Chapter 6

XXXXXXX

Time passed more quickly with someone to talk to. Saaset was telling Mina about how she'd been abducted in Barcelona. She'd just had her final fitting for a gown she was having made to wear to a reception at Queen Ermessen's villa.

"It was a beautiful night," Saaset recalled, her voice sounding far away as she relived the dream which would become a nightmare. "The sky was beautifully clear and filled with stars, but the moon was new, so shadows reigned on the ground. A perfect night for lovers; if only Perdigo had come with me to the city, but no, he rarely leaves the manse any more."

Saaset paused for a moment and Mina did not interrupt, for fear of intruding on some private memory. After a few seconds there was a sigh and Saaset continued. "He says he once loved the sea, as do I. He has a yacht moored near the Port Vell walking bridge. Since it was close by I decided to go for a walk and enjoy the night and the sea on my own.

I instructed my driver to meet me on the opposite side of the bridge. He was not gone very long and I was not yet within sight of the bridge when I caught the most amazing scent. It was unlike anything I'd ever smelled before. I found myself tracking the scent, following it as if it was calling out to me; beckoning me to come. It was hypnotic.

As I turned into a small side street I felt the darts. They were silver and filled with some sort of drug. Probably something that could kill a human for them to have any effect at all on a vampire. Everything went out of focus. I was afraid I was going blind, but even so, the pain in my back held my attention away from where it should have been.

I was clawing at my back trying to reach the darts when they covered me with a silver net, like the ones attached to the walls here. It made the pain from the darts seem no more than a slap, and what I will always remember; what made it so surreal, through all the panic and agony and terror, everything was permeated by that wonderful scent."

"I didn't smell anything when they took me," Mina replied. She had nothing pretty or pleasant to report about being snatched. There was only fear and confusion for her.

A door opened somewhere down the hall, quickly followed by the approaching footsteps of more than one person.

"Oh no," Saaset whimpered.

"What is it?" Mina asked, feeling herself filling with a sudden dread. "What's wrong? What are they going to do?"

"Not them." Saaset's voice sounded strained, as if she had to force herself to speak. "Perdigo, please!" she cried. "No more! Stop!" There was a clinking thud as Saaset threw herself into the silver bars.

And then the screaming started.

Mina ran to the bars and called her name, but Saaset did not respond to her. Mina could see bits of shining blue silk with some kind of pink pattern flit through the bars occasionally and twice Saaset's hands slipped from the bars and protruded into the hall. They were bleeding, and her screams were deafening.

Niamh arrived in front of Mina's cell accompanied by an elderly and frail looking, male faerie. He was carrying a tray. The tray contained a covered plate and several drinks, including four bottles of True Blood.

When Saaset's hand slipped again, Mina noticed a sound she hadn't before, and a smell. It was the sizzle of the silver burning her flesh. Mina brought both hands to her mouth and stepped back from the bars in horror.

Niamh looked toward Saaset's cell with utter contempt for several seconds before turning to look at Mina. "You live among them. Are all vampires this stupid? They must be if even their ancients are so loathe to give up their puppet strings."

"I don't understand!" Mina cried, covering her ears and backing further away from the torment in the next cell. "What's happening?!"

Niamh tried to answer, but she couldn't be heard over the screams. She rolled her eyes and brought a large key from her pocket. She unlocked the door and entered.

Mina tried to resist when Niamh grabbed her by the wrist, but it was no use. Niamh was very strong in spite of her fragile appearance. She dragged Mina into the hall and yanked her around so she faced Saaset's cell.

"Look what they do in their arrogance," Niamh sneered.

"Who?" Mina pleaded. "I don't see anyone." She tried to look away, but she couldn't. She felt a surge of courage and all she could think was; not now Oliver, I don't want the courage to look at this.

There was Saaset, alone, her thick mane of chocolate brown hair tangled and matted with blood, some sticking to her tortured face, some flying wildly in all directions as she flailed against the bars. The floor was bloody now. She lost her footing and crashed into the stone floor, but still she struggled to leave the confines of the cell.

