Author's Note: This will be the end of Part 1.
I decide to split the story into two parts, due to the length, so it will be easier for you all to follow the story. I am sorry for the inconvenience. Please, follow the second part of the story. And I do would love to read your critics or ideas!
Thanks again to BonTempsBeau for his critics, correction and ideas.
I would like to thank Vic Vega and BloodSucker815 for their corrections!
And thank to you all for reading and reviewing my story!
Most of all, I would like to thank Ruth for patiently listening to my absurd ideas about mercury, silver and vampires!
Disclaimer: This is pure fantasy. Any similar names, places or incidents are purely coincident.
Chapter Fifty
The Moon, The Mercury and The Other Problems
Northman Mansion at night was like a giant's shadow. Standing still under the creeping dark color of the trees' shadows on its wall, it didn't seem to be impressed by the business of the human, who were around or inside the mansion.
Eric had been standing in front of the door when Sookie, Sam, Alcide, Haru and the Grey Hound arrived. The dark red circles around his eyes and the dullness of his skin made him look old and tired.
Sookie gave him her wrist as they were in their bedroom. "You have to drink, Eric," she said, when Eric refused her. "I need you…please,"
Sookie gasped as his fangs bored into her wrist. She could hear how greedy he sucked her blood, she could also hear faintly his head talking some gibberish, which she assumed it was Swedish or Old Norse.
His skin was slowly white again. The dark red circles were becoming transparent, and then gone. He smiled. "Thank you, Lover."
They decided to have a meeting in the study room.
Sookie had seen Eric standing, crossing his arms, staring at his conversation partner without saying any words on so many different occasions, yet she was still surprised to realize how cold and distant he was from anybody. Sometimes she even had a feeling that she hadn't existed at all, during the conversation. She knew it was nonsense, because from to time to time, when she hadn't expected it at all, Eric would give her a look that acknowledged her presence. She would smile at him, and he would blink for a moment, with a faint smile at the corner of his mouth.
Like tonight. He listened carefully to what Haru said with his eyes fixed on that Japanese man. His head bent a little and to her surprise, he gave Haru the same gesture as he gave Godric: respectful and admiring.
"I have to ask you some questions, Eric-san. I apologize if my questions are considered out of line."
"You do whatever you think it's necessary to help us, Sensei." Eric said.
"Did you drink any True Blood, recently?"
"No, I didn't."
"Since when did you stop drinking True Blood?" Sookie couldn't stop herself.
Eric looked at Sookie. "Since the old True Blood ran out, Godric told me to drink fresh so that my body gained its strength faster."
The room was quiet. Sookie tried her best not to give any reaction. It meant Eric had drunk from human since he had returned from the dead. The image of Eric sucking somebody – women; forced her to hold her breath. She knew Eric had to do it, but still, she couldn't help feeling disturbed.
"Thank you for your honesty, Eric-san." Haru's eyes were on Sookie. He smiled, as if he wanted to apologize if he had caused her any inconvenience. "I am afraid, Eric-san, somebody has changed True Blood formula. And it worries me. I had conducted some experiments on vampires…"
"You experimented on vampires?" Sam cut him off. "Is it allowed? I mean, Vampires have rights too…in Japan…and experimenting on vampires is like experimenting on humans."
Eric looked at him. "I don't know that you care, Shifter."
"If they can do it to you, Northman, one day, they will be able to do it to us too," said Sam. He looked worried. "If I don't start caring about you, then who will care about me, when the time comes?"
Both men looked at each other. After a while, Eric nodded and said, "I'll remember you and your kind, Merlotte."
Sookie shivered. As long as she had known Eric, he had always called Sam 'shifter', tonight was the first time she heard him calling Sam 'Merlotte'. She could run and hug both of them!
Sam nodded. "You do that, Northman."
"To answer your question, Mr. Merlotte," Haru said. "No, my government doesn't allow any experiment on vampires. The vampires who came to my laboratory were volunteers. You can ask Eric-san here, as he was one of few vampires who first took my True Blood. However, I don't come here to explain to anybody about my experiments; even I would answer the question at any time and gladly.
I have found mercury in high dose inside the new True Blood, Eric-san."
"Mercury…what is that?" asked Sookie.
"Mercury is a kind of heavy-metal, which is very dangerous for human health. Any exposure to mercury or any of its compounds cause a health disorder, which is known as hydrargyria…"
"Hydra…what?"
