CHAPTER 11

Alice knew she couldn't take down Marnie while she was being Antonia's host, so she went asking for help to whom she knew was more than just a Wiccan.

It was half past twelve when she arrived to Lafayette's; she still had time until what she assumed was her showdown.

"Alice?" He said while opening the door.

"Are you with Jesus?" As soon as she spoke Jesus poked his head through the door.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, I swear I wouldn't if this weren't important"

"Please come on in," Lafayette said.

She explained them both Marnie's proposal and her situation, they asked her if she wanted them to join her. She refused but asked them to take part of her plan. They agreed as they owed her after saving them from a massacre the other night.

It was two PM by the time she left and went home to sleep a little and prepare herself. She knew it was Sookie's day off as well so she informed her and asked her to be with Jesus so that she can tell her psychically when Lafayette and Jesus where ready.

She was nervous but she trusted them, she knew they wouldn't let her down.

When the time came she went to face Marnie.

She had been waiting for Alice for a while now, she wanted to be prepared, she knew better than underestimating her.

"Hello little traitor" She said with a thick accent.

"Marnie and I suppose Antonia" She nodded at the woman standing in front of her. She was surprised to find that her aura was red, whilst Antonia's white. Marnie seek revenge for a war that wasn't her own, she was craving for blood, she wanted to make every vampire disappear. But Antonia's was white, she sought redemption, she wanted to be free, she didn't want to be Marnie's accomplice, she was being held against her will. That will make things easier, she thought.

"I'm sure you know I'm not here to negotiate"

"I know, neither am I" Alice's voice was crystal clear.

"I'm listening"

"I'm here to surrender to you, I'm your sacrifice"

"My sacrifice?" Her voice was intrigued.

"I may be dead but not dumb, you won't be able to kill every vampire in town without a power enhancing ritual, and every ritual needs its sacrifice. I know the blond vampire would have been yours," She referred coldly to Eric, who was witnessing the scene throughout the mirror Alice had handed him earlier. "But why take a mere bloodsucker, when you can take one who has also magic running through her veins instead"

"How do I know this isn't a trick?"

"Why would I trick you? I've lost everyone who ever cared about me, you would be doing me a favor" She didn't know if that was entirely true, Marnie didn't either, but Eric did.

"You would betray your own kind like that?"

"I don't have a kind, I'm just a breed" That was true, she wasn't entirely a vampire, nor was she entirely a fairy or entirely a witch.

"Then we shall begin the preparations" Marnie tied Alice with silver chains to the only tree present, which was five meters away from her. "Just in case you have cold feet"

It was seven pm and the sun would be going down in five minutes. Marnie's preparation for the ritual was halfway through and Alice was begging that Jesus's ritual was almost done as well. She reached mentally for Sookie.

"How much longer until the ritual ends?" Alice asked concerned.

"ten minutes tops, how much until hers begins?"

"twenty minutes"

"Hang in there"

"Sure" Alice said waveringly.

Alice was about to relax when she heard footsteps from the woods behind her. No, she thought. What where Eric and Bill doing there? Hadn't she told them not to do anything stupid? Hadn't she told them she knew what she was doing?

"Go away" She said in a voice only they would hear.

"You need us, a sacrifice, really?" Bill sounded mad.

"I don't, you don't understand, get the fuck out" Her tone matched his, but it didn't work. They appeared in front of her in a second.

"That was a stupid thing to do vampire" Marnie's voice was devilish. Eric and Bill tried to move towards her but they couldn't, she was controlling them. Marnie pushed them to another tree next to Alice's and froze them there. "Very stupid move" She summoned fire and made it surround the tree.

"Let her go" Eric said, fangs out. He really was pissed.

"She is her because she wants to, the little traitor has seen the light unlike you. If you may excuse me I have more important things to do." She backed away from the tree and moved towards the salt circle she was drawing on the earth.

"I told you not to do anything stupid, and what do you do? You ignore me" Alice was really pissed, but she was upset above all, she didn't want to see Eric and Bill burn down. Their skin was already turning brown and smoke was evaporating from their bodies.

"I don't see how you are on a better position than ours" Bill said hastily.

"I said I had everything under control, why don't you trust me?"

"Because you are committing suicide" Eric was the one to speak this time

"No, I'm not you asshole!" She raised her tone a little bit, but not enough so that Marnie could hear them. why couldn't they trust her?

"What?" Both Eric and Bill's face had a question mark.

"Look at my wrists."

They both saw the silver chains, but they didn't saw her flesh burning, instead they saw a metalic layer between her wrists and the chains.

"Now" Sookie's voice said inside her mind making her smile.

"Don't make a sound" The look in her eyes reassured both of them.

"Water that all you may sooth the pain and kill the flame" She chanted the spell quietly as she closed her eyes.

The fire underneath Bill and Eric extinguished and water begun rising through the tree trunk and calming their wounds relieving them from the excruciating pain and making them sight.

As she saw the auras beginning to separate she knew she had to hurry, so she summoned fire and broke the chains that where tying her to the tree.

"NO! NO! YOU BITCH!" She said to Alice who now stood in front of her.

Antonia's spirit became visible as she left the body she was being held at against her while. "Don't leave me please" She now addressed Antonia.

"You won't do anyone any good Marnie if you continue with this" Antonia's voice was soothing and peaceful.

"They must pay! They must pay for what they did to you, they don't deserve to live like gods any longer, they don't deserve the gift of immortality, they don't deserve to have everything they want with no consequences"

"You think being a vampire has no consequences?" Marnie looked at Alice with hate but intrigued. "You think seeing everyone you once loved die while you remain exactly the same is a gift? Not having the chance to have children is a gift as well right?" Marnie's expression softened a little but not fully. "At least with death you are able to find redemption, we are damned to wonder through out eternity, not able to find redemption for our sins, it's not a gift it's a curse."

"She is right, you must be better than them, you must promise me you will let go of this my sister" Antonia said while disappearing.

"I…I" She looked at the fading image Antonia, then at Alice, Bill and Eric. "I can't" She threw a fireball at Alice who managed to dodge it.

Alice was now holding Marnie with both of her hands immobilizing her. "You might have been more powerful than me with her aid, but now you are far from it" She hissed behind her fangs which had dropped due to her anger.

She hadn't forgot that she tried to kill Eric and Bill, she could forgive that she had tried to kill her, but not the fact that she had tried to kill those who she cared about.

Once Marnie's eyes met hers she begun glamouring her.

"You will forget ever living here, as soon as I let go of you will leave Louisiana and forget meeting me or any other vampire, member of your coven, and most importantly meeting Antonia, are we clear?" Marnie nodded with a blank face.

She let go of Marnie and she begun walking away from them calmly and without looking back.

After Marnie's figure faded completely she turned back to Eric and Bill who remained tied to the tree. They weren't in pain due to the fire any longer, but their flesh remained partially red and brown. Though the parts of them that were touching the silver chains were hurting them, releasing smoke.

She broke the chains as she had done with her owns and they both fell to the floor.

They stood up but it was obvious they were weak.

"Your house is closer, I'll take care of both of your wounds there" She said to Bill who nodded.