Eric gritted his teeth. "Appius Livius Ocella. It's been a hundred years."
Behind him, Sookie laughed in that crazy way.
Appius gave him a thin smile. "Haven't you missed me, Eric?"
"Ocella, your presence is always an honor." Sookie laughed again, more loudly and – if it were possible – more crazily. "What is wrong with my wife?" he demanded.
"Her senses are confused," Appius said, regarding her as carelessly as he would a fly. "You have my blood. She's had your blood. And another child of mine is here. The bond between us all is scrambling her thoughts and feelings." Appius motioned to his side, and a boy joined him. "This is my new son, Alexei."
A child. Appius had plumbed new depths of depravity, then. "Brother," Eric managed to say, keeping his eyes narrowed at Appius.
He could feel Alexei reaching out to him through his blood, but the bond between himself and Sookie was so strong that the bond with his maker – and, by proxy, with Alexei – was little more than a frazzled thread. Appius had already stopped trying. Then he realized, suddenly, that he could help Sookie by cutting her off from himself, at least as much as their bond would allow. With all his strength, he pushed away the connection with her. Instantly, Appius and Alexei were inside him like dark, grasping vines, latching onto every surface, binding his will to theirs, and smothering the free and open air – the light – that had been Sookie's place in his being.
There you are, my child, Appius said, speaking through the blood. And now that you've spared her by opening yourself to me, perhaps I should command you to kill her?
"Excuse me," came Sookie's voice, sane and calm now, from the corner he had gradually backed her into since his maker's appearance.
Eric didn't look away from the vampires outside, but he stepped away to give Sookie more room. He heard her rise behind him; Appius turned from Eric to look at her, and the ancient vampire's carefully composed expression broke for a moment. Appius Livius Ocella was not accustomed to being stared down, especially not by a small human woman.
"Eric," Sookie said slowly, "you need to go to the front door and let them in. I'll bet they don't really need an invitation."
She was right, though he wondered how she knew it. Perhaps Appius' powerful blood had made her feel it. Once a vampire was welcomed into a human's home, that vampire's sire, brothers, and sisters were also allowed access.
Appius smiled. "Eric, she's rare. Where did you find her?" Does she make you scream her name the way you once did mine? I wonder if she could suck my cock as well as you did.
Eric could not speak.
"I'm asking you in out of courtesy because you're Eric's dad," Sookie snapped. "I could just leave you outside."
The Roman's serene smile did not fade. "But my child is in this house," he said, nodding in Eric's direction. "And if he is welcome, so am I, am I not?" He looked back and forth between them. "I waited to come in out of courtesy. We could have appeared in your bedroom."
A moment later, they had done just that.
Sookie looked furious, but of course, there was nothing she could do… nothing he could do. She turned her attention to the child. "Your name is Alexei?"
"Yes, this is Alexei Romanov," Appius told her.
Eric heard her sharp intake of breath. "You didn't," she said slowly. She gaped at Appius, then looked back at Alexei. "You didn't…"
"I tried to save one of his sisters, too, but she was beyond my recall."
Sookie reacted as if she knew the family, and Appius had responded to her in kind. Eric's own mind was too blurred to pinpoint the name of Romanov among all the Russians he had known.
"Sookie, what is it?" he asked her.
She leaned towards him slightly and whispered, "The Romanovs… the last Russian royal family!" Ah, yes. Nicholas and Alexandra. This Alexei must be their young son, then. The hemophiliac so fawned over by Rasputin. Sookie was speaking to Appius again. "Was Eric the first vampire you made?" she demanded.
Eric, your whore speaks to me as though we are equals. Pray that she learns her place before I lose my good humor and decide to have you silence her for me.
"Yes," Appius replied smoothly. "He was the first one I brought over successfully. The others I tried to bring over, they died."
Sookie nodded as she took this in. "Could we please leave my bedroom and go into the living room?" She motioned to the bed, which they had so enjoyed getting into its current state of disarray. "This is not the right place to receive visitors."
"Yes, I suppose," said Appius with a bland expression. "Alexei, where do you suppose the living room is?" Then Eric knew that they had been inside Sookie's house already. Alexei pointed the way, and Appius smiled. "Then that's where we'll go, dearest."
