Friday, May 28, 2010
The next evening, after the sun went down and the Vampires were up and we had our meals, we got ready to go to Offaly. The small house Eric had arranged had light tight rooms, but it was nowhere as comfortable as the Vampire Hotel we’d had in Armagh. It was not a long drive. The only things that worried me was getting caught out in the sun, but since we were in the country ostensibly, I imagined the Vampires would just go to ground and we would just sleep in the van Eric hired til sundown. I dressed in jeans and a sweater and clipped on my gun and my knife. Scarlett was dressed in her jeans. She had armed herself as well, including the handy blade Barrister had gotten her. Fairy looked excited. She had spent some time with Eric and you could see his fang marks on her neck and the Viking was pleasantly blushed from Fairy’s blood.
The others were upset about being left behind, none more so than Chris. She raged at Eric, cried, appealed to both Pam and Bill, argued with Jessica and cast an evil glare at her mother. Renee was happy her chick was not being in harm’s way. Then the other shoe dropped. Bill turned to Jessica.
“You are to stay here,” said Bill looking at his charge.
“Fuck that Bill,” she said.
“Jessica, as your maker, I can order you to stay here, but I would like to think you would listen to the wisdom of this and do as I ask you,” he said.
“I don’t know why you are so stubborn,” said Pam. “If Eric told me to stay I would without question.”
“Then you will not object to staying behind then, Pam,” said Eric, looking at his child.
“I would like to know why,” she said.
“I have to leave someone behind to take care of things at Fangtasia and execute my will,” said Eric. “And you can help protect the rest of our friends.”
“Very well,” she said.
“And Aslinn stays behind,” said Eric.
“No,” I said.
“Yes, you will,” said Eric. He put his hand on Barrister’s shoulder. “You will stay behind. Barrister will go with us, but he will stay with the van. Linzy will go in your place. Aslinn, you can access all the information, you can go to the magister if need be, you will know how to use the information we took from Markingham’s house.”
I sighed. I looked at Barrister and Bill. They nodded at me.
“Alright, but you bring my man, and my friends, and my Vampire back in one piece Viking or I will deliberately follow your soul to whatever Viking hell it goes to and tear your heart out,” I said.
“I promise,” said Eric. “Of course you know, Vikings don’t really believe in hell.”
“You are not funny Eric,” I said. “Barrister, you come back to me, you and Bill both.”
“We will,” he said. He kissed me and then Bill did the same. Barrister went on out and God Speed and Body Guard and Aolani and Scarlett and Linzy and Fairy followed them. Bill took a few moments to kiss and hug the other sister wives and presumably, Eric had already said his goodbyes as well. Aolani came back in. She handed me a mirror. It was double sided.
“I enchanted this mirror two ways. On one side you will see everything happening in the world of faery and on the other you will see me or Barrister. Of course you will still be able to contact Barrister by mundane means. This way you will not be totally in the dark,” she said. “I have enchanted this place against fae and strange Vampires, and the enchantment will hold til we get back or you leave.”
“Do you have a gun?” I asked.
“No,” she said. I reached behind me and gave her mine in its holster. “Give it back when you come back.”
“You bet,” said Aolani.
Lough Derg was a haunted place. The water was as smooth as a mill pond and the mist on the water made it look like the primordial soup. Aolani lit a candle in a lantern and hung it from a low hanging branch.
“How long will it take for the ferry man to come?” asked Barrister.
“It should not be long,” said Aolani. “Just keep looking toward the water. She stepped up to the edge but Bill pulled her back. She looked down. A skeletal green hand retreated back into the water. “Peg Prowler or Jenny Greenteeth I expect,” she said.
“Are those types of fae?” asked Eric.
“Water fae, very treacherous and cannibals,” said Aolani.
“Would they eat a Vampire?” asked Fairy.
“I think so,” said Aolani. “In light of what Jarrod told us about Vampires.”
“I didn’t think you were dead,” said Fairy, looking up at Eric.
“And what exactly told you I was not dead, dearest,” teased the Viking.
“Oh get a room,” said Scarlett, trying to look sober, though she was smiling.
“What is that?” said Bill, pointing toward the barely visible island. In the far off distance, there was a glimmer of light.
“It may be the ferry man,” said Linzy.
“Don’t forget; use the fairy dust to escape. Draw a circle and jump down in the center of it and you will reappear with the others. Fairy, Scarlett, grab Bill or Eric or Body Guard and they will disappear with you and reappear at our place,” Aolani reminded them. “Even if they are injured or dying or dead, grab them and go.” The witch swallowed at the thought of that and she sniffed back sudden emotion. Eric looked at her and approved of her bravery. He turned back to see a smallish currah, an Irish flat bottomed boat, and the driver of it.
The Goblin at the helm was a large, lumpy creature with a misshapen head and large blocky hands and feet. He had a squash shaped nose and a grimace mouth with grayish yellow stumpy teeth and red beady eyes. Lank colorless hair hung down out of a battered, shapeless hat. His clothes could have been bright at one time but now was a uniform grimy color. He held a pipe with rag weed tobacco sprinkled with garlic in one blocky hand.
“And so, I dinna know I was hauling a coople of deadersh wi’ me,” said the ferryman. “’Ad I knowed I would ‘ave tol’ Niall to haul them ‘is own bloody self,” said the goblin.
“You will carry us?” asked Bill.
“O’coursh I will,” said the goblin. “Goshdarnit is me name, and a promise I made to Niall, I di’ an’ I woon’t be backin’ out o’ it.” He held out a dirty hand. Eric looked at him with a look of disgust. “An’ so me hand is dirty but nothin’ cleans it like the shine of gold. In me hand dead man and we’ll be off to Lough Derg.” Eric handed him the gold piece and he slid into some slit that acted as a pocket. “Well, come on, no sense in leaving yer arse idle lessen you wants to find yourself here at dawn.” The goblin laughed heartily. Eric got in the boat and steadied himself, his long legs spread to the span of the currah and he turned and took Fairy’s hand and helped her on board.
“Ooooo a Kissin’ Coozin, c’mere darlin’ and I’ll show you a better time than that one with his auld cold cod,” he leered nastily.
“She is mine,” said Eric, drawing Fairy’s arms around his slender waist.
“Claim her all you want Vampire, but she was ours long before she bedded down with you,” said the goblin. “And if you ain’ careful, she may be once again.”
“Over your dusty dead body,” said Eric. The goblin laughed lustily. Bill boarded next and helped Scarlett in and Body Guard next and then Aolani.
“Werewolves, Vampires, hags and fairies, all goin’ to the oracle,” said the goblin. “How’s about them two?”
“They stay behind to make sure we get out before the dawn,” said Body Guard.
“Say goodbye to ‘em then, because it’ll take leprechaun’s luck for you to get out again,” he said.
“Just row fairy,” said Eric.
“And so we wait,” said Barrister. He took the mirror out of his pocket. My face appeared in it on his end. “Hello love, they are on their way.”
“What was it like?” I asked.
“A lot of fairy bluffs. I think the ferry man was a goblin. His name is Goshdarnit,” he said.
“Well, that may be the name he is giving you, but that is not his real name,” I said. “Are you safe?”
“I think so,” he said.
“Set up the magical perimeter Aolani made for you,” I said.
“Okay,” he said.
Barrister and Linzy took the length of rope out and stretched it out and circled the van with it. It gave them a ten foot radius around the van.
“I am going to go in and cover the windows with foil in the van and put up the blackout curtain,” said Linzy. Barrister nodded and reached in the truck for his rifle and leaned against the van and lit a cigarette and watched the water fairies diving in and out of the water.
I sat back on the couch, the mirror on my lap. Renee laid her head on my shoulder. “Don’t worry love, they will be okay, Bill and Eric will get themselves and everyone else out okay.”
“I hope so,” she said.
“I’m going to make some coffee,” said Lina. Chris came over with her lap top and opened it and pulled up the program she was using as her journal.
“Tell me all about the mythology and your theory Aslinn, so I will have it as a record for Eric,” she said. Chris was doing what her Eric told her to do and she was keeping the faith that he would be okay. I sat up and began to talk.
The trip did not take long and they bumped onto the shore of the isle of Lough Derg. Aolani looked around and she spotted a fairy coming toward Eric.
“Don’t look at her, either of you,” she said quickly.
Eric turned away. “What is she?” he asked.
“The washer woman,” said Aolani. “A Beansidhe.”
“A Banshee?” said Bill.
