~ Words are symbols for sight, sounds, smell, touch, and taste. Spirit and human combined to express what God has thought and we have experienced. — 12/1/04
The characters of the Southern Vampire Mysteries belong to Miss Charlaine Harris. No infringement on my part is intended. The characters on True Blood belong to Mr. Alan Ball. No infringement on my part is intended.
I have no BETA, editor, or other such charming person. All mistakes are my own. This Story is rated M.
The Curse of the Eclipsing Blood Moon—Chapter 9
Sookie pulled into their drive and sat looking at Eric. “Do you want to come in? I am not sure just exactly what I am supposed to do from this point on. I sorta thought I would not see you again.”
“I still do not know your last name,” Eric replied. “How about if we start with that?”
“Stackhouse,” she said, “Sookie Stackhouse.”
“Stapelhus,” Eric laughed out loud. “My grandmother’s maiden name which in English is Stacked House. Because her ancestors lived in a stacked house.”
“Really?” Sooke said in wonder.
“I kid you not,” Eric chuckled.
“So we really are cousins…” Sookie’s voice trailed off.
“Well, we are something,” Eric replied softly. “I really do not believe we are that close in the gene pool.”
That was a lot to digest. With that bit of information, it made Eric more real and her less…less…oh shit, maybe she really was white trash! “I guess we have been out here a while. Lafayette and O.I. are coming out to check on me.
Do you want to come in?” she asked.
“I have to be invited. Then univited when I leave.”
“Seriously?” she said.
“Absolutely,” he nodded.
“Will you be back?”
“Perhaps,” his eyes rested on her. “That will depend on you.”
“Is there a reason why I would not want to see you again?” In her voice was hope and perhaps a bit of dread.
Shrugging, he let out a sigh and got out of the car.
Coming around to her side, he opened her door and helped her out. “Perhaps we should just sit out on the porch. I am very serious about you doing some work for me. And Lafayette as well, if he would like to earn some extra money.”
“I can appreciate the work, but seriously, what is going on? I am getting a completely different vibe from you. And your eyes have chained color.”
“You want the truth?” he asked.
“Always,” she replied.
“My long life is full of things I should have said and did not. To you, I shall speak what my heart urges me to say.
I thought I knew what it meant to desire something. To want someone. To feel the burning ember in your gut turn into a roaring flame. To learn that you are greedy. For their touch, their look, the feel and smell of their skin. To listen to their laughter and to hold them before they fall asleep.
Honestly, I want you,” his voice was low. “I carry your laughter in my soul and a fierceness inside of me that wants to taste you, again. And when I wake, to see you smiling at me.
I should not have said that. But there it is,” he said simply.
“You take my breath away,” she said, putting her hand along the side of his face. Looking into his eyes, they were the blue of another time and place. Just not her time or place. “Eric Northman, will you please come in,” she said to him as they started for the house.
Lafayette and O.I. greeted them as they stepped up and onto the porch.
“Glad to sees everthin’ is good and gooder. We was gettin’ a bit concerned,” O.I. said looking from one to the other.
“Eric has a briefin’ to give,” Sookie hugged Lafayette and rubbed O.I.’s nose. “So grab somethin’ to drink.”
“Really, this Sophie-Anne, she can do that?” Sookie sputtered. “Just kidnap someone and haul them off to New Orleans?”
“She does that,” Eric responded. “But normally not in my area. It must be something she desperately wants and or needs. She would not be this bold or brazen to take such a risk if she thought the payoff would not be worth it. There was a spy for her there the night of the blood moon. I would be willing to bet it is Cacius, but I have no proof. And if it is, what does he want in exchange for giving her information?”
The group was thoughtful.
“Do…,” Sookie began, “do you think Cacius wants to wheel-and-deal with Abhartach? I mean, that evil bastard could influence my dreams, you think he could do the same thing with that little worm?”
“Now there is a frightening thought,” Eric crossed his eyes and rubbed his face with his hands.
“I guess it is a good thing I am off for the next couple of weeks,” Sookie let out a big sigh. “I’ll dig up my tips out of the yard and we should be okay.”
“What?” Eric looked at her. “I am hiring you to work for me for the next two weeks. Perhaps longer. I was not kidding about that. You are still a telepath, correct?”
“Oh,” she replied. “Well yes, I am. I cannot seem to read vamps. Which is nice.
For a salary, well, I make minimum wage plus maybe ten dollars a night in tips.”
Eric shook his head and wore an expression she did not know how to read.
“I do not pay minimum wage, to anyone. Our staff at the club makes thirty-five an hour plus tips. I will be paying you twice that amount along with providing you a Jeep so you can get to and from work. I do indeed want you to take photos for me of properties. And do a little listening in from time-to-time.
Lafayette, I am willing to pay you the same if you will accompany her. One hundred an hour plus a car, credit card for gas and hotel. There is another three hundred a day per diem. If you have to spend the night somewhere, I want it to be in a reputable, hotel and have a nice meal.
O.I. name your price for protecting both. I have no idea what S-A is up too, but it does not sit well with me. And when things do not sit well with me, I get a might bit perturbed.”
“That’s a lot of money,” Sookie said to him.
“What? Twenty thousand a week for the next two weeks. Maybe longer. I cannot put a value on our time, Sookie. You can do things that I cannot. Day walk being at the top of that list. Being a Druid when needed. A telepath when needed. Do you want more money?”
“No,” she violently shook her head. “Twenty thousand for one week. That is more than I make in a year.”
“His La La Fineness says we needs us a schedule. Of the do’s, don’t and whatnot’s. Also, who can be trusted and nots would be of big values. Also along with where and who to avoid.
I knows you would not send us knowingly into danger, but shit happens.”
“Indeed it does,” Eric nodded. “How about if we start with the henge in N.O. I want to know if you can get some type of reading off that? The lightning storm blew the hell out of it. The altar stone was broken in four equal parts. I moved them, just to be on the safe side.”
“Safe from what?” Sookie asked.
“Any evil intent on anyone’s part. Or even their good intent. That was your sacrifice on that altar,” he stressed. “It is not for anyone else to attempt to reproduce your actions or to fathom the outcome or try to justify how more righteous they are to star in their own version of a graphic novel.
You did this Sookie, you. And you are not to share this praise with anyone else. So the altar stone is elsewhere.”
“Well okay,” she nodded. “So what comes next?”
“We get you on payroll. I need to speak with Samuel. Then you go to work.”
Eric took out his phone and Sookie was thinking through the next couple of weeks. “Is the henge closed? And if it is, how do we get past the farmer who owns the cornfield?”
“The henge is still open and I own the cornfield,” he replied.
“Oh-h-h-h-h…” she nodded in understanding.
“Samuel,” Eric smiled. “My brother…”
When Eric hung up he smiled at the trio of do gooders. “My own Scooby Gang! Take the day off. The Jeep and phones will be delivered. Along with a few other things that might be helpful. Become familiar. Go shopping for clothes for all types of weather. Spring storms and winter blizzards. I do not know where this will take us, but be prepared. I will see you with the new dark!”
Pride was a terrible and powerful thing. Since creation, he, Abhartach, had ruled. The stars, the stairs…
…and now…now he was lost in the ether…he had stayed too long gloating to the humans and before he reached the top step, the stairs gave way as did his night sky and their cold moon now ruled him!
And now he was stuck, neither here or there. He could just endlessly tread up and down where the stairs had been. His feet remembering the path he had taken in triumph down to this cursed place.
This planet was not new to him. He had traveled here and watched the humans with interest until one day he had taken a body and forced it to his will.
With the duality, there were certain forces that worked against him. Having a tether to this world was what made it possible for him to travel back-and-forth.
Now that tether was gone! He had been defeated! The curse no longer held and now he was doomed to once more travel as spirit…high above the mists of time and the meaning of death…
…death…he shivered as he thought about his own demise. This was the precursor to his end. His resources limited, because what was left of his divine nature would continue to diminish.
Humans did not seek the ways of the righteous beings that had held them sway in the past. This new time of unrighteousness was foreign and distasteful. Humans’ arrogance knew no bounds! He had been defiled with something of a holy matter that was now lodged in his body!
And he was locked here…him!
“Past glories,” he mused. “There is none to remind me of my past glories. Or how to summon the stairs or the stars!”
This was now his eternity. In the cold dark of space, he saw the faint outline of the steps that now denied him his escape. The portal at the top was closed. Below lay the henge that mocked him. It looked like a great, gaping, maw with broken, decayed teeth, wanting to devour him!
What would it accomplish if he stood in the henge? What would it accomplish if he did not?
Carefully, he descended to the circle. The destruction here had been complete! Shards of rock and splinters of melted metal protruded out of what was left of the standing stones. The floor looked cold and glassy!
Once he touched the ground, he could feel it! The pain where the object had pushed into him pulsated! It was alive with energy!
So were the grounds! Walking towards the boundary rocks, he could feel the charge begin to build. The static coursed through him and the closer he came to the edge, the more the current pushed him apart! The metal in him causing him to howl and rip at his skin!
Taking a step back, he felt parts of him flow back into their proper places. The pain was becoming an ache. When he was back in the center, he no longer felt disjointed, but whole.
So this was his destiny! To wander this foreign night sky or to stand in this one spot on earth…! Where all he could do was stand!
As a dare to himself, he threw his will at the outer wall! It rebounded back to him on the same course it had taken and when it hit him, he sizzled and smoked while he screamed and cursed!
The sun had been up or an hour. Cacius was indeed alone and cursed! This was misery he thought to never endure! The day would pass and he was not the king of anything except his own misery. There was no concept of time, food, or drink. There was just the want! Cacius sat staring at the cold firepit he had started right at dawn in what was left of the circle. Feeling old and abandoned, his soul was empty, with nothing to speak of his heritage or rightful place in the universe!
He sobbed out his grief. What would his grandmother say to him? She had taught him what he needed to know to magic his way through life and others’ pockets. How to smartly move through a crowd and influence the weak willed.
Staring at the wood stack, he willed it to light! It must light! He had to be worthy!
“Please dark lord, please dark lord, please dark lord,” he began chanting. “Grant me this boon. Give me my desires. They are few and you are the holder of many.”
Abhartach heard the crying echoing up the void. Perhaps all was not lost after all. Below was a supplicant! Someone who believed!
It had been an early morning and busy. The Jeep arrived and with it credit cards and phones. Sookie and Lafayette and even O.I. now had banking accounts.
“Likes bein’ bonna’ fide,” O.I. said more than once as he admired the plastic card. “Hm-m-m-m, needs me a pouch to carry it in,” he began feeling around on his body. “Oh, there it is,” he smiled as his paw slipped into an opening on the left side of his body and left the card, there.
“Time to walk the talk,” Lafayette said, eyeing the new auto. “Gots us some righteous four-wheels drive and,” he opened the doors, “appears to be everythin’ else. My little man’s, we shall go in style when we is not in need of ridin’ on you’s back.”
“Is it time for lunch times nurishments, yet?” O.I. asked. “I gots a hankerin’ for that cheesecake my big man’s made.”
“Can do,” Sookie nodded. “Let’s call it breakfast cheesecake!”
“And maybe something a bit more user friendly to my old heart, like tequila to go with it,” Gran said with a smiled. “After all, Lafayette did make it with lime.”
“Ole!” they all shouted and then went back to their newest toy.
“I think I have the phone figured out. Eric left us voice mail,” Sookie said as she played with her phone. Hitting play, they heard his voice. “This is Northman. Can you meet me in N.O. at the hotel? Same room, just use your bio-metrics to get in. If possible, I would like eyes on the henge beginning at sun rise. Doing readings throughout the day. Out here.”
“Time to go to work. Let’s take the cheese cake,” Gran smiled. “We can buy coffee and have a picnic along the way.”
“Oh, I am likin’ that,” Lafayette nodded in agreement. “Some nice enough places in Shreveport.”
“Have their dessert and maybe ours as well,” Sookie wiggled her eyebrows.
“Well lets pack a small bag of creature comforts and go,” Gran smiled. “A trip to New Orleans. I cannot wait to see the penthouse!”
“Nice day to be driving,” Gran smiled as she admired all the gadgets on the dash. “Lafayette, what does that do?” she asked.
“Heats the steerin’ wheel,” he grinned. “Now, Gran, you find us a station to listen, too. Just check that card. We has gots 200 channels of music to right the soul. Finds us somethin’ we can move on down the big road, too.”
The Stackhouse Family in New Orleans
Arriving on the outskirts of N.O., they all voted to go to the henge, first. The hotel would wait.
When Lafayette drove into the cornfield he pulled over for a moment. “Looks different,” he said. “Not that I could see that night. But…Miss Sooks, what thinks you?”
“Does look different. And smells different. O.I. you got any sorta vibe on this?”
“Air smells heavily of ozone and some type of rottin’ fruit. And burned corn of the pop.”
They pulled in and parked and walked the fenced alley way to the henge.
“Maximum damage to the rocks,” Sookie said with a low whistle.
“Lightnin’ at its finest,” Lafayette responded. “Hotter than the sun, it is. Done and melted the metal that was in these rocks.”
“Wow,” Sookie said running her finger lightly against a shiny bit. “It looks like wet, dark algae,” she stated, letting out a low whistle.
“Huh,” they both heard O.I. and looked in his direction. “Woulds you just looks at this. Between the two standing rocks where the top of the altar was…here on the ground, there are footprints.
Look,” O.I. said pointing to the ground. “Someone stoods here in the center, coulds maybe hold onto either side of the standin’ stone and endure…cause woulds you just look at the prints left in theses stones. Human on one side and…wolf paw on the other! Mo’ fo’n…there is a human bare foot and there is a wolf’s paw print right there next to it on the ground.”
“Wonders if we should call Mr. Heveraux….?” Lafayette arched an eyebrow as he bent down to examine the ground.
“Who?” Sookie queried. “Oh, you mean the packmaster? Was he here?”
“Yes he was. And Cacius had a Were in the trunk of his car to sacrifice on this here altar. Alcide made it possible to track him and haul his ass in before, I am guessin’ Were justice. I am wonderin’ now if Part A has been served.”
The time at the henge was well spent. There were photos and measurements taken, much like a CSI unit working the field.
Finished with their fact finding, it was late afternoon and time to go to the hotel.
The drive into town was pleasant and they checked out various places they thought would be fun to eat.
Arriving at the hotel, they handed the valet the keys to their car, their luggage was taken and they were shown inside and deposited with a bow at the entrance to the penthouse.
“Lovely,” Gran nodded as she peeked in every room.
“The view is not to shabby either,” Sookie added as she opened the doors to the balcony. “This garden is a whole other suite out here above the sky line. Gran, would you just look at these old-fashioned roses. They smell heavenly.”
“Glory,” Gran smiled as she stepped out. “They have the blooming and the repeat blooming varieties. Bushes and climbing. All colors. What a delight!
Can we have our dinner out here?”
“Of course we can,” Lafayette said. “But lets order tea, first.”
“Oh-h-h-h,” Sookie grinned. “A tea party! And me without my hat!”
“I’ll be tea-mum,” O.I. said as he picked up the house phone. “Now, we wants some of everythin’, right! And better heart stuff for Gran.”
“Pbbbllllttttt!” Gran rolled her eyes. “I want a lemon-blueberry scone. And an orange one! Hot! With butter! As much as Eric is paying for this room, I figure we have our own chef so bring on those cute little crust less sandwiches! And a lovely fresh fruit platter. That can be my heart healthy.”
When Eric rose, there were messages on his phone. The ones from Sookie made him smile. Along with the photos she had sent, along. Those of them having tea on the roof was priceless. O.I. was such a ham! Fluttering upside down and pouring was pretty cute.
The message from Sophie-Anne put him into a furious rage! She wanted to see him upon rising! See him she would!
Eric sent out a text message to his best buddies. “Required at S-A’s residence. Start the briefing without me. Will be there ASAP.”
The Stackhouse family was standing out on the balcony when the vampires landed, there. Samuel and Pam both sporting a bit of fang.
“Eric is required at the residence?” Sookie said, worry in her voice. “Is he going to be alright?”
“Things are back to business as usual,” Pam replied. “S-A is going to want an out-brief. This could take a while.”
“Yes,” Samuel nodded at her as they went inside. “She will want to know as much as possible.
Let us use what time we have wisely. Would you please show us the photos that you took at the henge?”
Pamela and Samuel intently studied the images. “Have you talked to the Were?” he asked.
“No,” Sookie shook her head. “We looked up his business. So far, all we have been able to do is leave a message.”
“I spoke with him at the henge,” Lafayette said. “that night. He was sure enough gonna do somethin’ not very nice to Cacius.”
“I have his number,” Pam replied pulling it up. “Sending him another message.”
At that time, Lafayette’s phone began to ring. “We are a go for launch,” Lafayette said as he picked up his phone.
“Mr. Herveaux, this is His La La Fineness,” he began. “Thanks you for returnin’ my call. I ams the Medium that you meet at the henge. I hope all is fine with you and yours and kept out of the blood moon. Cause not all things are sitting pretty with me and mine and am’s hopin’ you have some answers. We went to the henge today and took photos of the odd and odder type. You know anythin’ about someone with human on one side and wolf on the other?”
New Orleans, Sophie-Anne’s Throne Room
“Bill,” the queen snorted, “We want to know how Eric took care of this mess. Before my Sheriff arrives, we want to at least know as much as Eric, does.
The King of Mississippi would like to know as well,” she glared at Bill one more time and then turned her smiling face upon Russell.
Then her glare was back upon Bill. “It is sadly disappointing that you have not one clue as to any of this and that our Sheriff of Area Five is going to put in an appearance to explain it all to us. Any doubts I have about his story will be just that…doubts that anyone could us against us.”
Bill was down on his knees. “My Queen, I was the acting head of your realm, ready to defeat any and all foes. I thought it wise to be safe and protect your rule and your queenship and let Northman handle this. I had the guards at the ready in case he could not hold the front line. We were here, if someone tried to storm your residence. I am your most loyal and humble servant.”
Russell was admiring the stained glass in the windows and rolled his eyes.
For this time and place, he did not give a rat’s ass about the liar that Sophie-Anne kept as her main ass kisser. He wanted the female Druid and was willing to sign over his half of the gold mine if S-A could produce her.
The doors opened. “Your majesty,” the guard bowed. “The Sheriff of Area Five is here.”
“Please show him in,” she replied and everyone turned their eyes to the monitor that just came on.
Eric was standing at the entrance doors.
“The Queen will see you,” he was told. “Take out your phone and any other electronic device you have. We are not required to do a strip search, but we will pat you down.”
Eric took off his watch and as he handed over his phone, he placed his finger over the camera lenses and clicked the side button three times, pause, then three times vampire speed. The SOS message just went out and would be vibrating on several phones as a friendly heads up to his friends that things were not to his best interest, and included was his last GPS location.
Around the world, and in New Orleans, the message was received.
With a smile, he endured the Weres’ hands going over his body and perhaps lingering too long on his crotch.
