Alcide was pissed and didn't do much to hide it, once he'd shifted back into human form. He slammed around his pickup for some sturdy rope, the kind that can hold down a Were and then stomped back into the filthy hanger.
"What's ailin' ye mate?" Fergus asked, noticing the change in Alcide. Usually males in the Supe caste were invigorated after a hearty run in with a foe.
Alcide shook his head, not willing to speak his mind around the Sheriff.
"Aww, common now. Don't be shy. The talk show folks that are so popular on TV these days say its unhealthy to leave things unsaid. Get it off your chest man, before we go a-torturin'," Fergus teased the grumpy Were.
Sighing, Alcide caved. "I just don't understand why Eric hasn't gone after the plane. We can handle the questioning piece and call him with any pertinent details. What if something horrible is happening to Sookie on that plane right now? What if these assholes don't know shit about where that plane is headed? We could lose her!"
Eric stopped, mid-drain of the last Were, enraged that someone question him about his motivations and actions. What was it with these two?
He kicked the slumped Were in the kidney and then stalked over to Alcide, one of the few guys that could look him in the eye. "I have lived for over a thousand years," Eric growled. "You don't get to be as old as me by chasing after young blondes or unknown enemies. I know what I'm doing and Sookie will be safe."
Eric looked quite intimidating and down right frightening, with his dilated eyes, fangs fully drawn and blood dripping down his face. Even the muscles in his neck and arms seemed bunched and larger, the major veins bulging to the surface. He definitely didn't resemble the man in love, Alcide had seen at Josephine's before this whole mess started.
"Now fellas, let's save the time and energy. Focus on the task at hand. I've been assigned to protect Sookie, just as you all seemed to have been. Obviously, we've all fecked it up too, or else we wouldn't be standing here. The quicker we're done, the sooner we'll have our lass back," Fergus interjected.
Another beat passed before either male looked away.
"The vampires that have her are from Mississippi's court. I can guarantee these pieces of shit are part of their retinue too. I can taste the vampire blood in them and a couple just like them came around Bon Temps asking about Sookie a few nights ago. That flight is most likely on its way to Jackson. So, unless I hear otherwise, that's where I'm headed after we're through here," answered Eric. His voice was deep and full of malice, but also emotion. He was worried about Sookie too. He was also afraid to admit that Alcide had a point. Franklin and Mickey weren't even worthy to be apart of his race. They were not above harming innocents just for a bit of fun. With Sookie still dressed in her fetish wear, they would be like two kids in a candy store – Sookie being the candy store.
With a growl of frustration, Eric stomped over and tore the leg from one of the Weres and beat another in the head with it.
"Tell me everything you know about that flight, who was on it and why or I'm going to start slower, from the smallest appendages and work my way up in size," he threatened, throwing the bloody leg at the crotch of the third Were.
And that's why no one fucked with Eric Northman, Alcide thought.
"He was there! Eric was there! I felt him! I know I did!" Sookie thought as the plane lifted off into the night sky. Facing each other in a quad of seats, Franklin was giving her a very uncomfortable stare, while Mickey was trying to hit on a glamoured Tara.
It was Eric's anger that tripped Sookie as she was walking in her fake glamoured trance, nearly giving her ruse away. She had felt it as if it were her own, except that it was stronger than anything she had ever personally experienced. The question was, what had angered him so much? Why didn't he just charge the group and rescue her? Had he been shot and injured or worse? The amount of gunfire and noise that had erupted as they all gathered on the plane made everything confusing. The vamps seemed scared of something or someone and had made sure the plane got off the ground as quickly as possible.
"Was that the Viking back there?" Mickey asked.
Franklin shot Mickey a look to silence him.
"What? They're glamoured, aren't they?"
"I'm not so sure about this one. She doesn't have that look in her eye. She seems too cognizant," Franklin commented, pointing to Sookie.
She didn't know how he caught on that she was faking her glamour, being that she was able to trick Bill before. So, Sookie tried to let her gaze become unfocused and her eyes seem lifeless, to see if that would convince him otherwise.
"See, right there. She twitched," Franklin snapped, becoming agitated.
