Things have been kind of crazy. I'm scheduled to deploy in a very short amount of time so my life has been all over the place. But I am here for... YOU! Just imagine a pippy dun dun dah ahead of that "you." Anyway I'm sorry but I don't have time to answer any of the comments for this chapter but just know that I can't get enough of you guys reviewing.
So, as always... let's do some bad things, shall we?
Chapter 26: Timebomb
No bra. No panties. I snarled as I tugged down my tank top, feeling the denim of my jeans rub against some very raw areas.
"If you glare too hard, you might actually hurt me, love," Eric drawled from across the room, his shoulders rolling in an obscenely seductive way as he tugged up his jeans.
Don't get distracted. Don't get distracted, I chided myself, my eyes narrowing further as he tossed a smug smirk over his shoulders. Cocky bastard. "Someone tore my underwear," I snap, teeth-baring as that smirk grew into a flash of fangs, his head tipping to the side with a laugh.
He turned, leaning down in another dazzling roll of muscles and lean grace to pick up his own top from the ground. "It was a good night, hm?"
"Now I have no underwear," I continued on heatedly, jerking on my leather jacket and ignore the annoyingly bare way that even such a small movement made me feel. "Do you know how much those costed? I don't know if you realize this but I'm a bartender. Not a fucking actress."
He wasn't listening to me. His eyes had slipped down to my breasts, my nipples unnervingly apparent beneath the thin fabric. A slow breath slipped from his lips, his eyes dilating in the dim light. Against my rib cage, my heart gave an answering thump, my abdomen twisting in silly knots. We had just had sex and I was already amping up for more. Down, girl.
"I'll buy you more," he said, his voice rough, gravel rolling along my spine and making me shiver as he stalked a bit closer. His fingers scraped roughly along the sliver of skin visible between where my tank ended and jeans began, gripping my hip and dragging me up against his hard front. His eyes were dark, stormy. His fingers coil in my hair, tugging my chin back so that his lips can travel the long expanse of my throat. "Get you enough to fill your whole room if you want."
My voice was strangled when I answered, my vision going hazy as my fingers tangled in the front of his shirt, trying to drag him closer. "The one will do."
His fingers dig into my ass, my front rubbing along his in an enticing promise. "Mm." He pulls back enough so that I can see the dark tilt of his lips, the barest flash of fangs. "We'll see."
And then he's pulling away, his fingers tightening for a moment in my hair before he's moving to the door, opening it to the dark hall beyond. What a bastard, I seeth, blinking across the room at him as my pulse rabbits and then slows, the blood slushing quickly through my body. He knew what he was doing.
Eric's eyes glint like blue flames through the darkness, his lips still tipped in that arrogant way of his. "Coming, mare?"
I snarl, storming toward him and jabbing a finger into that ridiculously chiseled chest and glaring up at him, nearly rolling to my tippy toes so that I'll gain another inch of indignation. "Don't think that just because we had sex this means that you can boss me around. I can still kick your ass any day of the week."
His eyes shimmer, his nose nearly touching mine as he leans down, his body like an avalanche that's threatening to overtake me. "Talk like that to me again, sweetheart, and I'll be fucking you against the wall."
Promise? I sneer, flipping my hair in a false display of bravado even as I know that my pulse is giving me away, his eyes and smirk following me as I sashay away. I'm tempted to say something snarky, to challenge him again just so that he'll take care of these ridiculous base urges that are currently overpowering every other rational thought in my head. Instead, I tilt my head back, meeting his gaze with a quirked brow. "Coming, Viking?"
The only answer I get is the slide of his tongue rubbing across his fangs, his eyes hooded. And then a whisper of air and he's beside me.
Chemistry. It was always something that I had left to books. Something that romantic Sookie believed in and silly Jason perpetrated in his endless flings. But sizzling between us, hidden in the sideways glances, the tightening of Eric's jaw every time I let my side rub along his, there it was.
"This is going to be annoying," Eric drawled, his hands shoving into the pockets of his jeans as he ran a cool gaze around the assembled vampires and humans, all lingering in small clusters around the first floor. Music beat softly through the whole of the house, traveling through the chic rooms. I caught the eyes of a few curious stares, some fangs snapping down as they turned to stare at us.
I blinked, frowning. Not threatening looks but… I glanced up, meeting Eric's smug stare. "Why are some of them staring?"
He leaned down, one hand spanning my hip as he took a long, deep breath, his own fangs snapping down. Slowly, he leaned back, his eyes heavy-lidded as he stared down at me. "You smell like me," he murmured, his voice guttural. "They're just keying onto the fact that you're mine. And that they shouldn't touch."