“Thanks,” he grinned at both of them. “And I thought this evening would not end with me sporting a hard on.”
There was a low growl as another set of guards stepped up and walked him to the throne room.
There were guards, everywhere in the halls. All of them at the ready. This was not unusual, as Sophie-Anne protected what was hers. But Eric has never had them trained on him, before.
At the doors to the throne room he was frisked one more time.
The doors opened and he was announced.
Eric did not have a problem reading the room. Sophie-Anne was wearing the look of a predator, moving in for the kill; Bill was gloating and Russell wore the bored expression of show me the money, then we will talk.Good to know who wanted what.
His guess was that they all wanted Sookie. Cacius, wherever the fuck he was, figured mightly into this. Alcide had cursed him so that he now wore a bit of Were on his right side. If he could leave prints in rocks as a human and Were, then he was something more. Abhartach came to mind. He had stayed until the stars began to vanish. As a rule, he was the first one to haul his ass up those stairs when the moon started to go to cold.
So, this was a trap…well fuck…but then again, when was it not. When Sookie was pulled into this, she would be able to take care of herself! And O.I., well fuck, he would scare the life right out of you!
Russell had seen Northman at a distance once or twice. There was a snowy night in Paris when a pack of Weres had thought to take The Viking, on. Russell had bet his money on the Weres that were hyped out on vamp blood. It had taken him a year to re-coup his losses on that smallish wager.
The sheriff was announced and Northman came in. Bowed and then stood at ease.
“He really is all fucking that,” he digested that and mentally regrouped. He was here to observe and that was all. Did he and Talbot want a henge…yes. Did they it want blessed by the real deal? Yes. After she was finished setting the stones, would they have to sacrifice the Druid on top of the altar? Well, maybe. Talbot had been doing research about that and still had no definitive idea.
Bowing, Eric stood and addressed her. “What may I do for you my queen?”
“Sheriff,” HRM raised her hand for him to kiss, “we wish to thank you for protecting our realm from the horribleness that wanted to come through the henge. How is it that you stopped it?”
“I did not do this by myself, your majesty,” he replied. “I had the help of my friends. We went to war and victory was ours.”
“Yes,” she smiled, “victory. My Sheriff, please tell me who they were for we would like to reward them.”
Nothing but the truth, just not all of the truth. If she wanted to know, she had to show her hand. “Of course my queen. It was Vlad Drac, William the Conquer, Attila the Hun; Ian, King of British Isle and Cedric, King of Erie.”
“Traitor!” Bill yelled. “You brought into our queen’s realm those that would attempt to depose her?”
Eric leveled his gaze on Bill. “When you called me, asking for help, I told you I would bring my friends. You, who were acting queen, as in I was told to address you as Queen Bill at the time, said that was perfectly fine. I brought them here with your blessing, Bill. And if they wanted this kingdom, HRM would not be sitting here now.
And we were not the only ones to be in this fight. If you had taken me up on my offer to attend, you would know that. There was all manner of magics there that evening as well. Witches, Druids, Weres, one or two trolls, some wee folk with their own brand of magic that they bring into the mix. And I think I saw a giant. There is no light in the henge, so I cannot swear to that.
I wish I could take credit for this, but in fact, I believe it was all of us working together to accomplish this feat! When we arrived, there were several hundred different magics there laying the ground work with their chants, blessings, and prayers. Their ballads written upon a staff, placed in the ground at strategic places. Or so they said,” he shrugged. “All of our combined magics, that brought the victory.”
“And one in particular,” Bill snorted. “That you have left out.”
“Fucking perfect,” Sophie-Anne grinned to herself. When she had briefed Bill, she had told him about the cousin, the druid.Bill did love to play I know more than you do. Sadly, he was just not very good at it.
But this female, this cousin, she was the one with the real power and not Eric.
Bill did not disappoint. He just kept right on with the I too have spies.
Go Bill. Go! Keep blabbing away! She was blameless for pulling Eric’s cousin into this. Bill would be the one to face the true death, in Eric’s eyes, for mentioning her!
“I believe you called her cousin,” Bill smirked.
“Actually, I call her Late Druid,” Eric remarked. “And when I really want to piss her off, Cousin.”
“Why Eric,” Sophie-Anne smiled, “please tell us her name so that we might thank her as well.”
“Her name is Late Druid, or I am allowed to address her as Cousin. I am under a geas, my queen. I piss her off and she removes words from my vocabulary that I am no longer allowed to say.”
“She is that powerful?” Sophie-Anne asked and you could hear the awe in her voice before she dropped it back to neutral.
Eric shrugged. “Yes. But this is a family thing,” Eric responded, “because we share a common ancestor. My grandmother’s sister, who lived on British Isle at the time and was a Druid. I meet her as a young man and pissed her off and she gave my female relatives this power over me. From this lineage comes my cousin and she is able to deny me certain things.”
“So, she cannot do this to everyone?” S-A said with relief in her voice.
Eric shrugged, again. “Probably. Maybe, perhaps. This I do not know. But she has a strict code that she lives by and I am part of that code when I piss her off. I know how to do humble.”
“You Sheriff, humble?’ she laughed. “I would very much like to meet her,” Sophie-Anne smiled. “When can you arrange this?”
“Hard to say,” he replied. “The only way I have of contacting her is to leave five purple Mardi Gras strings of beads on Edgar Allen Poe’s memorial marker in Baltimore before five in the morning.”
“You think she walks there so early?” Sophie-Anne asked in awe.
“I think she does whatever the fuck she wants,” he answered.
“She burned a star map into the ceiling at the club to make her point to everyone there. I am just happy she did not burn it into my forehead. Or on my ass.”
“She would do that?” Bill asked in awe.
“Do not piss her off,” Eric replied. “Or you will find out.”
“Well Sheriff,” S-A’s smile got bigger. “We very much now desire to meet her. Anyone that can bring you to heel is someone worth knowing.
You shall reside with us until she is announced in our throne room. Now,” she motioned one of the guards, forward. “Give all the particulars to Hendrick and when she calls your cell phone, we shall chat and have a grand party for her when she arrives.”
With a flutter of her hand, Eric was excused.
“The God of my fathers,” Samuel said watching the room with the smallest spy device that had been created in his lab. “How do we do this Brother Samuel?” Pam asked.
“Let them plant the beads in Baltimore. Give it a day then Sookie,” he looked at her, “call Eric’s cell. We will bounce the signal all over the world. They will negotiate a time for you to come into town and do the meet and greet. That will buy us another day or two.
Let me set this in motion.”
“So they really do have Eric, now?” Sookie asked, looking anxious.
“Yes,” Pam nodded. “But he has been invited-to-stay,” Pamela said with death in her eyes, “once or twice, before. When this happens, there is always something that comes up that he is needed for. Maybe a war will start on one of her boarders or perhaps there will be someone from the Old Empire that wants to see Eric and she is to send him forth or suffer the consequences.”
“Are there real consequences?” she asked.
“Yes,” O.I. chuckled. “And they are mighty and severe.”
The characters of the Southern Vampire Mysteries belong to Miss Charlaine Harris. No infringement on my part is intended. The characters on True Blood belong to Mr. Alan Ball. No infringement on my part is intended.
I have no BETA, editor, or other such charming person. All mistakes are my own. This Story is rated M.
The Curse of the Eclipsing Blood Moon—Chapter 8
There was a road running through the corn field. Eric had them vamp speed to where there was parked an RV.
“Nice ride,” Sookie said when Eric put his hand on the biometric display and the doors opened.
“Me or the RV,” he grinned at her.
“Both,” she smiled back.
Stepping in there was an audible intake of air from her. “Really nice ride,” she nodded and turned and looked at him. “Marble inlaid floors, granite counter tops. Leather and even a fireplace.”
“Two full baths and a bedroom with a king size bed,” Eric nodded. “All the comforts of home. Would you like something to eat or drink? The fridge is stocked. There is an ice bucket with champagne and I believe even room for dancing.”
“M-m-m,” Sookie sighed, “I would love to dance. The music playing is Benny Goodman.”
“How do you know that?” Eric asked as his hands arranged her braids.
“Gran,” she answered with a smile. “She loves to dance and so she taught me. The big band era was somethin’ else. She loves the music and so do I.”
Sookie looked at the champagne and shook her head. “If I want to keep my wits about me, I guess that would be no to the champagne,” she said picking up the heavily carved flutes that were beside the bucket.
Her eyes rested on him. His face. The way his brow was lightly furrowed. “This is really lovely. Thank you.”
“No,” Eric replied bringing her hands to his lips, his eyes never leaving hers. “Thank you,” and you could hear the passion in his voice.
“Moonglow,” Sookie smiled to hide her embarrassment as the next song started. “One of my favorites.”
Eric’s placed a hand on her cheek. “I am so sorry about this. It saddens me that this has to be. That you are giving your all to one such as myself. That I am not what you deserve.”
“Eric,” she let go of the bewildered feeling that tried to dominate her. “There is a sayin’. In the end we all get what we deserve. If this is to be my last meal, so to speak. I could not,” she smiled at him, “have imagined any of this,” she smiled at him. “Truly. I could not…no correction…I would never have dared to dream this big.”
“My lady,” Eric bowed to her, “would you care to dance?”
“Why thank you kind sir,” she smiled up at him as she stepped into his arms. “Yes I would.”
Sookie sang along with the song as held her and danced her around the floor.
“You have a lovely voice,” he said to her.
“No,” she grinned. “The Seid has a lovely singing voice. Sookie does not.”
“Is that a fact?” Eric asked her as he dipped her to the floor and slowly brought her back up.
“That is a fact,” she grinned. “Sookie cannot carry a note in a bucket. But I do like to sing and so I do. Not everyone enjoys it as much as I do.”
“Are you sure? I could easily offer you a recording contract.”
Laughing, she kissed him on the cheek. “That is so sweet, but when this is over and the Seid has retired until the next event, no, I really do not think you will.”
“How bad can it be?” he asked.
“Plenty bad,” she grinned. “My gran loves me to death but when we go to church, she sings in the choir and I sit in the back of the church. Mr. Hershel, he is tone deaf and he loves to sing also. So the two of us has the grandest time singin’ for all we are worth while the rest of the church sings louder to drown us out.”
“You go to church,” Eric nodded. “If I might, how do you reconcile this…this…evil that is coming from the stars with your beliefs?”
“I believe in God and His son Jesus and the Holy Spirit. That means different things to different folks. I have my own personal take on that as well. And because of what I believe, I have found that faith is walking to the edge of all the light that I have and taking one more step. That because of what I believe, I will never be swallowed by the darkness that looms in front of me. And the light that lives in me, the darkness cannot over-come it.
So evil comes and evil goes. That is every day of my life. And if it kills this body, my light lives on in Heaven.”
“And what if there is no Heaven or Hell?” Eric asked.
“If this is all there is,” she shrugged, “then I have had a pretty good time.
I like who I am and what I stand for and at the end of the day, or at the end of this life, if I have done the best I can, then I figure I will rest easy in the grave.”
Eric stared at her. “You do not fear death,” he said slowly.
“No,” she responded.
“You are a remarkable woman,” he raised her hands to his lips and kissed them. “A woman that values herself. That lives what she believes. You are rare, Miss Sookie and I am honored to say I know you.”
“Not that rare,” she shrugged as he twirled her around and back into his arms. “Lots of good folks out there. I know several. It is just that after puttin’ in a full day’s work, all you want to do is get home, kick your shoes off, put your feet up and enjoy your family.”
Laughing, he spun her around the room and then back to face-to-face. “So what you are saying,” he grinned at her while she laughed, “is that I probably won’t meet them if I only associate with the dregs of the supernatural society.”
Sookie shrugged and became very serious. “Probably not in the dregs of any society.
What are you thinkin’,” she asked him. “Your eyes just changed color.”
“We have about forty minutes,” Eric noted the time. “And you are naked beneath that robe,” his smile was impish.
“Yes, I was wonderin’ if you were gonna’ notice that?”
“Oh, believe me, I noticed,” his fangs dropped down just a bit.
“I believe you mentioned that you wanted to do some smoochin’.”
Grinning at him, she blushed and nodded her head, yes.
“Well, we can smooch standing up, or sitting down with you in my lap. We can also smooch on the couch lying down or in front of the fireplace.
And there is that king size bed in the back,” he wiggled his eyebrows at her. “So are we going to pick the box, the curtain or door number three?”
“Let’s go with what’s behind door number three,” she motioned with her head.
He waltzed her there and opening the door, he announced, “You have picked the king size bed. Now let me tell you what you have won. Shall this be with clothes or naked or a combination.
O’, wait one,” he grinned as her robe disappeared. “Looks like the fates have decided.”
Scooping her up in his arms, he carried her to the bed and placed her under the covers. “You under the covers, me on top of the covers, and if you don’t mind, a lot of French kissing. Put your spit all over my mouth and anywhere else you have a mind, too.”
“Hear! Hear!” was called from his crotch as he began to disrobe.
“What?” Sookie asked sitting up. “Does your crotch speak?”
“That is King Eric. My penis. He talks. I was hoping he would keep it to himself, tonight, but apparently not.”
“She looks like Venus rising up out of the waves, Eric,” he gasped. “Her light shines around her like the luminescence of a perfect white, South Sea pearl. Her breasts reflecting dazzling snow-capped mountains in the brilliant sunshine and her nipples, the pink glow of the fiery sunset as the ocean sprays her with a fine mist and sets all aglow declaring her the perfect woman!
I am glad you brought my knives,” his voice was solemn and proud. “Gladly I would go to my death defending her. You may count on me fair lady, I will keep you safe and the evil ones dead!”
“Thank you,” she replied as her eyes went up to Eric’s. “Really? A knife?”
“He is deadly with a knife,” Eric replied. “And he has, more than once, saved my life. I bought his arsenal. After tonight I am going to have a Bowie knife made for him and present it to him with much pomp and fanfare.”
“Really?” Sookie replied, her eyes going back down to Eric’s crotch.
“Yes. Because of our unusual circumstances this evening, Madame Vedo has stitched sheaths into my pants to hold his knives. So they shall be at the ready and easily accessible.”
Sookie was smiling. “I have never thought in my entire life that I would need a penis to protect me, let alone know one that carries his own knives.”
“Truthfully,” Eric smiled, “I did not either. Yet, here we all are. You, me, and King Eric. Ready to cross blades.”
“War is my middle name,” King Eric replied. “And Trouble is his. That is why War is my middle name,” he snorted. “To keep Trouble intact. I am the brains and he is the legs that walks us around.”
Snorting, Sookie swallowed the chuckle. “He comes with attitude,” she nodded.
“Yes,” Eric sighed, “more often than not he gets me slapped. I am happy to see he is on his best behavior.”
“Best behavior,” she ran her hand down the side of his face. “I believe you said something about French kissing. I have never done that. And I am looking forward to doing that. Now should I help you with your clothes or can I just watch?”
“Do you want to watch?” he asked her, his voice low and sultry.
“I think so,” her voice was curious. “Yes,” she nodded, “I want to watch. Would you please do just sorta go slow and easy?”
“Well yes I can,” he said standing and because he could, pulled his t-shirt up very slowly up and over his head. Then, like a slow trickle of water running of the bloom of a rose, he was running his hands down his chest and into his jeans. With a low moan, he rubbed his upper thighs and said, to her, “I wish you were doing this.”
Sookie’s eyes were riveted as his hands moved and he was now rubbing on King Eric.
Sookie was moaning softly as Eric slowly moved his hands out and undid his belt.
Then the top button.
Then the next button.
“The Levi Denim 501 Five Button Fly,” she nodded, her eyes finally looking up at his and not watching his hands. “Straight leg. Hugs your ass. Looks like they were made to fit you.”
“Tailored,” he grinned and licked his bottom lip.
“Part of the seduction?”
“Well that depends. Do you like it?” he asked, undoing another button.
“Oh yes,” she nodded, as she was once more watching his hands. “I like it very much.”
“What?” he asked her as he undid the last button and his hands reached in and pushed his jeans down until he stepped out of them. “What is it that you like the most?”
“The way your hands are so sure and steady. And that low moan you made. That was pleasure. That is the same kind of satisfying sound I make when I rub on myself. But it is dark and I am under the covers.
You are not at all embarrassed about…about anythin’.”
“No,” he said as he approached the bed. Getting on, he lay down beside her, his face buried in her neck as he placed kisses there.
“You are more than welcome to cover me in your spit,” he licked her pulse and then her neck.
He left a small trail of kisses along her collar bone, then down her side until his ear was even with her breast. As his mouth worked toward her nipple, his hands slid under the covers and then under her. Mouthing her nipple he began to suck. Then his hands cupped her butt and he pulled her up to him. “Just ride it,” he said as he thrust his hips forward and put his considerable concentration on one nipple and then the next. Listening to her cry and whimper and whisper “Please, Eric, please,” was enough to make him this side of crazy. Who needed to be a genius? The nice thing about crazy was that it had no limits…and he was going to push her over that limit…if he did not end up there first!
My name is King Eric and I am sure you have heard all manner of rumors about me…may I just stress to you that they are all, true.
I have been with The Viking since time, began, for us. Yes, I am the Y chromosome that keeps the big oaf from just being a really tall, ugly girl. And he is tall…that is the Viking blood…and yes, he is blond and blue-eyed as well, which is also his Viking gene pool. And his dick…well, that is all me and I am my own man, King Eric, Viking or no! I get my girth and robustness from my sheer strength of will and never ending devotedness to wanting to please the ladies!
I am deeply embarrassed to say, there was a time in his life when I went on strike!
Yes…I know… it still assaults me to my very soul!
There was a hundred years when he was not the best person that you would want to know. His grandmother and mother would have shamed him in front of the entire clan for doing some of the outrageously disrespectful things that happened on his watch.
I still roll my one eye at the thought of some of the things that he did. And we would have shouting contests about this! One dark he got so tired of me speaking the truth to him, that he put a geas on me so that I could not speak and berate him for his sad lack of manners and the way he conducted himself!
I just want you to understand that I did not encourage nor did I participate in his immoral, outrageous acts.
That is correct…for a hundred years, he could not get me up. No one knows this, but when he was with a woman, he was forced to use a strap on, then he would glamour them, tell them what a great lover he was and send them on his way.
Poser! And then some…!
It was a stone circle that brought him back.
I am proud and pleased and deeply humbled to participate tonight in this stone circle that is going to wipe his name from the list of dumber-then Were shit. You know the list I mean. That awkward moment when someone in the crowd yells out when you are telling a story… “Well just how dumb was he?”
And you are forced to speak the truth so you reply, “He was dumber than Were shit!”
“Oh, man…” they all take a step back, shake their heads and roll their eyes.
“You just cannot come back from that! And as the King, there is no way I want my name associated with dumber than Were shit. After all, I might be the little head, but I am the brains of this outfit!
