Pam had done well: I could have passed for Princess Grace's blonde bosomy sister. My make-up was flawless, the dress fit perfectly and the shoes were to die for. I pulled my skirt up a bit as Barry handed me a revolver that he had loaded with silver bullets for me and I stuck it in the holster that was strapped around my thigh. It was hardly comfortable, but I felt pretty powerful with it there so I quickly forgave the discomfort. "Remember- we have no idea if the silver bullet will work on Malia, but it will work on just about everyone else in there, so aim carefully. Throw the gun back to me to reload." Pam had two handguns strapped to her thighs and another in her purse; I had opted for the revolver and Molotov Cocktail of radioactive chemicals. I just liked the sound of Miss Stackhouse in the ballroom with the revolver and went from there. "The Kings and people should be finishing up in the next few minutes and then we're good to head down there. Remember to be on the lookout for Malia, Feds, the Fellowship and pretty much anyone who isn't sporting a set of fangs. We good here?" Barry finished and silently hoped Pam didn't require anything else of him.
"We could use an escort." I chirped in. Pam and I both stood up and a wobbled momentarily- there are some tall shoes. Barry opened up the door and put his arm out for me- Pam had already beaten him to the hallway.
"You look wonderful tonight Sookie. I know I'm not supposed to tell you that but since I've been thinking of Eric naked for two days, I figured I'd day something straight for once."
"Why thanks Barry. I just don't know what I'd do without Pam-" I said that part more than loud enough for her to hear, "it's not quite eight and they'll still be in the meeting, could we go get drinks first?" We stepped in to the hallways together and as the door closed I had the first funny feeling of the night.
Sookie! I heard a breathy voice call my name and if I didn't know any better I would have said it was Amelia's voice calling from under the bed. Before the door had a chance to close all the way I headed back in the room and traced the origin of the sound; the bracelet Amelia had given me had somehow fallen under the bed, and a subtle sparkle told me it was glad I found it. I reached my hand out to grab it and thought I saw it moved towards me for a split second. I grabbed it and went back out in to the hallway. I fiddled with it trying to wrap it around my wrist and get the clasp to work for me- Barry reached out and offered a hand. "You're really going to wear that thing, Sook?" Pam drawled dramatically. "It looks so…handmade." I hadn't realized 'handmade' was such a terrible thing until she had said it like that. Just then Barry's hand jerked back as it shocked him slightly. Pam saw this and chuckled under her breath. "On second thoughts," she said, "I think I like it." Barry went back to the bracelet and finished fastening it and then reached out his arm so that I could hang on to him in case of wobbly bits in the carpet. Pam could wear heels running down a gravel road but I wasn't quite there yet.
We took the elevator down in to the lobby, where dozens of other well dressed vampires had assembled while waiters danced between tables and standing groups carrying trays of champagne flutes, offering "Burgundy Royale? Burgundy Royale, Madame?" We wove our way in through the crowd as we saw some of Ramses' ladies and thought we would chat. There was one spokeswoman between them, a tall Egyptian woman dressed in flowing white robes and gold snakes named Inara.
"We are all very worried about tonight." She said, and the others nodded in unanimous agreement. "So many chances for things to go wrong." One standing slightly behind her reached down her thigh and shifted- I assumed she was also armed for tonight, but I questioned her ability to act under pressure. I secretly doubted my own as well. I followed another girl's eyes to Barry's jugular and sent him a silent warning. He responded that she had been doing that the whole trip.
"Sook, I need to check on something, I'll be right back." Pam said and turned on her heel, disappearing in to the crowd. She had picked a deep red dress that hugged her curves perfectly. The plunging neckline was only beaten by the non-existent back of the dress which had required a small amount of tape to keep things in order. She wore high black satin heels with subtle rhinestones on them and carried a black lace clutch. If that agent didn't make sure she made the cover of Vogue, I would see to it myself. I picked up on Eric for the first time tonight, he was doing what he loved best; hiding, stalking, hunting. I guessed he was outside the building circling as people, weres and vampires entered and handed over heavily decorated invitations bearing their names. Eric's state of mind was a favorite of mine; someone between thrill and bliss. I nodded occasionally as Inara voiced concerns ranging from who would be in attendance and whether they would introduce the vampires individually like they had done in the past or by areas because there were many more vampires in attendance than previous years. She also considered the fabric of the tablecloths, and whether they were Egyptian cotton or not. I followed the buzz from Eric's brain around, feeling for his location and mood and Barry listened around the room, but neither of us could find anything apart from the panic and frustration coming from the conference room in which the Feds were locked. Suddenly I felt Barry's thoughts shift towards the girl who had been inching closer and closer to his jugular and he turned to me quickly.
