EPOV
When I spoke to Isabel on the phone after I rose, she offered to send a car for me, I accepted because, in my rush to get here, I didn't rent a car like I normally would have. So as we're in the elevator going down to the lobby, I'm hoping it's here so we don't have to wait. I put my hand on Sookie's back and lead her through the lobby and outside. Thankfully, there's a car there with a man standing outside of it, obviously waiting for someone. I walk up to him.
"Mr. Northman?" I nod my head at him and he smiles and opens the back door for us.
I lead Sookie to the door then vamp around and get in on the other side. On the ride over to Godric's, it's quiet because Sookie is obviously nervous and I'm focused on trying to figure out what happened to my maker. Although I cannot feel his location, I'm sure he can feel mine. That's how it goes with maker and child bonds. I can always feel Pam. You can dull it to a point, but there's no way that he didn't feel me coming closer to him, he has to know I'm in Texas and why. And still, he doesn't open the bond for me to find him.
So I was right, he doesn't want to be found, at least that means there's nothing nefarious going on and he's not being held against his will. Realizing that has made me be able to relax a little bit and was the only reason I wasn't rushing Sookie out of the hotel room as soon as I opened my eyes this evening. That still begs the question, where is he? Anyone close to him knows he's been different the last few decades, but even if he ever needed some time to himself in the past he'd let one of his underlings know. I don't know what's going on with him, all I know is that I must find him to make sure he's well. Even if he's not being held against his will, something is still obviously wrong with him.
Sookie's anxieties are starting to distract me from my thoughts so I put my hand on her knee and rub it soothingly. She puts her hand on top of mine and lets out a long sigh. So I look at her out of the corner of my eyes and see her looking out of the window, the worry clear on her face. There's a partition between the seats and the driver has it up, so it's clear to speak relatively freely.
"What has you so worried, lover?"
She looks at me incredulously. "That's a silly question, Eric. There's so much to be worried about, like the fact that we're going into a vampire nest, and after hearing all that you've said about them, I'm sure not excited about going. I'm still nervous about using my telepathy for important things like this too. But what I'm most worried about is finding Godric, and I'm worried about you, I know this is hard on you and you love him, I just want to help."
I feel very…unsettled when she says that I love him. Yes, I have love for my maker but I've never spoken about it, vampires do not say such things. I don't know how I feel about her throwing that word around, so I ignore that part of what she said. "You have nothing to fear going to this nest, as I said. First of all, I'm with you, I'd not let anything happen to you, and this is Godric's nest, he would not let it degrade into something too dark." 'At least not anymore.' I add on silently. "Sookie, I have faith in you, I've seen you work. If there's a human that has the information we need, you'll find it." Her back sits up straighter and she nods her head. I feel her determination in the bond and know she's ready.
"You must remember though, we'll have to act a certain way. We're no longer in my area so these vampires aren't beholden or loyal to me. They'll look at you as nothing more than a pet and we must go along with that. You can't question me while we're in there, not only because it'll make the vampires think that I can't handle you, therefore giving them an opening to take you for themselves. But also because this is your first time in a situation like this, there are going to be situations that you don't know the protocol for, listening to me will help us both stay safe. I'm older than all the vampires currently in there but I can't take them all together."
I see fear enter her eyes and I curse myself inturnally. I was too distracted last night and after I rose, I should have taken the time to explain all this to her earlier. I pull her close and kiss the top of her forehead. "Do not fear min stjärna, you will do fine, and you'll be safe. No one is looking for a fight, we all want the same thing, to find Godric. The only reason I brought it up at all is because you haven't dealt with it before. I hope you know by now that I wouldn't make you do anything demeaning and I won't lead you wrong."
She nods her head. "I trust you, Eric."
I smile at her and I'm about to say something but all of a sudden Sookie feels terrified.
"Sookie, what is wrong?" She leans over and whispers in my ear,
"The driver was hired by the Fellowship of the Sun. The car is going to "break down" soon. When it does, there will be four men waiting for us with silver nets and stakes, they want to kill you and take me as a hostage."
