Chapter 9
XXXXXXX
Eric's booming laughter filled the room, but only Ramon failed to realize it wasn't a happy laugh. When he added his little boy's tittering giggle to Eric's baritone, the sound made the entire scene seem even more surreal than it already was.
"If you would be so kind," Eric said to the faerie in a steady, dismissive tone, "perhaps you could explain why we should not drain you dry, rip you apart, and send you back where you came from in pieces?"
Gawain Brigant met Eric's glare with no visible trace of fear. If he was feeling it, he was hiding it well. "I was led to believe your inability to access where I came from is a major liability in your current predicament. I can help you with that. I can also tell you who is suspected of being the cause of your troubles."
"Any of the faeries involved in our, troubles, as you call them, could do the same. A clever one, and in my experience I have found most faeries to be quite clever, would claim to be from amongst our friends, rather than our enemies."
Gawain moved his stare to Sookie.
"He's right," she said to him before he could speak. "You'll have to do better."
"Sookie, I have-"
"My lady is a Queen, and you will address her accordingly," Eric said, the unspoken threat perfectly clear in his voice.
"Your lady is my cousin," Gawain countered boldly, "but I have no wish to offend."
The faerie took a single step to his right, to afford him a more direct line of sight to Sookie. He moved slowly and didn't step outside Eric's reach, so the movement was permitted. Next, he slid his right foot forward, bent at the waist, and made a ridiculously dramatic sweeping gesture with his arm.
"Most beautiful and Royal Majesty of Nevada, Louisiana and Arkansas, I, your humble cousin, have come bearing a message from your great-grandfather." Having delivered his theatrical line, he returned to an upright position and resumed staring at Sookie.
"Take care, faerie," Eric hissed. "I have a low tolerance for being mocked, and for fools."
Gawain paid no attention to Eric at all. He was focused on Sookie.
"What message?" Sookie asked, glancing around the room to be certain the other vampires were holding their ground.
Gawain cleared his throat and Sookie noticed Eric's eyes narrow. His patience wasn't going to hold out much longer.
"Say something Gawain," she urged.
"It was Eric."
"Ha-ha-ha-ha-da!" Ramon chirped happily. "Orelles punxegudes!" He stretched out his hand and took a step toward Gawain, but his mother held him back.
"No Ramon, queda't amb la mare."
"What?!" Everyone but Ramon asked in unison.
"Insanity!" Eric shouted. "How dare you try to implicate me? Why would I take a favored pet from my beloved Queen? No. Don't speak." Eric wrapped a hand around Gawain's throat. "I've heard enough faerie lies to last the remainder of my nights."
"Eric! Wait!" Sookie pleaded. She put a hand on his arm and looked up at him. "Let me ask one more question. If he doesn't have the right answer you can kill him."
Eric's lips curled into a sinister smile as he released his grip on Gawain's neck. "It appears you have been offered a momentary reprieve."
Sookie looked into Gawain's eyes and tried to see his thoughts. She couldn't. Sometimes she could catch snippets from some faeries and other times it was like looking into a thick fogbank. "Why would my great-grandfather send you to accuse Eric to his face, when surely both of you know he would kill you for it?"
"I don't believe it was an accusation. I don't think it had anything to do with what's happening now. Before I left, Niall took my hand and told me there was something left unsaid between you, the last time he saw you. He said, "Tell her it was Eric. She'll know what it means. Well, I've told you and clearly Niall was mistaken, you don't know what it means."
Eric's hand moved and Sookie caught it in hers. "No. He's telling the truth. He's from Niall. I understand the message. He wasn't accusing you. He was confirming you."
Sookie stepped forward and slipped a protective arm around the faerie. "I'm happy to meet you, cousin Gawain. Please come sit."
She started to lead Gawain to a chair, but Eric grabbed her arm to stop her. "I am thrilled to hear you now comprehend his cryptic message. Would you mind terribly explaining for those of us who lack your savvy?"
"The last time I saw my great-grandfather I was in Bon Temps, recovering from injuries you are very familiar with. Just before he left, he said, 'The vampire is not a bad man, and he loves you.' Those were the last words he spoke to me." She waited for his reaction.
