A/N: Hi! For those of you who follow SE, thanks! :P And I know that I said that I would update this on Sunday, but meh. Ok, so it's barely Sunday in Australia. Sheesh. But I'm WRITING again! The magic is back! The passion! Well, at least for now.
*ahem* Sorry. So! SE 19 is betaed and ready to go, so Monday? And Chapter 20 is half done. It had hold and wouldn't let go. I'll start on CTD 8 in the next day or two.
Anyhow, enough about me. Let's check on our vampires.
Chapter 7
"I can't talk about my master. I can't tell you anything. Please. You need to just leave him alone."
Eric sighed. "We can't, Sookie. Even disregarding what he did to you, he was responsible for the distribution of vampire blood. It causes great harm to our kind. We cannot tolerate it."
"No. Y'all don't get it. We saved dozens of vampires by using me. Nobody needed to meet their final death to keep the junkies happy. The drainings have probably started back up again already."
Despite the horror her life had been, she had somehow accepted the idea that her torture had been for the greater good. And maybe, in a way, it had been. Drainings had been down among the Amun and Zeus clans for the past several years. They had all just assumed that The Leech had been importing the blood - or the vampires - from elsewhere.
But, even if it were true that this had been for the benefit of their kind, and that her misery had saved the existences of many others, her mother and master could have easily done it ethically. Or as ethically as daily drainings could have been done, at least. She could have been adequately fed. Clean. Housed comfortably. Dressed. Allowed companionship and entertainment. Not tortured at all, let alone needlessly, brutally, and constantly. It would still be slavery, but all vampires are slaves to their makers. Especially in the early years. But, according to Sookie, the abuse from both of them had begun long before she'd become both Vampire and golden goose.
Blood use had been steadily growing since the Revelation. Had the increased supply driven demand? Had her drainers made the problem worse, even if the method of obtaining the blood was somewhat more palatable than the alternative? And was it really, considering?
Sookie was feeling very anxious, so Eric let the ethical dilemma go for the time being and changed the subject.
"Pam, Thalia is back from Europe. Apparently, she wore out her welcome. She showed up at Fangtasia this evening."
Pam grinned. "That must have been a big thrill for her fans."
Eric laughed. "I think she enjoyed herself. I let her play bouncer tonight."
"And you just left? Jesus Christ, Eric. That might end poorly."
"She was behaving herself before I left..." He considered for a moment. "For the most part. I left Chow in charge."
"Thalia could probably rip Chow apart, but she knows that she has a good thing going here. No other sheriffs are willing to take her. Hopefully that will be enough to keep her in line."
He told Pam about what she'd missed on the nights since she'd started watching over Sookie, and then they traded funny stories back and forth about Thalia and then the other vampires in the area. Sookie was listening intently. She started to relax and, eventually, she was laughing right along with them.
Pam thought that Sookie was going to recover mentally much more quickly than any of them had expected as well. She was likely to be timid and distrustful for a very long time (if not for the rest of her existence), but she had gone from a walking, hissing skeleton who was terrified of men, to an almost pretty (but far too thin) vampire sitting on a couch next to Eric. She was nearly at ease and laughing at his stories. In less than a week. It was amazing progress. Pam was sure that there would be setbacks, but Sookie had already come so far so quickly. If she made a few steps in the wrong direction, it wouldn't be the end of the world.
Pam's phone rang, and she stepped out of the room to answer it. Sookie got up to rinse out the glasses in the kitchen sink. Eric followed her, but stopped short of the doorway. Sookie glanced up to meet his eyes again, but then dropped them almost immediately. "Would you like a blood? I can heat some up for you."
He leaned against the door casing. "No, but you should have more."
She shrugged, but made no move towards the refrigerator. "Maybe later."
"How are you feeling?"
"Better."
She definitely looked it. She was hardly recognizable as the vampire they'd found just a few nights before. "Good."
She took a deep breath, steeling herself. "Thank you. For getting me out of there. And for letting me stay here. And for staying somewhere else." She glanced up at him again. "And I'm sorry I bit you."
Eric grinned. "I'm not. I'm just waiting for the day that you'll do it again."
She definitely smiled that time, but there was something about how she felt that made him back off. "And you're very welcome."