“Bloody clothes of yours will I wash Viking,” she laughed. “Unless you can ask a friend to stand in your place.” Eric said nothing. “Do you have such a friend among your kind Night Walker?” she crooned. She tried to take his hand in her tiny one and rub her cheek on the back of it. He jerked his hand away. “It matters not Viking. I will cry at your wake.” She ran away laughing into the night.
“Don’t pay her mind Eric,” said Aolani. “It is just more fairy jibes.”
“I do not care for their sense of humor,” said Eric, taking Fairy’s hand and leading her toward the misty grey outline of the henge.
In England there are henges, great and small, but in Ireland, they are called dolmens, which resembled a series of standing stones and little house like structures. No one knows for sure what these places were for, any more than anyone really knew what the henges were for. Some people said they were places of sacrifice, though there was no real evidence anyone was killed there. Some said it was a burial place and that could be true, because there were bones found around the perimeter of some of the henges. Others thought it was a calendar. Some believed it was the work of UFOs and others the devil. Witches and modern pagans went there to celebrate the seasons and others considered it just a wonder of the old world surviving even now.
“How do we get to…where ever we are supposed to get to?” asked Fairy.
“Knock,” said Aolani. She walked over to the most prominent stone and knocked three times and waited.
Bill appeared in Barrister’s mirror.
“We are here, we are awaiting admittance,” he said.
“I’ll relay the message,” he said.
“They made it,” I said.
“Where are they?” asked Westexan.
“At the henge,” I said.
It took a moment before there was a sign that their knock had been answered. The ground seemed to be opening up and there was a glow. Suddenly a small and beautiful creature, a flora fairy, appeared as though floating upwards.
“Hello Viking, you and your friends are expected by the Oracle, please follow me,” she said serenely. Eric walked to her and he looked down to where she was pointing and saw a stair well. Fairy followed him closely. “Well done sister to have captured his heart and he not drain you dry.”
“I am only a small bit fae,” she said. They kept moving into the hole and made their descent into darkness.
As they moved deeper into the earth, they could all see the light coming up to them. Until then, Bill and Eric and Body Guard had been guiding them through the darkness, as they could see even when humans could not. It was not the bright riotous light of the Fairy Rade in Armagh, but it was a bright bluish green that seemed to hum with energy. They kept moving downward, ever deeper into the earth and the light became brighter.
“We are coming to the end of the stairs now,” said Eric. He stopped at the bottom and held his arm across the narrow opening until he could scan the place. The cavernous subterranean room was empty. The ceiling of the room seemed to be covered in random root systems of trees but closer inspection showed it to be a complex maze of Celtic knots that seemed to be slowly revolving. The light was coming from everything and the walls glistened as though covered in glitter. Fairy’s eyes imitated the Vampire’s as she took in everything about the room.
Around the walls, the roots seemed to frame blank places where the walls were smooth, as though plastered. Eric made a motion with his hand the rest of the party slowly descended into the chamber. Aolani pulled out her double sided mirror and appeared in my mirror and presumably Barrister’s and she said “Turn over your mirror and get a load of this.”
I turned over the mirror and everyone huddled around me. Pam was directly behind me and she leaned down over my head to look at the room. God Speed, Jen, Chris, Butter, Renee, Westexan and Bella and Lina were looking also. Jessica leaned over to look.
“What is that Aslinn?” she asked.
“I don’t know Jess,” I said. “It appears to be empty.”
“Look at that bit of light,” said Pam, pointing to the reflective surface of the mirror, now opaque with the scene. The light was growing and I could see Eric moving around the edge of the wall, Fairy behind him, and Bill close behind her.
“It looks as though the Oracle is making her grand entrance,” I said.
Eric’s eyes widened as the light grew. His fangs extended in response to whatever harm the light might offer. Bill’s did too. I do not know if it was because of the light or the lack thereof but the supernaturals in the room seemed to have glowing eyes. Scarlett had her hand on her hunting knife and the butt of her gun. Suddenly it seemed as though those weapons were mere toys in the face of the energy that was growing in their midst.
After some time, the glow began to take shape. The shape was female, but she was unlike any woman I had ever seen. She was terrible in her beauty and I felt the tension coming from Pam, she very nearly hummed with it. I looked up at her, but her eyes were on the mirror, her fangs extended and her eyes glowed too. I turned back.
She was naked and there was not a hair on her body, she didn’t even seem to have eyebrows. She was covered in flowers and Celtic knots that seemed tattooed on her small frame and tiny ogram runes marched over the curves of her body. The colors were not vibrant, but seemed to have gold and silver threaded through them. I was so entranced by her that it took a moment for me to realize she had the hind quarters of a goat, complete with cloven hooves.
“Is she the devil Aslinn?” asked Chris.
“No,” I said. “Lucifer was an angel. The cloven hooves and horns artists used to depict the devil were annexed by Christians from the old pagan ways of celebrating nature. I think she is a Glastig, one of the Vampire Fae, but she has been transformed in some wondrous, magikal way.”
“So that is good, she is one of us,” said Pam.
“I am not so sure,” I said. “She is fae, and would feel differently perhaps toward humans made Vampire.”
She seemed to regard the group. She looked at Fairy. She said something in a language I recognized as Gaelic, but it was so ancient I could not pick up on any of the words, though I understood it to be a question. Fairy shook her head to indicate she did not understand and the Oracle smiled.
“You do not speak Gaelic?” asked the Oracle in English.
“No,” said Fairy.
“Shame,” she said. “I was welcoming you home sister.”
“I won’t be staying,” said Fairy.
“Is he your protector?” asked the Oracle, looking at Eric. I rolled my eyes and looked at Raki who was grinning. I looked around. We could see the Oracle’s interest in the Viking.
“Can they…you know?” asked Jessica.
“Oh yeah, Fae love to have sex,” I said. “And this one would love to get a hold of the Viking.”
The Oracle did not seem to move at all except to sit in mid air and cross her goatish legs Indian style. I could see the cloven hooves seemed to be made of silver. Her sex was apparent and like the rest of her she was bald. Eric’s eyes went to the naked cleft.
“Oh Eric, snap out of it,” said Pam. But I noticed Pam’s gaze was not very different.
“What do you want of me Vampire?” she said, smiling, revealing her sharp teeth to the Viking.
“Niall says you have something to tell me about…myself,” he said hesitantly.
“Past, present and future. You were both great hero and heir apparent and grave disappointment,” she said. She clapped her hands softly and a large golden basin appeared. There were aromatic fumes coming up and she seemed to be breathing them in.
“Is that a Pensive?” asked God Speed.
“Very good God Speed,” I said. “No, not precisely, she is scrying; a form of gazing to see what Eric wants to know.”
“How does she know?” asked Raki.
“She doesn’t,” I said. “The images will tell her.” I looked at Chris. “Sweety, get ready to type what the Oracle tells Eric.” She got the computer and set it on the back of the couch and her fingers were poised on the keys, ready to type up what she said. God Speed quickly went to his bag and got his digital voice recorder and held to the mirror.
“Do you think it will work?” I asked.
“May as well find out,” said God Speed.
“You were the son of a chieftain, but you were wild and lazy in your youth,” began the Oracle. “You plowed with many man’s heifer and dared anyone to challenge your right to her because you were the chieftain’s son. You squandered your talents when you were not on the battle field and drank and danced and tarried. You could have been a great leader Viking, had you not let your manhood lead you around. Gift of the Gods the women whispered of you and you liked your fame in the bedroom more than your conquests on the battlefield. Foolish human boy you were.”
As the Oracle spoke, one of the plastered walls surrounded by the intaglio of roots curved into Celtic knots lit up and showed our Eric as he was in life, with human girls of all sizes and shapes. His lusts were considerable. Renee looked over at her daughter whose eyes were gazing at the scenes that flickered on the walls of the Oracle’s domain. “Chris!!!” she said and her daughter reluctantly dragged her eyes away from the visions of the Viking’s body dancing in that timeless rhythm of coupling.
“In battle however, you were vicious. Anyone who stood before you fell as the grain does before the reaper. You hacked and tore many a man and beast apart and took unto yourself slaves of many tribes and carried them away to work the land you would someday rule,” said the Oracle. In another panel the scenes of battle were being played. We had seen Eric insane with madness of battle but in these scenes, he was a Berserker. Covered in skins and leather he howled with a voice deep in his mortal chest and he roared like a bear and raised his blade high to butcher whatever stood before him. After the battle, covered in gore, he spent himself on a slave girl, ridding himself of the adrenalin racing through his body. I closed my eyes til I heard the Oracle speak again.
