Authors Notes:
Okay ya'll can come out now, I know there a few of you that didn't read the last chapter because of the extremely violent nature of it. I assure you there is no real violence in this chapter and I encourage you to read the last chapter and then this one. Before any of you shoot me, Bill will get what's coming to him, just not in this chapter.
As always, I want to thank all of you, for without you the world would not come to life. Without you it would just be meaningless words on a page in cyber space. Thank you for your reviews and your adds to the favorites lists. It means the world to me. I encourage all of you to tell me what you think, good bad or indifferent. I may not always answer, but I think on every word each of you write.
Also send out love to my editor/beta Catie, without her this fic would be in far worse condition. She fixes all those little tense problems and comma issues that I have so often.
Enjoy the story, until next time my precious's
Love you all,
Lilli
Chapter 4 (Eric's Pov)
Godric and I arrive at the suite that contains Sookie at the exact same moment. We only pause briefly to assess the situation inside. I hear her screams and pleas for mercy, and all that fucker can do is laugh. Fucking asshole. I hear Bill scream at her, telling her no one will come to her rescue, ever. That she is his, that he is her Master. I feel my blood boil in my body and my limbs tremble for action.
I look at Godric for the go ahead and he nods solemnly once at me. We both raise a foot and kick in the door. The doors don't just pop open, like they do on all those crappy cop shows Pam is forever watching, they explode into millions of pieces raining down bits of wood and sawdust all over the large living room. We rush towards the bedroom; I can smell Sookie's blood, sweat, and the unmistakable smell of vomit emanating from the bedroom. It hangs so heavy in the air it is almost palpable. I know I am not going to like what I see on the other side of that doorway. I seriously doubt my ability to control myself with Bill once I see the things he has done to her.
Apparently Godric picked up on my thoughts or emotions, and as soon as we enter the doorway, he strides towards Bill. "Oh, I don't know about all of that Bill. I think we will be rescuing Sookie this evening thank you very much," I say mockingly. The quip finished leaving my lips at the same moment that Godric snatches Bill up by the back of his neck. Godric flings him roughly across the room and into the wall off to the left of the bed. He makes the effort look like child's play. A small smile plays across my lips at the sheer power of my maker.
I turn my attention back to Sookie and it takes all my concentration, every ounce of energy, and all my years of control, to keep a level head. If I was human I would have either had a heart attack or thrown up at the sight of my beloved Sookie. 'Wait, what beloved?' I shake myself knowing now is not the time to question a simple thing like phrasing.
There she lay motionless; if I couldn't hear her heartbeat I would have thought she was dead. Face down, in a pool of her own vomit, she groans softly and sputters trying to get a good breath. Now that Bill is not sitting on top of her, she is able to turn her head slightly so that she can breathe easier. Almost every inch of her perfect body is covered in bruises, cuts, and scrapes. Her precious blood trickles from many of those bruises, the skin having burst open with the force of his landed blows. I can see bruises in the perfect shape of Bill's hands on her ass; I see the perfect outline of thumb prints making their way up her ribcage as he broke each rib.
My body trembles violently as I take in all of this. It isn't the worse thing I have ever witnessed, hell even inflicted, in my long life, death, whatever. But the very appearance of this girl beaten and broken in such a manner affects me in a way that I never would have anticipated. I struggle to find the word for this feeling as I approach the bed. Finally, words that I haven't used in Gods know how long flit through my head to describe my feelings; pain, sorrow, heartbreak, and loss, all of these emotions that I thought were long forgotten. One thing is for certain in my mind though. Bill is very lucky that Godric is by my side tonight; he has far greater restraint than I do. If Godric wasn't by my side I would have lost control and torn him apart, one small piece at a time, after seeing the things that he has done to Sookie. He is undoubtedly a very lucky vampire this night that is for certain; he should be kissing Godric's feet, for saving him from my wrath.
