PART FOUR

Chapter 8

"Enough already, its been trying enough this week and if we don't do anything soon, there isn't going to be anything left saving. As it is he is starving and isn't healing and as such, he can bleed out. He wants death to come to him and I am not letting it happen. All of you….you have been here for him and have tried speaking to him in turn. And I really believe its helped, even though its hard to see any difference. I sense it though. I sense a change within him that fighting spirit within him, its flickering back to life. But its tenuous at best. "I guess it has to be me that gets him well…."

"You can't possibly think about going in there….who knows what he may try to do he is not in his right mind." Willa grabbed Sookie's arm, panic in her eyes and Elsa and Gunnar had to nod in agreement. "I know you don't think he wouldn't harm you but he isn't himself…..he's unstable at best and-"

"Please don't take this wrong but I have known him longer than you have." Sookie said, her fractious temper being tested.

"And I have known him longer than everyone here, save for some of the Vikings here and even then, he wasn't around long after his family was massacred. And I am saying he is dangerous. As much as I want to go back in to help him I am not stupid either." Pam looked as impatient as Sookie and the others were feeling. "I feel like if something isn't done now, we may not get another chance. While we are out here waiting for some sign or a miracle, he is getting weaker and more unhinged. All because snuffed it." there came a blast of light as Pam was thrown back into the wall, a frazzled and angry Sookie glaring at her. She didn't want to do what she had just done, didn't want to risk going back to the way they once were, that animosity and jealousy between them. But she was overcome with worry and fear of what could happen if they didn't. Pam got to her feet and though looking rather murderous, she restrained herself. "I am going to ground…somewhere else. Anything happens, shoot me a text." with a nasty look, she left, Willa and Sookie and Elsa in her wake.

"I am sorry about that, I just…I lost it and I-" Sookie felt guilty for harming someone that was family now, someone she had come to think o sister. That they had come to fat over the years, she feared that they had just taken ginormous steps backward. And then again, she and Pam had come to a understanding, things had been good for the most part. Maybe a breather would calm their nerves but for now, they needed to focus on being there for him, which was why she was rather unsurprised when Pam returned a half hour later, still on edge but she took Sookie aside as the others talked about what they could attempt next.

"I don't blame you for what you did and actually, not many get a chance to go at me and live to tell the tale. I used tot think you were just some vapid faerie princess….you've done well as a hybrid and made me proud to call you a relative. But if you ever tell anyone I complimented you….." Pam gave her a fangy smirk and Sookie nodded stiffly, though she managed a small, meek smile.

"I know you worry about him and you are right, you have spent more time with him that I have…any of us have and you know him better than even I do." Sookie sighed. "I tried using my power to help him…..to calm him and it worked for a few moments but then it was back to the melancholy and now…suicidal and all…" she looked earnestly at her friend, her family member. "You were the one that found him in France, was he….this bad?"

"This, my friend, is about a thousand times worse. I… hate feeling so helpless in helping him. I thought maybe we could talk sense into him, snap him out of this but….I don't like not being able to do anything and with you trying to do something and it not working…."

Looking at the door that separated him from the loved ones who were worried about him, Sookie sighed. "I thought about going back in but….I think I need some rest, I feel a little…..off and I want to be at my best if I'm gonna try again."

Chapter 9

She tossed in turned in the cleaned up room. That it had been out back to rights so fast was helped by her own special abilities and even then, there remained the specter of misery and melancholy there. And though Elsa had led the protests in allowing her to enter the cell, they all knew that as powerful as they were, none outmatched Sookie and her magic. And her determination to heal things. And she entered the room, knowing full well he had to be starving by now and with his mind already a hot mess….clearly, she had to be on her game.

"Can I come in?" she knocked on the door rather than flashing herself right into the cell, knowing that her kin were nearby, ready for anything that may happen. But she also shut the door on the bars of the door, keeping them from seeing anything going in inside. She stepped in, taking gingerly paced steps. The sun was starting to come up and she knew the others would still wait as the castle was, in fact, designed to be light tight when needed. This was when modern tech came in, as there came a siren noise that ran through the whole of the structure, through speakers, warming those within the are to enter the castle for the day or to go to the simple but comfortable light tight bunker building adjacent to the castle. Every structure on the land was outfitted with a button that when pushed, closed metal blinds down over the windows. And so with all safely within the confines of the even more fortified buildings, Elsa didn't need to worry about anyone save for her family at the moment.

Slone in the cell with him, she was wary, knowing anything could happen at any time, that he was unpredictable at best, dangerous and deadly. Round one, round two. Round three…she didn't know what attempt this was anymore, all she cared about was bringing him back form such a precipitous place. "So…can we try this again? Maybe hear me out? No blood being spilled or saying nasty things or….whatever." she said, trying to start a dialogue between her and her beau. She ached for him, knowing the torment and turmoil that had taken a grip on his body and mind, never before had she dealt with anything this intense, terrible and with everything the had faced before, this was certainly one of the worst things she had seen in her life. And she was not about to lose him because of crippling depression, though she knew from her own dealings with her own anxiety and sadness he had had, depression was certainly a formidable opponent. One that never really ever went away.

