Chapter 66: Oh!

Knees scrapping on the floor, Olivia tugged on the chains, over and over again, uselessly trying to break free. She screamed in rage, she screamed in fear, and in pain until her throat was hoarse. Every emotion crashed into her, drowning her further into darkness and despair. This was far worse than being in that car accident. This was beyond worse than being strung up at a barn and having her skin lacerated a thousand times. She was destroyed. And worst of all, she destroyed someone she loved. She called out his name into the dark, summoning him back from the shadows, but he did not return.

He was gone.

Olivia had done this. If Eric perished, this would be her fault and her fault alone. She went too far, she pushed too hard. It wasn't only the Queen's greed that was going to kill him, but Olivia's too. His blood would be on her hands.

But why had he done this? Why wouldn't he let her try?

How was she supposed to ever live with herself? How could he do this? Why, God, why didn't Eric bring her with her? Eric had told her when she got arrested in the raid that if shit goes sideways, I'll go sideways with you. It clearly wasn't a two-way road. Why? Why was he so persistent in protecting her?

She knew why. It wasn't a duty, an edict, the joining or a vow. He never said it, but she knew deep in her soul it was -

Olivia couldn't even bring herself to think of the words. It was far too agonizing.

When the heavy metal back door of the club slammed upstairs, Liv knew she was no longer alone. But she also knew it wasn't him. It was time for her reckoning.

The basement's concealed door slowly creaked open, revealing a moving white shadow. She could see better now since her eyes got used to the dark. It was Pamela who walked in, taking small, slow steps. She was wearing a matching baby pink satin pyjama set with red stains and fuzzy slippers. On her face, no makeup or eyeliner, but several streaks of blood tears down her white cheeks. She held her cell phone tightly in her hand, haunting the basement like a grieving widow.

"Is he gone?" she muttered so quietly that not even the echo heard it. Olivia wanted to shout at her the obvious, but Pamela added. "Can you feel him?"

Her heart broke for her. The Queen had forced Eric and Pamela to sever ties, and she could no longer feel her Maker, the person she loved the most in the world. It must be really hard for her to ask Olivia, of all people, for something she used to have by birthright.

"Yes, he's still alive," Olivia nodded, getting up. Maybe she would listen to reason. "Pamela, listen to me, I can fix this. I can talk to the Queen, and she will-"

"Is this what you do, Olivia?" Pamela interrupted, her blue eyes cutting through her in the same way her Makers did. "You fix things? Because there was nothing fucking broken before you got here!" Her voice was not only loaded with sarcasm, but with hatred too.

Olivia sighed frustrated. No matter how much she yelled, no one seemed to listen. This wasn't about being broken or not - their system was broken otherwise Olivia wouldn't be here. But it had nothing to do with Longshadow stealing from them, and everything to do with their chaotic, impulsive, greedy and reckless monarch.

"Pamela, I didn't make him go. Why do you think he fucking chained me here?"

But her anger was far bigger than her body could contain it. "Because you are a fucking liar! You've been lying from the second you got here!"

"Me? A liar? That's fucking rich coming from you," Olivia said, feeling the hatred take over her skin.

"Don't you try to turn this on me! This is your fault! You were supposed to see this coming! This was your fucking plan! This was your fucking job, Olivia!" The words stung more than a werewolf's blade.

"Fuck you!" Olivia seethed, but deep down she knew Pam was right, about everything. "I never wanted any of this to happen! He chained me here so I wouldn't stop him from-"

"NO!" Pam thundered. The vampire couldn't even bear to hear the word, and Olivia was thankful she wouldn't have to say it.

Pamela took another step, shaking. "I will not fucking have this! I will not lose Eric like this, do you understand? We spent over a century together and he leaves me with a fucking voicemail?"

Olivia suddenly understood her rage. All he left her was a voicemail?! Olivia wanted to fucking slap him too, just for that. "Fucking listen to me, Pamela! I can fix this, goddammit! I can talk to Sophie-Anne and I will make her spare him. There's still time!"

But it was like yelling at the void. Pam stood still in the dark, too angry to look at her.