“And then you were married. Look now on your wife and children,” she said. They turned to the next wall and Eric watched stoically, as he had done all the other visions the Oracle had projected upon the wall. “Aude, your dead brother’s wife, was childless and your people dictated that she be taken into your father’s house and given to you as wife. It was a formal wedding of state but you liked her. See yourself in love Viking for the last time in your human life.”
Here we were treated to a beautiful spring wedding ceremony. He stood before a Viking priest who blessed them and ordered that they become one, as the stag and the doe and bring forth children. He blessed the marriage in the name of Freya, Odin’s wife and the goddess of love and sex and children. Then the two were led to a freshly built house and they were shut in.
Inside, he stood upon the stone floors he’d laid with his own hands, and his eyes wandered over the arched roof and the lime washed mud and wattle walls. There was a fire burning, the first fire of the hearth. The walls around the hearth were not yet stained black from cooking and the fire itself had been kindled from the black smith’s forge to invite the gods to bless the house and the people living inside it. She stood there before him, robust and blond as they had fed well that winter as the gods blessed them with a good hunt. She reached up and unpinned her robe from the broach he had given her as a bride gift and she untied a simple garment that was her dress and pulled it over her head. He stared at her in the fire light, the flames turning her golden and glistening on her upturned breasts and the soft blonde fuzz of her pubic hair. He ran his hands over her and claimed her as his. He bent and kissed her mouth as her hands reached to begin undressing him.
“Now, from that act, comes your first moment as father. Your first child is a daughter and though male children are always a gift to the couple, you lavished attention on the girl and loved her because she was a part of you. But there were more to come, sons and daughters yet, and the last son, born in a time of winter was the blood of your heart, Viking,” she said. “But for everything the gods bless you, they demand payment and with the last child, the hunt had not been as plentiful and there was sickness and though you and the other children lived, the last child and your wife were taken and you felt the rage, the old blood rage, and it made you mad.”
The next scene thrown up on the fae’s wall was most difficult to watch. He was pacing outside the birthing house where Aude had been taken when she went into labor. He could hear her screaming his name and he was kept away from the door by his kinsmen. Finally, there was a cry of a child and a midwife came out.
“Your child is born, Aude is burning with a fever. If she does not cool herself down, she will die and the child with her,” said the woman. I looked at Eric’s face and though it was hard to say, I thought I saw red tears on his face as he watched the scene.
“But in all of this, you knew not that your wife was not the only one in peril,” said the Oracle. “Hand to hand, son to son, a father’s sword is passed down, giving him the right to his own land and his own kingship in his house, this is true of every man. But from a chieftain to his son, there is more, for kings are made with the ownership of a sword.”
“Who’s sword was it?” asked Eric.
“You have the solution, the Answer was in your hands Vikings,” said the Oracle.
“Oh no,” I said. “I was right, Bill was right, it is the bloody sword.”
“Forged of Goblin gold and steel, the sword was taken from the dead hand of a fairy prince and now his people want it back,” she said.
“I cannot give it back to you,” said Eric. “I no longer have your sword.”
“Then tarry only a moment longer and look now as you begin your other existence,” said the Oracle.
“Like many a legend, there are many myths about your life and death. Some say you were made Vampire by a mincing Roman Aristocrat, but the truth is, you were made by a child of the Gauls, a child of the woods and the fields and he found you dying on your pyre and he took you and made you Vampire and you never went home.”
“Yes, I did,” said Eric. He turned to the Oracle. She had undergone a radical change. No longer was the beautiful female faun, now she was a wraith, and dark and terrible in her aspect. Her face had elongated and horns had sprouted from her forehead and curled around her face. Her teeth were more vampiric and her hands were claws. She filled the room, not with just her magikal presence but her physical presence as she grew ten times her size and stood over our friends.
“You came back to watch them all die,” she hissed. “And now you will join them and you have taken your friends down with you.”
Eric grimaced, his fangs glittering in the fae light and he hissed himself, readying himself for a battle he would not win.
“I don’t get it, why would Niall do this, why would he set this up if it would get Eric and all of them killed?” said Lina.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Aolani!!!” I shouted into the reverse of the mirror. “Get the hell out of there!!!”
Aolani could hear my voice and she raised her own.
“Why did Niall Brigant set up this meeting?” she asked the Oracle.
“He thinks he is still a prince of Faery and can barter with me but he lost his power when he went to live in the new world among the humans. Just as the Vampires have lost their power as they consort more and more with humans, so it is with the fae. Supernaturals should stick with their own, breed with their own, and keep to their own business. Viking, you and I have an old score to settle. When your people took my half brother’s sword, they took my family’s claim to our piece of Faery,” she crooned, reaching out to touch Eric. “And since you cannot produce the sword, you will give up your head.” She snapped her fingers and a great broad axe appeared in one hand and a mace in the other. “Kiss him good bye little sister, your dead man journeys to the land of darkness.”
We were glued to the little square mirror looking at the scene. “Get out of there!” was our collective chorus and we held out breaths.
“On your knees Viking,” said the wraith. She leaned down from the height. “Still selfish to the end, you brought your friends down to die with you.” She stared into Eric’s pale eyes, now so grey they were nearly white. She was using her fairy glamour and Eric’s unwilling knees bent and he went down to the ground, helpless before her.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Eric was on his knees, his arms at his side, his eyes open, his head back and looking at the fae above him. She smiled and brought back her arm holding the double headed axe and Eric closed his eyes.
“No!!!!” screamed Pam. We could not speak, everything around us was chaos but we were hypnotized by the scene Aolani was streaming to us from Faery. We knew we were about to see the thousand year old Vampire die.
Suddenly there was a blur and someone else was there. Eric was on the ground the figure that rose up in his place was Bill. His eyes were squinted as he thrust his arm forward. The screams were so loud the mirror I was holding shattered into a million pieces.
“Oh no, oh no, oh no!!!!” I said. “Oh God-Dammit Bill what have you done!”
Bill twisted the handle of the steel knife into the belly of the fae and she screamed. Eric lay on his back between Bill’s feet. He seemed to be hypnotized, like the rabbit before the cobra. Scarlett drew her pistol and fired at the fae who screamed as the soft lead and iron fillings went into her body and she screamed again. Each bullet did not obvious damage but it seemed to distract her. She struck out at Bill with the mace and he was able to dodge away but he lost his hold on the knife. Body Guard slid his hand behind him.
“Bill!” he yelled. Bill looked at him and Body Guard threw the knife and the Vampire caught it and stabbed again into the tattooed flesh of the wraith and her screams continued.
My phone rang and I answered it.
“Aslinn, did you lose the magik mirror on your end?” asked Barrister.
“Yes,” I said. “Jesus, I think Eric is dead.”
“Something big is going on because the earth is opening up on the island and there is light everywhere,” he said.
“Stay in the perimeter,” I said. “Don’t move.”
“The same goes for you my darling,” he said. “Stay in the house.”
No sooner had he said that and Pam was on her feet. She paced the house and went from window to window. Jessica tracked her.
“I think she is going to bolt,” said Jessica.
“Pam, we need you here, Eric said for you to stay,” I said.
“I cannot sit here and do nothing while Eric is dead, I must avenge him,” said Pam.
“You will be no good to Eric living or dead if you leave us, you have to do as he told you to do and stay here,” I said.
“We promise you, Eric will not go unavenged,” said God Speed.
Fairy reached out and gently took hold of Eric and dragged him away. She did it carefully so the spell would not be activated that would send them out of Faerie. It may be important for them to stay where they are to survive this. She cradled Eric’s head on her lap, his eyes like doll’s eyes, open and seeing nothing, the fire and animation and playful twinkle gone from them.
“Oh Eric, please wake up,” she said, leaning over him. “Please wake up, lover.”
Bill was still fighting the fae, tearing huge chunks out of her flesh. Body Guard stripped down and turned into a wolf and howled and leapt upon the fae and dragged her huge body down. Bill pulled one of the knives out and slashed at her throat. Aolani went to Fairy and grabbed her up though she struggled away from her to stay with Eric.
“Fairy, if you love him and you want to help him, you have to help me,” said Aolani.
“I can’t help you, I can’t do anything,” she said.
“You have to access your powers,” said Aolani. “They are there, and they are stronger than Sookie’s, you can do this.” Fairy watched Bill and Body Guard fighting with the fae. Scarlett had joined them. They were stabbing great holes in the fae and she was screaming.