Gawain slipped out of her arm and sat down in a chair.
"Orelles punxegudes," Ramon whined again, reaching toward Gawain and trying to tug away from his mother.
The faerie looked at Ermessen. "My apologies for addressing you improperly if you are titled, but may I ask what he wants? I would be happy to oblige him if it would not present a danger to me."
"He wants to touch your ears," Ermessen replied, ignoring his reference to her title.
"She is the Queen of Spain," Sookie said, then she looked back at Eric in response to his grip tightening on her arm.
"I would expect no grand praise from Niall. What was left unsaid?"
Eric really didn't get it. Sookie felt a surge of power. She liked being in a position to explain something to him. "He didn't say which vampire."
Gawain rose from his seat to address Ermessen. "I would be honored to grant his request, Your Majesty." He leaned in Ramon's direction, brushed his hair back and touched the tip of his ear with the tip of his finger. The invitation was met with gales of giggles.
Eric's expression grew dark and Sookie laughed in response. "Your jealousy betrays you every time," she whispered, a pleased smile decorating her face. "I didn't doubt who loved me, or who I loved, but I did often wonder which of you Niall believed truly loved me. Now I know."
XXXXXXX
The night had passed and Lydia's body was still lying near the bars at the front of the cell. Alexei was in his day death, chained to the wall in the back. The silver chain curtains were moved back to the walls by the elderly servant faerie, who brought a late night meal and two bottles of True Blood. He left the tray just inside the door, next to the body.
"I'll get it in a minute," Mina said. "I'd like you to try something first. Try to break your chains."
"I have tried. I am less fond of them than you seem to think." He leaned his head back and began a study of the ceiling.
"Try again. Please." She dragged at the chain until it lay across his palm.
He looked down and raised an eyebrow. "Fine." He obliged her by struggling with the chain until he was almost angry and frustrated enough to choke her with it. Finally, he flung it down and flopped back against the wall. "Satisfied?"
"Yes." She grabbed the curtain and pulled it as close to him as she could. "Now try this."
"I see our confinement has driven you mad," he responded incredulously. "Those chains are silver. Or have you forgotten?"
"There's a reason you're not in silver chains," she said, barely able to contain her excitement. "I believe you can break this. Please try, Alexei. I know it will hurt, but no worse than what they do to you and I'm convinced you can do it."
"What if I can? So what? I still can't break these." He rattled his shackles at her.
"One step at a time. There has to be a way. Please." She pulled again at the curtain.
Alexei looked between Mina's face and the silver in her hand. He gritted his teeth and grabbed.
Mina cringed at his pained groan and the sound of his palm being seared, but then there was another sound, a metallic crack as the silver twisted and gave way to his strength.
"I knew it!" she whispered, running to get a bottle of water off the dinner tray.
Alexei released the chain and stared into his hand with wonder. "Is that normal?"
"No!" she answered, taking his hand and pouring cool water over the wound. It was only a surface wound, painful, surely, but not sufficient to cause bleeding. The silver hadn't touched him long enough to burn through the skin. He could break through a lot of silver before that happened.
She poured some more water in his hand. "Keep it still. I'm going to get the tray."
When she got back with it and placed it on the floor between them, Alexei looked at her with a sardonic grin. For a fleeting moment he reminded her of Eric.
"You know, it is quite rude to eat in the presence of those who cannot join you."
She scoffed and rolled her eyes as she picked up a pat of butter off the tray. She unwrapped it and pinched off a little piece. She rubbed it gently between her fingers to soften it before dabbing it across the burn.
He liked this human girl. She was kind. His eyes wandered to the body near the bars and he thought of the faeries coming back. He might have broken a couple of silver links, but he was still a prisoner, and he was too weak to withstand their abuse without feeding. His mood darkened.
"Damn them. They know I cannot drink this," Alexei groaned when he noticed the True Blood on the tray. "They taunt me with the fact I cannot survive as other vampires can, with this synthetic blood."
"It may not help your healing or make you feel any stronger, but maybe it will keep you from feeling the thirst so badly." Mina was trying to be helpful, but judging from his expression, she was failing miserably.