She pulls back and I see tears in her eyes. I pull her head to my shoulder and rub the back of it to try to calm her down. I'm not worried, I can take five humans. I'm not going to because I don't want to put Sookie in danger, as soon as the car stops I'm going to grab Sookie and fly the rest of the way. No, I'm not worried, I'm pissed the fuck off. The only people that even know we're here are from Godric's nest. Fuck, someone is working with the Fellowship, is it Isabel? She's the one who set up the car for us.
When the car runs over something that makes a tire go flat, Sookie starts shaking. "Shh lover, it is fine. Just wrap your arms around my neck."
She looks confused but does what I say. I pull her into my lap so I'm holding her, I use my leg to kick the door open while the car is still slowing down. Sookie jumps at the noise but I just hold her tighter and fly away. I know where Godric lives and we're not far so I get there within minutes. I don't land at his house though, I just land in his neighborhood. I need a few minutes to think. I put Sookie down and look her over.
"You are well?"
She nods. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why would the fellowship want me though?"
"I am unsure. It is not as if anyone knows you are more than human. It is not widely known that you and I are together either."
"Yeah, the only people that really know are the people that have hired me for telepathy that we saw at your bar and the people that saw us at Merlotte's together. But we're in Texas, how would have they heard about little ole' me all the way over here?"
"There has to be a leak in Godric's nest. Someone must have told them you were coming. I've only spoken to Isabel about you being a telepath, but she's probably told other vampires like Stan, or Naomi. I don't know who it is, but it has to be someone from there."
"Is it even safe to go there then?"
"Yes, the one person will not just outright attack us, they won't want to let themselves be known by the others. We must go and see what they say. We still have to find Godric."
"Okay, Eric. Let's go."
I nod at her and start walking to the house. As we're walking I'm thinking over the implications of this. Someone in Godric's nest is working with the Fellowship of the Sun, and Godric has gone missing. Do the two have something to do with each other? Normally, I would have questioned the driver because he might have had more information but I didn't want Sookie to get hurt. I thought about grabbing him while I flew away with Sookie but I didn't know if he had a weapon on him that he could have used on me as I was flying. I shouldn't have put her safety over getting the information, especially if this could have something to do with Godric. Why did I do that? I care for her, yes but she cannot be more important than the mission.
"Sookie, what exactly did you hear from the driver?" I ask to get my mind back on what it needs to be on.
"Well most of the ride I wasn't listening, you had your hand on my leg so it was easy to block him out. But then I remembered earlier today and what I would have missed if I wasn't checking on everyone so I focused on him…."
"What would you have missed earlier today?" I interrupt her, she has not told me anything of importance that happened earlier.
"Oh, that's right! I haven't told you yet. Eric, it's so exciting, I've met another telepath!" Her smile at the thought turns to a frown as she continues. "Though he said he wanted nothing to do with me, he wouldn't talk to me at all."
The implications of another telepath are interesting. How many others are out there? Only someone like themselves would be able to tell, and as soon as Sookie leaves her home town she meets more. I will have to think on this later. For now, we must focus on the attempted kidnapping and Godric.
"I'm happy for you Sookie, though if he doesn't want to talk, there's not much more you can do. After we handle everything here in Dallas, I'll put out some feelers and see if I can get you in contact with other fairies. I have a few contacts, though we don't speak often. Now, what was the driver thinking?"
"Thanks, I'd appreciate that a lot. Okay well like I was saying, something just told me to listen to him. I don't know if it was my gut, or my fairyness, or whatever. As soon as I listened into his brain I could hear how nervous he was, he was freaking out thinking that he made a mistake taking the job and that you seemed too old and too strong. It was a rush job, it was set up within an hour or two, when the guy took jobs from the fellowship in the past, he usually had more time to prepare to keep himself and his employees safe. He was remembering the phone call with someone at the Fellowship and the Fellowship gut sounded like he was high up there in importance like he was close with Steve Newland, the Reverand, you know?" At my nod, she continues. " And the guy said 'just got a tip about a sweet little thing opening her legs for those deaders. I need you to grab her and take out her undead lover." Then the man told the kidnapper where to knock out the real driver so they could steal the car and trick us."
