Chapter 33: Incinerate

Olivia could hear Portia Bellefleur yelling at the station's clerk before she could lay eyes on her. Upon entering the small reception area, she saw the lawyer arguing with a uniformed man twice their age, her briefcase splattered open on the counter, while she waved a pen on his face. She had never seen Portia be so passionate about anything, other than maybe wedding planning.

"What you are doing here is unconstitutional, sir! I will be writing a letter to the attorney general about this-"

"Ma'am, write a letter to the Pope if ya want, I'm not in charge of arrests, just intake and release. Get your goddamn client and go."

Portia continued to furiously scribble on a piece of paper, shaking her head angrily.

"How are you here? They denied my call, I couldn't contact you."

Clearly, that set her off. "THEY DID WHAT?"

The clerk gave both of them the side-eye. I'm not paid enough for this bullshit. He then slid a ziplock across the counter, looking at Olivia. "This yours?"

Inside the plastic bag were her watch, earrings and Blackberry. She nodded, taking her belongings

"Sign here." He asked.

She complied, then put her jewelry back on. Her phone was dead, as to be expected, so she tucked it into her back pocket. "Thanks," she then turned to Portia. "What are we being charged with?"

"Who's we? Eric said nothing about a 'we'-"

Her heart skipped a beat. "Eric's here?"

Portia nodded outside and went back to her paper. Through the glass entrance doors, Liv spotted the tall beautiful figure standing in the dark parking lot. He was leaning against the driver's side of her old BMW, looking down at his phone. Completely casual, as if he were just hanging out in front of the police station, as one does. It was him who got Portia to bail her out at this ungodly hour. The sight of him was almost euphoria-inducing. This fucking nightmare was over.

"You're not being charged with anything, this raid was not up to protocol," Portia told her. It was the most beautiful words she had ever heard. She could honestly kiss her on the mouth.

Wanting out of this hell hole, Olivia stole Portia's pen straight out of her hand. Before she asked, Liv explained. "I need you to bail all of them out too. I'll write down the men too, but I couldn't see the men's cell from mine. They could have taken them to any of the other precincts too. We can't reopen with the entire staff stuck behind bars."

Portia studied the names over Olivia's shoulder. And yes, in a complete philanthropic moment, she wrote down Ginger's name too.

The lawyer shrieked. "Terry Bellefleur?!"

"Relative of yours?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

"He's my cousin, but he never told me he was working at the fanger bar-"

"Fangtasia." Olivia corrected her.

"Right. That's so unlike him..."

Olivia paused for a second trying to remember Crystal's last name. "Well, he's an excellent floor assistant. You Bellefleurs do alright. Are there any more of you I can recruit?" She jokingly asked, not looking up from the paper. The list was getting long.

"Only my brother Andy, he's a police detective-"

"Yeah, no thanks." Crystal Norris, it finally came to her. The final name was Savannah Colton. Olivia paused, hesitant on trusting her name to Portia. Savannah was a sweet and quiet girl and a good dancer who was unfortunately on the run from a violent ex-boyfriend. If her fake alias flagged the system, she would be a gift with a bow on it for the police, or worse. But leaving her behind was wrong too. Heart heavy in her chest, she passed the note to Portia. "That should be it. Also, if this list somehow ends in Glenn's hands, I will ruin your career."

"Who's Glenn?" Portia blinked confused.

Before asking the obvious, Olivia instinctually dove into the woman's mind. It was white and warped, with huge chunks missing.

"Just- um…"

Olivia gawked at her, mouth half-open, not knowing what to say. Not believing what her mind was reading. Portia had been corrupted, adulterated - defiled.

"Olivia? Who's Glenn?" She asked again.

He just wasn't there. In fact, so much wasn't. So much had vanished, leaving behind huge white holes, filled with nothingness. Glenn Costa had been systematically and carefully deleted off her mind. Every laugh, every tear, how they met, their first date, and every date after that. All her love was gone. Portia had fallen in love, and it had so easily been taken away from her. Like it meant nothing. She looked outside again, at the vampire in the parking lot, who now observed her quietly, like a lion gazing at the lamb. There was no doubt in her mind that Eric had done this.

