Layla didn't need to be told twice. Eric grabbed her by the hand and they raced down the hallway with Sookie just ahead of them. Layla skidded on a fresh patch of blood near the elevators and would have gone down if Eric hadn't kept her upright. Sookie pitched forward herself and fell onto a pile of dead Vampire, but Eric picked her up and the three jumped into the elevator, all of them stone-faced in shock at what they had just seen.
"Are you okay?" Eric breathed. Layla was still panting from the run but she managed a thumbs up and Eric nodded. "Good."
Suddenly the elevator stuttered and the lights went out. "The power shut down." Eric said, pressing at a few buttons on the console.
"Shit." Layla hissed, chewing violently at her lip, one hand unconsciously resting on her belly while the other held onto Eric's sleeve, as if she were afraid he might disappear.
"Fuck." Eric agreed, nodding at her.
"Can we get to the elevator shaft?" Sookie asked, producing light from her hands and raising it up to get a better look.
"Handy." Eric noted and Layla shrugged. Her phone had the same app. Eric ripped open the ceiling. "It's sealed shut." he said.
"Fire hazard, much?" Layla snapped. Eric began pounding at the metal while Sookie just kind of whimpered. Layla stood, with nothing to do herself except worry and watch.
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The shaft eventually gave and with a lot of help from Eric they managed to get out and get to a van, unseen. Layla climbed into the passenger seat while Eric took the wheel, leaving Sookie to the back. They were pulling around to the side of the building where Nora should have been leading the others to safety just as there was an explosion. For a moment, Layla worried that they had lost even more people to this fucking place, but she let out a small sigh of relief as they stopped the car and saw the little ragtag group.
Everyone climbed into the van and Layla heard Jessica ask Sookie about Bill. The three of them didn't say anything, but Eric glanced at Layla who blew out a puff of air and reached over to take his hand. There was another, larger explosion from behind them and suddenly Nora called out for Eric to stop. He turned the car on a skid and they all stared as someone walked out of the flames. Layla paled.
"Is that...Bill?" Jessica asked as they all peered out the windows.
"Not anymore." Sookie said. Bill was soon shooting straight up into the sky like some demented, avenging angel while Pam and Jason screamed at Eric to drive them the fuck out of there.
Layla kept her hand in Eric's while they drove through the dark streets.
"I don't think he's following us." said Tara from the back.
"Unless he's flying over our heads, like a naked, evil superman." Jason noted.
"Look if Bill, or whatever that thing was wanted to kill us, we'd be dead already." Sookie said.
"Seriously." Layla agreed. "He LET us leave."
"She's right." Eric added. The others hadn't seen what the three of them had seen. They didn't know. "He's letting us get away."
"For now, maybe. But if Bill's been reborn in Lillith's image-" Nora began.
"We don't know that!" Eric snapped. Layla stared at him.
"Uhm, we don't? Cause that's what the fuck it looked like." she said. Eric shot her a look and tightened his grip on her hand a little.
"We don't know who or what he is." he said firmly towards Nora. Everyone was silent, with the only the car radio to keep them distracted. It was the governor of the state, talking about the new Vampire regulations that were being put into place. "Layla, turn it up." he requested softly. Layla reached out with her free hand and increased the volume so everyone could hear it easily.
They were instituting a state-wide curfew and shutting down all Vampire run businesses. Layla listened in horror. She couldn't completely argue with the point about how many humans had been killed since the True Blood bombings, but it didn't seem right to punish the many for the crimes of the few.
"'Bout fucking time someone did something about ya'll." Jason said, striking his fist on the back of Layla's seat.
"Shut up, Jason." Layla, Tara and Sookie all snapped and the blood-covered blonde shut up and sat back.
"We did this. We bombed the True Blood factories. We destroyed the authority. We turned the world against us. There's no one left to protect us now."
"If that slimy suit comes anywhere near me or my shit-" Pam muttered.
"Will you SHUT UP about your shit, when the world's about to end." Nora snapped.
"Honey, I don't know about the world, but I'm about to end your face!" Pam shouted. Layla squeezed Eric's hand.
"Pull over. You need to sort this out." she told him quietly. Eric let out a sigh and looked at the pale brunette beside him who was fixing him with a no-nonsense expression.
"Yes, dear." he said quietly before whipping the car to a halt so quickly Layla's head felt a little like scrambled eggs. "Nora and I need to talk, privately."
As Eric got out of the car, Layla joined him. No way in hell was she going to sit in the car with the rest of them. Pam rounded the car and rushed Eric, asking about Nora. Layla made a small face that neither of them could see. She had forgotten that Pam didn't know about Nora. Eric had felt he was protecting her by keeping the information from her. Layla still wasn't sure why he had told her all those months ago.
