangerous, especially since he was willing to die for you. He's my maker and if I had to kill you to save him, I would." I can sense her deep devotion to him and how hurt she was that he did what he did.
"I would want you to," I tell her. "It's- was stupid of him and Bill to even consider offering themselves to save me. I'd never want to live with their blood on my hands."
"Sookie, I think I might be starting to like you," she says. "In a thousand years, he's never met one human he ever bonded with, not one. I doubt he'll find another which means we'd probably be his only two progenies. Forever."
"Yeah," I nod. "But it's still… scary. I'm not as brave as you."
"I've seen you stare him down, Sookie. You… are quite brave." I feel her hand squeeze mind softly and it's comforting and awkward at the same time.
"What do you want from him?" I ask. I need to know. "Are you in love with him?"
Well this is unnerving since I didn't even think she could smile, let alone laugh, but that's what she's doing. It's definitely eerie.
"Oh god, Sookie," she laughs more and touches her eyes. "My makeup might smudge."
"Are you? What's so funny?"
She takes another moment to gather herself before pulling her legs up on the bed and facing me. "Sookie… I feel many many things for Eric: love, devotion, adoration, respect. But I've never been nor will I be… in love." The way her mouth forms those two words make them sound like poison to her. "With Eric or anyone else. You'd have to have a heart for that sort of thing and I lost mine long before I met Eric Northman."
"So I'm just supposed to go along with the fact that you drink each other and it doesn't mean anything? That you're not in love with him? Or want him?"
"Sookie. Eric and I are not, nor have we ever been, in love. It's not that way between maker and progeny. It just isn't. It's simply beyond that and while the sex with Eric is… amazing, for lack of a better word, all it ever is, is sex. Eric and I connect through our blood, not our bodies; sex was just a perk."
"And it never will be? Sex? Because if he wants me to be his, then he's going to be mine. I did make that point earlier, but… how many girls does he have sex with in a week at the club? If he wants me to his his his, then he's going to be mine mine mine and that means keeping all his parts to himself. And if he can't promise me that, if he can't swear to that, then he'll find himself flying out my door door door."
"Oh to be a fly on your wall, Fairy Princess," she says as she stands and straightens her dress out. "Just remember that out of all the men and women he's bedded, he's only ever claimed one as his."
I stare at her because I simply don't understand. She's so strange. "Why are you fighting for him on this? I know you don't like me, probably hate me an-"
"Let's get one thing clear. I do not hate you. Any contempt I've had is because his Sookie obsession put his life in danger more times than I care to count. Eric gave me an existence beyond my wildest imagination. He's protected me and taught me more than I ever would have been able to learn. If he's not going to be making any more stupid decisions like that, then you and I are square."
Well she is at least seemingly honest.
"So… you're not… jealous? That he and I-"
"Definitely not," she states and it's my turn to look at her and cock an eyebrow. "Perhaps a little," she sighs with a roll of her eyes. "I'm not used to sharing him but that will pass and having someone around who can fairy blast him when we get pissed off will be fun."
I laugh softly and I feel as if perhaps her and I have sort of an understanding. I think I get her a little more and at least she tried to explain the maker/progeny thing better and the relationship between them.
"Good then," she says, breaking the quiet moment of intimacy we were having. "Now enough of this sentimental bullshit. You should take a shower and get some sleep. I'll be downstairs until Eric arrives."
"Thanks, Pam," I say as she zips downstairs.