"Chill the fuck out man. I didn't see shit. Besides, you are supposed to be the master fucking glamour vamp. How could she not be?" Mickey retorted, thinking Franklin had lost his shit.
"OK then. Let's play a little game. Stick your hand up her skirt and see if she reacts. Obviously, if she isn't glamoured, she'll respond, no matter how hard she tries not to."
"Russell said she was not to be touched in that way. He needs her cooperative for the experiments," Mickey said.
Franklin slapped Mickey across the back of the head. "Maybe I should glamour you, you stupid fuck. Now she knows the King is involved!"
"You can't glamour another vamp," Mickey shot back, not wholly convinced that Franklin couldn't though. "Besides you're the one who just announced that Russell was the King of Mississippi. I could have been referring to a thousand different Russell's. Jack Ass!"
Sookie couldn't believe her eyes. Apparently, she was not only the captive of the King of Mississippi and going to be subject to some kind of experiments, but she was sitting across from Dumb and Dumber. Their physical exchange back and forth nearly drove her to blurt out that she was faking, just so they'd stop, but her sense of self preservation wouldn't allow it.
"Excuse me, sirs," said a very handsome Were who appeared from the back of the plane. He was trying to garner the attention of the two slap-happy jerks.
"What is it?" Franklin growled, sneaking in one final blow that had Mickey looking as if he were glamoured.
"One of the doctor's just pissed himself. Apparently, your glamour doesn't hold water over nature's call," the Were said with a self-satisfied smirk. He obviously was the type that laughed at his own jokes. All looks then, Sookie thought, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.
"Christ! Could this night get any worse?" Franklin shouted, looking up at the ceiling of the plane. "Drag his ass up to the bathroom and get him out of his clothes. He can't go before the King smelling like piss. See if anyone else on this plane is his size. They can loan him some pants. In fact, I bet this shifter here is about the same size."
"Shifter!" Franklin commanded, giving Sam a quick kick to his legs for good measure. Sam looked up in a stupor, as if he couldn't help but stare into the depths of Franklin's eyes. "Take off your pants."
Franklin shifted his gaze to Sookie to watch for any kind of reaction as her pitiful Shifter friend stripped in front of her. If he were a gambling vamp, he'd wager Sam wasn't wearing any underwear either. Most Weres and Shifters didn't. Undergarments could get tricky when trying to shift in a hurry. While Franklin's attention was focused on Sam and Sookie, Mickey came to and struck him hard across the face, dislocating Franklin's jaw.
"Why you –" Franklin began, turning to grab Mickey in a headlock. However, the pilot's voice came over the intercom, causing him to pause at his threat and his punch. The announcement was to alert everyone that the plane was making its descent into Jackson.
Just then, the Were from before came into Sookie's view. He was shoving a small Japanese looking man in front of him, up the aisle, towards the bathroom outside the cockpit. Sookie couldn't believe her eyes – it was Akio Tanaka – the grad student she was working with at LSU. "What in the hell did he have to do with all of this?" she wondered. She felt bad that he was the poor guy who peed himself because he was too glamoured to do anything else.
How did these Vampires expect any of them to do anything for them if they were messing with their brains by all this glamouring. Surely, there was some side affects from the constant manipulation.
Sookie's thoughts were disrupted by the sight of a naked from the waist down Sam, robotically handing over his pants to the Were guiding Akio. Lucky for Sookie – at least as far as keeping up the glamour tactic – she had already seen Sam naked and recently too. Thinking back to that night in the cemetery also reminded her of Eric. He was so great that night, even in her Gran's pink robe. But, that was also the night he snapped at her and held her by her throat while he questioned her about her involvement with the synthetic blood research. He had wanted to know who she was working for. Could it be that this is what the King wanted with all of them? Did he somehow learn of their research? Eric had mentioned that there was money to be had, if it could be marketed as a source of nutrition for vampires. It would be the catalyst that would make it possible for vampire to come out of the shadows. And it could change all of their lives irrevocably.
If her theory was correct, why would the King need her to help work on the research? She was just an assistant, not a true scientist. Was it because of her connection with Eric? And Eric probably saw her with these Mississippi vamps, not struggling to get free and assumed the worst – that she really was working for someone other than the school. He probably felt betrayed and decided to just leave her to her fate. No one would know where she disappeared to – where to find her. She was so screwed! And what about Gran?
