Chapter 21 Through the mist

"Wakey wakey little Allison. It is a beautiful day and you're missing it." A cheerful sounding male voice filled my ears, bringing me out of my dark fog and into the present for what felt like the first time in days. I couldn't focus my eyes right away, my vision was blurry like I had been asleep for more then just one night. I tried to reach up and rub them with my hands, but the moment I moved, that small jolt to my head brought on a sharp pain that flashed across the back of my skull and I instantly cowered into a ball and moaned out loud in misery. The man that had spoken to me laughed when this happened and I could see his feet walking across the concrete floor in front of me. "I guess you must still have a headache from that nasty hit you took 2 days ago."

"2 days ago? I've been out for that long?" I asked in horror, forgetting the pain throbbing through me and shot up into a sitting position only to see that I was in a small room by myself with a heavily linked metal wall caging me in. I turned my head to the other side, to where there was a man with short brown hair sitting in a chair dressed in khaki slacks and a bright yellow polo shirt and who was staring at me with his hands tucked under his arms. I frowned as he continued to look at me with that dazzling white smile and I struggled to figure out why he looked so familiar and why he was wearing a shirt in that ridiculous shade of yellow. Wait a second. That smile, the yellow shirt. I knew exactly who he was. I felt my stomach drop all the way down to my feet as the realization hit me and I slowly lifted my head to meet his eyes. "Steve Newlin? You were the one who kidnapped me?"

"Oh no, that's wasn't me. That was a member of my congregation I hired to do the job. And he was more then happy to travel across state lines to find you and bring you here to Dallas." Steve explained, sitting in the metal chair with his legs loosely crossed as if he were simply having a conversation with his friends. "Although I think he went a little overboard with the way he brought you here."

"A little over board?" I snapped, stumbling to my feet and rushed at the fenced in wall. I grabbed onto the links and glared at Steve. "You had someone follow me and hit me across the head only to stuff me in a trunk and drive out of the state. I think that is a little more then overboard. It is borderline psychotic!"

"That kind of attitude is not going to get you any where." Steven retorted, shaking his head sadly as if he felt sorry for me. "And I am sure you would like to know what you did wrong to find yourself in this predicament."

"I didn't do anything. You are the one who committed a crime, not me." I insisted, gripping the metal tightly as he stood up and walked over to the fence.

"I may have committed an illegal infraction, but what you did was much worse. You have sinned against God and I will not stand for it." He told me, uncurling his arms and pointed at my neck and I instinctively put my hands to the side of my throat and felt the fang marks that had been put there days ago. Steve watched me with a sneer on his face. "You are just like the rest of them, you didn't just have sex before marriage but you also did it with a vampire. Now that's a double no no."

"That's why you had someone kidnap me? Because I did something that was none of your business?" I growled, trying to make sense of what had happened but even though he was the one who first brought up the topic, there was a hole in the conversation that almost would have gone un-noticed. It was small, but significant. And then it hit me. "Wait a second. I was kidnapped just the morning after it happened. There was no way you could possibly know about it that quickly."

"Now you are getting somewhere." Steve laughed, grabbing his chair and moving it closer to where I stood and he sat back down again in the same position. "You're right. I did not know about your indiscretions before hand. My reasons for having someone track you go back much further then just a few days ago."

"So why then? Why did you do this?" I demanded, looking down at my hands and twitching them to see if anything would happen. Maybe if I could get my powers to work then I could get myself out of here before any trouble could occur. But I felt an increasing panic rise within me when I stared at my fingers and nothing happened. I looked back at Steve who was observing me curiously and I quickly shoved my hands in my pockets. "Tell me why you would kidnap when I did absolutely nothing to you or anyone you knew."

"Darling you're taking this all so personally. I never said this was about you." He pointed out, chuckling so hard that I could see all the gleaming white teeth in his mouth. "In fact, this isn't really about you at all. It's about your dead lover."

"Eric?" I asked, my mouth quivering slightly when I spoke his name. "How is he relevant to any of this?"

