Eric's Demons
Chapter Twenty-three
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Alone on the edge of the plantation Azazel watched the slaughter. When it was done he turned away, the oldest of his kind, and now the last.
Heedless of the wounds that crossed his own lean frame Eric caught Sookie as she collapsed. She was a mess of bruises and cuts, her eyes were swelling closed, her mouth was a mess. Biting into his own arm he dripped his own precious blood into her mouth.
"Stay with me Sookie," he pleaded, tears in his eyes.
Her breathing was ragged, she had blacked out. When he checked her pulse it was weak and irregular.
Eric took to the air, carrying her to hospital. He pleaded with her all the way there to stay with him, to live.
The emergency room was empty when he got there, the medical staff took her from him, ushered him outside, before he went he leaned in to kiss her tenderly on her bruised and battered mouth.
"I love you," he told her.
Sookie smiled.
There was a shape in the room with her, a presence.
Sookie had been here more than two weeks while she recovered. In that time she had grown used to the doctors and nurses coming and going. Eric was here every night, attending her every whim. He fussed, he nursed, he'd even read to her. Only with the threat of dawn was he forced to leave, to return as soon as dark fell again.
Once the Magister had visited her. She would forever remember it as one of the most awkward moments of her life.
"The vampire nation owes you a great debt," he had told her.
"I take plastic," she had quipped, laughing nervously.
But now there was a presence in the room, a spirit. Sookie knew who he was, had known all along that he would come. The door opened and an orderly came in, Sookie tried to warn him, tried to tell him to flee, but her distress just made him come closer.
Azazel smiled from the stolen face.
"My brothers wait in the Valley," he told her.
"I know, I showed them the way," she smiled at him, showing him the best teeth in Louisiana that money could buy.
"I don't understand," he told her, "do you know where your power comes from?"
Sookie knew she should have been frightened, she should have been screaming for help, but she felt calm. If anything it was Azazel who should be frightened.
"Inside," she told him, "I didn't know it was there until your daughter showed me where to look."
A look of pain came and went from his face at her mention of Nula.
"She wasn't meant to die, Satarel was too ambitious," he told her, stepping closer to the bed.
"Have you come to kill me?" Sookie asked him.
"No little one, warn you," he told her.
"Warn me? About what? What lie do you have to tell?" she tried to sit up in the bed, but he reached out, pushed her back down. In her mind the doors were open but she hesitated.
What harm can it do?
"You fought on the wrong side, little one, you betrayed your own blood," he told her.
"Betrayed, how? What do you mean?" she demanded, pushing his hand off her.
"Your powers, so like Nula but so much stronger. Where do you think they came from? Why did you think Nula understood them and their use? Why, Sookie Stackhouse, where you the one gifted with the power to beat us?"
He stopped, turning to watch two doctors pass by the door. They were used to frequent visitors, so walked on by.
"Why?" she demanded.
"Because you are of our blood, Eric Northman knew it when he first saw you. He knew who you were, what you were, what you would be capable of. I imagine my daughter knew it too," he sighed. "They tricked you into helping them, and you fell for their lies without ever questioning any of it."
"Now you lie," she said. "Eric loves me."
"Really Sookie, he did a deal with Bill and the queen for them to watch you until he needed you. Your arrival warned him that we were coming. Did you not think it odd that they backed down so easy? We tortured the truth out of Bill before we left him to die with the hunters."
"Now I know you lie," Sookie told him, "you want to poison me against them so that I wont help them."
"Really, Sookie, do you really think I came here to do that?" he asked.
"You forget, Azazel. Before this all started, before I was the chosen one to fight the Nephilim at Eric's side, before I had the powers to stop your kind, I was already a telepath. And you are a bad liar."
Behind Azazel there was a cough, as Eric Northman let him know he was there.
A/N Many thanks for reading. It's been an absolute pleasure to do this. I think I'll borrow these two again, they are a delight to work with!