Hmm, so it's definitely the Fellowship of the Sun. It seems this isn't the first time the Fellowship has done things like this either, or they wouldn't have been able to set it up so fast. I know that the leak must have come from Godric's nest, the question is who. I must be too lost in my thoughts because the next thing I know, Isabel is in front of me. It takes all my years of control not to let my startlement show.
"Isabel."
"Eric. This is Sookie, I presume."
"Yes, this is my Sookie."
I could tell that Sookie was itching to hold her hand out to Isabel but she restrained herself. She also wasn't fond of being claimed like that but accepted it as a necessity for now. "It's lovely to meet you, Isabel."
"You as well, Sookie. Why are you not in the car I sent for you?"
"The driver was hired by the Fellowship of the Sun to kidnap Sookie and send me to my true death."
"What? That's impossible, how would they have known?"
"That is exactly what I was wondering, Isabel. I wonder, who in your nest would give such information away?"
"No one! I trust them all with my life. You should as well, they were all vetted by Godric himself."
"Hm, I'd take more comfort in that were it not for the fact that I saw proof that the Fellowship knew where we would be."
"We shall check the house for bugs. I admit, it has been a while since we have done so. That is the only way I could think that they might have known."
I nod at her, I'm not as sure of that fact as she is but I'm only visiting and this is her home. I'll let her lead for now though I will not let my lover be in such danger again. I hold my hand out towards the house. "Shall we go? We must make a plan for Godric."
"Yes. Come Sookie, I would like to get to know the woman that Eric claims. He has not done so before, so I know you must be special."
"Uh, okay, sure. That sounds nice." I feel her uneasiness in the bond and it makes me want to chuckle. I've always liked Isabel, we get along well. She is also with a human, which might be why she's treating Sookie as she is. Unfortunately, Sookie won't get a warm welcome like this from everyone.
When we walk into the house, Sookie startles for a second because two vampires who are feeding and well on their way to fucking are sitting in the living room. Their meals are obviously enjoying getting fed off of. I keep her walking though and we go right to Godric's office. It pisses me off when I see that Stan is sitting in Godric's seat. Stan Davis is arrogant and hot-headed. He also dresses like he's a cowboy down to the boots with the spokes on them, which in my opinion looks ridiculous on him. I have to work hard to keep my fangs from coming down, I know Stan wants to be sheriff but I also know how loyal he is to Godric. Also, as I said to Sookie, we're alone out here, I don't want to start a fight. He gets up when he sees me, he's clearly agitated. Naomi is also in the room, she's another one of Godric's nest. She's young but Godric seems to like her, from the little I've seen. From the few interactions we've had, she seems eager to help and wants to eventually move up in the vampire hierarchy.
"You should have told me Eric hired a fucking human, Isabel."
"Now wait just a minute…" Sookie cuts in.
Sookie doesn't have a chance to say more because my fangs are down and I'm holding Stan against the wall by the neck. "It's been a while, Stan, I can see you're still just as obnoxious as always. This here is Sookie, she's mine. You will not speak to her that way again." I feel Sookie's distress but ignore it, for now. She's never seen me with vampires that weren't loyal to me before, she'll have to get used to it. Thankfully, she doesn't try to stop me.
Isabel on the other hand touches my arm that's holding Stan "Eric, put him down, we're all a little on edge here, let's not make it worse."
I hold Stan like that and stare at him in the eyes, once I'm sure he understands me I put him down and take a few steps back, closer to Sookie.
"Anyway, I couldn't tell you anything, you haven't been here for days," Isabel says to Stan.
"What do you know, Stan?"
"It was the Fellowship of the Sun." I give Isabel a sharp look because she's been saying they don't have any information.
"We don't know that for sure, Stan," Isabel says.
"They're the only ones with the organization and manpower." Plus, they were the ones who just tried to end me and take my lover from me. I was already considering the same thing though he seems pretty certain.
"But they're amateurs, it doesn't make any sense. This is Godric we're talking about, he's over 2000 years old." Isabel responds.