So, this evening, that is my intent. Tonight we are coming back from…from…that! And all though my name is clear on this account, I am attached to the big oaf! And I suffer from guilt by association. Yes, I know, I am all heart and soul and take the responsibility! But this is who I am! And it cannot be helped!
So am I looking forward to tonight? You know that I am! I shall do my job! It might be the quickest one stroke on the face of the planet, but Miss Sookie shall know pleasure and we shall put that beastly one hundred years behind us, once and for all!
Eric and Sookie were both giggling. The spit idea seemed like a good one, so they were taking turns licking each other, starting with their feet and working their way up.
Sookie now had her tongue on the back of Eric’s knees. He was ticklish there and his giggles caused her to giggle.
When she was finished with those, she laid down and he licked the back of hers.
Her whooping with laughter could be heard by the vampires at the stone circle.
“I thought he was sexing her up?” Vlad said to Attila. “You know, that she would be screaming with pleasure…not laughing…” his voice trailed off as the merriment just got louder.
Everyone looked at Pamela and then Samuel.
They both shrugged.
Pamela and Samuel looked at each other and shrugged.
“This is new,” Pam mumbled under her breath. “Screaming his name in pleasure, yes. Laughing so hard that she is gasping for air, I am not for sure what that is…” she was shaking her head and her focus was now on the direction of the RV.
“They have thirty minutes,” Madame Vedo replied, watching the moon.
“We have thirty minutes,” Eric said looking up at her. As much as he wanted her to work over King Eric, who was gasping for air, they had to move on.
“I will hurry it along,” she replied as she licked her way up his chest to his neck.
“Your turn,” he said, lying her down on her back. “As much as I hate to, vamp speed from here on.”
“Yes,” she replied as she let her body enjoy the following moments. “Yes,” she whispered as she grabbed his head and held on!
Sookie purred when Eric finished with her face and he pulled her fiercely to him.
“We have to go,” he whispered into her ear.
“I know,” she nodded and watched him get up, go over to a chair and pull on a long linen shirt.
“Madam Vedo made one for you as well,” he said reaching to the chair and walking it over to her. “These have been treated with tin. I do not know how she works her magic, only that she does very well. Until yours manifests, this will serve you well.”
Sitting up, she took it from him and slid it on over her head. Helping her stand, she shook the shift out. “Well, it covers the girly stuff. For now, that is all that matters.”
“Let us away,” Eric smiled at her.
“Front or back?” she asked him with a grin.
“Front, front, front!” was being yelled from King Eric.
“Front it is,” she wrapped her arms around him and then her legs.
“How about a kiss for the road?” she asked.
“Oh, we shall kiss while we are on the road,” his tongue reaching out and licking her lips. “We have five minutes to get there. Five minutes to get into position. We shall have a five-minute kiss to get there.”
They were out the door and moving not at a high rate of vamp speed, like they had coming over. But a more moderate pace. Which she enjoyed, immensely! King Eric was singing the Ride of the Valkyriesand Eric’s tongue was all over her mouth in time to it.
It was, she thought one of the funniest yet most sensual things she had experienced thus far.
“Or maybe it is just my nerves,” she reflected on that for a moment. “Does not matter,” she tightened herself around him while her tongue licked his. “I like it!”
When they arrived at the henge, there was the appearance of a battle already taking place…Mother Nature was warring against what wanted to descend from the sky!
Everyone had fled, except for the vampires and the dragon and his ryder that now stood in the circle.
“You smell like each other,” Ian said when Eric stepped them into the henge.
“Yes,” Eric nodded as he walked them toward the altar.
“How is that possible?” Vlad asked.
“We covered each other in our spit.”
“But vampires do not make dry saliva,” Ian pointed out. “Only if we are preparing to feed.”
“Apparently I do,” Eric responded. “I see we are on time. And o’, here comes the stairs. And you have the gate! And what looks to be weapons at the ready. Love your holstered bodies! You bristle with armament! My fellow warriors, on to victory!”
“Pamela is standing by at the ready with yours,” Samuel told him, watching the stairs and now the changing of the starfield above their heads. “And your swords are under the altar, along with other things we may not want or need.”
“Into positions,” Eric called out.
Pam was down on the ground with Sookie now standing on top of her. She had the mead in one hand and the bowl of millet resting on the altar. Eric was holding the bread.
“How are you doing?” he asked her.
“Your smile makes me all warm and hopeful inside,” she grinned back.
He leaned in and she kissed his bottom lip, pulling it into her mouth and suckled there for a few seconds.
“Thank you for being so thoughtful of me,” her smile got bigger. “You have treated me with nothing but respect. And I just want you to know how much I appreciate that.”
“The Druid is on you,” he rubbed his nose against hers. “I can see it. Your eyes are glowing. How are you doing?”
“Good, no outside interference yet. But I do feel like I am being bombarded on the top of my head with…with…something. Feels like fine grains of sand raining down on me.”
“Good thing I licked you there,” he grinned, “just maybe it will keep their screaming voices out of your head. I am right here beside you,” his eyes held hers. “And as soon as you dump the mead and the millet, I will have you in my arms and we will be up on the altar.”
“Yes,” she nodded as she kept her eyes focused on his. “It is nice to be here with family,” she could feel the shadows begin to lengthen. The warmth of the moon beams giving way to the dark, pulsing dark that wanted to consume her! Instead, she watched his eyes, as the blue in them began to fade and the deepest of night was going to consume them. With his hands on her, she paid no attention to what was happening around her.
“Heads up!” was yelled by all as the last sliver of moon still shone proudly against the blood red and the screams of agony, despair and triumph were coming down the staircase!
“Madame Vedo,” Vlad yelled, “rip off their clothes!”
Vedo was at the altar, her especially stitched, prepared garments removed with a flick of her wrist.
“I’ve got this,” Pam bellowed up from the ground, her weapons strapped to her body.
Leaving the comfort of Eric’s arms, Sookie stood on top of Pam.
“Darkness in five, four, three, two, one,” Samuel yelled above the raging sounds of Mother Nature and the evil that wished to descend to earth!
Sookie noted when the circle went to black…and she could see nothing…
…and if there was terror, or disco lights, or beings assaulting her brain, she was not aware of it.
Her hands were sure and steady. . .
“Dump the mead,” she spilled it out onto the altar. “Cast the millet,” she repeated to herself as she made a sweeping movement with the bowl, sending the grains, everywhere, “wrap my legs around Eric and…” and up they went.
Her legs were wrapped around his waist. Her butt on the altar. “Put my feet on the altar, he pushes in,” she felt him push in and pull out, “I put my fingers in then,” she could feel the blood “and then out and spread the blood on top. And put my bloodied hand on his shoulder.”
He drinks, eats,” she could feel Eric doing these things. “My fingers are in his mouth and the gate closes.”
And then there was something completely unexpected! “Stay safe,” he said and then pulled her fiercely to him. His mouth covered hers in a searing kiss!
Eric was up and shoved her under the altar, with a “Shoot to kill!” and then he was gone.
Taped to the inside of the altar were air pistols. She had been practicing with the ones that were positioned down here. Her hands found the guns and removing the tape, she was armed and at the ready!
“He kissed me,” she smiled and allowed herself a small moment of pleasure. “And him breakin’ me, well that did not hurt at all!”
Cacius had gotten into his car and drove out to a rise that overlooked the cornfield! Stripping down to naked, he held his staff in his hands and bowed to the four corners of the all the worlds.
“Glorious, glorious, glorious,” he wept as he prostrated himself toward the stone circle. “I hear and obey, I stand and I do not falter. I am justice and pure of heart. I will tell the Queen that I sacrificed the Were and that her glorious reign shall continue forever!”
Standing, he could see the henge and it wasglorious. He began his dance of the openingand felt the last of the cold moon’s rays run off his body as he cast aside this world and was ready to embrace the next.
Dancing in the moonlight…the last bit of the cursed white light disappeared as his dance became fevered and the blood red captured and would now control the face of the moon!
Then something marvelous began to happen! He could feel it in his leg and arm! The change of purification and of collapsing vanguards. The old was ending! The new beginning!
“I am righteous, I am righteous,” he cried out and beat his fists in the air! That is when he noticed. His right arm had shifted to that of…of…a wolf! And the splendor that was his right leg, tattooed with the protection spells of the ages, had changed to wolf as well!
“By all that is unholy!” he screamed. “The gods of my other-worlds, save me! What is this? What has happened?”
On top of a small rise in a cornfield outside of New Orleans, Cacius had a small, come to Jesus meeting. Not that he would ever admit that, but it was now time to think some serious shit, through. Because his life and future undeath depended on this. Out here screaming like a banshee would do him no good. Okay, the right side of his body was seriously fucked. Because of the horror of his body that he was beholding, there could be a loss of bodily functions, later. At the moment, he could not shit, himself! Could not! S-A was going to want a full report. The who, what, why when, where and how. All he had to do was stand here and watch.
Could he do that? Fuck no! He had to work his own agenda! Gain where no other could. Walk with eyes where no one else could see! Own the world and all those in it!
Now he was cursed! Not fit to be an immortal, a vampire or even a complete wolf! Nor was he a man…he was now an unspeakable! A hybrid, he shuttered at the thought! An outcast!
Whoever the winner was, be they a god or vampire, if they knew about him, he was fucked! Here in the corn was the best place for him! Here in the corn he would stay!
Sookie knew her hand was in front of her face. It was pitch black in the circle. Like being inside of a cave! Which made the stars that were foreign to her eyes, look like you could reach out and touch them. What held her attention was watching the light show up in the air. Yes, the stair case was a grand, sweeping show of power, with all manner of ungodly things in a bottle neck, on it. She could see the gate. It was doing its job. And their team was in the air and shooting and you could hear the screams of those that now sizzled with embedded tin.
But it could not compete with the air bursts that were coming from on high! That had to be Lafayette and O.I.
Lafayette had been practicing with a sling shot. Those bags of tin pellets went winging through the air to be hit with O.I.’s flame and even down here, the stench of roasting…something…was horrific!
They were perhaps two minutes into the battle. As she got her bearings, she realized she was still naked and her watch was missing. “I could use some Druid magic,” she said out loud as the yelling and screaming continued and she could hear their guys yelling above the wind and using O.I.’s fireballs as light to shift positions!
You could see the movement around O.I. That was the vampires, coming in to take a better shot, get more ammo, which O.I. had strapped to him, or just fuck with the evil in general. Vlad had said something about how he was going to moon them.
“Any time now, magic! Give me some Druid!”
Nothing happened! She was still nude and her hair was still loose and just what the fuck had happened to her watch?
“Well, just what the fuck?” she hissed.
“Sookie!” she heard Pam yelling.
“One, two, three…” she began yelling the numbers so that Pam could find her way to her.
Despite herself, Sookie grinned. They had rehearsed, everything! Down to the second. Pam was to check on her on the fifteen-minute mark. Really, that much time had passed? And what had happened to her watch?
The vampires rotated in and out to O.I. just like they had practiced. Giving everyone time to reload and rethink the battle plan. That was the thing about wars, the battle field was constantly changing and you had to be able to adapt with it.
“That gate was just pure fucking genius,” Eric smiled as he continued to spray bullets at the bottle neck. The stench was overpowering. More than once, he thought he was going to puke!
Samuel, who was just somewhere below O.I., had puked. He knew it was not Lafayette because they had equipped him with a gas mask. And Eric knew it was not O.I. because there would have been something like lava raining down on his very fine vampire ass. He had seen O.I. puke, before, and it got dangerous if he was projectile vomiting!
That only left his dear brother. Who was undoubtedly singing The Psalms as he wretched.
His watch vibrated on his wrist. They had been in here for fifteen minutes. One thing you could say about technology. These fuckers could give you the appearance of slowing down time or speeding it up, but unless you could slow down the rotation of the earth, science continued to track the spinning of the earth down to the zeptoseconds, and the gods only know how far down the physicists tracked it.
Pam had gone to check on Sookie. Good. You could not see worth a Were’s shit in here, but those off-worlders could do nothing about the vibration on your wrist.
There was now about forty-five minutes left. Most excellent. The big bad had yet to put in an appearance.
Eric figured this being’s ego would not let him keep out of sight much longer.
Flexing a bit he felt ready for the battle…and then some. Wanting it to start so he could push his limits.
Because he now had new limits. He was more. What he and Sookie had done tonight, was an interesting phenonium. He had extra somethings. He could feel it and it was a powerful thing. Now he wanted to know what it was that had changed and with a sword in his hand was the only way to find out. He always felt good before a battle, tonight was no different. Although, things had changed a bit for the evil.
There was not the constant influx of the big bad. For which he was grateful. They were still coming down the stairs, but not in the numbers that they had seen in the past. So maybe they had closed it. Which meant they were going to have to kill everything that came down, because there would be no returning to their home dimension. So Abhartach died tonight. “Well just the true death to that fucker,” Eric snarled as he open-fired on those that were rushing the gate. “Or maybe not,” he held that thought. “Maybe for those on this side, it is a two-way door. They can escape back up.
What?” he said feeling his wrist vibrate, again. “Another fifteen minutes has passed. Don’t get lost in your thoughts Northman. Those uglies would love for you to go adrift in this and never come out.
There it is,” he saw the fireball light up the sky as those from the top pushed those that were standing back from the gate into it.
“Took them long enough to figure that out,” Eric snorted. “What a lot of posers,” he grinned as he pulled his sword.
This morning, Sookie was hopeful. By afternoon, she thought maybe she was not ever going to talk about what was going to happen to her. Now that she was here, she was sure she was not going to speak of this evening ever again! This is not what she had envisioned!
Naked, she was armed and sitting under the altar. Her Druid self was not anywhere. Just what the fuck? Was she worried…well that was the question!
“No,” she honestly answered to herself. “Not worried. The moon is going to go back to white light. The team seems to have things under control, because there was nothing for me to shoot at. Surely, by this time, there would be one or two that I could claim as my own personal kill.”
“Sookie,” she heard Pam calling her name, again.
“One…two…” she shouted.
“Sookie, where are you?” was yelled back. “I can’t see you in this hell-hole!”
“Oops…” she pulled back under the altar into a tight ball. “Guns at the ready,” she steadied herself. “Just let that fucker roll on past here. You can just feel the sting of my tin b-b’s. come on, come one, come on.” And maybe, she thought she sounded a bit gleeful!
This blood moon was not going to set on her cold body! She was going to live to see her moonlight return! And once more wear clothes!
“Come on,” she grinned, “Please allow me to take you back to Hell.”
There was the distinct smell of something unearthly that grunted when it ran into the altar. Pulling the trigger, there was a scream, and the sickening sound of flesh opening where she made the wound as the body fell. Next came the work of the tin sand that had been scattered over the area popping open the exposed flesh and burning away at the evil. “Putrid,” she shuttered. “Hopefully, that thing is now dead.”
There was another one coming this way. The entity tripped over the body and landed on top of their fellow legionnaire. Firing more shots, she heard the shuffling of what she could only call insanity, and bracing herself, she began to shoot out into the dark and with much satisfaction, she heard grunts and screams as her aim hit true and more bodies fell.
“They must have rushed the gate,” she thought as she kept firing. “Knew that was going to happen. The guys even planned for it. Damn, so glad this is not their first time in a battle zone,” as she dropped the magazine from her air rifle and pulling another one from the holster taped to the side of the altar, loaded another one. “This would just suck if there was no plan.”
Eric felt another vibration on his wrist. He was standing on the rock beams on top of the henge uprights, fighting those who wanted to play King of the Hill. King Eric had insisted! There was no way of knowing how many they had pushed to the ground and the bad guys continued to fall like hail stones from the sky. “Fifteen minutes, left,” he nodded to himself as he slashed his way around the circle, King Eric doing just as much damage as himself!
Then something interesting happened. He could see the eclipse of the moon begin to fade. And the stairs in the Earth’s night sky were beginning to twinkle through. “That’s different…and…is it, perhaps, not as black in here…?”
“What the fuck!” King Eric shouted in glee. “I have grown two more inches! My reach is now as long as yours, my comrade-in-arms!”
Sookie felt the changes taking place on her body. Clothes were back and her hair was in some elaborate braid. Still no watch on her wrist, though.
And she thought maybe she could see…maybe…and the wind and noise were gone. And maybe the stink…she no longer wanted to puke. Yes, their moon was making its way back to them!
Abhartach was watching what was going on around him. His time was not up and yet…yet…the moon spoke of a different reality!
His troops had been fleeing back up the stairs and others had not been able to come down them to re-engage. Things were horribly wrong!
He had one chance left. And only one as the stench wafted back up the stairs and now polluted his private space. “Retreat,” he bellowed.
His followers did not need to be told twice. There was pushing and shoving and an ending of their reality at the hands of these humans as they fled to get away from the death that lurked there in the dark.
Left alone, he was standing on the stairs. “I would speak with the self-proclaimed lady of the light,” he shouted. “That abomination that calls herself a warrior and a hero! That putrid amount of flesh that wafts deceit on the breeze!”
There was a glow by the altar and it came towards the staircase. It was Sookie! Or perhaps not, Eric reasoned. Her hair was done up in an intricate braid resembling a staircase. On her forehead, a simple gold circlet, also engraved in Runes. From her body flowed a gossamer gown that light surged from and filled all the dark corners of the henge. Around her swirled a purple robe. Gold medallions the size of dinner plates, done in fanciful embroidered Runes adorned it! Along with the lavish matching trim that framed the edges. Around her waist hung her sword, and on her arm, she carried a matching shield.
As she approached, she said, “My fellow heroes, not one word. Not one. Whatever you say he will use, against you.”
Abhartach smiled. “Lady of the Light,” he gave her a deep bow. Then, with a turn of his body, he dismissed her.
“To the men that fought so bravely here, this dark. Your countless fallen comrades would rise from the ground and slay you if they knew they had sacrificed themselves for the likes of her. I say to you she lies,” he shouted, placing his hand over his heart. “And is a war monger. And a lover of dead flesh. Your lives are forfeit while she sits as a queen and eats honey and comb and washes it down with sweet nectar and your blood. She utters words that true men would never heed. Promises riches that she does not have and spread her legs to whoever asks. And gives birth to all things unclean and abhorrent. I hope those of you left standing will at last make your will known to her,” he smiled as he thrust his hips forward and then pulled them back. “Let her serve you as is your right! Who here is the man among you that would broker a deal with me and cast this whore into Hell? For Hell is where she belongs. Yes, she is a lady of the light. But you need to ask yourself, what light fuels her? I can tell you, it is the crippled, crushed pieces of a looming dark night. One filled with anguish and hate that she brings here and disguises as good deeds.”
Everyone still held their weapon at the ready.
Eric took careful aim and pulled the trigger.
There was a screech from the being on the stairs. Turning to Eric, he roared his discontent and threw a fireball at him. Dropping the rifle, Eric used his sword as a bat and knocked it back to him.
Contact!
Abhartach screamed as he patted out the flames with his hands.