"Eric ordered Bobby to take you to the airport," she repeated Eric's words bitterly. She squeezed her pink cell phone so tightly it was a miracle it didn't explode into a thousand little pieces. "And that you're flying outta here, never to come back…"

Before Olivia could even formulate an answer, Pamela's cold body suddenly slammed into hers making the whole metal contraption creak and whine around them. It became clear then, that if Olivia was never to be seen again, she might as well be dead. Liv took many steps back, trying to get away from this rage monster. Olivia gasped as she held Pamela's hands around her throat, trying to stop the vampire from choking her. They stopped frozen in a deadly embrace, Olivia waiting to feel her cold fingers wrap tightly around her throat and squeeze the life out of her. Or would Pam tear her head off? But all Olivia got instead, was the loud clunk of her metal collar fastening open.

Everything stood still for a moment.

"Go," Pamela whispered. The chains slipped across her chest, and her arms lowered.

"You're getting on that plane, but you ain't runnin'," the two locked eyes. "I'm sending you to New Orleans."

Olivia's eyes widened, her heart still racing in her chest. The air in her lungs was still waiting to become trapped, but it didn't. It wasn't going to. Pamela was setting her free. Again.

Unlike Eric, she trusted Olivia could fix this. And unlike Eric, she didn't care if Liv lived or died. In any case, it was a very strange thing to have her blessing. She wondered what they could accomplish together, instead of fighting each other at every turn. Probably world domination.

"Come with me. Remind the Queen why the two of you are a package deal, bonded or not. You hold a lot more leverage over Sophie-Anne than you think."

The tall blonde shook her head, and she seemed lost in thought for a very long pause. "I can't… Leave."

"Why not?"

Her eyes glittered in the dark again. "Because Eric has made me Sheriff."

He arrived in his black Lotus Exige, his all-time favourite car, around 1 in the morning. He had driven down in record time and had a blast doing it. Eric wasn't in any particular rush to arrive at the Queen's gates, or he would have flown Anubis if that were the case. No, almost everything about today was about indulging in simple pleasures in life, the ones he was really going to miss once this house of cards finally fell.

After parking the car in her round driveway, he admired the lit-up and lively gaudy mansion. There were drunk humans and vampires walking through the gardens admiring the collection of peacocks and other exotic animals the Queen collected. Live jazz music came from somewhere inside, along with laughter and voices. Security guards were posted everywhere like statues, watching the guests like hawks. Wonderful.

Eric abandoned his black beauty and made his way through the long stone hallways, passing by expensive art, naked drunk people, orgies and messy feedings spilling over the white marble floors. People in masquerade masks, latex dresses and suits or vintage lingerie, laughing and moaning. Delicate humans twisting and twirling between ivory silk sheets hanging from the ceiling like art. There were trays of sparkling champagne and fizzing blood flutes floating around the guests who paid the servants no mind. It was all white, and red, sex and indulgence.

"A refreshment for the Sheriff?" A whiny voice he recognized called him out.

André, the Queen's only progeny and second in command, offered him a gorgeous Asian woman who stood beside him wearing a spotless white silk robe. André must have been no older than 16 when Sophie-Anne turned him, and it was quite rare that one would find vampires this young. The impulsive teenage temperament doesn't mix well with death and eternity. But somehow, André's half-formed brain prevailed all these years.

The boy had curly blonde angel hair, an annoying voice, and a particularly dislikeable air about him. Every time he opened his mouth André spoke as if everything and everyone was beneath him, and he was doing you a kind favour for not telling you.

"No, thank you. Where would I find our Queen?"

He almost rolled his eyes at the question. "Taking a short break from Yahtzee. Buy-ins are 10 thousand, and she's playing to five million."

Of course she was. "I'm afraid I'm here for business, not leisure."

André then snapped his fingers and the human following him zombied away to another room, leaving them as alone as they could in this full house.

"Lots of unannounced visitors this evening," he sighed as if Eric's presence was the biggest inconvenience of his undead life.

"God has really given you the hardest battles, André."

The boy squinted, not appreciating Eric's antics. "You could have called."

"It's an urgent and private matter, and I don't trust phones. You never know who's listening," Eric also didn't want to give her time to plot or make any move before he arrived.

André cocked a brow, eager for punishment. "You left your post without permission?"

Eric leaned towards the little prick, who pruned under his shadow. "It's not mine anymore. Now, if you excuse me."