I kneel next to her, and as gently as I can I roll her over and pull her into my arms. I feel tears stinging at the back of my eyes when I see her beautiful face. It is worse than her back; it is almost entirely one huge bruise. Her eyes are half swollen, and there is dried blood and vomit matted into her golden locks, but somehow this goddess manages to smile up at me when she sees my face.
She tries to speak, but no words come at first; her throat is obviously in pain from the continuous screams and trauma of the night. She clears her throat roughly and barely above a whisper says, "Godric, Eric. I ask for your protection from Bill Compton." Bill must have clued her in on that little loophole, while losing his fucking mind as he beat her.
"Protection granted," Godric says stiffly, and just for emphasis, I watch happily as he pulls that coward away from the wall and slams him into it again. Dust from the plaster breaking behind his back flies into the room and floats down to the carpet like demented snowflakes or possessed glitter. Bill's eyes grow wide with shock at the realization that he is completely fucked. Good. I want to scream at him that he is fucked; at least he is if I have anything to say about it. I am sure this is how he made Sookie feel before he brutalized her, scared shitless with no hope for rescue or reprieve.
Knowing he has nothing to lose, he starts to snarl and fight against the firm grip Godric has on him. Sookie flinches in fear at the sound of the snarls being let loose into the room. That flinch costs her more than she anticipated though. A scream of pain pours out of her, her broken body unable to deal with the smallest of movements.
"Sshh, I got you Sookie, I got you. I promise he will never touch you again. Godric and I will never allow him to come near enough to do so, ever again. I promise." I repeat this as a mantra to her over and over again. Willing not only her, but also myself, to believe these words. I will never allow that twisted fuck to lay another finger on her. Ever. I run my fingers through her tangled and matted hair, not caring that there is blood, and not caring that there is vomit, sweat, and tears. I just want to soothe her, comfort her, and take away all the pain she has endured in the last half hour at the hands of someone she loved.
Bill is snarling and thrashing again against the wall, trying desperately to get to Sookie. I know if he were able, he would try to rip her from my arms. But that would never happen, I am never letting this woman go. Bill beings to scream at her, and I look up and watch the spittle fly out of his mouth in a frothy display of rabidness.
"YOU FUCKING CUNT! YOU MAY HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GET GODRIC AND ERIC TO AGREE TO PROTECT YOU, BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE. YOU ARE MINE SOOKIE! I WILL HAVE YOU RETURNED TO ME. YES, YOU WILL ALWAYS BE MINE, TO DO WITH AS I PLEASE, UNTILL I TIRE OF YOU. WHEN I HAVE YOU RETURNED TO ME, I WILL BE FINISHING WHAT WE STARTED HERE THIS EVEINING."
"YES," he laughs, "I WILL MAKE SURE TO BREAK YOU IN REAL GOOD BEFORE I HAND YOU OVER TO ANDRE AND THE QUEEN." The heavy sound of flesh hitting flesh echoes through the air as Godric slaps his face.
Sookie's body begins to shake with Bill's heated words. They are clearly weighing heavily on her mind. I can smell the fear rolling off of her, it is so thick that it fills my senses threatening to overwhelm me and send my beast to hunting. "Sshh dear one, calm yourself," I whisper to her softly. "I've got you. We've got you. He will not hurt you again. Look at me dear one." Sookie turns her chin up slightly looking me in my eyes. I pray that she allows this to work. Glamour has never worked on her before, but she needs it more than anything at the moment.
"Go to sleep for now little one. Godric and I will keep you safe. You sleep dear one, sleep deeply while we deal with Bill. When you wake we will heal you, we will take care of you. He will never harm you again. No one will ever harm you again. Godric and I will never allow it. Sleep dear one, sleep." Sookie's eyes slowly flutter closed, as she drifts off into a dreamless sleep. I sigh heavily with relief, thankful that it worked, thankful that the Gods were kind to spare her from any more pain at the hands of Bill Compton.