“You will regret this, you whores’ sons, all of you! You think you can stop me? There is always someone who wants power of the unworldly type! I will find them and then I will be back for you! You shall feed those who thought to never again taste flesh and you shall fuel their desires!”
Turning, he ran up the stairs as they began to disappear.
Their moon was back to its white, cold light. And their familiar night sky had never looked so good.
“Thank you,” Sookie looked around at the group. “Thank all of you. From my heart and from my world, I thank you.
O.I., if you would not mind, I know Gran is worried. I would like to go home and rest in the comfort of her love.
This is indeed a reason to celebrate,” Sookie bowed to them as O.I. landed with Lafayette on his back. “I will leave you to it,” she smiled at them as Lafayette helped her on and settle in.
O.I. and Lafayette both saluted and with a lift of the dragon’s wings, they were airborne.
There was a comfortable rocking as O.I.’s wings moved up and down.
“You ready?” Lafayette asked her as he handed her his phone.
“Yes,” she nodded.
When Gran picked up Sookie said, “All is well. We are coming home. I love you Gran, we will be there shortly.”
Hanging up, she handed the phone back to Lafayette.
When Sookie began to cry, Lafayette took held her in his arms and held her all the way home.
The vampires watched the dragon take flight. “She would not be wrong,” Vlad smiled as he turned his attention to his fellow warriors. “Time to celebrate!”
“There are blood whores and other pleasures waiting at the penthouse,” Pam smiled. “The last one there has to pay the bill!”
All you could hear was laughter as the vampires disappeared into the darkness.
The night air cooled the henge as the moon smiled down.
Samuel approached Eric who was sitting on top of the altar. “You are quiet,” he said as he hopped up and sat down beside him.
Eric looked around and let out a big sigh. “I believe that our family’s part in this is finished. That we have locked the portal and it is no longer our job to fight this evil.”
“I would say it was a job well done and congratulations are in order,” Samuel replied watching his brother as Eric’s eyes shifted colors and his face remained in neutral. Things were not right. His brother was troubled.
“Is there anything you would have done differently?” Samuel asked.
“Sookie deserved more than what I gave her. She did not know if she would live or die,” Eric voice was far and distant. “And she wanted to dance. She said she had danced with her gran but not with a male. And what could have been her final hours here, she just wanted to dance…with me.
I…I feel like I cheated her. She should have had so much more. Instead, she danced, with me.”
“Is there anything I can do?” Samuel asked him.
“No, I need a couple of days to process, this.”
“Do you want to sit with me while I work?” Samuel’s voice was soft and comforting. “We can go, anywhere.”
“I believe so, my brother,” Eric sighed. “Quit. I seem to crave it.”
“I can do that,” Samuel smiled at him. “Let us be gone.”
The Bon Temps Triad landed in the front yard. Gran was out the door to greet them.
There was hugs and kisses and laughter and a lot of “Thank you Jesus!” as her family made their way into the house.
“Tell me!” Gran said as she closed the front door. “But get drinks first. And maybe some dinner. I made beef stew and the biscuits are hot in the oven. Lots of honey butter! What else is needed?”
“Tequila,” the three heroes said as looked around this place they called home.
“Home,” Sookie smiled as she ran her hand along the wall. “I love being home!
And tequila. I could use a jelly glass full of that!”
They sat at the kitchen table and ate and drank and Gran asked what else do you want and Sookie said. “Could you please make monkey bread? Lots of cinnamon! I could eat the entire pan!”
An hour later, amidst “Lord have mercy!” and “Thank you Jesus for my family!” they were having dessert and Gran was making another pot of coffee.
“So the portal is closed,” the older woman said with a sure nod of her head. “Our family obligation is done this night.”
“Yes,” Sookie nodded. “Abhartach can just go…”
“What?” Gran said. “It sounded like you said a heart attack. All the women in our family die from heart attacks!”
Sookie looked at Gran. “You think this thing cursed our family with heart attacks?”
“Well if it did, it is not going to any longer,” Gran replied. “You saw to that, tonight!”
“Amens and hallelujahs, His La La Fineness says! That mo’ fo’er is not spreadin’ his filth around no mores!”
“Amen and hallelujah is right,” Sookie sighed. “I am full, ready for bed and I think I am headed that way.”
“You doing okay, Sookie?” Gran asked, taking her by the hand.
“I am more than okay,” she smiled. “I am covered in vampire spit, which I do believe kept the crazies out of my head and I am now tired. Feels like all the air has been let out of me.”
“Get some sleep, honey,” Gran said as Sookie stood up and kissed her on the forehead.
“Will do,” she hugged this woman that believed in her and stood by her.
When they heard Sookie’s door close, Gran looked at Lafayette.
“It worked Gran,” he said with a shrug. “The two of them rehearsed it and it worked.
It was indeed black as pitch in the circle and nothing could be seen. Let alone heard. For her it was a private moment. I think she intends to keep it that way.”
“Do not blame her a bit,” Gran nodded. “I just wish things could have been different for her,” the older woman sighed. “I am going to bed.”
Kissing her on the forehead, Lafayette watched her toddle off into the house.
“Gran, at times I wish things could have been different for all of us,” Lafayette sighed.
“My Big Man’s,” O.I. fluttered in front of him. “You gots regrets?”
Lafayette smiled at the love filled eyes that stared back at him. “Maybe that I was kinder, more loving, considerate.”
“Yous is not lacking, my La La,” he stroked his face with his claw. “Not lacking at all.”
The vampires were at the hotel, partying. It had been a great victory!
They all admired the storm that was beginning to build off the cost.
“Going to be one hell of a blow,” Pam remarked.
“Yes,” Madame Vedo replied as they both stood out on the balcony. “Something to wash clean the air and rid us of the stench of evil.”
There was a storm building up in New Orleans. The thunderheads had pushed in, filled with warm water from the Gulf. Before the sun rose, lightning lit up the sky and for twenty minutes, there was a spectacular light show in the air. Then the rain moved in and for ten minutes it fell so hard you could not see ten feet in front of you.
With sunrise, it promised to be a nice day. The air had been washed clean, there was a cool breeze and the humidity was low.
Outside of town, the cornfields benefited from the rain and the rocks that made up the henge held a high degree of iron ore, which made them very attractive to the lightning. When the storm dissolved, the henge was no more as well. The thunderbolts had done a most excellent job of reducing it all to rubble.
Before sunrise, Cacius was on the phone, sobbing and pleading. “My Queen,” his words tumbled out. “The henge was secured. The darkness cannot control us. But it is now rubble. A storm moved through and brought it to an unjust end!”
“Was secured and now destroyed!” the voice of reason drawled out. “You told me you had this. That you had secured my position in the realm of the Ether and Mist. How does a storm destroy rock?”
“Lightning storm my Queen,” he shook his head. It would not do to show fear! What the fuck had he been thinking to call her? “I need to know how you want to proceed. I am at a loss without you here.”
“We will be on our plane back to our residence. Now, this Druid that was in attendance with Northman. Is she dead?”
This was a tricky moment. He wanted the job as Druid. He wanted to be a vampire Druid! Was she dead? He had no way of knowing.
“I do not know,” his voice dropped. “The darkness kept everyone from seeing.”
“So she could be dead?”
“Perhaps,” he replied.
“Find out for me. And if she lives, I want to meet her,” she replied.
“I…I do not know her name,” he sobbed.
“Well, who does?” her voice went up an octave.
“Alcide Herveaux,” he stammered.
“A Were?” she hooted.
“Yes,” he replied.
“I will contact Compton and get the Were to us. With the new dark, he shall answer our questions.”
Bill was lounging in the pool at the Big Pull Motelin Jackson, Mississippi. This trip had been a bust. He had not been invited out to the King’s mansion and he was out a tank of gas.
Northman must have been successful. The moon was once more white. There were no demons dancing on the light posts or angels singing to STOP signs. Things were looking good. Time to take his ass back to the residence and take over and rule!
His phone trumpeted with the horns of Reveille. It was Sophie-Anne. Picking up he heard:
“Get me Packmaster Herveaux. We will be there with the new dark. He is to be in attendance upon us at that time.”
The phone went dead. “Why me?” he sobbed. “I have been a good and righteous Queen. I am not deserving of this short notice Were shit she throws at me.”
Getting out of the pool, he took a towel to dry off. “This is not fluffy at all,” he complained. “And has no nice nap to it. Good thing I am not paying to stay here,” as mumbled as he went to the locker room and changed into his clothes. “Well,” he held up the towel once more after he had slipped on his shoes. “I guess it is good enough to dry the car off with after I have washed it.”
Tossing it into his bag, he walked through the lobby and out into the night. Getting into his car, it was time to haul his ass on back to N.O.
Alcide had driven all night to get back to his own bed. He just fucking hated sleeping in hotels. There was nothing comfortable about them. Even the king size beds cramped his style. He liked to sleep spread out. As in spread eagle all over the bed. It was a bit hard to do on a bed that was not his own.
When he pulled in, six Weres stepped out of the bushes, all of them with shot guns.
“What the fuck?” he said. “Samson, I was just in N.O. You could have called me and I would have met you for coffee.”
“S-A wants to do a meet and greet,” he replied.
“Really? I doubt that. It is morning,” Alcide chuckled.
Samson snarled at him “No fucking kidding. I know morning! I am not a dumb ass Were! I did go to school, you know. Auburn kicked LSU’s sorry ass that year. You really were not all that at the end zone and I was when I blocked your sorry ass from making that TD.” (touchdown)
Samson smiled. “S-A wants you there when she shows up.”
“You got breakfast, somewhere?” Alcide asked. “My ass is tired from the ride back and my stomach is growling.”
“Chicken fried steak smothered in gravy.”
“Why Cher, you remembered. Well fuck, let’s go. But I need to call Momma. She is expecting me for lunch.”
“Can do,” Samson replied. “Tell Auntie that I send my regards and will see her on my Momma’s birthday! Now, let’s get to the chopper.”
“Chopper, really, she sent a chopper for me?” In Alcide’s voice was surprise as a car pulled up to give them a ride. “Hell no! This is for us to get you back there. And you are walkin’ back from N.O.
Momma has never ridden’ in a chopper before and we are takin’ this opportunity to make that happen for her. We are stoppin’ off at the house. That is where it is parked. Cousin Willy is there now, showin’ Momma and Aunt Susan the ins and outs.”
“Oh man,” Alcide sighed. “We havin’ Auntie Carol’s chicken-friend steak? And those tater tots she deep fries?”
“Hell yes,” Samson replied. “You don’t think I eat anyone else’s do you? If you think that, you are the dumb ass Were.”
It had been a quiet flight to Breckenridge. It was best to let Eric fight his own demons until he asked what Samuel thought of the situation.
When they landed, Eric retired to his chambers. Before sunrise, Samuel went in to tuck him in.
“I love you my brother,” Eric sighed when Samuel kissed him on the forehead.
“Rest well this day, Eric, and know that the God of my fathers watches over us.”
Everyone at the old farm house slept that night. And the next day. It was quiet and peaceful and no one tried to influence their dreams!
With the new dark, Eric sat out on the roof of Samuel’s home on Peak 8 and watched it snow. Beautiful, quiet, peaceful. And he had taken a virgin on top of an altar in a henge! And with one thrust he had spent himself inside of her!
Samuel walked outside and looked up. There sat a gargoyle covered in snow on the roof’s top peak. He knew staring out of the face of that gargoyle were blue eyes that belonged to his much-troubled brother.
Samuel floated up until he was face-to-face with Eric.
“What distresses you, my brother?” he asked.
“Beside the fact that I took a virgin on an altar. And still live…not struck down for my not so stellar behavior?”
Samuel waited. With Eric, there was always more…
“It took maybe a second…maybe…” Eric shrugged and the snow fell off his shoulders. “I was in, out, and in that fraction of the turning of the earth, I ejaculated inside of her. I kissed her, put her under the altar, and here I am.
Only, this is not the first time I have done that.”
“What do you mean?” Samuel asked.
“When she tasted my mother’s mead and I placed my tongue where hers had been on the glass. My blood ignited and I…I…grunted as the power started at the root of my penis and traveled up like a bolt of lightning!
“Twice in one lifetime!” King Eric shouted, as the snow fell off Eric’s crotch. “It was a powerful thing Brother Samuel…shook me to the base! Same thing happened with the old dark. Lefty and Righty are once again in a state of shock! They have no idea what hit them! Me neither. And being inside of her was like reliving a dream in slow motion. He says we were in and out. I say we lingered there, forever.”
“Interesting,” Samuel nodded.
“I just need time,” Eric said as he put out a finger and a snowflake landed on it.
“I will see you inside,” Samuel smiled at him and left his brother sitting on the roof, watching it snow.
When Sophie-Anne woke, she knew she was home. There was just something sweet and overly ripe with a hint of salt about the New Orleans air.
“Time for business,” she chuckled. “Dinner can wait.”
Sophie-Anne sat in her throne room. Cacius had begged off from attending this evening. The henge had been hit by lightning and was in a sad state. He had observed it during the day and now he wanted to walk it at night. Which was fine with her. She had gleaned from him what she needed to know. Northman had defeated the evil and the female druid was perhaps alive. Perhaps…
Time for business.
The Were, Heveraux, was being brought in. She had questions. And this hairy beast had better have answers!
The doors opened and in stepped the Shreveport Packmaster. She had heard he was nice looking. Carried himself well and was intelligent. Perhaps those rumors were not wrong.
“I hope he really is all that,” she thought to herself. “Hairy beast or not, he is a good-looking stud!
“Packmaster,” she said standing, a smile covering her face. “So nice of you to join us this evening.”
“Did I have a choice?” he asked. “You sent Weres for me? All you had to do was call. I could have gotten myself here and I would have been assured of a ride home.”
“I apologize for that,” she smiled at him and approaching him she extended her hand. “We were away, on a fact-finding mission and my guards took my words with a bit much more zeal than what I had intended. I do so apologize for any inconvenience.”
“Missed a day of work,” he replied, shaking her hand instead of kissing it. “Good thing I was only going to run inventory and not actually doing construction on the job. I would have to bill you for that.
Now, what can I do for you?”
“You are to the point,” she smiled at him.
“Ma’am, I run my own business. Which makes me self -employed. Time is money.”
“We were told you were at the henge on the night of the eclipsing blood moon.
That my Sheriff of Area Five was there to help defend my home from evil that would perhaps descend from the stars.”
“As far as I know, that is correct,” he replied. “But I would not know for sure. I left early.”
“Did you know the henge has been destroyed.”
“I had not heard that,” he said. “How did it happen?”
“Lightning storm that passed through. I was just wondering if you think the female Druid that was in attendance had anything to do with that.”
“What? She can call down storms to destroy the henge? If she could do that, I would have thought she would have done so last night and side-stepped the war.”
Well fuck! She had not considered that. Maybe the female really was not all that. “We are in need of a powerful sorceress and we would like to meet her to see if she could be of any type of help. We have been told that blue sparks obey her. We are in need of this type of power. We have heard that Eric called her Cousin.”
“Yes,” he nodded. “And he also called her The Late Druid….she called him Cousin and Ass Hole. That is all I know about her.”
“Truly. Is that all you know? We know that you were in attendance in my sheriff’s club the dark she used her staff to place a star guide on the ceiling of Fangtasia.”
“Myself and a couple hundred others saw her do that. I suspect your spy did as well. Just what is it you want me to say? You know as much about her or perhaps more than I do.
I know Northman by his reputation. That night, I saw the two of them together and they are indeed, family. One just as surly and circumspect as the other. That is a lethal combination. Both of them looking to start a fight. Both of them capable of kicking your ass. So I do not go around asking questions about them or sticking my nose into their business. I have heard that more than one person has gone missing when they desired information about Northman. In Shreveport, he is referenced as Trouble. No one says his name. Because no one wants Trouble raining down on them. Keeps us all alive that way.”
With a flutter of her hand, Alcide was excused. She turned to walk away and then turned back to him. She had to know if she yet lived! It was time to be coy! “Did she leave there on her staff?” she asked. “I was told she used it as a witch does her broom.”
The bitch clearly wanted her. Alcide shrugged and decided it was time to fuck with her. “I don’t know if she survived the war. At the meeting at Fangtasia, it was my understanding that the druids of the past normally did not. That it took all of their energy to defeat the evil that came down the stairs. And that if there was anything left, it was just a screaming husk. And for mercy’s sake, it was killed and put out of its misery.
But I left before the battle started.”
“Mm-m-m-m,” she said with a flick of her wrist as her guards fell in beside him, took him by the arms and escorted him out.
He was walked to an outer perimeter gate, shoved out onto the street and the gate closed. “Dumb ass,” he chuckled as he began walking. He was being followed.
Heading for the French Quarter, he kept walking until he found his favorite beignet stand. He stopped and ordered a bag full of sweet. “And Cher, I need an extra special one.”
“Can do, Alcide,” the owner grinned back at him. “How’s Momma? I need some advice. She still talkin’ to Jesus?”
“You know she is,” he grinned. “Give her a call and go see her. Been a while since she saw her favorite god-daughter.”
“Well now wait one,” the twin of the young lady came up from under the counter.
“And her other favorite god-daughter,” he chuckled.
“That’s better. Now, I poured us all a shot of tequila. We’ll just sip this while we finish off your order.”
They passed a pleasant time, together, catching up on family gossip and the newest dry-rub recipe. Paying out, he took the bag and continued walking, eating as he went.
The street vendors were gearing up for the evening and the place was taking on its night time persona. A bit more mysterious and a bit more dangerous with things that went bump in the night.
It was a vampire that was following him. What a dumb ass! Alcide drifted into the crowd and watching the vamp’s reflection in the store window, he turned sideways and lobbed the beignet right into his face!
There was a screech and the scream of “Garlic!”
With a smile he continued on until he entered the bar, Quarter Moon Distillery.
For a Were’s place of business, it was a little upscale. This was not someplace where you caused a scene. T-shirts and jeans were fine but if you thought you were gonna start a rumble in here, Dixie would fill you full of lead. Weres, being hard to train, she had to do it once or twice. She liked her clientele neat and clean and if you thought about pissing on her floor, she would use your face for a mop. He saw her do it one night, as well.
“Packmaster,” was called out when he came in. Saluting them, he sat down at the bar and took out his phone. Punching in a number, the voice at the other end said, “Northman.”
“I was picked up outside my house in Shreveport and I am presently having a beer in N.O. Folks are asking questions. Who lived who died.”
“Can you talk?” Eric asked.
“No Cher, that is not possible.”
“Were you followed from the Residence?”
“You know I was,” Alcide chuckled and motioned for a beer.
“Are you safe?” Eric asked.
“I am having a beer at the Quarter Moon Distilleryif you want to meet me here.”
“Put Dixie on the phone, please,” Eric said.
Alcide motioned for the owner to come over. When she arrived he handed her the phone.
“I understand completely,” she grinned. Hanging up she handed Alcide back his phone and said, “Come with me. I’ll show you the bike if you are really interested in buying it.
