Finally finished with all the proofreading so I am posting the final chapters.
As always I don't own the world or the characters, I just take them out on playdates.
Chapter 21 - Ants Bite
She was still there, relaxed and sated, ten minutes later when her phone rang causing her to jump since it was buried in the couch beneath her. She dug beneath the cushion and fished out the phone and looked at the screen,
"It's Bobby, why would he be calling me?" she asked Eric, who only shrugged.
"Hi Bobby, what's up?" Feeling strangely embarrassed to be naked while talking on the phone.
"Where are you?" He sounded agitated.
"At the apartment, what's wrong?"
"Turn on the local news." She rolled her eyes at his unhelpful answer. She gestured for Eric to turn on the TV. He grabbed the remote off the coffee table. She mouthed local news to him and he flipped channels.
"What am I looking for?" she asked the day man. Then she saw the caption under the field reporter. 'Local Middle School Teacher Abducted at Gunpoint'. "Never mind, I think I found it. Thanks Bobby." She ended the call. "Turn it up." She told Eric.
She listened to the story with a growing guilt. About half an hour ago, masked gunmen broke in the door at the real Christie Hampton's house and dragged her out at gunpoint, in front of her husband and 2 young children. So far no one knows why she was taken, by whom or where. Police have no leads.
She hadn't realized tears were streaming down her cheeks until Eric took her in his arms. "Eric we have to find her. It's my fault she was taken." She pushed against him. "No, if you hold me I'm going to start crying, then I'll be no good to her." She grabbed her clothes. "I'm going to call Claudine while I'm getting dressed."
She went straight into the bathroom, splashing water on her face, she looked at herself judgmentally in the mirror. Her guilt had turned to anger, but not only at the abductors, but also at herself. This was all her fault. She thought she was so clever, stealing the identity of a real teacher. She hadn't even thought what repercussions that might have. Then after kicking the anthill did she start formulating a plan of action? No, she was too busy doing a striptease for Eric. She tore the brush through her hair, before pulling it back into a tight ponytail.
Setting her jaw she vowed to rescue Christie, and anyone in her way better watch out. She turned at the soft knock on the bathroom door.
"Sookie," Eric called tentatively through the door. "Do you have a plan?"
She strode over to the door, pulling it open, Eric was standing there, fully dressed, his face expressionless. "Go back to the anthill. It's a place to start. Can you have Bobby see if he can find out Arthur Taggert's address as well as any properties owned by the Fellowship around town?"
He seemed relieved that she had stopped crying. "I'll call him now. And Sookie, it's not your fault."
She glared at him, "Yes it is, and I'm going to make it right."
He flattened his mouth into a straight line and nodded tersely, pulling his phone from his pocket and moving to the far side of the room.
She headed into the closet and quickly dressed, choosing very practical jeans and a t-shirt. Grabbing a pair of socks and her tennis shoes she went back into the bedroom and sat on the bed. Picking up the phone and calling Claudine. She tucked the phone between her shoulder and ear, she started pulling on her socks. She cursed as the phone slipped. Catching it, she heard Claudine on the other end.
"Hi Claudine, hold on, I think I can put this on speaker." she hit a button that she had only hit accidentally before. "There can you hear me?"
"Yeah, why am I on speaker?"
"I'm getting dressed. Hey do you know anyone named Aine Summers?"
"I do, I was just talking to her today, she was asking me about a school teacher, who now seems to be abducted."
"That was me, I went undercover as a teacher to the chemistry company that Taggert works at. They sent thugs to kidnap the teacher I was pretending to be." She started tying her shoes. "What was Aine doing there?"
"Our people have a lot of research going on there to make it easier for fairies to live on this plane." she paused, "No one else is there are they?" she obviously realized she may have said to much.
"Sorry, Eric is here."
"Hello Claudine." He said as he approached the bed.
"Hello Eric." Her voice was noticeably cooler toward him.
"Does Aine know how Taggert found out about the effects of fairy blood?" Sookie asked quickly. She didn't have time for vampire/fairy animosity.
"As part of the research, samples of fairy blood were supplied not that they were told what it was. It came with the warning to keep it away from vampires, but specifics weren't given. He might have experimented and found out on his own."
"Okay, Eric and I are headed to Avalon Chemicals in case they are holding her there."
"Sook, it's too dangerous." she started.
"Claudine, she was taken because of me. I'm going to save her."
"Sookie, let us handle it." Claudine started.
"No, I'm going." Sookie insisted.