I stand, Sookie clutched tightly to my chest, and position her at the bottom of the bed, which is the only section that is still clean. I try hard not to jostle her too badly, fearing to further aggravate her injuries, or break the spell of glamour that I had somehow miraculously laid upon her. I slip my leather jacket off my shoulders and drape it over her naked form. I know she has to be cold and her being so exposed does not sit well with me. I straighten my body, stretching all 6'5" of my height. I turn my gaze from loving to cold as I look up at the monster that has done this to my girl.
Bill is looking at me like a slack jawed idiot. I am not entirely certain which he must find more appalling, my tender care of the girl or the fact that I was able to do what no one has been able to before, glamour her into submission. He splutters and coughs nonsensically until he finally manages to get a good grip on his brain. "But… how… how did you… what… did you just glamour her?" I roll my eyes at him, a little human habit I have picked up from Pam. Of all the things that he could be saying at the moment, one of them being 'Oh please mighty Eric don't kill me.' He chose to go with, 'did you just glamour her?' What a fucking retard.
I raise an eyebrow, my face a stone mask not revealing an inkling of my inner monologue. "Indeed," I say smugly.
"But, that's not possible! She can't be glamoured. I have been trying to for months now and that stupid bloodbag whore has never succumbed. It is one of my talents and that bitch has always resisted. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GLAMOUR HER!" Bill becomes angrier by the second and I almost laugh as Godric tightens his grip on Bill's throat.
"Well, apparently it isn't impossible because I just did it pencil dick," I laugh.
Even though Bill can barely get his words out, he persists in his rather pointless argument. "You tried before though, when I brought her to Fangtasia. That was the whole reason I brought her there in the first place, to confirm my suspicions that it couldn't be done." Bill was quickly starting to remind me of a whiny child who did not get their way.
"He did it Bill we both witnessed it with our own eyes, you should really desist in this useless line of conversation," Godric says coolly to him.
"No, NO!" Bill spits angrily. "This whole thing would have been so much easier if I could just fucking glamour her. I wouldn't have had to subject myself to the worthless charade of a relationship with her and the Queen could have acquired her months ago." Godric and I just let Bill dig the hole beneath him deeper and deeper. It is quite unfortunate that we can't just end his miserable life right this second. But we both know that if we want to end Compton we have to be smart about it. Maneuvering him into a corner where there is no possible escape.
"Well," I say, "clearly she can be glamoured because there she lay, in peaceful sleep until Godric and I wake her."
"NO, NO, NO!" Bill screams.
"This is all very interesting," Godric says, "and is most definitely going to be something my child and I will discuss at great lengths in the future. Unfortunately you will not be privy to these conversations Compton, seeing how Sookie is no longer your concern." Bill's face goes ashen with this revelation; apparently he had temporarily forgotten that Sookie was no longer his.
"She is mine," he says, but it is a halfhearted assertion.
"No, she asked for our protection and we accepted. Feel free to go to the magistrate if you feel you have been wronged, but I highly doubt he will favor you with his decision. Now, let me be very clear here because I want you to understand me perfectly." Godric pulls Compton away from the wall, forcing him down on his knees in front of him. Godric's lips pull back in a silent snarl and his fangs run out slowly. It takes all of my energy not to let my jaw drop to the floor in surprise at such an aggressive display from him.
"You are to leave my area. You will have until one hour after sunset to be out of Texas. If you are still here, I am sure you will quickly find yourself torn limb from limb for the injustices that you have done to the girl. I can assure you this will happen, since I will be ordering all of the vampires in my area tonight to hunt you down tomorrow if you do not comply. And make no mistake they are all itching to get their fangs in you. I suggest that you listen Compton. It would not be wise to go against me at this juncture, or any for that matter, ever again. I did give you fair warning before you left my nest not to harm the girl, yet you chose to ignore that warning."
