Chapter 22 – Hold

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Pam turned her car around in the direction of her own home again. She silently contemplated what could possibly have gone wrong, then right, and then have it all go to shit again. Sookie Stackhouse, or rather Brigant, was a conundrum from the moment she bounced into their lives.  

 

She was a walking cloud of emotions that made no sense to the female vampire. It didn’t take long for her to realise the Faery and her Maker were circling around each other denying what lay between them. A little prodding and a carefully placed dig had sped things along. Those insane dreams alone were a clear sign as far as she was concerned. Through it all, little had phased the part Faery, and, in turn, she’d faced things head on. Yes, she retreated, but never away from Eric. She ran to him like a moth to a flame even when Sookie knew she could end up badly burned.   

 

She didn’t know what her Maker had done to her Mistress, but she knew the blame lay squarely with him. As she poked at him through their bond he firmly shut her out only further cementing his guilt. He was purposefully ruining this for her. She was sure of it, he had complied far too easily with her demand for independence throughout this whole deal. He was indulging them both for his own benefit, greedily wanting the Faery and eating her too. 

 

Sookie was right, he held no respect for her so long as he expressed affection through things rather than actions. It had kept her dependant like a spoiled child. This action was speaking loud and clear to her. He took their bond for granted in expressing anything to her and the bastard kept it hidden most of the time. She couldn’t tell whether the anger coursing through her veins right now was her own, her Maker’s or maybe even Sookie’s.  Pam was guessing all of the above.

 

She wanted out. As fun as it was to live through the Faery courtship vicariously she wanted to truly stand on her own. The next time her eyes would meet those of her Maker there would be hell to pay. 

 

 

“Sookie will die with you,” Godric spoke with concern. “There is more than just yourself to consider now. Does that sound like love to you? Is that how you wish to treat your Bonded?”

 

“She can’t bring herself to love me,” he sneered, masking the pain of her still absent words proclaiming what he was sure was inside her.

 

“Her relationship to her grandmother was special,” Godric returned while his eyes filled with fond memories of Adele. “There is little love for a struggling telepath in a closed-minded town. Her grandmother was the closest thing she had to unconditional love. Insight into her mind could not offer her more than that. She is cautious, Eric. Sookie can’t know love, and then lose it again.”

 

“I will defeat him,” Eric said, not wanting to garner sympathy for Sookie when she hurt him so severely. “How she loves is inconsequential to me now.”

 

“You two are so very much alike,” Godric observed, swallowing the chuckle he truly wanted to let out but was wholly inappropriate to entertain in that moment. He knew his testy child would not take it well. “You both burrow your heads in the sand, hoping the world will stay exactly the same when you deem it safe enough to come out. So cautious with your hearts.”

 

“Spare me the bullshit you feed the menopausal women at your retreat here.”

 

“Two thousand years is a long time, Eric,” he said tersely before moving the offered hand in comfort from his shoulder. “I know of what I speak. Only peace follows death for all. Even for him.”

 

“You’re right,” Eric countered in annoyance, feral thirst taking hold of his eyes. “Death is too kind for him. I should make him suffer for centuries before he is offered even a semblance of peace.”

 

“You make me bleed, my child. So much hatred.”

 

“This is who I am Godric. This is what you made!”

 

“I was right in never telling you,” he slipped out unintentionally. Godric tensed with the inadvertent reveal, and he knew his Childe was far too clever to have let that go unnoticed.

 

“When?” Eric demanded ready to bolt out with the betrayal, yet still needing the answer.

 

“Germany,” Godric admitted. “Remember the female Were? She let something slip that meant little to you, and then I knew who. I also knew you were not ready to face him then.” He paused to enunciate his next words. “You are not ready now.”

 

“You lost the ability to make such decisions for me a long time ago,” he seethed back.