"Claudine, you aren't going to talk her out of it, you'd know that if you could see her face." Eric interjected.
Sookie smiled briefly at him.
"With Eric there I don't know how much help I can be."
Sookie looked at Eric, "Do you think you can control yourself around Claudine?"
"Probably."
Sookie turned back to the phone, "Claudine, it's your call. I won't ask you to put yourself in danger. We've got to go."
"Alright, I'll see what I can do. Good luck and be careful."
"Always." she turned off the phone.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Almost, grab some of the handcuffs." she gestured to the hidden cabinet.
He raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Have you been exploring?" he asked as he headed to the cabinet.
"Tidying." she replied, her cheeks burning a little.
He opened the cabinet and pulled out several pairs of handcuffs. Turning back to her he asked, "Shall we drive or fly?"
"I'm not sure, flying would be quicker, but we might need a car." But that reminded her of their flight the other night and she went to the desk and picked up the knife, tucking it into her waistband.
"I'll call Pam and have her drive there, just in case." he pulled his phone back out. "What's the address?"
"It's in the notebook in the living room." and headed that way. She could hear Eric issuing instructions to Pam.
She grabbed the binder and pulled out the address and directions, handing the paper to him. He read the address into the phone and ended the call. She picked up the large purse. "Give me the cuffs." He did and she shoved them into the bag, then slung it across her body. "Let's go."
Once out in the penthouse gardens she stepped up onto a planter and he turned for her to climb on his back. "I forgot to buy goggles." she said as he took off and she buried her face in his back.
It took a fraction of the time to fly there as it did to drive. She could feel him slowing down and moving lower. "Are we there?" she asked, pulling her head back.
"Yes, any idea which building?" he asked.
She looked down and her arms and legs tightened around him, they were still really high. Taking a deep breath, she tried to relate the layout to her tour earlier. "I think we didn't go into any of those on that side of the complex. Let's start there."
"Okay."
He just started reducing altitude in place, lowering as if he were on a string. It was a little disconcerting, it was like he just willed himself to descend and he did. He landed silently in a grassy area. "Let's see if any of these buildings have a light on." she suggested as she slid from his back, he motioned for her to stay put, then zipped away in a blur of speed. She whispered to the air around her. "Don't you even think of trying to handle this yourself."
He reappeared in front of her with a crooked smile. "Are you kidding? I meant what I said to Claudine, I know that look."
"Good." she said, "Did you find anything?"
"There's a building over here with lights on and I can hear voices inside." He gestured to one of the buildings on the edge of the complex. She knew it was not one of the ones she toured.
"Okay, let's try it." Sticking to the grass to stay quiet he led the way to the building. When they got close, she put a hand on his arm to stop him and reached out with her mind to see how many people they were facing. Her heart sank, she detected six minds in there one filled with fear – which she assumed was Christie, one highly agitated, and four others filled with hate. She held up six fingers to Eric, he nodded. She could see his fangs were down. He was ready for action.
They circled around the building until they found a set of metal double doors. He tried the handle silently but it was locked. He motioned her to step back, then he ripped one door from its hinges. Then there was chaos. Someone screamed, she thought it might have been a man, someone else shouted "Vampire!". Eric stepped in his fangs bared, taking in the room in with a cold, sweeping gaze. She stepped in behind him, slightly to the side, but she wasn't foolish enough to completely abandon the cover he provided. Looking around she saw a woman, blindfolded and tied to a chair. Taggert and the man from Dallas she had recognized in Alex' head were off to one side as if they had been talking and three thugs were spread across the room, two of which she recognized from the pick-up. The room itself was obviously where the VampBait was being produced and packaged and Sookie got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. There was also an observation area behind a glass wall, as she had seen in other areas.
"Let the woman go and you might live to see the dawn." Eric commanded in his scariest voice.
"Die bloodsucker!" one of the thugs yelled as he came at Eric with a stake, Eric easily slapped him aside and he landed five feet away, motionless on the floor. One of his fellows was not as brave, he bolted for the door leading to the observation area and Eric turned to face the remaining thug. She detected the sense of triumph from the runner too late, he had already pulled on a lever, and the weighted silver net that fell from the ceiling dragged both herself and Eric to the ground.
Eric yelled in pain, too incapacitated to try to get out of the net but she was struggling, trying to crawl to the edge. Stopping only when the last thug, pulled out his gun and cocked it.
