A/N: Thanks to all my readers. The reviews are awesome and I read every one. I've never had so many reviews before on any of my stories, so I continue to be deeply motivated to get more chapters out there faster. Thank you again! Renee
Paradise Within…Happier Far
Chapter 16
We sing with sad hearts this song...For
our hearts have been saddened ever since
the tidings came…The pillars between worlds…
Mythic tales were told us by a strange and
weary wanderer…His tales were as alive as
if he had seen the wars he told us of…
The downfall of ancient majesties he told us
of…And even the pillars between worlds
that he told us of…
Between worlds, he said. That man weary
and saddened…his sorrow must be great for
his eyes screamed with a grief alike no
black grief we have been burdened with
…None of us could bear to look into to
his pain-filled eyes for long…
Pillars…A gate to other worlds…Perchance
to a free and kinder world? Perchance our
souls should be destroyed did we enter?
But alas! We cannot wander so far…A hard
journey and many would die of fatigue or
the biting cold of the north…We also fear
the war hammers of the mountain-men would
smite down many or all of us...
I must wander again, said the weary man
who's eyes looked so much older than
himself…As if he had seen the dawn of
time and the fall of ancient kingdoms…
Be glad for your souls…Think no more of
the pillars between worlds…Be glad for
your souls...
Pillars Between Worlds, Motley Crue (based on a tribal folktale)
Eric laughed as he closed the double mahogany doors to the sitting room. He could hear the pajama party upstairs. It sounded like a pillow fight between all the kids and Sookie, their wild giggles and laughter filling the house, at least to his ears. He smiled and turned to his three sons who vaguely heard the laughter of the children and smiled indulgently as well. Each man sat in the large worn leather chairs and had their favorite drink in a crystal glass along one of their beloved cigars. Idona only allowed the cigar smoking on special occasions when the children were not around or when Eric was home. She complained that not only was it bad for them, but it also took days to air the room out afterwards.
They all sat in companionable silence enjoying their drinks and cigars before the oldest, Dyre finally broke it.
"Eric, what are your plans moving forward? You have many business interests in the US, as well as heavy interests here in the Northlands. Now that vampires are recognized in the US are you planning on staying there or moving home?"
"Dyre, at this point I have no plans to change anything. It is not exactly safe for vampires in the US, but we are gaining ground and representation. The vampire political structure is complicated and unlikely to become less so now that we are recognized. I may or may not become more involved. Right now, I report directly to the Queen of Louisiana. It is a prestigious position but requires much of my time. If the Queen were to fall, then the power structure for the entire country could be affected. I would have to make some significant choices."
Alfrigg asked, "And what of Sookie? What are your plans regarding her?" Alfrigg asked out of innocence, but Eric could not help but notice Aesir's and Dyre's interest peaked as well.
"Sookie is mine. She will remain so." Eric was intentionally vague in his answer. He felt no need to share about their bond and its importance to them both.
Aesir responded in disdain. "You make her sound like your slave, Eric."
Eric stared coldly at Aesir, "Sookie is not my slave and you know it. Neither is she my concubine. We are mated. She shares my life, my wealth, and my bed. I dare say she concerns herself more with my life and my bed than with my wealth of which she is entirely disinterested."
Dyre laughed. "Eric, you have lived forever and a day. You cannot be so naïve as to believe that she has no interest in your money. All women are interested in money."
"Perhaps the greed your wife displays, or certainly your wife Aesir, has skewed your thinking of all women. Idona does not share their greed, and neither does Sookie. And Dyre, do not make the mistake of believing that I am in any way naïve when it comes to women or family. To believe so could be tragic."
The room fell silent at the subtle threat Eric had just issued. The three 'sons' squirmed in their chairs, while Eric sat perfectly still making the threat just seem that much more real.
Aesir spoke up finally. "Eric you can't believe that any of us would intend to harm Sookie, or you in any way. We have the utmost respect for you and hold you with the greatest of honor."