Helen,” she yelled to the blonde behind the bar. “Got a live one here. Maybe tonight I will unload that piece of shit bike my x-old man gave me as alimony. We’ll be outback in the store room. Toss me the keys!”
They were out in the alley and Dixie unlocked the garage door. Opening it, there sat various paraphernalia from the bar along with what looked to be a brand-new Harley.
“This way,” she said skirting around chairs, tables and an old pinball machine. Shifting something on the back brick wall, a panel in the opposite wall slid open.
“Follow this all the way to the end. You’ll come out in a basement. Take the elevator to the seventh floor. Before the door opens, push 13, 2, 10 and 4. The doors will open on the opposite side. Push the emergency bell. You have five seconds to exit. Then the doors are going to close and return to the basement where a new code will be set. If you do not push the emergency bell, it is going to drop to the subbasement and you are going to be dead.”
“Seventh floor. Before door opens, push, 13, 2, 10, 4, doors open, behind me, push the emergency bell and get out.
Thanks,” he said as he stepped away from her. His curiosity got the better of him. Northman was avoided like the plague! “Why?” was all he asked.
“You ever hear of a Were paying alimony? As a rule, they like to come around and beat the hell out of their X. Who do you think gave me the Harley and got rid of my old man?” she smiled. “Haul ass, Cher. You will be safe once you get there.”
Locking up, she went back into the bar, tossed the keys back to Helen and went out onto the floor to bus tables.
Of all the fucked up Were shit! Putting away his phone, Eric floated down to the pool entrance. Stripping, he left the snow and his cleared his mind by the fireplace. Her royal highness of bad timing and greed had pissed him off. Hovering above the deep end, he executed the perfect dive into the water and then swam to the shallow end. Pulling on a bathrobe, Eric went to find Clifford. “I need to make contact… if he does not know her last name, time to do work the search engine.”
Clifford listened while Eric explained about the newest development.
“I do not have her last name. All I know is that her name is Sookie and that she lives about an hour’s drive somewhere outside of Shreveport. O.I. said Sookie and His La La Fineness both work at the same place. Merlotte’s, he said was the name. O.I. was very taken with this. He helped to cook Lafayette burgers and watched for when the fries were ready to come up out of the oil. He would chat her up whenever she came in to pick up the food.”
“Merlotte’s,” Eric said. “I know of it. Thanks.”
Passing through the house, Eric found Samuel in his study. Samuel noted when Eric came in. He would have been hard to miss.
Things were not sitting well with the tall blond. From somewhere he had acquired a sword and Eric’s fangs were down.
“What happened between the roof and inside? Things did not get better, I see,” he said to his brother.
“I got a phone call. That fucking Sophie-Anne…” he hissed as he paced back and forth in front of the fireplace and told Samuel about his conversation with Herveaux.
When he had finished, he sat down on the arm of Samuel’s chair. “I have got to haul ass back to Shreveport.”
“You want a plane?” he asked.
“No, I am going super-sonic. I’ll get dressed and see you before I leave.”
Samuel watched as Eric took off into the night sky.
Sophie-Anne…her days were numbered. The small vampire returned to his office and began looking at her assets. Before too much longer, Eric was going to own what was hers.
It was midnight and Eric’s first stop back in Louisiana, was the henge.
“Looks like it has had the hell blasted right out of it,” he said to himself as he walked around the pile of rubble. You could still smell the ozone in the rocks where they had been struck by the lightning. The altar stone had been hit and was in four separate, but equal pieces on the ground.
“Interesting,” he smiled as he regarded the four. “Looks like it was broken right down the center. A stone mason could not have done a better job.”
Stacking the four of them together, he carried them across the cornfield to the old graveyard behind the barn. Placing them on top of graves, they looked like they had been there, forever.
“Anyone who wanted that altar stone for evil intent, good luck with that.”
Dusting off his hands, he was once more airborne and into the night. His direction was North and a bit East.
Merlotte’s was outside of Bon Temps. It was time to make contact.
The sleep today had been good. She had not paced back and forth and had a pity-party like maybe she thought she would a week ago.
Eric had been exceptionally nice to her. No fairy tale romance could have compared to that! She had experienced a world class lover that had turned what could have been a terribly awkward situation into bliss. Parts of her body on fire while others had smoldered and shivered with want! “He is very good at what he does,” she sighed with joy at the remembering!
The world was set to rights and she had helped with that. “Good-bye family curse! Evil can just continue to burn in hell or walk the stars, or whatever the fuck they do. They are just not gonna be doin’ it here! Go Team!”
The clock struck down the hour the magic hour. Turning off the TV, she thought about what needed to be done. She had taken time off and played. Her paycheck was going to reflect that. It was time to get back to work. “I’ll give it fifteen minutes,” she thought to herself as she pulled on her shoes. “You just have to wait of things to die down at the bar.” Around midnight just seemed to work for the best if you needed to have words with Sam. Good, bad, or indifferent to the night’s till, fist fights and drunks puking, Sam was more agreeable at midnight than any other time.
There was no mistaking the vampire that walked into the bar. Sam had seen him once or twice before skulking around town. Just what he was doing here was anyone’s guess.
Looked like he was going to find out. Here came the blood sucker now.
“You must be Sam Merlotte. I am Bill Compton. Do you have someplace where we can speak in private?”
Since Sam had never met this vamp, he guessed N.O. had pulled his file and showed this cock-sucker what he looked like.
“My office,” Sam answered him and led him to the back. “Have a chair,” Sam pointed to one as he sat behind his desk. Bill was looking around with a critical eye. “Your establishment is new to the area. My family used to live around here during the war. The Compton planation. Perhaps you have heard of it?”
“The Old Compton place,” Sam looked at the vamp and did not smile. “Old man Compton died about three years, ago. It was run down when he lived in it. It has been abandoned since then.”
‘Truly?” Bill sounded shocked. “Well, I cannot imagine a Compton letting the family manse go to ruin.
It is indeed fortunate that I have come home, so to speak.
I will now need to correct this matter while I am looking for workers for my Queen’s residence.”
“What?” Sam eyed him. “You have come far North to be looking for work so far South.”
“I realize that, but I am looking to re-establish my home that apparently is now in need of repair,” the look on Bill’s face was one of shock.
“And so all will know my good intent, I am just looking to spread a little good will. If someone needs a job, I know where they can get one. Our Queen can be very generous.”
“Your queen,” Sam pointed a finger at him. “And that is quite some commute,” Sam answered him.
“I am just trying to be a good neighbor,” Bill answered.
The door was left partially open so Sookie stuck her head in. “Sorry, did not realize you were doin’ business,” she said.
“It’s okay. Come on in, Sookie. What can I do for you?”
“Sam, I need to work the early shift, tomorrow.”
“I have all those slots, covered, Sookie. I have you off the schedule until next week. But if someone calls in sick, I will call you.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that,” she said.
“This is what I am talking about,” Bill said with a sincere smile on his lips and in his eyes. “Hard workers. Always wanting more hours. The back bone of the South. My name is William T. Compton. A hero of the great war. Perhaps you have heard of me?”
Before she could speak, she felt him behind her.
“Most excellent, you are here,” came the voice that vibrated through her and caused parts of her to flare up! “And Bill, no one has heard of you. Great hero my ass.
Sookie,” she turned to look at him. “I am back in town and need you for a couple of hours each day this week.”
There was shock on both Merlotte’s and Compton’s face!
“Short trip,” was all she said to him.
“Indeed,” he smiled at her and then looked over her head at Bill. “What are you doing in my area unannounced, Bill? And sounding like you want to spirit my day walker, away.”
In Eric’s voice was a hint of mine, that Bill had no problem reading.
“I have a letter from our Queen,” Bill replied, patting down his pockets. “She sent me here.”
“That does not excuse you from notifying me.”
“We are not to discuss vampire business in front of non- vampire,” Bill preened.
“Spare me the trivial,” Eric responded. “And the attitude. Are you trying to piss me off? What are you doing here?”
“I am on a mission of our Queen. She returned this dark and sent me here to see if any of the hard-working folks of Bon Temps would like a job working in her Residence.
I stopped by the club but you were not there.”
“That is one long commute,” Eric smirked at Bill then his attention was back on Sookie. “I need clothes for this weekend. A couple of suits, shirts, ties. Heavy gold cufflinks.”
“What about shoes?” she asked. “And most importantly, socks. You still want cartoon character socks?”
“Yes,” he nodded. “And I have the shoes I am going to wear. Oh…and I am also going to need highlights!” he winked at her.
“Got it,” she nodded. “Did you bring your laundry?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Okay. Sam,” she turned to him. “I’ll be day walkin’ for Eric for the next week. If you would, please put me back on the schedule any time after that. And I don’t know about workin’ anyone’s sick hours.”
“Do not count on that,” Eric responded. “ Maybe more like two weeks. There are properties I want you to look at and evaluate. Along with some land. I want photos of everything. You will need the Jeep. Some of it is hard to get, too.”
“Sookie,” Sam stood, horror in his voice. “Is this what you do in your spare time? You work for Northman?”
“Yes,” she nodded. “Sam, you pay minimum wage and I make not even gas money in tips. Gran is gettin’ older and I can’t always depend on her bein’ around. Been thinkin’ about asking Lafayette if he wants to move in and pay a little rent. Maybe I will consider that more in depth after Gran passes. But for right now, I am lookin’ after me and mine and not countin’ on one source of income.”
“Where,” there was still dismay in Sam’s voice, “where did you two even meet?”
Eric noted the interest. In Sam’s voice was…well perhaps worry and jealousy. So the Shifter was sweet on her. So little, so very, very late!
“Laundry mat,” Eric supplied. “I lost a bet so I had to do my own laundry.”
“And he was clueless,” Sookie chuckled. “Which turned out for the best for me.”
“Come on,” Eric extended his arm to her. “Please allow me to see you home. We’ll take your car and I will come back for mine. I have already dropped my clothes at your house.”
They went out to the parking lot and Eric waited while Sookie unlocked the doors.
“You drive,” he smiled at her as Merlotte was watching them out a window. Bill’s sad little face was at another window.
“Let’s give them what they are expecting to see.”
“What’s that?” Sookie asked.
“That you are hired help.”
As they were driving off, Eric looked at her and said “You are exceptionally short.”
“Was I not this short as a Druid?” she asked.
“No,” he shook his head. “You were not. I would have even said that you were tall.”
“What’s up?” she asked. “As in why are you here? And did O.I. tell you where I worked.?”
“Well, he told Clifford. The dragon king was apparently entranced by how French fries were made. He likes them with mayonnaise.
As to what is up,” Eric replied as he watched the road while watching the small young woman that sat next to him, driving a car that was older than her. “That is a story. The Vampire Queen of Louisiana wants to know if the Druid is still alive and kicking ass. They pulled Herveaux into N.O. this morning, wanting to know about you.
Then I walk into Merlotte’s and there sits the biggest ass kisser this side of the Old World. I thought he would go up in flames if you got him this far away from the throne.”
“Is that a problem?” she asked.
“Oh yes, but not for us,” he grinned as she put on the blinker and turned onto Humming Bird Lane.
Dear Readers,
On to the holy days!
To quote an angel: Jesus is not here, He is risen!
The characters of the Southern Vampire Mysteries belong to Miss Charlaine Harris. No infringement on my part is intended. The characters on True Blood belong to Mr. Alan Ball. No infringement on my part is intended.
I have no BETA, editor, or other such charming person. All mistakes are my own. This Story is rated M.
The Curse of the Eclipsing Blood Moon—Chapter 7
When Sookie came down stairs the next morning, O.I. was up and chatting with Gran.
“Just how dark is it in that henge?” she heard Gran ask.
“Darker than the pit of hell,” O.I. replied. “I will be blowin’ flame and Mr. Clifford has tolds me he has bags of powered tin, prepped and ready to go. My Big Man’s just tosses those up, I will track them with my ear-bones and hits them with the flame. This will push some lights up and outs, but, honest, Gran, cannot be seenin’ much of anythin’.”
“Morning Sookie,” Gran smiled at her and then checked on the eggs in the skillet.
“Morning,” she offered in return.
“So Sookie will have to be in position to pour the mead and then the millet out on the altar. So standing in front of it, at the ready is for the best.”
“Yes’m,” O.I. nodded. “Mr. Cliffords’ is thinkin’ the tin gate on the stairs will slow them down some, buy us a few seconds.”
“The stairs are…tangible?” Gran asked.
“Yes’m,” he nodded and turned the bacon then plated it up. “They become true to this world just like these creatures becomes flesh and blood whenever they touches earth. Them stairs is solid and walkable until the baddies start to flee, then they begins to disappear and turns to mist.
In the pasts, we has gone up them, chasin’ those mo’ fo’ers, past the stars. Good thing we can all fly or hover. Cause once you gets on the steps, up off earth, you has the starlights to see by. And they is spectacular! And that is when you knows for sures that this gang of evils is not from around here.”
“You were with Eric before?” Sookie asked.
“Yes,” he nodded. “And Brother Samuel’s before him.”
“Samuel has been fightin’ this? How…?” Sookie looked puzzled.
“Miss Sookie, I beens fightin’ this since the rebellion in Heaven.
This evil, it takes different names and faces and comes in different styles and this and that’s. Now this particular bum fuck, please dear ladies, pardon’s my old, trashy mouth, but gots no other good names to give him, he always comes with this night sky. With yous people, he used the henge to gets you to believe he is a god.
Pardon’s me while I puke…” he said sticking his talon down his throat and rolling his eyes while making gagging sounds.
“After Brother Samuel’s was turned, there was all manner of unhealthy things of the dark persuasion wantin’ to chats him up and well, Brother Samuels comes with his own sense of justice. So he hears tales and rumors and tracks down this and that’s and calls out into the night sky, O.I. o’ blessed brother, get’s yous unruly self on down here. Found some evil. You wants to have some fun?
“Really! Samuel?” Sookie looked shocked.”
“Worse than The Viking,” O.I. nodded sagely.
“Woof,” Sookie replied. “Please go on.”
“Then along rolls The Viking who is the also our brother and he says, hey, I gots this evil thing in this henge that I gots to weed and hoe. Anyone interested?”
“And me and Brother Samuel, we is always lookingto defeat evil, plus, we knows these mo’ fo’ers so we says dear brother, anythin’ for you and yours! Let us to war!”
“So…so…the Druids that Eric has used these past times you have been with him? Were they all that?”
O.I. looked at her long and hard. “You has gots your mysterious Druid ways that comes on yous, and I am happy for that’s. Here sits Miss Sookie, at the club is the Lady of the Light.
You is more than I has seen at these gatherin’s.
But since yous family carried the curse, the women has not faired well. They is bombarded with the million voices of rage and song. Love and defeat. Screams of frenzy and laughter. They can hear it before the herd appears. We hears nothin’ and they are sobbin’ that their skull is gonna explode from all the noise.”
“Telepaths?” Gran breathed out.
“Yes, I believes so,” O.I. nodded and took a long look at Sookie.
“Well fuck,” Sookie took a piece of toast, put an egg on top and a couple of pieces of bacon.
“So, they fought along-side of you?” she asked as she sat down.
“Yes, those souls did. Theys brought their chantin’ and sword and all cloaked up with wards and magics. Calling down blessin’s and spewin’ out curses in iambic pentameter and a two-step shuffle.”
“So, so…” she regarded O.I. “Eric has been on top of the altar with a woman…” her voice trailed off. “And it did not work?” she asked in a whisper.
“No’m,” he shook his head. “No one on tops of the altar and we did not have these particulars to work with.”
“Screw the eggs and bacon,” she said giving the plate to O.I. “I am going to have the biggest hot fudge sundae in the world for breakfast. That gallon of ice cream is mine.”
Before the dusk of the eclipse of the Blood Moon—New Orleans: The vampire hotel, Le Petit Sang
Lafayette, Sookie and O.I. landed on the roof of the hotel. O.I. had come in on bright beams of sunlight and anyone looking their way would have been blinded.
“Security cameras,” he sighed as they dismounted, “bless they’s little fuzzy electrons. They’s just had a fizzy moment. All will be rights as soon as we step inside. Nothin’ like a little dragon hocus-pocus to set things to rights. Good, there is our ride. Elevator… we takin’ the express and pushin’Lfor Lobby….”
The doors closed…. “and we is moving fast…and here we are. Lobby floor. Crystal, harp player and very small security cameras.”
“Nice place,” Sookie said again as they strolled past the bar and followed the signs for the lobby.
“Really nice place,” Lafayette added. “Black and white marble tile floors, fine antiques, and those chandeliers hanging over our heads has hung in some palace on the continent. Can tells just from the looks of them. Reminds me a whole lots of Fangtasia.”
“Yes it does, does it not,” Sookie nodded. “Woof, look at those folks at the bar. They are gorgeous!”
“Blood whores,” Lafayette whispered to her. “But none looks as fine as our girl, all decked out for battle. M-m-m-m hm-m-m-m-m, you in your leathers and swords and sharp pointed objects stickin’ outs of yous belt. Your cape swirlin’ behind you. And your hair done in braids that hangs down your back. I am likin’ this new bad-ass Sookie look!”
“Yes, I have been admiring my look in all the mirrors we have been passing. Oh, wait one. We have been spotted. Here comes someone now.”
“Good afternoon,” he smiled. “I am Mr. Joseph Clark, the day manager. Might I ask the name of your party?”
“My name is Sookie Stackhouse, also known as the Late Druid. We are here to meet Mr. Northman and his party.”
“Yes ma’am, of course, I have a suite reserved for you. If you would come with me, please, Mr. Northman has arranged for dinner to be sent up and if there is anything in particular you would like to drink, there is a barkeep there as well.”
“Thanks,” she nodded and following the man onto an elevator, he pushed Penthouse. It took them back up to the top floor, stopping at the lobby outside the penthouse.
“This way,” he said opening the door. “If you would please, place your hand here, madam we will do a bio scan and record it. Now you sir, and that will be your key.”
“Thanks,” they both said.
“Fabion is your barkeep tonight. You may also place your dinner order with him.”
“We don’t need a barkeep,” Lafayette said. “We’ll fix our own. And we will call down our dinner order. What we do want is privacy.”
“Of course sir.
Fabion,” he addressed the man in the tuxedo behind the bar. “With me please.”
When the two men left, O.I. lifted off Lafayette’s neck. “Can you smell that?” he asked.
“What?” Sookie asked.
“Comin’ in from the doors that lead out to the garden. It is the moon, gettin’ ready to rise.”
Sookie went to the door and opened it and walked out. “It smells like…like…”
“Blood,” Lafayette added for her.
“’Tis a reason it is called a blood moon,” O.I. nodded. “I am doing security check on the rest of the rooms,” he said as he fluttered off.
Sookie took off her leather satchel. “Can’t be fussin’ about that now. The moon is gonna’ rise and this is gonna happen. Smell or not.
We brought the flat bread and also fixin’s for more,” she said unpacking. “When Eric show’s up, I’ll ask him if these will do or does he want fresher.