The Dallas man swaggered over, addressing Taggert over his shoulder. "You see Arthur, it wasn't paranoid to set the vampire trap." He looked at his catch, and smiled. "This is my lucky day. Not only do I catch Eric Northman, but do you know who this is gentlemen?" He pointed to Sookie and looked around at his accomplices. "This is Sookie Stackhouse, the telepath fangbanger who almost destroyed us in Dallas. Steve is going to be sorry he missed this."
"Can we stake him now?" the thug who sprung the trap asked. Sookie's heart skipped a beat.
"No, I think I have a better idea. Get the girl out of there and tie her up." he commanded, an evil gleam in his eye.
"No!" Eric yelled, he was doing his best to fight against the silver, but it was burning into his flesh.
"You are in no position to be yelling at anyone, deader!" Dallas chuckled.
The man with the stake stood over Eric, ready to strike if needed. The man with the gun flipped over the corner of the net and hauled Sookie out by her ponytail. Not giving her a chance to stand he pulled her so she had to crawl across the floor while Dallas set a chair down next to Christie. When she reached it, he released her hair and pulled the knife out of the back of her jeans. "Get in the chair." he sneered at her. Once she was seated he pulled the purse off her. She glared at him but held her tongue, he looked like he would really enjoy hurting her.
He pulled one of those plastic zip ties out of his pocket, while tucking his gun into his waistband. He twisted her arms behind the chair and expertly bound her in seconds.
"What are you going to do?" Taggert asked nervously. He was strong broadcaster, at least when he was this agitated. He was freaking out. When he came to the Fellowship with his VampBait idea, it seemed very clean to him. Sure a few fangbangers would get killed, but they were all looking to die anyway. But this was different, he wasn't supposed to see any of the deaths and he especially didn't want anything to do with the kidnapping and murder of an innocent school teacher. Sookie thought he might be the weak link she could work on.
Dallas was walking over to one of the boxes stacked by the wall. "I'm going to put your formula to the test, Arthur." He pulled a jar of the powder out of the box. Slowly unscrewing the lid he walked back to his two human hostages. "You promised us a product that would drive vampires crazy, but so far all we have seen is one attack." He held the jar over Sookie's head. "I want a demonstration." Sookie shook her head slowly.
"Please, let her go, she has nothing to do with this. I picked her name at random off the district website." Sookie begged the man, knowing it would not change his mind but it would affect Taggert.
The man started sprinkling the powder over both Sookie and Christie.
"I thought your purpose was to save people from vampires." she yelled at him. Christie was whimpering, she had no idea what was going on, or what it was that was being sprinkled on her, all she could think of was never seeing her kids again.
"No, it is to save humanity from the vampire menace, by wiping them out. This is war and in any war there are civilian casualties." Behind him Arthur paled at his words.
"How can you call yourself a Christian?" she spat at him, not attempting to mask her loathing. That struck a cord with Taggert, she had to keep pressing that button.
"Do not even attempt to disparage my righteous mission, you fangbanging slut." he raised his hand to slap her, but stopped in mid swing. She read that he didn't want to get the make-up on him. Looking past him she realized Eric had stopped struggling under the net and was sniffing the air. Her heart sank.
Dallas followed her eyes and smiled evilly, "I think he has picked up the scent. Come Arthur, let's watch this from behind the glass."
In desperation Sookie cried out to Taggert. "How can you, a scientist, work with these fanatics?"
He turned on her, that had hit the button square on. "I am a scientist, I devoted my life to studying how the world works. I rejected anything that couldn't be proven, including my faith. I turned away from my religion because it seemed like so much superstition to me. And then suddenly there are vampires, walking around when they should be dead with no possible explanation, making a mockery of everything I had come to believe in." He ran a hand through his hair. "I began to doubt science. If vampires were real then maybe God was too." He took a deep breath. "So I came back to God and offered my knowledge to him."
"So because of vampires, you found your faith again, and that's such a bad thing you want to kill them all?" she asked incredulously. She could tell that confused him.
"No, it's not that..." he stammered.
"I don't know, it sounds like you are killing the bearer of good news, to me." she shook her head. "And is this," she moved her head to indicate Christie and herself, "what you think God would want?"
"Arthur, stop listening to her." Dallas commanded, "You don't want to be in the room when we free the vampire."
Taggert's head whipped around, "You're going to free him?"
"Yes, he's going to take care of these loose ends and then we will kill him with a silver bullet from a safe distance. Now come on." Dallas had reached the door to the observation area and held it open for Taggert. Sookie slumped as she sensed self-preservation trump moral quandary in his mind, and he rushed through the door.