Eric's voice was deep and held a tightly reigned in anger. "Aesir, you and your wife have done nothing BUT disrespect me and my mate since we arrived. Dyre and Allura have been only slightly better. Do NOT mistake my unwillingness to act in the past as your ticket to disrespect or dishonor me or Sookie. I have not gone soft Aesir, as much as your wife may try to persuade you otherwise. If anything, I have become even more uncompromising than ever. I will not tolerate any further false niceties, impertinence, or lack of respect on any of your parts. I will hold you each accountable for your wives behavior. Do not act like I do not know what has been going on behind my back when you think I am unaware. I know exactly how each of you feels about me and about Sookie, and I will not tolerate it further. You and your wives continued insolence will force me to a level of aggression I had hoped I would never have to take with my family. Do not test me on this. My word should be enough but my actions will be final." During his entire speech, Eric had not twitched a muscle other than his mouth to talk. He continued to smoke his cigar and even took a drink as he made his kin aware of just how perilous their position was.
Alfrigg cleared his throat as if to speak, but Eric interrupted him, not taking his eyes off of Aesir. "Alfrigg, I know how devoted you and Idona are to our family and raising our children to honor and respect their All-Father. As the youngest son, that is a large burden I know, but one that I honor and respect you for taking on. I have no doubt of your admiration of me and your dedication to this family. This is obviously not necessarily true of your other two brothers."
Aesir and Dyre both started to argue with Eric that he was mistaken in his beliefs about them, but Eric stood to his full height and shouted "Enough!"
Silence filled the room. "I have said what I needed to say. Sookie and I will remain here for the rest of our intended stay. I expect you to either discipline your wives in the facts of life living here at Ragnar Castle, or you will be dismissed, permanently and your children will stay. I will not have further generations of our clan poisoned by this generation of kin. There will be no more discussion of this matter, either with me or among yourselves. Get your houses in order gentlemen or I will do it for you." With that, Eric turned to leave but held the door opened for his greatly subdued sons to leave before him.
When Eric entered his suite, he didn't find Sookie but instead was greeted with silence. An arrow of fear pierced his heart, until he realized she was probably still with the children. He wandered in the direction of the huge playroom where he had heard the loud pillow fight earlier. When he opened the door, he gave a slight but happy smile as he saw all the children sleeping in piles of pillows and sleeping bags. The movie they had been watching was on continuous play and he turned the DVD player and TV off. He glided gently over the children, and found Sookie surrounded by sleeping children. The room was a mess with feathers, cereal, popcorn, and spilled milk everywhere. He would clean the room in the morning after everyone was awake. He did not want Idona cleaning up the mess when she was seven months pregnant, especially when he thought that maybe Sookie might have instigated some of the trouble. He gently picked up Sookie out of the pile of children and her arms went sleepily around Eric's neck, softly calling his name in her sleep. He smiled indulgently at his somewhat delinquent lover and glided over the children and out of the room. In the hallway up to their room he was met by Idona.
Idona whispered to Eric, "Our girl is very tired Eric. You must let her rest. The children are so tired too they just crashed after their playtime and movie. It is very cute in there isn't it?"
"They are truly precious, Idona. You have done well by all the children. I will clean the mess up tomorrow after everyone is up. I don't want you to clean it up in your condition."
Idona laughed. "My dear Eric, you have been living in the United States too long. We have enough servants to cover that little disaster. There is no need for either of us to clean up the mess. I will have several people on it tomorrow morning."
Eric sighed. "Perhaps I have spent too much time away from the family homestead. While financially things seem to be going very well, I think only coming a few weeks a year does not serve our family. I believe I shall have to start spending more time here to monitor some of my sons."
"We would welcome you any time you wish to visit, or even for you to live here full time with Sookie. This generation of adults may have lost some of their respect and fear of you as the beginning of the family. Having you around more might help shift this mistaken perspective, Eric."
"Yes, Idona. I believe you are a very wise woman. Now, go to bed while I put Sookie to bed as well. I will try to keep her in our suites sleeping all day tomorrow. You are right, she is pale and I have taken too much from her. She needs to eat well and hardy and she needs to sleep. Good night Idona." Eric left her in the hallway and headed towards their rooms. Sookie had not even stirred while they whispered their conversation.
