Eric had been true to his word, and though I knew he'd have us in London by sundown, I was still surprised to wake up in the back of an Anubis coffin van, bump-bumping over the London Bridge to our hotel where the convention was being held. Eric was next to me, his coffin still closed, but his brain buzzing with his thoughts running even faster than he could. It wasn't often that I could tell exactly what was on his mind, just that there was something bothering him. He sensed me wake up, and his thoughts took to a much happier direction. Pam, who must have been on a sort of bunk above us, was also awake but still resting. My last few weeks had brought Pam and I together considerably, and I was starting to feel her emotions like I could feel Eric's, but not nearly at such an intensity. Though I had never drank from Pam, she had once drank from me after I was attacked by a Maenad, and she, Chow and Eric had to drain the poisons from my blood by pretty much just draining my blood. She still acted as though she hadn't wanted to do it, but we both knew better.
I could hear the van's driver chattering away in a very strong accent in front of us. Judging from his thoughts, we were very close to the hotel, and he was more than ready to be done with the three American vampires he held as cargo. He was thinking about the sleeping vampire abductions that had happened earlier in the week from the British branch of the Light of Day Institute. His friend had been clubbed over the head and had his van stolen. I sent out the biggest calming vibes I could muster, but they had no effect on his worries. I heard a turn signal click on, and felt a left turn in to the courtyard, and then felt the driver's relief as two undead hotel employees stood at the door, waiting to receive more of their own kind. The driver rolled down his window and handed over a paper. "Northman, party of three." He said, and one of the vampires opened up the back door of the van, and inspected the names and papers attached to our travel-coffins.
"I have a Ravenscroft, Pamela, a Stackhouse, Sookie, and a Northman Eric." Said the vampire, and the other vampire must have given him a signal that we were safe to unload. I heard them first slide Pam's coffin from the bunk above us, and lower her to the ground. They did the same with Eric's coffin, commenting that this one was quite a bit heavier, and then dragged mine out with a thump-thump, and I was on the ground. I fumbled with the latch and finally was able to open it, and I threw up the top of the coffin and bounced up, taking in the cold, wet, February London night.
"It's wonderful, isn't it Sookie?" Pam said, also taking in the night. I had another word for it, but I went with it. Pam was overjoyed to be home, even on a miserable night like this.
Eric was signing papers that the driver had offered him, declaring that he and his party had safely made it to the County Hall Marriot in London. "Did you girls sleep well?" he asked, examining the fine print before he gave his last signature. A human bellhop was collecting our bags, eyeing Pam's six bags and wondering if she was expecting guests. Since the bags were a matching Prada set, he assumed she was simply high maintenance. He was right. He also thought she had nice teeth, and that he'd like to maybe see them in action later. Sometimes being a telepath is just too much.
"Slept like the dead." I joked, and stepped out of my silver plastic coffin, grabbing my bags from the ground before another human bellhop grabbed them out of my hands.
"We'll take care of these, Mrs. Northman." He said, and clumsily arranged my bags and Eric's on a cart.
"It's Miss Stackhouse, but thank you." Eric let out a small chuckle at this, and then led the way inside. Pam followed, giving the bellhop that wanted her a once-over before deciding that she had bigger fish to fry in London.
Upon entering, a hotel employee handed each of us a key to our room, Eric and I were sharing a suite and Pam was two doors down, in an equally large and luxurious room in which she could "entertain" as Eric called it. I called it seducing and feeding from silly young boys that thought they could handle Pam Ravenscroft. We made our way upstairs, stopping at the richly decorated hotel lobby, floored with marble and buzzing with vampires. New staff was brought in to deal with the undead guests, as this was normally a strictly-living hotel, but the temporarily light-proofed windows on seven floors proved to be a profitable move for the Marriot. Many of the vampires looked like we did, jeans and jackets, in various stages of checking in and collecting maps of London. There was a group of five vampires on the other side of the lobby, speaking in a language I'd never heard before. There were four women and one man, he was short and bald with a strange collection of tattoos on his head, and he wore a light linen suit despite the nearly-freezing temperature. His women looked nearly all the same in their white, flowing dresses, long and straight black hair at an identical mid-back length, dark almond-shaped eyes and skin that had once been a deep olive. They were all heavily accessorized in gold jewelry in the shape of snakes.