Bill looks like he is going to be sick; I almost want to snicker at the thought of him being physically ill. It is rare that a vampire will vomit, but on rare occasions it does occur, and if I were in his position I would be afraid too. I am flabbergasted, astounded, and amazed at the threat in Godric's words. I haven't seen him this way in centuries. Feral, ruthless, cold-blooded, wild, and most of all, lethal. It would not be wise for Compton to cross Godric, especially with Godric's mood in this ruthless place. Godric has harmed no one in nearly four hundred years, but I know that if Bill pushed his luck he would be up on the butcher block, quite literally. The fact that he is so angry, angry enough to revert to a state that he has worked very hard to overcome, speaks volumes to me about his level of commitment to Sookie. He truly cares about her, surely as much as I do, and normally I would find the idea of another vampire interested in my Sookie disturbing, but somehow it just feels right that it would be the three of us.
Somehow Bill musters up his balls and says, "You may have her for now, but make no mistake. That COW," he points dramatically at Sookie, "is MINE! The queen will never allow either one of you too keep her."
A low rumble begins to roll out of Godric's chest and even I am scared of that sound. He slowly lifts Compton off the ground so that he is eye level with him. "Let me make one thing very clear to you," Godric hisses enunciating every syllable of his statement, as if he were speaking to a small child. I guess, in a way, he is though; next to Godric we are all children. Godric is older then the Catholic's Christ. "SOOKIE IS OURS. There is nothing, NOTHING, your queen can do about it. She is not my queen and she is not even here to defend your sorry excuse of an existence at the moment. Even if she were here, she would never be fool enough to cross me and my will. You will never touch a hair on that girl's head ever again and there is nothing you can do about it."
Before Compton even has a chance to respond to Godric's very firm statement, Godric lifts him high above his head and tosses him like a paper airplane across the room and into the wall furthest away from us. The sickening sound of flesh slapping drywall, and bones breaking echoes through the room. Godric nods towards Sookie in a clear unspoken command; I guess we are done here. I walk over to my sleeping beauty and pull her gently off the bed, cradling her to my chest lightly.
I turn on my heel and head towards the living room with its now shattered doorway that leads out of the suite. Godric and I are not even halfway across the room, when I hear Sookie mumble in her glamour-induced sleep, "You will never harm them." She waves her hand limply outwards and a flash of blinding purple light envelopes Godric and I. A loud crash echoes through the room, and I spin on my heel only to find Compton knocked out cold where he had clearly been thrown into, the now crushed, entertainment center.
He is clearly unconscious, but we still approach him carefully, just in case he is playing opossum. When we are standing directly above him, I am shocked to see a large piece of the shattered wooden door still clutched firmly in his hand. Clearly he had intended to stake us from behind and we somehow both missed hearing his approach.
Godric clears his throat and chuckles amusedly, "It appears our little telepath has just saved our lives."
"Indeed," I say, truly astonished by this turn of events. I look down questioningly at Sookie, wondering how she accomplished such a feat, fully glamoured nonetheless.
"It would also appear that there is more to her than meets the eye," Godric says, and all I can do is nod in agreement.
"I do not think she knows of this, whatever this is. She already thinks very poorly of herself and if she knew she could throw two hundred year old vampires across the room, like they were nothing more than a child's ragdoll, I am positive she would freak out." Godric eyes me questioningly, but says nothing.
We leave the broken Bill and the smashed suite and make our way towards Godric's private nest. We walk in companionable silence, contemplating the evening and all that occurred. After a while Godric turns to me and says, "Why would she think poorly of herself Eric? She is very gifted. She should be treasured, and she should know how special she is."
We have arrived at my Maker's home, and I contemplate his words trying to figure out how to best respond to his questions. Godric goes about opening up the house; I follow him inside and into his day chamber. I sit Sookie down on the enormous bed and look at her, contemplating her and her thoughts on the subject of her 'disability' as she calls it. "I am not entirely sure why she thinks of herself poorly Godric," I say softly.
