June 30, 2010

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

After a long day working in Jessica’s room, we all showered and changed and finally made it back to the parlor in time for the meeting. We were pretty excited to talk about the episode in toto, there was so much to say, and we had been sent an unexpected invitation to spend the fourth of July at Merlotte’s. I wondered if Eric and Pam would come to the party. I asked Sam when he brought us our lunch if we could invite Eric and Pam and Jessica, who had been sleeping in the newly refurbished crawl space under Bill’s house til the sun went down, and hopped in the car with God Speed and Sal and Jen to go the meeting.

Sam is not a great fan of the fang…never had been really. Of course he had known about Vampires far longer than the rest of us since he himself was a supernatural being. But, he saw how it important it was for us to have the freedom to invite them and he gave his approval. Alcide had accepted as well. He was happy to get to know us better, and perhaps a few of us even better than Eric would like. Body Guard, being one of the two natured himself enjoyed having the friendship of another Were in the meetings.

I asked Body Guard how Eric responded to the revelation of his being a were. Unlike Sam, who could change into any animal he imprinted on, Body Guard was a full blooded Werewolf like Alcide. But Alcide and Body Guard had no animosity toward Sam as many Weres did against shifters. Alcide and Body Guard moved through life independently without strict adherence to a pack, though they respected the local pack leaders as much as they could. They were better off on their own in their estimation.

When we arrived, Aolani had made us a couple of huge chickens. Minnie made us a green bean casserole and Fairy had made mashed potatoes with chives and a huge peach cobbler to be served with butter cream ice cream. Minnie had also made her special brownies. Thank God for Minnie’s brownies.

Raki was pouring the wine and handed me a glass. I sipped the cold crisp wine and smiled in gratitude. I had drunk down half a glass and she poured more. “Is this some of Eric’s stuff?” I asked.

“No,” she said, “I brought a few bottles in.”
“We’ll be needing it,” I said. I looked around at all the people in the parlor, all of our friends. Pam and Eric and Jessica were there, having Tru:Bloods and chatting. Alcide was having a cold beer. Butter came up to the Viking and he rubbed her belly as he kissed her. “Not much longer,” he said to her.

Fairy, Raki and Minnie Mouse were eating a piece of brownie apiece and chatting over some yummy siggies Fairy and Raki had been making. Bella, Renee, Scarlett and Westexan were at the computer reading some things on the forum, catching up. Eric came over and leaned over Renee and he whispered something in her ear and she nodded and he patted her gently on the shoulder and turned to greet Kellie, known interchangeably as Chris or The Kid. He embraced her and kissed her on the cheek and she hugged him back. Renee turned in time to see the embrace and shook her head and turned back to the screen.

Dude came in. He kissed Pam and Jessica and shook hands with Eric, a ritual the Viking was accustoming himself to. Generally Vampires do not like being touched by humans they were not feeding from, but Eric was trying to be more open to the experience and he would briefly clasp hands with one of the boys and give them a couple of shakes before releasing them. I asked Eric about it and he said to Vampires it was the equivalent of when a master teaches his dog to shake. It was something they preferred not doing. I think it was because in the times before the Great Revelation, it revealed their otherness and so they simply did not do it. I suggested this to Eric and he nodded his agreement.

I turned to speak to Barrister and Alcide and Aolani and Body Guard. Jen and God Speed had joined us.

“How is it going on that Vampire’s house,” asked Alcide.
“Pretty good, we have to make two rooms light tight,” said God Speed. “Any suggestions?”
“I’ll come around and look at what you are doing,” he said. “Since they came up out of the coffin, the construction business has had to figure out ways to accommodate them.” Alcide had a look of distaste on his face but held his tongue. Linzy and Lina and Tiff came up to him to chat and I saw Eric’s eyes glow for a second, but turned around. It was innocent chat, but I knew Eric did not approve of it. He liked to be the center of attention for his ladies and he kept his possessive Vampire jealousy in check with effort.

Finally, Pam, the sergeant of arms of the group and Eric’s strong right hand, called us to order and we began to find our places. Our circle was not complete without our Bill, who had been in our world since day one when we started meeting this Eric and Pam and Jessica. His absence was felt deeply, even among Eric’s wives and the boys the group. Sal, the last one to come into the parlor hurriedly took a seat beside Jessica and Scarlett and Pam called the meeting to begin.

