Chapter 9

EPOV

I could not believe what had just happened. My absentee maker showed up and was worse than the monster I imagined him to be. He not only forced his control over me but he made me hurt Sookie. That was the worst thing of all. I could deal with Ocella treating me like shit but dragging an innocent girl into it was an entirely different issue. To top it off he commanded me to do the evil deed rather than do it himself.

I had never experienced anything like a maker's command and wished there was a way out of it. How could one being have so much control over me? I was used to being free and independent, now I felt like a dog chained to a tree. A rotting, disgusting, insect infested tree…

Appius, as he wished me to call him, ordered Pam and I into a 1960s Cadillac, it was white and huge as a whale.

"I see you haven't gotten rid of Moby Dick." Pam commented dryly and got into the passenger seat.

That left me to cram myself into the back seat. I wanted to complain but did not dare with Sookie still nearby. I was horrified at what I had done to her, it was everything I feared would happen and worse when I was first turned. Except in this situation I was fully aware of my actions and trying to stop myself as I sensed her fear and pain. However it was to no avail as I could not overcome the power of Appius' command.

A few hours ago I thought things might actually work out okay, but now everything was turning into a nightmare. I knew nothing about Appius. Pam mentioned only meeting him one other time when he popped into her life years after she was made and forced her to try and help him keep another one of his children alive. Apparently he had turned a fourteen year old child on the brink of death, and much like Appius the kid's brains were not all there. He fed on anyone at anytime and risked exposing vampires before they went public. The child ended up killing himself by walking into the sunlight to end his own confusing misery.

Pam said it was the longest week of her entire life. Once the child died Appius disappeared again.

That left the both of us with very little knowledge of our maker or his intentions. We were in a dangerous situation and both of us knew it.

"I have quite the plan for us. I will fill you both in tomorrow night. For now we must get to our resting place." Appius said cheerfully as he drove along the highway.

Pam and I remained silent.

The old Cadillac creaked and groaned as we eventually pulled off the main roads and onto a dirt road. We were about forty minutes from Fangtasia and in the middle of nowhere. The lights of Shreveport had dimmed long ago and we were surrounded by darkness.

The muddy dirt road was lined with swampy forest on either side. There were no signs of life except for bugs and the sounds of animals in the trees. I watched the dim yellow glow of the car's headlights illuminate the road ahead and it turned into a dead end. Appius shut the car off and got out.

"Where the fuck are we?" I whispered to Pam who shrugged her shoulders.

There were no buildings in sight and it was almost daybreak, was he trying to kill us?

"Come along children, it's just a short run from here." He clapped his hands together with excitement.

I got out of the car with Pam and we both surveyed our surroundings immediately. We were cautious and on edge. I tested the air but found no alarming scents and could not hear anything that screamed danger. I made eye contact with Pam and she seemed to have a similar assessment. That left us both looking to our insane maker for direction.

"Follow me" Appius commanded then started running into the forest.

"You gotta be fucking kidding me!" Pam said as she ran, or more like quickly trudged, alongside me. "These heels were brand new…."

The forest Appius had us running through was more like a bayou with some patches of knee deep muck to stand in if we were lucky. My pants were soaked and covered in disgusting smelling grime. At least I had pants on, Pam was in a skirt so up to her knees looked black.

"We need to get out of this Pam, he is insane. If he controls us he will kill us." I said once I knew Appius was well ahead of us and running at full speed.

"You don't think I know that? I've been trying to find a way to kill the cock sucker for years but he's commanded me not to. By the way, fair warning, he is into men." Instead of a snarky and gloating expression she would normally wear, she actually looked sympathetic towards me. That brought a chill to my bones.

I was not into men or any form of forced sexual acts, but if Appius could command anything of me… it really meant anything. Was that what he meant by breaking me? At the time I thought it meant torturing Sookie.

Our conversation was brought to a halt as the forest began to clear up ahead. I could see Appius standing in an overgrown clearing along with a gator leaving the area and sliding into the swamp at his arrival. Once we reached the clearing we stopped and I got the chance to really look around.