"Old don't make you smart." Stan cuts in and my fangs drop again. Isabel quickly keeps talking so I don't end Stan. He's lucky she's here because I was about to. If he says one more thing, fuck keeping the peace.
"Besides, there's no proof."
"If they got him I'll hear it, that's my job." I stiffen because yes, I brought her here to help but I'm not letting her go into the Fellowship herself, it's too dangerous.
Stan just ignores Sookie, which annoys me even more. He's getting on my last fucking nerve. "There's no reason to wait. We need to take these fanatics out, full attack. Exterminate them like the vermin they are and leave no trace."
"Hmm, vampire-hating church annihilated, I wonder who did it? Fucking brilliant." Isabel countered.
"I doubt the king of Texas would approve the destruction of our international political agenda," Naomi speaks up for the first time, I almost forgot she was even in the room with us.
"Fuck that, the great revelation was the biggest mistake we ever made," Stan says loudly.
"Don't use Godric to make your own little powerplay." Isabel walks over to Stan angrily.
"Enough!" I roar. I continue more calmly once I know I have their attention. "We don't have time for this, I can't help but think Godric going missing, and the attempted kidnapping are linked. I too agree that Godric's disappearance has something to do with the Fellowship. They wouldn't be able to take Godric though. Not unless they had help. As there is someone in this nest who has been helping them, the first step will be having Sookie listen to all pets, staff, and donors in the building. As we all know, vampires tend to speak freely in front of their pets, so we talk to the humans around them, and we'll find the guilty vampire. We find the leak, we find someone with information." After I'm finished speaking, I quirk my eyebrow at them, if either of them has a problem with this plan, it would make them seem like the guilty one. I do not think it was Isabel, though I am not sure. I highly doubt it was Stan, yes he wants to be Sheriff but being a traitor to vampires and hiding behind the Fellowship of the Sun just isn't his way. It could be any of the others though.
"Now you just wait a minute, you were brought here as a courtesy, you have no say here. And what do you mean by attempted kidnapping? Why would you think there was a traitor to our nest?" Stan growls with his fangs down.
"Have Isabel explain it to you while I gather up the humans. I don't have time for this." I say as I turn to walk away. Isabel stops me.
"Hugo!" A few seconds later her human walks in. "Gather all the humans on the property, and call any pets, or staff that aren't here and tell them to come in immediately."
"Whatever you need, Isabel."
I feel Sookie's apprehension because she knows she's probably going to be reading a lot of people at one time. I send her all the confidence I have in her. I know she feels the confidence I have in her, though since our bond isn't complete, she can only feel that I have confidence in her, if it were, she'd be able to take some of that confidence for herself. When this is settled and Godric is safe, the first thing on my agenda will be to finish the bond.
"Northman, I don't know how they found out about you two coming to us but it wasn't one of my vampires."
"Well Stan, they're not your vampires, are they? They're Godric's. And you cannot know that for sure, they had to find out somehow and the only people that knew about the travel were those in this house. It had to come from someone in here. We have to figure out where they're holding Godric so we can get him, this is the best way to do that."
He looks like he disagrees but doesn't offer up any more arguments. It didn't take long to gather all the humans up, most of them were already on the property. When I look at them all standing in the great room of Godric's house, I feel disgusted. They all look so happy to be the cattle they're being treated as. Even right now, they're lining up for the slaughter and they're happy for it. If one of them knows something, then they're just as guilty as the vampire responsible and will be treated as such.
I sit next to Sookie to keep an eye on her while she reads them one by one. No one seems to know anything and she's starting to get discouraged. I can tell she feels like she's failing me but she's not. It's not her fault the ones she has read don't know anything. Unfortunately, by the time she's done reading everyone we're no closer to knowing anything, and it's been three hours longer that Godric has been missing. Why won't he open the bond to tell me where he is? Sookie, Isabel, Stan, and I go back into the office to try to figure something else out.
"I knew your human would be useless." My fangs come down at Stan's words and I'm about to attack when Sookie speaks.
