Chapter 5

They were safely inside the large manor house, Ezra slipping the switch on in the foyer to light up the living room. "Well, this has come long faster than I had thought but I think regardless, it is working out in our favor, do you not agree?"

"We left a dead body back at the house…..perhaps we should not have left her there." Johan said as he frowned at Ezra.

"You threw her hard, and besides, the woman has a reputation of being addle brained, what with the number her brain has taken from the real Eric and that vamp's friends….it will be chalked up to a drunken accident, did you not smell the booze on her?"

"I did…..but-"

"Have I ever led you astray? Do you not have a bewitched prize of your own as we speak?" Ezra nodded to the girl hanging on the arm of the vampire and as he looked at the almost sullen, zombie like state that Sookie was in, Ezra laughed right in her face, addressing the faerie vamp tauntingly. "Seems that your magic was not nearly enough to save you from this….this will be so much fun….." he turned back to address the doppelganger. "You and I have been working on this for some time. Now is not the time to question me or my plans. That waitress is not a threat and on the off chance that she were to find us, do you really think she could-'

"Ok, ok, you're right….she's as hopeless as we had researched her as being. But I would feel better if you'd let me go back and make sure that she's been offed." Johan said as he followed his boss into the furthest room in the hall, the most secure of all the chambers in the rather macabre basement of the gothic style manor. And with their prizes in tow, Ezra was certain, confident that even if they were found out, with the powers that they both possessed, those friends and family members would be disposed of easily. It was a confidence that could either make him look even more threatening of prove to be his downfall. But with the way things had gone thus far, Ezra was inclined to believe that there would be no stopping him now. And besides, even without the powers he was planning on duplicating into himself, he was powerful enough and could, if needed, command a magic he knew all vamps feared. That he was accomplished in necromancy was a added skill set he was fully prepared to use, if necessary.

They entered the dank yet clean room that so closely resembled a medieval dungeon, the room where there, in a cell of silver bars and bound by silver manacles on the concrete wall move a foot above the ground was the true Viking. And seeing the figures that had entered the softly lit room, the scent of blood still hanging in the air from the transfusion not too long ago, a new flare up of anger arose in his face. "What have you done to her?" Eric snapped as he saw that clearly, something seemed off about Sookie, who seemed unfazed at seeing his precarious situation. That there was not a trace of her warmth, her love there was unsettling. To say nothing of the still sleeping child that the warlock then placed gently on the bloodstained table where he had created the doppelganger. Though the plan had been explained to him, he was still having trouble believing what he was seeing, that things had spiraled out of control so fast, so smoothly.

"As I promised, neither are harmed and will remain as such. But as you also know, your time is nearly out. You have had a very, very long life and you did get to enjoy her for a little while. But now its time to give her to someone else…: Ezra said as he nodded towards the entranced faerie vamp, who seemed to care nothing for the fact that her child was in the hands of the warlock. "Aw….you look worried and a little pissed off….don't worry though, Johan here will see to it that your precious Sookie here is well cared for….and trained well to only ever do as he commands. Even if it means she were told to annihilate the loved ones that will undoubtedly come after her."

"You've turned her into some kind of robot…"

"I prefer to call it as being more….compliant. Because I know how powerful she is and this was the way I thought of that could keep her powers in check and to repay the one that is helping make this all possible. In a matter of hours, I will have all the power I have ever wanted, you will be nothing more than a memory-to some of us-and everyone will live happily….ever….after." Ezra grinned as he saw the reaction he was getting from the notoriously stoic Viking.

"Why….why any of this? To destroy lives? All in the name of power?" Eric was truing to remain as composes as he could but with the burning of the silver upon him and seeing his family helpless and ignorant of the trouble they were in, he was shaking as he spoke. "It's about power and power alone, isn't it? I've seen people who wanted power and control over people before and it never boded well for them…..and for a long time, I thought power was all I wanted. But I was wrong. You are on a dangerous path and I have always been a survivor-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I know your long life story. You were saved from a funeral pyre and then kept surviving calamity after calamity. From hep-v, to werewolves and to a mountaintop sunburn that nearly took you out….yeah, you have been a survivor to many things but frankly we don't have the time to go down memory lane. We need to look to the future-not yours, you don't have one-but it will certainly be a good and prosperous one for me and my little family here." Ezra said as he took the child and hugged her closer to him, taunting and teasing the trapped vampire, who was getting more agitated, more angered, trying his damndest to summon strength to at least get free of the silver manacles. Ignoring the cold laughter of his foes, it surprised even Eric when he pulled the chains from the wall, ripping out concrete as he did so. One by one, he managed to tear the manacles off his wrists and ankles and it was that fit of violence that drove him to attempt the silver bars of the cell next. But this obstacle was too much even for him, the pain when he touched the bars tearing through him unlike anything he had ever felt. "Laced with magic unlike anything you could ever imagine. You really thought I didn't know your stubbornness, your courage? So close yet so far…" taunted Ezra as he gestured for the vampire to follow him. "Leave her here for a few moments so he can say his goodbyes. Because within the next couple hours, at midnight, I will have the powers I have always wanted. Enjoy yourself won't you? I must prepare the little one for her moment in the sun. something her dear daddy can never have again, I fear."

Locking the door behind him, Ezra and the doppelganger left a mute Sookie staring dully ahead, unconcerned about anything. The smell of burning flesh from the wounds sustained by attempting to break the bars on the cells hung in the room and time was running out. "Come on, come back to me." there was a pleading in his voice that he had so rarely ever used in his life but seeing her in the way she was, it was breaking his long still heart. A heart that though dead was still full of life, of love. And he was not going to let his family be destroyed. He had lost enough family and suffered enough heartbreak over a thousand years and was not going to let some slimy warlock and a pale imitation of himself destroy the new life he had come to embrace. Saw her only blink a "Listen to me, Sookie, this isn't you, you are more powerful now than you've ever been in your life…..you can fight whatever magic has been used on you….I can't get out of here….I….just can't." angrily, he tried once more, in vain to break the bars but even his immense strength and power was tempered, almost completely negated by the silver and the magic within the bars. "You have to snap out of this if we are going to survive this." ignoring the pain he had once more put himself in with a second failed attempt at escaping the cell, he saw her blinking and he saw, for a brief moment, that there were tears there. Tears she was blinking back.

"I….want to do something, but I can't…its like I am a puppet on strings." she whispered. "When he tells me to kill you, I don't think I can stop myself…." she still looked expressionless though the tears were streaming down at a faster clip now.

"You. Need. To. Believe in yourself. I always have said that you needed to embrace what you were and now with what you've become…..our family is on the line here, Sookie and I have tried and tried to get out of here. That psychopath has made it impossible. Unless you can do something."

Though she felt heartbroken, she steeled herself, closing her eyes. But they flittered open as she and the prisoner realized, through the shared blood of their family, a bond that would never truly be broken, that there was a small but still dangerous cavalry outside the house. The question was, how far would they get, how far would Sookie let them get if she couldn't even fight off the tethers of magic keeping her as good as a prisoner as Eric was. Her body seemed to tense up again as the door opened and she saw the warlock in the doorway accompanied by his accomplice, dressed in a dark blue ceremonial robe, splattered with the blood that could only have come from one source, judging by the scent that Sookie and Eric got from him. Sure enough, the warlock pulled out a crystal vial from a pocket and dangled it teasingly before the two of them, Sookie once more in a somewhat catatonic state. "Looks like we have to move things a little faster than I had planned. Seems to be that more of your freakish family has decided to show up."

To Be Continued