Eric did manage to keep Sookie in their suite and rest for a solid day. He gave her more of his blood, Idona and others brought food, and he gave her the vitamins she was supposed to be taking. Two days later, Sookie woke vomiting. She ran a fever and had chills. Everyone thought she had the flu or a stomach bug from being so run down. She had been going at 110% for weeks and was exhausted. It was no wonder she had fallen ill. Eric stayed with her all of the time, wiping her forehead and cleaning up after she was sick. Her fever stayed around 102 to 103. Eric was desperate. She seemed to be wasting away right before him. After she had been sick for two days and showed no sign of getting better, Eric insisted that they call for a doctor. The doctor arrived immediately and checked her over, his brow furrowed. He even scented her vomit, her breath, and drew some blood and urine.
"Eric, I do not believe this is the flu. I smell something else in her vomit and her breath. I have drawn some blood and will have tests run for poisons. I can do a urine analysis immediately to determine if there is anything there. I don't want to alarm you, but I believe this is much more serious than just the flu."
"I can taste her blood, doctor. I have not as she has been ill, I didn't want to weaken her further. But my taste will be able to tell us if there is indeed something different in her blood."
"I would encourage you to do just that. If indeed she has been poisoned, I will begin transfusions immediately as I am sure you can provide some as well. Once we know what the poison is, we will be able to counteract it hopefully."
Eric asked, terror in his voice. "Hopefully?"
"Some poisons cannot be treated, I'm afraid. Why don't you taste her now so we can start immediate treatment? If you taste anything strange, try to identify the flavor or scent. It may help us identify the poison."
Wasting no more time, Eric's fangs immediately extended and he pulled Sookie to him. He had never taken from her neck before, always trying to hide any marks. But the carotid artery was the easiest and quickest so he bit and drank a small amount. Sookie softly cried out at the pain and then fell back into her sleep.
"There is definitely something different in her blood, doctor. I taste a bitterness that has never been there before."
While Eric tasted her blood, the doctor ran a tox screen on her urine. It tested positive for arsenic.
"Eric, she has been definitely poisoned, it looks like arsenic. I'll begin transfusions and give her large amounts of garlic and a chelating agent to pull the arsenic out of the blood. We have caught it early enough, and she seems to be very strong. I think we will be able to counteract it. It would be a good idea to find out where she got it from. If it is an unintentional poisoning and is in the water or something like that, everyone could get sick."
"Trust me doctor, this is not unintentional. Get started with what you need to do. Once she has been transfused enough, I will give her some of my blood to offset the poison."
A day later, after some very close calls with Eric never leaving her side, and debating whether to turn her without her consent, she woke up. More than that, she sat up, looked around, and smiled at the frazzled looking Eric.
"Hey baby. I feel like I've been hit by a truck. What the hell happened?" Sookie said, her voice dry from lack of water. He hurried to her side, holding his hands on either side of her face, looking into her eyes.
"Sookie! Thank God!" He started kissing her all over her face, until she finally pushed him away.
"First, water or ice Eric. Then I want a shower and to brush my teeth really bad. And then you can tell me what happened."
"Sorry, lover, I was just so happy…here are some ice chips. You should probably wait on water or anything solid for a while. Maybe the doctor will let you have some clear broth, but I will make myself."
Sookie swallowed the small ice chips gratefully, and then looked at Eric carefully. "You will make me broth yourself? Why?"
He took her in his arms gently and held her, just thankful she was alive. "Someone tried to poison you. We caught it pretty quickly and were able to reverse the damage, but there were several close calls."
"And that is why you are going to make my broth. You still don't know who did it, not for sure."
"Yes. I have everyone in separate rooms until you could wake up and help find out who did this. And I need to give you some of my blood to help boost your strength."
"I feel great now, Eric. Except my body smells and so does my breath. Help me up so I can shower, then you can feed me, and then we will find who did this."
"Sookie, that is too much. I will help you to shower and I will feed you. But finding out who did this can wait another day."
Sookie was already getting out of bed, with Eric holding her up. She was chagrined that she was not as strong as she thought she was. "What if whoever did this to me, would try to either leave or hurt someone else? And what about the children? They have to know something is terribly wrong. This needs to be resolved quickly. And can you open a few windows in here? It smells bad. Yuck! Did all that nasty come from me?"
