Godric barely registered that his progeny had left the room. The long line in front of him had finally come to an end, and for the first time since he had escaped the basement where the Fellowship had kept him, he was left alone to ponder the recent events.
In all honesty, the ancient vampire had lost his taste for existence decades ago. He had only maintained himself alive out of pure habit, and because he feared what would happen to the humans in his area if he left his position. There was no vampire statute protecting humans at the time, and most sheriffs only cared about regulating inter-vampire relationships.
But things were different now. The authority had outlawed all acts of violence against humans, and any sheriff that replaced him would have to uphold those laws whether he wanted to or not. Which had led him to seriously contemplate leaving this world, and offering himself to the Fellowship had seemed like the perfect way to go. His sacrifice would satisfy their desire for blood, he had thought, and they would be more tolerant towards vampires after that.
His mistake had been to believe that vampires would wish nothing more than to integrate the human world now that they had another source of survival, and that it would be the humans' reaction to the revelation of their existence which would pose problem. How could he have forgotten that the acts of violence perpetrated by his kind were not only related to the need to feed, but originated in the destructive impulses that came with their very nature?
He himself had given into them for so long, he recalled. Memories came to his mind uninvited, and he closed his eyes as if not to see them. He had kept to his savage ways even after it had stopped procuring him any pleasure. He had gone on for a while even after disgust had replaced satisfaction. Because after all, that was all he had ever known and done. At some point, he had learned to control himself. But the impulses had still been there then, allowing him to understand, and therefore anticipate to certain extent the actions of his kind.
In the recent decades, however, they had more or less stopped arising. And because of this he was now losing his touch.
When he had left with the Fellowship, he had made sure that nothing could link his disappearance to them with the very purpose of preventing an attack such as that launched by Stan. But as a vampire, he should have known that the absence of evidence wouldn't bother many of his kind, and shouldn't have put brutal retaliation, however unfounded, above a vampire. And as Stan's direct superior, he ought to have known that he, at least, would react as he had.
How could he be a figure of authority to vampires when he did not even think like them anymore? No, that was just one more reason for him to disappear from this world, he thought, resigned.
But then he was jolted away from his thoughts as someone called out to him from the entrance. He recognized the human detective's voice, and his eyes snapped open. They landed on two glass bottles filled with thick, dark red liquid spinning in the air and towards him. He snatched them from the air just as they were about to make contact, and took a second to appreciate the accuracy of the aim: without his reflexes, they would have been certain to crash right into his face.
Then he realized the bottles were True Blood, and he frowned to himself, wondering what the meaning of this was.
- "Wah - nice catch!" The young woman exclaimed as she arrived in front of him. "It's like you could totally be a vampire!" She added, her voice exaggeratedly admiring, her eyes shining with good-natured humour.
He did not react to the tentative joke, but that didn't seem to faze her. Her gaze swept over the room before she spotted a chair nearby, and he watched as she went to get it.
- "I brought those for you to drink, so feel free to knock yourself out." She informed him after she had seated herself next to him, pointing at True Blood in his hands.
His eyes left her and went back to the glass bottles. A+, he read on the label. There was very little chance he would "knock himself out" from drinking that blood type, he reflected absent-mindedly.
- "I appreciate your concern, detective." He told her. Now that he thought about it, he wondered what her reasons for bringing him True Blood might be. "However, as I said earlier, I am not hungry." And when she didn't look convinced: "A vampire my age requires very little blood to survive." He added quietly.
The girl remained silent for a moment. She leaned back in her seat, rested her right elbow on the arm of her chair and her chin on the palm of her hand as she surveyed him with an expression he couldn't read. "You do realize that you're acting a tad bit selfish there, right?" She finally asked, raising her left hand and spreading her index and forefinger by an inch. Before dropping it and sighing heavily upon seeing the look of incomprehension on his face. "I should have thought not."
She shut her eyes closed, and brought fingers to her temples to massage them briefly, as if his lack of understanding was giving her a headache.
- "You know," she started slowly once she had reopened her eyes, "I understand how it feels to have people nagging you to do something that they believe you need for your health or safety, when you personally know that you really don't need to." She paused and rested her forearms on her thighs, using them as support as she leaned closer to him. "Trust me – I do." She emphasized earnestly, and he believed her. After all, the girl seemed to be at the top of her species, just like he was at the top of his. "And from what I've seen, Eric can be annoyingly fussy about you. But right now, you can't say that he doesn't have ground to be worried. Because in all honesty, sheriff - you look appalling. No offense meant." She raised both hands level to her chest, their palm facing him in a soothing gesture, and he couldn't help but smile a fraction.