Dallas turned to his men. "Once this door is closed, release the vampire. Just make sure you are not between him and the women when you do." Sookie looked at Eric, he had twisted under the net to look at her. His eyes were dilated and he had the same feral look on his face as Pam had.
"Eric, honey, please snap out of it. It's the make-up, you know it is." She struggled against the plastic ties and they bit into her wrists. "Eric, it's Sookie, you know me, please it's the VampBait, you have to fight it." She looked around wildly for any thing that might be of use, but tied to the chair as she was there wasn't anything she could do. But then she realized she wasn't tied to the chair, she was tied, just not to the chair. At the very least she could try to protect Christie from Eric.
"Christie, listen to me, I'm so sorry." she said softly.
"Why, why are they doing this? I don't understand." She turned her blindfolded face towards Sookie.
"It's my fault, I was trying to find out if this place was involved in something so I posed as a teacher. I'm so sorry I picked your name." She looked toward Eric, he was licking his lips, ignoring the burning chains. "I'm going to keep myself between you and Eric for as long as I can. Get up and move back until you reach the wall and then head to the right around the wall. Maybe in the confusion you can get out." She looked towards the door and had to do a double-take. She was thankful for her years of hiding her true reactions, because her heart was soaring. There, hiding just outside the door was Claudine.
She heard the chain net clinking and turned her head sharply back to the immediate threat, which was Eric. One man was holding both the stake and the gun while the other was trying to pull the silver net off of Eric, afraid at any minute that he would be attacked, making it very slow going.
"How will I know when to go?" Christie asked in a wavering voice.
"I'm thinking when I scream would be good." One of Eric's hands had been freed and much to the relief of the thug it did not reach for him but rather Eric started dragging himself across the floor towards her. That's when it hit her that Claudine couldn't risk coming in, especially with Eric in the state he was in. But at least she could help Christie if she got out the door.
Refocusing on Eric she could tell that the thug was much more confident now that he saw that Eric had no interest in him. In fact he was excited. He was looking forward to seeing Eric kill her, Sookie's stomach twisted in revulsion when she realized he was actually turned on by it. He had the net about halfway down Eric's torso. Both arms free and already healing of the burns, he was up on his elbows, like a soldier shimmying under barbed wire. His nostrils were flaring as he came at her, his pupils completely dilated. There was less than a couple yards between them now, she fought the impulse to scoot her chair back, if Christie had any hope of surviving this Sookie had to let Eric attack her, but it did give her an idea.
"Christie, start scooting your chair back, I don't think that'll alert them." She whispered to the frightened teacher, not daring to take her eyes off Eric. "Eric! It's Sookie! Honey, you have to fight it, you have to." Sookie was relieved to see that Christie was following her advice and was already a couple of feet back.
Taking a deep breath, Sookie stood, trying to brace herself for his attack. Eric hissed at her, there was no sign of any recognition in his eyes at all. She took a step back, bumping into the chair, which scooted across the floor.
"Stop right there!" Yelled the thug with the gun, which was now pointed at her. She rolled her eyes, it would be quicker if he did shoot her, but then Christie might not get away. Then Sookie noticed someone, or something, else moving into the room. He was walking from next to Claudine, just strolling, as if he were walking through a peaceful garden. He seemed surprised when he realized Sookie could see him and held up a finger to his lips to encourage her to stay silent.
Then all her attention was on Eric, finally fully freed from the silver chains, he was on his feet in front of her. She screamed, both as a signal to Christie and out of true fright, she didn't think anyone could be confronted with this feral vampire and not scream. He grabbed her by her upper arms, his fingers contracting like steel bands and she whimpered at the pain. His face was right against hers, sniffing and licking, his eyes unseeing. She was sobbing now, "Please, Eric, if any part of you is in there at all, fight it. Please."
He had licked his way down to her throat, and she clenched her teeth in preparation for the pain to come, and come it did. He bit savagely into her neck, not just puncturing but tearing. She couldn't bite back the scream, but that only seemed to goad him on. "Eric," she gasped through the pain, "if you remember any of this remember: it's not your fault. I love you." Unfortunately this wasn't a fairy tale and those words had no magical effect. Casting about with her eyes, she could see that Christie was inching her way around the wall and the thugs were ignoring her, too caught up in the carnage before them.