"Her Maker is doing this," Niamh spat. "For a solid week summoning has failed to bring her to him, yet he doesn't give up. All this suffering and through it all she knows he is angry with her because she isn't responding."

"He's summoning her," Mina said breathlessly. She'd seen vampires summon their progeny many times. Sometimes the one being summoned would be annoyed because they'd been in the middle of something, but nothing like this. She wondered if it had ever occurred to any of them a thing like this was possible. She certainly hadn't.

Suddenly Saaset's body went limp and she lay very still.

"Saaset," Mina sobbed. "Saaset, are you alright?"

The burned and bloodied body on the floor slowly curled into a ball. "I will be," she groaned.

"Going to the trouble of building a torture chamber down here would be superfluous, wouldn't it?" Niamh was the only one who laughed at her joke. The faerie still holding the tray smiled but did not add his laughter.

Mina felt herself being shoved back into her own cell. "Show's over, time for dinner. She'll be good as new in a couple of hours and you two can chatter like schoolgirls until he tries again." To the one with the tray, Niamh said, "Leave it all in here. She can pass the True Blood around to her new best friend when she's feeling up to feeding."

A cold shiver ran down Mina's spine and settled in the small of her back. The thought of going through this harrowing experience again, let alone every time a vampire got annoyed his child wasn't responding, was unbearable. If hearing and seeing it was this grim for her, she couldn't even imagine what it must be like for Saaset.

The shiver did an encore up her spine and back down again.

XXXXXXX

"Before tonight, if anyone had told me it was possible to make me look at you and actually see a boy, I would have thought they were insane."

Eric stood, arms outstretched, with his hands on the wall while Sookie scrubbed his back with a large loofah sponge.

As ribbons of pink bubbles rolled down his body, she wondered if there was enough soap in the world to scrub away the memory of Ocella's lips kissing Eric's back. She lifted the sponge again and dropped it almost immediately. His skin was healing before her eyes, but she must have been near flaying him in order for healing to be necessary.

Pink bubbles.

She looked down at the suds swirling around the drain. It should be white. "I'm so sorry," she said, touching a spot between his shoulder blades, which only seconds ago had been red and raw.

"He cannot be washed away by you," he said to the wall. "Nor can he be forgotten by me." He turned and knelt before her in the shower, taking both her hands in his and gazing up into her eyes. "Understand, my love, as my Maker, he may take from me as he pleases, but all I have to give, I give only to you."

"Shhh." Sookie leaned and kissed him. Wrenching her hands free, she grabbed his face, as her kiss became more than simply a means of stopping his explanations and assurances. She knew he loved her more than anything or anyone else and she understood their situation. She didn't like it, but she understood.

He put an arm under her butt and stood, bringing her up with him, so their lips never separated. He reached over and turned the water off before walking them back into the bedroom.

She pulled away from him for only a second, long enough to tell him to stop at the sofa, before resuming her kiss. When he stopped, she hopped off him and scooted the coffee table off the plush area rug taking up the space between the sofa and two wingback chairs.

She sat on the floor and ran her hands across the thick piled rug. "It's just as soft as it looks," she reported, smiling up at him and patting the rug beside her.

"I will have the bed replaced tomorrow," he said softly as he joined her on the floor. He nudged her onto her back and loomed over her. "I cannot leave yet, but if you prefer, you could-"

"No," she whispered. "Wild horses pulling chariots couldn't drive me away from you. He might have the power to force me to share you, but there is no power that could make me give you up."

She pulled him to her with such urgency their mouths collided and a fang cut her lip. It was impossible to say whose and she didn't care. As their mouths unexpectedly filled with the sweet taste of her blood, Eric's passion for her pushed all else from his thoughts. There was only Sookie, her love, her body and her blood. He neither needed nor desired anything more.

In mere seconds her lip was healed, stopping the blood flow. He hadn't had enough. He wanted more of her. He needed more.