"Hydrargyria…Minimata disease?"
Sookie shook her head.
"Minimata is a city in Japan. In the year 1959 there was a tragedy happened in that city, when the whole population of Minimata suffered from Mercury poisoning. Some researchers from University of…," Haru stopped, and as he saw that none of them understood what he was talking about, he said, "Anyway, mercury poisoning can result in impairment of our ability to see things, which are not on the direct line, or to see things in the night, lack of coordination in movement, speech impairment and muscle weakness…"
"Go on…" Sookie trembled. The Queen had all those symptoms. Unable to stop herself, she grabbed Eric's arms. Eric looked at her, touching her hand and smiled.
"It can also lead to mood swings, loss of memory, insomnia, mental disturbance and higher exposure can also cause kidney failure and death."
"Can you treat this mercury poisoning?"
"Yes. The persons and the surroundings have to be thoroughly cleaned of all traces of mercury."
"That would be difficult," said Eric. "You can't just go inside the palace and clean it. Especially now that the Queen is sick and is under the rule of the King. He won't accept our explanation easily."
"What if Haru goes there and explains everything to the King?" asked Sookie.
"What if the King is the one who planned all of this?" Alcide bit his own finger nail, which suddenly grew longer. "He could be killed and the murders of my kind wouldn't be solved."
"We can, however, try something dramatic, which I am not sure, can be done or if Eric-san is willing to do it."
"It depends," said Eric.
"If I will allow him to do it," Sookie looked at Eric sternly. "I will not let you do some crazy stupid things again, especially not for that queen of yours!"
Eric smirked. You…try…
"You can count on that, Eric!" Sookie didn't care anymore if any of them would understand the meaning of what she did. And yes, soon afterwards, she heard Alcide murmuring. "You too, Sookie?"
Sam looked at Alcide and then at her and those brown eyes gave her a look that she wouldn't forget for a long time. A look of shock and horror that made him look like a frightened little puppy. "W..what do you mean…Jesus! J..James can…?" he pointed at Eric and made a circle around his head. "Jesus!"
Haru's little eyes were getting smaller. Clearly he tried to understand what they were talking about, but he didn't pursue the answer. "If you don't drink the new version of True Blood, it will be very helpful to my planning."
"Which is?"
"I want to introduce a process of dialysis to prevent the poisoning process to go further. Of course, if it was a human case; I would introduce a chelation therapy. Chelation therapy," Haru went on without realizing that Sookie's face was all twisted hearing words that she didn't understand, "is a therapy which uses the chelating agents to remove the poisonous metal agents such as mercury, arsenic and lead, by converting them or changing them to other chemical form that can be excreted without further interaction with the body, for example, changing it into a soluble water-based chemical form that can be processed in the kidneys and excreted as urine."
"What kind of chelating agents do you want to use, Kimura-san? Dimercaprol?" It looked like Eric was the only one who could understand what Haru was talking about.
Haru bowed a little. It looked like he admired Eric's knowledge about his field. Slowly Sookie felt that she didn't know anything about Eric at all and she had a strange feeling of being in a Chemistry Conference of some kind. And she felt absolutely clueless.
"Sorry, folks," Colin, who had been quiet, suddenly said. "I don't understand a single word you are saying."
"He wants to use a toxin to remove the other toxin." Eric said. "The new toxin will bind to the old one, and make something else that human body can process."
"Yeah, I understand that," Colin scratched his non-itchy head. "Where did you pick up this knowledge from, by the way?"
"I worked together with Kimura-san's father during the Second World War at Oxford University to find antidote for Lewisite."
"For whom?"
"Lewisite…it's a chemical weapon, unfortunately created by my government's and your government's agents, Mr. Merlotte." Again, Haru nodded at Eric. "My father spoke highly about a Swedish scientist that helped him a lot with his experiments that made me curious and want to work together with him also. I didn't know that Eric-san was a vampire back then, in fact, my father had never mentioned about it. He always saw Eric-san as a fellow scientist and that's all what mattered for him." His face brightened. "It was a dream came true, as my father introduced Eric-san to me. It was and is an honor to know a scientist, who worked under the direct supervision of Madame Curie." He bowed and then spoke something in Japanese.
Eric bowed a little and said, "It was and is an honor to work with the Haru Family, Kimura-san."