Pam squeezed past Eric into the kitchen and shot him a look that was clearly a warning. He attempted to look innocent, and was mostly successful. "I think I hear the doctor." He went out of sight, and they heard the front door open and Eric step outside.
Pam rolled her eyes at Sookie. "I won't tell you he's harmless, but he usually means well."
Sookie smiled at her. "I like him. It's kind of hard not to."
"It's fair to say that he likes you, too."
So did Pam. It was hard not to admire her tenacity and resilience. And Pam could see the spunkiness right under the surface. It even peeked through once in a while. And it gave Pam an enormous sense of relief to see Sookie with a real smile on her face. She was doing so well tonight.
Eric came back in with the doctor. Amy Ludwig stood in the kitchen doorway and grunted her approval. "Where is the scrawny catatonic vampire I saw a couple of nights ago?"
Sookie smiled at her. "I'm still scrawny."
"Well, comparatively, you're downright obese. I first said months and then weeks, but at this rate, you'll be back to your old self in a few more days."
Sookie snorted. "I don't even know what that means."
Dr. Ludwig smiled back. "Fine. How about this? You'll be a strong and healthy vampire ten days from now."
"I don't know. I sure still feel weak."
The doctor nodded. "I'm not surprised. Your body is doing an incredible amount of work. It went through a lot of trauma. But, if your recovery keeps up this pace, you should start getting your strength back soon."
Sookie took a deep breath and let it out. "Good."
The doctor took Sookie into Eric's room to give her a physical exam. Pam followed, and Sookie was kind of amused by her presumption, but she didn't really mind. After spending the past few years naked, modesty wasn't really an issue any longer. Nevermind that Pam had seen it all before. Of course, Eric had too, but she was glad that he hadn't joined them.
Sookie stripped and lay on the bed. The doctor poked and prodded and muttered to herself. She licked Sookie's palm and then licked the other. She pricked Sookie's finger with a lancet and tasted her blood, too. She nodded and then grunted and patted Sookie's knee.
"Get up, girl. We'll go into the other room so Eric can hear this, too. No HIPAA rights for vampires, I'm afraid." She laughed out loud. "He could just glamour me to tell him everything, anyway." She and Pam headed for the living room, and Sookie followed after she got dressed.
Dr. Ludwig and Pam were sitting on the club chairs and Eric was on the couch with his arm stretched across the back. Sookie sat down at the other end, and could almost feel his hand just a few inches from her head and shoulder. She swallowed and leaned away from him a little. He really made her nervous. But he was much less scary than he used to be.
Dr Ludwig pulled a file out of her bag and started paging through it. "The blood doesn't replicate outside of your body, so I wasn't able to test that. But I have some theories.
"The tests showed that your vampire blood is also part fairy. To be more precise, it's part part fairy. There are fairy-hybrid blood cells mixed in with your vampire blood. And they are alive. I have some in a DNA sequencer right now, and I am quite sure that it will show to be the same O positive mostly-human blood you had before you were turned. If you have something to compare it to, of course."
Sookie shrugged. "I don't have anything from when I was human. My mother threw everything away not too long after I died."
"Damn. Anyway, as a human, you probably had some fairy traits. Maybe even a gift or two. As a vampire? It's a wild card. There's no instruction manual for someone like you. As much as vampires drain fairies, you'd expect at least some vampire fairy hybrids. But pure fairies turn to dust at death, and hybrids are notoriously difficult to turn. Most Supes claim that it's impossible to turn a hybrid with an essential spark, like yours. And you are proof positive that they're wrong."
Sookie looked confused. "What's an essential spark?"
"It's what makes a fairy a fairy. Not all hybrids have one. Even those whose blood is more pure than yours. They are, for all intents and purposes, just attractive humans who smell nice. The spark is where the magic comes from."
Eric nodded. "Fairy makes sense. Her maker said that her blood was very sweet as a human, and still is as a vampire."
"Well, of course it is. It's still fairy blood, vampy and diluted or not. And I tasted it. It is delicious."
"How do you think my body makes more blood than it takes in?"
"The same way that there are living blood cells in your dead body, which should be impossible. What's keeping them alive?"
Sookie shrugged.
The doctor smiled. "Magic. Fairy magic plus vampire magic could equal any number of gifts. Curses, too. No way to tell, really. But magic can only go so far. You need at least some blood to make more blood. Both for the raw materials and to give your body enough energy to do it. In a way, it's almost like alchemy."
