Chapter Thirty-six
"Felicitari," the deep voice murmured. In his tone there was surprise but his affection wasn't lost. The language was Hungarian but with a newer Romanian lilt to it. "You have won fată mea." He sounded more than a little saddened by what he saw. From my peripheral I saw him drop to his knees and place a kiss on her forehead. His face was still looming directly over hers as he whispered, "You defeated them all."
The hold André had on my neck slackened enough to allow me to turn my head to the side. What I saw was the last thing I had ever expected. There was just no way that could be who I thought it was. There was just no fucking way that Dracula, the prince of darkness, was here.
He ran his little finger deeply over his fangs and slipped it deftly into the knife wound at Sookie's side. He caressed her face as he worked, brushing sweat and blood soaked hair from her face. Looking up as if taking notice of the rest of us for the first time, he waved an errant hand. There was an otherworldliness to the way he moved, it was written in that slight gesture alone. It emanated from the glow of his body and the way he seemed to stand apart from all that was around him, untouchable.
"Visigoth, Viking," he said with a nod of his head. Suddenly the hold of André and his guards fell away. He didn't have to do the same for Godric; Thalia, Lucas and Rasul had already released him. "Come, your lover needs to go where I go, for now." He rose, dexterously gathering Sookie in his arms. I noticed that he hadn't removed the finger that he'd imbedded in her side. It was what kept me from taking her from him. Whatever purpose it was serving it was necessary. The same bright light appeared. It was some kind of portal. Dracula stepped through it and neither Godric nor I needed to think before we followed in after him. We could be walking into the sun but that was the least of our troubles.
The feel of the light that surrounding the opening was cool. It raised the hairs on the back of my neck. That wasn't at all a good sign but it wasn't enough to slow my pace. There was a moment where the lighting got too bright and I had to close my eyes against it. The feeling of solid ground beneath my feet fell away. It felt like I was falling but my ability to fly didn't kick in. Godric's hand in mine kept me centered while we traveled through time, location, and maybe even through space. I had no idea and in truth it didn't matter. I would walk through fire for Sookie.
The blinding light stopped. My feet found purchase and the spinning sensation stopped. I blinked a few times and found that I was in a bedroom. The first thing I noticed was the amount of moisture in the air. It told me I was very high up in terms of altitude. Then the room itself registered. It was old world, really old world. The décor was Gregorian in its feel. It lacked nothing in opulence and deep colors. It was intense without being oppressive. There was a candled chandelier that hung from the domed ceiling that served as the only source of light. The carvings that adorned the bed, the paintings on the wall, every well placed fixture, they all spoke of an older place and time.
Dracula placed Sookie on the bed. He waited a few more seconds before he removed his finger from her side. With another wave of his hand over her sleeping form her bloody battle worn clothes fell away. She was in a night gown. Her face was clean. Her hair wound itself in a neat braid that fell over her right shoulder. That should impress me a lot more than it did and I was sure if I was in less of a state of panic it would.
"She has always been so lovely," he murmured stepping away with her discarded clothes in hand. "So beautiful and extraordinary in her soul that it angered death."
"I do not understand. How?" Godric asked moving to the side of the bed and taking a seat.
"Have you never wondered how or why she finds so much violence finds her despite her or your best efforts?"
Yes. I have wondered that very thing on more than one occasion. I'd once teased her that I didn't see nearly as much violence in the dark ages as she seemed to find just by getting out of bed in the morning. All of that I'd simply attributed to her beauty, telepathy and her immersion into the world of the supernatural. Bad luck maybe, but nothing like this.
"Getting struck by lightning is bad luck." Dracula said, rolling his eyes. "Her's is a curse."
He waved a hand and a little glass dome that held a single lily flower appeared and on it was a single petal that clung. The lone petal was the color of lavender and smelled like Sookie. It was her blood and probably her life force that kept the flower alive and nothing else. I didn't need an explanation on why so many petals had fallen. Those that had fallen were the shade of blood but as the pile rose they gradually began to morph in color. Burgundy bled into bright red and that turned to pink and then lilac. I stared in equal parts dismay and awe. There were countless petals, so much so it nearly covered the entire stem.
"Igen," Dracula said looking at me and Godric. "You are correct; every time a petal fell she found herself in mortal peril and was gazing upon the reaper's door."
I was trying to understand how she had survived because I simply had no idea. My poor lover. How many times had she been hurt, been afraid, and near death but so alone? It made me hurt to contemplate the reality. In my thousand years of life I did not think I had brushed the veil this many times. Mere days ago she had come clean about so much. She had told us everything about her, the good, the bad and ugly. So why had she not told us about this?
"She would have dropped dead," he said reading our minds. A part of me was aware of it but since it had been helping move the conversation along I didn't fight or bristle at the intrusion.