The plane started to shake violently and list from side to side as it made its way down into the city of Jackson. Franklin looked at her one last time, catching her gaze in his. Between the turbulence and her guess at what was truly going on, she decided to relax her mind and let him actually glamour her. It was the only thing she could do for now, to protect herself.
"You will walk off this plane when it lands and get into the awaiting limo. You will not speak or move during the ride to the Kings compound. Understand?" Franklin ordered all three of them.
Tara just nodded, Sam replied, "Don't speak or move," and Sookie just said, "limo."
When they arrived at the sprawling estate, Sookie couldn't help but be impressed. The grounds and the footprint of the main building were straight out of her favorite movie, Gone with the Wind. She was grateful that she was still glamoured, for she didn't think she would have been able to abstain from reaction to this place, otherwise. Security was obviously high, with Weres and vampires patrolling the grounds. There was definitely no waltzing out of the place, even during the day.
The car pulled up to a grand porte cochere with honest to god pillars and a doorman waiting to assist the passengers out of the limo. If she hadn't been trick, kidnapped and forced into being calm, she would have felt like a celebrity.
Inside the mansion was even more glorious then the outside. Except that there were half clothed men, vampires, Were and a couple of other Supe species that Sookie was unsure of, milling around. The atmosphere gave off a Playboy Mansion vibe, with emphasis on boy. Could the King be gay? Or maybe Supes didn't pick a sexual preference. She supposed after living for so long and through all the different religious and cultural fads of the centuries, it probably left one pretty open minded to just about everything. Assimilate or die a final death and all that.
She was led up a grand staircase and pushed into a large bedroom overdone in pink toile and eyelet lace, while Sam and Tara were separated into other rooms – hopefully on the same floor.
"Get yourself cleaned up and out of that hideous outfit. You will be meeting the King in 30 minutes," a young human man, maybe a tad older than her, ordered her curtly. Having a human speak to her, seemed to have snapped her out of her glamoured state, but she mechanically went about the task set to her, as if she were still under some influence.
She slowly peeled herself out of Josephine's attire and stripped off the platform boots. Her skin nearly sighed as the slightly warmed air of the room, hit it. PVC was definitely not breathable. Scoping out the room, Sookie determined where the attached bathroom was, determined to take advantage of her alone time and wash the grim of the night away. Even if she was in a stranger's home and most likely an enemy, there was value to a warm, relaxing shower.
Not to be upstaged by the main sleeping chambers, the bathroom was decked out in more absurd décor, with gold colored fixtures, more pink toile and a shower that could have been for a locker room, if not for the expensive showerhead system and fittings. It took her several seconds to figure out how to turn the water on and adjust it to her liking, but once she was successful, her tense muscles began to relax and her mind began to wander.
So much had happened to her in the last couple of days. She recalled a night similar to this, where she found herself in a stranger's shower, trying to wash away the fear and tension. At least Eric didn't turn out to be such a bad guy. Sookie couldn't be sure that this King would be anything but a tyrant.
She started lathering her body with a pleasant scented body wash that made her skin tingle on contact. The sensation sent her thoughts in another direction. Sookie recalled the night her and Eric put on a show for that peeping Tom, Bill Compton. They wound up in her bedroom, doing sinful things to each other. She slid her soapy hands across her breasts, teasing her nipples at the memory.
Then she flashed to earlier that night when Eric bit her in front of the group of vampires. She nearly came from his sudden attacked. She had never felt so wanton than in that moment. If Eric had ripped her panties off and started thrusting into her right then and there, she probably wouldn't have even objected. In fact, she probably would have just demanded him to take her harder. She moved one hand down to caress her throbbing girly bits, allowing the scene to play out in her head. Her fingers imitating the smooth glide of Eric's impressive length.
Sookie's mind switched scenes again. This time, it was later in the bondage room. Eric teasing her mind and body, her hands being bound, the sounds outside in the club and the instruments hanging in the room that had probably been used by countless beings before them, had all turned her on in ways she never dreamed of. It was a different excitement than when he bit her. The complete surrender to someone you trusted, being bound and uninhibited was the unexpected turn on.
