Chapter 27
I'd damaged my phone, but the feed from Freyda's court would be live by now. I should be able to see and hear the goings-on in her residence once I returned home. The eagerness must have been transparent because my father issued me a direct order.
"Bill is not safe," He said. "You will see to it that he is personally."
I nodded because I knew what he was doing as well as his motivation for it. There was no reason for me to be told to see to Bill's tending personally. He'd earned it for the role he'd played in saving our lives; it just hadn't occurred to me because I so desperately wanted to get to my lab. If I had given it a minute of attention, I would have had the presence of mind to assign the task. I hadn't, therefore; this was what I deserved for my oversight. Point to my father.
Bill owned and lived in a condo off the strip. By the time we arrived, the sun was up but the entire city was sleep. I secured Bill to the bed in his day chamber with silver cording lined with lead. This would keep him where he was while he healed. I then called Genie to have donated human blood delivered. It was blood that was rejected and not cleared for consumption, but barring Sino-Aids, it would nourish a vampire, and it was precisely what Bill needed.
I could have had Genie come here to do the transfusion, but the safety risk would be too high. Once Bill's healing began, and it would be almost immediate when he began receiving blood, there would be nothing left of the southern gentleman he displayed to the world at large. He would be as dangerous as a cornered, wounded animal, or a mindless predator, and he would kill having no control over himself. That wouldn't be until later. For now, I had to get home. I just had to see Eric again.
My fingers shook while I pulled up the feed on the screens of my lab. I looked into the home beyond the Royal court belonging to Freyda. My heart was thumping wildly in my chest knowing what I would find, though not knowing was more unbearable.
I forced myself to take down the schematics of the home. It was, after all, the purpose of this devious expedition. I made note of every square inch and every guard present. All the vampires were dead for the day. There would be no eavesdropping secrets to steal. I copied every password and rotation schedule I could gather as the daytime staff went about their duties. I played back the footage. I watched myself while I had the private meeting with Freyda after the wedding. I saw her place a call, most likely to whomever she had waiting to bomb my father's jet. I continued searching until I found the one person I cared most about and it was as though nothing was separating us but distance. There was no insidious Maker or …his new wife.
Eric looked as he always did when he wanted to be left alone. He was a in a room that didn't resemble him in the least. It was decorated in gold and purple, nothing at all resembling the bright colors that had made up our home in Shreveport. The amount of opulence wasn't something he cared for either. I could almost feel his craving to leave, but this was his room, his prison. There was no place for him to go. There was no place for him to just lay his head and be at ease.
In the footage he was still in the shirt and pants he'd worn with his tux. His sleeves were rolled up, and he sat on a winged loveseat with his eyes fixed on the window. I watched him and the question left my lips and more tears ran down my face. I hated him for making me cry, but I loved him for all the times he had held me as I did.
"What are you doing, baby?" I asked.
I was desperately staring at the screen with blazing intensity hoping it would reveal secrets to me. I knew I had threatened Eric with the princess I was raised to be. Angry as I'd been, I was so certain that ruthless part of me would grant him no pardon for his actions, but it had. In all the plans I had and the complex steps it took to bring them forth, hurting him wasn't possible. I saw his face, and such as it was all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball with the image of him and weep.
How was it that I could think ten steps ahead of any opponent, yet when it came to the man I loved, the man I knew more intimately than myself, I couldn't imagine what was driving him. He wanted to save his Maker from his ex-wife, but wasn't there any other way? I was logical. I could pretend at least, just to be with him.
Eric could have told Ocella that I was more than human and a Princess no less. It would make me look a hell of a lot more attractive than Freyda in the grand scheme of things. Even if he didn't like me, he would fear my father at the very least; he would still see a way into a royal court. Emulating prestige and status was important to that Roman deadbeat, I knew that much. So why didn't Eric work that angle with him? He knew Ocella well enough to do it. If Eric had done that, maybe none of this would have happened, but he hadn't. Why?
I felt as if there was something major that I was missing. The most logical reason would be that Eric didn't think it wise. It was equally possible that he didn't think I would go for it, and then I would see Ocella as the threat he was and kill him; or it could have been that he didn't think it would make a difference. Ocella was beyond caring about the benefits of Eric remaining with me. I had attacked him. I had almost ended him. Perhaps this could have just been a way to punish Eric and hurt me. No, that was the least plausible. No vampire was that petty.
No. I wasn't sure, but there was an explanation for the reason my ex-husband had taken us both on this painful journey, and it was because he had decided Ocella was worth the pain. He didn't want to sacrifice his Maker for me. That answer that had seemed so plausible didn't fit once in this light. Did it really matter? No, it didn't. I had my plans. By the time I figured out his motivations, Eric would be returned to me. Then he could look me in the eyes to explain why and how he could do this to me, to us.