"Miss Stackhouse, I've forgotten the thing that Mr. Northman asked me to bring him. Would you mind coming with me to show me where it is?" I was more than happy to leave the girls, even for Barry's lame excuse for an exit. I once again placed my arm in his and we crossed the lobby and headed back behind the front desk to the stairs.
"Hold up Barry- I smell something." Barry tried to remember if he had put on deodorant this evening and decided he had. A small closet that was intended for hotel staff only was only a few feet ahead, and we headed that way. He looked for others and I looked for a way in- I slid my hotel key through the lock like I had seen Eric do with credit cards and was quite proud of myself when it worked. It was a surveillance room with an empty seat, a half-eaten doughnut and a spilled cup of coffee strewn across the desk. Whoever had been in here hadn't been gone long. I crouched down to the ground and groanded as my gun rode up and hit me in the thigh. The wires laying across the floor looked like they had been cut- wait- eaten. A spark or two flew in the few seconds that I had been down there and I was able to place the smell: battery acid and ozone. Malia.
"She's been here?" Barry asked as I left the room. I nodded as I got a message from Eric, telling me what I had found only seconds ago. I nodded and shut the door behind me. Pam must have joined in on the brainwaves; she was there after a few seconds.
"Let's split up- we'll find her faster." Pam said, checking her lipstick in a hall mirror. Flawless, as usual.
"I think that is quite possibly the worst idea ever." Barry butted in. "If Eric can't take her down by himself, the odds aren't exactly in our favor." Our conversation came to a screeching halt as a bellboy strode down the hallway and announced that the doors were now open and we were free to join the ball.
We headed over to the ballroom and found a large line had formed; each person or couple was being announced by first areas and then names as they walked before a small group of vampires all clad in black robes sitting on tall chairs behind a large podium. It was a little like the Supreme Court, but dead. Pam slowly grew calm as they announced the next people in and the line grew shorter. She rubbernecked around the room as they announced the McClelland Clan from Edinburg and the witches that accompanied them. The men wore the traditional kilts and tall knit socks and each escorted a woman in an off-white gown wearing the coordinating tartan draped around them delicately. Behind them stood a few beautifully dressed Japanese women in traditional gowns who were introduced moments later as the Fa family. Pam explained that their kimonos were wrapped the other way as customary for funerals, which was often the only way to tell a vampire in traditional ceremonies. The line shortened quickly and I found myself standing behind a group of four Welsh vampires and Dracula and three women that had flown in to accompany him. The Welsh vampires were announced and waltzed inside with a gentle sway and Dracula and his women stood between us and a maker-less entry. Dracula had, being the world's most infamous and terrifying vampire in the room, earned himself a less generic entrance.
"And Ladies and Gents, would you put your hands together for Transylvania's Count Vladamir Dracula and his three escorts!" Vampires everywhere seemed to be less than amused but clapped regardless, some of the Scots even had the decency to whistle. Pam and Barry, arm in arm stepped up to the entrance next and were announced as "Pamela Ravenscroft, area 5 of the Americas, and her…Barry" and I felt a large hand on my arm.
"She looks stunning, as usual. She's my second most-perfect creation." I placed my own hand over the one on my arm and looked up in to Eric's endless blue eyes. Those were two of his many perfect attributes, closely followed by his ability to make a dead girl blush. "Did you really think I would miss this?"
"You got pretty close." I smiled and we took our first steps in to the ballroom.
"Mr. Eric Northman and Miss Sookie Stackhouse, also of Area 5 of the Americas-" boomed around us and we found ourselves standing at the top of a marble staircase. Eric waved and quietly suggested I do the same and after watching the last of Pam's crimson lace descent, we began down the stairs. Violins played a beautifully sad song which I recognized from Eric's record collection. He had explained that is was from an old Swedish opera that did not translate in to today's languages. The vampires that had already made it in to the ballroom had seem to assemble in groups with similarly dressed vampires and were conversing quickly as we tend to do. I heard the cellos join in with their C-stringless friends and the melody grew sweeter, and I knew we were coming up on Eric's favorite part. More than once he had translated as best he could while this played across the house and we waltzed across the kitchen floor- we had spent weeks perfecting it so we could show the vampires of the world how it's done in Bon Temps. And then the entrance of the vampires of South Africa snapped us back to reality: we had a monster to slay.