She stood beside Tara and the two watched them argue, and though she may not have super-vampire hearing she easily heard Eric's next words. "Get over it and have my back, or get out of my face." he told his progeny. Layla winced at the words. She understood why he was stressed. I mean, Bill for one thing, and the bullshit going on with the governor now. It was just one shit storm after another. As Pam stormed off, Tara followed. Layla stayed by the car watching the animated conversation between the vampire siblings, ignoring Jessica, Jason and Sookie as they walked past her. When Jessica ran off, upset of hearing them say they were going to kill Bill, Sookie went after her and Jason walked off in another direction, soon after followed by Nora.
When everyone else was gone, Eric looked up and Layla and she let out a dramatic sigh, her shoulders rising and falling with comedic emphasis. He walked over towards her and put a hand on her hip, pulling her closer to kiss the top of her head. Layla smiled and closed her eyes, but as they fluttered dreamily back open she could see in the distance Nora grabbing Jason by his collar.
"I think we should go referee that." she said, gently nudging him forward. Eric looked bored.
"Should we consider this a training course in parenting?" he asked dryly as they walked towards Jason and Nora.
"Fuck no. Our kids won't suck half as much as these people do." Layla said firmly. Eric fought down a smile. As Jason shook the thralls of being glamoured he freaked out and went so far as to threaten Nora, which was a very dumb thing to do with Eric standing right there. Sookie and Jess rushed over shrieking their 'oh my god's' and Eric quietly informed them that the only reason Jason was still alive was out of courtesy.
Layla quickly got bored watching Jason complain and when Sookie jumped between him and Nora she threw her hands up and rolled her eyes. Pam and Tara had just shown up and Layla looked at the surly blonde.
"I'm getting really sick of all this motherfucking drama." she muttered. Pam looked at her with an arched eyebrow.
"Amen." she said flatly. Suddenly Jessica gasped and she began to wander off in the opposite direction Jason had just gone in. Bill was summoning her. Layla grabbed on her arm as she passed her.
"Jess, that's not Bill. It's suicide to go anywhere near him!" Layla snapped, but Jess shook off her grip as easily as brushing away a fly. Layla turned toward Eric, her eyes hard. "Are you just going to stand there?"
Eric appeared in front of Jessica, holding her still and blocking her way. Jessica almost immediately began to cough up blood before collapsing on the ground in pain. This was not a normal summoning. This was killing her.
"Okay, we have to take her." Layla sighed. Eric glared at her.
"Hypocrite, much?" he muttered. Layla glared at him.
"Well, if we take her to Bill she MIGHT die, but if we keep her here she definitely will. I'm gonna put a little faith on that maybe." Layla said, taking Jess by the arm.
"Layla's right. We need to take the chance. Now are you coming with us?" she asked Eric. Eric ignored her question and glared at Layla.
"You really think it's wise to go and pay a visit to Billith right now? In your condition?" he asked, his tone calm but they both knew he was furious.
"I think he might be distracted by my new tummy for minute, but isn't everyone?" she asked with a small smile and willed Eric to hear what she was saying. Yes, this was dangerous. Yes, it was downright stupid, but between Jessica, Sookie and a pregnant Layla, they might be able to provide enough of a distraction for Eric and Nora to kill him. Layla wasn't sure of much, but she knew that whatever Bill was right now was not the Bill Compton she had considered a friend.
Layla and Sookie drove Jess to Bill's house as quickly as they could while she moaned and groaned in the backseat. The drive was a silent one and Layla had been drumming her fingers anxiously along her thigh. As they pulled up Bill's mansion, Layla rubbed her middle absentmindedly thinking of the babies. Sookie glanced at her from the corner of her eye.
"Layla-" she began.
"Shut up." the brunette snapped, in no mood to hear about how she should stay behind. She already knew she should stay behind. She shouldn't have gotten involved in any of this. None of it, from the beginning. Why had she even moved to this town in the first place? Fate was a real bitch sometimes.
Jessica practically fell out of the car and both women rushed to help her up. Sookie paused to grab a pole that was in the garden and broke it in half, effectively making two stakes.
"Good idea." Layla noted, holding her hand out for one. She was a little pissed she hadn't thought of it herself. As they walked up onto the porch they could see bloody footprints, which they followed through the house and up the stairs. Sookie volunteered to go first and Layla didn't argue. Inside one of the bedroom, there was a pile of what looked like red brick dust on the floor.
"Is that...?" Layla asked, pointing to the pile, but Jessica whispered Sookie's name and nodded towards the doors to the deck just off the bedroom. Layla sucked in a deep breath as the three women headed outside. Before Layla could bring up the rear, Sookie jumped and raised her stake.
