AN: Thank you for a wonderful feedback and big thanks for keiman and kei for fixing my mistakes.
Enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN TRUE BLOOD OR SVM. MOST CHARACTERS WON'T BE MINE. THEY BELONG TO HBO AND CHARLAINE HARRIS
Chapter 13
You Messed With the Wrong Vampire
GPOV
Fellowship of the Sun was something more than just a bunch of religious zealots. Now, watching six guards with guns patrolling their perimeter, I realized that the organization was mere inches from turning into an extremist movement.
I could not believe that I had allowed these sickening fanatics to gain this much strength right under/in front of my own nose. Surely there had been signs of their actions and either I had been completely blind or completely unconcerned about all of this. I did not know which option was more shameful.
Sookie was right about human and vampire prisoners. I could smell four human women and one man, all of them injured and sexually abused. Eleven vampires were imprisoned in the basement and they were immobile, probably too weak to move because of the blood losses and silver poisonings.
A small sparrow landed at my feet and a moment later morphed into a man. Keith stretched his body and groaned. He was one of a very few true shifters living in my area and he owed me. Tonight, he got the chance to repay his debt.
"I hate turning into small animals…" murmured the shifter and he raised both arms above his head, causing his joints to crack.
"What have you seen?" I asked and he immediately stood up straight.
"As you predicted, there are five imprisoned humans upstairs. They are guarded by three more humans with handguns and six are walking outside with machine guns. I will not swear on my life but I suspect that the guns are loaded with silver bullets. They all have stakes hidden in their pockets." I nodded to him, signaling that I am ready to hear more. "The doors to the basement are closed. Sorry sheriff."
"It is fine. You did well, thank you for your assistance."
Keith only shook his head. "My pleasure. I hope you will kill these assholes. My folk are talking about our own reveal. I don't wanna be treated like a subhuman by those zealots."
With his speech finished, he fell on the ground and turned into a German Shepherd. He barked quietly and ran into the night. I had not expected him to stay and fight with us.
"Please, sheriff," whispered Stan, drawing my attention from Keith back to my nest. "Tell me we are going to rip all of them to shreds."
I had to smirk at the bloodlust that I heard in his voice. Twenty vampires that were surrounding me were in the same moods. "I won't lie, I am not fond of the thought of killing anyone." All of them groaned in unison and I smiled broadly. "But I think these humans have given us no other choice." Happy growls and hisses sounded me. "You will not kill them right here and now though. Feel free to show them our true vampire strength but do not kill any of them. Our main goal is to destroy the whole Fellowship, not merely to drain a few pawns. Understood?" My underlings nodded, their enthusiasm was now slightly weaker. "We are sure that there are no obstacles impeding our entry. The warehouse is the property of a company, not a private owner. I remind you that there are five humans in the cell in the southeastern corner of the building. Do not harm them! They have been imprisoned and hurt because they are our friends." Again, they murmured their understanding.
"What will we do next?" asked Isabel, taking a hesitant step forward. Since her nest mates had found out that her human worked for the Fellowship, they have become less than friendly towards her. It was one more thing I had to work on. They all wanted her to be punished and I had the right punishment for her in mind.
"We will pay a visit to Mr. and Mrs. Newlin."
I knew that all of them were confused by this statement but they did not question me further. I divided my people into smaller groups and assigned each of them to a different task. Stan, who was one of the very few vampires with the ability to fly, was sent to destroy the building's energy source. I knew that humans are afraid of darkness. Their sense of sight was very weak in the dark and that would be a huge advantage for us.
When the outside lights shimmered and had been dimmed, I nodded to Isabel and five others to attack. Their assignment was simple – each vampire was to sneak up on one human guard and choke him or her enough to cause them to lose consciousness. They knew better than to make any noise. I closed my eyes to focus on the movements happening down there and I was counting down the guards that had fallen. Three were already down. Four. The fifth put up a fight momentarily, stabbing Cordell with a silver dagger. This young vampire wasn't known for his patience and the next sound I heard was the soft crack of a neck being broken. So much for not killing anyone. The sixth guard fell during his run towards the warehouse. He was trying to use a walkie-talkie to inform his comrades about the trouble but Isabel easily caught up with him and besides choking him, she also broke his arm. I could let it slide as long as he remained quiet.
I did not allow my people to just run into the warehouse right away. If Steve Newlin had half a brain, he had surely considered the fact that his hiding hole would be found eventually. I ran first and using my ability to fly, I landed on the roof. A few canisters that I first took for part of the air conditioning units, were in fact full of water with silver filings. No doubt connected to the sprinklers.
"Wait there!" I said loud enough for my vampires to hear and they immediately froze. "Stan."
