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Encroaching Darkness, Fading Light
Chapter thirty-six - New Life In Death
Carla heard feet rushing down the stairs, they must have brought Lafayette back to the house to. He came rushing into the kitchen.
"...What the fuck was that... please not someone else... no more death... please..." Lafayette's panicked voice sprung into Carla head, her control completely gone.
She took a moment to try and catch the reins.
"No! Fucking, no! Tara don't fucking do this to me!" Lafayette got to his knees, grabbing a tea towel from the counter and pushing it against the wound on the side of the woman's head.
"Debbie tried to kill me and she jumped in the middle" Sookie explained, her face covered in the tears and her voice quaking.
"Come on, Tara" Lafayette put his ear to the woman's chest, listening for a heartbeat.
He began pumping her chest to try and restart her heart.
"Lay her flat" Carla told them. She swept the glass away from the body so that the CPR was more effective. "Compress the wound" She tried to remain calm, something the others couldn't quite achieve.
"Eric? We need to talk" Pam's voice came from the front of the house, having let herself in.
"Pam?" Carla called to her, in and instant she was in the room, glancing over the scene.
"Well, colour me impressed, you guys know how to party" Pam joked, in the morbid situation, probably not the best time.
"Eric's not here, now get out of my house!" Sookie shouted at the vampire.
"You mean Eric's house?" Pam retorted. Really not the best time, Carla thought.
"If you had any decency left in you at all you would let us be" Sookie growled.
"I need to talk to Eric" Pam, keeping her cool still, replied.
Carla got up, turning to the vampire, not noticing the fact her clothes were sodden with blood.
"Pam, if you do not leave, I will make you leave" Carla growled, her eyes flashing grey, as a warning that she was far more powerful than the vampire.
"...Tara... fuck... she needs another chance, she deserves another chance!" Lafayette's thoughts were twice as intense in his grief, breaking through what little control Carla had, a pang of pain resounded in her head.
"Fine, just if you see Eric, tell him…. Tell him I'm sorry" Pam said, about to leave.
"Hold up! Hold up!" Lafayette spoke up, talking to Pam.
Carla looked over her shoulder and down at them. "Turn her for us" Lafayette asked.
"What?" Sookie asked.
"Lafayette…" Carla began.
"Turn her? I don't even like her" Pam shrugged.
"Lafayette, Tara hates vampires" Sookie said, unsure.
"Bitch, she took a bullet for you. You really going to deny her a chance to live?" Lafayette asked, changing Sookie's mind, this was a bad idea.
"Are you sure this is the best idea..." Carla muttered, looking down at the two.
"I can't be the only one who's noticed she's missing half her head, now can I? Even if I tried, what's to say that she won't rise up out of the ground tomorrow night completely and utterly fucktarded?" Pam asked, hardly being sensitive.
"We have to try!" Sookie begged.
Pam began walking away.
"Sook!" Lafayette shouted.
"Pam" Carla swung around. "I can owe you" Carla told her.
She turned around.
"Owe me what?" She asked.
"I can make the witches spells go away, what if I can do that for yours?" Sookie asked.
"My spell died when Marnie died, what else you got?" Pam asked.
"Just fucking do it!" Lafayette shouted, knowing they were running out of time.
"I can talk to Eric, I bet he's still pretty sour about you almost killing me last night? No?" Carla asked.
"If you can do that... and still owe me one, then sure, you got a deal" Pam said.
Carla didn't have time to think, she simply nodded. "I swear" Carla agreed.
"Just do it!" Sookie said.
Pam produced her fangs and the two of them raised up Tara from the floor, opening her mouth.
Pam let her blood drip into Tara's mouth, though there were no immediate obvious effects.
About half an hour later the three of them were digging a hole in the back garden big enough for Tara and Pam.
When it was deep enough, Pam laid inside.
Carla pushed the shovel she was using into the ground, raising a hand to her forehead to rub it, her headache still loud and painful.
