Ch 14: Let’s Get Stoned!

We were sitting on the couch and Godric had purposefully sat as close to me as he could, his leg pressed against mine. I was painfully aware that he still had not gotten dressed. He was only wearing a pair of trousers with his bare feet on the floor. I had skipped through many parts of the series since much of it had happened already and the maenad debacle had been prevented. We were currently watching the part when Eric was telling Bill Compton he required TV Sookie’s services in Dallas. “So who is this Bill Compton? I do not recognize him.” Godric said leaning into me and whispering in my ear. “Oh,” I said, slightly turning my head but unable to look at him because his face was still leaning into me so closely. My cheeks flushed. “He is… well he was supposed to me my… um lover.” “Which obviously did not occur.” Godric said triumphantly. I leaned back away from him and turned my head, narrowing my eyes, our faces inches apart. “And how do you know if he was or not?” He tilted his head which reminded me of a puppy evaluating the strange behavior of a human. He was trying to find the right words without offending me. “My sense of smell is quite good. You are innocent.” He looked back to the television but his irises quickly glanced at me through the corner of his eyes. My jaw dropped. “Are you trying to say you can…” My voice dropped to a whisper. “Oh, you smell that I’m a…” I can’t believe that I forgot vampires could smell virginity. It was a part of both the show and book cannon. I have been so stressed out lately it completely slipped my mind. I suddenly felt self conscious. He looked back to me, the corner of one side of his mouth turning upward. “Yes,” he said matter of factly. I cleared my throat. “Looks like the show is over. I’ll go put in the next one.” I stood up and walked to the entertainment center. “Where is this Bill Compton? If he did not become your lover or inform Sophie-Ann of you…” I turned quickly and faced him. “Oh, well… I sorta,” I took a deep breath. “I kinda staked him.” His fangs clicked out. Oh god, he was pissed. A 2000 year old vampire pissed. “You are full of surprises little one.” He said in a velvet voice. I was staring at him like a deer caught in headlights and his lips quivered in amusement. I saw a familiar hint of smoldering lust in his smoky eyes as he leered at me with some sort of new respect. What was going through that mind of his? We watched the shows for a while in silence. I would fast forward through irrelevant parts that involved other characters, but we continued in silence until the rooftop scene. I found that I had tears trailing down my face watching this scene that I had watched so many times before. But now it was different. Now I saw it with new eyes. I had come to care about the vampire sitting beside me. The next thing I knew Godric’s hand was on mine, pulling the remote away with his other palm. He paused the video, his body pressed against mine. He was leaning in closely and lifting my chin with his hand until our eyes met. His face was solemn, thoughtful, and calm. “Please do not cry little one,” he whispered, his breath brushing against my lips. “I will not meet the true death, not now.” He raised his hand and brushed a wisp of hair behind my ear. I felt emotionally exhausted. It wasn’t just the TV show, or even watching Godric die. It was everything. It was being thrust into the True Blood world and feeling so much pressure to make things right. It was my questions about who I truly was and my very own identity. It was my conflicted feelings about both Godric and Eric. How is it possible for a woman to fall for two men? I felt like I was going to melt into a pile when I saw Eric at Merlotte’s and now here I am with Godric having very carnal desires for him. And it wasn’t just my love life, or lack there of. It was the constant danger I felt like I was in. Up until this point, before Godric came into my life, I had felt so alone in everything. These tears had been a long time coming, and they started flowing harder right in front of the ancient vampire. He seemed to understand the overwhelming weight that I had been carrying. He pulled me into his lap, and my face fell into his shoulder as I let go of it all. There he silently held me tightly as his hand caressed my hair. I felt his chest begin to rumble like a very loud purring kitten as he tried to calm me. Vampires… I hiccupped with a half sob, half chuckle. Eric glared at the vampire sitting in front of him in his office, Pamela standing behind this so called Carl from California. She didn’t know what was going on but she knew Eric so well that she didn’t have to be told that the newcomer was not a friend. She stared at him arrogantly with her hands on her hips as she towered over the sitting vampire. She and Eric definitely had the upper hand. “Um,” Carl/Alan said when he sensed Eric wasn’t going to speak first. “So yea, I just recently moved to the area. So I thought I’d come and present myself.” He laughed nervously and held his hands out, glancing over at Pam who was peering down at him. “Here I am.” Eric continued to hold his hands in front of his chest like a pyramid as he assessed Nut-sucker. It was barely even noticeable, the slightest movement of Eric’s eyes as he flicked them at Pam. She stepped forward and put her hands