"Because he is the reason I had you abducted in the first place."

"I think all this Texas sun has fried your brain because you are not making any sense." I snapped, not feeling ashamed for being rude for the first time in my life. I wasn't worried about how I sounded at that moment because I was in too precarious of a situation to obsess over manners. Steve Newlin wasn't fazed by my comment and just simply shrugged.

"Well then let me explain so you know exactly what is to come of you." He clasped his hands around his knee and titled his head back with a proud look in his eyes. "I'm sure you know all about what happened last year with your Mr. Northman and your cousins and that little prick of a maker we took into our custody."

"His name was Godric." I hissed, defending a vampire I didn't even know and who was long gone now. But he was Eric's maker and I knew enough about him to know even in death, he didn't deserve to be disrespected. "And you're a dick."

"Hey now, there is no reason to get all snippy with me. I was trying to make a point here." He held up his hands like he was trying to establish peace between us. "Anyway, as I was saying, you know all about what happened out here a year ago. And I haven't forgotten the sacrifice that was supposed to be made on Eric's behalf. You see, he offered himself in the place of your cousin and Godric. He was supposed to meet the sun that morning and it never happened. And I don't like it when a deal falls apart. So I waited for a time when I could take revenge. And I planned and I put it into action. And that brought us to you."

"What are you saying?" I felt my knees and legs getting weak and I sat myself back down on the cold concrete to listen. But without even reading his mind, I could tell something was about to fall into place and make everything that had happened up to this point so clear.

"I knew I couldn't trick a vampire like him into walking back into this church willingly, it wouldn't work so I had to come up with something better. And it occurred to me to have him watched and see who he spent the most time with over the course of a few months and figure out who meant the most to him. And sure enough it was you. And that's when I knew you were our ticket to capturing him and have him die a true death like he was meant to. If we took something from him, he would stop at nothing to get to us and take back what was his. And you are it. So we had to do whatever it took to try and pull you away from him, even if it meant teaming up with creatures we wouldn't normally associate with and have them hunt you." Steve raised his eyebrows at me and pressed his lips to together into an infuriating grin. "Don't you get it? It was me who sent that demon hybrid after you all those weeks ago. I had hired it to follow you and steal you away when the time came, but your stupid vampire had to ruin things once again."

"Oh god." I clapped my hands to my mouth and my body started convulsing when all this information filtered through my head and I felt the full magnitude of all that had happened to me in the last few weeks. The kidnapping, the demon attacks, the pain and fear were all for getting revenge on Eric because he had escaped their clutches and they didn't like it. And taking me away to Dallas was the only way to have him come to into the church to be recaptured again. Because Steve Newlin knew full well that Eric would be furious when he found out who had taken me and would go ballistic in his attempts to save me, even by putting himself in danger. Steve was using me to send a message to Eric and the vampire community that the church was just as strong as it ever had been and when they wanted revenge, they were going to get it, at any cost. I stared at Steve through the links in the metal and shook my head. "How can you call yourself a man of God if you are putting an innocent girl in the middle of this war?"

"I am doing God's duty by defending humanity and ridding this world of the undead, one vampire at a time. And if some sacrifices have to be made in order to make sure I succeed, well then so be it." He shrugged, standing up and looking me over like I was not even a real person and it occurred to me that in his eyes, I wasn't a person. I was guilty by association and I would suffer the price. Newlin shook his head and stuck his hands in his pockets. "It's such a shame. If I thought there was any chance of saving your soul then I would let you go. But you are beyond saving, my dear."

"Don't you dare leave me in here you crazy asshole. Let me out." I shouted, banging on the metal fencing that was so thick it didn't even move then I tried to shake it. I watched as he walked towards the door across from me and disappear into the hallway on the other before letting the heavy door slam behind him with a resounding thud. The silence was so loud in that second when I paused to watch him go that it frightened me right down to my heart and began banging on the fence again with my closed fists. "Newlin! Get back here. Let me go."