“Tell us what you think?” said the pretty Vampire.
“Well, there is a lot going on. Those werewolves Eric, what are they to you?” asked Dude.
“We were hunting them, for a reason,” said Eric. “A personal one.”
“You and Godric?” I asked.
“Yes, and other Vampires,” said Eric. “But this is personal to me and I am not ready to tell it yet.” I had hoped Eric would tell us more about what had happened to make him hate the Werewolves with the brand so much. But I feared we would learn things as they revealed themselves in the adventures. I wondered if it would fill in the gaps of our personal adventures during the summer.

But, with Eric’s words, we nodded. We very well knew from Bill’s experiences last Sunday that Vampires were not immune to painful memories. If Bill had them, so had Eric, so had many of the Vampires. I wondered if Eric dreamed about whatever had happened and if he ever woke with a start and had tears on his face. I imagined he had. Fairy reached out and squeezed the Viking’s hand and he turned to her and looked at her.

“I was disappointed that Bill’s attempt on Lorena’s life was not successful,” said God Speed. “When he burned her.” We all stiffened and grumbled at that. We would like nothing better than to have Lorena Krisiki in final death. We hated her. The King of Mississippi seemed unperturbed at Bill’s actions and further went on to speak to Bill about something he had no intention of doing but was afraid would happen anyway. The King had suggested that Bill make Sookie Vampire.

“I wonder why the King is so interested in Sookie?” said Sal. “I mean, can she carry her telepathy on to being a Vampire?”
“I don’t know,” said Eric.
“Hey, Eric, has any Vampire ever suggested that you guys have a controlled breeding program?” I said. “I’m sorry of the choice of words, but it is the only way I can say what I mean clearly.”
“Controlled how?” he said.
“Well, like…you can fly…and I take it Pam can too?” I said. I had been brooding about this for a long while. Could Pam fly? I think so. In the first summer adventures when they were escaping from the raid at Fangtasia, Pam and Eric moved in exactly the same way and it was different than just Vampire speed. They were preparing to fly into the night. “Did you inherit flight Pam?”
“I did inherit flight though I am not as strong as Eric,” said Pam.
“And Godric could fly?” I asked.
“Yes,” said Eric.
“Do you think Sookie’s telepathic abilities would stay intact?” I asked.
There was quiet. The two elder Vampires were thinking things carefully. Alcide spoke.
“I know that if a were is made Vampire he can’t change on the full moon or any other time,” he said.
“But Sookie is not were,” said Eric. “It is about even odds, she might, she might not.”
“Well, for the sake of argument, what a coup if she did. Then any Vampire she turned would be telepathic…what a resource for a Vampire, the ability not only to glamour but read the thoughts of a human…or a were in his were form,” I said.
“Interesting,” said Eric.
“Otherwise, why is the king suggesting Bill to turn her when her usefulness as a telepath might end? Or is this just a red herring to get Bill to contact Sookie under the auspices of turning her and then the king simply take her and force her to work for him, perhaps keeping Bill as...insurance,” said Barrister.

“That is until she found out he has shagged Lorena,” said Fairy. We nodded. Despite what we felt about the things we had seen Bill do to Lorena, the fact that he had had sex with her would be a deal breaker to Sookie, regardless of his motives or his rage at the time. She may feel beholden to try to help Bill but this would be more of a moral imperative, but her feelings for Bill would be bruised. This would not hold her captive for long to do the king’s bidding.