 

“You let your emotions rule when it comes to this,” Godric scolded. “You fed a Were our sacred blood then. You disregard the life of the one you claim to love now.” The insinuation was clear, he was no worse than Russell in desecrating the blood, and his professed love was pulled into question.

 

There were few opinions that Eric valued. Godric’s weighed heavily on him as did Pam’s council. Sookie had been added to that select club with her instant burst onto his radar. However, at this moment in time, all but Pam had expressed their disappointment in him and his perceived ineptitude, and it weighed on him.

 

Though nothing could cut quite as deep as Godric’s disapproval. It had been like that from the moment he was reborn. Godric had become and replaced his entire lost family. Brother. Father. Son.

 

Pam had become the female equivalent; mothering him, taunting him like a sibling and seeking his care as a child. Sookie, he realised was the closest he had come to a wife.

 

In the transformation of three nights, Godric had become his entire world. As he had with his human father, Eric worked diligently for any recognition of his achievements, yet it always felt as if he were simply catching up in a race already lost. No matter the amount of victories, the losses were the ones that remained eternally etched in his mind. With his birth father, he had simply given up trying and diverted his attentions to the callings of raging hormones. That was a mistake he vowed never to repeat again.

 

With Godric he had continued trying. With the knowledge of what his waning attentions had caused, his guard had never once waned. Except with Sookie, when he asked her to lower her shields, his defences had followed suit. She infuriated him and consumed his thoughts when he should be focusing on the takedown of the ancient vampire who had held the cause of his existence hostage for so long that kept him from living.

 

Eric sat bristling while he let the disappointed words of his maker wash over him. He had long been consumed with the reason of his family’s death. It was clear to Eric now it was just a trinket in a collection of many. He wondered if Russell would even notice the missing artefact. How many others had been left behind alone, or lost belongings which required years of craft.

 

How many others had tried and failed before him?

 

“What brought you to my doorstep?” Godric asked disrupting his pensive thoughts.

 

“Sookie,” he all but whispered. His fingers fidgeted at the edge of his knees while his mind replayed their strained goodbye. Despite her retreat, there was promise left inside her, but it would be at a cost.

 

“She did well in sending you here,” Godric said sagely while he regarded the slowly lightening sky.

 

“There may be a girl trapped there,” Eric offered remembering the more trying circumstances of their stay at the mansion. Hoping that a secondary rescue might encourage him to help, bartering with anything he could think of. “Trapped in a warded room.”

 

Godric’s face slowed, a last throb of agitation settled till he was truly stoic. “You care for this why?”

 

“She reached out to Sookie in a dream,” he explained while carefully analysing his Maker’s face for any sign of interest.

 

“You did not physically see her?” The words almost came out like a threat, one that always managed to scare Eric with the intensity at which they were spoken causing the fine hairs of his neck to stand erect. He shook his head, heading to the warning not to speak of it more.

 

With that Godric physically relaxed, slipping back into his more congenial self. “So you will not help?” Eric tested carefully.

 

His Maker gave a sigh before resting his hand on his shoulder, “Let us take our rest. Tomorrow might bring a new perspective.”

 

Eric nodded, for once thankful that his day death was merely a momentary blip from which he would awaken. Time might use up hours till darkness descended on the horizon once more, but to his senses, an unnoticeable amount of time was lost between the moment he closed his eyes and opened them once more.

 

Godric showed him to a simple cot that barely fit his extended frame. He didn’t care for the lack of comfort, he wouldn’t notice it anyhow once the sun came. What he would notice was the absence of a warm body nestled by his side when he awoke. The scent of her, never had he understood the allure of having someone so firmly by your side, except with her.

 

It only caused him to be angrier. It had been fuelling his tank all evening, but it was verging into madness now. He counted his blessings that the sun would soon render him useless and take him momentarily from all that was plaguing him into a blissful abyss of nothingness.

 

Godric had been prepared to deal with his child’s usual grumpy demeanour before the sun had fully set. He hadn’t, however, been prepared for him to awaken mere minutes after him early in the day, writhing in pain. Eric was in a semi-conscious state, only able to utter the name of Sookie. As with the dreams, they were venturing into unchartered territories.