"Don't worry about her mon chere, either she will come or she won't. But she won't be able to kill all of us." I thought about reminding him of a bomb filled with silver shrapnel that had gone off in Dallas, or the fact that the undead are highly flammable. He sensed my doubt but once again reassured me. "Just enjoy yourself. Dance. Mingle. Join me." He swept me off to the side as if part of the waltz, and we joined a group of tall, blonde vampires standing off to the side. Vikings. I was surprised to see so many beautiful people standing in one place. While I think the world of Eric, he was neither the tallest nor most handsome of the group. He introduced me to his old friends, Bergthor (meaning 'the spirit of Thor') and his wife Ida who was quite possibly the most beautiful woman the world had ever seen, Baldr (meaning 'prince') who explained that he and Eric had grown up only twenty miles away from each other and were both sons of nobility but never saw peace between their villages. He was accompanied by his twin sister, Valda, who he had turned after she had been sold as a slave to another village to pay for their father's gambling debts. Little did his father know, he had made a wager with Russell Edgington and it cost him his life and most of his village. She then introduced Yule, her cousin and Leif, her partner. And standing around me stood the only remains of the Vikings.
I felt another hand on mine and turned to see Pam pulling me another direction, reasoning "he'll talk to them all night. And you won't understand a word. Come and meet my people…" the train of her dress lead the way as we glided across the floor to see the English vampires, who were more numerous considering the location of the convention. Pam had not known any of these vampires during her human life but had hunted them down with Eric before they fled for life in New Orleans. They were polite but far less beautiful than the Vikings I had just met. She introduced me to the gems of the group, Mary Tudor (better known as Bloody Mary), William the Archer, and John Hall, the son-in-law of William Shakespeare. He had been a doctor in life and had great success with the use of his extra senses. I had been briefed on English history (with great emphasis on the Tudor reign) in preparation for tonight, and I was able to have a somewhat coherent conversation with Mary on her feelings towards the Scottish crown during her reign which she happened to think was no crown at all. Within a few minutes we had covered the atrocities of pop culture, the uselessness of the current monarchy and whether or not the bloke who played Harry Potter would make a nice vampire. It was decided that this matter would be discussed at a later date so that he may finish his time 'gallivanting around Broadway in the nude' as William so eloquently put it. I noticed that he had even worn his English longbow and after he caught me admiring, he explained the origin of the phrase 'fuck you' and how it came from this medieval death-machine.
I began to space as the small orchestra switched over to Tchaikovsky and a beautiful Russian vampire and her human companion began to dance. The balance between her power over him and his power over the dance was spectacular and much of the room stopped to stare, if only for a moment. Her large skirts glided with her in a perfect Viennese Waltz, the gentle lace barely sweeping the floor, the fabric in layers stopping just in time to move for the next twirl. Her hand on his back, his around her waist and it was very clear; it wasn't the balance of power that made this dance too perfect for words, it was the pure of love of the vampire for the man she could only love for a little while. Perhaps she could not turn him, perhaps she would not turn him, but they both understood that their time with each other would be tragically brief, but would define them both. I once knew a love like that and had been fortunate enough for it to become my forever. Eric stood across the floor on the other side of the music-box couple and reached out his hand, beckoning for me to cross the floor to meet him halfway. Not at all embarrassed to break the perfect moment of the Russian couple, Pam pulled William on to the floor with her and they joined in, seemingly dancing with the other couple in perfect formation like a most celestial quartet. I gave in and put one foot in front of the other until I could reach out and place one hand on the small of Eric's back and the other in his strong grasp. We paused for the next count and then swayed to the left, I began to think about which foot went where and when, but Eric's knowing lead quickly had to looking up at the proud Viking in a black Armani tux. His light silver tie matched my dress and his lips were pursed in hesitation.
"Marry me at midnight," he whispered, and while others pretended not to hear I knew they had.
"But I already have…" I protested, "with the knife in your office."
"My love, that hardly counts as a wedding. I want to marry you the way you've always dreamed of getting married." He twirled me around the dance floor and I saw the most beautiful thing. Standing at the top of the stairs stood my brother Jason, my friends Sam and Tara, and the most brilliant witches in the state of Louisiana.
"Yes, Mr. Northman," I said, choking back a scarlet tear, "I will really marry you." He leaned down and we shared a perfect kiss, abruptly interrupted by Pam's voice screeching across the room.
"ERIC! Behind you!"