"Sorry, long night. Keep it safe, okay? These people mean a lot to me."

As it turned out, Portia meant more than she thought. Olivia left the counter and marched towards the front doors.

"Wait! I'm supposed to drive you home!" Portia called, note in hand.

"Yep, I'll wait by the car." She answered mindlessly, just wanting to be finally alone. Portia's tainted mind was more than her heart could bear. She couldn't believe it.

The night air was cool and felt like freedom on her skin. She was free. Eric tossed the phone he had been toying with on the car seat and gently closed the door.

"You look like shit."

"What the hell, Eric?! What did you do to her?" Her voice came out louder than she intended to. Olivia was looking for a reason to be mad at Eric earlier. Well, she found it.

He cocked a brow, unamused at her tone. Eric was expecting a grateful and demure Olivia, for her to jump into his arms. It wasn't what he got. "Nice to see you too."

"You Eternal-Sunshine-of-the-Spotless-Mind'd her?"

He towered her again, not with his powerful threatening presence like he usually did. He just stood close, looking at her with his soft blue eyes, and said nothing. He had some dirt on his neck, and his hair was sexily messy. If his black clothes were dirty, she couldn't see it under the parking lot's dim light. Heat rose within her, and it wasn't because of the weather, or the anger.

A long pause went by. Feeling like she was losing her moral upper hand, she felt like she had to say something. But there wasn't much to say. Olivia knew from the day she found out they were a couple, that Glenn had to go. He manipulated and emotionally blackmailed Portia, used his love and their relationship against her to get information that would help his case against Eric Northman. Olivia had tried to threaten Portia into breaking up with him, but she knew there was too much at stake for her to be able to let go.

Too long had passed since they had locked eyes. So naturally, Olivia said something dumb. "It's a movie."

"I know." He said blankly. "She was becoming a liability, Olivia. The DEA was behind this raid, not Shreveport PD. And they crossed a line."

"What line?"

"They took you."

Even though she was outside, her body felt like walls were closing in. Eric Northman wasn't lying. Despite dawn being just around the corner, he waited outside for her. He put himself in danger to save her. He went out of his way to bail her out. But that didn't make up for what he had done.

"You did a really cruel thing, Eric."

"What do you suggest? Let's hear it." He crossed his arms.

"I don't know, doctor some photos to make it look like Glenn is cheating like a normal person."

He scoffed a laugh. "Breaking her heart is supposed to be better? You have a very twisted sense of morals, Olivia."

She did launder and tax evaded money for a living. Eric continued.

"I can't fire her. There aren't many other lawyers in town who are willing to work for a vampire, and the few who would, shouldn't be anyone's lawyer. I can't kill her without making it glaringly obvious it was me, plus her brother is a cop. If I kill Glenn, that would be a sure way of making my case file the top priority in the state. So yes, I did what I had to do."

"But she loved him!"

He smiled. "She'll get over it. Actually, she already has."

Arguing with him was like yelling at a wall. A stupidly hot wall. "Do you not remember what happened to Marc Sheldon?"

"Who?"

"The pilot who took us to Dallas?" He shrugged. "A vampire made him forget his wife and daughter? There are consequences to editing people's memories. What about her family? Her coworkers? What if they sent the invitations to the wedding already?"

"Trust me, I'll take care of the fallout. And why do you care anyway? You don't even like her."

It was true, she didn't. But part of Olivia envied what Portia had. A part much bigger than she was willing to admit. "It doesn't matter. What do you think will happen when Glenn realizes what you did? The guy already had a bone to pick with you, now he has the whole skeleton."

Eric smirked. He had something up his sleeve, and judging by the devilish curl on his lips, it was something bad. "It won't matter. The DEA will be handled soon enough."

"Eric…" Olivia scowled, shredding at the thought of what he might be insinuating. She couldn't leave him alone for five fucking minutes.

"Come to my house at sundown and I'll show you."

And before she could protest, Eric flew straight up into the sky. A line of yellow was bleeding into the horizon, marking the start of Sunday's sunrise. He cut it real close, all so he could stay and see her. If she didn't know any better, she would believe the vampire cared for her.