I continued to watch the footage though Eric never moved, yet he seemed to get tired at the same time. My fingers itched to touch him, to wash away the coldness in his eyes. The door opened and Ocella dragged in a frenzied Alexei. The Roman was sporting a broken nose obviously caused by his charge.
"Keep him still," He ordered.
I wasn't sure if it was an edict or not. In any case, Eric arose from his place on the chair where he had at least been pretending to be at peace and complied. It took the use of his telekinesis but he was able to subdue Alexei. There was no emotion on his face, but his words were uncensored.
"His mind is broken," Eric advised. "If you have any care for him at all, you will ease his passing."
"I gave him eternity. He will not abandon it without my permission," Ocella hissed. "Before me he was nothing, just as you were."
Ocella really was a demented and sadistic bastard. What was Eric before he came along? The Viking warrior son of a Chief, that's what. Alexei was the youngest Tsar in Russian history, and this vile creature was trying to take credit for both! I had pegged him right that first time, but even I didn't know all the ways. He really was a lowlife. I don't know who had turned him, but I knew that he lived for this. Ocella wanted to be a part of that upper echelon he had no hope, nor opportunity to be a part of during his life or his undead existence.
I continued to watch while Ocella sliced his wrist with one of his long finger nails and moved the open wound over the child's mouth. Alexei drank and, with every hungry gulp, his body ceased its fight as he became more susceptible to the edicts of his Maker, but his eyes never lost their deranged stare. They just glazed over while he gorged himself.
Once Alexei became more compliant, Eric released him. Ocella smiled a crooked smile that was filled with more than a little lust. Watching Eric be party to this was more than disappointing, it was traumatic. In that moment, I finally began to accept that he was stuck in a situation that I would never fully comprehend.
As I sat there taking in all of these scenes, it struck me that this was the same man who had talked with me about us adopting and raising children, yet he sat idly by while one was violated by his precious Maker! It was more than that. That boy wasn't just too dangerous to be allowed to live; he wanted to die, but he was forced to continue. I knew that for Ocella, Eric would justify Alexei's suffering just as I had, but it wasn't enough anymore.
This, what was happening to all of us because of Ocella, was madness. It had to be stopped because it was infecting me even from this distance. It literally felt as if I was turning into a different person, one who was always in varying degrees of pain. It was making me crazy.
I hated Eric a little, at least I think I did, at the very least I wanted to. The scorned female in me could acknowledge that, but not even that cold, hard fact could negate the bond between us. I hated myself for the weakness more than I could ever hate him. I couldn't break that tie, but for me, so what other choice was there? He was my Mate and I was His.
I couldn't hurt Eric even if I wanted to; even if I thought he deserved it. I wrestled with my doubts and fears, but still I had no clear cut answer. Not even after Ocella left with Alexei did I find an answer. I was just glad that Eric was alone again because alone was how I knew he wanted to stay. Fast forwarding left me with nothing good to watch. This was all I had of us at the moment. I watched him as he resumed watching the fast waning light of the moon.
"Maybe she is watching if not listening," Eric murmured quite suddenly.
I froze. If he knew, he would have to tell and my advantage would be lost. I knew the risk, but I hung on every word because they were for me, and then I had to curse the design of the bugs. I couldn't speak to him, this was the only chance, and it had passed me by hours ago. Damn!
"If she is, if I could talk to my Mate…" He said the words as if testing whether or not he could continue. He could and he did. What I heard broke the little pieces left of me. "I would tell her that she needs to let me go," He whispered. "I would tell her that I know surrender is not the philosophy upon which she was raised and that she would accept death before dishonor but her fight for her husband… It is over. I would beg her to abandon me because it will kill her if she does not."
"Then I'll die," I said, touching his face. "I would die for you."
It was only on screen, but it made me feel as if he was mine again. The door to his room suddenly opened and I saw Freyda. I knew immediately, without a doubt, that no matter what I had thought about what was to come, there was no way I could see it. She was dressed in a floor-length, silky robe and not much else. I was literally, physically incapable of moving. I couldn't watch her climb atop my husband. I couldn't watch as his Maker's command forced him to do… I couldn't watch but I couldn't look away either.
For once I wasn't crying because of Eric; I was crying for him. It was one thing to know that a creature as powerful as him had been reduced to this, nothing more than a puppet, a slave. I knew it, but it… to know that he didn't want her hands on him yet there was nothing he could do… It killed me, and for the millionth time I had to ask myself, why he was doing this for Ocella? No one was worth this, not even me.
Freyda walked over to him and sat beside him. It wasn't close enough to touch, but for vampires, she was violating his personal space by a very wide margin. I gripped my desk so hard it splintered and the shards cut into my fingers. Blood dripped from the wounds and down to the floor. I barely felt it.
"Elevated stress patterns and blood matching Princess Sookie have been detected," FIN said, projecting his hologram next to me.