I gulp, heat burning along my cheeks at his frank words. And the small smiles from some of the vampires who clearly heard what he had just said. For a moment, I fumble with words, trying to untangle some of the confusing emotions winding all together inside of me.
"Lorena!" From another room, I feel the rippling of anxiety, heightening emotions that border on fear. Excitement. And anger.
Eric's head jerks to the side, his shoulders going up as his eyes narrow on a room just to our left a bit down the hall. I can hear the sudden hush of voices, the leaning of bodies as vampires and humans alike turn to the sound.
"Stay here," Eric drawls, looking like a teacher who's been forced to host detention in his free time. His big hand goes to my nape, giving me a gentle squeeze before he's pulling away and turning in the opposite direction.
"Where are you going?" I snap.
"To get someone who actually gives a damn about such trivial drama," he says. He shoots me a warning glance. "Stay here, Runa."
And then I'm gawking at empty air. A female vampire near me gives me a sympathetic smile, her glass tipping into the air in a silent salute. Which somehow makes me even more indignant at being left in a hallway while my sister gets into what sounds to be turning into a very heated exchange.
Down the hall, the hiss of two women reaches a level loud enough that it bounces to me, not loud enough that I can make out voices but just this side of being a true fight. Anxiety prickles my skin, my senses reaching out as my muscles tense, leaning toward the sound. Oddly enough, I can't feel Sookie in that room… But I can feel Jason and he's…
I jerk into action, dodging around a couple coming down the hall and sprinting for the crowded room. Everyone's attention is turned toward the center of the room, their bodies motionless like a garden of statues.
"Take those words back or they shall be your last." The woman that I saw just a few nights before is standing tall, her lips painted blood-red, her hair coiled into an updo that runs in riotous curls along the top of her head. Spilling down over the slender curves of her body, her gown is the same striking red of her lips, startling against the pale expanse of her skin.
And standing nearly a foot shorter is my sister, dressed in all white, glaring up at her. For a moment, I stall out at the outskirts of the room, my insides rolling with a burst of exasperation. If there's one thing that I've seen too much a from my time as the barkeep at a restaurant in bum-fuck nowhere - it's catfights. And looking at these two women, hissing at each other while Bill stands, dapper and slightly befuddled just between them, I instinctively know that that's what this is. And it's enough to make me want to cry having to see such ugliness on my sister.
Just over the assembled heads, I see my brother, his expression about the same shade of cringe as my own. For a moment, a silent understanding, our eyes meet.
"We're leaving!" Bill declares, bodily holding Sookie back as my sister bares her teeth and lunges at the much taller vampire. Whose fangs have, incidentally, come down.
"Go find someone else, you fucking bitch!" My sister screeches and my brother and I both wince, the words jarring even as I start to push my way through the swell of bodies. "You've lost this one!"
Cheap, bottle-store words. Too cliche to even come across as little more than a self-righteous claim. It's enough to make me look up and curse.
Bill, the glorified prize that he is, gets tossed aside like a rag doll, Lorena barely breaking stride as she slams my sister into the table running alongside them. My stomach clenches, my hands sizzling as I shove people out of the way. "MOVE!"
"SOOKIE!" I hear Jason scream as the sound of bottles crashing to the ground reverberates around the room. My heart gives a panicked leap, nausea tightening my throat as I nearly tackle a vampire in my effort to break through and get to Sookie. But I know I won't get there in time. There's still another row of people and they're not moving and vampires are so fast- "GET OUT OF MY FUCKING WAY!"
Silence. I pant, stumbling as I sprint right into the middle of the room.
"Retract your fangs." Godric. I blink, insides shaking at the soft command. He has a finger wrapped around Lorena's throat, his face tinged with the first sign of irritation that I've seen. Briefly, his eyes flick over to me, taking in the frazzled mess of my clothes, the barely-there purple flare of my powers as I force them back down. I wince, drawing my hands to my chest, hiding them.
But he saw it. I know he saw it.
Anxiously, my eyes search for Eric, finding his hulking form just behind Godric's, his face calm even if his eyes are telling me that he specifically told me to stay put. Guiltily, I duck my head, scrambling toward where my sister is sprawled out on the table, her breath ragged as she blinks up at the two imposing figures standing just beside her.
"Now," Godric murmurs, and his words are so gentle that I think for a moment that I might crawl under the table instead of get my sister. Because there's something about a vampire not using his power that makes me so afraid that I can't even fathom it. Nervously, I keep my senses keyed toward Godric and Lorena, hearing the soft snick of her fangs retracting. The powerhouse that I saw just moments before quivers, her whole body stock still as Godric forces her back by that hand to the throat.
"Get up," I hiss, bodily yanking my sister from the table as Bill levels himself from his sprawled position on the floor. I'm so angry with her that I'm almost shaking, my hands quivering in the collar of her dress as I hoist her from the table.
