Ghost in the Machine – True Blood
Christine sat on the porch late the next morning and watched the mailman deliver the mail to the neighborhood. "I could see everything." She whispered to Demise. The woman in her head was much more than a voice and it was going to be easier to remember she was Demise from here out. "My sense of touch was muted though."
"I had you wrapped in a protective layer, that's probably why it felt muted, it was a whole body glove." Demise explained and Christine remembered the slight shimmer as water ran up her arm, covering her. "I didn't want you getting hurt."
Christine stared quietly out at the road as a warm feeling of gratitude filled her. It had been scary, seeing those men and knowing they'd come for her and Pam, but Demise had just taken over and the other woman hadn't been scared at all. It was routine, easy, for her to stand up to a mob. It was impressive without the powers, but the weird 'glove' made it amazing. Demise really was supernatural.
"Did you see how fast Pam moved?" Christine asked shyly, as she remembered that.
"Oh don't worry, I'm sure she can move slow too." Demise teased her and Christine blushed once she realized what Demise was saying. The voice became gentler. "I didn't know you'd get a view of everything I did."
"You live like that all the time? That was what it is like for you, isn't it?" Christine frowned as she considered that. She still didn't understand why Demise would be okay with that.
"I'm not going to take over your life, and I don't know how to separate from you and not hurt you." Demise spoke softly. "It isn't your fault I'm here, and I rather like you." There was a pause, but Christine needed it. Demise put up with so much just to not hurt Christine and it was amazing.
"It's not so bad in here. You're living the life I always wanted. You make a living writing, you get to tour once in a while, but it isn't a lot. You do things to get out and get ideas for stories, you aren't locked in at the house all the time. My life wasn't really that great." Christine felt a pang of pain and sympathy. "Being a spy sounds glamorous, but it's not. I never got to stay anywhere long, I had to do things that made me sick far too often, and forget love, I couldn't take the time and I couldn't risk falling in love. To be in love would mean wanting to stay in one place, build a life, and too many lives depended on me not doing that. I couldn't even pick the people I wanted to be around, I had responsibilities."
"That sounds awful." Christine whispered.
"There were some good things about it, but my teacher knew, I didn't have the temperament for the job. She loved it, she thrived it in, but I endured, that's all I did. Travel is great when you have a home and people to come home too, but I didn't. I went from mission to mission and I never had a place to call my own." Demise even sounded sad, but that became more upbeat in a moment. "But now we could start dating, and you have a steady income doing a job that lets you travel if you want to, but doesn't require it. I don't have to save the world, I just need to protect my small part of it. I didn't really lose a lot of freedom becoming tied to you, because I wasn't free to live the life I wanted before. We could build that life and I think we'd both be happy."
"I envy my characters sometimes." Christine admitted softly. "They have such exciting lives, they make a difference, and you had that but you envy my life." It seemed so crazy, but in a way it was a perfect marriage. They both brought something to the table the other wanted. Standing up to the mob yesterday, feeling how unconcerned Demise was, that had been a dream of Christine's, to be competent in confrontation, able to stand up for herself and others she cared about. Pam was a vampire and yet Demise thought she could protect her, a vampire. Demise still had powers, like a superhero.
"But I never played the hero. I was the spy and that was something completely different. You don't realize it until you live it, but a spy has to refrain from being the hero far too often to protect their cover. You have to be willing to let some people get hurt or die to save the others. You never feel too noble doing that."
This was the most serious and personal talk they'd ever had. It's one they should have had, but Christine understood why Demise waited until Christine believed. The phone rang, interrupting them. Christine had to pull it out of her pocket and she didn't recognize the number, so she debated about answering, but Demise told her she should, because she was expecting call.
A southern, feminine voice, that she'd only heard briefly, but remembered was on the line. "Christine, I know you don't really know me from Eve, but I really think we need to talk."
"She likely heard a few things last night that alarmed her." Demise told her softly. "And her boyfriend is manipulating her and has been since the beginning. She can't read vampire minds, and he's using that against her. She might not listen, but she's right, we need to talk."
"When are you thinking?" Christine asked Sookie.
"Today, I'd really like to talk to you today. Your place or mine, it don't matter to me."
"She shouldn't have to drive after this talk. She's going to be upset." Demise told her and Christine understood, but she didn't like it. She got directions from Sookie and hung up.
"Why couldn't we talk on the phone?" Christine asked as she got up to get ready to go.
"She's a telepath and I think she knows she isn't going to like what she hears. I'd bet money she needs to try and see it in your mind, but it's in mine and she can't see that. Still, she was planning to verify we weren't lying." Demise paused. "I've seen telepaths balk once they realized the face to face meetings with me don't give them the edge their used to. This time though, I kind of wish I could verify for her. She's unlucky in love." Demise continued to explain as Christine continued to get ready to leave the house. "Her power doesn't turn off, so she never dated human men because she could read their minds and it was offputting. She met Bill, and she can't hear him. She thinks she fell in love naturally, and that he loves her too, but he was sent to her to try and procure her for the queen who had heard Sookie was a telepath. He shared his blood with her the night they met, but when a vampire gives you blood you'll have sex dreams about them. They will be able to sense where you are and your emotions. He only let her know it can heal humans, he never told her about the other parts."
