Sunlight and Ambrosia
Chapter 29 – Season 3 – Russell Edgington
Russell entered the entry hall of his mansion happily, dragging Sookie and Anne in close behind him, throwing both girls at his Talbot. His laughter filled the space as everyone else seemed to barely be catching up with all that had been happening.
Talbot was staring at the two females that had been thrown toward him, not at all pleased at the new tidbits that had been brought into his home, clashing dangerously with his decor. Bill's and Sookie's eyes remained on each other until Sookie got a shock when she spotted Eric and Lorena in Russell's entry hall. Lorena's eyes were wide as she watched her Bill as he was thrown to the floor at her feet roughly. Eric's eyes were on Anne as she walked into the entry hall, willingly letting herself being thrown around while there was nothing inside her. He couldn't feel anything but painful numbness that he recognized easily from only an hour before when he'd learned the truth about who'd killed his family. He knew Luka was gone and he wanted nothing more than to take Anne away from comfort her. But he couldn't… not yet.
"Well, guess who turned out to be completely unworthy of our trust?" Russell asked Talbot conversationally.
"No," Talbot gasped, unbelieving.
"Why?" Lorena asked nervously. "What's happened?"
"He's been hiding something very… interesting from us all," Russell explained, his eyes moving to where Sookie stood.
Suddenly Bill jumped up, ripping a thin wooden beam from the railing of the stairs, using it to stake the guard behind him. Once the vampire collapsed, Bill jumped on Russell, ready to stake him before Russell simply shrugged him off and sent him flying into the ceiling. Bill landed on the stairs with a crash along with a collection of debris, both Sookie and Talbot screaming in girl-ish fear as Anne stood by numbly, looking as if she was unaware of what was happening around her.
"Are you serious?" Russell laughed at Bill. "I am almost three thousand years old!"
Sookie ran away from Talbot, trying to run to Bill as other vampire guards grabbed him, but Eric was suddenly in front of her, blocking her way.
"Eric, get her out of here, please!" Bill pleaded.
Instead, Eric grabbed her arm and guided her back down the stairs and in front of Russell.
"Eric, what are you doing?" Sookie cried.
"I wouldn't let go of this if I were you. I don't know what it is, but it's really quite valuable," Eric told Russell, totally ignoring Bill and Sookie as they stared at him in shock. "I haven't had the pleasure of tasting it but something tells me that it would be quite… extraordinary,"
"I will never ever forgive you for this!" Sookie cried, shaking Eric's hand off of her arm.
"Oh, it thinks we're equals," Eric laughed, looking over at Russell.
"Well it's wrong, isn't it?"
"Indeed,"
Talbot stepped up them, looking thoroughly pissed off at his lover. "Do you care nothing about our home?"
"Talbot! Not now," Russell told him angrily.
"When?!" he roared, Talbot finally reaching his last straw. In a rage, the vampire turned and stomping off up the stairs, muttering to himself in a fluent and seamless mix of Spanish and Latin.
"What are you going to do with our Mr. Compton, if I may ask?" Lorena spoke up, trying and failing at acting nonchalant about her question.
"Marco, Klaus, take Mr. Compton to the slave quarters," Russell ordered, the vampires carting Bill off- Bill yelling for Eric to save Sookie the whole time- as Russell headed up the stairs. "There, my dear, you will kill him,"
"No!" Sookie cried.
"But what's-?"
"Do not defy me!" Russell interrupted Lorena, shutting her up with her rarely angry tone. "I am your king!"
Lorena stuttered, bowing her head. "Your Majesty,"
"Take Miss Stackhouse into the library, Eric," Russell ordered, having calmed down. "I want to ask her a few questions after I repair the state of affairs of my marriage," Russell was headed up the stairs when he stopped, turning to look down at where Anne still stood, looking utterly calm despite what was happening. "Would you care to join me, Miss Weston?" Russell asked, though it was clearly an order that would not be ignored. "I am sure a taste of you will put Talbot in the right spirits,"
Anne dropped her eyes to the ground and walked past to the stairs, brushing past Eric without so much as looking up at him. Anne only dared to glance at him when she was walking up the stairs and Russell turned his back. Her eyes were met with one of the emotionally tortured looks that Anne had grown used to seeing on Eric's face from time to time. Anne could see the tension in his body but she knew that no matter what he did that it would not work and, like him, she wanted Russell to pay for what he'd done.
I will be fine.