The Texan was next to me in a matter of seconds. "Motherfuckers!" he hissed when he caught the scent of silver.
"Would you mind helping me to disarm those little traps?"
"Not at all…"
We worked a few minutes on disconnecting wires and putting a water pump out of action. Hopefully, we had done everything right. In the building below us, three remaining Fellowship's men were getting agitated and one of them was trying to reach an outside guard by using a radio. This was the last moment we could use to our own advantage.
"On my signal." I ordered and then nodded to Stan who helped me to punch a hole in the roof. We easily tore a piece of the metal construction loose, drawing the humans' attention to us. Fellowship soldiers raised their guns and pointed them up but before they were able to so much as pull a trigger, all Hell broke loose.
Vampires emerged from every possible entrance and the earsplitting noise confused humans even further. They shot a couple of times, but in the darkness, they were unable to hit anyone. It was almost too easy. In the dark, I saw one of them reaching for a fire alarm and I smiled at the wave of panic that I smelled from him when the sprinklers didn't work. I jumped down and walked over to the man who was still yanking a lever and cursing. He was surrounded and my vampires were openly laughing at his antics.
"It won't work." I informed him calmly and the man reached for a stake he had hooked on his belt. He raised it and pointed it in my direction with a smile that and crooked into a snarl. "Put it down. You are making a fool of yourself."
The human swept his wild gaze all over the room and did the exact opposite of what I had asked him to do. He charged right at me. I knocked him down with a kick in his stomach, causing more damage than I had previously intended. I felt my patience running low and that long forgotten beast was coming to the surface. It scared me but I still wanted blood. I was dreaming of ripping open the neck of my enemy like I used to do in the old days. It took all of my willpower not to just jump on the man and kill him right away.
"Collect them." I ordered instead and Stan was more than happy to drag a young man outside.
"What will we do with them, Sheriff?" Isabel pointed at the five humans watching us from the cage similar to the one I had once been trapped in at the Fellowship's church.
"Take them outside. Don't heal them."
"They are pretty battered…" argued Isabel but I turned to her and bared my fangs. She took a step back, visibly scared. It was not every day that I showed my fangs. "Yes, Sheriff," she murmured, lowering her gaze and walking away.
I needed to close my eyes and took a couple of deep calming breaths before I was able to continue. The first night was a big success. We were able to collect vampire sympathizers and vampires from the warehouse and did so with only one human being killed. The next part of my plan was a little more complicated.
The humans that we set free were more than happy to help us to destroy the Fellowship of the Sun. The most skilled in glamour vampires were working on them and on one Fellowship member, the one we had all identified as the weakest and the most innocent of them all.
Right now Stan, Isabel and myself were sitting in my office and listening to the conversations that were taking place at the police station. The listening device that we had installed in that Fellowship soldier's watch was proving to be very useful.
"So you say that you are working for the Fellowship of the Sun? You and a few others…" The police officer cleared his throat. "... so called Soldiers of the Sun, imprisoned these guys?"
"Yes."
Stan smiled at me but I did not take my eyes off the receiver. It was not yet time to relax.
"And then what? You just set them free? Why?" The officer was keeping his questioning to a harsh manner and this had me worried. He sounded almost disappointed. Isabel looked me right in the eyes and nodded. She had caught on to this as well.
"I could not live with myself after this. I wanna testify…" This boy was telling exactly what we had glamored into him. The truth was that it wouldn't matter if the case ended up in the court of justice… All we needed to do was to create a certain publicity for the Fellowship.
Crazy, ready to kill the innocent zealots - it's something that all of whole America is afraid of happening.
"I'll tell you something, son," said the officer and I felt myself leaning closer to the device. "I think you did all of this by yourself and now, you are trying to attract attention and you are accusing good Christian people!"
On the inside I was shaking with silent fury. On the outside though, I allowed myself only to take a deep breath and then stand up.
"Keep listening, Stan." I ordered and the Texan nodded grimly. "Isabel, come with me."
My vampires stood up and followed me without a word. When we had walked into the other room, I spent some time on closing the door and walking slowly over to a chair. She was watching me with a neutral expression that was about to change very fast when she hears my proposition.
"I know you blame yourself for not seeing Hugo's true colors." I told Isabel without any unnecessary admissions. She neither declined nor agreed but she lowered her gaze. "You heard what that police officer said. I have no doubt that either he's a Newlins' sympathizer or a vampire's opponent. We freed those humans and vampires and I am very pleased with our job but I did so to discredit Fellowship as well. It will be harder to accomplish that now than we had first expected. But…" I waited for her to raise her eyes towards mine. "… if the face of the whole movement could have changed his opinion about vampires…"
Isabel's eyes widened in shock. "Do you want to glamor Newlin to become a sympathizer? He hates us far too much. We cannot make humans to feel, only make them think that they feel something," she reminded me and I nodded.