"My lover," he murmured into her mouth before beginning the journey south. As he passed, his tongue darted out to claim a solitary red drop still clinging to her chin. The purple lines visible through the milky skin of her neck were tempting, but he craved the greater pleasures that awaited a patient man.

The allure of her breasts proved too enticing to resist. When he attempted to pass them by, her arching back halted his progress. By happy accident, his face tilted just enough for a hardened nipple to graze his cheek. The soft hint of longing in her sigh reached his ears with all the ferocity of a command from the gods.

He latched onto her breast with a voracious hunger defying reason or control, his arms locking them together as he sucked. He feasted until her growing moans began to form words. One demand rose above the others.

"More."

He complied at once, situating himself between her open legs and lowering his hands until they gently cradled her hips. He leaned in low and raised his hands slowly, as if they held a sacred chalice.

Her entire body spasmed violently as he lapped at her sensitive flesh with such skilled precision he left nothing untasted in preparation for the main course. He had never heard sounds so sweet as the half spoken words of her fluttering sighs. They urged him onward and begged for the moment he would enter her.

His arms curled around her thighs to hold her steady as his lips formed into a tight O, their rhythmic sucking keeping pace with the ever-increasing urgency of her moans. He struck, with her swollen clit centered carefully beneath his fangs, so he could caress it with the underside of his tongue as he took long draws from her vein.

When she was rocked by the erratic shudders of her first release, he could wait no more. His cock ached to be buried deep within her, to feel the pleasures only her body could provide.

They made love on the floor until further exertion became impossible, then they lay very still, pressed together, flesh to flesh, each having given themselves entirely to the other.

Sookie felt as if she could have happily remained where she was forever, but from its secure place in the safety of her lover's arms, her mind was free to wander. Eric was the center of her universe. Everything and everyone else orbited around him, but there were other things and other people; she wasn't willing to let go.

"We need to go find Oliver and see if he's managed to get anything we can use to find Mina," she said softly, though despite her sincerity, no part of her body strayed from him.

"We would know," Eric assured her, giving her a squeeze and a kiss behind the ear. "Oliver has leave to interrupt if there is news and we have little time before sunrise."

"You're very good to us," she said, snuggling deeper into his embrace.

"I want to be good to you."

"You are, my darling, you are," she assured him before rolling up onto her elbow. "Now let me tell you about the boy. You won't believe it."

Sookie began by excitedly telling him about discovering the sunroom and how she and Oliver searched for an exit, but the only way in, or out appears to be the door in the hall.

"You should have seen Oliver when all the walls lit up. It was the first time I ever saw him look really scared. All he wanted was out of there."

"Most would have seen Oliver's reaction as a hint, lover."

"Yes, well I saw it as proof Oliver would never have survived being a father. It's a playground, Eric. Ermessen might try and pass it off as a picnic area or anything else she wants, but it's set up like an Old McDonald play yard at a day care center, complete with guinea pigs and ducks and birds flying around the fake trees. There's even a fence running all the way around the room to keep people from running into the walls and interrupting the movies playing there."

"A fence does not necessarily mean children. If the walls blend as well as you say, a fence would be prudent for preventing anyone from running into them. Perhaps the fence is simply to keep the animals back. You said there were ducks?"

"It's the colors, Eric. A fence to keep adults away could be anything, any design, any color. This fence is primary colors. If you're decorating with primary colors and baby animals, you're decorating a space for a child."

"Yes, the child. Tell me about him, Dearest. Earlier you said, 'The boy is a man.' You apparently liked the sound of it and repeated yourself for Ocella's benefit, but the first time you said it, you were not referring to me. What did you mean?"

"The boy is a man," she said. "He has the mind of a child, but he is a grown man."

Sookie couldn't quite make out his expression. There was a hint of something close to confusion, but not, suspicion perhaps? And disapproval. No matter how fascinated she was by her discovery, she suddenly knew Eric would not be pleased with her findings.

She explained her encounter in the boy's head in as much detail as she could recall, from seeing him watching television to seeing him in the mirror.