"Mina, do you suppose I've not tried?" Alexei demanded. "I was more thrilled than anyone when I first heard about the new blood substitutes. I tried them all. I even tried Royalty. I remember wondering if any of my relatives were among the contributors. I got quite a kick out of thinking I might be cannibalizing some of them.
Finally, I thought. I will not need so much. I will not have to kill so many. I must be honest with you. I enjoy killing. Even if any of the synthetics worked for me, I would be a killer, but perhaps I would kill less often."
"You don't have to kill," Mina countered. "There are lots of people willing to be donors, and even if you forced people instead of using donors, you don't have to drain them. So don't say you have to kill. At least be truthful about it."
"What you refuse to comprehend, despite what you have witnessed in this very cell, is my body does not regenerate properly without human blood, a LOT of human blood, much more than any vampire you've ever encountered. When a vampire regenerates the first thing to heal are our arteries and veins. This is to control blood loss because our blood itself does not regenerate, at all.
Most vampires actually lose very little blood regardless of the severity of the injury because their body very quickly repairs the damage to the veins and arteries. The rest comes more slowly, and in the case of massive injury, such as severed limbs, it can take months, but usually it is surprisingly fast.
Whatever it is that allows us to regenerate is in our blood, but it is not in synthetic blood. Other vampires can use synthetics to keep them alive while their blood regenerates itself, or they can take a few sips from a donor to speed up the process.
I can only assume, whatever it was about my blood that made me a bleeder as a human, now makes me slow to heal as a vampire, but the drugs they make to help humans with clotting, do not help me with healing. Just as synthetic blood does not sustain me. Since my veins and arteries do not heal quickly, I lose a LOT more blood than other vampires when I am injured. I don't heal, so I lose more blood, the healing agent is in the blood and as I lose blood, I have less blood, so I have less healing agent, so I don't heal, so I lose more blood. It is the very definition of a vicious circle.
And I do not require sadistic faeries with silver knives to bleed. Any cut or scrape will do. If I trip, or bump into something, if I run my hand along a fence or a wall and catch my finger on a splinter or a rough spot, I can bleed for hours. Sometimes I even start bleeding spontaneously with no provocation whatsoever. Granted, there are days when it is not so bad, but there are others when the bleeding you have witnessed is nothing in comparison.
Look around this room. It takes draining two people a day for three days straight, that's six people, that's sixty units of blood; just to get me regenerated enough for them to do it to me again. We're not even talking about enough to get me to top physical strength. If one of the psychotic bastards ever manages to hit a femoral or jugular, it will take eight or maybe more to get me healed enough. Who knows?
You can only take one unit from a donor before they start to feel a bit dizzy; one and a half if you have a crazy one who's willing to lie down for a few hours and drink lots of juice afterwards. Do the math, Mina. Never mind, I'll do it for you. Sixty units, that's sixty sane donors or forty crazy ones, every three days, are there THAT many donors, Mina? Are there? And if there are, do you realize how long it would take to have to go through so many? When would I have time to do anything but nurse at someone's wrist or neck?
So yes, I have to kill. I have to kill and I like to kill, but I do not like having to kill. I'll put it in terms you may better understand. A woman may enjoy housework, but walk up to her and say, 'hey baby, come clean my house', and you are more likely to be slapped than have your dusting and laundry done. I promise you, even the ones who like it, don't like having to. Having to strips the fun right out of anything."
"You compare killing people to doing the dusting?" she asked sadly.
"I have seen what humans are capable of doing to one another," he answered. "They take the lives of others with no more consideration than they would give a boll of dust. If they are so willing to put each other to the slaughter for nothing, why should I be concerned about doing the same to preserve my own existence?"
"I've never slaughtered anyone." She was tired. She didn't have the energy to argue any more.
"And I've not killed you, have I?"
She was expecting him to add, 'so there!' as the young teen he appeared to be might have done, but of course he didn't. He was over a hundred years old now, and he spoke as a man speaks, even if he would always have the angel face of a pampered fourteen-year-old boy.
"Not yet," she answered.