"You are correct. Yet I believe there is a way to change his opinion about vampires. Like people say when you are in someone's shoes that you can change your point of view."
I gave her a moment to consider what I had just said. When she realized what I was implying, she couldn't hide her shock.
"You want to turn Newlin into a vampire?"
"Don't you think it's wise? He is the face and the main leader of this hatred movement."
"But if we simply turn him, his followers will accuse us of murder!" argued Isabel and I nodded. She was, of course, correct.
"You are right but if he disappeared for a few weeks and then reappeared as a vampire with a convenient cover story…" I added quietly. Isabel still looked shocked by my suggestion.
"Like what, Sheriff?"
"Well, people are very fragile. They can be easily hurt or catch a disease. If Mr. Newlin is to be diagnosed with a cancer, for instance, he may look for help in the most surprising places."
"That is risky. The Authority might punish you for this…" whispered Isabel.
I was watching her carefully and noticed the first sign of worry.
"Nan gave me permission to deal with the Fellowship in any way I choose. Whatever objections they might have, they will speak with me alone so don't worry about yourself."
Isabel inhaled sharply and moved a little further away from me. "Oh God, that's why I'm here. You want me to turn this disgusting man?!" She stood up quickly, upsetting her chair. I remained in my place but I growled quietly nonetheless. "No one has a right to expect something like this from a vampire, not even you! You were teaching me that the bond between a maker and a child is sacred. I would never have expected to hear something like this coming from you, Godric…It's just cruel!"
I allowed her to yell at me and slowly, Isabel was calming down. "I have done worse things in my existence, young one." I stood up from my place and walked closer towards my second. I took gentle hold of Isabel's chin and raised her head to look her in the eyes. "You know that I am asking this for your own sake too, Isabel. I am leaving and you will stay here alone. Your nest mates won't forgive you Hugo's betrayal…" Silent sobs shook her body and she leaned closer to me. I embraced her and kissed her hair gently, giving her some comfort. Isabel has been like a surrogate child to me for the last few decades. She has a good heart and even though what I was asking from her was bad, it was still better than having her killed.
"I know…" she whispered and I smelled blood tears in the air. "I loved him so much. I gave him my heart, my body and my blood. How could I be so naïve and so blind?"
"We both were. I should have been next to you and supporting you. I should have been wiser."
"You had your own struggle. I am glad you are better, Master. I am happy. Sookie Stackhouse and Eric will be good for you." I reached for my handkerchief and wiped the bloodstains from her face. Now, that she had allowed herself to show some weakness, some new resolve had appeared on her face. "I will do this," she said with power. "even if it's gonna be the last thing I ever do in my life, I will train this asshole into becoming a vampire that even you will not be ashamed of, my Master."
I chuckled, throwing a bloodied scrap of material into the trash bin. "Be careful, Isabel," I said lightly. "Steve Newlin isn't the sharpest knife in the box."
"Tool," she corrected me.
"Yes, of course. Just keep him away from the Fellowship for some time and make sure he will say what we need him to say."
"Yes, Sheriff." She stood up and bowed a little. "I will not fail again."
"Isabel…" She stopped in midstep. "Thank you. I am very sorry that I was forced into asking you to do this but…"
"Please, Sheriff. If you are going to drown yourself in self-pity again, I am leaving."
I nodded with a smile. "If you allow me, I will accompany you on tonight's assignment."
Three hours later, when we were able to sneak in on Steve Newlin and his wife, both of them were half conscious with fear. Sarah had been glamored into believing that her husband had flown abroad to meet with a doctor. If someone asks her, she will explain that Steve has been feeling bad for the last few weeks.
As for Mr. Newlin himself… He was trying to fight us and cursed and called for his God's help for over half an hour until Isabel punched him into unconsciousness.
"Well, I can see you are already metamorphosizing into the role of his Maker, Isabel." I told her humorously but she merely sighed.
"I don't know if I won't terminate him eventually."
"By all means…" I said, turning the van that I was driving in the direction of a small private airport. "But only after he will do what is needed to be done."
"Yes, Sheriff."
I felt myself smiling broadly. If the next parts of my plan turn out as good as they have so far, I will be back home with Eric and Sookie a lot sooner than I had expected.
AN: I was always curious of what happened with the Fellowship of the Sun when Steve has been turned into a vampire. Sarah said in season sixth that she lost everything and was humiliated so I assumed that the scenario "here is no Fellowship without Newlins" is quite possible. Fellowship is not the main subject of this story; Godric won't travel to Louisiana right away though.
Next time, a look at the situation in Bon Temps.
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Till next time!