Eric was shifting his hold so one arm was wrapped around her back, holding her in place as his other hand ripped her belt off. "No!" she screamed, she couldn't bear it if Eric raped her, especially if that was going to be the last thing that happened to her in this life. She started to struggle in earnest, she brought her knee up hard between his legs. He released her throat to roar in pain, his face turned to her in a fierce growl as he towered over her. She met his eyes with her own, pleading silently for him to come to his senses.
A yellow glowing wall seemed to pass through them, and his eyes changed. Suddenly there was recognition in them again and the feral look faded away. He blinked and looked down at her, his face darkening with anger as what was happening clicked into place. She sobbed with relief, but whispered, "They're watching." so only he could hear.
With a wink, to assure her he was okay, he grabbed her to him again and covered the wound on her neck with his mouth. She felt the tingle of his blood mixing with hers and his tongue licking the wound. She hid her face from view and whispered to him."There are two of them with guns, one right behind you and the other to your left." She struggled weakly as if she was almost out of strength. "They're with the Fellowship so you have to assume they have silver or wood bullets."
He nodded against her throat. "I'm going to release your hands." She nodded back. And clasped her hands together, to hide it.
"Please, Eric stop." she cried, trying to make her voice sound weak. His hands moved down behind her and easily snapped the ziptie.
"When I let go, get down." he commanded in a whisper and she nodded.
The next couple of seconds happened so fast, Sookie wasn't sure the order of events. Eric let go of her and grabbed the chair behind her, flinging it in an arc behind him. A gun went off and Eric bellowed in rage and pain as Sookie felt as if she had been hit in the side with a red-hot brick. She crumpled to the floor. She could hear a lot of yelling, breaking glass and then silence. Gingerly, her hand went to her side and it was warm and sticky.
Claudine's face appeared above her, concern evident in her features. Sookie reached out to her fairy godmother. "Claudine, you have to get Christie out of here. Get her to safety, please."
Claudine took her hand and brushed the hair out of her eyes. "Shh, Sook, it's okay, she's safe." Her eyes shifted down Sookie's body. Her lips became a this straight line. "Eric!" she called.
In a blink, Eric was at Sookie's side. "Fuck!" he spat as he kneeled next to her.
She looked at him and touched his side, "Honey, you've been shot." she said with dismay, touching his already healing side.
He grinned down at her, the sad smile that people reserve for hospital visits to the very sick. "So have you." He looked at Claudine. "I only heard one shot." he said.
She nodded. "It went through you into her."
"Claudine!" Sookie shouted, "You shouldn't be so close to Eric. Eric, don't you dare bite her!" She sounded silly to her own ears, but that was important, wasn't it?
"I think Niall is taking care of that." Eric said. "Lover, this is going to hurt, but I have to check something, okay?"
She nodded, then screamed as Eric's hand slid under her side. Then everything was cool and black. She fought back against the light when her voice was being called. But a question popped into her head and she asked it, forcing her eyes open. "Who's Niall?"
Both Eric and Claudine looked relieved. Claudine answered, "Our Grandfather, mine and Claude's." she added hastily.
"Oh." Sookie replied as if that made perfect sense. "I'm cold."
"Sookie, the bullet went clean through, and I'm doing what I can to heal the wound, but you've lost a lot of blood. You're going to have to drink from me." He moved his wrist in front of her, it was already bleeding.
"Don't want to be a vampire." she said warningly.
"You won't, I would have had to drink more, but..." he hesitated.
"But what?" She asked, her breathing fast and shallow.
"Tell her, let her decide." Claudine told Eric.
"It will probably create a bond between us." He put a hand behind her head. "Sookie, you need to do this."
"Is a bond bad?" she asked Claudine, who didn't seem happy about it.
"It will tie you to Eric, but him to you as well." She looked at the wound. "I don't like the idea, but you said you loved him, and it's better than dying." she shrugged.
"You said that?" Eric asked Sookie, his expression unreadable.
She nodded, "Can the bond be broken?"
"I have heard of it being done, but I don't know how. Please drink, and I promise I will find out for you." He brought his wrist closer to her.
She gave a little nod and reached out for his wrist, he sighed in relief and brought his wrist to her mouth. She felt a warmth fill her as she drank the cold blood. Her neck and side started to tingle, almost like a foot that had fallen asleep, it displaced the pain, but became a different pain. She felt Eric pull his wrist gently away and she held it tighter. "Sookie, you've had enough."
She opened her eyes to look at him and nodded, releasing his wrist. She saw the man, or rather fairy, she had seen earlier, he was standing at her feet looking down at her, he was beautiful and ancient and seemed almost translucent. "Rest now my child," a kindly smile on his face, "you will heal."