As they followed the boy into Sookie's living room, she met his eyes wordlessly, fearfully, but there was nothing he could say or do to reassure himself, much less her. Appius sat down on the sofa and patted the space beside him, which Alexei obediently took.
"Please, have a seat," Sookie told them dryly.
Appius raised one eyebrow, but he did not look angry. "So much sarcasm." He ran his eyes over Sookie's body. Is she a good fuck, Eric? Which taste makes you harder – her blood or her cunt? "Will you not offer us hospitality?" he asked. He wet his lips.
"I'm not happy with your popping up outside my bedroom window," she frowned. "You could have come to the door and knocked, like people with good manners do."
"Yes," Appius smiled, "but then I wouldn't have seen such a charming sight." This time he looked at Eric, and Eric bore his gaze without moving or speaking. He knew better than anyone in this room that Appius was a mercurial snake, apt to strike at the least and most unexpected provocation. Alexei, is not Eric beautiful? Say the word, my dear, and I will have Eric fuck you. He is quite skilled, and it has always been his way to please rather than to be pleased. Appius studied the boy's face. "He's already much better. Eric, your presence is doing him so much good."
They were interrupted by a loud knock at the back door. "Sookie, you here?" came Jason's voice. Before she could go to turn him away, he let himself in, his words growing louder as he approached the living room. "Sookie, I saw your light on when I pulled up, so I figured you were awake." He entered, took in the odd company, and cleared his throat. "Sorry to interrupt, Sook. Eric, how you doing?"
Eric stepped forward and motioned to Appius. "Jason, this is my… This is Appius Livius Ocella, my maker, and his other son, Alexei."
"Good evening, Okelly," he said, mispronouncing Appius' name. "Hey, Alexei. So you're Eric's little brother, huh?" He smiled in that way humans did when talking to children. "Are you a Viking like Eric?"
"No, I am Russian," Alexei answered.
Jason, who seemed to be getting more uncomfortable by the minute, nodded and backed away a step or two. "Well, good to meet you-all. Sookie, I came to get that little side table from up in the attic. I came by here once before to pick it up, but you were gone, and I didn't have my key with me."
"Sure, I don't need it," said Sookie with that forced smile of hers. "Go on up. I don't think it's very far inside the door."
"All right. 'Scuse me, everybody." He fairly sprinted upstairs.
Her brother, yes? They have the same eyes… the same blood. He is even more beautiful than she.
"Would you like some True Blood?" Sookie asked. She had obviously noticed Appius' hungry stare.
Appius waved his hand. "I suppose, if you won't offer yourself or your brother."
"I won't," she said, her eyes hard on his before she turned to get the drinks.
The blood that is taken rather than given always tastes wilder – richer. "I feel your anger."
She paused in the doorway, her back still to him. "I don't care." Jason stomped heavily down the stairs with the table he had come to collect. "Jason," she said quickly, "you want to come with me?"
"Sure, Sook." He followed her into the kitchen, lugging the table with him.
As they sat in silence, they heard Jason set the table down, the murmur of voices, the clink of the True Blood bottles. Then movement. The click of a door closing.
"They're going back into her bedroom," Appius observed. "Is she trying to run away from me?"
"No," said Eric.
Appius touched Alexei's cheek. "Go and see after them, dearest."
The boy obeyed, leaving Eric alone with his maker for the first time in centuries. "What brings you here, Ocella?" he asked.
"Later," the Roman said, raising his hand.
Sookie and Jason were back in the kitchen now, Alexei with them. Eric listened to the beep-beep of the buttons on the microwave. The three were talking in hushed voices.
In a flash, Eric went to the sofa and knelt before his maker. "Only tell me this: do you mean to harm her?"
"Wouldn't you rather know whether I mean to harm you?"
Eric raised his head and met Appius' eyes. "I know you would never harm me."
"Then you know the answer to your own question, my child. Rise, now. This servile position makes a mockery of my most glorious creation." Once Eric had stood and taken a seat across from the sofa, Appius said, "I am here because of Alexei. If you can help, we will leave, and you may enjoy another succession of centuries with no word from me. This woman, she is your… girlfriend?" The word sounded almost funny coming from his lips.
