Chapter 3
XXXXXXX
Sookie reached toward the panel of numbered buttons, her fingers instinctively stretching to the number one; the ground floor, back the way she came. At the last second, she pressed two, one floor below. Surely a secret passage wouldn't be secret very long, she reasoned, if you could stumble across it, right inside the front door.
The first thing she noticed upon stepping out at the second floor was the hallway. This one was wider and a great deal longer, in both directions. It made sense when she thought about it. The hill was wide at the bottom and got narrower as it rose to its crest. So of course, the lower the floor, the larger it could be. Having worked that out to her satisfaction, she set out, at top speed, to investigate.
The hall contained a matched series of doors, left side all directly across from the right, and all closed.
She started with the first door on the left side of the hall, then went to the one across on the right; back and forth progressively toward the end.
The first four rooms, two left, two right, were nearly identical. The color schemes were different, but they were basic conference rooms. Each had a long table in the center with a row of comfortable looking leather office chairs on each side and one, more imposing, chair at the far end.
Tall narrow tables lined the three walls not shared with the hall. Spaced to correspond with the placement of the chairs at the main table, there was a set of various outlets in the wall above the narrow tables. Nobody was going without phone or Internet service around here, despite being underground.
She found no doors leading anywhere, but back into the hall, in any of them.
The next rooms were smaller, a storage room for office supplies and a janitor's closet filled with cleaning equipment. She searched these diligently. She was convinced that behind a shelf full of extra printer cartridges or floor wax, she'd find a hidden door leading to a little boy who spent most of his time in a big playroom with a ton of toys and a swinging double door that was a little off kilter.
She found nothing.
Disappointed but not ready to give up, she pressed on. As she reached the next door she felt a warmth in the pit of her stomach. Eric was angry. He was furious in fact, and probably with her, but she couldn't stop now. She'd only been here a few minutes. It wouldn't take her very much longer to finish this half of the hall.
If she didn't find what she was looking for she'd stop, and search the hall on the other side of the elevator next time she was here. But if she did find what she wanted, well, then it would be worth facing his anger. She'd faced it before and lived to tell about it.
XXXXXXX
As Eric reentered the ballroom, Ermessen was coming down the stairs. "What's happening?" she called out to him.
He stopped in the center of the room long enough to see the only others in the room were half a dozen human servants. None of them were Mina and the chair where he'd seen Oliver leave her was empty.
"Have you seen Sookie?"
"Not since I left you both dancing. I've been in my office. I heard a scuffle." She looked toward the hallway entrance. "What's going on in there? And what is that smell?"
Oliver stumbled into the room now. His jacket was ripped and his left arm was hanging visibly lower than his right. "MINA!" he screamed and sank to his knees.
"Don't move from that spot, Oliver," Eric ordered. "And Ermessen, stay where you are. DO NOT cross the room. They are all being driven mad by faerie blood."
Ermessen was staring at Oliver in horror. The last time she'd seen a similar expression on a man's face, it had been in the dungeons as silver spikes were being driven into the flesh of a traitor. The sight was just as revolting now.
Eric didn't wait to make sure his orders were followed. He headed straight to the donor room and flung open the door. The force broke the upper hinge, sending the door crashing to the floor, twisting the lower hinge loose from the frame on its way down.
All the humans in the room jumped, most screamed and the girl who'd been crying in the corner peed herself, and moved from simple crying to slobbering sobs.
"Where is she?" he demanded.
He had everyone's attention, but no one responded. They all stared, wide-eyed and frightened out of their wits, looking away if his glare paused on them.
He forced himself to stand silent for a count of five, a quick count. He located the young male donor Sookie fed from and spoke directly to him. "The woman I brought in here, not twenty minutes ago, she fed from you. Where did she go?"
"I, I don't know, Sir."
"Did she leave alone or did someone else enter this room after I left?"
"Alone, Sir." The fear had left his voice but not his hands; they were still trembling. "After you left, she waited a minute or two, then she peeked out. Then she left, alone."
Eric's initial panic was receding. Not because of anything this quivering human was saying, but because he could feel her. She was close and she was not afraid or he would know it, just as she was no doubt aware of how seriously agitated he was at present. He was confident she would return to the ballroom momentarily to relieve his distress.