“Is she dying?” asked Fairy.
“She is, but she is still powerful,” said Aolani. “I need you to help me.”
“How?” asked Fairy.
“We have to bind her with her own magik,” said Aolani.
A magikal binding is real. It doesn’t freeze the body but it freezes the mind. It confuses and confounds the person or thing it is aimed toward. The victim of a binding cannot build a clear thought, cannot see solutions in front of them and even the wisest of people become a paragon of indecision.
“Whatever you are going to do, do it fast,” said Scarlett. “This bull bitch will not lie down.”
Bill was fighting her as hard as he could but the mace fell upon his head and he went down. Scarlett screamed his name but he was beyond hearing it. He lay on the floor of the Oracle’s chamber.
“Bill!” said Jessica. She sat bolt upright.
“What?” asked Renee.
“Something is happening to Bill,” she said.
“Is he dead?” I asked.
“No, but he is hurt,” she said.
I called Barrister. “What’s happening on your end?”
“My God Aslinn, the island is sinking!!!!!” said Barrister.
“Can you see them?” I asked. “Are they coming out?”
“No, it is all lit up and the water is very turbulent around the shore,” said Barrister.
“Do not leave there until daylight comes,” I said.
Fairy was the first to notice the dripping coming from the roof of the chamber. She squinted as the water came down like rain.
“What is happening?” said Fairy.
“Time is up,” she said. “We have to do this. Repeat after me,” Aolani repeated the charm for Fairy and she encouraged her to say it with her. When Fairy had the charm down, the two raised their hands began to chant. The wraith screamed again as if in pain greater than that already inflicted on her.
“No!!!!! Sister, what are you doing?” she screamed at Fairy.
“I am not your fucking Sister!!!!!!!” she screamed back and resumed the chant. The chamber was filling with water and the chanting continued. Fairy stooped to try and pull Eric up.
“No Fairy, he doesn’t breathe, he won’t drown,” said Aolani. “Focus.” Fairy stood up again and she resumed the chant.
The fae began to shrink in size. The weaker she got, the less the glamour she used to expand her size worked. When she was of a smaller size, her wounds were more grievous and the blood flowed from her like a flood. The water around her was black from her ichor, and she began to stink.
“If you think this is the end, you are mistaken,” she said. “When I fall, a thousand will rise up. You tell this to Niall Brigant and his spiritless fae in the new world.” She smiled. “And I still killed your Vampires.”
“We’ll see about that,” said Scarlett and she raised her arms, knives in both of her hands and plunged them into her heart and Body Guard tore at the wound and in his mouth was the bitch’s still beating heart. He dropped it in the water and began to howl, an unearthly wail.
“Aslinn? Are you still there?” said Barrister on his phone.
“Yes,” I said. “Is the island gone?”
“No, it has stopped,” he said. “And I hear howling.”
“Sweet Jesus in heaven,” I prayed.
Body Guard turned into his human self. “We have to get out of here,” he said.
“Scarlett, “said Aolani. “Grab Body Guard. You will appear at the house. We will be right behind you. Tell them to get ready for casualties. Get all the Tru:Blood in the house warmed up and get ready to move them into the light tight rooms for their day rest. If they are alive, they may heal as they sleep.”
Scarlett grabbed Body Guard a little roughly and triggered the spell. There was a sudden bang as Scarlett and a naked Body Guard appeared in the yard. Jessica stood and with a Vampire speed was standing by Pam by the window.
“Who is it?” asked God Speed.
“It is Scarlett and Body Guard and they are alone,” said Pam. She raced out faster than we could see.
“They are right behind us, get ready. Bill and Eric are not in good shape,” said Body Guard. “Tru:Blood and get them into the light tight rooms. The sun is coming up soon.”
The water was still pouring down when Aolani looked at Fairy. “Yank really hard on him so you activate the spell,” she said. She bent over and put her hand in Bill’s hand. “Ready?” Fairy nodded, taking Eric’s hand in hers. “Let’s go.” They yanked hard on the Vampires and were gone as a wall of water came down the stair well and flooded the Oracle’s chamber.
They appeared just as we came out with blankets. Fairy was kneeling by Eric. Pam covered him and picked him up and carried the much larger man in her arms as though he was a sleeping child. The sun was coming and steam was rising from her body and his as they walked through the open door. Behind them, Body Guard had picked up Bill and slung the Vampire over his shoulder and carried him into the house. They came into the house behind Pam and followed them through the house to the light tight rooms. They laid them on the beds and Fairy hovered by Eric, helping to take the wet clothes off him.
“Chris, get out of the room,” said Renee.
“Mother,” she complained.
“Go and help Minnie and Vi get the blood,” said Renee, pushing her daughter out of the room. I was on the phone with Barrister.
“They are out,” I said. “Come back now.”
“Are they?” he said.
“I don’t know,” I said. “They are not flaking away, but I don’t know if they are alive.”
Renee and Bella were undressing Bill. I went to help them. He was dead weight, no pun intended, and I helped them lift each part of him and pull the wet smelly clothes off him. I looked at Rene. “Go check on the girls, make sure they aren’t wounded,” I said. She nodded and went to them. She looked into their eyes and asked them if they had any wounds. Jen was doing the same thing, noting a big bruise on Scarlett’s side and a black eye.
God Speed was helping lift Eric so the others could get his clothes off him.
“What the fuck is that stench?” asked God Speed.
“Fae blood,” said Fairy.
“You guys killed the Oracle?” he asked.
“Yeah,” said Scarlett. “We killed her. Bill saved Eric’s life, I guess.”
“What is wrong with Eric?” I said, as I helped Renee wipe down Bill’s body with a warm towel.
“He was glamoured,” said Aolani.
“I didn’t know Vampires could be glamoured by the fae,” I said.
“This was more than a fae,” said Aolani.
“Are we in danger?” asked God Speed. We all stopped and looked at each other.
“We may be,” said Aolani quietly. “Pam, what do we do if Bill and Eric die.”
“I could give a shit less about Bill Compton,” said Pam, wiping Eric’s hands with a dry towel.
“Wait a minute Pam, Bill may have saved Eric’s life, don’t you think Eric owes him a little?” asked Lina.
“Bill?” said Bella, smoothing back his wet hair. The wound on his head was healed and Bella and Vi had cleaned up the blood. He rolled his eyes around and shivered. They pulled the blankets up around him.
“You alright Bill?” said God Speed.
“How is Eric?” he asked looking at the Vampire in the bed next to him.
“He is still gone from us,” said Raki, tucking the blankets up around him.
“Here, drink some blood Bill,” said Jessica. He sat up and drank from the warm bottle. He looked at Jessica.
“The sun is up, you should be at your rest,” said Bill.
“I’m going,” she said. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“Go on now,” he said. Bill tilted the bottle and drank the blood down. He made a come on motion for another bottle and began to drink it.
“Bill,” I said. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I will be fine,” he said. “Why isn’t Eric awake?”
“I think he has been glamoured,” said Aolani. “Have you ever heard of a Vampire being glamoured?”
“No, but faeries are so intoxicating and we are around them so rarely,” he said.
“Are you saying he may have oded on that fae?” asked Body Guard.
“He may have,” said Bill. “He may need Vampire blood.”
“How much?” asked Minnie.
“More than Pam can give him. Perhaps she and I together can give him enough to bring him around,” he said.
“But he is unconscious, will he feed?” I asked.
“I do not know,” said Bill. “He may wake up on his own and then he can be fed.”
“Well, he isn’t flaking away,” said Barrister who came into the room, Linzy behind him.
“No, he doesn’t seem to be dying,” I said, looking at the Vampire. I got up and kissed Barrister.
We settled the Vampires in their daytime sleep. Fairy stayed with Eric, sitting up in a chair by the bed. Renee was doing the same for Bill. Beside them lay their children. Jessica looked like a sweet angel in her day rest, flat on her back, her head slightly to one side, her porcelain skin preserved in perfection.
Pam was lying curled facing Eric. She was a beauty, and could have passed for an enchanted princess from a fairy tale. I shivered. I would never look at fairies the same way. I finally left the room and went into the living room. Barrister was alone in the living room. I sat down beside him.
“Tired?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “I didn’t do anything. I frankly don’t know if I can cope with what I have seen.”
“What was it like?” I asked.
“It was horrible,” he said. “When the lights come up from the ground, I thought they were all dead. Linzy wouldn’t let me leave when our enchanted mirror broke. All I could think of was getting back here and getting you out of this.”