Heh…a Viking warrior, a businessman, a social worker (or at least fucked one of them) and now, a scientist. What else was Eric? Something simpler like a go go dancer, perhaps? Sookie looked at the vampire whom she loved and found herself amazed by the thought how little she knew about him. "Let's just say, you can't do the chelating, Haru-san," she tried to pull the conversation in a more understandable direction. "What would you do next, that involves Eric?"
"Remove her blood completely and replace it with that of an older one, such as, Eric's…"
"Out of the question," it was Alcide, who said this. His green eyes changed into yellow; his finger nails were now completely out. Grey hair covered his arms.
Eric sniffed. "You don't have a say about my life, Alcide."
"It's not about your life that we are talking about, and you know damn well whose it is!"
The two men faced each other. This time, it was Eric who stepped back. "You're right," he said. His voice was calm. He seemed to have realized, that if he insisted on doing it, he wouldn't only endanger himself, he would also drag Sookie along.
"Another problem," said Haru, as if one hadn't been enough. "I found another chemical compound that is unknown to me. According to my experiments, this new compound can keep the vampire skin intact for some minutes under the sunlight exposure."
"Go on," said Eric. His blue eyes flickered. Sookie swore, Eric looked excited about it.
"Only some minutes, Eric-san, then, it was burned. My apology to give you such a bad news."
Oh, no, he didn't, Sookie thought. I hope Eric doesn't plan to walk under the sun again, not even for me. Sookie moved some steps away from Eric. Once is enough.
As if Eric had been able to hear what she was thinking about, he caught her hand and pulled her closer. "No apology is necessary, Sensei."
"I don't understand," said Alcide. "I believe there are some clever vampires, scientists, alchemists, whatever, but how could they let this thing happen? I mean, you can taste the mercury inside the drink, can't you?"
"No and the effect wouldn't be seen until it's too late." Then, he looked at Eric. "What fears me more is that the mercury that I found has the same properties of the mercury that my father owned."
"What are you saying, Kimura-san?" Eric looked worried. He didn't cross his arms anymore and he even moved some steps backward.
"Yes, Eric-san. I am afraid you are correct. The mercury is from Nevada, like many years ago."
"What is so special about Nevada?" asked Sookie and she was alarmed when she saw that it wasn't only Eric who had reacted that way, but Alcide and Sam too.
"King of Nevada…De Castro…is a vampire you don't want to meet, Sookie." Eric's eyes blurred. "You either serve him or die."
The room suddenly became quiet. No one moved, no one even said anything in their thoughts. For a moment, Sookie thought that she had been alone in the room. They didn't have to say anything, but if a vampire like Eric, who had been living more than one thousand years, had fear in his voice when he spoke about another vampire, they could imagine how dangerous that vampire could be.
And now, that vampire could be their enemy. There would be no thought or courage words that would make them think otherwise.
"I could contact the Black Wolves of Nevada," Alcide broke the silence. His lips were tight. He looked at Colin and as if his next words were an act of crime, he said it low. "But it would mean to declare war against the vampire openly."
"I don't understand," said Sookie.
"Once I contact them, the information that we have tonight won't stay among us anymore. I still can control my clan not to do anything against vampires, but I have no power whatsoever to tell them what to do. Sookie, Simon was a member of Black Wolves of Nevada. If they know that vampires of Nevada have anything to do with his death, I don't think that they will stand still. And besides The Grey Hound, Mojave Black Wolves are one of our oldest packs. I don't want to imagine what will happen if they decide to declare war against the vampires."
"And I will kill those who had turned my brother," said Colin. "I don't care if he is a king or not. His debt has to be settled."
"This is the reason I must speak to Eric-san, first." The sadness in Haru's voice made every head in the room turned to him. "He is the only who understands the importance of the matter. This is not about who spills whose blood, this is about the blood itself, which either you want to accept or not, determines the running course of your worlds. The one, who invented the new True Blood, knows how to influence the balance of the substances in the original formula. The unknown substances that I found are able to bind the mercury and other chemical substance in such a stable condition that it was very difficult for me to break them. The amount of this substance is made so precisely that it wouldn't kill the vampires who drink it but enough to control the consciousness and made them do whatever the producers want it. Of course, I can't say that for sure yet. This is only a temporary result from my observation of the Queen's condition. If I can stay with the Queen longer, I can give you my final conclusion (Sookie's held her breath as she heard it. The idea of using the Queen as one of the 'lab-mouse' was unbecoming to her).