He turned to leave, but turned back at the last second. "There are bound to be plumbing facilities nearby. You should probably use them." He pointed to the corner. "Someone take that one and clean her up."
Ermessen was waiting for him when he stepped back into the ballroom. "You take much upon yourself, Eric, barking commands in my home, to MY servants, and even to ME! Remember where you are."
He gave her an empty stare. "Can you produce my wife?"
"Why is it my responsibility to produce your wife? Does that not fall within the definition of your job?" The stare she returned to him was filled with righteous indignation.
"You are correct madam. Now if you would kindly hold your complaints until the end of the evening's festivities, I have more urgent demands on my attention at present."
"Mina!" Oliver wailed mournfully from across the room.
"You see?" Eric said to Ermessen as he strode past her on his way to Oliver.
The Queen's guards were among the vampires who were back in the ballroom now. They got to Oliver just as Eric did. One grabbed the back of Oliver's jacket.
Eric slapped his hand aside. "Get out of my way," he growled at the guard. "Your mistress is over there." He waved a hand in the general direction of where he left Ermessen. "Go see if you can't find some less bothersome way to play at protecting her."
He looked down at Oliver who was hunched over and facing the floor. "Stand and unbutton your shirt."
Oliver grimaced and did as he was told. He lifted his head to face forward, but did not look his King in the eye.
Eric stepped behind him and ripped his T-shirt down the back. After a quick visual examination he spread the fingers of his left hand and placed it on top of Oliver's shoulder. He ran his hand slowly down the left side of Oliver's back, gently feeling for exactly what was out of place.
"Your shoulder blade is broken and the arm bone is holding the fracture open. Lean forward and cross your arms over your chest."
Eric moved the large ruby signet ring he was wearing on his left hand from the ring finger to the index and turned it so the ruby faced down. He placed his hand over Oliver's shoulder blade and felt for the break again. He positioned the tip of his middle finger over where the arm bone didn't belong, and the ring over the spot where the scapula was already trying to knit back together.
When his left hand was positioned to his satisfaction, he lifted his right fist and without warning to anyone but himself, slammed it down onto his left hand.
Neither he, nor Oliver cried out, but there were numerous gasps from the growing number of onlookers, in response to the loud pop and several smaller snaps heard by everyone nearby when fist met fingers.
Eric felt Oliver's shoulder with his right hand and told him to redress himself. He looked down at his left hand. He had broken the three middle fingers.
"Are you quite certain Mina has left the property?" he asked with perfect calm as he gave a quick tug to the tip of his left ring finger. crunch - pop
"She is gone, Majesty"
"And you do not know where she is, or which direction she has gone?" crunch – pop His middle finger was straight again.
"I don't understand it, but no."
"But she is alive? You still feel her?" crunch – pop He looked down to examine his work.
"She is alive, but her fear stopped suddenly. I believe she must have been drugged."
Eric removed the signet ring from his left hand and slipped it onto his right ring finger.
"Very well," he said. Ermessen was at his side now, but he didn't acknowledge her any more than he did anyone else in the room. "Shall we have Sookie join us before we proceed?"
He closed his eyes and veiled everything in the forefront of his mind, save Sookie.
XXXXXXX
Disappointment weighed heavily on Sookie's mind as she exited the last room on the left side of the hallway. It was a sort of library with several rows of floor to ceiling shelving. With the exception of the back wall, the shelves were very shallow, no more than six inches high, and every shelf was teeming with scrolls. The back of the room was a solid wall of wide, three-inch high metal drawers containing what appeared to be very old and decrepit papers, lying flat. Some were damaged and crumbling apart; those were framed between thin sheets of framed glass.
She stood in the center of the hall and placed her hand on the empty end wall. She could hear them, the humans, but it was as if there was a thick fog between her and them. She couldn't make out exactly what any of them were saying, but all their thoughts seemed to be focused on the sole vampire in their company; an army of dedicated nannies.
The boy was happy at the moment. He was laughing. The sound made Sookie smile. It was sort of like he was repeating the word hat, but dropping all the t's.
haaaaaaa ha ha ha haaaaaaa ha ha da
She'd almost given up the idea of even bothering to check the last remaining room on this end of the hall. There was no point really. It was bound to be another library of some kind. Every other set of opposite rooms were of a similar sort. Hearing the laughter made her reach for the last doorknob. She had to be thorough. She was on a mission.