Now, let’s take a look around and see what comes with this suite besides a big assed kitchen and a grand piano. I could do with someplace to stretch out.”
“Down here,” O.I. called out. “Gots us a gym.”
“Perfect,” Sookie said as she opened doors going down the hall. “Wow, to include a hot tub for relaxing those sore muscles,” she nodded. “And looks to be workout clothes in those cubbies. Let me get out of my leather bondage outfit and into some sweats.”
“M-m-m hm-m-m,” Lafayette headed for the cubby and found what he wanted to wear. “I feel a yoga moment comin’ on.”
The vampires met up in Eric’s suite after their meal. “Time to rock and roll,” Eric smiled at them as they took the stairs vamp speed up to the penthouse. Eric opened the door and they found the happy trio in the gym. Lafayette was leading the yoga poses and Sookie and O.I. were following along.
“We’ll change,” Samuel said with a nod to Lafayette and soon the vamps were back in their work out clothing, doing the stretches along with the two humans and one dragon.
Lafayette ended his session with “Hot tub, ten minutes and I am setting a timer.
After those blissful ten minutes, we shall discuss business, but not before,” he shook his finger at them.
The vampires began to shed their clothes.
“I don’t get naked in front of people I do not know,” Sookie said.
The shirts were pulled back on and for the next ten minutes hot bubbles, silence and peace ruled their world.
When the timer went off, there were groans from everyone.
“Best ten minutes I have had in a while,” Madame Vedo sighed standing.
“I am gonna change,” Sookie said getting up and walking out, and grabbed a towel. “Those locker rooms are really nice. When I get dried off, I’ll be back out and we can discuss…things…” she added.
“Yes,” Eric replied as he watched her leave.
“You are the Medium,” Eric turned to Lafayette.
“Yes,” he nodded. “And that there is my sister. My family. You needs to be respectful of her at all times. For her first time, this shoulds not be and yet it is.
We has been rehearsin’. Hopes you has been doin’ the same. We thinks we has got the sequence so we’ll add your long legs to the mix and sees what happens.”
“What happened to the leathers?” O.I. asked when she returned.
“They were switched out for this,” she replied. “Sorta of a comfy jammie Druid kinda thing.”
“May I please call you Sookie?” Eric asked.
“Yes,” she nodded. “Who told you my name?”
“I paid Clifford, Samuel’s majordomo, for the information. He got the story from O.I.”
“Really, you paid him for my name?”
“Yes.”
“So what was knowing my name worth?”
“I owe him a personal favor. Anything he wants, if it is in my power, I will give it to him. That includes myself. The only thing he cannot do with it is trade it to my child, for any past, present, or future debts.”
“Well, rats,” Pamela muttered and stamped her foot.
“That is a pretty hefty price,” she addressed him.
Shrugging, he continued on. “I wanted to know. It was very rude of me to ask you to perhaps sacrifice your life and not know your name.
I would never treat a fellow warrior this way. I apologize for treating you this way.”
“I thank you for your apology,” she said with a small bow of her head.
“I am sorry it has taken me this long. Truly,” Eric responded. “You are vital to this mission and I know better.
Now, down to business. Sookie, your ancestors were telepaths. Are you also?”
“Yes. O.I. briefed me on the insanity that the noise caused in my ancestors.
I have been practicin’ with my shields for my entire life. I am hopin’ that is gonna help and be enough. If it is not, just do what has to be done. You have my permission.”
Eric became very serious. “If your shields are not enough, Sookie, I want you to know you will be well cared for. As well as your gran.”
“You mean if this splits my brain in two and I am left a vegetable?”
“Yes,” Eric’s voice was low and serious.
Noddding, she sighed. “I guess I cannot ask for more than that. Now, moving on. Let us discuss your millet bread before we get to the physical part.”
Sookie showed Eric what she had brought. “And I can also make fresh, I brought the ingredients, if you would prefer that.”
Eric picked it up and sniffed. Yes, just like his mother used to make. “No, this is fine. But what I would like for you to do is to lick them for me. And also,” he held up a small stoneware bowl, “spit in this and rub it around.”
“Okay. But that is a bit odd. Am I allowed to ask why?” and you could hear the hesitation in her voice.
“Of course,” Eric replied. “After you left the other dark, I was intrigued by you. So I put my mouth exactly where yours had been on the glass. I could taste you and when I took a drink of the mead, I could still taste you and I did not puke.”
“You were intrigued, by me?” she questioned him, doubt in her voice.
“Yes,” he replied. “So much so I wanted to know what you tasted like.”
“Is this your norm?” she asked.
“No,” he replied and smiled. “Not at all.”
“Well all right then. If that will keep you in the fight,” she nodded, “I am all for it.”
“Excellent,” he smiled at her. “Now, we have also been rehearsing and perhaps between all of us we have figured out a way around this.”
The Bon Temps Triad listened while things were explained and demonstrated.
“And Samuel will be alright up there by himself?” Sookie asked.
“Yes,” Samul smiled at her. “I am the oldest, therefore the fastest.”
O.I. chimed in. “My big mans and me, we will be Mr. Samuel’s wing man.”
“M-m-m hm-m-m,” Lafayette nodded. “We gots us some air rifles. Is that corrects?”
“Yes,” Vlad nodded and went over to the case on the floor and tossed him one.
“Mighty sweet,” Lafayette hefted it. “How many does it hold?”
“A thousand,” Ian grinned. “And we have magazines. We have been practicing with them. You should see Samuel’s ceiling.”
“Plus, we have bag bombs for you and O.I.,” Cedric smiled. “You just toss them and O.I. hits them with his flame and maybe some air and you have tin napalm.”
Pam pushed up a table. “This is the height and the top dimensions of the altar. Not your regulation table size.
Here,” she drug over a burlap bag, “is some millet and I have small cups of water that match your bowl at the ready.
Time for you two to strut your stuff.”
“Shit,” Sookie said as she stepped up next to the table. “This thing is tall. Hard for me to reach the center of it.”
“Not a problem,” Pam said. Getting down on the floor, she looked up. “Stand on top of me.”
“You sure?” she asked.
“Yes, once Eric takes over, I will join in the fight. But I am down here on ground level and I will cover you if anything thinks to come slithering up.
I will be down here right in front of you before it goes dark. So you can just position yourself on top of me.”
“Thanks,” Sookie said stepping up. “This is much easier,” she looked out at the group. “Dump the water, cast the millet, wrap my legs around Eric and…” up they went.
Her legs were wrapped around his waist. Her butt on the table Eric’s legs on the outside of hers. “Put my feet on the altar, he pushes in, pulls out, I put my finger in then out and spread the blood and put my fingers in his mouth; he drinks, eats, and the gate closes.”
“Let’s do that again,” she said, “until I am comfortable with it and have some type of muscle memory.”
Two hours passed.
“Let’s now put it all together,” Samuel was watching from above as he floated down. “Everyone places. Into your gear. Madame Vedo, we thank you for our tin padded jackets,” he said as he put his on.
“Vlad and Atilla and Madame Vedo you start us out by getting the tin gate in place on the stairs.
O.I., Lafayette, and I will be on guard while this is happening. The rest of you, positions. Our job is to guard Eric and Sookie until the altar is seasoned.
And Miss Sookie, if you would please season the cup and bread, we will take that with us.”
Sookie picked up the cup and spit inside it and began painting the inside with her finger.
Then she took out the three breads and licked them as well.
Eric said nothing, just watched her until she was finished.
“It’s nine,” Madame Vedo said. “How do we all feel about this? Miss Sookie, you have any doubts or questions?”
“No, I think I am ready.”
“Excellent,” she smiled at her. “We will leave you and Eric to discuss what comes next.”
They all left with a bow and a see you there.
When they were the only two left, the conversation began in earnest. “I was wonderin’,” she began, “if we could maybe smooch a little before we go. It would help me along.”
“I understand,” Eric nodded. “So many unknowns, to include myself, being so intimate with you.
I do have a question I would like to ask you,” he began. “You are an attractive young woman. Why are you still a virgin? Is it for religious reasons?”
Shrugging, she said nothing as she watched the anniversary clock’s pendulum go around in a circle.
“When I was a child, I was molested by my uncle. I have since comes to terms with that so I no longer have problems fantasizing about being with a guy.
And since I am a telepath, you know, I hear their thoughts. Nice tits, nice ass, I would do Crazy Sookie, but hell, can you catch crazy?
Plus, my gran, she raised me to value myself. I have a cousin that does not value herself. Yes, she’s cute and sweet and can bat her eyelashes as she holds your hand and giggles when you suggest the two of you could do very sweet things, together. So I know what that looks like and I really am not interested in being a notch on some guy’s bed post.
And seriously, I was not ever gonna’ fuck some guy just because I had never fucked some guy. I mean, where is your sense of self-worth?
And now it seems, I guess, it was a good thing I did not. Go figure.
How about you?” she asked.
Eric sat there staring at her. That was a lot to take in. Especially the molestation part. He had been a total, scheming, lying, cad for a hundred years, but thankfully, he had not molested a child or forced himself on anyone.
“For me, it was always about the conquest. Could I be charming, enough? Gracious enough? Does she like a bad boy or a milk sop or something in-between? Does she like flashy riches or would she rather be shown your working farm? What to her says security? And that you can be trusted with her heart and other parts of her body.
And the first hundred years I was vampire, well, I did not rape them and I got them past their initial fear of me bedding them. But that is all I did.
There was a stone circle involved that returned me to my beloved Viking ways.”
“Woo-o-o-o-ow!” Sookie choked out. “That is quite some tell- all.”
“Well, as long as we were being honest, I thought I would just put it all out there.”
“So how many women are we talkin’? Ball park figure.”
“I did not keep notches on my bed post. But I have been vampire for a thousand years. And if I had sex with just one woman a year, that would be a thousand women.”
“So if you did one woman a month, that would be twelve-thousand women. And if you did one woman a week, that would be forty-eight thousand women…” her voice trailed off. “That’s the population of Monroe.
You…you don’t have a disease do you?” she eyed him.
“No,” he shook his head. “I am vampire. No STD’s or other human ailments.”
“Okay, so maybe this makes things a bit easier. I tried putting my fingers inside my vagina, you know…to get an understanding of how easy or difficult this would be…”
“You are concerned about dryness,” he stated matter-of-factly.
“Yes,” she nodded. “So I was wonderin’ if you would mind kissin’ for a bit before this starts.”
“I had the same thought.
Well more truth. It was Clifford who suggested it. That perhaps you would like to be kissed and held. And then we all went Ooooo yes…!”
Eric sadly shook his head. “Since vampires have come out, sometimes, we take our charm and our partner’s willingness for granted. Although I do enjoy the foreplay.”
“Well, that’s just it. I don’t know if I do or not,” Sookie was thoughtful. “I mean, I think I would. When I read about the sex scenes in books, I always heat up and wonder what that would be like.”
“There will be an RV close by to give us privacy. Unless you would rather stay here. I can fly us to ground zero.”
“Really,” she smiled at him. “You can fly?”
“That is a big vampire secret,” he grinned back. “So when you write your memoir, please do not include that.”
“Please, me write a memoir…no one would want to read that.”
She was thoughtful. “We do have a grimoire. After tonight’s battle, I need to write the particulars in that. I guess I can leave out the sexing up bit.”
“You have a grimoire?” Eric chuckled. “Really?”
“Yes, it has been in the family for a while. Lafayette says it is an ancient manuscript, written on velum and would bring a fortune at Sotheby’s.”
“Does it have a chain wrapped around it?”
“Not any more, that is long gone.”
“I have made notations in such a book,” he said softly. “After each battle I was invited to write a bit by the druids that were left in the village. I wrote it in the Old Norse.”
“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “There is a lot of it we can’t read, just by glancing through it. Gran has just had it put away. It was not anything we ever talked about or looked at.” Shrugging, she continued on. “We have been busy with this. But the book is now out and there are a few of the illustrations I have seen and they are beautiful.”
“An illustrated manuscript, Miss Sookie,” Eric arched an eyebrow at her. “Yes, you have in your possession a considerable fortune. And especially to the right buyer.
Frankly, I would pay just to peruse it. In your presence, of course.”
“Well of course you can look at it. No need for money. You are, after all, family. And maybe some of it is your writin’.”
“Well I thank you for that,” he smiled. “You are very gracious,” his voice lowered and lifted her hands to his lips where he kissed both. “Would you care to dance?”
“You have got some serious skills,” she smiled at him.
“Well, I thank you. But I do love to dance.”
“Myself as well,” she nodded. “But I have never danced with a guy before. Just me and Gran.”
“Well then,” he grinned, “what should we start with?”
“Gran and I can do all the swing dances. And Foxtrot. And the waltzes. Gran was a great dancer in her time. Could we do those?” and he could hear the hope in her voice.
“Of course. Glenn Miller it is.”
Eric put on the music and watched in amazement as she walked across the room, her jammies shifted to a blue lace bodice with a long blue velvet skirt.
“Let’s see your shoes, Cinderella,” he grinned at her.
Lifting her skirt, there on her feet were indeed, dainty diamond encrusted, strappy pumps.
“These are really comfy,” she giggled, wiggling her toes. “Damn, they even did my toes in in my favorite shade of red!”
“Excellent,” Eric smiled at her and began moving her across the floor to Moonlight Serenade.
After the first dance step, not any words were spoken vocally. Eric’s smile and his eyes held her as they would glide from one dance to another. There bodies barely touching; his nose, occasionally rubbing against hers, then he would stare intently into her hers, his eyes asking her questions.
When she gasped and nodded her head yes, he pulled her in closer, his left hand now resting in the small of her back while his right hand held hers and he gently ran his fingers over hers.
Eric pulled her into him and then spun them around the room. Sookie wrapped her arms around him and hung on, laughing the entire time until the song ended. He dipped her to the floor, back up, tossed her up into the air and when he caught her, he let her body slowly slide down his.
Her breath caught when she made contact with his crotch and she could feel his desire, just right there! He pulled her in a bit closer so that she could feel all of him before he let her slide down the rest of his body.
When her feet were touching the floor, she looked up at him and ran her hand down the side of his face. “You are very,” she whispered, “good at this.”
“M-m-m-m,” he whispered back, as he took her hand and brought it to his lips, placing wet kisses there.
“You inspire me,” he whispered into her ear, his nose nuzzling the top part of it while his tongue lightly traced the outside, his lips ending with nibbling on her ear lobe.
With her hand on his cheek, she tip-toed up and pulled him down, her lips just barely brushing his.
Slightly opening her mouth, the tip of her tongue reached out and lightly stroked his bottom lip.
When Etta James started singing At Lastthe only dance step that seemed appropriate was the Clutch and Sway.
There were no hot and heavy hands or pushing or thrusting. Just small steps, lots of dipping her down to the floor and laughter and small, funny moments of their histories.
Then came the ringing of the door-bell and they both stopped, sighed, looked into each other’s eyes and said, “It’s Samuel.”
Grinning at each other and then high-fiving, Eric called out, “Samuel, come in.”
The doors opened and their stood Samuel, looking a bit embarrassed and also apologizing.
“I hate to interrupt you, but something is not right with the henge. The uprights are starting to develop hairline fractures.”
“So not good,” Sookie started toward Samuel, her clothing shifting to a white loose woven, linen flowing robe, her nude body moving freely beneath it. “The stones were not aligned properly. Or maybe they were for evil intent…but if they shatter, there will be no henge and this evil will never again be contained!”
“Time to go,” Eric said as he approached and swung Samuel onto his back and Sookie climbed onto his front. Blowing open the doors on the balcony, they were gone into the night, the full moon smiling down on them; the blood moon, its evil twin, hoping that they would not arrive soon enough!
Alcide had been at the henge since nine, watching and talking to his momma on the phone and streaming to her live. Giving her the blow-by-blow.
They had both been keeping an eye on Cacius and his brood of slow movers and nose pickers. They did not seem to be chanting, shaking a stick at anything, or trying to induce any type of flame. But that finger kept going up their nose.
“Something is just not right about him,” Momma Herveaux said more than once as her son would scan the area with his phone. “And what are they doing with those burgers? They are disgusting.
Son, I wish I could be there with you,” she would sigh.
“Momma, you know you cannot not. You worked the last eclipsing of a blood moon. If you were to get caught in this blood moon’s rays, you would shift to wolf and not shift back.”
“That is right, Alcide. And I did what had to be done. That is why I want you gone before this thing goes blood red, if possible.
Now, someone is going to end up in the water. And when they do, you throw my piss on them.
Then you take cover so not one red ray falls on you.”
“If they need me, Momma…” he began.
“I know Son, you will do what is right. That is who I raised you to be.”
“You got any regrets, Momma, about that night?”
“What? You mean when I saved your daddy’s life,” she laughed, “or when I ripped the throat out of that rabid Were troll hybrid who was going to eat that family? None what so ever. Evil comes and goes from this world, child. We stand against it. I just wish I was able to stand with you there, now.”
“It is okay, Momma,” he smiled at her. “I can feel the Were coming on. And something else,” he said looking around. “That would be the blood moon fever,” she nodded. “You got that sweetened condensed milk in your trunk?”
“You know I do,” he nodded.
“Go and get it and start drinking. All that sugar will keep the worst of what feeds off those red rays, away. Even trolls. They cannot abide sugar.”
When they landed outside the henge, Sookie was off Eric and headed through the cornfield and then passing through the parking lot. It was a short walk down the fenced alley way and then there she was, face-to-face with the abomination that was this henge.
There was a moaning sound coming from the uprights and the stones were making death gurgling sounds. When an upright would splinter off a piece, it was accompanied by a scream of anger. It certainly did not sound like it was in pain.
“Many guardians have left,” Theresa, of the Cat’s Paw Coven approached her. “This place smells of death and something unholy. And now, the uprights want to give birth to something that smells of taint and rot and evil not of this world!”
“You are correct,” Sookie nodded and then turned to Eric and Samuel.
“This henge is seriously fucked!
All the sacred sites are laid out on the Golden Ratio. Like a chambered Nautilus, spiraling and connecting all. A good example of that is the Great Pyramid that geometrically links to the belt of Orion.
The twelve stone henges have to geometrically link to De Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. Which is the same principle using the Conch Shell for the representation of the Golden Ratio,” she explained as she walked the circle.
“So you have your ground work that needs to be exact, and when it is, it carries over to the sound vibrations. The Harmonics of these circles works the same way, on the Golden Ratio. The universe as a whole is to work with you.
We are so screwed,” she shook her head in disbelief. “Who ever put this together should be staked out here and left for whatever is comin’ down that staircase to be eaten.
Eric, you think your friends can help me align this mess?”
“Yes,” Eric nodded and the boys began to appear.
“Well, at least these idiots got twelve stones up. I am thankful they go that right.
Think on this circle as a chromatic scale. And we are just going to name this a C scale.” Striking her staff on the rock, you could hear the C note that was off key.