Eric raised an eyebrow at her but she dropped her eyes again and continued up the stairs, disappearing down the hall as Russell guided her to his room.
"Please tell me you were just doing that for the king's benefit," Sookie murmured to Eric before turning to glare up at him.
"I don't think anyone plays the king of Mississippi and gets away with it," Eric told her. "And I certainly have no intentions of trying,"
"Why are you even here?" Sookie asked as Eric shoved her, getting her walking towards the study. "I thought you had other things to deal with,"
"Yeah, I do, and I need to think. So please don't take this the wrong way, but shut up,"
"Eric, please, I'm begging you-" Sookie began before Eric clamped a hand over her mouth.
"Thank you,"
Once they reached the study, Eric let Sookie go, sitting her down in one of the chairs before he began to pace, his mind on what to do and how to do it. First he would need to play his way into Russell and Talbot's hearts to save Pam and then he'd have to find the perfect moment to kill Russell or exact his revenge in a way that was worth than death. But things had grown a great deal more complicated the second Anne, Sookie and Bill were dragged through Russell's door. Eric could probably care less what happened to Sookie and Bill as long as it didn't give Russell any more power, but Eric did care about what happened to Anne.
As Eric's mind moved to Anne, he winced as he felt her pain, feeling the fangs biting into her neck and the fear that settled at the back of her spine. It was almost a new thing to feel Anne so frightened and Eric hoped that he didn't feel it ever again because it was something he didn't enjoy. There was nothing Eric wanted more than to run up and protect Anne from Russell and get his filthy fangs off of her but he needed to think bigger than tonight if he wanted to get everything he wanted.
As much as it pained Eric to admit it, he cared about this Elf woman. She wasn't like the typical humans that he watched flit around without a thought thinking they knew everything. She knew that she couldn't order vampires around and that she was at their mercy, but she still managed to not let him push her around. It was strange the pleasure she brought him, how much he enjoyed simply talking to her. He didn't know whether he should hate what she was doing to him.
"So all that stuff about you caring about me? That was just crap?" Sookie suddenly asked, bringing Eric out of his thoughts for a moment.
"Do you mind? I'm trying to think here,"
"I thought you said my life was too valuable to throw away,"
"You are valuable, that's very clear. I'm just not sure why,"
"And what about Anne?" Sookie asked angrily. "Your just gonna let her get eaten and rot here for the rest of her life. I thought you cared-"
Eric was suddenly in her face with hissing at her as his fangs extended threateningly with a pop, his eyes almost red with fury. "You mean nothing to me, understand? Nothing. And as far as Anne, you know nothing of what I feel for her, Sookie Stackhouse," he growled at her menacingly, making her sit back in fear. "I'm very close to getting something I've wanted since I was still human. Do not get in my way," That said, Eric stepped away from her, straightening as he put away his fangs, angry welling up in Sookie as she glared at him.
"I hate your fucking guts, Eric Northman! I promise I will pay you back for this and I hope Anne will be able to enjoy watching you suffer with me,"
Eric chuckled.
"Sorry to have kept you waiting," Russell apologized as he appeared in the doorway, a bloody smirk as he fixed his belt suggestively. "A husband's work is never done,"
Eric turned, wearing a fake grin on his face which faltered when he saw- and smelled- Anne's blood smeared on Russell's chin. Russell sighed happily as he pulled out a handkerchief and wiped away the blood from the side of his mouth as if he'd just finished a meal of a hobo or depressed stripper. Eric hated the vampire twice as much as before. Russell of all vampires should know that there was something very special about Anne and thus should not be so irresponsible as to finish her. Eric could practically feel Anne's barely conscious body being lifted into arms and taken to another set of chambers, thrown carelessly on the bed to heal from being fed on. Anne was dying and she didn't care enough to take care of herself.
Russell turned to Eric with the same satisfied smile on his face. "Leave us,"
Eric nodded. "As you wish,"
"What have you done to Anne?" Sookie asked as soon as Eric was gone, desperate to find out whether Anne was still alive or if Sookie had just gotten one of her best friends killed again.
"Oh, she's fine," Russell assured her, waving her away before he smirked evilly. "She's too important to kill her quite yet. She knows too much… but she makes a great meal,"
Sookie gaped at him.
"Now, tell me what you are?"
Sookie looked at him with teary eyes. "I'm a waitress,"
"Yes, and I am Marie of Romania," Russell told her sarcastically. "I'm a very patient man, Miss Stackhouse, one can afford to be when one is immortal but my patience is not without limits,"