She woke up disoriented and absolutely parched just after 4 PM. Olivia definitely slept in much later than she intended to, but after the week of hell she just lived through, Liv was surprised she woke up at all.

After downing 4 glasses of water and finishing off some leftover pizza she found in the fridge (from God knows when), Olivia meant to go back to work. But for the first time, maybe ever, she found herself not wanting to. She walked by her office door three times while procrastinating, and she just couldn't bring herself to do it.

It seems that the harder she worked, the more she pushed, the more she scienced the shit out of Northman's business folder to meet the Queen's insane demands, the deeper she was digging her own grave. If she sat on her office chair and opened that laptop, she would have to deal with soul-sucking emails from Portia and the contractors, and probably deal with whatever staff had quit. They probably didn't take being thrown in jail too kindly.

She could analyze last night's balance sheets but she knew, without even looking, they weren't going to give good projections for the week. Especially after the raid, the chances of high foot traffic for the next little while were slim to none, meaning she would never launder the 150k the Queen asked.

Turn on the TV and she would have to face the news draggingFangtasia through the mud, and possibly tabloids who snagged pictures of Willa Burrel either out in the line, or worse - inside, talking to Olivia. Go to Fangtasia, and she would have to deal with the raid's aftermath and destruction. All her hard work for getting that place up and running, looking elegant, clean and high class for opening night… Gone. She just knew the bar looked as good as roadkill right about now.

Sit down to do paperwork, and she'd be taunted by the little paper calendar that sat on the corner of her desk. Her own death date circled in red pen, mocking her. There were only six days until Friday. Six days left to live. There was a chance Sophie-Anne was bluffing, but she had spent a good time watching the Queen gamble. Olivia knew her poker face intimately, and unless her own emotions were clouding her judgement, she firmly believed Sophie-Anne was not deceiving her with an idle threat. Ordering Eric to kill her was a promise she intended to keep.

So, Liv cleaned instead. She started by sorting her laundry and putting the first load in. Then she changed the sheets and the towels, dusted and swept, and scrubbed the kitchen and bathroom. After switching the laundry over and tossing the second load in, she took out the garbage and organized her shoes. They had been piling up in the corner by the front door for weeks.

While she waited for the clothes to be done in the dryer, she cooked up butter noodles which was just about the only thing she knew how to make. She wasn't a very domestic person, despite what it may have looked like today. Sitting out on her deck, she ate her dinner while enjoying the cooler sunset air. Eric's voice surfaced in her mind.

The DEA will be handled soon enough.

Those words gave her a bad feeling in the gut. What the hell had Eric Northman done? Who had he killed? Or whose mind had he wiped? And when? Between being arrested, and bailing Olivia out, how could he possibly have had the time to fuck any more shit up? She looked patiently at the darkening afternoon sky, anxious for it to set.

Unlike most things in her life, Eric was not something she could avoid.

The vampire rose out of bed with a mission. He hopped in the shower, got dressed and headed straight downstairs. What he had to show Olivia got him some kind of excited. Maybe this is what Christmas felt like for humans. He opened the front door and found his accountant sitting on his porch's front steps, looking out at the street calmly.

He knew she would be here. She wanted the DEA gone far too much for her not to be. It would only make the reveal sweeter. Olivia was wearing an alluring white summer dress and pretty sandals, and her skin looked radiant as ever. When she turned her head to look at him, her hair fanned like a shampoo commercial. Shiny and soft, in perfectly smooth strawberry blonde waves. Stunning as always.

Olivia got up quickly, with an apprehensive look on her face. Before she could spoil the moment with her natural sarcasm, Eric spoke. "Come with me."

He jogged down the steps past her, catching a whiff of her scent: sunshine, oats, honey and a hint of Channel 5. Trying not to salivate too much, he walked through the garden towards their destination.

"Where are we going?" Her voice came from right behind him. Olivia had to take big steps behind him to keep up.

"Not far."

The two walked single file down the winding path between the thick bushes. He led her around the house towards the back, away from the street. "Please tell me I'm not going to find a body in your yard."