"Do you recognize any of the words he said?" she asked.

"Bella dama, he thinks you are a pretty lady. Clearly his problem is not a lack of taste for beauty." Eric said with a smile.

She was happy to see his smile and returned it with a kiss on the cheek. "The only name he said was 'Dolores'" she continued. "She has to be someone connected to the man chained in the dark. "

"Who?"

"Dolores," she answered, as another thought occurred to her. "I suppose it's possible she was the one chained up in there. I didn't go in that room, so I can't be sure. I assumed it was a man because it sounded more male than female, but it was only groaning, so I could be wrong."

"I doubt you were wrong, and I doubt he was saying a name," he said as he carefully considered everything she had said. "He only spoke the word when you looked into the dark room?"

"Yes. What do you think he said?"

"From your description of his reaction, I suspect the man in the room was him and he was saying 'doloros'. He was telling you he was in pain when he was in that room."

"Oh, Eric! He's disabled! Why would anyone hurt him?" she wailed. She dropped him, yes, and it probably hurt, but it wasn't on purpose. And of course it wasn't really real. It was only happening in his head.

"I cannot say, Dearest. Tell me more about this disability."

"He has some kind of mental disability," Sookie said. "Like from a birth defect, where his mind just stopped aging when he was a little boy."

"And he is a vampire?"

"Yes."

"Not possible," Eric stated with absolute authority. "It would never be tolerated."

"Maybe a brain injury from an accident or something caused it?" Sookie suggested.

"No. A vampire might go mad and believe he is a child, but you describe physical anomalies; an oddity in his gait and tics. Psychological symptoms are one thing, but physical damage, along with its symptoms should heal. His mind may well believe itself to be a child, but his body should move and react as a man, if he is grown."

"Maybe his body doesn't know it's grown, because his mind has always thought it was a little boy?"

"That explanation would work for a human, but not a vampire. If the brain damage happened after adulthood and after his making, how is it the physical manifestations have not healed?" Eric queried.

Sookie continued his thought. "And if it's a birth defect or damage that happened when he was a child and before he was made, how did he grow up?"

"There can be only one answer," Eric said darkly. He was obviously not happy with his conclusion.

"It's either a birth defect or a childhood injury," Sookie said softly.

"And?"

"He grew up human."

"To make such a vampire is expressly forbidden," Eric growled. "They can far too easily create danger to the collective. Which leaves only one question."

Sookie's tight grip on his arms fell away. "Why?" she whispered, as she succumbed to the death call of the dawning day.

XXXXXXX

Mina was awakened by a rough voice demanding she "get up".

This faerie was very tall, almost as tall as Eric, though not so broad, nor so blond. Like Niamh, he had a heart-shaped face, but while her features softly flowed from one to the next, his were chiseled and angular. His cheekbones were so high and sharp; at first glance he looked as though he were created with Lego blocks.

He definitely had the look of a man who would make your life quite unpleasant if you crossed him.

Mina sat up on the side of her bunk and faced him, but when he only continued staring at her, she stood. She felt nothing from Oliver. It must not be nightfall yet.

"You are a pet," he said in a tone every bit as humorless as his expression. "I expect no less obedience from you than your vampire masters did. Come."

He opened her cell, extended a hand and waited for her to come to him. His grip on her wrist was uncomfortably tight, but not yet painful. She looked over as they passed Saaset's cell. Someone had been in earlier and sprayed down the floor and bars. Mina could see spots of gleaming silver peeking through the black tarnish covering the bars.

She imagined the shiny spots were much larger on the inside, polished clean with Saaset's clothing and her flesh as she tried desperately to hold herself off the bars as her body was compelled to keep trying to break through.

"And here we have the most amusing vampire I have ever encountered," the faerie said as they approached the last cell in the hall, his voice taking on a sinister edge. "Not exactly endlessly entertaining, since he only does his act at night. He is lazy as well. He takes off two nights after every performance, but you are in luck. Tonight is a show night."