"Exactly, and perhaps if we're lucky, I won't have to at all." He sighed heavily and pointed toward the try. "Give me a bottle. For you, I will try again. I suppose it is possible they have changed the formula."
He wasn't halfway through the bottle when he started retching violently and splattered True Blood joined the real bloodstains surrounding them. He was in mid gag when apparently the sun came up and he collapsed into a heap. She stood over him for a moment wondering if it was possible for him to choke to death while he was dead? She decided it probably wasn't, but she knew she would worry until sundown came.
Alexei may be an admitted remorseless killer, but she was less afraid of him than she was of the faeries. There was no furniture or even a blanket in this cell (humans rarely lasted long enough to need them), so Mina curled up on the stone floor next to Alexei and fell asleep.
XXXXXXX
With Eric convinced Gawain was indeed an ally rather than an enemy, the tension in the room cooled considerably. He, and the way he interacted with Ramon- as if there wasn't a thing in the world out of place about a child vampire occupying the body of a middle-aged man, charmed Ermessen. His only inquiries were when he asked for translations. Even Oliver looked at Gawain now without death and dismemberment in his eyes.
At Eric's suggestion, they moved to the duck grotto. Ermessen had the servants bring a table and several chairs and set them up in the corner farthest from the water. Four of Ramon's nannies came along as well. Ramon loved the water, so there were always at least four others present whenever he came to the grotto.
The spring its self was small, but beautiful. It was a shallow pool about six feet across at its most narrow point, which was closest to the door. It grew to around fifteen feet at the widest and most secluded point, about twenty or so feet back.
The pool was fed by a little underground offshoot of the Rio Ebro that had forced its way through a crack in the rock about seven feet up. The water pushed through the crack and cascaded down a rock formation shaped sort of like a slippery, rounded staircase and the whole thing was encircled by a naturally formed cage of stalactites and stalagmites.
"Most of Ramon's part of the complex was built making use of as many of the spaces already hollowed out by a connected series of small caves as possible," Ermessen explained. "I wanted his living area to be more interesting for him."
When the others took their seats at the table, Ramon wanted Gawain to come play with him in the pool. It took a good bit of cajoling from Ermessen to convince him to play with his nannies while Mommy and the others had a turn with Gawain.
Ramon reached into a bucket hanging on the wall and brought out a handful of dried bread squares. When he approached the edge of the pool, six small ducks paddled over to greet him. He tossed the bread into the water and laughed happily as the ducks scrambled to get their share.
"The portal door is at the far end of the pool," Gawain said to Ermessen. "He will be fine at this end. Vampires are much faster than faeries and even water faeries have to breathe. The water also prevents us from masking our scent, so we are particularly vulnerable when we are wet.
It would be far too risky for them to make any attempt at Ramon with this many of you so close. They would never make it back to the other end of the pool with him before you overtook them. Just tell him to stay close to this end, where you can see him."
"Do I need to threaten you with what will happen to you, if you are lying to me?"
"I believe you just did, Your Majesty. I have only my word as assurance of my truth," Gawain said with a bowed head and a solemn tone.
"Ramon, I'estada en aquest fi, aixà que la mare pot veure, I vostè pot veure."
Ramon smiled and waved at his mother and Gawain before getting another handful of bread and returning his attention to the ducks.
"Who has Mina?" Sookie asked, anxious to get to any helpful information Gawain might be able to offer.
"We don't really have any way of knowing exactly who has her," Gawain began.
Oliver closed his eyes. He'd already heard enough. His hopes of seeing Mina again faded with every passing moment, and this faerie was not going to be able to offer him any way to stop it.
"But you said you and Niall thought you knew," Sookie protested, her hands balling into tight fists on the table. "Eric, he lied."
"Be patient, Dearest," Eric said, gently placing a hand over hers. "He said they believed they knew who was behind our troubles, not necessarily Mina's specific location."
"Thank you," Gawain said, nodding to Eric. "My apologies for failing to be clear.
As you know, we gain passage between our world and yours by way of portal doors. The ability to create and destroy these doors is a power bestowed by nature, only upon our leaders.
After the unpleasantness with Breandan, Niall closed the doors, to seal and protect us from the corruptions of your world."