It was nearing dawn and Sookie was exhausted. Even if she had stayed in bed until ten thirty. Being around others again was so nice, and she had felt more normal tonight than she had since the year before she was turned, when her maker had left them alone for so long. But she wasn't used to it and she was feeling completely drained. Poor choice of words or not.
The doctor stood up. "Any questions? No? Good. I'll be back again in a few days. I expect to see some meat on your bones. And Eric? I'll send you the bill."
Sookie did have questions. A lot of them. But she would save them for another night. She had enough to think about already.
Dr. Ludwig left and Pam looked at Eric. "It's late. Shouldn't you be leaving, too?"
Eric gave her a dirty look. "I suppose." He really wanted to stay at his home, but Sookie wasn't ready yet. He would even offer her the bedroom farthest from his own when the time came. But first he needed to make her comfortable enough with him to make that work. "I will drop by tomorrow evening."
Pam rolled her eyes after he'd turned his back to leave.
"I heard that."
"Get out!" But Pam was laughing as she locked the door behind him. She smiled at Sookie. "Let's go to bed."
It sort of gave Sookie a pang to see the relationship that Pam and Eric shared. Not that she wanted that with her maker, but she wished that, if it had had to happen at all, she would have ended up with a maker who treated her well and who was a mentor and lover and protector and friend. Like Eric. Not a sadist like her maker.
She was just drifting into downtime when her eyes flew open. She was putting them all in danger. Her maker had told her that he would be able to feel what she felt whenever he wanted. He would want revenge on Eric and Pam for taking her from him, no matter how temporarily. But if he knew that she liked them and felt grateful to them? Or, if she were to be completely honest with herself, that she liked Eric's attention, no matter how insincere it was? Her maker would go berserk. And, worse, if he knew that she liked the attention because she had a little bit of a crush on Eric, no matter how scary he was or how ridiculous it was or how beautiful he was or how completely unattainable he was? Her master would kill them and anyone else who got in his way. And for her, the torture might never stop.
Could her maker even feel something like a crush? She didn't know. She was going to try to stop, though. It wasn't worth the risk. Especially since there was no point. Even if Eric wasn't totally out of her league, she belonged to her master. Completely and forever. He would never let her go.
She looked over at Pam. "How much of your feelings can Eric feel?"
"If he's near enough, has the bond open, and is paying attention? Quite a bit. Further away, less so. Strong feelings are, of course, easier. Why?"
Sookie shrugged. "He's going to know that I'm not miserable. That I'm safe and healthy and have people I care about." Or maybe he already did.
"Sookie, you can't live your life in fear or isolation. We will keep you safe."
"What if he hurts you and Eric?"
Pam laughed. "Eric and I can take care of ourselves."
Sookie looked away, completely unconvinced. Pam sighed.
"You are likely too young to block yourself from him completely, but I'll work on it with you tomorrow evening. It doesn't stave off maker commands or keep them from finding us, but it can offer a bit of privacy."
Sookie nodded. Maybe it would help. Maybe it wouldn't. Maybe she would just get tortured more for doing it.
But did that even matter? Really? It was going to be terrible regardless. She would (futilely) wish for the final death a million times before it was through, no matter what she did going forward. It wasn't like he was going to go easy on her. He certainly never had. With her mother gone and the farmhouse out of his reach, he would likely move her south, closer to him. And he would have free access to do whatever he wanted, whenever he pleased. And now without even having to worry about her supply. Was it really worth closing herself off from a little slice of happiness and companionship, no matter how short, for a slightly paler shade of agony?
She sighed and closed her eyes. She would rest on it, but she thought that her decision had been made. And she was going to try very hard to open herself up a little. To work on her fear and maybe make a friend or two, for as long as it lasted. She wondered if Pam would be her friend. A real one. She'd had none since her maker had claimed her right after she'd turned twelve. And they'd been scarcer than hens' teeth before that. Her life - and death - had been so incredibly lonely.
She hoped that it wasn't selfish. That she wouldn't be responsible for hurting Eric or Pam or anyone else. Or, worse, sending them to their final deaths. No matter what Pam said.
She opened her eyes again. "Pam?"
"Yes, Sookie?"
"Thank you. For everything."
Sookie closed her eyes again and waited for the sun to rise. She didn't see Pam smile.