He walked away before giving André a chance to react to what he had said. His title wasn't within his authority to give away, but hopefully, it was going to be part of his negotiation tactic. Come sunrise, Eric would most likely no longer be the Sheriff of Area 5.

Down the East corridor, Eric could now see the wide ornate sage-green doors leading to the Queen's courtyard were wide open. Across the decorative pool were the iron doors of the Queen's guest house, which the Queen had transformed into her famous day room. It was the end of a tunnel, highlighting the only way out. The irony burned in his stomach like silver. He wished it hadn't come to this.

The whole palace vibrated with music and laughter, sex, greed and lust. No one seemed to know or care that it had all been built on blood, lies, crimes, death and sacrifices. As Eric stepped on the wet stones leading to his dreadful final destination, he found a passing moment of calm and quiet. He expected more of the same - loud voices, and the rolling of dice, ecstasy and opulence attempting to fulfill the hole in the Queen's heart.

The hole, which he now knew, was Olivia-shaped. He didn't judge the Queen, for he was starting to know the pain of losing her all too well. But, maybe he would be lucky. Maybe he wouldn't have to live knowing he lost her.

However, once he entered the bright room he encountered something he did not predict. Steps away from his fate, someone he thought to be the Queen was sitting still on the guest's antique chase, her back to the door as if she was another ornament in this room. The uncomfortably bright light shone on a head of beautiful strawberry blonde hair. The womanly figure watched the pool water by her feet. He knew this wasn't her usual seat, she usually sat on the other side, facing the entrance as any other monarch would.

Time slowed down, and the blood in his veins turned colder as he approached the figure he now recognized on the chair. She was dressed up more than usual, with black boots and a romantic white peasant dress with long bishop sleeves. If this was all just a nightmare, he wished he would have woken up now.

Everything came to a halt, and suddenly they were a diorama just like the ones outside the fake day sceneries of the windows. The reality he found himself in did not feel real. Eric stood next to her, grabbing his hands at his hips, a tall sentinel by her side. He almost didn't want to look down, fearing his heart would explode right then and there. But seeing her face again was one of the best pleasures in life.

A long moment passed by, and he now understood what André meant by unannounced visitors - plural - at the palace. Eric just wanted to stretch this moment for another second longer. Everything he was trying not to feel all day was starting to bubble up inside him, the pressure pushing the walls within him, growing like a wild beast he could not control.

Eric's hatred for this place grew tenfold. He detested the Queen, and most of all he loathed this fucking fake lighting. It was a cold, sterile and inauthentic copy of something he now knew very well. There was no freedom in the painted blue skies on the window. There was no serenity reflected in the pool water. There was no life in dying the exotic plants.

But in her brown eyes, he saw everything, all of it. And he couldn't deny himself of that. He lowered his chin, looking at the conniving, deceitful, manipulative, brilliant and formidable woman who sat on the guest chaise. Her back was straight, her ankles crossed and her hands resting on her lap like a beautiful painting. It was her, his white Swan, his accountant, his Olivia.

Of course, she got out of the cage.

"I take it Pamela is pissed?" He asked, eager to hear her voice.

Her brown eyes looked up at him, full of darkness and stubbornness. Pamela was most definitely to blame. His progeny had let Olivia go in time for her to intercept his plan, despite his clear orders to let Bobby take her at midnight. There was no stopping the ocean, but there was no stopping Pam or Olivia either.

"Oh, yeah," Olivia said, sitting still like a doll but her anger was growing with every breath. Her heartbeat, however, told him otherwise. She knew what the likely outcome of cutting the Queen off would be, and yet she came anyway. Olivia was a warrior, like him. Unphased by danger. "You have a lot of apologizing to do."

But he knew he didn't, as Eric wasn't sorry for a damn thing. He wasn't sorry for dragging her to Dallas, he wasn't sorry for saving her from that bomb, he wasn't sorry for taking her hand at the ball, or for taking her out to dinner, or for falling in love with her, or for bonding with her and pissing off Gods. Eric wasn't sorry for all the killings, all the blood, all the drugs, none of it, not even chaining her in the basement. He said he would protect her, and he was going to die by his word. He meant it then, he meant it still.

"I don't, actually," he said, feeling the strange calm take over him.