Sookie shivered at the mention of Breandan and moved her chair closer to Eric, who put a protective arm around her. Ermessen was listening, but keeping her eyes on the pool and Ramon. Oliver felt his hopes slip away another inch.
Gawain continued. "Niall assumed it was Breandan who created so many portals, in order for his minions to slip back and forth with ease."
"Breandan was only a figurehead," Eric stated.
"We believe so, yes. Because there are so few females among our kind, Breandan's wife Aednat was allowed to live, after Breandan and their son were dead. It was hoped she would continue to be fertile and help to replenish our numbers.
Two months ago it was announced Aednat had formed a new union with Daire Kearney and she was with child. They have not been heard from since the announcement. Niall believes it is Aednat who is creating the portals. She is the leader."
"She wants me to pay for Breandan and her son being killed," Sookie said.
"A Queen and a pet, in payment for a husband and a son," Oliver added in an icy tone.
"Silence," Eric hissed at Oliver, seeing the effect his words were having on Sookie. "Gawain, what else?"
"My cousin has other enemies amongst those who disappeared with Aednat."
Ermessen turned to Gawain, her mind laser focused on the issue at hand. "This woman must be stopped. What can we do to achieve this end?"
XXXXXXX
The clicking sound of the cell door opening startled Mina awake. The lunch tray was being brought in. She rubbed her eyes and got to her feet. She picked up last night's tray and headed toward the bars to make the exchange.
It was Lorcan. He was carrying the tray himself. She looked around and was surprised not to see anyone else. She steadied the tray she was holding on her left hand and extended her right to retrieve the new tray from him.
"Pretty and good balance as well," Lorcan said, with what passed for a smile. "I should think you could have a promising career as a cocktail waitress." When she didn't respond, he leaned toward her and added, "You see, my comment is funny because we both know you worked as a cocktail waitress for several years. It was a joke."
Mina was able to force a smile, but nothing more. They had still not exchanged trays.
"You are a strange creature, Mina Carter. Perhaps if we fae kept human pets, we wouldn't loathe you so much as a species. Doubtful, but one cannot be certain. Why have you asked no questions of us?"
"I figured it wouldn't do any good," she answered without hesitation. "What could I ask that would make any difference? Will you return me to my mistress? Will you set me free so I can try and find my way back? Is there anything I can do to win my freedom? I expect the answer to all those questions is 'no', so why waste time asking?"
"Why?" he said. "There is a good question. Are you not curious why you are here?" Even a little?"
"May I put the tray down?" she asked.
"There, you see? You do have questions." She didn't move and he seemed pleased with her restraint. "Yes. You may put down the tray."
Just like a game of 'Simon Says'. She carefully placed the tray on the floor between them. He followed her example with the tray he was holding.
"I am curious," she said, "but any question you're willing to answer, probably isn't a question that will get me any useful information."
"What a clever girl you are," he replied. "The dead do not deserve you. They should oblige us all and stay dead and stop importuning the living. How much do you know about your mistress?"
Mina could feel her heart rate quicken. She wished it was night. If she was going to be questioned, she could use a shot of Oliver's spare courage right about now. "She's very kindhearted and she's a natural blonde."
"Fascinating, no doubt," he said, leaning casually against the bars. "And if I were applying for a position as her publicist, I would delighted with more such tidbits, but I'm looking for more intimate information.
She was once held by the fae, as you are now. Does this come as news to you?"
Despite all her desperate efforts to the contrary, Mina began to quake. She tried to answer, but her tongue would not obey.
"Never mind responding, Pretty Mina," he murmured in a silky voice dripping with menace. "I can see you have heard. Did you know our siblings Lochlan and Neave were her hosts during her stay with us?"
A sound she didn't recognize escaped her and though she felt it coming, it was beyond her control to stop it. Mina wilted into a heap on the floor. Her mind was frantic. Oliver, I need you.
"Their reputations precede us yet again," the silken voice said, but there was a note of anger in it now. "It can be a challenge to step into the sun, when you must first escape a previously cast long shadow."