But he didn't return and no one else came through that door, no matter how loud I screamed or how hard I pounded on that fencing. I exhausted myself after 15 minutes of this and I sank down to my knees and folded over on the floor. My hands were throbbing from the beating I had put them through and now in addition to being truly scared I was back to being in pain. My head ached and every muscle in my body tightened and tensed as I struggled to figure what to do. I had never been in a more dangerous situation. The demon attacks were on a different level. At least then I was home and had vampires that would come to my rescue in a heartbeat if it attacked. But I was in Dallas, where I had no alliances or friends to help me and I was surrounded by a group of fanatics who would gladly take my life if it meant proving a point to the vampires. After all, I associated with vampires, therefore Steve Newlin didn't see me worthy of human life and was quite willing to use me as a sacrificial lamb to torture the people I cared about, including Eric. I hung my head, feeling my body being racked by tears and I squeezed my eyes shut hoping someone would hear my pleas...

Sookie, if you can hear me I beg of you to listen closely. You should know first thing that I am fine, But I don't know for how long. The Fellowship of the Sun were the ones who had kidnapped me. Steve Newlin is the person responsible for sending the demon after me. He wants revenge because Eric didn't die last year when you guys were here searching for Godric. He is trying to use me to make a point and I think they are holding me captive some place under ground until they decide how to proceed. You have to warn Eric before they trick him into acting before thinking. But please send someone to find me. I'm really scared right now...

Back in Shreveport

"The Fellowship, the fucking Fellowship." Eric muttered, sitting behind his desk in his office inside Fangtasia and gripped the arms of his chair while Bill and Sookie paced the length of the room in front of him trying to remain calm as they came up with a plan. Sookie had just informed him about hearing Allison's thoughts for the first time in 2 days since her abduction and he had been livid when she told him it had been the Church who had taken her. When Sookie had first said those words, he had lashed out in a big way. He had grabbed the first thing that his hand could touch, which happened to be a metal shelf full of glass beverages and threw it across the room easily as if it had been a paperback book and glass and alcohol had exploded everywhere creating a mess that was going to take time cleaning up, but he didn't care. His only concern was getting to Dallas and ripping apart Steve Newlin once and for all. That sorry excuse for a human being had stolen things from him for the last time. First it had been Godric and now it was Allison. And he refused to sit idly by and do nothing this time.

"We have to do something. She is out there in the clutches of these crazy people and who knows what they plan on doing to her." Sookie cried out in a panic filled voice that instantly made Bill appear at her side and try to put his arm around her. But she pushed him away with a glare. "I don't need your comfort right now. I need something to be done to bring my cousin home right this minute."

"We can't just fly down there and burst into the Church and demand that they return her." Bill tried to say but Sookie interrupted him before he could continue.

"And why not? Why can't we do that? Why can't we just gather up a whole bunch of vampires and go give them a fight?" Sookie snapped turning in every direction until her eyes landed on him. "Eric, we have to get down there. They could be torturing her."

"I know, but Bill is right." Eric stated, grimacing as he said this. It pained and annoyed him to agree with the younger vampire, but for once, it was true. "We have to have a plan if we are going to invade the Church. If we go in there with just the three of us, then there is a good chance none of us will make it out alive. But...if we had more vampires to counter their masses then we stand a chance at giving them the fight we should have fought a year ago."

"You are suggesting that we return to Dallas and launch a full out war on the Fellowship of the Sun Church? After what happened last time?" Bill asked in clarification and looked disgusted when both Eric and Sookie stared at him pointedly. "What would Godric say about this?"

"It doesn't matter, he's gone and he's not coming back." Eric snapped, standing up to his full height as he spoke. His hands were clenched into fists at his sides as he looked between Sookie and Bill. "They have Allison, ok? They have her and they are not going to let her go without a fight. So I say let's give them a fight."

"I'm in." Sookie agreed without even a second thought and reached out to shake his hand, their differences put aside for the moment now that they had a common goal. She turned back to her fiancee and leveled him with a stare. "Bill? What about you?"