The girl really had a knack for saying things that no one else – not even his progeny - would have dared utter in his presence. And she was probably right too. He had stopped caring about his appearance a long time ago, but now that she mentioned it, he probably did not look his healthiest. Of course it had nothing to do with hunger, it was only a sign of how weary he was of his existence. But she could not know that – nor could his progeny and nest-mates, and it would be understandable that they would take that as a sign that he needed to feed.
- "True Blood does not taste too great, I get that." She went on. "But drinking it would only take you about 5 seconds. On the bright side, it would certainly reassure the people who care and worry about you... And prevent me from wondering whether you're not suddenly going to get blood cravings while I am, well, the only natural food source around for you." She said matter-of-factly. "So yes, I think it's fair enough to say that your stubbornness not to drink, however founded, is rather selfish." She finished, and the ancient vampire's stare saddened imperceptibly.
She had subtly, but clearly, just separated herself from those who "cared about him", as she put it. And although reason told him that this was completely understandable – they had only met four times after all, and weren't exactly intimate - a part of him felt slightly wounded.
Even worse was how she was apparently worried that he might turn on her. He hated that she might think she had anything to fear from him. But he could not blame her - not after what his progeny had told her about him. Not only had Eric implied just a moment ago that his maker might want to feed on her, there was everything else he had said to her that night.
Godric had heard Eric ask the young woman what her relationship with him was, and at first he had only inwardly rolled his eyes at that. But then to his irritation, the Viking had rather crudely described his former preferences in front of her. The feeling had only intensified when Eric had told her that the absence of mark on her necks meant she couldn't be his. The girl really did not need to know that many details about his past habits.
By now, he was feeling downright annoyed with his progeny. Godric valued the detective's trust, and he would need to have a serious talk with Eric about not giving her information, or make implications, that might tarnish her opinion of him.
When he spoke, however, he did not voice his thoughts. Nor did he allow them to show.
- "I would not drink from an unwilling human. Not under any circumstances." He said quietly instead, as he held her stare to emphasize his words.
Amusement danced in her eyes for a second, and he frowned slightly, wondering what had been humouristic in his words.
- "Well, that certainly is good to know. But there is no need to be so serious, sheriff. I am not really worried - I was only making a point." She replied with a smile, and it felt as if a weight were being taken off his chest. "And in any case, I'd probably taste very plain to you." She shrugged, causing him to raise an eyebrow. Now, where did that come from? She must have seen the interrogation in his eyes, for she spoke again to explain her statement.
- "Your favourite blood type is AB-, right?" She gazed up at him expectantly, and he gave a small nod. Yet another piece of information his progeny had let out - although this one was relatively harmless, he had to admit. "Well, I'm O-. So you see, not a single little A or B to enjoy." She said with a mock apologetic look.
The old vampire shook his head to himself. Humans. He understood her reasoning now, but taste preferences did not actually work like that.
He did enjoy AB most, because the mixture of A and B brought a nice balance between the two flavours. But types A and B alone tasted too strongly, and he much preferred O over those two. Besides, he disliked positive rhesus types - the taste of iron was more pronounced than in negative ones, which gave them a metallic taste that he did not care for. All in all, contrary to what the girl had said, O- was very much to his liking.
Besides, drinking from the source or from a bottle were two very different experiences. In the latter case, blood type was indeed the determining factor. But there were other criteria that needed to be taken into account to assess the pleasure that came from feeding on a human. Such as their smell, and the texture of their flesh.
The girl was not wearing perfume, something he approved of. There was something chemical about perfumes that repulsed him, and make his head ache. Her scent was very flowery, delicate and not too sweet, which he found very pleasant. And the fact that it was fainter than other humans' was tantalizing - it made him want to edge closer to her to better breathe it in. As for her flesh...
Involuntarily, his gaze fell onto her neck. Her hair was tied up in her usual high ponytail, which left her throat exposed. She had a pale, perfectly smooth skin, which looked like it would feel very soft.
And wonderfully tender. It would probably tear under the lightest pressure of his fangs, he reflected somewhat longingly.
Suddenly, he was very much aware of her heartbeat, of the vein pulsing along its rythm on the side of her neck, and of the stream of life running just beneath. The desire to bite her seized him so powerfully and unexpectedly that his fangs all but sprung out.
- "Still with us, sheriff?" The young woman asked, and he was glad that she didn't sound like she might be aware of his internal turmoil. But he didn't answer - his attention was entirely focused on trying to keep all his teeth to their regular size and inside of his mouth, while not letting anything show.