"He used that insight to make her fall for him, didn't he?" Christine paused in brushing her hair, her grip tightening on the hairbrush.
"He'll probably claim he didn't turn her over yet, because he does love her, but he didn't admit what he'd done to make her love him. To me that screams liar and I think he's no better than the bastards that tried to drug and rape you. He took her virginity while she was under the influence of his blood and never told her what it would do." Demise's voice was cold. "Sookie can't date humans, she can't block her powers. His doing this might make her cross vampires off the list as well, and that would be a shame."
"And we're going to try and stop him right?" Christine grabbed her purse and the directions Sookie gave her to Bon Temps.
"He works with lies, we'll just tell the truth and let Sookie deal with it. He can't glamour her into forgetting."
Christine got in the car before talking out loud, so the neighbors didn't see her talking to herself. The one across the street was outside again. "Once we tell her, she'll be safe?"
"No, and she isn't going to like what it will take to keep her safe. She needs a protector and someone who knows how to play the political games she's been pulled into." Demise went quiet. "She isn't my problem Christine, I don't know that I want her to be my problem." Christine frowned at that attitude. "I'm not powerful enough to protect someone like Sookie. If I tried, I'd have to put you in danger. That's not a trade I'm willing to make. I always protect my people first, and others if I can. You are my people, I'll claim Pam as well. For Sookie I'm willing to give her the information she needs to be safe, but I'm not planning on doing more. I'm not willing to risk our lives for just anyone."
It seemed reasonable to Christine, giving Sookie the information was more than most would get, advanced warning of danger was very helpful. Christine was going to follow Demise's lead in this, because this was her expertise, but she really hoped that Sookie took the warnings seriously.
…..
Three hours later Christine sat awkwardly in an old country house as Sookie stared blankly out her front window, towards the nearest house to her place, which was still a good distance as this was a remote place, as far country as Christine had ever been. You couldn't even see your neighbor from the front porch.
Sookie wasn't taking the news Bill was a procurer for the Queen well. "How do you know?" Her voice was cold and it actually made Christine just a little scared. Sookie turned her eyes on Christine and stared at her hard. "You fade in and out. Why do you do that?"
"I'm just a little supernatural too." Christine admitted quietly, and Demise explained it was probably the telepathy they were fading in and out of as Demise had been giving advice through the entire conversation. Sookie's eyes narrowed as Demise spoke, making it seem like it was true. "I have a friendly possession going on, and she knows all this about Bill and you. I didn't know it."
"You expect me to believe you know this because you have a ghost in your head?" Sookie's voice rose a little.
"Why does everyone assume I'm a ghost? I'm alive." Demise muttered in her mind. Christine noticed that Sookie's glare got a bit harsher when she couldn't hear Demise thinking at Christine. "Shit, can I take over? I'm going to have to blast past her anger and the time delay between me telling you and you saying it won't help do that."
Christine lowered her head a little and tried to relax like the last time. After a moment she found herself looking back up into Sookie's surprised looking face, as Demise controlled the conversation. "First off, I am not a ghost. I haven't died, and it's pretty damned hard to kill me." Demise spoke with a hint of an angry clip. "You have your telepathy, your big hint you aren't just a typical human and you are probably a bit irritated right now that it's been useless to you and is being useless to you right now. I understand that would make you angry, but I'm the messenger and you will NOT shoot me because you've been played. Do you understand?"
"I'm sorry." Sookie apologized briefly. "Am I to assume you're the one possessing Christine? Why can't I hear you?"
"I'm immune to telepaths, always have been." Demise spoke up and Christine wondered how many telepaths Demise had seen to be able to say that with such confidence. Sookie looked a little startled herself, but Demise didn't let her ask a follow up question. "Okay, you have doubts. I don't know how to prove I would know things about you and your life without hurting you. Do you want the proof?"
"You're asking me to dump the only man I've ever been with."
"No, I'm not asking anything. I'm just warning you. If you want to stay with him, that's your business. It's possible he started to actually love you after he tricked you into taking his blood and promised to deliver you to the queen."
Sookie flinched as Demise showed little compassion while saying that. Christine would have been more hesitant to do that herself, so she was glad she wasn't the one talking at the moment.
"I can do it if you want me to." Demise spoke softer. "I can talk about the fact that your mother was afraid of your powers and you could hear that. I can talk about the fact that it was a freak occurrence that took your parents' lives and had Adele raising you." Demise's voice grew softer. "I can talk about how Hadley and you were abused by Adele's brother, and that Adele believed you and stopped it from happening again."