"You're not going to find a body in my yard." He repeated.

"I'm being serious."

Once they arrived at the back corner of the house, just under his study's window, they stopped in front of his basement's bulkhead doors. It was old-fashioned and robust, painted cream to match the house with thick black iron handles and hinges.

Eric leaned forward, opened the right trap door to reveal the concrete steps that led down the dark void. He motioned for her to enter first with a twisted smile. "After you."

She took two steps back and shook her head, wide-eyed. "Absolutely the fuck not-" she began protesting when something caught her attention. She looked straight into the abyss, eyebrows pinching together. "Eric, tell me you didn't-"

Before even finishing the sentence, she rushed down the steps, disappearing into the dark, fearless. He then wondered how Olivia could have possibly known who he had hidden in the basement all the way from where she stood. Still pondering, he made his way down, ducking his head under the door's low clearance. Olivia was still as a statue at the bottom of the steps.

"Are you out of your goddamn mind?!" She buried her eyes in her right palm, before dragging down her face and facing it again. Not even she could take her eyes off the prize. "How could you possibly think this is going to solve our DEA problem?"

"Because," Eric looked at Olivia, standing bravely in his basement as if she had no recollection of what happened the last time he led her underground. Most likely she remembered every gruelling moment of it, she just had hardened from the experience. It was an unfortunate collateral effect, but it pleased him to see so comfortable in the dark. "We are going to trade her life in exchange for the Governor getting them to back off."

Olivia's eyes glimmered in the dark as the silence took over. He could see her mind thinking, understanding his plan. He thought it was brilliant. Finally, a good use for such a nuisance of a girl. Both of them stared at their golden ticket. Tied, blindfolded and gagged to the main support column of the empty concrete basement was none other than Willa Burrell.

It was past midnight, and Olivia was fidgeting in her little swivel chair in her Fangtasia office staring blankly at the ledger software. Eric was sitting in his own oversized chair, leaned all the way back with his 8 ft of legs resting lazily on top of his desk. Under normal circumstances, he would be sitting pretty on his throne, reigning the peasants from above. But tonight there was no one to reign. The club floor was empty. According to the cameras, the bar staff was sitting in a booth, and the dancers were playing on the poles, teaching each other tricks. Terry the floor assistant didn't come up once, and all the stripper bins sat on the couch empty looking real sad. She definitely counted her blessings when she walked in earlier: Ginger had cleaned up the place during the day, and the only damage was some broken chairs and a table. Eric had also locked all the money Olivia left in the office and saved the duffel bag the night before, so there weren't any huge losses.

Laundering money should be her number one priority right now, considering her life hung on the line because of it. But all Liv could think of was Willa Burrel. Her fear coming out of the darkness was ear piercing. She was still down there - cold, starved, beyond exhausted and scared shitless. The poor girl looked so small and frail, covered in grey dirt in that empty, damp and dark basement all alone. She moaned for help when she heard Olivia come down the steps, her words muffled by the cloth gag that Eric had tied up on her face, but Olivia could hear every word, every plea for help in her mind. As soon as she heard Eric's voice, even her crying stopped. Willa was petrified of the vampire.

The worst part was that Eric was right. Her father was polling 18 points ahead of his opponent and the election was only 2 days away. Truman Burrell definitely had enough connections and influence to close some backdoor deal with the DEA, whose HQ was conveniently in New Orleans. But damn if it still wasn't a cold move on Eric's part. Olivia was both relieved and heartbroken she lived in a reality where this was the best plan of action.

Liv had always been sure about most things. Reading other people's minds left little to no surprises in life, and vampires usually had pretty straightforward motives and desires. They all played the long game and usually did whatever was the most selfish. But she couldn't put a finger on how she felt about this vampire in particular. One moment Eric did something sweet, like genuinely wanting to know her, shielding her from the Queen's wrath, or getting arrested with her then bailing her out.

But in the very next second, he kidnapped a politician's daughter who was deeply infatuated with him and trapped her alone in a terrifying dark basement for a whole day. Then he was about to use her life to blackmail her father to get the DEA off his back for selling drugs.