She opened the door and found something different; something totally different; something so different she'd have been frightened, if it hadn't been so utterly non-threatening, and pretty.
She was about to step into the room when she suddenly felt as if a tendril of the fog between her and the super nannies reached into her and grabbed the base of her spine. After the initial shudder from the oddity of the feeling, she realized what it was. She put a hand to her mid section and looked down at it.
"Oh no he isn't!"
XXXXXXX
By the time Sookie arrived at the grand staircase, she was livid behind her plastered in place expression of concern.
"It is safe to come out of hiding now, My Love," Eric pronounced as he came to the foot of the stairs with his right hand extended, to receive her. "The danger has passed, for the moment."
Making her look like a coward in front of everyone here (especially Ermessen, since they clearly had some kind of past relationship) wasn't doing anything to lessen how pissed off she was with him right now. Even considering he was covering her actions, and providing her with a plausible reason for her absence, she was still having a hard time controlling her urge to claw his eyes out, just to see how long it took them to heal.
"I heard a fight starting and I'm not carrying a weapon tonight. I figured it would be better if I just got out of the way," she said, putting her hand in his and squeezing as hard as she could.
Her efforts garnered an unexpected and muffled laugh from him, and even more maddening, the flash of a dazzling smile.
With Sookie in hand, he walked back toward Ermessen, whose guards were busying themselves clearing the debris from the entry of the donor room.
"My Lady is studying the art of the blade. She displays a promising aptitude for it. I believe she will become a formidable proficient. In light of current circumstances, I think perhaps it was ill advised to leave her fencing master at home."
"Why? What's happened?" Sookie asked, momentarily diverted from her anger.
"Mina has been taken," Eric stated bluntly.
A guttural hiss came from Oliver. Sookie looked to him, then back at Eric. "What do you mean, taken? Who took her? Where was she taken?"
"Those are precisely the questions we were asking ourselves when you rejoined us. As yet, we do not know. Oliver left her sitting in a chair beside the stairs there," he gestured with his left hand toward the stairs. "Then he went with the rest of us into the hall."
A wave in the direction of the hall.
Sookie noticed there was something odd about the way he was holding his left hand, but it wasn't at the top of her list of things to be curious about at the moment.
"That can't be right," she said.
Everyone was suddenly staring at her as if she'd just publicly accused Eric of lying.
Oliver came over and knelt in front of Sookie.
"You are my liege lady. I am bound to your service. I swear to you, I left her in that chair." He pointed. I thought it would be safer to leave her here, than to allow her into the hall. I was wrong." There was a hitch in his voice as if he might cry, but Sookie knew that would never happen.
"I left her there and followed His Majesty to investigate the disturbance. Mina was left vulnerable and now she is gone. The fault is mine."
"Nothing is your fault, Oliver," Sookie said gently. "I know you'd never do anything to hurt Mina on purpose. We'll find her. Get up." She grabbed his arm and gave him a tug. He flinched and stood.
In response to the look of surprise on her face, Eric said, "Handle him gingerly for the next hour or two. Your servant Oliver has recently suffered a broken shoulder."
"What?!" How did that happen?" she demanded, then thought better of it. "Never mind. You can tell me about it later. Right now we have to think about Mina. Eric, Oliver says he was following you?"
"Yes, Dearest, I heard. And I saw as well. When I left you in the feeding room, where I was under the mistaken impression you were going to remain, I noticed Oliver as I crossed the ballroom. He was indeed seating Mina in the very chair he indicated."
Sookie's eyes darted around the room as she thought. They settled on the broken frame of the donor room door. She could well imagine how the damage happened.
"You weren't gone more than a minute or two when I opened the door that used to be hanging there," She nodded. "There were a few humans left in the ballroom, but none of them were Mina and the seats by the stairs were empty. So Mina vanished in a very small window of time."
Ermessen spoke up next. "Don Rafael, if you would serve as my escort, I believe we should retire to a less cluttered room for further discussions about tonight's unfortunate security breech. Eric, if you and Sookie would join us, and of course," she looked at Sookie, "your man, what was his name? Oliver? As a witness, he must be present as well. Since apparently he is bonded with the missing human woman, he may be able to provide us with useful information."