Stand up, Mina, her mind screamed. Give in to the pain when it comes, but until it does; don't surrender to the thought of it. They enjoy watching the suffering. Don't just hand it to them. Make them earn it.
She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and willed herself to stand. She was almost surprised when she opened her eyes again and actually was standing.
"Well done, Mina," Lorcan said, as he slowly clapped his hands together four times to applaud her. "Very stoic.
My brother and sister are dead because your mistress was a vampire's whore. I need to know about your relationship with her. Does she love you enough to try and come for you herself?"
"I-" her words caught in her throat, but she managed to push them out on the second try. "I thought your brother and sister died because they were torturing her. I've seen the scars."
"To-mA-to, to-mah-to," Lorcan said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Let me assure you, torturing people is neither a deadly, nor a hazardous activity. I do it all the time and I have never sustained even the smallest injury as a result. Answer my question. Will she come for you?"
I don't know." Mina answered truthfully. "Not if the King can prevent it." She saw no reason to lie about Sookie. They already knew all about her. They weren't asking about Oliver, so she left him out of her comments as well.
"Kings and Queens often have to deal with the unexpected when matters of personal revenge collide with larger plans. While our, um, chief bureaucrat, is anxious for her own private audience with your mistress, Niamh and I would much prefer meeting with her first."
Mina stiffened her spine as much as she could. "If she comes for me, she won't come alone."
Lorcan looked her directly in the eyes. His grin was displaying far too much pleasure considering their topic. "Oh, but she will. She will have no choice. We are well masked from vampires here. Only the blood of the fae may enter. She is an abomination, but she will be able to pass through."
"I'm here, and Alexei and Saaset. We're not fae."
"There are exceptions to every rule. Or so I have been told." Lorcan bent down and retrieved the old tray from the floor. "Wrong blood type?" he asked, looking at the one unopened and one only half empty bottles. "I'm sure we could come up with another if you prefer."
"He tried, but it made him throw up. I don't think a different type would make any difference. He says it all makes him sick." For just a moment, Lorcan's expression reminded her of her mother, years ago, when she'd brought home a D on an English exam.
"Not as clever as I thought," he said with a heavy sigh. "How disappointing. The True Blood is for you. You might have noticed it was brought while your friends were taking their outrageously long, daily naps, and it was chilled rather than warmed.
No matter. Two nights from now Niamh and I will return for our next round of research. Rest assured, pretty Mina, he will kill you before then; if for no other reason than to make us remove the body." He pointed down at Lydia. "We only take them out in twos, you see. The question is, will your blood be enough to sustain him through the next trial? True blood is rich in nutrients that mimic human blood. It should fortify yours; give it a power boost."
"But if True Blood makes him sick, if I drink it, won't my blood make him sick then?"
"It shouldn't. True Blood is lacking something. Your blood has it, whatever it is. The combination of the two should do him a world of good. This is your test. Since you are bound to die anyway, do you love the vampires enough to make your death a true sacrifice?"
Lorcan turned and left the cell, clanging the door shut behind him. She was still standing there, staring down at her lunch tray, long after the clacking of his shoes were out of earshot.
Eventually, she leaned over and came back up with one of the two icy cold bottles of True Blood in her shaking hand.
It took a few minutes, but she was finally able to choke it down. It was thick and very sweet, too sweet to drink comfortably. It was difficult not to dwell on the ick factor, but she replaced the lid on the bottle and put it down. Since she knew what to expect, she would be able to drink the second one quicker, but she'd do it in a little while. She didn't think she could do it now without throwing up.
She took the tray to the corner furthest from Lydia and sat down cross-legged on the floor. She took a drink from a bottle of water to try and rinse away what felt like a sticky sweet film coating the inside of her mouth. It didn't help much.
I'm really going to die, right here in this cell.
She picked up a sandwich and took a bite without even noticing what was between the slices of bread. It didn't matter anyway. Nothing mattered any more. She swallowed hard and took another bite. Her fate was sealed, but there was no reason for Alexei to die with her, not if she could prevent it.
As she sat alone in the shadows eating her sandwich, it was as if she could feel herself fading away into whatever nothing greets you after death. She took another bite as silent tears began to roll down her cheeks.