on Alan’s shoulders to hold him down. “Hey, what are you doing?” Alan protested looking at Pam, trying to get up but unable to move against the strength of a vampire who was at least a century older than him. Then Eric was looming over him as he stood at his full height like a vicious carnivore with fangs fully extended. Alan yelped at the sudden proximity of the Viking and leaned back in his chair. “Guys,” he said with a laugh, holding his hands up in the customary surrender pattern. “I’m just a regular vampire here on a routine meet and greet.” Half an hour later the three of them were in Eric’s dungeon in the bowels of Fangtasia. The young vampire was stripped down to his whitie-tighties and dangling from the ceiling with his wrists wrapped in silver chain. Eric was pushing a silver-tipped wooden stake against the skin of Nut-suckers chest which elicited a painful scream from him. “Please,” he shouted. “I’ve told you everything I know. Just don’t kill me.” Alan had already spilled the beans over his attempt to kidnap Sookie. “Why are you really here?” Eric sneered. “My maker commanded me. He sent me here to get close to you. I don’t know why he’s so obsessed with you and Godric. I thought it was because you eventually kill him but there’s something more! He needs Godric for something. I don’t know what.” Eric’s eyes widened. “Who is he?” “Russell Edgington, he’s the king of Mississippi. I swear I don’t know what his plan is. I’m scared shitless of him. He turned me against my will when I came to this wor…” Alan closed his mouth realizing he had revealed too much. “When you came to this world…” Eric finished for him. “Yes, I know all about the other world that you and Sookie come from.” Pam had been digging through Alan’s discarded clothes while Eric interrogated him. “I found this in his pocket.” She said smugly, handing a stone type item to Eric that seemed almost as fragile as glass. “What is this?” Eric hissed holding it up to Alan. “Another treasure your maker wants to add to his collection? Will he display it beside my human father’s crown?” Eric nearly screamed the last part in a fierce growl which made Alan cower in fear. “Please, that’s priceless.” Alan begged. “Yes, I know your maker is the one who killed my human family a millennium ago. Why did he do it? Was it just to have a trophy? He took my father’s crown.” Eric was shaking in rage. Alan closed his eyes, nearly overwhelmed by fright. “I don’t know why he killed them. I think it was to feed his werewolves. Your father had goats. The crown was just as a bonus.” “He killed my family over goats?” Eric snarled incredulously, hardly able to believe what he was hearing. “I don’t know why Russell Edgington does the things he does.” Alan dribbled. “Please, that is a treasure but not a trophy. Be careful with it!” Eric looked at the stone in his hand and his lip curled up in disdain. In a blind rage he threw it against the wall with every bit of his 1000 years of vampire strength. The stone shattered against the wall sending down a reign of sparkling glass shards. “Idiot!” Alan screamed outraged. “That’s the portal stone. Now your precious maker can never return to this world!” Eric’s jaw drooped open as he stared at the shattered mess on the ground. No! He rushed to Alan at vampire speed, his hand on his throat. “Why did you not tell me?” He growled. “I was trying. I was about to, but you shattered it before I could.” The young vampire croaked. Eric released Alan and staggered away from him. He fell to his knees and put his face in his hands. He has just trapped Godric and Sookie in the other world. He had the means to get them home in his hand seconds ago and he destroyed it. Godric and I had finished the first two seasons of True Blood and I didn’t want to spend all night watching the shows. An idea struck me. “Hey, why don’t we go to Alan Nut’s office and snoop around. I saw a device in his hands that I think controls the portal back to your world. Maybe we can find something in his office. We have to at least try.” “I agree,” He said. “Let us not get our hopes up. However, in the event we find a way back we should take these DVD’s with us.” I went into the bedroom and found the old backpack I used in college. Coming back in the living room, I started stuffing it with the True Blood DVD’s. He got up and took the bag from my hand, holding it open while I put the DVD’s inside. “You mentioned that before you came to my world you did not possess the power of telepathy?” “That’s right,” I said glancing up at him momentarily. “I was just a regular girl as far as I know.” “Do you possess telepathy now that you have returned?” I nodded. “Even though I can’t read your mind I can sense your presence. It’s sorta like a void hovering near me.” “That could be advantageous, sensing approaching vampires. It is an extraordinary gift.” “Okay, that’s all the DVD’s. Let’s head over to the studio and see if we can find anything. Even a clue would be helpful.” An hour later we were standing outside the studio which was completely dark. Everyone had gone home for the night and the building was locked up. “What now?” I said, my shoulders slumping over in defeat. “That window,” Godric said pointing to a third story pane of glass. “That is the window to the office we arrived in when we came through the doorway to this world.” “Can you