"Bring the girl" She ordered them.
Lafayette and Sookie carried Tara around next to Pam.
"Ugh… She smells" Pam growled.
"What is that bad?" Sookie asked.
"Can't imagine it's good" Pam commented.
"Aren't you meant to hold her or something? We had a deal, if you're not going to do it right it's off" Sookie told her.
"I am wearing a Walmart sweat suit for y'all, I that's not an expression of team spirit I don't know what is" Pam grumbled, turning over and placing her hand on Tara. "Bury us" She ordered.
The three of them began throwing the dirt back in the hole over the two bodies.
After burying the two, all of them went back inside the house.
Carla and Lafayette sat at the dining table, not saying a word.
Lafayette popped a few pills, probably to calm his nerves.
"...She's probably gone... the two closest people in my life... in one day... fuck you god... fuck you whoever did this to me..."
Carla slammed her hand on the table and pushed herself out of the chair.
Lafayette almost jumped out of his skin.
Carla went to the sink and splashed water on her face.
"What the fuck is up with chu?" Lafayette asked.
"Apart from the fact that all of your thoughts sound like they're coming over a PA system right in my ear?" Carla asked.
Lafayette didn't reply.
Carla turned around. "I'm sorry... it's not your fault, ignore me" Carla shrugged.
Sookie came striding through to the kitchen with a shower curtain and laid it out on the kitchen floor next to Debbie's body, which really did look a mess, missing most of the head and face.
Carla tried to avert her eyes.
"Anything big enough to pick up with our hands, we put in here" Sookie told them both. "Hey, how're you two holding up?"
Carla grabbed a pair of marigolds off the side of the sink, pulling them on.
She leaned down on the other side of the body, picking up the many bits of brain and bone that were scattered around on the floor near the body.
"Fine" Carla told her.
"I ain't" Lafayette said.
Sookie picked up a large portion of skull that had been ripped away in the blast, dropping it on the shower curtain next to her.
"Oh sweet fucking jesus" Lafayette looked away, taking another pill.
"Look, If you can't do this right now, I'll understand" Sookie said to the man.
Carla placed two handfuls of remains on the shower curtain.
"You've been through way more than any one person can take"
"Sook, now I am the last person on the planet to trust the police, but why don't you just tell them it was self-defence? Shit you a white girl, they gonna believe you" Lafayette asked her.
"It wasn't self-defence" Sookie proclaimed.
Carla looked up.
"What?" Carla asked.
"You shot that dirty bitch with her gun in your house" Lafayette straightened out the facts.
"You know they say, in the heat of the moment, that people don't have time to think?"
"Uh huh" Lafayette replied.
"Well I did, I thought, 'you don't have the do this, you've got the gun now, you could call the police, or Jason, and they'd lock her away forever'" Sookie explained. "I decided to pull the trigger instead, I wanted, to kill her, does that sound like self-defence to you?" She asked.
"Can't say she didn't deserve it neither, she shot Carla in the heart, almost killed her and she might have just killed Tara" Sookie added.
"Gimme some gloves" Lafayette requested.
"By the sink" Carla told him.
They all got on with cleaning up the mess.
Once they were done disposing of the body, it was about half an hour before dawn.
Carla headed up to her room to relax, when her phone vibrated into life.
The caller ID read: Eric N
She picked up the phone.
"Hello Eric" Carla said.
"I've been trying to get a hold of you for the past three hours, what were you doing?" Eric sounded stressed and worried.
"Long story…" Carla began.
"I don't have time, it's close to dawn and I need to discuss something with you" Eric interrupted her.
"Okay, go on"
"We're in New Orleans, can you get here for tomorrow night?" Eric asked.
What the hell was he doing all the way down there? We?
"Yes, of course I can, but why? Who's we?"
"We need to talk, I am sure you can sniff me out, just meet me there at nightfall. I'll be expecting you. I'll send you an approximate address, just follow your nose from there" Eric said.