"You do know we are going to garner a lot of negative feedback if we do this right?" He said to the both of them, but mostly at the blonde Stackhouse. Bill walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "I don't want you to put your life in danger again."

"Bill, the Fellowship has my cousin and if something happens to her while I just sit back and do nothing then I will never forgive myself." She stated with a stubborn look in her face. "I would rather go there and get hurt a thousand times over and know I tried to save her then to be safe here and have to hear that it was too late. I wouldn't be able to take that."

"We have time. They aren't going to do anything drastic to her. It's me they want and they are going to keep her alive to make sure I go there to save her." Eric pointed out, grinding his teeth as the thought of what may happen to her flashed through his head. He shook it away instantly, the possibility of that outcome was too much to bear, even for him. "So we use this time and get as many vampires as we can to join us and then we hit Dallas and we hit it hard."

"Normally I wouldn't agree with something like this, but this time they have gone too far. They have taken my family and I'm not going to play nice anymore. This is personal." Sookie told them, crossing her arms and stomping across the room and sat down on the sofa that had been cleaned off since his outburst. She lifted her head and looked right passed Bill to him and said. "I'm sorry."

"For what? You did nothing." Bill protested, taking place at her side.

"Actually I did and it was to Eric." She insisted to her fiancee and then shot her eyes back across the room. "I'm sorry for not understanding what it was like for you last year when this was your situation. Now I know what you were going through when they had Godric. I didn't truly understand the pain you felt until I was going through it myself. And for that I really owe you an apology."

"What's done is done. And my only focus is on right now." Eric waved it off but he sent a look at the blonde human that he hoped showed his gratitude for her words. She nodded in understanding while he walked back to his desk and sat on the edge of it. "I will have Pam and Chow go out and find every vampire willing to fight that's in my area. I guarantee there will be more then a few who would love to take on the Fellowship."

"We should also call on Isabelle and see if any of the Dallas vampires would be willing to help us. I'm sure they haven't forgotten what happened last year." Bill said, running his hand through his dark hair.

"And I will go there first as a diversion." Sookie announced, causing both him and Bill to shoot their heads in her direction while she just sat there looking completely calm. "What? I'm going to let you boys have all the fun? I don't think so."

"It's too dangerous, I won't allow you to do that." Bill snapped furiously which only proved to further annoy Sookie.

"Bill Compton, you may be my fiancee but you do not control me and I will not have you think you can." She hissed, pushing him away and standing up again. "If I want to go into that Church and be a diversion, then I will do it with or without your permission."

"Still can't control your human can you Bill?" Eric smirked, almost amused when the younger vampire sneered at him. "But she may have something there. If she sneaks into the church, then she can search for Allison and possibly get her out of there. If there is going to be a fight, then it is best if Allison is out of the fray when it happens."

"And how is Sookie supposed to pull that off? They know who she is and would recognize her right off the bat. She can't possibly infiltrate that Church and not get caught." Bill snapped, his hands going to his waist in a flash. "You are a real piece of work Eric."

"Shut up, I'm not the one who suggested it, she did."

"You shut up, you agreed with her."

"Both of you just shut up." Sookie shouted, her voice rising above the both of them and she rolled her eyes. "You two may be vampires, but you are behaving like 8 year old boys."

"Sookie..." Bill began to speak but she cut him off.

"Don't speak." She held her hand up to keep him silent. "I don't know how I am going to get into the Church without getting caught, but I have to at least try. And like I said, I don't need your permission. But I do need you to be on my side. This is not a time for any one to be fighting. We all need to band together."

"She's right. This situation is delicate and we need all the strength we can muster. We are only stronger then them if we are united." Eric replied walking over to the two of them and held his hand out. "If you two can agree with me on that, then all our past disagreements are null and void. It's a new beginning."

"Deal." Sookie nodded and Bill followed suit and they placed their hands in the middle on top of his. Eric grinned, feeling the alliance come together in that split second. "Now what?"