"I feel it coming, s=
Sookie." he said, staring at the ceiling. "It won't be long now…." he said. "And I don't want you around to see it, I don't want any of you-"

"You are going to sit up and feed. And we are going to get through this together. You need help and I and everyone else out there are going to get you back to your self. Tough love or whatever, but I am not sitting back and watching you destroy yourself or others in this madness you're suffering from. Would you please just look at me, say something?" she was shouting and knew, even with the blinds covering the door window down, the others were outside listening to every word. "Get off your stubborn Nordic ass and snap out of it…people depend on you and want you around, as difficult as you can be sometimes, we love you!" she found herself at the side of the cot and was looking down at him as he looked up at her face, furrowing his brow, taking in her expression. He looked dreadful and she knew he couldn't last much longer without a good feeding. "I don't mean to hurt any of you but I need to do this for myself, for you all. You would all be better off without some unhinged vampire not being fully here for you, wallowing. At least this way, it would be one less worry and you'd have each other and-"

She put her hands firmly, forcefully on his temples, surprising him and her magic kept him still, no easy feat. And it was then she saw it, the underlying cause that she hadn't had the chance to detect before, or perhaps, it had not had the chance to take full effect. Someone had certainly helped his illness along and whatever magic it was, it was using his feelings against him, making him this way in the hopes that either he would, in fact end himself, or someone would be forced to. And she saw a face that she was familiar with and the face was someone she had thought a friend, but was so clearly a wolf in the henhouse. Jealousy had clearly taken root in the vampire named Henrik and as she took her hands off her own Viking, she put a hand over her mouth in shock that someone had managed to do this, she saw it had happened when he had arrived, lured by magic there and the second blast of the magic used to make him the way he now was.

He blinked up at her and saw the worry on her face. "What?" he said, seeming lucid, sane for the moment. Sitting up, he went to take her hands but it was clear she had a distrust of him in his current frame of mind but she told him what she had seen and heard. "I don't think that's the case….I came here on my own….." but there was a note of uncertainty in his voice and again, she told him what she saw.

"You were lured here with magic, subtly he used your pain to drive you off to here and here we are…I can bring you to lucidity for a few minutes at a time but…..we need answers. And only one person here can grant them." she opened the door to the cell and was unsurprised to find the others waiting. "Bring Henrik here. Now."

Elsa wasn't used to being given orders but this was a circumstance unlike anything else and so she soon returned with a confused looking dirty blonde that was a tall and broad and very Viking in appearance but there was something about him that Sookie hadn't noted before. But the closer he was brought to her, the stronger she got a sense of just what was up with him, he very clearly was imbued with something dark and dangerous. And yet, he tried playing the innocent, oblivious part.

"What am I doing here? I thought things were settling down." he said

"Were you? Or were you hoping that by now there would be a pile of dead bodies, including his?" Sookie said as she gestured to where her own Viking sat on the bed, she sensing through their bond the period of lucidity she had managed to being about was fading fast. "What and why have you done thing to him? don't lie, I saw in his mind you come to him after he got here, taking him aside and adding to what you already started with, the magic that helped bring him here…..you need to undo what you did because I tried and its like a knot I can't unravel. And that's saying something, I have power you couldn't begin to imagine…..why I am not using it to incinerate you on this spot is only because I need answers."

"Destroying me isn't going to undo anything. There is a price that needs to be paid and I don't think you want to know what it is because you, my pretty little freak are the one what has to pay it. I didn't want you or your freak show family joining us ever, we did find before you all came along and I wanted you gone. I make no apologies for what I have done and can only hope that if you pay the price that you are wiped out. Knowing that at least one of you are going to be destroyed puts me at peace." Henrik said with a smirk that disgusted all in his presence. "You and your family are a disgrace to the rest of us…..mixed blood like you have, what he has….all of your are too tainted, too caught up in the ways of modern living….I hate the technology brought into our midst and you…you don't come back unless its convenient, all the while running some club and living so far from the life you were born to. You decided to ignore your past, to ignore your heritage and birthright. All to make money and live like none of this matters to you. Well, I actually care about preserving the ways of MY people and though we may have fangs, we still keep traditions of the Vikings alive. While you sit back and enjoy your fat bank account you got after becoming a…..pitchman on TV…" Henrik said the last part with a very clear air of disgust. "The only way to undo what I did is for someone else to carry the burden."

Pam made a move to offer herself up but the wicked vamp smirked. "Only one with magic can take it out and my dear whore, you would be goo before you even got a good start in taking the taint out." Henrik turned and looked at the faerie/vamp sitting on the bed besides the once more regressing Viking, her magic only able to buy minutes at a time of lucidity.