"The reaper, he is like all the Gods that govern the forces of this world. Little does he care for the plight of those upon this plane, but it does happen. Someone extraordinary enough will peak his interest, be they evil or good it matters not. Fortunately, there are rules that dictate balance in all the worlds and the reaper, he is not exempt. He desired your mate and couldn't simply take her for it was not her time. He could however plague her, and plague her he did. He took everything from her eagerly and hoped she would succumb to his embrace on her own."
That hung in the air. I wondered if Sookie knew and I hoped she didn't because she would blame herself. "I have mastered death," the Prince continued. "He coveted me for my particular brand of…shall we say, antisocial behaviors." He flashed a wicked smile. "Now in turn I see him where he stalks and hear him when he calls. I met your Sookie when she was fifteen years of age. That day she had run away and death walked soundly by her side. He was calling her name so very loudly that it was all I could hear. Truly, I have never seen him haunt one person so. I was further intrigued because this little thing moved with a completely irrational sense of optimism." He paused to smile down at her, though it was more sardonic than anything else. "As I drew closer I realized she was part Fae, not just any Fae, but the Elite of her generation."
"What is that?" Godric asked. I shared the confusion; that was not a term I'd ever heard. It wasn't saying much, Fairies ever let known what they didn't want common knowledge.
"Niall the sky prince he is the Elite of his generation, powerful and revered even by his foes. Breandan was the Elite of his and so on. Elites are inherently gifted and always leave their marks on the world be it good or bad."
That explained why Niall wanted her with him. He could have trained her and made her an even more formidable contender than she was now. That was one reason he might want her but the words Breandan spoke were still in my mind.
Dracula snorted and rolled his eyes in a very human way. "I'm not even going to touch that one," he muttered. "Anyway, that day I told her the truth of her future out of mercy perhaps. She thanked me and with a warm smile she continued on her way. I watched her go, very sure that at any moment something would happen to settle her score. It didn't."
Both Godric and I whipped our heads to the bed. Sookie's heartbeat pattered back into existence. It had stopped back at the woods of her home. We hung on the beat now but it was fleeting. Dracula wasn't didn't appear to be surprised by this. He paused momentarily in his tale to slice his little finger again and inserted it into her mouth, seeing the knife wound had been presumably bandaged but not healed.
Once he was finished tending to Sookie, Dracula removed his cloak and draped it behind his chair before he sat. "She did not die that day, obviously," he continued. "I did, however find her two weeks later. She'd been stabbed. I watched as she bled out and death waited eagerly for her soul to take but a vampire came along and saved her."
I was willing to bet that vampire was Russell. Obviously it didn't mean he cared a thing about her. There is law greater than blood amongst the undead. Sookie must have gotten hurt defending him. That had been the only reason he would give her blood. I would wager some of his people had been around and he couldn't allow the blood debt to go unpaid. A knocked sounded and a female vampire entered through the double doors. She was dressed in a red lace gown with a black veil over her face. She carried a gold tray in her hand. It held three glasses and a crystal decanter full of blood. She set her burden down and filled the glasses. With a look at Sookie, the female left without a word. I've been there quite a few times myself to know it when I saw it; Dracula was getting the cold shoulder.
The only difference in the Prince as he continued was a slight frown otherwise he pretended the woman hadn't come and gone. "Curious over that missed encounter I sought Sookie out again four years later; sure I would find a grave. Instead I found her humming and awaiting a bus with a battle worn tiger, of all creatures. At that time she candidly informed me that she was sick of my doom and gloom forecast. That was how we struck our bargain: I assumed the odds were in my favor. Since the pair was headed for basic training in the military I was sure she would not live to see her twenty-first year. If six months after her twenty-fifth year of life she still survived the odds I would show her how to master death."
"She just couldn't evoke that agreement to get here there," I surmised.
He nodded. "The clause forbade her from even speaking my name in passing and if ever she divulged our bargain, it would be negated. The flower would wilt and die, as would she. Before she turned twenty-five and a half she had to avoid the reaper but never offer a sacrifice to balance the scales and never allow another to die in her place. To defeat death fully he must first desire you and then you must accept him on your terms but never his. This she did tonight. In so doing she could finally meet him as his equal to decide her fate." He gazed down at her and a shook his head. His disbelief was blatant. If there was anything I'd learned it was not to underestimate Sookie. "So many times, she had come within a hair's breadth but she refused to yield, she refused to bow. No matter how many times her body had been broken and battered, her spirit never wavered."
"If we tried to turn her it would have failed." Godric said with something like revulsion in his voice. "We would have killed her."
Dracula nodded. "You would have done scores worse. Once the death God speaks your name, the body, and the soul, all that a person is could only ever belong to onto themself or to him but never to another." He tilted his head to the side as if he heard something we did not. "Even now they fight for it." There was a look on his face that said the reaper wanted it badly.