"Egyptians." Eric whispered to me, and grabbed my hand and led me to the elevator. Pam followed thoughtlessly, and once the elevator doors had closed and we began our upward climb, Eric explained, "he was a Pharoe once. Ramses. Those are his favorite concubines, they were killed so that they may join him in the afterlife. He will expect you to know this of him if you are to meet him this week." I was already feeling a little overwhelmed by the trip over here and the beauty of what I had seen so far, but hearing that the man who had once ruled Egypt was downstairs at this very moment was a bit much.
By the time we had reached our rooms, our luggage had already made it up, as well as a complimentary bottle of Burgundy Royale and a list of blood donors complete with pictures that were available for room service, should we require something fresher. I began unpacking as Eric jumped on his Blackberry, texting at the speed of light. "Pam will take you out tonight, if that's all right. I've got some business to tend to."
"I'm happy to go with you," I started, but he stopped me.
"Thank you for offering, but it will only take an hour or so. I'll catch up with you and Pam." He kissed my hairline lightly before heading in to the hallway to call someone. I took this opportunity to change out of my jeans and turtleneck (luckily Eric had put some clothes on me before we were picked up for the flight) and put on some black pants and a deep red cashmere sweater. I had never been able to wear that color in life, but now that I had grown paler I rather enjoyed the contrast between the crimson and the crème of my skin. I slipped on a pair of high heeled black leather boots and zipped them up quickly, and then continued digging in my bag for my purse. I finally found it and looked in it, making sure I had all that I needed. My pocketbook, phone and lipstick were in there, as well as an envelope full of Sterling notes that Eric had left in there. I began counting, and got to just over 500 pounds before Pam banged on the door.
"Come in, I'm just going to throw on a little make-up and I'll be ready." I told Pam, and she plopped down on the bed. "So what are we doing first?" I asked, trying to hold steady enough to get my eyeliner on straight.
"I have something I need to do. I can just meet you at Harrods if you'd like." I didn't like Pam being so secretive, something was up with her.
"That's fine, I can go with you. I have no idea how to get around here anyway. I've never even left the States before!" She didn't respond, but just sat quietly.
After a minute or two, just as I was adding finishing touches and blotting my lipstick, she stood up and announced that she was going to call a cab and she'd be downstairs. Eric came in as Pam was leaving, and his arms slipped around my waist and pulled me to him. "What's up with Pam?" I asked, and he shrugged. He was tense, as if a piano were about to drop on his head at any second. "You sure I can't help with something?"
"No, my love. I'll come find you in a little while. I'm just waiting on a call first. Have fun with Pam." He put his lips to mine, and we shared a beautiful and tender kiss. "One hour. And then you're mine for the rest of the night." He promised, and with a quick slap to my behind, he herded me out the door and in to the hallway. I took the stairs down to the lobby and found Pam outside, perched regally in a horse-drawn carriage.
"I could have sworn I saw a real taxi a minute ago," I joked, and Pam cracked a small smile. I jumped in the carriage as gracefully as I could in my stiletto boots, and Pam threw her blanket over my legs. I leaned back as the driver pulled on the reins and the horse began forward, and Pam leaned back next to me, and leaned her head on my shoulder. She was very upset, and instead of asking why, I just let her stay there. It took nearly half an hour for the horse and carriage to reach the outskirts of London, and a dense fog was creeping in to the city as we were on our way out. The cold was bitter, but Pam's behavior worried me so I ignored the occasional icy drop of rain that hit my face.
"We're going to see my family." She finally said. Less than two minutes later, the horse stopped as we pulled up to a high metal gate that was closed and locked. Manor Park Cemetery was carved in to the gate, and Pam reached in to her purse and handed the driver a hundred pound note, and we stepped down in to the eerie London fog. The driver sped off into the night, and I found myself in the middle of what could have easily been a horror movie, with Pam and her gothic black skirts as the star. She stood at the gates, looking up at the sign and a minute later, we heard uneven footsteps and a key unlocking the padlock that held the gates closed. The doors creaked open slowly, and an old man with sparse hair, a tattered scarf and coat, and a few missing teeth stood there, beckoning us in to the graveyard.