The vampire she called Don Rafael was very handsome. He was about six feet tall with a muscular build, sandy brown hair and light brown, almost amber colored, eyes. He offered his arm at once and he and Ermessen headed upstairs without waiting to hear if there were any objections to her suggestion.
As Queen she expected there to be none. She was like a female Eric in that respect. She went about her business, leaving everyone around her to sink or swim in her wake.
Just past the elevator doors was Ermessen's private office. Sookie was surprised to see it wasn't white. The walls and carpet were pale lavender and all of the upholstery was a rich, royal purple. Each of the four sofas and numerous chairs held several fat throw pillows, the shape and color of African Violets.
Once everyone was inside and the office door was closed behind them, Ermessen began the meeting by introducing Don Rafael Movara. He was an Emissary of Don Perdigo Rog, the ancient whose progeny Saaset disappeared last week. He arrived shortly before the disturbance happened. They were in a meeting in this office when they heard it and she came out to see what happened.
She smirked at Eric. "Don Rafael entered the ballroom while you were demonstrating your rather gruesome bone setting technique for us."
He gave her only a grin in response. Sookie was confused, but again, this wasn't the time to satisfy her curiosity about non-critical matters.
"Why would someone come and create all this fuss to take my secretary?" Sookie asked with absolute sincerity. "That doesn't make any sense."
Eric and his grin leaned back in their chair and proceeded to ignore everyone else in the room; choosing instead to devote their attention to the study of his left hand.
"Obviously she was not the intended target," Ermessen said emphatically. "If whoever did this are the same ones who took Alexei and Saaset, and I believe we must assume they are, they came for a young vampire whose maker is among the very old, not a human pet."
"I agree," Don Rafael said. "Don Perdigo is most anxious to have this unpleasantness resolved and, if possible, have Saaset returned safely."
"We have all vowed to do our best to recover Saaset," Ermessen assured him. "And Eric's brother Alexei as well," she added.
Eric did not react. He appeared to be reading his palm now.
"Well, how many vampires here tonight fit that description, besides me?" Sookie asked.
"You?" Don Rafael questioned. "You are young, yes, but I have certainly never heard The Norseman referred to as an ancient, nor even as among the very old, as is his maker."
"I must agree with Don Rafael," Ermessen said, clasping her hands together and leaning forward across her desk. "However, there are several others who would fit. There is Valez Cordova, for instance. She is merely ten years a vampire and her maker Carlotta keeps her residence in a cave in the Alps. She is a recluse in Switzerland and no one I know has seen her in over two thousand years, yet somehow she manages to send out a new progeny every hundred years or so, just to prove she is still around."
"Who could use faerie blood as a diversionary tactic?" Eric asked from behind his hand, which he was holding up and moving each finger, one after another.
"Generous of you to join our conversation, Eric," Ermessen scolded.
Eric spread his fingers wide apart and cocked his head a bit in order to stare through them at Ermessen. "I have no intention of joining your conversation, madam. I find it redundant and dull. I am beginning a new conversation to address the important issues at hand." His fingers closed together and he dropped his hand into his lap.
"I will repeat myself, for the benefit of those who may not have been paying attention. Who could use faerie blood as a diversionary tactic?"
"Anyone could. Your question did not bear repeating." Don Rafael crossed his arms defiantly.
Sookie looked to Eric. His face was as placid as a cow at a hay bale. It had gone completely blank. She could see Don Rafael and Ermessen looking at Eric as if they'd bested him. Ermessen may have had a prior relationship with Eric, but she never knew him as Sookie did. They looked at him and saw nothing. She looked at his expressionless features and saw him playing a round of his favorite game. He'd figured something out they hadn't and he was playing, I'm clever and you're not.
"Anyone could, you say?" Eric spoke to him, but didn't bother even casting a glance in Don Rafael's direction. "Could you? Did you see the blood in the hall? The floor and walls were heavily splattered and I saw three tall, thin vases filled with it. There could have been more. There was at least five liters of blood. A full grown faerie holds barely two if you drain them completely." He paused for a few seconds to let the information soak in.
"To my knowledge, I am the only vampire who ever kept a faerie in his retinue and she was only partial by one eighth. Her blood did not have the purity of the blood in the hall.