Eric was ready to give it all up - everything. He was half out of his mind with love for this woman, and he didn't think twice about what he was throwing in the fire, as long as he could keep it burning for another minute.

He looked deeply into her brown eyes one last time, burning bright with anger and love. If only were he allowed to stay awhile longer beside its glow. That's how he would love her in the end. With his body cold and shuddering. With empty hands over smouldering ash, counting out the seconds until the last light went out.

It was as if nothing had even happened.

Every night in the Vampire Queen Louisiana palace was a night just like this one when she worked directly under Her Majesty, six months ago. An endless make-believe of indulgence, a never-ending party where no consequences were allowed in. But now Olivia had seen the real cost of it. She had seen the risk, the sacrifice, the lives lost and ruined to make all of this frivolous, meaningless, shit happen. Olivia took a deep breath, adjusting the long sleeve of her dress, as she had hidden the ultimate consequence under the left cuff.

She slipped into the palace almost unnoticed. The guards were keen on recognizing the faces of anyone the Queen took in her court from strangers, and they still remembered her. This must mean she was still part of the court, despite being banished from there. The other vampire who recognized her was Andre, the Queen's progeny and right hand who despised her. He didn't do well playing the second favourite, and she could feel the hatred in his eyes from across the ballroom. It made the hair on the nape of her neck stand up.

Quickly Olivia found the day room, the place she knew to be the Queen's favourite. It was empty, so she took a seat for what seemed like a lifetime. The last time she'd been here, Sophie-Anne was covered in her blood and destroyed this place entirely. She realized it now, how enraging it must have felt to have her favourite fantasy shattered after briefly seeing what the real sun was like. To get a taste of the life she lost centuries ago. To see the golden light, after eight hundred years of darkness and then have it taken away all due to one little fragile part-fae heart, that loved so rarely and broke so easily.

Olivia often wondered if Sophie-Anne loved the sun as she seemed to, why did her blood repulse her so much? Was Eric right? Wouldn't the Queen have held onto her like the holy grail, especially if Sophie-Anne's feelings were true? Or was it not love at all? She was just deeply infatuated with the idea of Olivia, like Jaimie? Was Olivia such a terrible monster that her true self was completely unloveable?

The pit in her gut only told her that Eric was right, but only because it was an easier pill to swallow. The Queen loved nothing but power and control and did not take kindly to having the fantasies she so carefully built to be damaged. And the dream that she was in fact, wealthy, was the most important dream of all. It was the foundation of her ruling. Without it, she was the Queen of nothing. This room, this palace, this whole Kingdom, was just for show.

An eternity later, slow heavy steps approached from behind her. She could feel the sweetness of his presence in the room without even looking. Knowing his eyes were on her was an unmistakable feeling.

He shadowed her, joining her at the front lines like a pale knight. She wanted to scream at him still for what he had done. But once she looked up at him, Olivia had no choice but to forgive him. Deep in her heart she why he had done it. She just hoped she could prove him right and actually pull this off. Everything she'd worked for hung precariously at the edge of oblivion.

Eric towered next to her, and now they waited for their fates together. "I take it Pamela is pissed?"

"Oh, yeah," she said between her teeth, trying to control the wave of anger she still felt. She may have forgiven his reasons, but not his actions. It was also in character that even at the eleventh hour he would try to get under her skin. It also deeply annoyed her that he knew Olivia wasn't able to break free and be here without Pamela's help. Still, she remembered Pamela's rage, mirroring her own. Eric shouldn't have left either of them the way he did. "You have a lot of apologizing to do."

The vampire clasped his hands at his hips and shifted lazily on his feet. Still, she could see his posture stiffening.

"I don't actually," he said coldly, but his eyes gazed at her with nothing but heat.

In their bond, there was nothing but an eerie calm. Not a hint of regret. That's who Eric was, through and through.

"You shouldn't be here," he added, the last plea as the echoes of ticking heels grew louder, like the countdown of a clock.

"I'm exactly where I should be," she told him as she raised off her seat for Her Majesty, standing next to him.

The Louisiana Vampire Queen Sophie-Anne LeClerq entered the room through the south door which led to the greenhouse, her favourite place to feed. A place that always existed in the back of her mind, no matter how hard Olivia tried to bury it. She had trusted the Queen out of love, and all she got was a betrayal. Sophie-Anne cleaned the blood off the corners of her lipstick, strutting into the room in a long cream-coloured pantsuit, with strings of pearls cascading down her chest. Her blue eyes scanned the duo standing side by side across the blue pool.