Damn. He had forgotten how hard - and painful - containing himself could be. A part of him even marveled that he could still lust for blood when he had been certain all his vampire instincts had died out for good.
- "Sheriff?" She inquired again and now there was concern in her voice. He took a deep breath in - a pure reflex since he did not have any heartbeat to steady in the first place - and his fingers clenched tighter around the bottles of True Blood that he was still holding in his hands.
- "Quite all right, thank you." He said in his usual, quiet tone once he had managed to repress his instincts. He forced himself to hold her stare, and she smiled with relief.
Maybe Eric was right, he pondered. Maybe he did need to feed, even if he was not feeling hungry per se. In any case, it would certainly help him keep his thoughts from straying into dangerous territories, so he uncorked the first bottle and brought it to his lips. He nearly gagged – he had forgotten just how appalling the synthetical version of A+ tasted.
The girl sat up straighter in her chair, and her eyes didn't leave him as he downed the two bottles.
- "HAH!" She exclaimed once he was finished, punching the air with her fist victoriously. "I just can't wait to see the expression on Eric's face when he hears that I've managed to make his precious maker feed, when he so lamentably failed to do so." She said with the immensely self-satisfied air of someone who has just triumphed over a long-time rival. "Give the brat a taste of his own uselessness." She added with a smirk as she looked over to where Eric was standing.
The attitude was so childish he normally may have considered it with benevolent indulgence, but would not have graced it with a reaction. Coming from her, however, he found it very amusing, and he couldn't help the smile that stretched his lips.
Besides, she wasn't even wrong. Despite his own advanced age, his child truly was still a brat.
And for some reason, the thought made him laugh.
Slowly, the girl turned to face him again. Her own grin had slipped away from her face, replaced by an expression of utter confusion - one he had never seen on her until now. A small part of him grew concerned, wondering what could have caused the sudden change. But the rest only noticed how cute she looked like that, with her eyes opened wide and her mouth in the shape of a small "o".
To his disappointment, however, she hastily rearranged her features, and she was about to speak when the sound of a heated argument erupting from the main room cut her out. The Stackhouse girl was clearly audible, along with another woman's voice which he had never heard before. The detective looked away from him to the main room and then back at him, as if she expected him to tell her what was going on. But he hadn't been listening to what was happening in his living room, and didn't have any more information than her. But then the sound of something being forcefully thrown down and crashing against glass bottles came to their ears, and she jumped to her feet.
Godric, however, was at the heart of the commotion before she could take more than a few steps, his hand clasped over the throat of the she-vampire responsible for it, effortlessly holding her back from sinking her fangs into the blonde's neck.
This vampire had attacked a human in his own home, which was bad enough. But she had also interrupted his time with the girl, and he felt exasperation threaten to rise in him at that. That was just one too many interruptions.
First, in the sanctuary, there had been that young woman who had claimed the detective for herself. Then, tonight, there had been Isabel bringing in Hugo for him to judge while they were talking, and when he had been done with that, the girl had disappeared from sight. And now, this feral vampire… No, really, he was feeling less than tolerant towards her.
- "Retract. Your. Fangs." He uttered as clearly and patiently as he could, looking her in the eyes as he refrained the part of him that wanted nothing more than to tighten his fingers around her neck and be done with it.
- "I neither know, nor care, who you are. But in this area, and certainly in this nest, I'm the authority. Do you understand?" He said slowly, allowing only the slightest hint of menace to creep into his voice.
- "Yes, sheriff." She answered reluctantly, and it struck him how much she sounded like a female version of Stan. Stan, who couldn't attend the party due to being currently punished for his behaviour on the previous night. Godric was glad that these two couldn't meet. He let go of her and went on.
- "This human has proven herself to be a loyal and courageous friend to our kind. And yet you treat her like a child does a dragonfly, pulling off wings for sport? No wonder they hate us." He stated somewhat bitterly, his eyes darting over to Eric, who was standing on his left. His progeny had the grace to look down in shame as his eyes met his maker's, and Godric returned his stare to the she-vampire in front of him.
- "She provoked me." She uttered through gritted teeth.
- "And you provoked me." He countered tersely. "You disrupted the peace in my own home." He leaned closer to her. "I could snap you like a twig. Yet I haven't." He stated. "And why is that?"
- "It's… your choice." She answered, jaws still clenched. There was so much spite in this one.
- "Indeed it is." He answered smoothly, before taking a closer look at her. "You're an old vampire, I can tell. You've had hundreds of years to better yourself, yet you haven't. You're still a savage. And I fear for all of us, humans and vampires, if this behaviour persists." He stated, loud enough for his voice to carry to everyone present as his eyes left her to sweep over the deadly quiet assembly.
