The confrontation draws closer, I hope you all enjoy this interlude. Please let me know what you think.
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Merick
Part 44
"That was awesome." Amelia's eyes were wide as the specters disapparated before us. Sookie was wiping tears from her eyes as she fled to my side leaving Amelia behind, a horrible look on her face, which Amelia couldn't fail to see.
"Oh, god, I didn't mean it that way Sookie." She backpedalled, seeing the glare from my eyes as I folded Sookie into my arms, trying to comfort her sobbing. "I meant the reconstruction, I've never seen one before, I didn't mean anything about your friend, I promise." She looked honestly terrified; I appreciated that.
"Hold your tongue Amelia or I will rip it from your throat." I hissed, pulling Sookie out of the room and into the silent bar, leaving Octavia to scold the junior witch, and order her to clean up the supplies. Fortunately both left Sookie and I alone for a few moments, enough for me to try to transpose some semblance of calm over her when my own mind threatened instability.
"She killed him." I heard her muffled words even as her face was pressed into my chest.
"Yes." I conceded, trying not to inflame her hurt.
"Because he wouldn't lure us out here."
"And she killed him to accomplish the same end." I finished her thought. That reality, I knew, was going to tear at my Beauty.
"Why Eric?" She sobbed.
"Something to do with us Sookie. She wanted you and I here, to punish us for something."
"What have we done to her?"
"I could see why she might want me, but I don't understand why her interest would swing to you. It sounded like it was something we had yet to do. Preemptive was the word she used." I shook my head. The frustration was welling in me again.
"You know her?" Sookie looked at me strangely, not accusing me, but hunting for information. I sensed no doubt from her; her unwavering faith in me humbled me.
"I've met her, once, over a century ago. We parted with a brittle detent between us."
"And she is the Banshee?"
"Yes."
As if she had been listening in to our conversation, and perhaps she had been, the same high pitched wailing split the quiet night, just as it had the evening before with Jessica. My darling covered her ears and sank to her knees. I tore out of Merlotte's teeth bared, a hiss on my lips, searching at my preternatural speed for the source of the sound. I pushed the brush and branches out of my way; their cracking hardly registering as I felt the blood begin to pool in my own ears at the shrill sound. It stopped just as suddenly as it had started, replaced by a hideous laughter that seemed to encircle me. I spun, searching, seeing only a glimpse of the red hair, frustration growing.
"Come out and face me Bitch!" I called into the night. "You will not have her, you will not have either of us!" A sing-songy voice replied.
"Earthly dust from off thee shaken, Soul immortal shalt thou awaken, With thy last dim journey taken, Home through the night." There was a pause as the note faded into the darkness, and then. "I shall see you die Night walker, you and your abomination." Then there was nothing. I roared in anger.
"Eric?" Sookie's voice called to me, from the distance and her mind pulled with concern. Knowing that I would never catch the Banshee I returned to her. She and Octavia were standing on the steps of Merlotte's, Sookie with her arms wrapped around her torso, Octavia with a hand on her arm, both of them looking out into the dark after me.
"I am here Sookie." I stepped from the growth at the edge of the lot, uncurling my fists.
"Oh thank god." She rushed into my arms. "I thought that the thing had attacked you."
No such luck, I thought to myself. I truly wished that she had, then I could have vented my fury on her. (Is that irony, venting fury on a Banshee, probably not.)
"Let's go back inside ladies." I guided them back into the bar, wanting to leave the open space of the outdoors behind us, not that I expected an attack just then, but inside the building was a more easily defended position if one was to come.
We sat at one of the larger tables, Octavia, Amelia and myself while Sookie made coffee. She needed to be busy, and she needed to be away from Amelia. But she was still listening as we spoke.
"She has threatened you both, perhaps leaving Bon Temps would be prudent Eric?"
"I will not run from her." I told Octavia.
"She'll only kill someone else," Sookie whispered, "I won't have more deaths on my soul. There have been enough." She brought over two mugs of coffee, one for Octavia and one for Amelia, the latter whispering her own thank you, keeping her eyes focused on the table top. I took Sookie's now empty hand, her fingers were warm from the brew; she sat between Octavia and I.
"Something we are going to do?" I mused out loud. "I don't suppose you have a precognition spell?" I asked Octavia.
"I am so sorry, I don't."
"And you Amelia?" Sookie finally made eye contact with the girl, I was so proud of her, even with the glaze of tears in her eyes. "Can you do anything?"
"I really wish I could Sookie, just to make up for everything I've done to you. But looking into the future is not something I can manage, I'm not a seer, I'm barely a witch. I'm so sorry."
"We wouldn't even know where to begin looking Sookie. We don't even know if what she is saying is true; or rather, the truth. She may blame us for something that we have nothing to do with." I tried to reason things out, to allay the guilt I could feel in her mind.
"But why did she need to bring us here? Why Bon Temps, why kill Sam to get us here?"
"That question I can perhaps answer." Octavia patted Sookie's hand, looking just a little brighter. "I believe that Bon Temps has a portal in it, a doorway between worlds. That's what makes the magic here so effective. I have felt something since we drove into town."
"A portal?" I asked.
"Indeed Eric, there is something in this place, something I am certain you yourself have sensed. Drawing out memories of your own, ghosts and reminiscences, pulling the supernatural here?" She looked at Sookie, her eyes piercing into her face. "And you yourself child, you are a part of this magic. Magic that can give you your hearts desire or destroy you."
She knew Sookie was fairy, she wouldn't say it out loud because I doubt Amelia had any idea and I could see that Octavia had no intention of exposing Sookie.
"Amelia, take my things out to the car and wait for me there." But it seemed that she did have more to say, beyond the ears of her apprentice.
We were all quiet as Amelia gathered up everything and left us.
"It may be as you say Eric, that this thing will hunt you no matter where you go. But there is perhaps something else I can give you to think about."
"Yes?"
"A Banshee is simply another type of spirit, part of the Faerie folk, like elves and brownies, even goblins." Octavia wasn't looking at me as she spoke; she was looking directly at Sookie. "Perhaps the source of her anger comes from that."
Sookie went a little pale, but the point was not lost on either of us. And Octavia had given me an excellent idea about how to proceed. She stood, a little shaky on her legs; I suppose those types of rituals could take a lot out of a body, and Octavia was far from young. I came to her side and offered her my arm again. She patted it in a grandmotherly type of fashion and smiled at me with wrinkled lips.
"I wish there was something else I could do for you children. I could offer a ward, but I don't know that it would work against a Banshee. I've never met one before."
"You've given us so much already Miss Fant, thank you." I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out a folded clutch of bills. I pressed it into her opposite hand. "I trust this is enough for your expenses, but you must tell me if it isn't."
"It is all well Eric." She tucked it into her carpetbag without even looking at it. She smiled at Sookie, who had also stood. "Bless you both."
I helped her out to the car as Sookie tidied the one table we had used. I imagined she would have everything washed by the time I returned. And I did have a few calls to make; the first one being to Pam. She agreed to retrieve the things I required, and bring them to the wake. The second call was to Jessica, who had intended to be there as well, and after a little reassurance from me, and possibly from the male voice I heard in the background, she was buoyed enough to stand at my side when the time came. I expected Jason would be there as well; was that I wise thought on his part? I didn't know, the Banshee hadn't mentioned him, but it did not mean that she didn't see him as the same type of abomination as my darling Sookie.