"She is my wife."
"Under this country's laws?"
"Under our laws."
"Truly your wife, then," Appius said with genuine surprise. "How it must gall you to listen to my blood."
"Yes, but I don't understand. Your thoughts were never so…"
"Vile? No. The boy, I think, is on the brink of insanity, and my mind falls more and more under his influence. But it soothes him to be here. My blood calms." He cocked his head in the direction of the kitchen. "Alexei, is all well with you?"
"Yes, sir," came the small voice, followed in a moment by the boy himself. He resumed his place beside Appius.
Sookie entered with a tray bearing bottles of True Blood. She laid three napkins down on the coffee table in front of the vampires, setting a bottle of blood on each. Then she sat near Eric. No longer fearing danger from Appius, Eric opened himself to her a little. He felt her anger, and he tried to temper it with caution and calm.
Sookie clasped her hands in her lap. "I'm not sure what to call you," she said to Appius, as if she were a daughter-in-law wanting to know if her husband's father wished to be called "Frank" or "Dad."
"You may call me Appius Livius, since you are Eric's wife," he said. "It took Eric a hundred years to earn the right to call me Appius rather than Master, then centuries to be able to call me Ocella."
And even now, Eric could not think of him formally as "Ocella." He would always be Appius.
"Thanks," Sookie said, her tone not entirely respectful.
Appius took a long swallow from his bottle of blood. "Eric, tell me how you are doing these days."
Everyone seemed to be accepting the illusion that this was nothing more than a common social visit. "I'm very well," he said. "Area Five is prosperous. I was the only Louisiana sheriff to survive the takeover by Felipe de Castro."
"How did that come about?" Appius asked.
"Our queen, Sophie-Anne Leclerq, was weakened from the bombing in Rhodes. I'm sure you heard of it." Appius confirmed this with a nod. "Felipe de Castro, king of Nevada, sent Victor Madden here to annex Louisiana. The queen, her retinue, and four other sheriffs were killed. I was allowed to live on the condition that I swear my fealty to de Castro."
"Has the decision served you well?"
"In that I am still here, speaking to you, yes," Eric said grimly. "De Castro is a good king, but Victor Madden has been a pain in the ass." He looked at Alexei. "How did you come to be on hand for the rescue of this young man?" "Young man," he thought, was a nice way to put it.
Appius touched Alexei's cheek briefly with one knuckle. "Though I had expected something of the sort, I had to move much faster than I had anticipated. The decision to execute them was made so swiftly… conducted at such speed. No one wanted the men to have time to think twice about it. For many of the soldiers, it was a terrible thing they were doing."
"Why did you want to save the Romanovs?" And why this one in particular? he left unasked.
"I hated the fucking Bolsheviks," Appius replied with a bark of laughter. Then his face was serious again. "And I had a tie to the boy. Rasputin had been giving him my blood for years. I happened to be in Russia already. You remember the St. Petersburg Massacre?"
He knew that Appius referred to the incident with Phryne in October of 1876, and not to what humans regarded as "Bloody Sunday" in 1905. "I do indeed," he replied with a nod. "I had not seen you in many years, and only caught a glimpse of you then." Until now, he had wondered if it had been only his imagination.
"After that night, when so many of us worked together to tidy up the scene after Gregory was subdued," Appius explained, "I developed a fondness for the Russian vampires." He looked at Sookie and Jason, neither of whom had said a word thus far. "And the Russian people, too," he said, bowing his head slightly at Sookie. His mouth twisted into a frown. "The fucking Bolsheviks killed so many of us. I was grieved. The deaths of Fedor and Velislava were particularly hard. They were both great vampires, and hundreds of years old."
Fedor and Velislava had been lovers who ruled Moscow, and eventually St. Petersburg, for centuries. A kind of symbiotic relationship had formed between them and the Romanov dynasty, with each supporting the other in times of upheaval and prosperity alike. They had invited thousands of vampires to Russia to celebrate the coronation of Peter the Great. It was Lenin himself who had discovered their resting place and staked them.