To tell you the truth, I am more interested to get to know the creator of the new True Blood. Because I need to know how they did it. I need to know what kind of agent they use to bind the new substances because I have been trying to find a formula that can balance the level of adrenaline inside werewolf blood, especially during the full moon, so that the mutation can be repressed or even stopped. But until now, I am unsuccessful."
Sookie wasn't sure if she's supposed to be glad or sad hearing Haru's confession. What she knew was that man had to stop mess around with blood!
"You tried to…" Sam cleared his throat. "…create a kind of True Blood for werewolves?"
"More or less, Mr. Merlotte, but unfortunately, without Eric-san or my father, I am not as useful as I thought I would be."
"He won't touch any werewolf blood, I can guarantee that," Colin snarled. "Don't you see you have created enough disaster and confusion already? If you hadn't made True Blood, the world wouldn't know of the existence of vampires, and the humans would be satisfied with the nonsense that Hollywood told them about vampires or werewolves!"
"True, Mr. Purefoy. But they also have the right to decide what to do with their lives. Eric-san had the permission of his Queen when he decided to try my formula. He has the same right as you do to live with his wife without endangering her life."
"Was Aude the reason you took True Blood, Eric?" asked Sookie.
"At that time, she was. She was sick, and I couldn't continue feeding on her without risking her health. I could have fed from humans, yes that's true. But she said, if there's a way to continue living without hurting anybody, why didn't I try?"
"My apology for being not able to come to her and your burial, Eric-san. She was such a wise woman."
Eric nodded.
"What are we going to do, for the next step?" asked Sam. "Sooner or later the other vampires will find out that Haru is here. Amelia couldn't protect him all the time. And I am not sure if your house can hold them either, Sookie."
Colin stood up. "I'd worry about something else, if I were you. The incident that happened in the wood around Square Stones will reach the ears of other werewolves. They will try to find out if vampires involved in that incident or not. If yes, you know what it means."
"We will face each other one day," said Eric.
"Yes, and James is in between."
Colin's sentence was like a stake to Sookie's chest. Yes, James was between them. Colin was aware of it and so was Eric.
"Then we have to try harder to find out who's behind this," said Eric. "I'll go to see King Peter and ask for his advice. In the meantime, you do your best to protect your brother."
Colin's eyes were yellowish. "As long as the moon still calls us, your son is safe, Sheriff."
Xzxxx
Eric held her tight.
Sookie had never expected that her wedding night would turn out to be like this. It wasn't exactly a wedding night either. To think about it, they didn't have sex since the day they declared each other husband and wife. Not that she wanted to have it now, because honestly, her head was too full with all those expressions that Haru and Eric had given to each other and one new name that gave her a chill only by thinking about it. Felipe de Castro, the King of Nevada. If Eric was afraid of him, she really didn't want to imagine how he looked like or how scrupulous he might be.
Down on the yard, she saw two shadows standing, facing each other with gestures that weren't friendly. Then, helped by the dimmed light of the lamp at the corner, she saw Colin approaching the two shadows. When they turned around and looked at the window, she saw, they were Al and Chad.
"They love their woman," Eric's voice was hoarse. "Each of them wants the other to return to Beaumont and take care of their woman and children."
"Or they love the other too much." Sookie held Eric's hands, which were around her stomach. "One can't live without the other."
"Somehow they are bonded, just like us."
"You will live for a very long time after I die, Eric. I will make sure of it."
"And how?"
"The way you've lived before," she looked up. "You will drink, have women and marry again. You will drive her crazy, and she will drive you nut, but both of you will have a good life and sex."
Eric kissed the tip of her lips. "I am glad that you feel of having good sex and life with me."
Sookie laughed. Eric, he always found a way to twist her words to be sounded as if she had praised him.
Suddenly Eric's grip stiffened. Sookie looked at him in awe. "What is wrong, Eric?"
"Pam…she's in danger." Eric released her. "I have to go to her…and you stay here. No matter what you feel, don't leave the grounds." His blue eyes blazed. "And I mean it, Sookie. Promise me that you listen to me, don't leave the grounds."
Eric's voice was stern. His head tilted like a snake's. Had his fangs been out, he would have looked like a cobra king, ready to strike.
"I promise, Eric."
"I'll call Godric if I have to. Let's hope we don't have to need him." Then, he was gone, flying through the window.
xxxxx
See you all in the Part II! Hope it won't be long.