"Is that all we need to know?" Sookie demanded as she stole a concerned took to her right as Eric clenched his head, the demons of what had befallen him rearing their ugly, suicidal head. Henrik nodded stiffly as a solemn looking Elsa stepped forward and with a smooth,, fast motion, the devious vamp was reduced to a pile of goo and Elsa made no qualms about getting her regal looking clothing soiled. In fact, she looked relieved, gleeful to have vanquished the cancer that threatened her family. But it wasn't over yet. She turned to her sister in law at this point, hoping for finish this fully.

Chapter 10

"You may not make it, it could be dangerous." Willa said as they stood outside the cell for a private chat away from their shared loved one, who was spiraling back into a unstable state of mind. "What if something goes wrong? What if that Henrik lied to you?"

"My powers let me see into vamp minds." Sookie said with a scowl, not towards her family but at the situation. "I don't care what it costs me, I am the only one who can end this. And there isn't much time left, I can feel it. If I don't act now, there isn't any going back. There ain't going to be anything to save and best case scenario? We euthanize him for his own good and for ours. Worst case? He gets out of this place and…everyone of us are in danger, much less anyone unfortunate enough to cross his path elsewhere. He is a loaded weapon, even when stable….we've all seen what he can do."

The others nodded. "Is there anything we can do? I mean….we came all this way I hate to feel useless and helpless."

It still amazed her that her knowledge, her instinct from her faerie magic took hold of her, especially in the most trying of times and so Sookie knew that it would, in fact, be a team effort. "I need you three to create a circle around us, creating positive energy while I use my hands to put out the magic harming him. My magic should work with your connection to me that I will create. This isn't going to be easy and will take a lot from us all, I fear. But we can't not try.""

The three obeyed and together, Elsa, Pam and Willa held hands and with some finagling, had made a circle around where Sookie started to cast her magic, still amazed at how attuned to her abilities and nature she had become. She silently thanked her late grandfather for awakening the knowledge, the power within her fully. And then it began, she started to let her magic do what she wanted, needed it to do. She watched as slowly, a darkness, the sickness drew from him, in the form of a foggy blackness that dissipated as soon as her light touched it. Everything after that was a blur as she son lost consciousness, feeling her body fall to the ground, caught by the ones who had also played a part in her trying to nurse him back to perfect health.

Epilogue

She awoke wrapped in the soft warmth of the animal pelts she had come to enjoy on the bed. True, it wasn't her Target comforter set like at home but this was almost better, keeping her warmer and she had actually contemplated bringing some of these rustic blankets home with her. But for now, she blinked up at the soft torch lit room, amplified by a batter powered lantern on a nearby table. And there in the flickering shadows in a chair beside the bed, she saw him sitting, staring intently, it was evident he had yet to sleep himself, the tell tale sign of the bleeds upon him but he clearly didn't care and looked relieved as he took her hands and looked more grateful than she had ever seen him.

"How are you feeling?" Eric asked, ignoring his own wellbeing.

She looked as relieved as he was as she sat herself up, her energy already better than it had been when using the magic she had to spare him, his sanity. "I felt….drained before." she said, smirking at her own joke. "But I feel….good. And it looks like we saved your ass. Again."

He laughed. "Clearly your sass is in tact….." his face fell. "The others…I sent them out of the room, even Pam, she was here watching and waiting for you to get up. Finally she said she couldn't stand this place and she and Willa headed back to the states with the promise I texted them the moment you got up. They didn't want to leave the bar for too long with Ginger mostly unsupervised, though Pam did convince Jessica to go keep an eye on thing .Pam, though, she was also quite worried about you, though she would never admit it. Its funny, even after all this time, how far you two have come….its nothing short of a miracle I think."

"And to think you never believed in miracles before, how cynical and jaded you were."

"Oh, that's still there….but you've made it less so." he pulled his cell phone out and with a quick call delivered the news to the others back in the states. "They are both fine, by the way…..they were a little dizzy after the fact but after a good feed, they bounced back."

"Good, I worried that something may happen to them, I work on instinct. And luck." she said as she hopped out of bed and circled around to sit on his lap. "I am so glad everyone is ok….you've got a goof family around you, you know…."

"His sister being his favorite." a voice called from the doorway and Elsa stood there, regal looking as always but smiling with a look of pure relief. "I didn't mean to interrupt but I sensed you were up….anything you need, don't hesitate to ask. You know we keep a supply of nourishment for you just in case."

"Thanks but I just want to rest." Sookie replied as she leaned against her Viking."

"Rest." Elsa said with a knowing grin. "Ok, well you two just 'rest' then and I will see you shortly. "Just remember that I may be old but I picked up modern slang, euphemisms and whatever else pretty fast." and with a saucy smirk that was so her brother, she left the two of them alone. Alone to not rest as she had implied, but to literally rest, to recover from yet another close call.

THE END