“And Franklin Mott?” said Westexan.
“What do we know about him?” asked Minnie.
“Not much,” I said. “He is English and he is aligned with either Queen Sophie Anne or the King Russell.” I was betting hard money it was Russell.
“He certainly got Tara steamed up,” said Lina. “But I felt sorry for her.”
“Sorry?” said Eric. “Why?”
“Well, not because she spent a little sack time with the Vampire, but because she feels the way she does about herself,” she explained. “Did you hear what she said to Franklin?”
“What did she say?” asked God Speed.
“That knowing her name would not make him any less dirty and she feel….she doesn’t finish her sentence, but she seems to be really down on herself and her value. Franklin sees this and he can use it to his advantage, of course, but the fact she says this to him. You know Tara is hurting,” said Lina.
“Interesting,” said the Viking. Eric often feigned sympathy for other people in the world of Bon Temps. Primarily for us, so we would move forward in our thought processes, but there was no doubt in my mind that he could care less unless he could use the situation to his advantage. This detail, though, was connected to another person in Bon Temps he did take an interest in, and that was Lafayette Reynold.

Lafayette had been under the Vampire Sheriff of Area Five’s thumb for some time and he was genuinely interested in him. Otherwise, he would not have given him that very beautiful and expensive car. He made Lafayette a Godfather like proposition.

“Eric, are you trying to woo Lafayette into becoming a Vampire?” asked Scarlett. Eric smiled at her. He would not reveal all his hopes for Lafayette to us.
“Let’s just say Lafayette intrigues me. He does have a great mind for business if he can just see the endless possibilities that lie before him. He has charisma and a great sense of money,” said Eric. “It surprises me, but he reminds me a bit of myself. He just needs a little push.”

This was a revelation to me. It simply never dawned on me that Eric might admire a human like that, or see parts of himself in a human so his opposite. But then it made sense because say what you will about the short order cook/ road crew member/ prostitute/ V dealer, he had the same streak of self preservation, ingenuity, and ruthlessness that Eric has. When the world handed these two boys lemons, they made…well, certainly not lemonade, but they made something out of their difficult and dangerous lives.

“And then of course we have Jason,” said Renee. We all laughed. If we thought from time to time Sookie suffered from terminal blondness, Jason was permanently and totally afflicted. He was apparently flitting from flower to proverbial flower again. As my grandmother, may she rest in peace, was fond of saying, flit from flower to flower and you will land in pile of shit. Speaking of which.

“If Bud Dearborn quits, who will be sheriff?” asked Fairy. “Would Andy become the sheriff?”
“Sure until official elections. He would have to be confirmed by the mayor and the town council first, but imagine this would be easily done,” said Barrister. “But he was certainly at his wit’s end when he quit.”

“And we know now, for sure who moved the body,” said Vi. “And of course that is just one more thing Franklin has in his arsenal. He can intimidate Jessica.” Jessica shifted around uncomfortably. She was a very young Vampire and though she was stronger than any human, any older Vampire was dangerous to her. Unfortunately for her, Jessica had the worst maker in Vampire-dom...Bill Compton. Love him, I very much do, suffer for him, absolutely…but he will never hear me say he is a good maker. Bill may be good at many things but being a responsible parent he is not. And now, he was gone and Jessica was really in trouble.

“Plus Tara…” I shook my head. My mother watched that scene and snorted, she said Tara has invited every imaginable thing into Sookie’s house; it would look as if she would invite Mr. Clean to come in. Sookie would approve of that. “She is now under Franklin’s glamour…Poor Tara, if this does not make her a member of the Fellowship of the Sun, I don’t know what will.” Tara had after all, been under the control of a maenad, now under the glamour of a Vampire who could do her a great deal of harm. I sighed.

“But what I want to know is this, what was Sookie thinking? Did she really think she could wander into that werewolf bar and get some crazy were to tell her stuff? And why didn’t you tell her about some stuff Alcide?” I asked, looking at the handsome were.

“I have not been closely associated with the Jackson pack in some time,” he said. “We are in the middle of a power struggle between more reasonable elements of the pack and this bunch in a huddle with Russell Edgington.”
“Sookie knows these Werewolves are wrong,” said Eric. “She knows they are using Vampire blood and she should have been more careful. “
“She did it the only reasonable way she could,” said Alcide. “Coming on like a really stupid girl was a good way to get some information.”
“It was also a good way to get her killed,” said Eric. “You had better make sure she doesn’t.” Eric’s threat to Alcide’s life was obvious. I had watched Eric kill before and he was very efficient and messy. I chuckled and shook my head. “You find that amusing, Aslinn?”
“No, Eric,” I said. “Something else just floated into my head and right back out…I am sorry.”