fly like Eric?” I asked, my eyebrows rising excitedly. “Yes, I can,” he replied, stepping close to me and putting his hands on my waist. “Oh… Uh…” I stuttered. He pinned my body flush against his hard muscles and wrapped his arms around me in a tight cocoon. I let out a gasp of air and saw his grin as it disappeared beside my face. “I will lift your legs around my waist so you do not fall,” he breathed hoarsely into my ear. “Oh, okay.” I gasped as he slid his hands under my thighs and lifted me. With my arms wrapped around his neck and my legs circling his waist, I felt us rise in the air toward the third story window. I tried not to fidget at the excitement that was overwhelming me as I was wrapped around him. “I will not drop you,” he said tightening his hold on me. A few seconds later we were hovering beside the closed window. “What now?” I said. His leg lifted, and he kicked the window with ease, making the glass shatter. He kicked a few more times at stray pieces of glass that still clung to the frame. Then we were inside. I slid down his body and looked up at him, my hands still on his shoulders. “We better have a look around.” “Yes,” he said not letting go of my waist. I tore my gaze away and walked over to the desk while he turned to look through a cabinet. After about five minutes of searching I came across a locked drawer on Alan’s desk. “Godric,” I said trying to rattle it open. “This drawer is locked.” He walked over and easily yanked the wooden drawer out. The contents spilled onto the floor, and laying on top was a very ornate golden case with jewels around the edge. “That looks interesting.” I picked it up and sat it on the desk. “It reminds me of a painting I have seen before. When I was in Rome, before I was turned, my maker had a painting that he said was created centuries earlier. It was of the mythical fairies.” I looked over at him. “Was a box like this in the painting?” “No,” he said running his fingers over a large sapphire jewel on the corner. “But the design is the same style of other items in the painting.” I unclasped the latch and opened the box. There were three indentations in soft cotton like material, and two of them were filled with glass like stones, the third was empty. The stones looked the very same as the one Alan used to open the portal. “These are the portal stones!” I gasped picking one up and holding it in my hand. It was much heavier than it looked. “The young vampire must still have the third one.” Godric ran his fingers over the empty spot where the third stone should lay. “I have no idea how to use it.” I turned it in my hand. The center of it was brighter and then the darker edges. When I looked closely I saw that it was swirling mesmerizingly like a galaxy in the night sky. He picked the other one up. “These devices are imbued with magic. Very likely you need only think of the location you wish the portal to open to.” “Okay,” I said closing my eyes. “I’ll try.” The stone glowed with a white light momentarily and a wisp of blue swirl appeared in front of us. But as quickly as it was there it was gone. I tried again and nothing happened. Godric held the other stone out and the same thing happened when he tried to open the portal. “I think they’re burnt out.” I said exasperated. “Sookie, you possess fairy magic. Perhaps, if you use them both together they will work with what little energy is left in them.” “Okay,” I said taking the other stone that he was holding out to me. “I’ll try.” I had one stone in each hand and touched them together. It seemed like the right thing to do. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my Gran’s house in the True Blood world. Both stones flickered with a white light and the blue swirl of the portal began to form until it grew into a full size doorway. I laughed. “It worked!” but my smile soon turned to a frown as the doorway began to flicker. The stones were just too burnt out. I mustered all my concentration to stabilize the portal with my fairy spark. Those lessons from Claudine had come in handy. “Godric go through! I don’t know how much longer I can hold the portal open.” I was starting to feel physically drained and on the verge of collapsing. “No,” he shouted over the wind that was swirling around in the small space causing leaflets of paper to fly through the air. “I will not go without you!” The air around us crackled. “I will be right behind you. Take the pack and case and go!” He hesitated. “I promise Godric. I’m right behind you.” He gritted his teeth but he picked up the backpack and ornate case that the stones were in and walked to the portal. He took one last glance back at me and his brow creased in worry. Then he stepped through. My entire body was trembling as I staggered toward the portal. It began to flicker again as the last of the energy drained from both the stones and me. I held my breath and jumped through. My last morbid thought was that the wormhole would fail while I was in it and collapse on me. Then I would be dead. I held my breath until I was spit out the other end, gentle hands catching me and easing me to the ground. A/N: Eric stumbles toward the review room naked. “Lover, I’m hurt.” He falls across the legendary review room bed and moans, his eyelids half open. “Quick. I need blood, a review, and…” He winks at you mischievously and his fangs slide out.