At the risk of boring you, I will ask a third time. Who could use faerie blood? There is only one answer and it is not terribly difficult to arrive at, if you apply yourself."
Seconds ticked by, and Eric flexed each of his left fingers again.
"Of course!" Ermessen whispered.
Eric smiled and looked at Sookie. "Always choose allies suited to the fight, my love. For a siege, you need only numbers and cannon fodder will serve as well as anyone else, but for a coup you need thinkers; those who can be given a set of facts and work out all that can be done within the confines of those facts.
Tell us who, Ermessen."
"The faeries themselves," she answered. "They could take small amounts from each of them and pool it all together. No one would need to be drained."
XXXXXXX
Mina felt as though her heart was in danger of pounding its way right out of her chest. She'd been awake for what seemed like hours, but it might have been only minutes. Surely it was more than minutes, but it was probably not too terribly long, since she still felt woozy. It wasn't as bad as when she first woke up, so whatever drug she'd been given was wearing off.
She had no idea how long she'd been knocked out, so she had no way of determining how far away she was from anyone she knew. She was obviously far enough to not be tracked by scent or surely Oliver would be ripping through this truck or van or whatever she was in.
She was in the floor of a vehicle with her hands tied behind her back and a bag of some kind over her head. The bag was tied around her neck, but mercifully not very tight. Since she couldn't see, she tried to think. She tried to put together the last things she remembered. Eric, Oliver and all the other vampires were checking out something strange in a hall. She was waiting by the stairs and someone came up behind her and whispered, "You were with the American Queen. Where is she?" She said she didn't know and as she turned to see who was asking about Sookie, she heard a snap fainted. Next thing she knew, she was here, wherever here was.
Since she didn't know if she was alone in this part of the vehicle, she was afraid to move around. She tried to be still and quiet, in an attempt to glean some clue about anything by listening to the sounds around her, but all she heard were tires on the road and her pulse threatening to burst her eardrums. As time dragged by, her terror finally overcame her and she began to sob.
By the time the vehicle finally stopped, the bag around Mina's head was soaked through and laying in a sticky puddle of tears and snot. She tried desperately to compose herself when she heard a door open. She felt the vehicle bob as someone got out and slammed the door behind them. Whoever got out walked along the side of the vehicle and stopped at the end near her feet. A set of double doors were unlatched and opened.
For a few seconds, Mina thought she might actually be able to hold it together. Then she felt a pair of strong hands grab her ankles and yank her into the open air.
She screamed.
Screaming turned out to be a very bad idea, because when she followed it with a deep breath, she sucked in a piece of the loosely tied and drenched bag. She immediately began choking.
"What the hell?"
Something, no, someone hit Mina hard in the middle of her back. The blow sent her stumbling forward. With the wet bag over her head and being upright for the first time after being tied in a heap in the back of a vehicle, she was completely disoriented. She was going to fall.
Just as she felt the beginning of her downward motion, someone caught her.
"Take care, Alroy. We don't want her damaged. It would only rile our other guests, and it's early for that."
It was a woman's voice, and Mina was fairly certain she wasn't a female human because despite feeling quite thin and frail, she was very strong.
"You know how Lorcan likes to keep to a schedule," the woman cooed. She nudged Mina away and began fidgeting with the cord holding the bag at Mina's neck. "Did you throw up in there?" the woman asked, her voice clearly conveying her disgust.
Despite her overwhelming terror, Mina felt a twinge of embarrassment, followed quickly by intense anger. Her brain scrambled to come up with a suitably venomous retort, but fear quashed her words before they could even be formed. Whoever had her, they'd plucked her out of a den of vampires to get her. There was no knowing what such people might be capable of, if provoked. She opted for silence.
"Once I took his watch as he slept," the female continued to Alroy. "But I had to give it back right away. I feared he might drive himself mad looking for it."
There was a deep male laugh. Probably the driver, Alroy, she'd called him.
The bag was pulled away and Mina was almost pulled over in the process. She immediately threw her head backward to face the sky as she sucked in a deep breath. They were near the sea. She could taste the salt in the air. As she'd expected, it was well after sundown. Dark clouds filled the sky, shrouding all but the most brilliant stars and preventing the nearly full moon from offering anything but a constantly interrupted eerie luminescence to the night.