He smiled and gave her a sideways glance as he removed a key from the front pocket of his pants. "In you go."

"I don't understand," she croaked, surprised she hadn't started crying yet.

"Don't worry, pretty Mina, you will. Everyone's part becomes clear once the performance starts." He gave her a push into the cell and locked the bars behind her, before striding away back up the passageway.

As the clicking of shoes against stone became fainter, Mina heard a whisper. "Is he gone?"

Mina spun around, staring into the darkened corners and holding onto the bars behind her. "Who's there?"

"I'm Lydia. Are you American? Were you in a tourist group too? I'm here with some friends from college. There were eleven of us. I think two of us got brought here." A frightened young woman stepped out of a shadowed corner. There was something gooey on the floor, but it was too dim to see for certain what it was.

Mina could hear the girl's feet sticking as she walked. It wasn't difficult to imagine why. She thought of Saaset's recently washed out cell. This cell hasn't been cleaned. For some reason, they want him to see it when he rises. The blood sticking to the soles of Lydia's feet, or at least some of it, no doubt belonged to the vampire tethered to the back wall by chains.

Not silver chains.

The thought floated through Mina's mind like a single cloud across a perfect spring sky. Why not? There was no whisper quiet sizzle, nor was the stench of burning flesh in the air. The entire room is lined with silver, yet he must be chained with something else.

The eerie sucking sound of Lydia taking another step in her direction reminded Mina there was someone else in the room with her, waiting for some kind of response. "Were you with vampires?" she asked.

"Vampires? Hell no! I told you I was with a group of friends. We were out drinking last night and that guy who put you in here started buying rounds. He must have drugged the drinks or something. When I woke up, I was in a jail cell with about a dozen other people including my friend Dave. I haven't seen any vampires."

"You see him, don't you?" Mina pointed to the still body chained to the back wall.

"Is he a vamp? I thought he was just dead, or maybe asleep. I tried calling to him, but I didn't want to yell and I didn't want to touch him in case he really was dead."

"He really is dead," Mina said. "But he won't be for much longer. I think it must be almost sundown."

"Very perceptive," Niamh said from the passage. She was carrying two folding chairs. "Only a few minutes to go." She set up the chairs against the wall, facing the cell.

Mina heard familiar clicks approaching. The male who brought her here was returning.

"Mina, I believe you met my friend Lorcan a little while ago?" Niamh asked in a deceptively sweet voice.

It was really more of a statement than a question, but Mina felt obliged to respond. "We were not introduced," she answered as Lydia scuttled back to the relative safety of the corner.

"What are you doing, Niamh?" Lorcan demanded.

"I see no reason to be rude. They behave so much better when you are polite to them and don't go around bashing them in the head every time they don't want to go down a flight of steps," Niamh countered, plopping into one of the chairs.

So it was Lorcan who hit her from behind when she was first brought into the house.

"They behave when they are afraid not to," Lorcan stated. He flipped a switch on the wall and the cell was instantly bathed in light from recessed fixtures embedded in the ceiling.

Mina saw exactly what she'd expected to see, though making the jump from her imagination to reality was more graphic than she thought it would be. She gasped and instinctively wrapped herself in her own embrace.

Lydia began shrieking and returned to her corner, though it no longer offered her the cover of darkness.

Mina noticed Lorcan was holding what looked like a remote control of some kind. He kept it in his lap when he sat in the chair next to Niamh.

"Mina, come to the front of the cell," he instructed.

Lydia huddled as if trying to become one with the corner, grateful for the moment, it was Mina rather than her being noticed. Her howling devolved into gulping sobs punctuated occasionally by a yelped word or two, which, if assembled properly, might have been intended to be a prayer of some kind.

Mina was an excellent waitress, a loyal pet and a dedicated assistant. When she was given an order, she followed it. She stepped right up to the tarnished silver bars and silently awaited further instructions.

"See? There she is and I wasted no effort practicing deportment on the insignificant."