Before us was a large antebellum mansion. It was run down and obviously had been abandoned for many years. I thought I saw peeling white paint but overall it looked a drab grey in its current state.

The building loomed before us with windows that were empty like black eyes watching us. The yard had probably been much larger when it was built, but the years had allowed the forest and swamp to take over again. With such a small clearing around it the old mansion looked even bigger.

"Home sweet home!" Appius cheerfully announced and led the way through the knee deep grass to the front door.

"I found this place back when it was first built. It was a glorious estate back then and the food was to die for. I drank the entire family and their servants. Ever since then the place has been mine." He opened the large front doors and they groaned in protest.

He had really been keeping the place up well…. I did not dare make my sarcastic comment out loud. Appius was truly insane. He acted like we were one happy family and then he gleefully chatted about draining an entire family and stealing their home the next. He was going to give me whiplash with his back and forth behavior.

"Of course I only stay here when I am in the southern states which is not very common, but I do plan on changing that." He led us into the cavernous entry way.

It reminded me of a haunted mansion from a Scooby-Doo cartoon. The marble floor was covered in dust and debris, the old staircase wrapped around to the second floor but was covered in cracks and cobwebs. Above us a chandelier hung from a rusty chain and it looked like a bird had made its nest there at one time.

"Why is that?" Pam asked as she walked through the building with disgust, avoiding touching anything.

"You will find that out tomorrow, did I not inform you of that already?" Appius turned and snapped at her. Going from cheerful to pissed in under six seconds.

"Yes" She replied shortly then shut her mouth. So unlike Pam, it made me wonder how he had tortured her in the past in order to get such quick obedience from her.

With that he shifted back into the animated character he was seconds before. He gave us a quick tour of his shitty and creepy as fuck mansion before showing us to our sleeping quarters. Pam and I at least had coffins in one of the many old bedrooms. There were two large windows that had been blocked with black plastic tarp taped over them. We had a safe place to rest for the day.

Our bipolar maker bid us goodnight and snuck in a command that we were not allowed to leave the property. Asshole.

As I laid down my mind was reeling and I thought of Sookie. Her panic stricken face flooded my mind until I finally died for the day.

When I rose the following evening I heard screaming echoing through the mansion. It was a female scream so I automatically raced towards the sound. In an old formal living room I found Pam feeding on a brunette woman. The way she was going she would easily kill her.

"Pam! What the fuck! Stop!" I reacted without thinking and tried to pull her off the screaming woman.

Then I heard Appius laughing in the corner. He had to have commanded this, Pam fed from humans regularly but she did not needlessly murder.

"I brought my children dinner, Eric, please enjoy her as well. Pam you can stop now." He grabbed the woman by her hair once Pam backed off and dragged her over to me. He dumped her in my lap and commanded me to feed because I needed to be strong for his mission.

A half hour later I was digging a hole near the mucky swamp to dispose of the woman Pam and I had just been forced to kill. Technically I killed her since I finished her off. I felt disgusted the entire time meanwhile Appius preached in the background about forgetting my human feelings, to truly become vampire.

"Eric" Pam zipped across the weed filled lawn to the edge of the swamp where I had just finished covering the body. Most likely the gators would get to it soon enough and all evidence would be gone. I wished I could leave the property and confess. I would be much happier rotting in jail for my sins than being with my maker.

"Appius is up to something big, he has always been a cluster fuck of crazy but something is different. He has never mentioned putting down roots here before. He has always been a nomad." Pam looked worried, very worried.

"Shouldn't we be careful? Can't he hear us?" I questioned warily.

"I think we're alright. He is currently in the basement talking to himself." She rolled her eyes.

"What did he do to you Pam?" I had to know. I needed to know for not only my own safety but Sookie's, how far would Appius go to force me into submission?