"Oh!" She gasped without meaning it. "You've arrived too late! My Kadupul flower bloomed and it started to wither already," the Queen said as she sat down and lazily leaned on her sofa, stretching her perfect long legs. "A gift from the Vampire King of Indonesia. A bit underwhelming if you ask me, but what's a girl to do for entertainment around here when one of her Sheriffs imprisoned her best procurer at the bottom of the Red River."

She shot Eric a bone-chilling look, but Olivia intervened. She wasn't surprised Sophie-Anne knew since she had spies everywhere, but if anyone was going to take the heat for this, it would be her. "We didn't come for the flower, I'm afraid," Olivia said firmly.

The Queen turned her head, focusing all her attention on Olivia. "Then why are you here? Don't you two have money to make me?" Her tone switched to irritated immediately.

"The Magister knows," Eric hit her with the full blow, now allowing Olivia to soften it. She was trying to stop Armageddon, but Eric was running straight toward it.

Sophie-Anne LeClerq sat up, straightening her back. "Sigebert!" She shouted, and the vampire guard posted at the main entrance behind them poked his unnaturally large head in the room. "Secure the doors, please."

It was with a loud thump that the door shut and locked behind them. The south door locked from the outside as well, sealing them inside the Queen's day room - or their catacomb, she didn't know yet.

"Knows what precisely?" She asked from the edge of her seat.

"About the blood. Too many V users out on the streets, all over the country, and not enough vampires dead or missing to blame it on drainers," Eric gave the report matter of factly, unafraid of the consequences. "He knows vampires are selling it."

"But the Magister doesn't have proof," Olivia added, trying to de-escalate. "We have time to remedy this situation."

"Then I suggest you remedy it," the Queen stood up from her seat, rising as a vexed red-headed snake, seething the words with a control she was not known to have.

"We will," Olivia assured her.

Sophie-Anne shot her a look that made her immediately regret the use of the word we. The two women locked eyes, and Olivia deeply wished she could hear vampires' minds.

"How?"

The drumming of her heart was probably louder than her own voice. "The Casino is moving ahead in full force. It should open by next summer," she quickly made it up. She had no idea when it would be done, they had barely started the paperwork and today's lakeside activities hadn't sped it up any. "We can make it a legitimate profitable business, no need to launder anything. But until then, perhaps cut on the betting-"

"Using my intuition how I keep the vaults full!" the Queen cried in anger. "I made 200 thousand on shifter wrestling fights just last week!"

Despite her blind belief, gambling was not how the Queen kept the vaults full. Eric Northman's work and the taxation of the vampires in her Queendom was. For every win Sophie-Anne celebrated and bragged about, there were about 3 times more losses that she seemed entirely forgetful of. Plus other monarchs and elite vampires referred to her as 'Sophie-Anne, The Lucky', and she enjoyed that fame very much.

"How else am I to fund palace events? Halloween is right around the corner! The White ball? Mardi gras? Or how do you suggest I attend the vampire summit in the spring? In rags? With no security? I have a reputation to keep!"

"I could-"

"There won't be a reputation for you to keep if you meet the true death," Eric interrupted, in a cold tone all too familiar. It was always uncomfortable and threatening, no matter how many times she had heard it.

The Queen stiffened, her ivory clothing shimmering under the lights. Nothing else about her looked lovely. "Then I suggest you sell everything that you have as soon as possible."

"Excuse me?" Eric asked dryly.

Sophie-Anne jumped across the pool, standing toe to toe with Eric, completely unafraid. The Queen defied him with her whole being, staring up close at his stone face, a wildfire raging behind her eyes. "Give it to me dirty, in lump sum, along with all of Bill Compton's possessions. Since you two idiots are unable to do your jobs, I will do it myself!"

The tension in the room was suffocating, and Olivia could barely breathe or think.

"No," Eric said in a deadly quiet whisper.

What the hell was he doing? Was he trying to get killed? And for what? How would she do any of this without him?

A loud click came out of Sophie-Anne's mouth "No?" She asked, her fangs were long and wide and chilled Olivia to the bone. She remembered their sharpness, and their bite, sinking deep into the flesh of her neck.