Godric zips out of the room quickly grabbing a warm, wetted towel, and hands it to me. I gently begin cleaning up as much of the blood and vomit from her face and hair that I can. I continue our conversation as if it has never ceased. "It is just the impression I got from her in the time we have spent together. I think that this is part of the reason she took up with Compton though. He always doted on her and she ate up every complement he said like a starving child." I pinch the bridge of my nose and sigh softly to myself. Sookie did not truly see herself, which was part of her whole problem.
"We have much to contemplate with this little one. I think that we will also have a lot of hard work ahead of us in both protecting her and repairing her," Godric said, contemplating the enigma that is Sookie.
I found myself suddenly unsure of everything, if we could keep her safe, if we would be able to repair the damage that Bill had done, if we could heal the old wounds that resided in her that led her to the likes of Bill in the first place, if she was worth it, and most of all if we were worthy of her love and affection. I ask, in a surprisingly childlike voice of someone who is scared of the monsters under his bed, "She is worth it?"
I look pleadingly up at Godric for an answer and he smiles at me kindly. "Oh yes, she is most definitely worth it." For a long time we just stare down at the broken, yet still beautiful form that is Sookie. She is something great that is for sure. "Enough of this morose contemplation, we must heal her."
I smile and nod in agreement. "I have a thought on how we should proceed with this."
"And that would be?" Godric beams a huge smile at me.
"I think we should put our blood into a cup for her to ingest. It will help us avoid the exchange to becoming sexual in nature."
"Agreed." It amuses me that there is no argument over whose blood she will receive. We both just know we will both contribute. Not just me, not just Godric, but both of us will give our precious blood to heal her wounds. If it were any other two vampires this may not have been possible, but Godric and I are different. We have a different kind of bond, a different kind of relationship than most makers do with their children. Most of all Sookie is a very different kind of girl.
Sure some vampires would have shared their meals a time or two with their nest mates, but Sookie isn't just a meal. I know that I want a permanent bond with her. An everlasting relationship that will never fade, and I know that Godric wants these same things as well. The three of us just fit together. We are a perfect mesh of personalities, strengths, and weaknesses. Where one falls short the others pick up the slack.
As I contemplate all of this, Godric slips out of the room and comes back in carrying a large brass chalice. It had been a very long time since I have laid eyes on that cup, but it was still as beautiful as ever, covered in intricate carvings and precious gems. I gasp audibly when I realize what he is doing; I know exactly what that cup means. "You can't be serious," I say.
"Of course I am. I would not have taken it out if I weren't sure. Just think of it as a test. If it does what I think it will, we will have a lot of my suspicions confirmed. But," he shrugs, "if it doesn't well no harm will be done, you know this. She will have just drunk from a very pretty cup. It will work though, I know it, and if it does we will need to bond with her fully very soon. Can't you feel it Eric?"
I look down at the floor, close my eyes, and nod my head in agreement. "Good, wake her," he says firmly.
I climb next to her on the large bed, stretching my body out next to hers. I prop myself up on my elbow and look down at her, lightly brushing the few locks of hair that had fallen into her eyes away. "Sookie my lover, wake so that we can heal you now." Slowly her eyes flutter and open; she looks up at me and smiles her little half sleepy smile, clearly happy to see me. My heart jumps with joy at the reaction.
"Hey," she whispers.
I smirk at her. "Hey yourself beautiful."
She tries to sit up and groans in pain, "Ugh, I feel like I was hit by a train."
I chuckle lightly at her, but we both hear Godric growl at us next to the bed. She turns her head to face him, smiles lightly, and says, "It's okay hun, it was just a joke." She pauses but Godric just continues to scowl at her quip. "You know, a joke, a way to make those around you laugh, and or, lighten the mood of a room considerably."
"Yes little one, I know what a joke is, but I fail to see the humor in this situation." His eyebrows furrow in irritation.
"Well," she says, "it's either laugh or cry and at the moment I would prefer laughter." Godric smiles at her lightly and nods his head in understanding. We could all use a little laughter after the evening we have had.