"Now we scheme..."

Inside the Church

"Have you had enough Ms. Stackhouse? Where is your precious vampire? Isn't he supposed to feel your pain and come through the door to save you? Isn't that how it works?" Steve's cruel voice mocked me as I cowered on the floor, breathing heavily from the beating I had just taken. He stood over over me with his arms crossed and a sneer on his face. "That is the only reason we are doing this. If you're in pain, then he will get here faster. Because if we leave alone, then who knows how long it will take until you are rescued."

"Fuck you." I snapped up at him, rolling over on my back and tried shimmy across the floor towards the open doorway, but Steve snapped his fingers and a heavy hand wrapped around my ankle and yanked me back while I clawed at the ground. "No, no not again."

"God will forgive us for what we have to do, but he will never show mercy on you for your sins." Steve told me with a careless shrug and wave of his hand while he moved to leave the room. "Gentlemen show her what her punishment will be."

"Stay away from me." I shouted, kicking at one of the men and jumping to my feet and making a dash for the door. But I didn't even make it a few steps before I was grabbed and shoved across the room into a metal shelf. I fell to the ground, already feeling a new cut open up on my arm and the blood starting to flow. I curled myself up as tight as I could and listened as the door shut and locked behind Newlin and I was left alone with two of his followers who were advancing on me with a glean in their eyes. I shook my hands, praying that this time the light would save me but nothing happened. And the second after that, four hands grabbed me and dragged me back to my feet. I didn't even get a chance to scream before they started assaulting my body.

20 minutes later...

"Sorry about that, but our actions will be be forgiven in the eyes of our Savior. He appreciates us for carrying out his message." One of the church fanatics said as he dropped me down to the floor for the last time and walked backwards to the exit. I could barely see his feet move as my gaze was out of focus and I laid there on the cold concrete struggling to find a breath of air. He soon left me alone, pulling the heavy door shut and locking it from the outside, leaving me to the silence of my racing heart and uneven breathing.

After Newlin had left, those two men had descended on me like vultures. They had every intention of carrying out Newlin's punishment that had been set aside for me and had immediately began hitting me. They didn't even need to use anything to hurt me, their fists did the job. I was shoved back and forth between the two men, each taking a turn at punching me anywhere they could reach. I could feel the bruises start to form when they grew tired of this and began throwing me against the walls for fun and laughing when I crumbled down to the floor in a heap. They drew blood eventually, opening a new wound on my leg when I was pushed into a shelf and caught my leg on a jagged end, ripping open the skin and the blood started flowing rapidly. I didn't remember too much after that, I kind of floated in and out of consciousness not really aware of what was going on. And it was only now when they finally stopped the beating and left, that I was able to focus again. I looked down at my bloodied and bruised body and tears sprang to my eyes.

Somebody save me. Please.

At Fangtasia

"Make sure you stress the urgency of the situation to them Pam. We won't have that much time to act until the Fellowship does something drastic." Eric told his progeny as they stood together inside the empty bar and looked around at the silent room. He had just finished giving her orders about rallying up the other vampires in the area and explained the situation they were all in and she listened to him without even saying a word. "Go now and do what you can."

"I will." Pam agreed, for once not coming back with a smart remark and instead just nodded and turned to leave. But before she left, she shot at glance over her shoulder at him and asked. "You know its going to be ok right?"

"I will know that when you have done what I have asked." He shot back, taking a seat at one of the tables and looking at his child with a frown when she appeared to be studying him. "What?"

"Nothing." She replied shaking her head and in the next second, she left and was out the door in a flash, leaving him alone with his thoughts. He sat there for a minute with his elbow on the table top and his eyes practically staring a hole through the wall. For the first time since Allison's abduction, he had been left on his own and he no longer knew how to handle it. While Pam had left to join Chow on canvasing the area for willing vampire to join them, Sookie and Bill were contacting Isabelle and the Dallas nest of vampires to see if they could be of help. There was no one else around to distract him from the darkness of his own mind, and the more he sat there in a sulk, the worse his mood became.