But now was not the time to be afraid. "With all due respect, your Highness, I fear you're not considering all the angles-" and the room went dark for a moment.

A loud smack popped inside her head, and her body painfully slid across the cold marble-tiled floor. The right side of Olivia's face burned cold, with the sudden and violent impact of a backhanded strike by the Queen's hand that knocked her to the floor. "Shut up!"

When Olivia managed to look back up, Eric's fangs were already on display and he hissed at the Queen in no uncertain terms. "Enough!"

But the Queen wasn't done. Her wrath, along with the evil behind those seductive eyes focused solely on her. How could Olivia once have loved her, she did not know. Staring into Sophie-Anne's blue eyes, all she saw was an empty, all-consuming, greedy monster. "I am so sick of you telling me what I can and cannot do! I am a Queen, and you are no one! You are nothing!"

"If I am nothing, then sell me," Olivia pleaded. "You know I am worth more than all the blood combined. If I am no one to you, then use me!"

A flash of the woman she once loved crossed the Queen's face. Her dare touched deeply in a part Sophie-Anne wished she hadn't.

But before she could answer, Eric grabbed the Queen tightly by the arm before she could take another step toward Olivia. "She is mine." He declared.

Quicker than a flash the Queen shoved Eric high against the wall with a loud hissing scream, to which Eric retaliated. Yet, he did not strike back and remained pinned against the wall, three feet off the floor. "Are you really this fucking stupid, Mr. Northman?" She hissed, their faces inches apart.

Olivia watched the two vampires in horror. Her body felt frozen in fear, every fibre in her being begging him to fight back. She knew he could feel her pleas it in the bond, but he did not act on them. Why didn't he?

"I must be if I'm working for you," he laughed as if he weren't on the brink of the true death.

"I meant her," Sophie-Anne's voice was pure acid. "Blood bound? Don't you know what she is?"

Eric said nothing at this, as his smile faded. All he did was look at her, for one final brief moment. The Queen slammed his shoulders against the wall, in rage. "Daywalking will ruin you! You'll let her run your life, you will cater to her every whim, sacrifice everything to keep her and in the end, you'll just be enslaved to her just to feel another second of sunlight on your skin!"

Olivia felt her eyes fill with warm tears as if those very words struck her body over and over again. Sophie-Anne knew. In the back of her mind, she could hear it still, the echoes of the Queen's cries when she shouted I do not want you! Sophie-Anne knew, from the moment her blood touched her lips, what Olivia was, and what being blood bound meant - but all she saw was the curse behind it, not the bliss. Sophie-Anne not even once considered who Olivia was as a person, not her feelings, her love or her humanity - all she had eyes for was her otherness, and what it could give her. Eric had been right, the Queen never loved her. She never loved anyone, just this fantasy she built to keep the metaphorical crown on her head.

But would Eric one day feel the same? Her blood filled with rage at the accusation. Eric was bold and brave and he was nothing like her. There was actual depth and feelings in him, a secret soft side he only let her see in the day. Eric Northman did have a heart, and she knew it well by now, better than the Queen ever would know anyone's in her whole existence. Eric Northman would never be Olivia's slave or anyone's any longer. Suddenly Olivia saw the end quite clearly.

"Just do it," he dared her. "End me and all of your blood money goes down with me."

"You are an imbecile if you think I need your money!"

"And your reign will be over if you think you don't. Pamela and I may not be bonded anymore, but she will never give you a fucking red cent if you kill me." He spat, without moving. He wasn't going to fight her. He never intended to.

"Oh, we will see about that," she smiled, as she squeezed Eric's neck.

In one fell swoop, Olivia got off the floor and narrowed her focus on the Queen. Her body almost moved without being told to, as if it had a will of its own. That's how certain Olivia was. She recalled Thalia's simple instructions as she unsheathed her wooden stake from under her left sleeve, attached to her forearm with simple hair elastics. Holding it tight, Olivia drove the sharp weapon into the Queen's back, left side of the spine, aiming her blow to go through her. The Queen's body jolted, and she landed on her feet as a cascade of red washed down her back. When her small little body turned around, her once porcelain skin was grey, blood covered her front, and there was no shine in her eyes anymore. They were empty. They always were.