"Now you just wait a minute, just because your boody calls and donors didn't know where Godric is, didn't mean I'm useless. In fact, I already have another plan."
I let my shoulders slump infinitesimally because knowing Sookie, I'm not going to like this plan. Stan speaks before I do.
"Oh yeah, little missy? And what plan is that?" He asks condescendingly.
"I'm going to go into the Fellowship and listen to find out where he is."
"No." There's no way in hell I'm letting her go into that lion's den alone. They obviously want her for some reason and I'm not going to let her put herself in danger like that. Fuck that.
"Eric, they don't know who I am they just knew my name and that I was blonde. I can use a fake name, dress the part, and go in during the day asking to join their church. I won't have to be there long, I just have to hear something about Godric. Maybe we'll even be lucky and find out they're holding him there. If they are, I'll be able to feel his bubble so we know exactly where he is. Then you guys can go in and rescue him. I'll be in no danger."
Damned by the Gods, if this were anyone other than Sookie, I'd agree to this plan because it makes sense. But this is Sookie, so I can't put her in danger like that. Then again, this is for Godric, my maker, the most important being in my life. I shouldn't put Sookie's safety over Godric's. What am I doing? She's just a human, no being is more important to me than my maker. When I look over to Sookie though, I know that's not exactly true. No matter how much I want to save Godric, I can't harm Sookie to do it.
I'm man enough to admit to myself that those feelings mean Sookie is more to me than just a pet or a way to make money like I was originally trying to convince myself. No, Sookie has become much more to me than that now. I'd kill for her, I'd sacrifice for her, I'd even sacrifice myself for her if it came down to it. Fuck, I think I love her.
"Eric, she makes some good points," Isabel says, distracting me from my shocking revelations, thank the Gods. I look over to her and she continues. "She will not have to go alone though, I will send Hugo with her. They can pose as a couple wanting to get married there. That way, they'll show them around and Sookie can have the opportunity to listen to more people and if he's there, have more of a chance of finding Godric."
Isabel puts her hand on my back and I allow her to lead me out of the room. I feel Sookie's jealousy, so I turn back to her and wink, though that only gets her angry at me. If circumstances were different, I'd laugh. We stop in the kitchen, which is actually filled with fine food and a chef, Godric makes sure the humans in his care are well cared for. Isabel turns to me with a serious look on her face.
"This is the best way to find Godric, I know you want that as much as I do, maybe even more than me. So we must do this, they will be safer together though. I know Sookie is more to you than just a pet, I know you care for her." The way she's looking at me makes me almost think she can read my mind and heard what I was thinking in the office about Sookie. "I feel the same way about Hugo, he is my beloved. I would not put him in a situation that I did not think he could safely get out of. I truly think this is the way to go."
Was she trying to comfort me? I have to stop myself from sighing, it's such a human response. Though I know she is right, a big part of me is rebelling against the idea of letting Sookie in there without me. Eventually, I nod my head because I cannot think of a better way to find my maker. She nods back at me and we go back to the office. When I get there, Sookie is looking at me with big eyes, almost pleading with me to agree. I can feel her confidence in herself to do what she has to in the church and that makes me feel a little better.
"Okay, you can go but this is a fact-finding mission only. No heroics, once you find out where Godric is, make your excuses and leave. It's not like you can take him out of there in broad daylight anyway. Do you understand?" I ask Sookie as I walk up to her and then cup her cheek. I know she doesn't like being given orders and if we were alone I would have worded it differently. But since we're not, I have to be dominating. Thankfully, she accepts that.
"Yes, master."
My cock immediately grows hard at those words coming out of her mouth, I see the twinkle in her eye that shows she knows how it affects me. She must have been taking notes from the blood bags here and is trying to play the part, she's playing it well. I forcibly turn my mind away from the lust that is now rampant in me and play the part of a pleased master. So I give her a small smile only she can see then lean down and kiss the top of her head. "Good."
Stan groans then grabs his cowboy hat, which I still think looks ridiculous on him, and storms out the door. As he does, we hear him say. "You are fools, all of you. Come find me once you are done fucking around and we'll get him out of there with the force they deserve."