He allowed for the silence to settle so as to emphasize the solemnness of his words. Then, he addressed the black-haired vampire who was holding onto Miss Stackhouse, asking him to escort that acquaintance of his out of the nest, and ordered her to be out of his area before dawn.
At that, he looked around him, satisfied that he might go back to his discussion with the detective, only to see her animatedly speaking with the blonde human. He stepped closer to them and, upon noticing him, said human beamed.
- "Thank you so much Mr. Godric! That was very impressive!" She chirped, and he inclined his head in her direction in acknowledgement.
- "Yes sheriff, that was quite impressive indeed! Just like yesterday in the sanctuary!" The dark-haired girl agreed, and he had the unpleasant feeling that she was being sarcastic. Her smile seemed just a little too wide and her voice just a little too sweet. "You can certainly show vampires how to behave with humans – as long as they are not your progeny." She added, confirming his suspicion. For although the Stackhouse girl did not seem to get the accusing edge in her voice, he did not miss it.
- "Miss Stackhouse – could I ask you to give us a minute?" He asked the blonde quietly. Her eyes widened slightly but she hastily nodded, before flashing a smile to the detective and departing.
Godric's eyes went to rest on the young woman in front of him.
When he had seen Eric grab her by her jacket, he had immediately risen from his seat to stop whatever he was planning to do with her. But then he had seen the loathing on her face. He had wondered what might have caused her to react with such a fierce feeling, when she had been so patient with that Gabe human at the Fellowship. Godric could remember her allowing the brutish man to fling insults at her that he personally would never have put up with for a good moment while she tried to get him to calm down, before she realized that knocking him out would be the only way.
A second later, however, her expression had turned into one of iron determination, and Godric had thought that maybe – just maybe – even if she was human and Eric was, well, Eric, she might be able to do something against him. He knew he would still have had time to intervene if he was wrong, since he was still much more powerful than his child. But he hadn't been disappointed. Much the contrary, actually.
The three men from their previous encounter had been one thing. Gabe, although a gigantic brute and a practiced fighter, was still human. But a vampire was another thing entirely.
Of course, Godric believed that if Eric had not been so stunned that she had actually attacked him, he would effortlessly have been able to catch her arm before it reached him, and she would never have been able to overpower him. And if the scene had happened anywhere but in his home, Eric would have killed her as soon as he had regained his wits. But the way things had happened, she had actually had the upper hand over his progeny, and that without ambushing him or using a stake, or silver, or any other trick.
And then when she had finished, had been rather amused to hear her fling Eric's words right back at him. The girl had style, he had to admit, and he liked that.
He wanted to tell her that the only reason why he hadn't stopped his progeny was because he believed that taking a beat-down from a human would teach him not to treat them like property much better than a hundredth scolding from himself. He looked into her eyes and was about to do so, when a man's voice resonated throughout the living room.
- "Excuse me everyone! I'd like to have your attention please."
The exasperation Godric had felt earlier was back, this time mingled with a touch of despair. Was he never going to be able to have more than five minutes of continued conversation with the girl?
- "Wait - I recognize him…" She whispered, and that made him turn his attention to the speaker. A boy with an overlarge coat – clearly human, he registered.
- "My name is Luke McDonald, and I'm a member of the Fellowship of the Sun."
Godric frowned to himself. What could anyone from the Fellowship be doing in his home?
- "I have a message for you all from reverend Steve Newlin." He added, and Godric's confusion increased.
But the detective must have understood something he had not, for the next thing he knew she was yelling for everyone to get down, just as her arm wrapped around his chest, and he was so surprised that he did not even resist as she forced both of them onto the ground.
A split second later, he heard the deafening sound and felt the heat of what he realized was a bomb explosion.
OK first: I'm soooooo sorry for the late update!
I moved from France to Singapore a few days after I posted the last chapter to start an internship there, and things have been hectic! Packing, travelling, visiting flatshares, moving in, visiting the city, working, socializing... Hectic.
But I am NOT forgetting the story! I'll still try to update as soon as possible, and you have no idea just how much your reviews help (I don't think I'd have updated before another 2 weeks without them) :D Royal Ember, downbelowgirl, Xtyne, Ilovefashion2001, Atlafan1286, VampireElf14: I love you guys ^_^
The next chapter will be the last one dealing with the Dallas arc of the TV Show. I know it was long, but I really wanted to introduce Godric as I believe he might be under the surface, as well as my OC :)