"Very well, see you then lover" Carla replied.
"You too, lover" Eric joked.
She hung up.
Resting the closed phone to her lips for a moment.
She had a terrible feeling right in the pit of her stomach, something was terribly wrong. She couldn't trust her divination, maybe it was just her mind playing tricks on her.
Carla couldn't sleep, so she went out into the garden to rest. She sat looking up at the sky in the long grass, that hadn't been mowed for a while, waiting for the sun to rise.
Sookie came over to her from the house.
"Hey" She said, sitting down next to her.
"Hey" Carla replied.
"Thanks, for talking to Pam tonight" Sookie said.
"It's fine. Tara deserves another shot, she saved your life, it would be cruel to not allow her to at least try again, though I guess she's not going to be happy when she wakes up" Carla sighed.
"I doubt it" Sookie sighed. "You know when I was growing up, everyone thought I was a freak. Tara was always there to stand up for me, she was so close, it's like I've lost one of my hands or something"
"You haven't lost anything. She'll wake up tomorrow, I promise you that, she's a fighter" Carla wrapped her arm around Sookie.
"I don't think I am ever going to be able to look Alcide in the eye again" Sookie said.
"Me neither, let's hope that he doesn't come visit any time soon" Carla replied.
Sookie nodded.
"I better go. Lafayette wanted to go back to his house" Sookie said. "To lay Jesús to rest"
"Okay, I'll stay here then" Carla looked down at herself in her bloody clothes. "And get a bath and a change of clothes" Carla commented.
Sookie nodded. "Looks like I need one too, see you soon" Sookie wandered back towards the house.
Carla stayed out on the lawn until they left, before going in and cleaning herself up.
Carla pulled a new pair of white jeans on, with a white vest top and thin silk blouse over the top.
At least Eric knew something of her taste in clothes, considering he had filled the wardrobe.
She headed downstairs, the sun was now bursting in through the windows. Carla went into the kitchen, looking over it again, making sure they hadn't missed any blood anywhere.
They had taken off the doors on one of the cabinets, the one that had been smashed in the blast.
It looked a little odd, but soon they would be replaced, it was not as if they would see Alcide any time soon, hopefully he was busy with work and didn't come back to speak with her about their conversation.
Looking down where Debbie's body had been, Carla saw a very inconspicuous tooth with the root attached to the bottom. She picked it up and quickly disposed of it in the bin.
Carla sighed and went about making herself some breakfast.
A few hours later, Carla was still sat at the kitchen table.
Sookie had come home with Lafayette earlier and they were upstairs getting cleaned up.
A knocking came from the front door, heavy and resounding.
Carla got up, a little nervous, and edged her way towards the door.
On the other side of the door was the last person she had wanted to today.
Alcide waved at her, a smile on his face.
Shit. He had seen her. Now she had to let him in...
Carla opened the door, her hair had dried in the heat of the morning, and it was puffing out uncontrollably.
"Hey" Carla said, forcing a smile, but trying not to make it look forced.
"Hi Carla, we need to talk" Alcide said, panting a little, as if he was either stressed or had been running.
"Uhh, yeah sure, come with me I'll see if Sookie has any cold drinks in the fridge" Carla stepped backwards to let the tall man in, shutting the door behind him and then striding off towards the kitchen.
Alcide following her.
Carla opened the fridge, looking inside, thankfully there was some lemonade in a jug. Sookie and her lemonade.
She pulled it out and placed it on the kitchen table.
"Please, sit down" Carla offered, reaching up to grab a glass for each of them.
"What happened to the cabinet?" Alcide asked, looking over his shoulder.
"You know Sookie, just has a decorating moment and decides to change the place up a bit" Carla smiled, taking the glasses to the table.
"She forget to do it with the other side?" He asked, chuckling.
"Think she got side tracked mid-way through" Carla smiled.
"Must have been with cleaning, I've never seen a kitchen this clean, smells like lemons on top of ammonia on top of bleach" Alcide commented.
