Layla pressed a hand against her head in an effort to stop her head from spinning. God, now she was dizzy. That fall really rattled her head.
"You wouldn't know love if it kicked you in the face!" Sookie said, grabbing a pole and slamming it through Lorena who was being held by a severely weakened Bill. Layla just stared as the Vampire spouted a fountain of blood and then exploded into nothing but blood and tissue. It was disgusting.
"Bill? Bill!" Sookie screamed as the vampire fell unconscious. Layla crept forward.
"Breathe Sook. If he was dead he'd be all over the floor too." Layla said picking through the Vampire Lorena's remains. Tara and Alcide burst through the door.
"Shut the door!" Sookie told them, not wanting to risk Bill being exposed to sunlight.
"What the hell are you doing?" Tara asked Layla who was still sifting through the gore.
"She had to have had the key to the manacles in her...ah ha!" Layla said, finding it and unlocking the vampire.
"Are you sure he's not dead? Cause he looks dead." Tara said.
"He isn't dead! When Vampires are dead this is what they look like!" she said moving aside some stringy bits of blood from Bill's general area.
"Jesus Christ." Tara breathed.
"Ladies we have got to get out of here's there's wolves all over the place." Alcide told them. Layla's eyes flutter for a moment and she let Sookie take over freeing Bill.
"I know." Sookie said.
"Sookie, it's only a matter of time before they come back." Alcide pressed.
"She said she knows." Layla said icily.
"Please, help me wrap him up." Sookie asked as she put the last of the manacles away. Tara began to say they didn't have time but Layla just hunted for a large cloth to put him in. Like hell they'd come this far just to walk away.
"Fuck." Alcide said as he and Tara joined in to help. He and Layla grabbed one end of the cloth as Sookie and Tara grabbed the other to roll Bill up. Alcide glanced nervously at Layla and then ran a hand over the back of her head. She jerked away. It was still really tender. When Alcide brought his hand away there was blood on it.
"You need a doctor." he said softly.
"You need to mind your business. I'm fine." Layla snapped.
"Aw, you shouldn't have." came Debbie Pelt's voice from the open doorway. "A Vampire burrito? For me?" she was holding a tiny handgun at the four of them.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Layla screamed, glaring up at the ceiling, hoping whatever deity was in charge heard how royally pissed she was.
"Debbie, just let everyone else go and take the vamp with them. Then you and me, we can talk." Alcide said, trying to diffuse the situation, like that worked.
"Fuck you! I'm the one with the fucking gun, ain't no one goin' nowhere." Debbie said.
"Sweetheart-"
"I ain't your sweetheart no more! No gimme a minute to think." Debbie said. Layla wanted to tell this idiot she would need a lot more time than a minute for that pathetic excuse of a brain to process a single thought, but instead she just growled quietly, seething with anger and frustration. Her head was swimming. She was losing too much blood.
"Don't even think about it, bitch!" Sookie said, snapping at whatever it was Debbie had been thinking.
"Oh, you sure picked the wrong time to call me bitch, bitch!"
"Yeah, Sook, don't do that." Tara pleaded.
"Sookie, I got this." Alcide was saying. Layla snapped.
"You don't got shit, Alcide!"
"Yes, I do. There ain't no way you're pulling that trigger." he said, turning his attention back to Debbie. "This isn't you. It's that V talking."
Layla was fed up. This was her karmic reward for helping Vampires, huh? No one here was James Bond and no one knew what the fuck they were doing. Layla glanced around at all the blood and guts and gore. Quite frankly it was just getting boring and she felt cold. Crossing her arms she sank down to sit on the floor by Alcide's feet, not giving a flying fuck about anything. It felt like every time she took one step forward some psycho knocked her three steps back. She remained expressionless even as Tara rushed Debbie, knocking the gun front her hands. She was unimpressed when Coot ran in and Alcide shot him, once in the chest and once more in the head, effectively blowing his brains out. Alcide then held Debbie by gunpoint and ordered Layla, Tara and Sookie to get Bill in the van. Layla felt like jello, but silently helped the other two girls. Tara did most of the work since she had a nice amount of Vampire blood still in her system. Even in the situation they were in she and Sookie managed to bicker like old women.
"Shut the fuck up both of you! What's done is done." Layla said bitterly, squinting against the harsh light of the sun. She hadn't slept in hours, it was daytime, she was under a serious amount of stress, Eric had disappeared yet again and she was losing who knew how much blood. In short, this was bullshit.
"Alright let's go." Alcide said, coming out of the shed.
"I'm riding in the back with Bill." Sookie said.
"Sookie-" Tara began but Layla was already closing the doors.
"You heard the girl. She's riding with Bill."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Layla dipped in and out of consciousness as they drove but no one really noticed. She woke up a bit when she heard screaming. They had pulled over so Alcide could use the bathroom. As Alcide hopped back in the driver's seat she perked up a bit and tried to get her eyes to focus.
"What's going on?" she asked, her voice scratchy from all the yelling she'd done the past few days.
"Bill all about drained Sookie. We need to get her to a hospital. I think you need one too from the looks of it." Alcide was saying. "Here," he said, reaching into the glove compartment for a oil stained rag. "Press that against it. Jesus, you look bad."
"I just need a true blood smoothie and I'll be fine." Layla said, leaning back in the seat. Alcide grabbed her shoulder and shook her.
"Stay awake, Layla. You fall asleep, you might not wake up." Alcide said.
"Fine, fine, I'm awake." Layla slurred. Alcide looked at her and growled in his throat.
"I'll never understand women. Y'all are beautiful, smart, good people and you wind up with men who will literally bleed you dry just to serve themselves, and get you all tangled up in their bullshit just so you feel loved?" Alcide said. Layla attempted a glare.
"Look, I'm not bleeding from letting a starving vampire feed on me, nor am I your crazy fucking ex Debbie. I'm bleeding cause I hit my head. I'm not falling for anybody and I'm under no delusions that Eric Northman is in love with me. So fuck you and keep driving." Layla yelled. After a moment she asked one more question.
"Is Sookie gonna be alright?"
Alcide took a long pause before responding. "I don't know."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Layla knew she had to be unconscious, because there was no blood on her. She was wearing a black sundress and her black combat boots. The sun was shining but she didn't feel weak or dizzy. As if that wasn't enough proof, she was standing in front of Godric.