On the screen closest to me, I could see my vitals and what was normal and what I was trending at the moment. My heart beat was off the charts. I growled. Half the features FIN had, he used to annoy me. Well, that wasn't exactly true.
When I was given this lab, I was child. Genius though I was, I'd had accidents. I had singed my eyebrows and set fires so many times I had lost count. This was why one of the main features my father had insisted I add to FIN was safety so at least someone was watching over me when I was held up in my lab for hours on end.
"Emergency protocol initiated," FIN said. "Help is on the way."
The last thing I needed was for my brother to come bursting through those doors because FIN had sent an alarm. "FIN," I called.
"Princess,"
"Deactivate emergency protocol, authentication code, 'Can't touch this'," I snapped, letting go of the desk.
"Command confirmed. Emergency protocol deactivated."
I used my sweater to mop the blood but I didn't as much as blink from the nightmare I was watching.
"Your time with me could be as pleasurable as you are willing to make it," Freya said to Eric. If I didn't know better I would say that she may have been trying to entice him, as if.
"I am aware," He replied.
"Then tell me what purpose do you think your continued defiance serves?" she ordered.
I was watching this hours after it happened. So maybe the smugness I could see on her face was brought on by the fact that she thought she had won with her sloppy and hasty preemptive strike.
"This isn't defiance," he told her quite calmly. "This is fear."
Freyda inched closer and combed her fingers through his hair just because she knew she could. There was a coy smile on her face. She knew she owned him.
"Obey me and you have no need to fear me."
Eric looked at her and I knew that look. It was so open, sincere, and it called all kinds of stupid. Then he laughed. It was an honest to goodness chuckle that was as real as any he had ever shared with me. It warmed me and made me smile just to hear it.
"I am afraid of Sookie," He said. "I have always been afraid of that woman and you should be too."
I saw it again; that slight change in the eye color of the Queen when her anger flared. She straddled Eric and wrapped a hand around his throat.
"I grow weary of your attachment to that mutt!" she hissed coming nose to nose with him. "I am your wife, your Queen. You will show respect."
Eric wrapped his arms around her waist. I wasn't the only who was shocked. Freyda stilled, but then she leaned in closer to him and let go of his neck. Her hands moved to drape around his neck. If not for the dead look in his eyes his pose might be mistaken for intimate.
"You are my wife, my current Queen, and I pity you that more than you will ever know. What is more unfortunate is that you do not have the sense to fear what has been unleashed. Sookie is going to hurt you, so very badly. Nothing in this world can save you, my Maker, or me. We are all going to burn for the way we wronged her and she will set the flame to our pyre."
Eric dropped one hand but before he could the other, Freyda reached for it and kept it around her waist.
"I have powers that you cannot imagine," She said.
She brought his free hand back around her waist and when she was sure he would leave it there she showed him, us, her secret weapon. Freyda's eyes went dark and I could see that her power was making Eric uneasy, but he didn't flinch. It was more than I could say. I was anxious for him because there was something wrong about her.
I watched with mounting anxiety. Freyda ran both palms over her face, continuing over her full length of hair. When she was finished she was wearing my face, and her hair was blonde like mine. I almost fell out of my seat. I was a human-Fae-vampire hybrid. I mean, my very physiological makeup was an inherent contradiction, so I always had an open mind, but what was this… Freyda was a witch! How was that even possible?
One of my best friends was a witch so I knew how powerful she had to be in order to able to do something of that magnitude. Transfigurations were a mark of a Cardinal witch. Amelia was a Cardinal, but I didn't think even she could make it look this easy or steal faces. It all made sense then. Freyda wasn't even a hundred and fifty and she was a royal.
There was no doubt that she had been ruthless and cunning. Being a witch was what got her where she was. I could feel the flare of power while we had talked at her wedding. I had seen eyes vacillate from a bright emerald green to black. Vampires were creatures who were rooted in magic and a witch with enough power could indeed rule them. That was where my husband was. My jaw was close to hitting the floor; all the while, Eric looked as though he was watching paint dry.
"I can protect you and I will. All I ask is your obedience," Freyda said and she had stolen my voice too. "Give that to me and I will make your time with me more than pleasant."
Eric never got a chance to answer. Freyda kissed him. I never got to see if he would reciprocate, if only out of self-preservation and loneliness. They sprang apart when Alexei came bursting back into the room. He was shirtless and had a broken bottle of blood in his hands. His top half was painted in blood and I could see that none of it was synthetic. It was very clear he was on a rampage. Of all the guards who were after him, Ocella was nowhere in sight. It was my hope that he had ended that bastard, but I knew I wasn't that lucky. Just to be sure, I checked the estate and sure enough, Ocella was on the wrong side of the veil covered in blood and naked but still very much undead. It was just as well. I wanted to do the deed with my own two hands.