She wanted her soul more. She was going to come back to us. I believed those words. Doubt clawed at me though. Sookie was so pale and still. It was so unlike the woman I knew that I couldn't help but caress her cheek. The temperature felt all wrong. I wanted her to wake up so I could see her eyes. I wanted to hear her do that little snort thing. I wanted to see her smile.
"If I understand properly she cannot be made vampire." Godric said.
The Prince of Darkness offered him a nod of agreement. I had gathered as much but I just hadn't cared to think through it. I didn't care what Sookie rose as, I just cared that she did rise. I needed her to come back. We both did.
"What will she be when she wins?" my maker continued. I took his hand in mine. I loved the fact that he said, 'when' she wins and not 'if.' He believed like I did that if this was a test of wills that Sookie would win. That woman could bash her head against a brick wall and have the wall give long before she did. Dracula smiled a sinister smile.
"Halhatatlan," he replied in his native tongue. It roughly translated to demigod. "A bridge amongst the immortal, the greatest Elite the Fae have ever known and a guardian Angel amongst humans." He smiled down at her, "She will be invincible, a mighty Goddess in her own right." Then he left the room. Godric was lying beside Sookie. His arm was around her waist. His head was resting on her pillow. My body was wrapped around his so my arm was thrown around them both. Honestly if anyone had asked me three years ago if I would ever allow the dawn to find me outside a place I knew to be secure, I would have answered no. It was amazing that as long as I'd lived, my existence was now so inextricably bound to another—two others. The sun pulled Godric and me under in a place that was less than familiar to either of us. That didn't matter. If I didn't rise again I wouldn't care. Nothing was as absolutely crucial as the two people I was holding in my arms. They mattered. Dead as I was there was nothing that held me to the world of the living but them.
It was like the absence I suffered after Chicago. This instance came without any of the uncertainty. Sookie was back. I wasn't conscious yet. It was like being aware of a far off sense of consciousness. I didn't know how I knew it. I couldn't really say I did because with her turning the bond had been severed but I knew it all the same. My blood didn't recognize her but my body did because it belonged in part to her.
I waited for the sun to release me but there was nothing to keep time with. The heartbeat of both my lovers was nonexistent. That wasn't entirely accurate. As I strained against the fog of my mind to listen, Sookie's heartbeat was in the air. I could hear it. Over time I'd become so attuned to it that I could single it from a thousand others. Now, it was just so much slower than I'd become accustomed to. Still, I could hear her breath of life—faintly.
The sun fell away and I shot up into a sitting position to see my lover kneeling beside me on the bed. Her smile was warm and maybe a little unsure. I didn't have the mental capacity for words. I grabbed her and crushed her to me.
"Hello lover," I murmured. Over her head I observed Godric beaming a beatific smile that I saw only when all three of us were together.
Sookie wound her arms around my neck and she held me just as tight as I held her. "Hi baby,"
"IIona," the Prince called to the woman he had introduced as his wife. "I did as you asked, so you owe me a smile." He flashed a charming smile that she scoffed at. There was humor in her eyes and she looked away to obviously hide her amusement.
"Whatever Dracula," she mocked, tossing her glossy hair over her shoulder. "Bram Stoker makes me smile, not you."
He laughed as if he was quite used to it. Undeterred, he blew her a kiss and she caught it even with her back to him.
There were some things that I was sure I would never ever see. Since I'd been beyond that since last night, the fact that Dracula, the Dracula was so…mellow didn't shock me too much. For starters I was in Bulgaria. It was where I'd been since the battle. We would leave soon but he sun was still up in the place we were going to and the people we needed to see were not awake.
So far I'd learned that Sookie was a demigod of death. I couldn't grasp what it meant entirely but I knew that it made her a true immortal and gave her power beyond anything what many on this plane could fathom. Anything she desired was a thought away. When she defeated death she was granted one gift and paid one price, both had been of her choosing. I wondered why she didn't get rid of her telepathy. We knew how much trouble it caused her in her life but she chose to retain it as her price. What she wanted most was never to be able to read the minds of Godric or I.
Long ago I thought I understood her rationale but it was now that I knew it for what it was; she would never want anything to interfere with the life she had with Godric and me, nothing. Idly I wondered why I couldn't see her as someone other than the woman I loved. I wondered why her new limitless power didn't make me want to plan to cultivate all its uses. I wondered why just seeing her smile was the most important thing in the world. It was because I loved her and everything else in the world combined still held no appeal.
"Thank you," Sookie said to the Prince and his mate for the millionth time. "For everything."
"You are most welcome," IIona said. "We will see you all soon."
"Not too soon," Sookie added. I think she said those words because Dracula was thinking them. He had been gracious but looked ready to get us all out of his hair. Godric draped his arm around her waist and mine went around her shoulder. We were ready to face the world together.