"I don't need-" she starts and my anger rockets higher at the petulant tilt of her lips, the way she's leaning around me and toward Bill. Bill who should have kept her away from this woman. Bill who couldn't even raise a hand to stop his maker. Bill who made her look like a weak, sniveling human.
"Shut the fuck up," I snap, my teeth baring down at Sookie as she stills, her eyes widening at the expression on my face. I keep her to my side with a hand around her bicep. "Just shut the fuck up for now."
Tension courses between us and I see Bill's face tighten with it, his body drifting closer but an awkward distance between where I'm holding my sister and him. I clamp down on the words that are bubbling up inside of me, forcing my attention back to where Godric is holding Lorena. If this was a different moment, a quieter one, I might have mistaken the hold for something more intimate. Something sweeter than it actually is. His hand is holding her so gently, her body positioned stiffly against the couch…
"I neither know nor care who you are," he begins, his eyes unwavering as he stares down at her. He says the words slowly, his gaze flicking over her with the attentiveness of an animal sensing fresh meat and ultimately deciding that he can do better. "But in this area and certainly in this nest, I am the authority." His eyes close for a moment as if he's amused by the thought and he gives her a small, friendly smile that makes me flinch. "Do you understand?"
Lorena's eyes stay on him, her lips barely moving as she answers. "Yes, Sheriff."
For a moment, I wonder if it will be that simple. My eyes flick to meet Eric's, finding him to be just as nonchalant as his maker, both of their bodies attentive but unbothered. Lorena isn't a threat. Not tonight and especially not in this nest with two of the oldest vampires in attendance. A misjudgment. A calculation that only Bill would be ruffled by my sister's death. On any other night, she would have been correct. The difference between my sister dead on a porcelain table amid empty bottles of TruBlood, two vampires. My fingers tighten on her bicep, my insides quivering with rage as she lets out a squeak of protest.
Lorena let's out a jagged gasp, her shoulders slumping as Godric gives her a small smile and releases his hold on her neck.
"This human has proven herself to be a courageous," his eyes flick to where my fingers are digging into her arm and I see the barest flash of a smile grace his lips before he's looking away once more. "And loyal friend to our kind. And yet you treat her like a child does a dragonfly pulling off wings her sport... No wonder they hate us."
"She provoked me," Lorena whispers shakily and I feel dirty for even partially agreeing with her. My eyes snap to my sister, her face pinched as she stares at Lorena. Because even though Bill's maker is in all definitions a stalker and crazy, my sister is just as much a fool for playing into a game that she should be above.
I look back, my insides clenching as Godric's shoulders hunch, his body rolling forward as he stares down at the red-clad woman. "And you provoked me," he sneered, his lips curling. For a moment, the whole of the room tenses, each vampire tightening at the glimpse of rage in his voice. "You disrupted the peace in my own home. I could snap you like a twig." His voice barely raises, his eyes holding a certainty that makes me cold. On the couch, Lorena quivers, her eyes going misty. "And I haven't. Now, why is that?"
Because he's lived too long, I think. Because you're not worth cleaning up off the floor. Because he's so powerful that you're not even a bug on his windshield.
He lets her answer, gives her enough time, his head tipping to the side. Disdain, barely there and yet ingrained in her bones, twists Lorena's lips. "It's… your choice."
"Indeed it is," Godric agrees, nodding. For a moment, his eyes run over her. "You're an old vampire - I can tell. You've had hundreds of years to better yourself, yet you haven't." Lorena's dark eyes snap away, something in her breaking at the words and Godric's eyes darken, his tone sharpening. "You are still a savage, and I fear for all of us, humans and vampires if this behavior persists."
Godric's attention turns, narrowing on where Bill still stands, his expression tense. "You. You seem to know her."
"Yes, Sheriff," Bill agrees, solemn.
The older vampire doesn't even blink. "Escort her from the nest." Somehow it seems like more of a humiliation, more of a defeat than if Godric had simply snapped her neck and be done with it. Bill and Sookie lean toward each other, whispering. "I wish your out of my area before dawn."
Wilted, broken in some internal way, Lorena leaves, Bill following silently behind her.
I wait, watching their retreat. Waiting… Waiting as she moves to the hall and then out of sight.