"Stay where you are." she said flatly.
"I just want to talk." Bill said smoothly. Layla gaped at him. He looked...normal. No blood, no huge fangs, now screeching like an animal. He looked like Bill again. She felt something sing in her blood and she knew Eric was close. If they were going to get a shot, now was the time. Layla stepped forward and took a deep breath.
"Bill, what the fuck?" she asked. Going for the dramatic, she placed a hand on her belly while the other gripped her stake. "You're acting all calm now, but like an hour ago you were batshit crazy."
Nora descended from the sky behind him and Bill caught her and threw her, crashing her into Layla. The two brunettes tumbled over each other before hitting the wall of the house. Layla shook in fear and shock, trying to assess the damage, but that was almost instantly forgotten when she looked up and saw Bill holding Eric, while Eric tried to force a stake towards Bill's heart. Sookie glanced and Layla, and the woman nodded for the blonde to do what they were both thinking. Sookie plunged her homemade stake into Bill's back.
Bill backed off of Eric and they all stared. Layla was confused. Usually Vampires burst into a puddle when you staked them. They didn't hang around for a dramatic exit. Bill took a breath and gripped the wood protruding from his chest and then pulled it completely through his body before tossing it to the side like it had been a splinter. His fangs retracted and he looked boredly at Sookie.
"Now can we talk?" he asked again. Layla got up and walked over to stand between Eric and Nora. They all listened quietly as Bill said he didn't want to harm them. When Sookie asked him to prove it and told him to leave Bon Temps, everyone seemed surprised when it was Jessica who said no. Sookie tried to talk sense into her, even Layla stepped forward to tug her back towards sanity.
"You all should leave." Jessica said.
"Jessica, don't be a martyr-" Layla began, sounding fed up with her angst filled baby-vamp bullshit. The redhead bared her fangs and both Nora and Eric stepped forward in defense of Layla. Bill agreed that the four others should leave and as he spoke the house shook. Layla grumbled to herself even as Eric and Nora sandwiched her between them and left the property.
"What an ungrateful bitch." she mumbled to herself.
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Layla had chosen not to go inside with Eric and Sookie and though it chafed her to leave them alone together, she didn't want to go back inside that house. It held too many complicated memories now. She could see clearly in her mind's eye, Eric naked after sex, helping her paint the cabinets in the kitchen, but she could also remember when she walked in and found him with Sookie. It was too much to deal with inside that house. Nora appeared and sat down next to her on the porch.
"So, Eric and Sookie? Were they together or something?" Nora asked. Layla sighed.
"He pursued her for a long time, chose her over me. Of course, I forgave him and we had our own thing for a while. Then when his memory was gone and he couldn't remember that, she took advantage of him. I'm still not really over it." Layla said with a shrug, wincing as she adjusted her seat. Nora lifted the hem of her shirt and inspected the bruises blossoming on her side where she had turned her body and struck the wall.
"I'm sorry about knocking into you, sister." Nora said quietly. Layla smiled a little.
"Nora, you didn't really do it on purpose." she said. They both looked up as Eric glided from the house. He stared at the door for a moment and immediately, Layla soured. "I'm going for a walk." she announced bitterly.
"It's not safe-" Nora began.
"If Bill wanted me dead, I'd be dead." Layla called over her should as she descended the stairs and walked towards the graveyard. Nora looked at Eric.
"What was that about?" she asked.
"I just gave Sookie her house back." he said quietly. "When I bought it, I thought I was making it Layla's home. She really poured her heart into it, but now..." Eric trailed off. "Did you dispose of the vehicle?"
"Yes, in a swamp. What's the plan with Bill?" Nora asked, turning to better see the tall viking.
"We'll find his weakness." Eric said, looking out across the yard towards the graveyard where he caught a glimpse of Layla, moving lazily about the headstones looking annoyed.
"Can we use the fairy?" Nora asked, glancing in the window. Eric was in front of her in a minute.
"Sookie stays out of this, and this family stays away from her from now own. She brings nothing but trouble, and we create enough of that on our own. Besides-"
"Layla doesn't like you around her." Nora finished. Eric made a face but said nothing for a moment.
"My God, Eric Northman. Are you becoming monogamous with your human?" Nora asked, the surprise in her voice only half-serious. "You really do love her, don't you? Not just because she's Godric's or because she's carrying your children. You genuinely care for her."
"Not the way she deserves." he said quietly.
"I don't know about Bill's weakness. I think I may have just found yours." Nora said with a small smile.
"Nora, my darling sister, don't stir this pot." Eric said menacingly before stalking off towards Layla.