"Let's put you away, shall we?" the female stated, though she was smiling and the inflection in her voice pretended it was a question.
She was beautiful, enormous pale green eyes set in a heart-shaped face with high, perfectly angled cheek bones, soft pink lips and a small pointed chin. All this framed by thick cascades of silver blonde hair, pulled to her left side in a single loose braid, hanging to her impossibly thin waist. The tips of her ears peeked out of her hair on either side. She was fae, full-blooded Mina assumed. The pointed ears were usually the first distinguishing feature lost when faeries co-mingled with humans.
The faery placed a hand between Mina's shoulder blades and gave her a push.
"Wait, Niamh!" Alroy called. "Where do I put the van?"
Niamh moved her hand from Mina's back to her upper arm and gripped it tight.
Mina turned her head to look at Alroy. Pointed ears. He was fae too, though fully three times Niamh's size and not nearly so attractive.
Niamh closed her eyes, took a deep breath and held it for several seconds. When she spoke, all signs of kindness or levity had vanished from her voice. Her tone was cold and strained, each word coming out individually, as if the simple act of speaking was requiring her undivided attention. "Alroy," she hissed, "Do I strike you as a parking attendant?"
"Uh, no Niamh. Sorry. I'll work it out."
There was a slight tremor in his voice now. He was afraid of Niamh. Mina's mind flashed back to a Shreveport alley. It seemed a lifetime ago. She felt now as she had then, so small, so weak … so very mortal.
She looked at her desolate surroundings. Nothing. A one-lane access road leading to the circular driveway where they stood before what appeared to be a fair sized cabin. It looked like one of those hunting or getaway houses you saw in magazines, the ones owned by rich business men who liked to 'rough it' by staying in a house in the middle of nowhere, with all the amenities of town.
Mina couldn't see any evidence of other houses. The cabin sat in the center of a large clearing, surrounded on all sides by forest as far as she could tell in this light.
There was nothing offering her hope of escape, nothing indicating where she was and most importantly, no hint of Oliver anywhere. This wasn't an alley in Shreveport. He wasn't here to save her. This time she was alone.
Her body began to shake. It took all her concentration just to remain upright when Niamh gave her another shove toward the cabin. They walked to the door, Niamh opened it and Mina compliantly stepped through.
A lamb to the slaughter.
There were no locks, no chain latch, no dead bolt, again, nothing. They're not worried about me trying to escape from here. Or else they plan on keeping me tied up so I can't get to the door. Mina felt her heart begin to race again and her breathing was quickening. If she'd still been in the hood, she'd be choking again. Her mind was running through one scenario after another, each one worse than the last. I'll go insane if they keep me tied up, she thought desperately.
Unbidden, a tiny voice from the darkest corner of her mind broke free. It called out to her from the place where all her greatest fears and nightmares were stored away. "They're faeries, Mina," the voice almost sang. "You've heard what they did to Sookie when she was human. They were trying to get to her when they grabbed you. They probably wanted to finish what they started."
"No," Mina heard herself whisper. Niamh stopped and was opening an interior door.
"They'll be angry you're not her," the voice chirped. "Imagine how much worse it will be for you."
"No," Mina repeated, louder this time.
The door in front of them opened, revealing a rough stone stairway leading down into a dimly lit passage.
Niamh nudged Mina toward the stairs.
"NO!" Mina shrieked, her dread finally kicking her into action.
Niamh's slender fingers encircled Mina's wrist so tight, for an instant Mina thought surely it would snap.
"You're confused, dear," came Niamh's sugary purr. "We're going underground. I'm told you're fond of vampires." She took Mina by the shoulders and brought them face-to-face. "You'll love my vampires."
A broad smile devoid of anything but enough menace to match the dual threats in her eyes, formed on her face. "And I have no doubt they will love you."
From nowhere, Mina felt a wave of anger filled courage surge through her. Oliver. She hadn't lost him. He was with her, even if he wasn't here. If she couldn't get away, he would help her bear whatever was coming.
She threw herself backward with all her strength. Somehow she managed to yank her wrist free on Niamh's grip.
Mina had just enough time to register the look of utter surprise on Niamh's face, before the world detoured into blackness.