“I hope Sweden is calmer,” I said as I drifted into sleep.
Minnie was shaking me. I opened my eyes and looked up at her. I had snuggled down with my head in Barrister’s lap and he had stretched out his long legs and slumped down in the couch and gone to sleep.
“Are you awake?” she asked.
“Yeah, is it sundown yet?” I asked.
“About an hour away,” she said. I sat up and looked around. Vi was curled up in a chair asleep. Bella was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee with Scarlett and Body Guard. Westexan and Butter were cooking something tasty on the stove. Lina and Linzy were chatting with Raki as she made a salad. Chris was working on the computer, still doing her job for Eric.
“Has Eric changed any?” I asked.
“No, he is still…away,” said Minnie.
“Where is Aolani?” I asked.
“She is in there with Renee and Fairy,” said Minnie.
“And God Speed?” I asked.
“He is outside,” she said.
I got up and stretched and walked stiffly down the hall. I used the loo and washed my face and dried it and went out and went on down the hall to the light tight bedroom. I opened the door and stepped in. Bill and Jessica was still asleep. Pam was sitting up, watching Aolani looking at Eric. She gently flipped up his eyelids. His glassy eyes looked at her.
“He still hasn’t disappeared on us,” I said. I hated to refer to the way Vampires died. They either simply ruptured like a water balloon or they fried up and turned to dust or they flaked away. Eric was showing no signs of doing that, so I held out hope.
“Fairy,” I said. “Go get shower, hun.”
“I don’t want to leave him,” she said.
“He’ll be okay,” I said. “I’ll watch him.” She nodded and got up and moved like a sleepwalker to get her stuff together for a shower. I sat down in the chair she had occupied and looked at Eric.
I was not a good girl, but I was not a bad girl either. I believed in all things under heaven and earth and believed in the creator. Perhaps my perceptions did not jive with the orthodox church I belonged to but I still believed. I took Eric’s cold hand in my own. He had never believed in my God and perhaps he stopped believing in his gods as well. I wondered what God would say if I began to pray for a creature that was supposed to be a demon in everything we had ever known about them. I sat there and looked at him and I closed my eyes.
My heart composed a prayer that my lips could not. I prayed that Eric would be healed and would be safe. I prayed that if he was meant to go, God would forgive him and let him into paradise. I could see proud, arrogant Eric standing before the Supreme Maker of us all and God forgiving him. I felt hot tears running down my face. How could God punish him for being what he was? He could not help his nature. Had Eric died on his pyre, he would have already been forgiven, as I had been taught in my catechism that Christ went into the bowels of Hell to deliver the souls from hell. I squeezed his cold hand tighter and asked the Virgin to intercede, the saints to pray for him.
“Aslinn?” said Aolani. I raised my head. She was smiling at me. I looked over and Eric’s eyes were rolling around in his eyelids.
I stood up. I looked over at Bill who was sitting up on the edge of the bed. Jessica was awake and she looked over at the other bed. Pam sat up and looked down at her maker. He opened his eyes.
“I am alive,” said Eric softly.
We left the room while Bill and Pam fed Eric. He needed the Vampire blood to heal whatever trauma the fairy glamour had done to his …psyche? Energy? Electrolytes? I didn’t know and I didn’t care. I sat down to the spaghetti and meat balls Westexan and Butter had made and Barrister poured wine liberally. Jessica came out and leaned down and whispered to Vi and she nodded and went to the back bedroom. She did the same with Scarlett and she nodded and followed Vi. Bill and Pam must need human blood now. I was relieved. They were safe and sound and alive, well, technically and we would finish our adventures.
I helped with dishes with Jen and Aolani. Aolani filled in the gaps of the story and the finale. We had watched the news and there was a report that an island in Lough Derg was sinking for reasons unknown. We of course knew, but how do you explain to a bunch of geologists the island is sinking because two Vampires, a werewolf, a half fae, a witch and human went in and killed an ancient oracle. There was talk of going to rescue the henge and erecting it somewhere else. If they did that, would they move the Oracle’s chamber magikally? And what might rise up from it if they did. I shivered at the thought.
The Vampires made their appearance a few minutes later. They looked pink and healthy. Eric sat down at the table and Raki brought him a Tru:Blood. Though Eric was like most other Vampires and hated the blood, he drank it off and asked for another. Chris came over to him with her computer and sat down by him. He stroked her hair out of her face and she gave him a smile.
“Did I worry you dearest?” he asked. She nodded, not trusting her voice. “Well, I am fine now, don’t you worry.” She nodded. “Did you take care of the record of our adventures?” he asked. Again she nodded but this time tears came down her face. Eric leaned over and kissed the tears in their tracks and he could taste their saltiness.
“The digital recorder worked and I have made a transcript of the recording,” said GS.
“Make sure my Chris gets a copy of it GS,” said Eric. God Speed nodded. “Tell me Aslinn, were you praying for me when I woke?”
“Yes, Eric, I was praying for you,” I said.
“Did you pray for my soul?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” I said quietly.
“So you believe I have a soul?” he asked.
“Sure, I believe you have a soul,” I said. “If you had no soul, you would not die.” He looked past me, contemplating what I had said.
“So, since I can die, you think that is evidence of a soul?” he asked finally.
“Eric, I am what people call an armchair theologian. I don’t have a high degree nor do I have any clear answers. But yes, I think the fact you can die is proof of a soul. The soul is simply the spark of life, creating who you are and animating your body. If you were soulless, you would not move around and you definitely would not have that engaging personality,” I smiled at Eric.
“You are a philosopher,” said Eric.
“Nah, philosophers have the answer. I am a wanderer,” I said.
“All who wander are not lost,” said Aolani in passing.
“True,” I said. “So when do we leave for Sweden?”
“Tomorrow morning,” said Eric. “You will drive back to Armagh in the morning and catch a flight to Stockholm. Anubis Sweden will fly you and you will go to a very nice Vampire hotel and you will rest and eat and relax.”
“What are we doing tonight?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said. “I want to get with one of my wives, relax and be with my…friends.” Eric said the word as if he had never really heard it before.
“Sounds like an excellent plan, Eric,” I said.
The next evening, after the sun went down and the Vampires were up and we had our meals, we got ready to go to Offaly. The small house Eric had arranged had light tight rooms, but it was nowhere as comfortable as the Vampire Hotel we’d had in Armagh. It was not a long drive. The only things that worried me was getting caught out in the sun, but since we were in the country ostensibly, I imagined the Vampires would just go to ground and we would just sleep in the van Eric hired til sundown. I dressed in jeans and a sweater and clipped on my gun and my knife. Scarlett was dressed in her jeans. She had armed herself as well, including the handy blade Barrister had gotten her. Fairy looked excited. She had spent some time with Eric and you could see his fang marks on her neck and the Viking was pleasantly blushed from Fairy’s blood.
The others were upset about being left behind, none more so than Chris. She raged at Eric, cried, appealed to both Pam and Bill, argued with Jessica and cast an evil glare at her mother. Renee was happy her chick was not being in harm’s way. Then the other shoe dropped. Bill turned to Jessica.
“You are to stay here,” said Bill looking at his charge.
“Fuck that Bill,” she said.
“Jessica, as your maker, I can order you to stay here, but I would like to think you would listen to the wisdom of this and do as I ask you,” he said.
“I don’t know why you are so stubborn,” said Pam. “If Eric told me to stay I would without question.”
“Then you will not object to staying behind then, Pam,” said Eric, looking at his child.
“I would like to know why,” she said.
“I have to leave someone behind to take care of things at Fangtasia and execute my will,” said Eric. “And you can help protect the rest of our friends.”
“Very well,” she said.
“And Aslinn stays behind,” said Eric.
“No,” I said.
“Yes, you will,” said Eric. He put his hand on Barrister’s shoulder. “You will stay behind. Barrister will go with us, but he will stay with the van. Linzy will go in your place. Aslinn, you can access all the information, you can go to the magister if need be, you will know how to use the information we took from Markingham’s house.”
I sighed. I looked at Barrister and Bill. They nodded at me.
“Alright, but you bring my man, and my friends, and my Vampire back in one piece Viking or I will deliberately follow your soul to whatever Viking hell it goes to and tear your heart out,” I said.
“I promise,” said Eric. “Of course you know, Vikings don’t really believe in hell.”
“You are not funny Eric,” I said. “Barrister, you come back to me, you and Bill both.”