“Turn it half a step,” she said as Eric and his vampire friends took ahold and spun it into a different position. When she struck the stone again, she smiled as a true pitched C rang out. “Good, most excellent. Now let’s knock out the other eleven. This will put everyone in sync and will stop the rocks from splintering.”
Lafayette was watching. He had learned tonight what he had always thought. There was a lot of mo’ fo’n nasty assed wankers that walked this world. But not that tall, dark, and handsome man that was standing over there.
“Gots to do what is rights and check in,” he said to the deads that were with him.
Walking over to the Were he held out his hand. “There is bad business afoot, here, His La La Fineness says. Yous can just calls me La La.”
“Alcide Herveaux,” he answered in return and they shook hands.
“That one,” Lafayette pointed to Cacius, “has been about some very bad business. You know of him?” he asked.
“He was at the briefing at Fangtasia. Said he did not care what came slithering out, he was here to protect the stones.”
“I am smellin’ me some unrighteous bullshits, and I knows what that is, believes me,” Lafayette added with an all knowing arched eyebrow. “You gots skills,” he said with a sure nod of his head. “From the dead folks around you, I knows you is more than human.”
“I am a Were and there are dead around me and what kind of skills are you talking?”
“Not to worry about the deads. I gots those and they is talkin! Mostly ‘bouts that mo’ fo’er,” he pointed to Cacius with his head. “Can you find the auto that brought that mo’ fo’er out here and you know, maybe be more discreet than breaking a window ‘cause I can do that. I am startin’ to get all kinds of worried faces when my deads look at him. And break the lock on his trunk. He’s hidin’ somethin’ there.”
“Can do,” he nodded. “I have his scent and I have backup out in the field. I will get him the word. I cannot leave this area. I have been talking to my momma. I am on the lookout for whoever gets tossed into the water.”
“Being baptized is they,” Lafayette nodded. “Evil will be defeated this evenin’. No matter whats. You talks to yous folks and I will be watchin’ the local deads.”
“Go team,” Alcide grinned and he and Lafayette high-fived.
Cacius was having a fit! “What in the name of hell is she doing?” he kept sputtering. “I fixed those rocks in those locations.”
Approaching that…that…abomination and her vampire laborers, he was all fire and brimstone! “You are not to touch those! I laid the plan for this! I consulted…” he was yelling…
“Yes, you consulted what?” Sookie snarled at him as they moved on to the next note, the boys turning the rock until it held the perfect pitch. “Good job,” they congratulated each other and the stone vibrated back, “good job.”
“No!” he yelled as the vampires moved to the next one and rotated it. “No!
You are the one that will be fucked for eternity,” he shrieked at Sookie, shaking his fists. “You have not one idea who you are fucking with!”
The boys continued to work and were trying not to smirk when Sookie turned on Cacius, frowning, death in her eyes. “I have no intention of fucking you, or whatever comes down those stairs,” she replied. “I have a job to do and you…” she pointed her finger at him.
He took a swing at her! That was a very, very bad mistake! She blocked him with her staff and then raised it and walloped him against his chest, sending him stumbling backwards. With intent to do more damage, he got up and charged at her!
Sookie swung again, this time catching the side of his body. Screaming his outrage, he was once more on his back. Standing, picking up a rock he threw it at her.
“I play a good game of fast pitch,” she grinned and whacked the baseball size rock back to him which hit him in the chest and sent him tumbling down onto the ground, out of the circle and into the ditch where he made a satisfying splashing sound.
Leaving him there screaming obscenities, she smiled and leaning in, kissed her staff.
“We are running out of the white moonlight,” she said to the guys, “the red is comin’ on. Let’s get this done. Eric and I still have some unfinished business.”
“Last one,” Madame Vedo called.
With the final rock shifted, everyone began the C scale and the rocks sang along.
“I believe this henge is back in tune,” Eric said to his heavy lifters and slinging Sookie onto his back. They were gone.
Alcide watched as he thought what would be nigh unto impossible happen. Not that his momma was ever wrong about these spiritual things. But seriously, there was standing water out here?
“That one that she knocked in the water,” Momma’s voice was slow and sure, making him slow and sure. “Pull his ass out of the water and then pour my piss on him. We will be able to find him and make sure his days are numbered.”
Cacius was sputtering and cursing as he rolled over in the ditch to sit up. Alcide extended his hand to him and pulled him up and over the embankment. Before him lay a floundering, wet, something that looked more reptile than human. That robe was wrapped around him like he had been caught in the spin cycle of a washing machine. Gasping like a fish out of water as Cacius tried to right himself, Alcide uncapped the jar.
“Un-fucking believable,” Cacius snarled as he sat up.
“What…what the fuck are you doing?” he gasped as Alcide poured the pee on his exposed leg and arm.
“Marking you as a tasty snack,” the Were grinned. “The Eclipsing Blood Moon, it loves Weres. Loves to fuck with them. Loves to end their days in a blaze of glory, leaving behind a hull that the moon has run into the ground. And that blood moon,” he looked up at the all familiar smiling face of the full white one, that beamed down on him. “You will be smelling like Were piss and it is going to think you are that Were that it has cursed, before. And it will be a blessing to you that you did not see coming,” he howled in delight.
“No,” Cacius yelled and jumped back into the ditch. “I do not want your blessing or anyone elses. I am all that I need!”
“Cher,” Alcide laughed, “What are you doin’ scrubbin’ away down there. Were piss does not wash off. It has to wear off. It takes from one full moon to the next for that to happen.”
“No, no,” he yelled, as he began climbing back out. “No,” he shouted as he ran. “No!” he screamed as he took off to his car. “I must live in the moonlight! And tonight’s moon is mine! I am more than Were piss! I am a holy one!”
Alcide started to say something to his momma when he heard a couple of distress howls from the corn field! Something had happened! His wing man was calling! “I have no time for your bullshit,” Alcide hissed under his breath, breaking into a full out run in the opposite directon. Out in the field, he caught up with Lasso. His friend had Little Joan in his arms. Lasso was headed to the back forty where he had parked his Jeep.
“What the fuck happened?” Alcide was keeping pace along beside him.”
“That fucker had her in his trunk, bound, gagged and bleeding. Where is he and I will end his days?” the Were growled. “I checked her vitals, she is good. But that head wound bothers me and he broke her arm and his ass is dead!”
“Fuck,” Alcide snarled. “We are in a bad way, here. You got less than an hour to get yourselves out of this moonlight.
Momma,” Alcide said into his phone. “Looks like we got a good whack over the head and a broken arm. I got some unfinished business. I bet that fucker was going to sacrifice her on that altar. You talk Lasso through this, will you.”
“I got this Son. Give him your phone.
Now Lasso, has she said anything, yet?”
“Yes ma’am,” he replied. “She did open her eyes and smile at me and said my name.”
“All good signs. You are in a corn field. Good. Once you get her…”
Alcide came running up to Lafayette.
“Herveaux, His La La Fineness says, that was some floor show. Cacius come cruising through here, wet, angry, and smelling of piss.
What,” he eyed the Were whose eyes were orange and his tone changed to one of concern. “What has happened?”
“My guy Lasso found Cacius’ car. He had Little Joan bound up in his trunk. I do believe he was going to sacrifice her to whatever was coming down those stairs. I have marked him and he will be found. So let that fucker run where he will. He will be doing it with a wolf’s two legs on one side of his body.
You gonna be okay out here?” the Were asked, worry in his voice.
“Yes, my little mans, he has gots me covered. And those vamps, they knows me. I think if I was gonna be a tasty treat, I would be headed that way by now.
You gots someplace else you needs to be?”
“Yes, the blood moon will curse me if I get caught in its rays. So I have to take cover in about an hour. I got one of my pack that is bleeding. I figure my part here is done, unless you need me to stay.”
“Nope, we has gots this. Whenever Northman and her fineness reappears, we will be a go for launch.”
“Would love to stick around and help with that,” Alcide replied. “Like a good brawl, myself.”
“No sir, you go take covers and see to your own. We would not ask a vamp to meet the sun, unless it was an evil mo’ fo’er. And we would certainly not ask a Were to be cursed. You done your part. We is grateful. You got one evil sorted out of this group. And from the looks of them, they all need to be sorted. Tell your momma God bless her and we is thankful!”
“Will do,” Alcide nodded and took one final look, around. There was maybe one hundred left…maybe. The stones had stopped their cracking sound and now it sounded like they were talking. And laughing. And snickering. Looking up at the moon, he howled to declare himself a packmaster and they did not scare him.
What came back through the rocks was You dare to defy us! We shall feast on you, first!
“Did you hear that?” he asked, searching Lafayette’s face.
“Sure, nuff. They is gonna’ start throwin’ the madness down. We got’s this.”
The vampires approached Lafayette as they watched those that were chanting, stop, scream, and then run for their cars as the uprights began to smoke and belch flames. “Never fails,” O.I. hooted. “They is all up for the big brawl protectin’ your back and poof…least little rock starts hissin’ and complainin’ and they up and runs.”
“That actually cleaned the area out, quite a bit,” Samuel said. “The Three Feathers Coven has huddled together, oh, here comes the wind. There is no way they are going to get their fire to stay lit. Would you look at that, one of them is actually riding that broom. Although I do not think that was her plan from the way she is screaming in terror.
I’ll get her,” Samuel said, “and encourage the others to move out.”
O.I. looked at the moon. “Damn, looks like this breeze is even blowin’ the moon beams, around. Guess that mo’ fo’er who lives in the stars knows this is his last go around-abouts.”
“There goes, literally,” Vlad said shouting above the now moaning wind, “another coven being pushed by the wind, out.”
“Let’s go get the guns,” Ian said.
“O.I. and I will be here, watchin’,” Lafayette answered. “See you in a few.”
The characters of the Southern Vampire Mysteries belong to Miss Charlaine Harris. No infringement on my part is intended. The characters on True Blood belong to Mr. Alan Ball. No infringement on my part is intended.
I have no BETA, editor, or other such charming person. All mistakes are my own. This Story is rated M.
The Curse of the Eclipsing Blood Moon—Chapter 6
Sookie slept, not dreaming and not moving. When she woke late in the afternoon, she was in the same position she had been in when she laid down.
Getting dressed, she went downstairs and was greeted in the kitchen by three cooks and a ten-pound bag of millet and ten pounds of honey and comb.
“What are we doin’?” she asked as Lafayette added more millet to the blender and then pulverized it to flour.
“We have been experimentin’. Try that stack of pancakes, there. My Little Man’s done toasted the grains. Makes for a heartier loaf with it mixed in with the flour.”
Sookie spoon-cut herself a pat of butter and spread it around and then spooned on some honey.
“Not bad,” she said with enthusiasm. “You know, if you did them thin like crepes and filled them with comb and some coconut, that could be a real nice thing to eat.”
“Not so very bad with some sautéed apples with cinnamon,” Gran said. “We have been experimenting. Apple butter. O.I. did not care for the peach flavored yogurt and we even tried banana and peanut butter. All of it was good.”
“So this is what I need to make?” she smiled, spooning on some more honey and taking another bite.
“This is it,” Gran said. “Now what about the mead?”
“Eric has that. Some his mother made and it is delicious.”
“Lordy, thousand year old meads…sounds like a tasty treat!” O.I. replied as he flipped over the next flat bread.
“Oh, that one looks good,” Sookie smiled as she peered over O.I.’s shoulder.”
“Put some oatmeal and other hearty breakfast grains in it for Gran. Gonna’s keep her heart healthy. No reason why it cannot be delicious while doin’ so.”
“Well okay then, good-bye to those bran bagels we have been choking down and hello to a better way to clean you out! You guys can coach me through this and we’ll have our part done. I wonder what it would be like to soak one of those in honey? Then layer it in whatever we want. Coconut comes to mind!”
“Let’s do that nexts, His La La Fineness says. How cans it be wrong?”
All the vampires were up and moving. All of them forgone dinner and were sitting in Samuel’s library, looking at Eric’s mock-up and admiring the air-pistols and other things that looked dangerous.
“My gawd, I have not shot a pistol since…well, I don’t know, ever,” Attila said as he held one in his hands.
“Seriously,” Vlad eyed the one he was holding. “We are much faster than this.”
“Yes,” Samuel smiled at them, “but with the tin projectile, you don’t have to be fast. You maybe don’t even need to be accurate. As long as you don’t hit one of the humans in the eye, you can just fire at anything.”
“Should we send them in with eye protection?” Madame Vedo asked.
“Well, we could, I guess,” Eric shrugged. “But I just don’t see any humans, besides the Druid and the Wynd Ryder, going in with us. They talk a good game of standing with us, but I don’t think the crowd that was at the club the other night is going to find that once it all starts to go to hell, they are going to scatter like fall leaves in an autumn tornado. They will run over each other in the mad hustle to get out of there.
Cacius was actually funny. That he and his were there to protect the stones. They care not for anything else, not like they will care for their own hides.”
“Have certainly seen enough of that type through the ages,” Samuel nodded in agreement.
“We have been admiring your mock up Eric,” Willy said as he slowly turned the henge, around. “So what is the plan to lock it? Don’t get me wrong, you sponsor the best wars ever.
But I would like on occasion to visit with you and not have to spill any blood.”
“Well,” Eric began slowly, “it goes something like this…”
All of them sat there with their mouths open. “Mother of God,” Vedo crossed herself. “A virgin on the altar and after tasting the mead, you did not puke!”
“Yes,” Eric nodded his head. “Not the most romantic of situations.
And I am going to have her spit all over the bread.”
Samuel stood up and walked over to his desk. Shoving everything off onto the floor he began. “We are going to need some oatmeal or some sort of grain from the kitchen. And water.
Clifford, if you would please,” Samuel called out. “Oatmeal and a bottle of water.
Eric, Madame, if you would please, gather here on top of the desk. This shall be our stone altar.
Gentlemen, find a position around them and above them. With a sword in one hand and the pistol in the other, let’s see what type of damage we can do to my ceiling.
Eric, tell us one more time the sequence of events.
“During the battle, on the altar stone, pour out the mead, spread out the millet seed and then sacrifice yourself on the altar and smear the blood.
Remember, he will need to drink the mead, eat the millet bread and taste the blood.” Eric recited.
“So we can’t pre-stage these things on the altar,” Siggy replied, as he hovered above Eric and Vedo.
“That is correct. They have to appear on the stairs so they will already be pouring out and the fighting started.”
“Hey Sig,” Attila looked up. “Sorry my friend, but that just does not look right. Trade out places with me and you guard them from down here.”
“He’s right,” Samuel nodded in agreement. “As the oldest and the fastest, I should be the one on top. Whatever gets through me, should go to the next layer who would be the next oldest and so on down to the altar. So sort yourself out according to age and let’s fill in.”
“Eric, what about O.I.?” Pam asked.
“Yes, our friend is the oldest and has found himself a Wynd Ryder. He will be playing by his own set of rules. But before the fight, we will rehearse him with what we get worked out and see where he wants to be positioned.
Now, given these parameters, it is going to be a bit tricky to get all this done without interruption. So let’s give it a go, shall we.
For the time being, Pamela, you be the bad guy that has slithered down to the altar. And let’s try not to damage each other, please.”
Clifford, Samuel’s Majordomo came and went. “Not the oatmeal,” he said after regarding the mess. “I believe we have some grits. I’ll bring that.”
“Sun up is a couple of hours out,” Eric said looking at his friends. “Madame Vedo you have been most courageous.”
“Thank you,” she replied, eyeing the group.“Eric, the only way this is going to work is if the Druid sits on top of you. This frees up both of your hands. She has her job and Eric you have yours.
The best way to do this looks like if you are both nude on bottom and she has wrapped her legs around your waist. She spreads the mead, the millet and then you hop up onto the altar and break her. She then smears the blood while you drink and eat and then taste the blood off her fingers.
As we have demonstrated, clothes on both of you are going to get in the way. You both could have something short sleeved on top, but you would not want any loose clothing that would get in your way and slow you both down. I’ll devise something that can just be ripped off.”
“Would a tin fence across the stairs slow them down and buy us some time?” Ian asked. “The stairs appear right before the eclipse, and that would give us time to get them into position.”
“My gawd, British Isle, you are a pretty face and a brain,” Vlad whistled.
Everyone blew him a kiss and winked at him, doing rude and vulgar things with their hands and asking if he dated and did he kiss on a first date.
When the group settled down, Eric was grinning when he said, “Worth a try.”
“On that,” Samuel responded and picked up his phone and started punching in what was needed.
“Thank you all, so much,” Eric smiled at his friends. “Hopefully, this is the last time.”
Clifford came in. “The tin sand has arrived. We have enough tonnage to sprinkle, everywhere. The henge will be covered in it.
If his royal highness, O.I., wishes to toss it into the air and ignite it with his flame, and blow it onto the enemy, so much the better.”
“Clifford, you are so very good to us,” Vedo bowed to him.
“Yes, Madame,” he bowed in return, “I pride myself on that.
Now, shall we need the RV someplace close by?”
“What?” the vampires all turned and looked at the magicked human that ran Samuel’s empire during the day…well…correction…all of the time.
“I understand that this is a very delicate matter. And the lady will be…perhaps…dry…which makes penetration difficult…” he cleared his throat, frowned and turned to Madame Vedo. “Apologies my lady, that is vulgar male locker-room talk.
I just thought perhaps,” he turned his attention on Eric, “perhaps a little smooching before-hand would help things along. And she could get a little more comfortable with the nudity. And the RV is a step up from the back seat of an auto.”
“Good thought,” Samuel nodded. “Clifford, you are due some time off. Name when. You just cannot take an entire year at one time. You know what happened the last time you did that.”
“Of course, Mr. Samuel,” he bowed and left.
“What happened the last time he left for a year?” Cedric asked.
“It was August 14th, 2003, 4:10 P.M.,” Samuel sighed.
“The grid failure that took out the Northeast, parts of the Mid-west and parts of Canada?” British Isle replied in a shocked voice.
“That would be the event,” Samuel grimaced. “Clifford was in *The Islands and I was in my day slumber. August, you know, is still heavy sunshine territory and when I rose at nine, well, there we were.
The timing was most unfortunate. It happened at ten minutes past tea-time. Watson was the tea mum that day and was pouring, when our generators kicked on. There was the scurry from the table, cups overturned, savory landing on the floor…the computer system to boot. Watson is a good man, he is Clifford’s second-in-command and was doing his best to keep up but he just did not have Clifford’s intimate knowledge of the system.
An oversight on my part which has since been corrected.”
“Hear, hear!” they all shouted. “To Clifford and Watson!”
Samuel regarded the group. They were good friends. Trusted champions. A rowdy bunch and he loved them all. But there was one he loved more. Time to get down to business. “We have a couple of hours. I trust you all to rest well during your day slumber.”
“Have we been dismissed?” Attila hooted.
“Unless you want to sit with my in sack-cloth and ashes while I say my prayers,” Samuel grinned.
“Oh, well, tally-ho then!” British Isle called out getting up.