 

Lacking a bond to take away the pain or soothe him, all he could do was hold the large form of his child, and wash away the unique sight of perspiration with a wet cloth. It did nothing to alleviate the pain and it made Godric feel utterly helpless in his effort. He tried reaching his fairy contact once more, but he was as elusive as ever. Eric had appeared a broken man the night before, but now he lay truly shattered in pieces. The audible evidence of his pain only quieted when the sun had fully set and he could gain control over to whatever his body seemed to have been exposed.

 

Dr. Ludwig appeared per summons, shaking her head at the sight of the vampire trembling with pain. She performed her perfunctory tests before scrunching her face in disgust, “Fucking faeries!”

 

“That’s how I got into this mess,” Eric grumbled. He flinched once more as she prodded him with something silver tipped. “Will it get me out of it?” he asked hopefully.

 

“Where is your Bonded?” she demanded. At the answer of Bon Temps, she huffed in annoyance and before Eric had realized it, he was transported to the living room of Sookie’s home. While he felt her presence through the bond the home was unmistakably empty.

 

“They took her!” she growled out as the healer sensed the departure to the other realm. “Stay here.”

 

Eric rolled his eyes at her; as if he was in any state to move, let alone leave. He tried to readjust his posture, and found the cashmere blanket she always carried around his home digging into his back. He had no need for something to keep him warm, but it provided it anyway along with the unmistakable perfume of her scent.

 

The pain lifted as the blanket settled partially over him, but it wasn’t from the luxurious yarn or the remnant of her. It was her, wet and dripping, suddenly appearing beside him before unapologetically flinging herself over him drenching them both equally.

 

“Sookie?” he croaked warily, fearing that his mind was playing tricks upon him.

 

“Did you go to him?” she whispered, shaking from the possible answer, and the chill the water caused with cool air.

 

“Godric,” he answered out of the two possibilities, causing her apprehension to settle and descend into the comfort of his hold.

 

“You listened,” she stated, a small smile overtaking her face. Her fierce grip on him loosened, and she finally stared down into his eyes, the rage that had alienated her gone from his irises. A familiar face greeted her once more. “You listened to me.”

 

“There are few I listen to,” he agreed. “You are but one of a few. Where did you go?”

 

“She was with me,” an irritated voice interrupted.

 

Eric carefully sat up, taking Sookie with him in his lap and halting her attempt to break any contact with him. He nuzzled his head momentarily in the crook of her neck before it shot up with irritation at the intruder. “Claude.”

 

“You know the asshole, too, then?” Sookie questioned while carrying the exact same irritation towards the stray faery in her Gran’s living room.

 

“Unfortunately,” both men answered in unison, Claude only narrowly sidestepped the candle thrown his way by the very angry and very wet Sookie. Eric stilled her hands when he noticed her intent to throw the coffee table the candle had sat upon next.

 

“Why they ask you to do anything is beyond me,” the little doctor announced when she walked in behind Claude, swiftly kicking his left foot out from under him, and then looking on with amusement at the startled faery on the floor. When calling her a ‘bitch’ under his breath, a quick swat to the back of his head silenced any further retorts. “Let me look at you two.”

 

“Why was the asshole drowning you?” Ludwig asked with a pointed look at the recovering faery.

 

“He wanted to wash the vamp away,” Sookie huffed as the doctor pricked and prodded at her.

 

“You asked!” he shrieked in defence. “I just showed you the way.”

 

“By drowning me!”

 

“Idiot,” Ludwig yelled before kicking him squarely in the right knee cap before he could realise it, causing him to flail wildly in the room in the aftermath. “There isn’t a thing that undoes what is done!”

 

“He told me I stank of you,” Sookie whispered to Eric in a rare of moment of self-consciousness.