She was so close to release, her knees were wobbling, and her breathing came in short pants. However, just as in real life, fate decided to intervene. At the club it was Alcide. If he hadn't knocked on that door, she would have gone all the way with Eric. In a way, she was thankful to have not lost her virginity in a BSDM vampire bar, however, with her current situation, part of her regretted it. This time she was being interrupted in a shower, in Jackson, Mississippi, at the King's mansion by some annoying stranger banging on her door, telling her to hurry up and not to keep the King waiting. Would she ever get a chance to feel passion like that again? Would it be with Eric?
"I'm coming, dammit!" she yelled in frustration, quickly rinsing and then turning off the faucets. She grabbed two thick towels, one for her body, another for her hair and then whipped open the door.
"You told me a half hour. It hasn't be more than 15 minutes!" she snapped.
Sookie tried reading the man's thoughts and was startled to find that she couldn't. It was as if she were no longer a telepath. In fact, ever since she came to from the drug Sam used to knock her out, she recalled not hearing anyone's thoughts. Not that there were many humans around at the airport hanger, but Tara was always a loud broadcaster and she didn't recall 'hearing' anything from her.
Conflicting emotions rolled through Sookie while the man driveled on about proper etiquette and clothing choices. Could that drug have somehow taken her ability away? She had always thought of her telepathy as a curse, but now faced without it, she realized just how much she relied on it to assess people and handle everyday interactions. She had no idea how to read body language or actually 'listen' to a person's words to look for signs of truth or underlying meaning.
"Hello? Anybody home?" the man snapped his fingers in front of Sookie's face. "Glamoured much?" he mumbled before continuing. "I said this will work and should fit you well. Drop the towel and change so I can do your hair," he said, pointing to a long sleeved wrap dress in a light cream color that would make her tanned skin pop. He had laid matching under-things along with the dress, out on the bed and was standing there with his arms crossed, looking rather impatient.
"Did you just say that out loud?" Sookie asked, wondering if she heard the glamour comment, or heard it.
"No, I said it in my mind! Of course I said it aloud, now COME ON!" he rolled his eyes.
Sookie turned red, realizing he expected her to get dressed right in front of him.
"Honey, I'm gay. We all are here – well, most of us. There's a few that like to try other flavors, but given the choice they prefer my kind over yours. So, just drop the innocent act and get a move on."
"Don't you have some hair tools or something you can get ready while I change?" Sookie snapped at him. Since she couldn't read his thoughts, she couldn't be sure he was telling the truth about being gay. Oddly enough, he did sort of remind her of Dawn, though. And that made her soften to him a little.
He huffed and stomped off just like Dawn would and started banging around in the bathroom.
Twenty excruciating minutes later, Sookie looked like a debutant in her coifed do and flashy makeup. This was the second time in roughly twenty four hours that she had had her hair and makeup done by someone to impress an awaiting authority figure. That made her sad. She wondered again if Eric was OK and if he had any idea where she was – if he would come to her rescue once again.
She stood up and embraced her moody personal assistant. "Thanks. I look great," she said, but her stunned look didn't match her compliment.
"Of course you do. Now, what's the problem?"
Sookie, through touching the man, was able to get a brief glimpse of his thoughts. The sudden burst of her telepathy threw her off guard. Not to mention what she saw. In that thirty seconds of contact, she was able to glean that not only did this man-boy named Talbot, not like her and think she was just backwater white trash, but what went on around the mansion. It had her scared more than anything she'd witnessed earlier at Josephine's.
She schooled her features in the way she had thousands of times when hearing inappropriate thoughts. "Nothing's wrong. I just got a little light headed when I stood up. Lack of food, sleep and being knocked out, I guess," she shrugged, playing the dumb blonde routine.
"Great. Then, let's go meet the King!" Talbot sing-songed.
A/N: I apologize again for the delay in updating. Hope I answered some more of your questions, gave you a squeeze of citrus, even if it was self induced and a little more sassy elf. What are your thoughts now? Thanks for your continued support in reading, reviewing, alerting etc. You're the cherry on my cupcake. *A-Torturin' Viking Hugs*