“We will,” he said. He kissed me and then Bill did the same. Barrister went on out and God Speed and Body Guard and Aolani and Scarlett and Linzy and Fairy followed them. Bill took a few moments to kiss and hug the other sister wives and presumably, Eric had already said his goodbyes as well. Aolani came back in. She handed me a mirror. It was double sided.
“I enchanted this mirror two ways. On one side you will see everything happening in the world of faery and on the other you will see me or Barrister. Of course you will still be able to contact Barrister by mundane means. This way you will not be totally in the dark,” she said. “I have enchanted this place against fae and strange Vampires, and the enchantment will hold til we get back or you leave.”
“Do you have a gun?” I asked.
“No,” she said. I reached behind me and gave her mine in its holster. “Give it back when you come back.”
“You bet,” said Aolani.
Lough Derg was a haunted place. The water was as smooth as a mill pond and the mist on the water made it look like the primordial soup. Aolani lit a candle in a lantern and hung it from a low hanging branch.
“How long will it take for the ferry man to come?” asked Barrister.
“It should not be long,” said Aolani. “Just keep looking toward the water. She stepped up to the edge but Bill pulled her back. She looked down. A skeletal green hand retreated back into the water. “Peg Prowler or Jenny Greenteeth I expect,” she said.
“Are those types of fae?” asked Eric.
“Water fae, very treacherous and cannibals,” said Aolani.
“Would they eat a Vampire?” asked Fairy.
“I think so,” said Aolani. “In light of what Jarrod told us about Vampires.”
“I didn’t think you were dead,” said Fairy, looking up at Eric.
“And what exactly told you I was not dead, dearest,” teased the Viking.
“Oh get a room,” said Scarlett, trying to look sober, though she was smiling.
“What is that?” said Bill, pointing toward the barely visible island. In the far off distance, there was a glimmer of light.
“It may be the ferry man,” said Linzy.
“Don’t forget; use the fairy dust to escape. Draw a circle and jump down in the center of it and you will reappear with the others. Fairy, Scarlett, grab Bill or Eric or Body Guard and they will disappear with you and reappear at our place,” Aolani reminded them. “Even if they are injured or dying or dead, grab them and go.” The witch swallowed at the thought of that and she sniffed back sudden emotion. Eric looked at her and approved of her bravery. He turned back to see a smallish currah, an Irish flat bottomed boat, and the driver of it.
The Goblin at the helm was a large, lumpy creature with a misshapen head and large blocky hands and feet. He had a squash shaped nose and a grimace mouth with grayish yellow stumpy teeth and red beady eyes. Lank colorless hair hung down out of a battered, shapeless hat. His clothes could have been bright at one time but now was a uniform grimy color. He held a pipe with rag weed tobacco sprinkled with garlic in one blocky hand.
“And so, I dinna know I was hauling a coople of deadersh wi’ me,” said the ferryman. “’Ad I knowed I would ‘ave tol’ Niall to haul them ‘is own bloody self,” said the goblin.
“You will carry us?” asked Bill.
“O’coursh I will,” said the goblin. “Goshdarnit is me name, and a promise I made to Niall, I di’ an’ I woon’t be backin’ out o’ it.” He held out a dirty hand. Eric looked at him with a look of disgust. “An’ so me hand is dirty but nothin’ cleans it like the shine of gold. In me hand dead man and we’ll be off to Lough Derg.” Eric handed him the gold piece and he slid into some slit that acted as a pocket. “Well, come on, no sense in leaving yer arse idle lessen you wants to find yourself here at dawn.” The goblin laughed heartily. Eric got in the boat and steadied himself, his long legs spread to the span of the currah and he turned and took Fairy’s hand and helped her on board.
“Ooooo a Kissin’ Coozin, c’mere darlin’ and I’ll show you a better time than that one with his auld cold cod,” he leered nastily.
“She is mine,” said Eric, drawing Fairy’s arms around his slender waist.
“Claim her all you want Vampire, but she was ours long before she bedded down with you,” said the goblin. “And if you ain’ careful, she may be once again.”
“Over your dusty dead body,” said Eric. The goblin laughed lustily. Bill boarded next and helped Scarlett in and Body Guard next and then Aolani.
“Werewolves, Vampires, hags and fairies, all goin’ to the oracle,” said the goblin. “How’s about them two?”
“They stay behind to make sure we get out before the dawn,” said Body Guard.
“Say goodbye to ‘em then, because it’ll take leprechaun’s luck for you to get out again,” he said.
“Just row fairy,” said Eric.
“And so we wait,” said Barrister. He took the mirror out of his pocket. My face appeared in it on his end. “Hello love, they are on their way.”
“What was it like?” I asked.
“A lot of fairy bluffs. I think the ferry man was a goblin. His name is Goshdarnit,” he said.
“Well, that may be the name he is giving you, but that is not his real name,” I said. “Are you safe?”
“I think so,” he said.
“Set up the magical perimeter Aolani made for you,” I said.
“Okay,” he said.
Barrister and Linzy took the length of rope out and stretched it out and circled the van with it. It gave them a ten foot radius around the van.
“I am going to go in and cover the windows with foil in the van and put up the blackout curtain,” said Linzy. Barrister nodded and reached in the truck for his rifle and leaned against the van and lit a cigarette and watched the water fairies diving in and out of the water.
I sat back on the couch, the mirror on my lap. Renee laid her head on my shoulder. “Don’t worry love, they will be okay, Bill and Eric will get themselves and everyone else out okay.”
“I hope so,” she said.
“I’m going to make some coffee,” said Lina. Chris came over with her lap top and opened it and pulled up the program she was using as her journal.
“Tell me all about the mythology and your theory Aslinn, so I will have it as a record for Eric,” she said. Chris was doing what her Eric told her to do and she was keeping the faith that he would be okay. I sat up and began to talk.
The trip did not take long and they bumped onto the shore of the isle of Lough Derg. Aolani looked around and she spotted a fairy coming toward Eric.
“Don’t look at her, either of you,” she said quickly.
Eric turned away. “What is she?” he asked.
“The washer woman,” said Aolani. “A Beansidhe.”
“A Banshee?” said Bill.
“Bloody clothes of yours will I wash Viking,” she laughed. “Unless you can ask a friend to stand in your place.” Eric said nothing. “Do you have such a friend among your kind Night Walker?” she crooned. She tried to take his hand in her tiny one and rub her cheek on the back of it. He jerked his hand away. “It matters not Viking. I will cry at your wake.” She ran away laughing into the night.
“Don’t pay her mind Eric,” said Aolani. “It is just more fairy jibes.”
“I do not care for their sense of humor,” said Eric, taking Fairy’s hand and leading her toward the misty grey outline of the henge.
In England there are henges, great and small, but in Ireland, they are called dolmens, which resembled a series of standing stones and little house like structures. No one knows for sure what these places were for, any more than anyone really knew what the henges were for. Some people said they were places of sacrifice, though there was no real evidence anyone was killed there. Some said it was a burial place and that could be true, because there were bones found around the perimeter of some of the henges. Others thought it was a calendar. Some believed it was the work of UFOs and others the devil. Witches and modern pagans went there to celebrate the seasons and others considered it just a wonder of the old world surviving even now.
“How do we get to…where ever we are supposed to get to?” asked Fairy.
“Knock,” said Aolani. She walked over to the most prominent stone and knocked three times and waited.
Bill appeared in Barrister’s mirror.
“We are here, we are awaiting admittance,” he said.
“I’ll relay the message,” he said.
“They made it,” I said.
“Where are they?” asked Westexan.
“At the henge,” I said.
It took a moment before there was a sign that their knock had been answered. The ground seemed to be opening up and there was a glow. Suddenly a small and beautiful creature, a flora fairy, appeared as though floating upwards.
“Hello Viking, you and your friends are expected by the Oracle, please follow me,” she said serenely. Eric walked to her and he looked down to where she was pointing and saw a stair well. Fairy followed him closely. “Well done sister to have captured his heart and he not drain you dry.”
“I am only a small bit fae,” she said. They kept moving into the hole and made their descent into darkness.
As they moved deeper into the earth, they could all see the light coming up to them. Until then, Bill and Eric and Body Guard had been guiding them through the darkness, as they could see even when humans could not. It was not the bright riotous light of the Fairy Rade in Armagh, but it was a bright bluish green that seemed to hum with energy. They kept moving downward, ever deeper into the earth and the light became brighter.