"Oh god." Sookie let out a shocked gasp and her eyes started to water as she stared at them, her face paling.
"The voices make it hard to think at times and your mental shields need so much work." Demise continued. "I'm not a telepath, but I've heard visualization exercises help. Learning to build walls in your mind help, and if you don't know how to build a real wall you should make one in real life so you can visualize. I saw a class of telepaths making a wall in the garden, just so they knew how to make a wall. The closest I'll ever have to daughter-in-laws were telepaths and they explained why the students were doing that."
"You've met a lot of telepaths?" Sookie spoke softly, sounding defeated and scared. She didn't acknowledge the information about her family, which Christine thought was too much to share like that. She felt horrible for Sookie and she understood why they were here now. For all Demise's talk about not wanting to get involved in the drama around Sookie, it was hard not to want to help someone who life was beating down so hard. "I've never met another."
"I'm from a different reality. I was in a world filled with people with powers and lots of telepaths, but I had to leave and it's rarer here." There was a pause. "Do you believe me now?"
"Bill betrayed me, right from the start." Sookie seemed to collapse onto the chair and tears started to fall. "For my powers, my curse. How did they even know?"
"Hadley is dating the queen. She didn't mean to tell her about you, but how many good stories about her childhood does she have?" Christine was a bit shocked at how unlucky that was. "There is so much I could tell you, but at what point is it just hurting you and not doing anything to help?"
"How do you know all this?" Sookie stared up in shock.
"Let's just say I can look into the worlds I go into before I leap, and the world I saw centered on you, so I learned a lot about you."
"Is that why you're here?"
Christine felt her body grin. "No, I'm here because I wanted to meet Pam, and Christine needed a vampire consultant for her novel. I wasn't planning on getting involved with you. I don't like being called a liar, and I expected this talk to be even more difficult than it has been. It's just harder to see you and not want to spare you what that bastard is going to do to you. I fell into the middle of what I've seen and I don't even know when I am and what's already happened and what has yet to happen."
"I lost my gran to a serial killing bastard. I'm paying back a debt to Eric Northman by listening in at his club once a week. Right now there is an increased in V being distributed and he's looking for the guilty parties. Not as many vampires are missing as you'd think with how much V is out there."
"Have you met Godric?" Demise asked and Christine was confused, but Sookie just looked a little stunned.
"Yeah, I did. He decided to meet the sun."
"And you haven't met any of the kings or queens." Demise asked, and Christine could see it was important.
"No, I barely even heard they exist."
Demise sighed heavily. "Well, I think you'll be hearing about them more now. It should be about time for the politics to become a huge issue." Demise reached out and took Sookie's hand. "You need an ally to survive this. You can't just walk away, you've been targeted. I know, I KNOW you won't like this idea, but Erik Northman knows politics and could be helpful if he understood what you were facing. He doesn't like Bill, only tolerates the Queen because he has to, and if you look at how a vampire treats his progeny, you have a good idea of their character. If he sees you as a person, you could do far worse than him, because he treats Pam well."
"Is this a scheme of his to try and get to me?" Sookie's eyes flashed with anger, but Demise didn't let her pull away.
"I haven't talked to him at all about you. We spent what little time we talked to him trying to prove we're normal and he shouldn't pay too much attention to us. No, I'm telling you this, because in my sneak peak of this world Bill betrays you badly, but Erik picks up the pieces. You have to keep in mind, in power plays, the face you see isn't the real face. A vampire that acts genuine and nice, wouldn't live to be a thousand years old. One that people are afraid to cross lives longer. I'm sure all the older vampires have learned to be scary, just like you've learned to give that dopey grin when your shields are weak, so others don't know you're hearing everything."
"I really need to think about all this." Sookie told her after a moment.
"Fine, what you do is your business now. Just don't tell anyone about me, especially Bill. I don't want to be 'procured'." Demise glanced at the clock. "I need to get ready for a date with Pam anyhow. She finally knows there are two of us here and I'm hoping it's not too weird for her."
"Somehow I think she can handle weird." Sookie gave a weak smile.
"Uninvite him before too long, you don't need to worry about him getting in here while you're thinking." Demise picked up Christine's purse.
"Tell her she can call us." Christine thought hard and noticed the body freezing for just a moment.
"Feel free to call if you need to talk, but not too early. We don't have a 9 to 5 job and Christine sleeps in more now that we're dating a vampire."
"I understand." Sookie walked them to the door, so it wasn't until they got in the car that Demise spoke.
"I can hear you." She sounded a bit surprised. "Did you want to drive home, or just let me have the rest of the night?"
Christine wanted the control back, but guilt over that kept her from asking for it. Demise only took a few hours in the middle of the night and never got to go anywhere or do anything under her own power. Christine gave her the full night. She could get ready for her own date herself that way.