"Sookie went on a cleaning rampage last night, she's still a little shook up about the stuff that's been going on recently, finds it hard to sleep, I think cleaning is her stress buster" Carla explained, lying through her teeth.
"And how're you feeling, after everything...?" Alcide asked.
"I'm fine, always just fine, the way i see it is if you keep on moving forward you won't have time to stop and look around you at how shit things may or may not have become" Carla replied.
"Speaking of Sookie, is she here, I need to speak to both of you really" Alcide asked.
"She might be in the shower, but I'll give her a call" Carla said, getting up and heading to the stairs.
"Sookie! You out yet?!" Carla called, listening for the reply.
"I'll be down in a bit!" Sookie called back.
"We're in the kitchen!" Carla told her. Sending a quick mental message of: "It's Alcide." in the hope that Sookie would hear her.
She headed back into the kitchen and poured the lemonade.
"She'll be down in a bit" Carla smiled, handing him his lemonade. "Do you want to wait?" Carla asked.
"Would be best" Alcide nodded.
Carla sat back down.
"So, did you think any more about what I said?" Alcide enquired.
"Umm, well, don't you think it's a little soon? I mean, since you left Debbie... are you sure you're not rushing things?" Carla replied, unsure. Carla didn't have the heart to outright tell him she was not interested, even though she had Eric. Alcide was in an uneven place right now, a word from her might push him over the edge. He had just lost the love of his life, for the second time, God knew what he would do when he found out she was dead as well. Additionally that Carla had just that previous night been scooping her remains into a shower curtain...
"No, I'm seeing clear. Debbie's out of my life, completely and now I want to start a fresh and be secure" Alcide explained.
"Alcide, I-"
Sookie cut her off, by walking into the kitchen, her face suddenly springing into a grin when she saw Alcide, pretending that she had not been doing the exact same thing as Carla the previous night.
"Hey Alcide, what's going on that you couldn't call?" Sookie asked.
Clearly she hadn't heard her mental message.
"It's Russel Edgington, he's on the loose" Alcide told them both.
"What?" Carla sat up straight, leaning forward on the table.
"I thought Russel Edgington was dead" Sookie admitted.
Alcide sighed. "Those motherfuckers, they didn't even tell you?" Alcide shook his head.
"Tell us what?" Carla asked, raising an eyebrow.
"A year ago, they took him to one of my construction sites, it was a high-rise parking garage, they buried him under about two meters of cement. I wasn't privy to anything about it, other than the pouring of the cement" Alcide explained.
"What the fuck were they thinking" Carla placed her hand on her forehead, her mind almost blown by this fact.
"Now Russel's gonna come after both of you and that's why you both need to come and stay with me" Alcide told them.
"We can't" Sookie told him outright.
"What-?"
"We have to stay here" Sookie told him.
"God damn-"
"It's not personal-" Carla tried to say, sitting back down in her chair, resting her elbows on the table and rubbing her eyes.
"Both of your lives are on the line here" Alcide interrupted her.
"You won't want either of us to stay with you, once you've heard why we can't stay with you" Carla said, looking up at Alcide.
"Whatever it is, I can handle it" Alcide assured Carla, before glancing at Sookie and back again.
"Last night, after I got back from Bill's, I-"
Sookie was cut off by Lafayette rushing in from the lounge.
"Woah, woah, woah, get the fuck up out of here wolf!" Lafayette shouted, pushing Alcide back off his chair, being surprisingly hostile.
"What the fuck is his problem?" Alcide asked.
"He just broke up with his boyfriend, he's not exactly himself…" Sookie explained.
"I'm real sorry about you and your boyfriend, but I'm here before both Carla and Sookie are in a whole lot of danger" Alcide explained, not interesting in starting a fight.