Niamh crossed her arms and cast her stare away from him. "Manners aren't as strenuous for everyone as they are for you."

Lorcan ignored her. He raised the remote and pressed a button. The curtain of woven silver chains moved along its track until it was about two feet in from the wall. The movement scared poor Lydia, who nearly jumped out of her skin as she was pushed along.

Looking at Mina, Lorcan said, "Grab the chain closest to the bars. It will open like a door. Go behind the curtain and close the two clasps. You will see them once you are inside."

Again she obeyed. When she had closed the second latch, the matching curtain on the opposite side of the room moved in an equal amount, then the two together moved inward an additional foot, leaving about a three foot aisle in the center of the room. The vampire, who Mina assumed was Alexei, was chained to the wall at the far end of the aisle; Lorcan and Niamh were seated in the passage facing the other end. They looked like children anticipating the beginning of a fireworks display. The only things missing were the smell of popcorn and a cup of soda big enough to drown a cat in.

There was a loud clang when the curtains reached their final position, then a metal on metal dragging sound, which Mina quickly realized was the curtains being pulled taut, so they were now more like mesh walls. Niamh's back was arrow straight and her pale green eyes enormous as she stared into the cell. Lorcan's lips formed a smile that made Mina's stomach threaten to empty its self on her shoes.

"I want behind the curtain with you!" Lydia cried.

It was too late, though Mina was certain it would never have been allowed. Lydia was act one in Lorcan's little drama and she was exactly where he wanted her to be. As if on cue, Alexei opened his eyes. Mina shrank back against the wall.

Nightfall had come.

Lydia had barely taken a step in Mina's direction before Alexei was on her.

As much as Mina wanted to look away, she couldn't. Lydia was going to die and she deserved a witness who wasn't being entertained by her passing.

At the edge of her peripheral vision, Mina could see Lorcan, still seated with his hands folded over the remote in his lap. He wasn't watching Alexei kill Lydia. His eyes, and that smile that made her skin crawl were focused on her. He was watching for her reaction to seeing the type of death he had planned for her in the very near future.

A wave of warmth washed over her. Oliver was with her. Her vision of Lorcan blurred as she focused on Alexei.

He was an efficient killer. Already, Lydia's screams were slowing as her life drained away.

A moment more and the thought came back around. He is a very efficient killer. There was no blood. Not a drop of Lydia's blood was anywhere Mina could see, despite the ferocity of her struggling. Alexei held her fast and wasted nothing. The copious amounts of blood left to dry on the floor and walls didn't come from his victims. It must have come from him.

She thought of Saaset, who probably thought it was Mina in Alexei's grip. The faeries cleaned up the mess after Saaset's maker tried to summon her. Why wouldn't they do the same for Alexei?

Without moving her head, since Lorcan was watching her, Mina glanced around the cell moving only her eyes. There was dried blood everywhere, on every wall, even spattered on the ceiling near the back wall. If Alexei were hurting himself trying to break through the bars, his blood wouldn't be back there. Something else was happening in this cell.

Lydia's limp body hit the bars with a sickening crunch of breaking bones before thudding, lifeless, to the ground.

Alexei ran his forearm across his mouth as if to wipe his face. He was only a boy when he was turned, sixteen at most, yet even in ragged clothes and with a feral look in his large blue-grey eyes, he exuded a quiet dignity and arrogance she'd rarely seen in anyone but Eric. He lifted his fists and rattled his chains as he stared out at Niamh and Lorcan. "Let us have music with tonight's merriment! If you have none, perhaps I will entreat the pretty woman in the corner to sing."

Mina was surprised to have been brought into the issue. She looked from Alexei to Lorcan and noticed there was another faerie present now. The man who carried the food tray before was again carrying a tray, but there was no food on it. It appeared to be piled high with small knives.

Mina felt her eyelids stretch wide in horror as her face whipped back to Alexei. No words would come.

"Fear not," Alexei said with a wide grin. "No blade will touch your skin." He rattled his chains again. "I am the performing monkey in this cage."