"What the fuck were you thinking?" I rage, my teeth baring as I shove my sister away from me roughly, my spine cracking as I straighten to my full height. Sookie's eyes widen, darting around to where Godric is still standing, his face politely blank even as his eyes flick over us, to where Eric stands just behind him, eyes dark and even past them to the still attentive room. I should take her outside. I should wait until we're alone. But seeing her - seeing her looking like she had done something right - like she had been right-
"You don't know what you're talking about," she defends, her arms crossing defensively in front of her and I want to laugh and slap her all at once. "That was Bill's maker - she - she came in here and said all sorts of vile things-"
"So you decided to humor her?" I demand and consequences be damned - I jab a finger at the room at large. "In a room filled with people who couldn't care less about whether your pretty little human throat got ripped out?! How stupid - how irresponsible-"
I lose words, seeing black as Sookie's face goes red. "Rune." Jason's fingers curl around my bicep, his eyes pleading as he tries to separate us.
"That's not what happened though!" Sookie snarls, her fingers balling. "Someone did stop her-"
"TWO PEOPLE OUT OF A ROOM OF 50!" I scream, mind nearly numbing with the sheer volume of people who had stood by - who hadn't moved when I had been clawing my way toward her. Jason's body is pressed up against mine now, his arms restraining me from reaching around and shaking her- Tears of pure anger well up as I stare at her, seeing the impassive recognition that goes through the crowd in the room. Godric looks away, his face crumbling a bit. My voice quivers, reaching a higher pitch as Sookie blinks up at me. "What would have happened if they weren't here? How would you have defended yourself? And after she ripped through you, who would she have gone after next?!" Horrified, I feel tears leak free, slipping down my cheeks, my fingers curling in my brother's worn shirt. "OUR BROTHER! The one who was trying to get to you! The one who would have tried to pull her off of you and GOTTEN HIS THROAT RIPPED OUT BECAUSE OF YOU! BECAUSE YOU NEEDED TO PISS ALL OVER YOUR BOYFRIEND LIKE A FUCKING ANIMAL!"
Jason's arms tighten around me, his face tensing in recognition. No. More like a tightening from a fact that was already in your head - harsher when spoken. His voice is softer now, pleading. "Rune, stop it."
"NO!" I scream, jabbing a finger at her, rageful and helpless - so helpless. Sookie's eyes are wide now, her bottom lip quivering as she stares at me. "And then - and then if Eric and Godric weren't here, your boyfriend's maker would have ordered him to rip out my throat! Because you didn't know that saying such stupid, irresponsible words makes you a target. And more than that, it makes the people who protect you, a target too."
My words are near babble now, the scene playing out with such clarity in my mind that for a moment the horror is too real. Because if Eric and Godric hadn't been here then I would have been forced to expose myself - and the implications - the chance of being captured and eaten slowly, dissected for being something other - My stomach rolled and I could feel Eric's eyes, sad and watchful.
"She wasn't going to stop if-" But Sookie's voice is weak. "She wanted Bill-"
"You're better than this," I whisper, suddenly tired, wilting a bit in Jason's hold. His arms relax, understanding that there would be no more yelling. My eyes met my sisters. "You're supposed to be better than this."
I turn, feeling Eric's presence before I saw him, my body curling into his much bigger one on instinct alone. Love, I thought weakly should never be this degrading. Eric's lips touch my temple in the barest kiss. "Dyrbara mare."
"Come on, Sook," I heard Jason murmur behind me and I pressed my face into Eric's chest, feeling sharp guilt at having so publicly humiliated her. But also unable to take it back. Unwilling ot feel enough sympathy to apologize.
My adrenaline drifted, slowing. And with the lack of emotions, came awareness. My teeth ached, my body stiffening.
"Runa?" Eric breathed, his eyes searching as my head snapped to the side, fingers tightening in his tank.
Dressed heavily in jeans and a thick jacket, a dark-haired boy sauntered into the room.
"Luke?" I heard Jason breath, confused.
"EXCUSE ME, EVERYONE," Luke boomed, somehow steady even though I could feel, could see from the sweat shining on his brow just how scared he was. My breath quickened, words jamming in my throat too quickly to force out. "My name is Luke McDaniel. I am a member of the Fellowship of the Sun."
"Danger." Too softly. I had said too softly. Eric's eyes widened, his body instinctively turning, shielding me as he yanked me a bit farther away. He was going toward where Godric was standing. But he didn't understand. The danger wasn't from the boy-
"And I have a message for you all from Reverend Steve Newlin."
"HE HAS A BOMB!" I finally screamed and from across the room, Luke's dark eyes met mine. "HE HAS A BOMB! GET AWAY FROM HIM."
His finger was already on the detonator.
If you're new here, I welcome you to my story and if you're not then I want to welcome you back. How are you guys doing, lately? I hope you like this update and if you do drop a favorite and leave me a review.
Swedish:
Dyrbara mare: Precious mare
I was actually thinking about doing a short on Godric within the next few chapters. I wanted to see if that would be interesting for anyone. it would be OC/Godric with a new character and... yeah just let me know. But also let me know how you liked this chapter.
Much love, LOVELY