"I heard, I've been listening, how the fuck do you think you can protect either of them from an ancient, pissed off vampire when all werewolves do is piss off vampires even more" Lafayette shouted back. "We done with all this supernatural bullshit. You hear me? No vampires, No witches, No ghosts, no Maenads, and no mother fucking werewolves!" Lafayette yelled, slamming his hands into Alcide's chest.
Alcide took another step towards Lafayette looking threatening and growled his low wolf growl.
Carla shot up out of her seat.
"Please! Just stop it!" She yelled.
"Don't you fucking growl at me!" Lafayette yelled at the man, still up in his face.
"I'll make whatever fucking noise I want!" Alcide snarled back.
"Fine, you know what, just get on with it, I am done!" Carla turned around, and strode straight for the exit, grabbing her leather coat with was on the hanger with her car keys in the pocket, striding straight out to her car.
It was about time she set off for the port to meet Eric anyway, she just needed to get out of there.
She thrust the keys into the ignition and three point turned out of the driveway, heading towards New Orleans.
Carla was suitably pissed off to have a very heated argument with the vampire.
Carla arrived at the address Eric had texted her just as the sun was going down.
She got out of her car and realised the area was mostly deserted. She shifted and followed her nose to find Eric, which led her to a long wooden planked pier with a metal shipping crate on the end.
She ran along the pier, dragging her claws along the metal shipping container, morphing in the process.
She stepped a few strides in front of the container, the door was open, with Bill standing with his back up against the corner.
Eric stepped out, joined by a woman, he instantly saw the sour look on her face, and knew something was wrong.
Eric's phone began to ring.
He picked it up out of his pocket, about to answer it.
Carla morphed momentarily to snatch the phone out of his hand at vamp speed, something she had not planned to do, but her body reacted to her mind's commands without her consent.
As she had expected, it was Alcide.
She answered it.
"Hello Alcide, yeah, I get around quickly" Carla wandered around casually, pacing back and forth the width of the pier, she paused in the centre and looked Eric right in the eye. "Oh, Russel Edgington is on the loose? There was a hole in the parking lot floor and your worker was glamoured, oh don't worry, I'll be sure to tell him, take care" She put the phone down.
"I've gotta hand it to you Eric, you have royally fucked this one up" She skimmed the phone along the floor to his feet. "So when were you planning to tell me, or were you even planning to tell me at all?" Carla asked.
"Carla, I didn't have the time, i…" He trailed off.
"You got carried away? You thought it didn't matter? You thought he would go unfound? You thought that running off and fucking some other vampire would be a better way to spend your precious time?" Carla asked, pointing at the woman who was next to him, who she could see he had been fucking, due to the fact that he was barely clothed, as was she.
"Carla, please, listen, the authority has put orders for both of us to meet the true death" He indicated Bill. "This is Nora, she's giving us safe passage out of the country and we're to take on false identities, I am telling you because I want you to come with us" Eric explained.
"Right, you want me to run with you and leave Sookie to deal with Russel on her own, only for him to come after me next, he is three thousand years old and he may be completely insane, but he is also brilliantly intelligent, you really think he won't find me and you?" Carla asked. Eric didn't reply.
"I am a prime example of why running doesn't solve a damn thing, so if you want to run and lay low from the authority, very well, but I am staying here to try and find Russel before he's too powerful for me to kill him myself"
"Carla…" Eric started, looking cracked, the same way he looked that night in Fangtasia before she left him, after she had betrayed his trust to save Sookie from Bill.
"Goodbye, Eric" Carla faced down, walking past Eric, who reached out for her arm, but she moved away to avoid him.
She morphed and rushed back towards her car, getting in, ready to drive most of the night to get back to Bon temps.
When Carla arrived back in Bon Temps, she decided against going home, instead she thought that the best place to start looking for Russel was in the garage that Eric and Bill had buried him in.
Carla pulled over to the side of the road, and pulling her mobile out of her pocket.
Alcide picked up on the third ring.
"Herveaux"
"Hello Alcide, you mind if I come by?" Carla asked, finding herself hoping he would accept.