It happened in slow motion, and then all at once. Sophie-Anne's purple-grey skin shrivelled slightly before coming undone in a splash of crimson red, covering both Olivia and Eric in a wave of blood and melted flesh. The remains of the Queen splattered on the floor with a thud and then, complete silence.

Her heart quickly started again, rattling in her chest as if it were trying to get out of its cage as she realized what she had really done. The stake in her hand felt heavy as a sword. Olivia had killed the Vampire Queen of Louisiana, in front of Eric Northman, who may or may not still be the vampire Sheriff of Area 5, but who definitely still had one very simple rule…

Humans do not get to kill a vampire and live.

"I-" Olivia managed to speak, feeling the cold blood of crime run down her clothes and skin. She had killed someone. "I couldn't let her- she was going to- I can't-" her thoughts raced in her head much faster than she could articulate into words.

She wanted to tell him why she had done it. That she had killed Sophie-Anne because she loved him, and she just couldn't watch him die, not for her or because of her. Just like she couldn't have let him die at the bottom of that pool. But Olivia had never said I love you and really meant it. It was on the tip of her tongue, but it felt wrong. Saying it now, after what she had just done, felt manipulative and disingenuous. It would sound like she was pleading with his rules, instead of telling the plain truth.

Had she known what the night had in store for them, Olivia would have told him at the lake. She felt like they had all eternity back then. No one, it turns out, has eternity. Not even the immortals. Eric looked deeply at her while also covered in blood, his stony face frozen in place. He said nothing. If he loved her, he also had the whole day to say it. And unlike her, he knew tonight entailed death.

After a long deep breath, she managed to speak a coherent sentence. "Tell the Magister it was all Sophie-Anne and me. Pin the V on us, you had nothing to do with any of this, you didn't deserve any of this! Please-"

The Viking did not move, other than he maybe slightly frowned. All the blood made his eyes ten times bluer. His silence was heavier than any wrath of the Queen.

"It's done, I've killed her," she said feeling a weight so heavy slide off her shoulders that she wondered for a second if her feet were still touching the floor at all.

She lowered her chin, seeing her legs and feet covered in true death, and now realized that the edict of protection was also gone. Olivia had brought the ultimate consequence upon the Queen and upon herself. "You promised me once if you had to kill me, that you'd do it quickly and without pain."

Olivia closed her eyes, accepting her fate. She had broken Eric's one rule - you kill a vampire, you must die - and that for better or worse, Eric always honoured his rules and his promises. The Magister wouldn't punish him for what she had done. Olivia was the perfect scapegoat all along. He would be okay. She took a deep breath, and then another one, waiting for all to be over. In the distance, there was a loud cry amidst the party, but she didn't want to think of the world outside of this very room. There would be no more innocent blood spilled. She had made provisions long ago for her family to be taken care of in case she died, and she knew entering this game that it was a very real possibility. In all the ways she could go out, this seemed the kindest one. No more lives would be ruined because of something she did for the Queen's greed or her own. And Eric was free at last.

The noises outside of the dayroom doors grew angry, and the world became increasingly more difficult to ignore. The music in the distance had stopped abruptly, replaced by shuffling noises, broken glass and distressed voices. Something hard and cold brushed her knuckles and when Olivia reopened her eyes, Eric stood inches away from her, towering over her proudly as he always did. When she looked at his hand she lost all breath. Eric was holding the blood-covered stake in a fist.

The main doors of the day room burst open and a crowd of horrified elegant vampires and a few of the Queen's guards entered the room. André rushed to the forefront, his face already streaked in red. Everyone halted at the sight of Eric, who faced them.

"Louisiana," Eric's voice suddenly boomed, hushing the crowd. "Has a new King."

A.N

I cannot BREATHE OH MY GOD

As promised, a life-changing chapter at the end of December. I hope it was worth the wait, and that everyone had a good holiday!

Oh, and Wicked Games passed the 100k hits mark! What a milestone! Thank you all so much for your support, it means a lot to me :')

I wrote a little over the break, but I'm rusty and stuck on a few plot points, so please be patient my loves.

Tell me everything you thought/felt, and follow/favourite/share

xoxox

missed you all

Spice

(also, spice-honey on tumblr if you want to bug me there)