"I knew them," was all Eric said.
"I sent them a message to get out before I started to look for the royal family," Appius continued. "I could track Alexei because he'd had my blood. Rasputin knew what we were. Whenever the empress would call him to heal the boy when the hemophilia was very bad, Rasputin would beg some of my blood, and the boy would recover." Again he touched Alexei's white cheek. "I heard a rumor they were thinking of killing the royal family, and I began following the scent of my blood. When I set out to rescue them, you can imagine how like a Crusader I felt!"
Appius laughed heartily; he had hated the Crusaders, though that had never stopped him from bribing the Knights Templar to bring him treasures from the East. Eric gave a mirthless laugh of his own.
Jason, who had been looking nervous and restless for some time, set his empty Coke can on the coffee table and leaned forward. "Sook, you got the most interesting company."
"Listen," she said quickly, and her voice sounded a little desperate. "I know you want to go, but if you could stick around for a while, I'd appreciate it."
He sighed and raked one hand through his hair. "I'll just go put the table out in the truck and call Michele." Standing, he glanced at the silent Tsesarevich of Russia. "Alexei, you want to come with me?"
Appius looked uncertain for some moments, but finally nodded his consent. "Alexei, remember your company manners."
Eric didn't think it at all wise to let Jason venture outside alone with Alexei, but he said nothing to contradict his maker. If the welcome absence of the Roman's violent and perverse thoughts was any indication, Alexei was indeed calmer and more stable than he had been when they arrived. Even so, Eric's worry over the situation as a whole was too strong to block from Sookie.
Silence fell over the living room. A few minutes ticked by slowly.
Sookie cleared her throat. "Excuse me, Appius Livius. Since you were in the right empire at the right time, I wonder if you ever saw Jesus."
Eric held back a smile. Wondering if Appius had met Jesus of Nazareth because he was "in the right empire" – that empire being the great expanse of Rome – was akin to wondering if two random Americans, one from New York and one from Kansas, had met.
Distracted, Appius replied, "The carpenter? No, I didn't see him. The Jew died right around the time I was changed." And Eric knew that Appius had never even been to Palestine, though he didn't say as much to Sookie. "As you will appreciate," he went on, "I had many other things to think of. In fact, I didn't hear the whole myth until sometime later, when the world began to change as a result of his death."
Sookie had no response to that, so Eric prodded Appius to continue his story about rescuing Alexei.
"I found that miserable house in Ekaterinburg easily enough, and I moved so fast, of course, that none of the soldiers saw me. Nicholas, Alexandra, and their eldest daughter had died quickly with bullets to the head, but the three youngest daughters, they suffered greatly. The jewels sewn into their corsets deflected the bullets, and they were killed by bayonets. The murderers were disorganized, so much so that the whole operation was a farce. When they opened the doors to clear the smoke, I slipped in, gave the boy enough of my blood to heal him and sustain him, and disappeared again to observe from outside." Appius paused for a moment to look away and listen for Jason and Alexei, then he returned to his story. "They threw the bodies down a well, then, realizing their idiocy, brought them back up to bury. You see, they knew that the horror of the murders would galvanize their enemies. I followed them the minute the sun set the next day. They'd stopped to rebury them – Alexei and one of his sisters."
As he spoke, Alexei had returned to the room and approached from behind the sofa. "Maria," the boy said. "It was Maria."
Eric glanced at Sookie, whose eyes were shining with tears.
"Yes, of course, dear boy," Appius said gently. "Your sister Maria was completely gone, but there was a tiny spark in you." Appius patted the boy's hand, which lay on his broad shoulder. "They had shot him many times. Twice in the head. I put my blood directly in the bullet holes. My blood worked well, since you had lost so much of yours." He smiled.
Alexei looked paler than ever, if that were possible.
"Where's your brother?" Appius asked Sookie.
She had just stood up when Jason strode in, looking sheepish. "Sorry. Talking to Michele," he told her.
Sookie sat again. "Hmmm," was her only response. Then she turned to Appius. "I hate to change the subject, but there are a few things I need to know."