"That's none of your fucking business. It doesn't matter, just know he is bat shit insane and knows no limits when it comes to violence of any kind. He has no real feelings or conscience." She was obviously irritated but it was a defense mechanism I guess.

"You know you can trust me, I'm not like him. I actually care about you in a real way." Instead of getting angry and snapping back at her I kept calm. She had obviously been through a lot and forced into this existence much like myself with no one to rely on.

"I'm not telling you this because I need some sappy chick flick moment okay? I'll tell you because you need to know just how careful you need to be around him. " She began and I quickly nodded.

"The only other time I have been around my maker was when he forced me into helping him with the little boy he turned. I wanted nothing to do with it and made it very obvious. I quickly found out Appius has no liking for sarcasm or independence. I said something snarky to him one night and he fucking flipped. He commanded me to have sex with him as punishment because he knew I preferred women. Once that was done and I still acted up, he commanded me to kill my human lover at the time. I had to watch her die in my arms, while she thought I was a monster that did not care for her at all." Pam's eyes darted back to the decrepit mansion and she tensed up.

Appius must be done with his personal pep talk.

She quickly turned back to me and whispered "If you care for Sookie at all you will stay quiet and listen to him."

I stood there in shock while she darted back to the mansion. I suspected he was that twisted but hearing how he had done that to Pam made it real. Appius managed to turn an independent and smart ass woman like Pam into a cowering servant. He had murdered her girlfriend and he had raped her. I was sure there had been other torture methods sprinkled throughout but I was not going to bother asking for the details.

I heard Appius call for us and I went inside, doing exactly as I was told.

SPOV

I woke up in the hospital not knowing how I got there. My head was pounding and I felt groggy.

"Shit…" I tried to open my eyes but the lights seemed so bright. I just wanted to sleep for days but somewhere in my mind I knew something big had happened.

What was it?

"Sookie?" A calm and soothing voice called out to me.

I forced my eyes open to see a teenage boy standing by my bed. His pale skin was smooth and there appeared to not be a blemish on him. He was perfect, was he an angel? Had I died somehow?

"Who are you?" My voice sounded hoarse and unfamiliar. That made me realize I must be alive. If I was dead my voice should sound however I wanted it to, right?

"I am Godric. I regret that we must meet under such poor circumstances. After the dispute at Fangtasia one of my vampires notified me. I arrived shortly after Appius left and brought you here. I did not want to give you my blood without asking you since it has other effects besides healing." His words were quiet and almost soothing despite the chaotic events they replayed in my mind.

It all came rushing back and I remembered Eric savagely biting me. I had never been more afraid in my life. That must be what the zebra feels like while the lions is clamping down on it's neck to suffocate it. The poor zebra just gets to lay there a panic, knowing death is coming.

Except Eric had not killed me…. This time.

"We have to get Eric away from Appius!" I knew Eric did not want to hurt me.

"I know, Pamela as well…. But I wanted to be sure you were safe first. You are very important to Eric. I have vampires scouting the area for him, but he is very hard to track." Godric explained with a sadness in his eyes.

I wondered how he could look so young but his eyes reflected someone much older. How old was he? I knew this was the vampire Eric was supposed to meet right before he took off. Apparently they met since he knew of not only Eric but myself as well.

"Can't vampires track scent?" I thought this should be easy, like Jason sending out one of his buddies coon hounds on a hunt.

"Normally we can but Appius is almost untraceable. I suspect it might be a rare gift, some vampires have extra abilities." Godric did not expand on what these other abilities were but I sure as hell would ask that one later. After Eric was safe.

"So how can we save Eric?" I had to get him away from that psycho.

"Well… I have a plan but it involves you. Are you willing to risk your life for Eric?" He stared down at me.

"Of course, what do I need to do?" There was never a doubt in my mind about sacrificing myself for Eric. I grew up with him and I wanted to grow old with him.

a/n: Thanks for reading guys, please review! Next chapter we will find out what Appius' plans are and how Godric plans to involve Sookie in the rescue mission.