 

“Still do!” Claude screamed while successfully dodging Ludwig’s reprimanding blow by teleporting into her Gran’s china cabinet, the noise only deafened by the fierce growl that erupted from Eric at the insult. In a whir, he was on the faery ready to rip his throat out in pure rage were it not for the salty tears that had started to fall from Sookie’s eyes.

 

Before he could reach her, however, a wave of cool intent and anger overcame him, through another bond and another blonde. Fangs blazing, his own Childe attacked with all the force she could muster, tackling him to the floor, causing further destruction to the living room while Sookie pleaded desperately for them to stop.

 

Pam clawed at her Maker like a feral cat, fighting as dirty as she could, and exploiting all his weak spots as best she could. The rage of years, held back for peace’s sake keeping her small. He groaned in pain when she kneed him firmly in the balls before crashing them both into the aged-entertainment setup.

 

“STOP!” Sookie screamed, debilitating them both with a well-aimed shot at their fighting bodies. They fell to the ground lethargically and incapacitated, staring at each other in anger and disbelief, snarling while paralysed by Fae magic.

 

Sookie continued to sob at the destruction of her home where not a thing had sat out of place since the murder of her grandmother. After washing away all the blood, she had spent days upon days and hours upon hours placing everything as it was. Gran would not have wanted her home to look anything but the best for her guests, even if not another one would walk over that threshold anymore.

 

She broke.

 

They had broken everything around her and she was the last to fall to pieces among it. She ran for the open door that had let in the cold air with Pam’s dramatic entrance, but stilled instantly with the sight of the man who had stepped up onto her porch.

 

He smiled at her, beckoned someone behind him to follow along before peering into the ravage that was once the proud living room of Adele Stackhouse. “You host quite the party, Princess Brigant,” he jested. “Or should I say Ms Stackhouse?”

 

Fear overcame her, not hers, rather Eric’s who lay in as much pain and motionlessly still alongside Pam, like when she had accidentally blasted him the first time. Ludwig meanwhile seemed unalarmed and continued nursing the vampire-inflicted wounds on Claude. She felt through the bond his intent to fight the pain, to stand up, and protect her from this unexpected threat that appeared on her doorstep, seizing the moment of opportunity for his own.

 

“You’re not invited,” she spoke with a regal calm while summoning another charge of light between her hands.

 

He cackled before a little hand entwined securely in his and gave a curious gaze, “Come along Nessy, time to meet your cousin, Sookie.” The girl smiled up brightly at her cousin with expectant and excited eyes causing Sookie to instantly relinquish the ball of menacing light. “Of course I forgot,” he grinned before pointing the index finger of his free hand to the temple of his head. “You two girls already met in here.”

 

“She can come in,” Sookie spoke carefully. “Take me if you want, just as long as she’s safe.” The strangled cry coming from Eric was nothing compared to the shock and determination that travelled through their bond where he desperately tried to communicate his disapproval of her intent.

 

“Whatever for?” Russell taunted before pulling the little girl up and into his arms, holding her in front of him like a shield. It surprised Sookie that the little faery snuggled so contently into his chest. “Whatever made you think you are the one that dictates the rules, Princess Brigant? I need not your permission.”

 

“But you need my invitation,” she returned accurately where his feet scuffed against the barrier of the threshold.

 

“That is where you are wrong, my dear,” he doted with condescension before stepping over the threshold, and with an eerie calm, walked right up to her where all she could do was stand stock still.

 

 

A/N:  *catches me unaware while strapping on a bullet proof vest* Right I know you all want to shoot me right now… but think about it, then you’ll never know how it ends… so just back up and look at the comment section down there, you can use it to tell me all about the ways you want to kick the shit out of me… promise this story will continue right on as scheduled and we won’t ever mention this again… okay?

 

Thanks to MsBuffy again for all the great editing work she does and don’t try pointing that thing at her, she doesn’t have the next chapter yet.

 

 

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