Eric met her gaze directly, trying to convey caution with his eyes as well as his blood. "What, Sookie?"
She smiled her too-broad uncomfortable smile. "I just have a couple of questions. Have you been in this area for any length of time?" she asked his maker.
Eric actually wanted to know that himself.
"No, we have not," said Appius. He crossed one leg elegantly over the other. "We've come here from the southwest – from Oklahoma – and we have only just arrived in Louisiana."
"So you wouldn't know anything about the new body buried at the back of my land?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.
New body? She hadn't said anything to him about a new body… had she?
"No, nothing." Appius smiled as if he wished he did have something to do with a body in her backyard. "Would you like us to go dig it up? Unpleasant, but doable. You are wanting to see who it is?"
By this time, Sookie had noticed his baffled expression. "I'm sorry, honey. I was trying to tell you when our unexpected guests showed up."
Appius was looking back and forth between them, perhaps unaccustomed to being forgotten in a conversation.
Eric remembered that she had asked if Heidi had mentioned a body. He had assumed she meant Debbie Pelt. "Not Debbie…?"
"No. Heidi says there's a new burial. But we do need to know who it is, and we need to find out who put it there."
"The Weres," he said, feeling sure of it. "This is the thanks you get for letting them use your land. I'll call Alcide, and we'll have a meeting." Anything to delay being alone with Appius and Alexei, which he knew must happen eventually. He flipped open his phone and scrolled through his contacts to Alcide Herveaux. The Were answered on the first ring.
"Eric?" Alcide answered, not bothering with a hello.
"Eric," he confirmed. "Alcide, we have to talk."
Alcide gave a heavy sigh. "Not now, Eric. I'm on my way home from a fucked-up meeting in Monroe. We're trying to get organized to fight this government thing, and-"
"That's not good, Alcide," he interrupted, "and I am sorry to hear you have troubles. But I have other concerns. What did you do on Sookie's land?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You should come here and see, then," Eric replied impatiently. "I think some of your people have been bad."
"Fine. I'm right around the Bon Temps exit."
"Very well, then. I'll see you in ten minutes. I am at her house."
Without waiting for an answer, he hung up, as he usually did. Appius, meanwhile, still looked bemused, and Alexei had not moved from his position behind the Roman.
"Alcide was in Bon Temps?" Sookie asked, looking surprised.
"No, but he was on the interstate and nearly at our exit." He slid his phone back into his pocket. "He's returning from some meeting in Monroe. The Louisiana packs are trying to present a united front to the government. Since they've never organized before, this is not going to work." He smirked. "The Weres are always… What did you say the other day about FEMA, Sookie? 'A day late and a dollar short,' right?" He loved her expressions. "At least he's close, and when he gets here, we'll get to the bottom of this."
"Anybody want more True Blood?" she asked.
None of them did. Alexei had taken only one or two sips from his blood, which by this time would be room temperature and more disgusting than usual.
Appius looked around the room curiously. Jason yawned. Eric heard the skitter of a squirrel outside.
"I'm afraid I have only one spot that's suitable for a vampire," Sookie said. "Where are you-all planning to sleep, come the dawn? I just want to know in case I need to call around and find a place."
Eric regarded her profile, touched that she would seek lodging for a person she must find distasteful, if not absolutely repugnant. If there was one thing Sookie's "gran" had taught her, it was Southern hospitality.
He laid his hand over hers. "Sookie, I will take Ocella and his son back to my house. They can have the guest coffins there."
He wasn't happy about it. Before the arrival of his maker, he had been looking forward to a night spent in contentment, with Sookie's warm body held against his.
"I think your darling would love to come in during the day and sink a stake into our chests," Appius said to Eric lightly – but he was not smiling. "If you think you can do it, young woman, you are welcome to try."
"Oh, not at all. I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing to Eric's dad," she replied with cutting sarcasm.
Silence your bitch, or I will do it for you.
The wall of rage from Appius took Eric off guard, and he jerked. He turned to Sookie and said in a tone he had never used with her before, "Be polite." As if she were his to command, as if she were his slave.
He saw the fury in her eyes, but she bit her tongue.
Then the doorbell rang.