"Yeah, course" He told her, he gave her his address, which thankfully she knew how to get to and said she'd be there as soon as she could.
It took about twenty minutes for Carla to arrive outside Alcide's house, a relatively new house in Shreveport.
Carla shut off her engine and slipped out of the driver's seat. She turned the keys in the lock and the car central locked.
She wandered up the garden path, looking into the windows at either side of the door.
No sign of Alcide.
Carla tapped her knuckles on the front door gently, waiting for the door to be answered.
Alcide opened the door quickly, a smiling springing to his face.
"Hey Carla, please come in" He offered.
"...My god, her hair... what i wouldn't give to take a fist-full of that...and her figure... fucking beautiful..." Carla pushed his voice to the back of her mind, trying to push it out all together, but it seemed to linger, tempting her.
"Hey, thanks" Carla smiled back, stepping onto the mat and wiping her feet before wandering in.
Alcide closed the door behind him and walked past Carla into his rather posh looking lounge room, sitting down on the couch.
"Come, sit" He offered, patting the space next to him.
Carla took it, but she didn't sit too close.
"Sorry to bother you, I know you're a busy man. I just needed to talk to you about the place where Russel was buried?" Carla placed her hands in her lap and didn't move them, simply wanting to get the information and then leave.
Carla decided that even if she did want to start something with Alcide at some point, it would not be now, or soon, not this soon after Eric.
"Er, yeah, I can give you the address" He pulled a small notebook out of his pocket, along with a small pencil.
"So you said one of your workers was glamoured? Do you know if he'll be working today?" Carla asked, as Alcide scribbled down the address.
"Yeah, but his lunch hour is between one and two in the afternoon, so if you turn up then, the place'll be empty, the front gate'll be locked, but I'm sure you can work your way around it" Alcide smiled, handing the address to Carla, you took it and stuffed it into her pocket.
"Right, thanks a lot Alcide, you're a real help" Carla got up and turned around, heading for the door.
"Carla, wait a second" Alcide got up, going after her. "Are you going to look for Russel alone?" He asked.
"Yeah, since Eric and Bill are leaving the country last I heard and Sookie doesn't need the hassle" Carla tried to keep her mind off Debbie, not wanting to focus on anything but finding Russel, specially not her conscience.
"Surely you shouldn't be doing that all by yourself?" Alcide asked.
"Like I said, there's no-one else" Carla explained.
"Let me come with you then, I'll help you find him, two noses is better than one" Alcide offered.
"No Alcide, I don't want to pull you into this, this isn't your concern and I certainly don't want to be responsible for anything happening to you" Carla crossed her arms.
"This is my decision to make, I am responsible for myself" Alcide fought back.
"Alcide, this is a three thousand year old fucking vampire, who among other things, is completely nuts and wants to subjugate the whole world, you really should not be wanting to get involved" Carla turned around. "I'll see myself out"
"Carla, wait" Alcide stepped forward and grabbed the woman's arm.
Carla turned to face him.
Alcide leaned forwards and pressed his lips to Carla's, moving closer to her and laying his hand on her neck, before moving it up into her hair, grabbing it gently in his fist.
"...Nothing else I want... Just let me have this... I want this... Let me have you!"
Carla pulled back, a shocked look on her face.
"Carla, I'm sorry, I just- I thought you and Eric were done, I-" Alcide started, but Carla opened the door and walked out, rushing down the garden path, with Alcide close behind.
"Carla! Wait! I can explain!" Alcide begged, but Carla didn't know how to respond. She opened her car door and ducked down into the seat, closing the door and stepping on the gas.
She heard Alcide's voice yelling in the background, but she ignored it, she knew this would happen
She should have told Alcide her standing straight away, but he should have known she was with Eric.
Crap.
The plot thickens! Haha, well i hope you enjoyed this chapter, and thanks for spending your time reading it, it is much appreciated.
Please feel free to leave me a review and tell me what you think!
Until next time,
-Shad out :)