"When are you going to make the trade?" Olivia asked, breaking the monotony.

"When he calls."

"Do you think he knows you have her?"

He looked up from his phone and looked straight at her. "He's the one who sent her."

Olivia knew if that was the case, Willa was not privy to her father's plans. The girl had no idea she was being followed, she just thought she was being a sly teenager and sneaking into a nightclub with a fake ID. Olivia thought back on the man from last night, the one who had called in the raid. Did Truman know she was coming here and was trying to protect his daughter by concealing a bodyguard? Or did he allow her to get inside to get Eric in trouble? Willa's tail sure seemed to act like the latter.

Would Truman really risk his daughter in order to give the cops a legal excuse to raid them? Did the Governor candidate not understand he was the American Vampire League's pick for the most important vampire state in the U.S? And that moving against a vampire Sheriff would be betraying one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the country? If he did, then Truman was risking a hell of a lot more than his daughter's life.

"Then why hasn't he called yet?"

Eric shrugged, returning his attention to his ever-fascinating phone. "Because he's a shitty father."

Suddenly his phone pinged and he was out of his chair in one swoop. "Be right back-"

"Is it Truman?"

"Patience, my darling," he shot her a quick smile by the door before disappearing down the hallway.

Through the cameras, she could see him appearing on the club floor and then disappearing down to the lowest level through the door beside the main bar. When it came to Eric and basements, it was best to leave it alone.

During the big Fangtasia renovation, Eric hid his underground torture chamber behind a fake wall. Raids were becoming too constant and enemies were piling up. Leaving prisoners or even the existence of this room exposed would be incompetent. He arrived at the landing where it had been transformed into a small storage area for kegs, cleaning supplies and delivery crates. Eric built the concrete wall that blocked off the rest of the basement with a secret door himself. It consisted of a metal door with the facade of cylinder blocks carefully cemented onto it which perfectly blended with the rest of the wall. He even put a metal storage shelf on caster wheels in front of it to make it seamless. After pushing the shelf aside, he opened the door and shut it right behind him.

Inside Dr. Patricia Ludwig was already waiting for him, which was to be expected since she was the one who texted him about her arrival moments ago. The dwarf woman was standing near the back by the single dim light bulb in the whole darkroom. As per his instructions, she came on by the escape tunnel built years ago during the prohibition. Eric usually kept it locked, but he was expecting the good doctor to come in tonight.

Because of all the security cameras everywhere, and Olivia's watchful eye, Dr. Ludwig's visit has to be secret. He felt sorry for the woman, not even he liked going through the tunnel. The ceiling of the passage was about 5 feet high (which was not a problem for this tiny being), it extended about 20 yards north, and it inclined 30 degrees downwards. Its exit was embedded on the steep Red riverbank, and from the outside, it looked like a simple storm drain. It's how he moved bodies out of the basement and into the river without raising suspicion. Someone had to feed the alligators.

"Do you have my results?"

"Oh, I certainly do," Patricia put her antique doctor bag on the dusty floor, not having to bend very far. Her little wrinkled hands shuffled inside in the dark for a moment before revealing the papers.

When she handed it over, he eagerly snatched it off her hands, eyes scanning every word looking for the extremely anticipated answer. However, the results only brought him more questions.

"It's not every day you find one of those, ya know," Dr. Ludwig commented, cleaning her thick glasses on the tail of her white cardigan. "People in my field would call her a real-life shiny."

"I don't understand," he started reading the paper again. "She's... Fae? I thought the portal closed centuries ago-"

"It sure did, about 300 years back, when Niall Brigant won the war. All the fairies were ordered to return to their own dimension but had to leave all their bastard children behind. Anyone with a drop of human blood wouldn't be able to survive in their realm, or so he said. It seems that your… whatever she is to you, is what you get when you water down a fae with human blood for three centuries."

It was all starting to make sense. Her scent, her alluring energy, her intelligence. Eric had only met a few fairies in his lifetime, and he remembered that despite the enticing appearance, faes were horribly nasty creatures. Multiple rows of tiny sharp teeth, they could fly much faster than vampires, could weaponize sunlight and some even had telekinetic abilities. But Olivia was none of these things. If she could, she would have used it by now.