“We are coming to the end of the stairs now,” said Eric. He stopped at the bottom and held his arm across the narrow opening until he could scan the place. The cavernous subterranean room was empty. The ceiling of the room seemed to be covered in random root systems of trees but closer inspection showed it to be a complex maze of Celtic knots that seemed to be slowly revolving. The light was coming from everything and the walls glistened as though covered in glitter. Fairy’s eyes imitated the Vampire’s as she took in everything about the room.
Around the walls, the roots seemed to frame blank places where the walls were smooth, as though plastered. Eric made a motion with his hand the rest of the party slowly descended into the chamber. Aolani pulled out her double sided mirror and appeared in my mirror and presumably Barrister’s and she said “Turn over your mirror and get a load of this.”
I turned over the mirror and everyone huddled around me. Pam was directly behind me and she leaned down over my head to look at the room. God Speed, Jen, Chris, Butter, Renee, Westexan and Bella and Lina were looking also. Jessica leaned over to look.
“What is that Aslinn?” she asked.
“I don’t know Jess,” I said. “It appears to be empty.”
“Look at that bit of light,” said Pam, pointing to the reflective surface of the mirror, now opaque with the scene. The light was growing and I could see Eric moving around the edge of the wall, Fairy behind him, and Bill close behind her.
“It looks as though the Oracle is making her grand entrance,” I said.
Eric’s eyes widened as the light grew. His fangs extended in response to whatever harm the light might offer. Bill’s did too. I do not know if it was because of the light or the lack thereof but the supernaturals in the room seemed to have glowing eyes. Scarlett had her hand on her hunting knife and the butt of her gun. Suddenly it seemed as though those weapons were mere toys in the face of the energy that was growing in their midst.
After some time, the glow began to take shape. The shape was female, but she was unlike any woman I had ever seen. She was terrible in her beauty and I felt the tension coming from Pam, she very nearly hummed with it. I looked up at her, but her eyes were on the mirror, her fangs extended and her eyes glowed too. I turned back.
She was naked and there was not a hair on her body, she didn’t even seem to have eyebrows. She was covered in flowers and Celtic knots that seemed tattooed on her small frame and tiny ogram runes marched over the curves of her body. The colors were not vibrant, but seemed to have gold and silver threaded through them. I was so entranced by her that it took a moment for me to realize she had the hind quarters of a goat, complete with cloven hooves.
“Is she the devil Aslinn?” asked Chris.
“No,” I said. “Lucifer was an angel. The cloven hooves and horns artists used to depict the devil were annexed by Christians from the old pagan ways of celebrating nature. I think she is a Glastig, one of the Vampire Fae, but she has been transformed in some wondrous, magikal way.”
“So that is good, she is one of us,” said Pam.
“I am not so sure,” I said. “She is fae, and would feel differently perhaps toward humans made Vampire.”
She seemed to regard the group. She looked at Fairy. She said something in a language I recognized as Gaelic, but it was so ancient I could not pick up on any of the words, though I understood it to be a question. Fairy shook her head to indicate she did not understand and the Oracle smiled.
“You do not speak Gaelic?” asked the Oracle in English.
“No,” said Fairy.
“Shame,” she said. “I was welcoming you home sister.”
“I won’t be staying,” said Fairy.
“Is he your protector?” asked the Oracle, looking at Eric. I rolled my eyes and looked at Raki who was grinning. I looked around. We could see the Oracle’s interest in the Viking.
“Can they…you know?” asked Jessica.
“Oh yeah, Fae love to have sex,” I said. “And this one would love to get a hold of the Viking.”
The Oracle did not seem to move at all except to sit in mid air and cross her goatish legs Indian style. I could see the cloven hooves seemed to be made of silver. Her sex was apparent and like the rest of her she was bald. Eric’s eyes went to the naked cleft.
“Oh Eric, snap out of it,” said Pam. But I noticed Pam’s gaze was not very different.
“What do you want of me Vampire?” she said, smiling, revealing her sharp teeth to the Viking.
“Niall says you have something to tell me about…myself,” he said hesitantly.
“Past, present and future. You were both great hero and heir apparent and grave disappointment,” she said. She clapped her hands softly and a large golden basin appeared. There were aromatic fumes coming up and she seemed to be breathing them in.
“Is that a Pensive?” asked God Speed.
“Very good God Speed,” I said. “No, not precisely, she is scrying; a form of gazing to see what Eric wants to know.”
“How does she know?” asked Raki.
“She doesn’t,” I said. “The images will tell her.” I looked at Chris. “Sweety, get ready to type what the Oracle tells Eric.” She got the computer and set it on the back of the couch and her fingers were poised on the keys, ready to type up what she said. God Speed quickly went to his bag and got his digital voice recorder and held to the mirror.
“Do you think it will work?” I asked.
“May as well find out,” said God Speed.
“You were the son of a chieftain, but you were wild and lazy in your youth,” began the Oracle. “You plowed with many man’s heifer and dared anyone to challenge your right to her because you were the chieftain’s son. You squandered your talents when you were not on the battle field and drank and danced and tarried. You could have been a great leader Viking, had you not let your manhood lead you around. Gift of the Gods the women whispered of you and you liked your fame in the bedroom more than your conquests on the battlefield. Foolish human boy you were.”
As the Oracle spoke, one of the plastered walls surrounded by the intaglio of roots curved into Celtic knots lit up and showed our Eric as he was in life, with human girls of all sizes and shapes. His lusts were considerable. Renee looked over at her daughter whose eyes were gazing at the scenes that flickered on the walls of the Oracle’s domain. “Chris!!!” she said and her daughter reluctantly dragged her eyes away from the visions of the Viking’s body dancing in that timeless rhythm of coupling.
“In battle however, you were vicious. Anyone who stood before you fell as the grain does before the reaper. You hacked and tore many a man and beast apart and took unto yourself slaves of many tribes and carried them away to work the land you would someday rule,” said the Oracle. In another panel the scenes of battle were being played. We had seen Eric insane with madness of battle but in these scenes, he was a Berserker. Covered in skins and leather he howled with a voice deep in his mortal chest and he roared like a bear and raised his blade high to butcher whatever stood before him. After the battle, covered in gore, he spent himself on a slave girl, ridding himself of the adrenalin racing through his body. I closed my eyes til I heard the Oracle speak again.
“And then you were married. Look now on your wife and children,” she said. They turned to the next wall and Eric watched stoically, as he had done all the other visions the Oracle had projected upon the wall. “Aude, your dead brother’s wife, was childless and your people dictated that she be taken into your father’s house and given to you as wife. It was a formal wedding of state but you liked her. See yourself in love Viking for the last time in your human life.”
Here we were treated to a beautiful spring wedding ceremony. He stood before a Viking priest who blessed them and ordered that they become one, as the stag and the doe and bring forth children. He blessed the marriage in the name of Freya, Odin’s wife and the goddess of love and sex and children. Then the two were led to a freshly built house and they were shut in.
Inside, he stood upon the stone floors he’d laid with his own hands, and his eyes wandered over the arched roof and the lime washed mud and wattle walls. There was a fire burning, the first fire of the hearth. The walls around the hearth were not yet stained black from cooking and the fire itself had been kindled from the black smith’s forge to invite the gods to bless the house and the people living inside it. She stood there before him, robust and blond as they had fed well that winter as the gods blessed them with a good hunt. She reached up and unpinned her robe from the broach he had given her as a bride gift and she untied a simple garment that was her dress and pulled it over her head. He stared at her in the fire light, the flames turning her golden and glistening on her upturned breasts and the soft blonde fuzz of her pubic hair. He ran his hands over her and claimed her as his. He bent and kissed her mouth as her hands reached to begin undressing him.
“Now, from that act, comes your first moment as father. Your first child is a daughter and though male children are always a gift to the couple, you lavished attention on the girl and loved her because she was a part of you. But there were more to come, sons and daughters yet, and the last son, born in a time of winter was the blood of your heart, Viking,” she said. “But for everything the gods bless you, they demand payment and with the last child, the hunt had not been as plentiful and there was sickness and though you and the other children lived, the last child and your wife were taken and you felt the rage, the old blood rage, and it made you mad.”
The next scene thrown up on the fae’s wall was most difficult to watch. He was pacing outside the birthing house where Aude had been taken when she went into labor. He could hear her screaming his name and he was kept away from the door by his kinsmen. Finally, there was a cry of a child and a midwife came out.