“Indeed,” Cedric stood and bowed. “Rest well this day, gentlemen.”
Saying their goodbyes and well wishes, they were all out the door.
When they were gone, Eric remained.
“My brother,” Samul smiled at him. “What are you doing here, I thought you would…”
Eric rose and went to the fireplace. “Have one last hurrah before I possibly meet the true death and never have another one? This should be obvious,” he smiled at this being that had brought him back from the brink of destruction more than once. “I am going to sit vigilance with you, my brother,” as he began smearing the ashes on his head. “So have Clifford bring me out a hair shirt as well.”
Sophie-Anne, the vampire queen of Louisiana, was fuming! “What do you mean that our henge will be closed for business the night of the eclipsing blood moon. I paid a fortune to have that erected and I want my photo op with it!” she yelled and threw things at Compton.
“I am sure that is all doable my Queen. There is just word on the street, my Queen,” he said as he lay prostrate on the floor. “That there is some terrible evil that is going to make its way through and devour all of us if it is not stopped.
The witches’ coven Silver Tide has been tracking this disturbance.”
“Will they be in attendance?” she asked.
“No, they will not. They do not know how to fight this evil that will descend and devour. They are hunkering down, Saint Not-Here said. Layering their spells and drinking potions that will keep them off the radar of this evil that will consume us.”
“Can we tear it down?” she asked.
“My Queen, this was built to rival Stonehenge in all its glory. You can hire Weres to go in and take it out, but it took a week to erect. We don’t have that kind of time.”
“So, let’s get out of this time zone. Call my plane. The residence is going on holiday…to…to…my holiday home in New Zealand. Make this happen. Now.
Send out the prepared message stating with this: We are going on vacation. I will be back next week. Until then, William, you are in charge.”
“You…you are leaving me behind my Queen?” he sobbed.
“Get over yourself Bill. This is your one chance to get something right. You get everything taken care of before the helicopter departs, and you can be on-board. If not, you continue on to fight-the-good-fight. And when all is locked down here, come the new dark, you can at least haul ass out of Louisiana.”
By the time Compton stood up, there was only the fluttering of some papers in the breeze of fleeing vampires. The helicopter was on the roof, and they were outbound.
“If I can defeat what is in the stone henge,” he sobbed as he hit the red alert panic button and watched the Weres move into place and begin locking doors. “I will be a hero. If not, I will be dead,” he sobbed. “I am going to be dead,” he boo-hoo’d in earnest.
“Or maybe not,” he wiped at his eyes and cleared his throat. Taking out his phone, he called The Sheriff of Area Five.
Eric felt the phone vibrate in his pocket. It was coming from the Queen’s residence. Samuel had just finished the last Psalm and was finishing with a hallelujah.
When Samuel looked over at him and smiled, Eric knew everything was going to be alright.
Hitting talk, he said, “Northman.”
“Sheriff,” Bill began. “There is going to be an attack on the stone henge that the Queen had built in New Orleans. You are required to be here the night of the eclipsing blood moon and shut it all down.”
Eric did his best not to laugh. Compton’s voice was shaking. Their fearless leader had hauled ass and left Bill in charge. This was hilarious! Time to have some fun!
“Bill, she may have contributed to have it built, which I doubt, but she did not pay to have it built. Put her majesty on,” Eric replied.
He could not lie about this. Eric would just call her himself. “She is not here. She has taken her staff and has left me in charge. So I am, in fact, ipso facto, King. You may call me King Bill.”
“No, Bill,” Eric managed to keep a straight face. “You are ipso facto, Queen. You are not replacing a king so therefore you are not a king. It is like for like. So you are Queen Bill,” Eric stressed again.
“Oh,” Bill took a step back. Eric had just called him Queen! “Well, I am in charge and her last order was to call you and have you here to fight this…whatever it is.”
“Can do,” Eric replied. “I will bring a few of my friends. We’ll be there, Queen Bill, never fear. Do you want us to check in with you, first, and escort you over?”
“What?” he gasped. “Well no. I am watching the eclipse with the King of Mississippi. I have been invited to join our Queen, there. It shall be a blessed event.”
“Oh, well what a good time,” Eric smiled, despite himself. “I believe Russell has built for himself a henge as well.
Now, you must promise me you will not tell him this, but, this will give you the opportunity to strip naked and dance under the moon and be blessed by….”
Bill was overcome by joy! He had heard about the royals depraved moon celebrations from some Were guards but thought it was just all made up! To make him feel less while they knew more! “By a moon goddess and her…her…”
“Unicorn,” Eric added for him. “The males that dance in the circle are called her Unicorns. So you would be a Queen and a Unicorn. That is a powerful combination.”
“I knew that,” Bill countered with indignation. “I am just so overwrought at the thought of being in attendance. What a blessing to me!”
“I can understand that,” Eric grinned. “It is not every day you get to strip naked, attach the horn and fuck a rock. I do so hope Russell had the tall ones installed. I heard that he did, but it is only a rumor.
The short ones are not a bad ride, of which I am familiar, but when you bend over like that, you become vulnerable. And you cannot refuse the moon goddess or her Unicorn if they want to ride.”
“You mean they can fuck me in the ass?” he asked aghast.
“All part of being Queen, Bill,” Eric assured him. “All of it an honor. Gives you certain bragging rights. I know I pull mine out from time-to-time whenever I get around royalty. Especially those in the Californias. They are really not as special as they think they are.”
“Yes, well, I will be sure to include it in my resume.”
“Good thinking,” Eric replied and made a face at Samuel. “Queen Bill, rest well this day and see what you can do about finding your own unicorn horn.
The ones the moon goddess provides, they are not much. And you want to have the last useable horn. That way all must bow to you and you can have your pick of whatever looks the most inviting.
Until another time, Queen Bill. Out here,” Eric said and hung up.
Samuel was sadly shaking his head at Eric.
“Something so easy should just be wrong,” Eric grinned at Samuel.
“Oy vey,” Samuel replied and eyed the cold fireplace. “I think I should just climb in and cover myself.”
“Samuel,” Eric was chuckling, “your God has a sense of humor. After all, he made me.”
“Oy vey,” Samuel was laughing despite himself. “You have a valid point in there somewhere.”
“I have one more stop I have to make. Do you think Clifford has retired yet for the evening?”
“Oh, I am sure he is still up. You are in residence, he does not want to miss out on any of the fun.”
“I will see you with the new dark,” Eric hugged his brother.
Going down the hall, Eric went into Clifford’s office and found him going over his list for sundries.
“Mr. Eric,” he said looking up, his half glasses perched on his nose. “Do you require something?” he asked standing.
“No, please sit,” Eric pulled out a chair. “I am in need of some information and I know you deal in it.”
“Why sir…” he began.
“Don’t sir me, Clifford,” Eric responded rolling his eyes. “Too many years between us. And I know you trade O.I. storage spacefor his fermenting alcohol for interesting tid-bits of info. Now, you name your price. Ask me for anything.
But I need to know the Druid’s name that was at the club.”
“You mean the Late Druid’s name?” he grinned back.
“That fucking O.I.,” Eric snorted. “Yes,” he closed his eyes and rubbed his face with his hands, “that would be the one,” he said with a sigh and gave Clifford that boyish grin he was famous for.
“Hm-m-m-m,” Clifford patted his cheek. “If only I was a sweet young thing instead of an old crusty male who has seen it all and had to pull your ass out of it all, literally, sometimes. That winter night in Paris come to mind.”
Eric snorted again, this time with laughter. “’Tis true, sir,” Eric gave him a bow, “I would not be here today if it were not for you and your quick thinking. A stake through the back of the heart works just as well as one through the front. Nicely played, sir.
Now, I desire to be a gentleman and not refer to the sacrifice on the altar as the Late Druid. What I can possibly do for you?”
“She is fearless, is she not, sir,” he said gently.
“She is,” Eric nodded. “And commands our respect.”
“Good, respect. I am glad you led with that.
Sookie,” he said with a sigh. “Her name is Sookie. O.I. did not know her last name.”
“Sookie,” Eric repeated gently. “It suits her.”
“O.I. also gave me her Druid name.”
“How so?” Eric asked.
Clifford shrugged and laughed. “You know O.I. He has his old and ancient ways and is a charming rascal. He says she is called The Lady of the Light.”
“That suits her as well,” Eric said nodding. “What do I owe you?”
“Just consider yourself in my debt,” Clifford grinned.
“I fucking hate that,” Eric replied, arching both eyebrows. “And I will agree to that but you cannot,” he stressed, “use that to pay off your debts to The Child. Past, present or future.”
“Well rats,” he replied with a grin. “Then I ask that you treat her like the lady she is, at all times.”
Eric paused. “Is there a time when I would not treat her like a lady?” he asked.
“I have seen your egoistical maniac, Mr. Eric, and your boorish and ill-mannered ways. Also, the way you pander to your child with her sometimes boorish and ill-mannered ways. At these times you are no credit to your mother or grandmother when you act in such a fashion and are insufferable.”
“Point well taken,” he nodded. “If I might be so bold to ask, what is going on?”
“I just got off the phone with O.I. and he reminded me that she is indeed, a descendent of the other Druids.”
Eric stared at Clifford and then closed his eyes. “Oh fucking Were shit…she is also a telepath.”
Opening them, he sadly shook his head. “O-o-o-o-o Clifford,” his voice held sorrow. “Fuck! If her brain does not survive this, then she will be well taken care of. I promise you this.”
“Good,” he nodded. “And I am prepared to make some sort of stipend to her gran. They live together and they both depend on each other’s work habits to keep them on their land.”
“Their land?” Eric asked, curiosity in his voice.
“Yes, they do not fall under landed gentry, but what considerable acreage they have must have the taxes paid.”
“Thank you,” Eric said with a bow of his head.
“You are most welcome, sir,” Clifford replied. “Now, sunrise is coming. You have a meal waiting for you in your suite.”
Eric made a face. “If you would not mind giving me a few moments and then escorting her out. This will not take long. I am just looking for a meal and not companionship.”
“Most excellent sir. I will be up in five minutes.”
As Eric went up the stairs, he made the phone call. “Sophie-Anne,” he smiled when he said her name.
She hated it when he did that but there was nothing for her to do about it. After all, if push came to shove, he would defend his acreage and leave her to fight the war on her own. It just sucked that she did not own him!
“Eric,” she put a smile in her voice which made him grin even bigger.
“My queen, I just received a phone call from Queen Bill. I am sure he is on the phone right now talking to Edgington. Russell will know that you are gone, left a pile of Were shit in charge, and think you are ripe for a take-over.”
“Queen Bill?” she snarked.
“I may have had something to do with that,” Eric chuckled. “Long story short. He wanted me to call him king and I said I would call him queen.
I am also to be in attendance of the stone circle the night of the eclipsing blood moon. Yes, you heard correctly I am to battle the evil that is coming through that portal.
This is not a problem. Myself and my crew will be there. We will do our best to shut this down. We have been successful in the past, I am hoping our luck still holds.
So a friendly heads up, you are going to be hearing from Edgington. I would not overtly bullshit him or he will be living in your residence when you return. Out here.”
Bill sat back and grinned. “That was easy! That bastard Northman will take the brunt of this and I am Queen Bill! A royal at last! Good on me! And somewhere in Mississippi there is a henge I can dance in! I am calling Russell! How can Mississippi tell me no when I know the secret handshake and have the horn of the unicorn? I am a Queen! I am a Unicorn! I will fuck stones until my true love is only left to embrace and I shall be the best lover ever!”
Taking out S-A’s work phone, he dialed the number.
“Queen Sophie-Anne,” he heard Russell say. “What a pleasure to have your company this evening.”
“No, Russell, Sophie-Anne is on vacation. This is Queen Bill Compton. I understand that you shall be celebrating with other royals in your henge on the night of the eclipsing blood moon. I would delight to be in attendance. I can bring my own unicorn horn. No need for the moon goddess to supply me with one. After all, I want to be able to fuck all the rocks and still be the one standing and able to pick my own lover for the night.”
“It’s locked down,” a guard stuck his head into the chamber. “Are you leaving or staying? We are getting ready to lock the front door and shoot to kill.”
Bill frowned at the guard who interrupted him.
“I am on the phone.”
“Staying or leaving?” the guard asked again.
“One moment please Russell.
Oh, I am leaving,” he turned to the two Weres. “And you may address me as Queen Bill.
Now, Russell, as I was saying…hello…hello…?”
“Heads up,” the Were squawked his radio. “Queen Bill is getting ready to leave the building. After he is gone, any movement, shoot to kill.”
Russell ended the call and stood staring at his phone. Talbot came and put his arm around him. “What?” he asked.
“Did you have a stone henge built?” he asked, taking his lover’s hand and kissing it.
“What?” Talbot said again, this time with a bit of hysteria in his voice. “You know what happened the last time we passed through one of those. It was dreadful. I swear, that Seid cursed me and to this day I still have a fat ass!”
“My dearest,” Russell winked at him. “Your ass is perfect and Sophie-Anne is on vacation and has left Compton in charge.”
Talbot shrieked, “You mean her main ass kisser? The local boy who has not a brain in his body! Why would she do that?”
“I have no idea.”
“Do we want to know?” Talbot asked, suspicion now in his voice.
“Not from that pile of Were shit,” Russell replied. Pushing a number into his phone, Sophie-Anne picked up.
“Russell, how delightful,” she began.
“Cut the salutations,” he drawled out. “Where are you and why is Compton in charge?”
“The word is out that my staff and I are going to New Zealand for a few days to get away from all the electronic chatter. But we are actually just off lurking in the shadows. I have a traitor inside my residence.”
“And you left Compton in charge?” In his voice was disbelief.
“Yes,” she replied. “If anyone from within is going to try a coup, now would be the time. And The Sheriff of Area Five is keeping an eye on things while I am observing. He will also handle it if anyone tries anything from outside. He is boots on the ground, geared up for war.
I shall be back in a couple of days if this does not ferret out the rat. But in the meantime, what do you think about re-opening the gold mine in the Superstition Mountains?”
“We were told that there was no more gold in that mine?” Russell responded, thinking about the possibilities.
“Well, not without blasting,” she chuckled.
“The state will not allow us to do that,” he replied.
“Well, who says they have to know?” There was silence on the phone while he thought about that.
Congratulating herself, they had just switched topics and Russell was going to think she was lurking in Phoenix and doing some business without him. Pulling up their joint ownership of the mine on her laptop, she was ready to talk some trash.
When they hung up, Talbot was sitting next to him on the couch. “They have a stone henge in N.O. Why would Compton want to come here?”
“He seemed to think this was going to be party central. Other royals would be in attendance, he said.
And that he could bring his own unicorn horn…I have no idea what that means,” Russell shrugged. “And pick his lover for the rest of the evening.”
Talbot looked thoughtful. “Is this some new game we know nothing about? Is that what those lower than Were shit Californias kings were talking and snickering about? Should we,” he gasped, “be entertaining on that blood moon? I am always the last one to know,” he pouted. “It is because I keep myself boxed up here, doing the best I can by you and the house and the fucking grounds! Those roses and those little pests that give them the wilt. I spend all my time fighting that instead of keeping up with the newest,” he said, dabbing at his eyes. “The things I do for you so you will be proud of our home and of me,” he sobbed.
“That is why no one comes to visit. They are all off playing this henge game,” he broke, crying in earnest, “and we are not invited because we are country bumpkins. Just white trash from the poor South, not good enough…” the tears were streaming down his face, “…not good enough to be in the know and have to be informed by the likes of a Were shit bottom feeder Compton…just what the fuck! They think we are lower than Were shit…” his crying was in earnest, with his head on Russell’s chest. Bloody tears covering his face and Russel’s shirt. “Even that bitch Sophie-Anne has a henge. And we are not invited…to her game night…!” came out in a low, disparaging wail.
“Right,” he continued on, sobbing, “like she has left Compton behind so that she can find a traitor. Ha! She is in the Californias, doing unspeakable things under that moon!”
Russell held Talbot while he cried out his anguish. After all the tears had been shed, Russell took Talbot’s face in his hands. “Do you want a henge?” he asked.
Letting out a long, suffering sigh, he shook his head, no. “It would just be that much more embarrassing when we invited royalty to play and they could not attend because of other engagements, elsewhere,” he pouted.
“Do you want to go back to The Continent?” Russell asked him.
“Sometimes I think I do,” he replied, laying his head in Russell’s lap.
“We really would be no-body’s,” Russell smiled at him.
“You are the Crown Prince of Hungry-Burg,” Talbot sat up, shock in his voice. “Don’t you dare disparage yourself in such a way!”
“Well,” Russell stroked Talbot’s hair. “If and when you decide you want one, we will go shopping in the Isles for one. None of this local rock for us, my love.”
“Really?” Talbot looked up at him, love in his eyes. “Truly. We could have one brought in?”
“Anything you want,” Russell replied, bending down and licking the blood off his face. “For you, the world. I am so proud of what you have accomplished, here, my love. Our home is beautiful. And I know that is because of you. All I do is track mud in on your clean floors. And they are a lovely black and white marble checkerboard. And you did that. Turned this abandoned hovel into a home, the place where you keep my heart. I do not know what I would do without you.”
“Thank you,” Talbot sighed. “Thank you. You know I worry…”
“Sh-h-h-h, now. You feel like looking on line at some henges?”
“Thank you,” he whispered. “That…that would mean a lot to me.”
“All I want is your happiness, my love. Now, let us shop around and see what we like.”
“I don’t want anything like Stonehenge,” Talbot said, righting himself. “That is like what they put up in N.O. That is just too vulgar for words or polite company. We want something that says tasteful and refined. And perhaps worthy of a moonlight picnic and then dance.”
“Something charming,” Russell nodded, “well, let’s begin in Wales.”
That morning when Sookie woke, she had a revelation of the powerful sort.
“All of this is gonna’ happen fast. I tried putting my fingers into my vagina before I fell asleep and when you are dry, that is not pleasant or easy. And I need to trim my nails. As in cut then down to nothin’. We will be goin’ for broke. Oh ha ha…
I wonder if Eric would be okay with a little smoochin’ before hand?” Thinking on that thought, she felt herself begin to heat up and get wet. “Woof,” she sighed as she thought about yesterday.
“I am glad Lafayette and I rehearsed this. My clothes get in the way. And we both need our hands so this will have to be front-to-front. I will have to adjust whatever Druid thing takes form on me.
Practicin’ with a bottle of water and grits outside on a table helped put all of this in perspective. This is gonna’ take some co-ordination and some practice. We need to be in N.O. before the sun goes down. That will give us at least five hours to rehearse this. Eric is gonna have to get us to the top of that altar after I pour out this stuff. I am believing he can do it.”
Please Note: *Mr. Clifford vacations on Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal. Apparently, he is not without his own personal charms. He joined Brother Samuel’s household right after the outbreak of the American Revolution. Before then, he had journeyed with the British Navy as a youngster to various and interesting parts of the world.