"If she's this far removed, is she basically harmless?"

"Woah, I didn't say that. You have to remember Mr. Northman, faeries weren't created on this planet so their blood is unpredictable. Plus, my database on the bloodlines of the half-faes left behind is incomplete. Like I have on my report, judging by the kind and amount of supernatural in her, you can still get a variety of fairy traits. Being catnip to vampires, being naturally attracted to chaos and danger, pointed ears, small horns, wings, cosmic awareness, sun energy blast, superspeed, and of course flying, teleportation, telekinesis, walking through the ethereal planes…"

Dr. Ludwig's voice became white noise while Eric studied the two pieces of paper in his hand. Female, AB+ blood type (tasty), no drug use in the past three months, 25-30 years of age, fertile… He wasn't sure what to expect from this expensive investment, but this did not satiate what he was looking for. And the long fanciful list of superpowers Patricia was giving him was utterly ridiculous. Olivia didn't have any of this bullshit. Thirty fucking grand spent trying to explain his accountant's devious ways, and she was just a plain breather with some alien fairy dust that made her smell good. He should have been relieved, but he found himself disappointed instead. Was she really just… Normal? Did she even know what she was?

"...Healing abilities, illusionary magic, space-time magic, wish-granting, telepathy, plant enhancement, semi-immortality, shapeshifting-"

Hold it! "Did you say telepathy?"

"Oh, so you are paying attention. Good, I thought I was talkin' to myself. Yes, mind reading; not applicable to vampires or the undead of course, maybe hints of thoughts for other supernatural creatures like elves, witches or were shifters, but humans? Most definitely."

Holy. Shit.

He blinked several times absorbing the magnitude of this earth-shattering information. It all clicked. How she knew about the raids before they happened. The drug dealers in the basement - she had either heard them from upstairs or maybe from the head of whoever staff was in charge of feeding them that day. Olivia knew the Anubis pilot was sabotaging the plane. She found out where Godric was in a matter of hours of being with the Newlins. She knew instantly he had wiped Portia's memory-

Eric retrieved a thick bundle of cash out of his jacket pocket and chucked Dr. Ludwig's second half of her payment into the doctor's bag. "That would be all, thank you, Patricia."

"It's Dr. Ludwig to you!" She scowled in the dark, her voice echoed down the tunnel. "And I will charge you more if you make me use this creepy entrance again! I'm a dwarf, not a sewer rat!"

But he paid no mind to the dwarf doctor. He was consumed by something else entirely. Eric made his way upstairs so quickly he couldn't even tell if he locked and concealed the chamber door. Suddenly he was standing in his office's doorway again, looking at his accountant. Took her a second to realize he was standing there.

Right then Eric knew he had a choice to make. What to do next? What to say next? Confront her about her secret and make it known he would recruit her talents for his own use? Wait for an opportune moment when he needs to blackmail her into getting in line?

Should he just claim her right then and there - edict of protection be damned?

She straightened her back and looked serenely at him with her perfect brown eyes. "What's wrong?"

Olivia Carson was possibly the very last of her kind, just like Eric Northman was the last of his. He knew he had done nothing good in this world for karma to put her on his path, and done even less to earn her.

It wasn't until then that it dawned on him the real possibility that he may be ordered to kill her. Would he drain her to death? Would he simply snap her neck? He pictured Olivia's life draining from her beautiful eyes, which looked at him so curiously. He knew there would be dire consequences if he disobeyed. He would have to answer to higher powers, probably much higher than he could imagine. Would he give up everything to save her? The club? The whole empire they had built?

"Wanna get out of here?"

A.N:

Hello bonjooouurrr

HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS! ERIC KNOWS! AND OLIVIA DOESN'T KNOW HE KNOWS! DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW HUGE THIS IS?!

Oh my goodness I've been writing like a madwoman. I have the next 3 chapters on the go (none completed) and I'm obsessed! As always, drop some love in the comments! Also I've gotten a huge spike in new readers, so I just wanna say HELLO Y'ALL and thanks for reading!

xoxox until next time