"Good evening Miss Ravenscroft." He bowed down to Pam, and with his lantern he hobbled ahead of us, showing us the way to the Ravenscroft family vault. The graveyard was dense, with tall trees that wept over the dead and ivy that smothered the stones that broke open and dissolved the names that had once been people, erasing them from the earth as they disintegrated into the soil below us. Pam's dark skirts dragged lightly on the gravel as she followed the hump-backed sexton deep into the graves that had long been forgotten. We finally reached her family's vault, and the sexton retreated a few steps and Pam climbed the first stair. The Ravenscroft family had been beyond wealthy in Victorian England, and their vault reflected that. Gargoyles protected the bodies of the dead from creatures of the night, and Pam spoke to the sexton, her face to the vault.
"I'm going to need the keys." He fumbled with the tinkling keys and finally produced a long iron skeleton key, and Pam brushed the cobwebs from the lock and slowly opened the door inward, creaking at every inch it traveled and disturbing inches of dust. Pam stepped inside and after a minute, I decided to follow her. Inside, eighteen coffins sat waiting for her, each side lined three tall and three long. She brushed the dust off of the nearest coffin, smiling as she read. "Grandmother," she said softly. "She was wonderful. She had a silly little poodle that bit everyone's ankles and she pretended that we were lying when we complained."
"How did she die?" I asked softly, unsure of what else to say.
"Pneumonia. She took my little brother with her." She dusted off a small crypt next to her grandmothers, labeled Charles Ravenscroft. "He was my only brother. Can you imagine my poor father? Six girls and one boy, and having him die so young?" This was all news to me. "I was the oldest," Pam continued, dusting off the grave above her brother's. It read Lillian Howard Ravenscroft, 1812-1876. "My mother," Pam continued, and kept dusting off the graves, searching for names. Her smiled vanished as she came to an empty space in the vault, and she dashed outside, her peaceful mood growing angry. She picked up the old sexton by his tattered jacket and screamed into his face, "Where is Elizabeth?! Where is my sister?!"
The sexton stammered, "Miss Ravenscroft, I don't know. I'm just the night-guard." I ran up to the sexton and held him from behind, begging Pam to release him. He grew calmer in my grasp, and Pam finally released him. I softly lowered the old man to the ground and apologized. He hobbled away as quickly as he could move.
"She's not there. They're all there, Lydia, Mary, Rose, Charles, and Holly, but no Elizabeth."
"Maybe she was buried in her husband's family's vault." I suggested, but this did nothing to calm Pam's rage. "I'm sure there's a reason! They don't have a grave for you, either!"
"Because they thought I ran away." She said, a single tear running down her face. "Eric, after he turned me, made me leave them a note saying I'd run away to France. I couldn't go back." She dabbed at the tear with a black sleeve. "Father looked for me for months. I was only a few houses down, but I couldn't go home. I would have been killed. You see, Sookie, right before I was turned, Bram Stoker published Dracula and people were burning other people that they thought were vampires. Eric and I couldn't stay long, especially when others began looking for me."
I was speechless. All of Pam's life before I met her had been a mystery to me, and suddenly I knew about her family, her home, and how she had been made. "You poor thing, you didn't have a choice." I said, offering my hand, not knowing what else to do. She took it awkwardly.
"But I did, Sookie. I begged him for months to turn me. I'd read it in the book and I wanted to be like Mina Harker. I wanted to be dangerous. I wanted to be powerful. And he helped me. He freed me." She explained. This part, I believed. It shed a whole new light on the Pam I had grown to know and love, despite her quirks and selfishness.
"You're okay?" I finally spoke up after a moment's silence. She nodded, and pulled a mirror out of a bag, checking to make sure that her mascara had not been disturbed by her show of emotion.
"Oh for god's sake, Sookie, let's go shopping."