"Lover, you were sick. While we shower, I will have someone come and air out the room and change the sheets."
Sookie brushed her teeth twice before getting in the shower with Eric. He held her up while shampooing her hair twice (at her request) and washing her body completely. As always he loved her body and his body responded, but both knew she was in no shape for that indulgence. She did suggest that they feed in the shower. At least that would give them some respite on the sex side. He would not take blood from her but even her taking blood from him in his aroused state would be enough. They kissed long and slow as the water poured down their bodies, as held her up with her body pressed between the shower tiles and his hard body. Finally, she broke the kiss and with her own sharpened nail slit across his breast, bringing a moan to Eric's lips. She licked his blood first, being sure that her stomach would accept his gift. Without a doubt, her whole body responded to the taste of his blood and drank deeply from the wound. She felt his body jerk in response to her feeding from him which she did with great vigor, until he pulled her away for fear she would become sick from so much of such heady stuff.
He cleaned them both again, wiping his cream from her body and cleaning her face from the stickiness of the blood. He turned the water off, lifting her out of the shower and dried her as he had so often. He wrapped a towel low around his waist and then carried her back to their freshly made bed. The room was chilly with welcomed fresh air. He combed out her hair, thankful he got to do even such a mundane but loving task again. When he finished, she turned to him and combed his hair out as well.
She broke their silence with a sudden question. "Eric? If I have been so sick, who have you been feeding from?" She thought she almost heard jealousy in her voice, but thought she must be mistaken. She had been sick for days, he would have had to feed.
Eric laughed lightly. "I have fed from no one lover. You know I won't feed from my family and anyone's blood but yours is unacceptable, so I have been drinking True Blood."
"Of course. Good, I feel better now. It would have been hard to bear knowing you had gone elsewhere because I could not provide for you. What questions do you want me to ask when you bring people in for me to read? Are we going to talk to the men first or the women?"
"Sookie…"
"No Eric, let's just get this over with. I feel well enough to at least do three people. I'll know right away once I touch them."
Eric looked at Sookie, torn between both their needs to get this over with and her health. "Please Eric, let's do this for me, for you, for Idona who must be pulling her hair out having this happen under her own roof, and for the children. The sooner this is resolved the better for everyone."
"Idona is pulling her hair out, almost literally. She is beside herself and it isn't good for the baby. I will bring the men in first. I want to know if they knew of the plot to poison you. You should be able to find out if they a) knew of it and b) if so, did they actively participate. Both are equally as bad, but I want to know the extent of their involvement."
"Ok, bring them in." Eric thoughtfully closed the windows again against the chill and left the room, locking it so no one could get in to Sookie before he returned.
Ten minutes later he returned with Alfrigg, Aesir, and Dyre. All three men were nervous, even though Sookie doubted that all three men took part in the plot to kill her. She was unaware of what Eric had told them, but imagined he wasn't gentle about informing them what he was going to have them do.
There were some sincere and insincere greetings and happiness at her obvious improvement, even though none of them had seen her while she was ill. Eric would let no one other than the doctor enter the room.
Eric explained to each man what was going to happen. Sookie was a telepath and she was able to read their minds. The shock and surprise on each man's face was very real. Sookie would take each of their hands, one at a time, and ask a question. They were to answer it. She would know the truth.
Sookie could sense the men's feeling of violation so she put that to rest first. "I am able to shield myself from your thoughts. I have not been reading you or your families as much as I am able to shield. Some people are such loud 'senders' I can't help but hear their thoughts, but I try to avoid that as much as possible. You have had your privacy up to now. I'm sorry you are about to lose it in order to find out who tried to kill me." She turned to Eric, "Was it only two months ago Rene tried to kill me? I hope this isn't the start of a pattern."
Eric smiled lightly at her little jest, and led Alfrigg to her. Dyre and Aesir were shifting and twitching watching what was going on. They may or may not have been involved but clearly they felt nervous or guilty about something. Of course, Sookie thought to herself, everyone feels guilt about something.
TBC