"You are distraught my child. I can see it in your face." Came a familiar voice that Eric never would forget in all his life. He shot his head to the side in the direction the sound was coming from and there, standing in the middle of the room was the ghost like image of his fallen maker. He looked the same as he did at the time of his death, young and innocent. He was transparent now and Eric could see through him at certain spots, but he was there and that's all that mattered.

"Godric." Eric barely managed to spit out before he rose from his feet and moved across the room to bow at the feet of the vampire who had made him into what he was. "Why haven't you appeared to me in a while?"

"Because you did not need my guidance until now." His maker replied with the same easy going smile that he had used when he was still living. He raised his hand, motioning for Eric to return to his feet and when he did, he began speaking again. "I understand that the Fellowship is trying to cause trouble again and you wish to seek revenge on them just as you did before."

"They kidnapped the human that was mine and they are holding her captive. I cannot stand by and do nothing." Eric confessed, bowing his head because he knew what his maker would have to say about his course of action. "I know you do not agree with what I have planned but..."

"Surprisingly, I do not object to this. They have brought pain and suffering down on their own kind before and this time, it is directed back at you as well." Godric answered back with a shake of his head and a look of disappointment on his face. "I may not be here in the flesh, but you are still my child and I do not wish to see you in agony. So if you feel it is right to go after them, then you do it and don't look back."

"I appreciate your approval." Eric told him, smirking in satisfaction at his master's surprising answer. Normally Godric would have told him to take a different road, a less violent road, but not this time. This time his answer was completely out of character for him. "But I have to admit I am more then a little surprised that you would tell me it was alright to proceed this way."

"I see how much you care for the girl and how she has affected your quality of life. That''s never happened before, and I have seen you with a great number of women." Godric pointed out with a smile. "You're different with her. She has changed you and you don't even know it. She is not like the others who came before her."

"Why is she different to me? Why do I feel this intense urge to fly there and rip everyone in that church apart to avenge her?" Eric asked, desperate for an answer that he couldn't find. "Why do I feel like I cannot rest without knowing she is safe?"

"Do you not know?" Godric asked him, his pale lips curling even tighter into a smile. "Because I find it very hard to believe that you can't see the answer to that question. It's all over your face."

"Tell me because I can't figure it out." Eric begged his maker, feeling his sanity starting to reach the brink and any minute now he was going to lose it. "It's not like she is anything special to me personally. She is just this human I claimed as my own. That's all she is..."

"No Eric, that is not all she is to you and you know it." Godric informed him, raising his transparent eyebrows in the air. "If she was just another companion to you then you wouldn't be this aggravated. You wouldn't be rounding up an army of vampires to attack the Fellowship. You wouldn't be sitting here wallowing in pity and worry over just another human. You wouldn't be throwing fits for days at a time if she didn't mean something to you. She means more to you then you are willing to admit. You spent time with her, you worried for her safety and rescued her from danger. And were intimate with her in way that you never have been before in all your years. The answer is right there, you just have to let yourself go and accept it."

"Are you saying that I have fallen in love with a human?" Eric demanded of his maker, snapping his head to the side to watch Godric walk across the floor. "Is that what you think?"

"I think...that is what you think." Godric told him, raising his hand above him in a wave. "You will soon feel the magnitude of your feelings for her and the answer will feel more right then you could think. I must leave now."

"Must you? I could really use more of your time." Eric snapped, feeling a sense of sorrow rip through him upon seeing that he was losing his mentor again. "I'm lost without you Godric."

"Do not fret. I will return to you sooner then you think." His maker assured him before dissipating into the air in a cloud of sparkling mist and leaving Eric alone once more.

a/n: ok i totally went against what i said in the last chapter..I just couldnt go on hiatus like i had planned because i was too inspired to conntinue writting this story. So i am going to forget that plan and just ride out this inspiration train to the very end