So now we were ready to speak of Bill. Excusing the final scenes, Bill had been through a lot in his existence as Vampire. His losses were so great they would have left a hole in anyone, Vampire or not. I hurt for him and I know many of us did.
“Poor Bill,” said Jen. “He just could not stay away, could he?”

Violet was nodding. “Yeah, if there was one thing Lorena told him that was true, Bill should have left well enough alone and never gone back to his house in Bon Temps. Seeing his son…” Vi fought the shaking of her voice, the quivering of her mouth. Eric was looking at her and he could see her fighting to control herself and there was a look of pride on the Viking’s face. “Seeing his son,” she continued. “Dead of the small pox.”
“Bill looked as though he would have been content to lie down in his son’s grave and rest there,” said Linzy. “And then having Caroline shrink away in horror when she realized she had let a Vampire in her house, that Bill was no longer…human.”
“Imagine what that would be like,” said Raki. “You assume your husband is dead after the Civil War and you open your door to find him standing there and then you discover he is…wrong.”
“Not only wrong, but in the company of Lorena,” said Minnie. “But we have to give credit where credit is due, she did allow Bill to glamour her instead of killing her.”
“Yes, for whatever reasons, and as much as we do hate her, we have to admit she loves Bill,” I said. “She is a laughing stock in the Vampire world, chasing after Bill that way. And because she knows she is a joke among her own kind, she uses it to hurt Bill by ridiculing him for loving a human.”
“And Bill has switched alliances,” said Dude. “He is doing it for political reasons, of course. He is doing everything he can think of to keep Sookie out of harm’s way. But Sookie is determined.”
“Determined to get herself killed,” said Alcide.
“Well done everyone,” said Pam, ending our meeting.

Long after the other members were gone and the parlor was quiet, I sat on the couch. Barrister was at the computer, working on something for Eric and I was alone in my head with my own thoughts. I got up and went to the sink and washed up the few wine glasses, rinsed out a Tru:Blood bottle and put it in the recycler and straightened things up. I was surprised when Eric came back in the parlor.

“Something we can do for you Eric?” I asked. He shook his head. “Hungry? Want another Tru:Blood?” He shook his head again. “Well, I hope you don’t think I am being nosy, but why are you here?”
“I want to ask you something,” he said. “About Bill.”
“Okay,” I said. I hopped up on a stool and Eric stood in front of me, looming over me. “Eric, can you step back about a half foot, you make me dizzy and a little claustrophobic when you do that.”
“Sorry,” he said. He pulled out a stool and pulled it in front of me, and sat down. “Do you think Bill would betray me?”

“Well, you two don’t like one another, and he has changed allegiances. But he also knows you are a very powerful person in your world, not just politically, but physically and whether he likes it or not, he knows you would protect Sookie, either because of her value as a telepath or your personal interest in her. I don’t think he would do anything to endanger you unless he absolutely had to. Lorena, on the other hand, I believe would tell Russell everything she knows. She knows you are interested in Sookie too. You tipped your hand when you called her in on Bill in Dallas, big fellah,” I said lightly.

“Yes, that was a mistake on my part,” he said. “She has become a fly in my ointment now.”
“Could you do me a great big hairy favor Eric?” I asked. Eric leaned back a little and crossed his arms in front of him.
“You may ask,” he said.
Would you please bring our Vampire home alive?” I asked the Viking.
“Dearest, Bill and I are dead,” he said.
“Well…bring him home animated?” I said. “Please?” I rolled my eyes around to try to keep from crying and I bit my jaw and for good measure my tongue, before the inner smart ass in me said something that would piss off the Viking. He looked at me and seemed to make up his mind.

“My inner self says to leave Bill Compton to rot. I think I would be able to win some of you for myself if he were gone permanently. But, I also know a couple of you…” and he leaned in a bit and looked at me then leaned back. “…Would be terribly upset with me if I allowed Mr. Compton to be seriously harmed or finally dead. So, I will try very, very hard, to do what you ask.”

I swallowed hard. “Thank you Eric, I appreciate it,” I said.
And just like that, Eric was gone again, the parlor door closing behind him.