“Your child is born, Aude is burning with a fever. If she does not cool herself down, she will die and the child with her,” said the woman. I looked at Eric’s face and though it was hard to say, I thought I saw red tears on his face as he watched the scene.
“But in all of this, you knew not that your wife was not the only one in peril,” said the Oracle. “Hand to hand, son to son, a father’s sword is passed down, giving him the right to his own land and his own kingship in his house, this is true of every man. But from a chieftain to his son, there is more, for kings are made with the ownership of a sword.”
“Who’s sword was it?” asked Eric.
“You have the solution, the Answer was in your hands Vikings,” said the Oracle.
“Oh no,” I said. “I was right, Bill was right, it is the bloody sword.”
“Forged of Goblin gold and steel, the sword was taken from the dead hand of a fairy prince and now his people want it back,” she said.
“I cannot give it back to you,” said Eric. “I no longer have your sword.”
“Then tarry only a moment longer and look now as you begin your other existence,” said the Oracle.
“Like many a legend, there are many myths about your life and death. Some say you were made Vampire by a mincing Roman Aristocrat, but the truth is, you were made by a child of the Gauls, a child of the woods and the fields and he found you dying on your pyre and he took you and made you Vampire and you never went home.”
“Yes, I did,” said Eric. He turned to the Oracle. She had undergone a radical change. No longer was the beautiful female faun, now she was a wraith, and dark and terrible in her aspect. Her face had elongated and horns had sprouted from her forehead and curled around her face. Her teeth were more vampiric and her hands were claws. She filled the room, not with just her magikal presence but her physical presence as she grew ten times her size and stood over our friends.
“You came back to watch them all die,” she hissed. “And now you will join them and you have taken your friends down with you.”
Eric grimaced, his fangs glittering in the fae light and he hissed himself, readying himself for a battle he would not win.
“I don’t get it, why would Niall do this, why would he set this up if it would get Eric and all of them killed?” said Lina.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Aolani!!!” I shouted into the reverse of the mirror. “Get the hell out of there!!!”
Aolani could hear my voice and she raised her own.
“Why did Niall Brigant set up this meeting?” she asked the Oracle.
“He thinks he is still a prince of Faery and can barter with me but he lost his power when he went to live in the new world among the humans. Just as the Vampires have lost their power as they consort more and more with humans, so it is with the fae. Supernaturals should stick with their own, breed with their own, and keep to their own business. Viking, you and I have an old score to settle. When your people took my half brother’s sword, they took my family’s claim to our piece of Faery,” she crooned, reaching out to touch Eric. “And since you cannot produce the sword, you will give up your head.” She snapped her fingers and a great broad axe appeared in one hand and a mace in the other. “Kiss him good bye little sister, your dead man journeys to the land of darkness.”
We were glued to the little square mirror looking at the scene. “Get out of there!” was our collective chorus and we held out breaths.
“On your knees Viking,” said the wraith. She leaned down from the height. “Still selfish to the end, you brought your friends down to die with you.” She stared into Eric’s pale eyes, now so grey they were nearly white. She was using her fairy glamour and Eric’s unwilling knees bent and he went down to the ground, helpless before her.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Eric was on his knees, his arms at his side, his eyes open, his head back and looking at the fae above him. She smiled and brought back her arm holding the double headed axe and Eric closed his eyes.
“No!!!!” screamed Pam. We could not speak, everything around us was chaos but we were hypnotized by the scene Aolani was streaming to us from Faery. We knew we were about to see the thousand year old Vampire die.
Suddenly there was a blur and someone else was there. Eric was on the ground the figure that rose up in his place was Bill. His eyes were squinted as he thrust his arm forward. The screams were so loud the mirror I was holding shattered into a million pieces.
“Oh no, oh no, oh no!!!!” I said. “Oh God-Dammit Bill what have you done!”
Bill twisted the handle of the steel knife into the belly of the fae and she screamed. Eric lay on his back between Bill’s feet. He seemed to be hypnotized, like the rabbit before the cobra. Scarlett drew her pistol and fired at the fae who screamed as the soft lead and iron fillings went into her body and she screamed again. Each bullet did not obvious damage but it seemed to distract her. She struck out at Bill with the mace and he was able to dodge away but he lost his hold on the knife. Body Guard slid his hand behind him.
“Bill!” he yelled. Bill looked at him and Body Guard threw the knife and the Vampire caught it and stabbed again into the tattooed flesh of the wraith and her screams continued.
My phone rang and I answered it.
“Aslinn, did you lose the magik mirror on your end?” asked Barrister.
“Yes,” I said. “Jesus, I think Eric is dead.”
“Something big is going on because the earth is opening up on the island and there is light everywhere,” he said.
“Stay in the perimeter,” I said. “Don’t move.”
“The same goes for you my darling,” he said. “Stay in the house.”
No sooner had he said that and Pam was on her feet. She paced the house and went from window to window. Jessica tracked her.
“I think she is going to bolt,” said Jessica.
“Pam, we need you here, Eric said for you to stay,” I said.
“I cannot sit here and do nothing while Eric is dead, I must avenge him,” said Pam.
“You will be no good to Eric living or dead if you leave us, you have to do as he told you to do and stay here,” I said.
“We promise you, Eric will not go unavenged,” said God Speed.
Fairy reached out and gently took hold of Eric and dragged him away. She did it carefully so the spell would not be activated that would send them out of Faerie. It may be important for them to stay where they are to survive this. She cradled Eric’s head on her lap, his eyes like doll’s eyes, open and seeing nothing, the fire and animation and playful twinkle gone from them.
“Oh Eric, please wake up,” she said, leaning over him. “Please wake up, lover.”
Bill was still fighting the fae, tearing huge chunks out of her flesh. Body Guard stripped down and turned into a wolf and howled and leapt upon the fae and dragged her huge body down. Bill pulled one of the knives out and slashed at her throat. Aolani went to Fairy and grabbed her up though she struggled away from her to stay with Eric.
“Fairy, if you love him and you want to help him, you have to help me,” said Aolani.
“I can’t help you, I can’t do anything,” she said.
“You have to access your powers,” said Aolani. “They are there, and they are stronger than Sookie’s, you can do this.” Fairy watched Bill and Body Guard fighting with the fae. Scarlett had joined them. They were stabbing great holes in the fae and she was screaming.
“Is she dying?” asked Fairy.
“She is, but she is still powerful,” said Aolani. “I need you to help me.”
“How?” asked Fairy.
“We have to bind her with her own magik,” said Aolani.
A magikal binding is real. It doesn’t freeze the body but it freezes the mind. It confuses and confounds the person or thing it is aimed toward. The victim of a binding cannot build a clear thought, cannot see solutions in front of them and even the wisest of people become a paragon of indecision.
“Whatever you are going to do, do it fast,” said Scarlett. “This bull bitch will not lie down.”
Bill was fighting her as hard as he could but the mace fell upon his head and he went down. Scarlett screamed his name but he was beyond hearing it. He lay on the floor of the Oracle’s chamber.
“Bill!” said Jessica. She sat bolt upright.
“What?” asked Renee.
“Something is happening to Bill,” she said.
“Is he dead?” I asked.
“No, but he is hurt,” she said.
I called Barrister. “What’s happening on your end?”
“My God Aslinn, the island is sinking!!!!!” said Barrister.
“Can you see them?” I asked. “Are they coming out?”
“No, it is all lit up and the water is very turbulent around the shore,” said Barrister.
“Do not leave there until daylight comes,” I said.
Fairy was the first to notice the dripping coming from the roof of the chamber. She squinted as the water came down like rain.
“What is happening?” said Fairy.
“Time is up,” she said. “We have to do this. Repeat after me,” Aolani repeated the charm for Fairy and she encouraged her to say it with her. When Fairy had the charm down, the two raised their hands began to chant. The wraith screamed again as if in pain greater than that already inflicted on her.
“No!!!!! Sister, what are you doing?” she screamed at Fairy.
“I am not your fucking Sister!!!!!!!” she screamed back and resumed the chant. The chamber was filling with water and the chanting continued. Fairy stooped to try and pull Eric up.
“No Fairy, he doesn’t breathe, he won’t drown,” said Aolani. “Focus.” Fairy stood up again and she resumed the chant.
The fae began to shrink in size. The weaker she got, the less the glamour she used to expand her size worked. When she was of a smaller size, her wounds were more grievous and the blood flowed from her like a flood. The water around her was black from her ichor, and she began to stink.
“If you think this is the end, you are mistaken,” she said. “When I fall, a thousand will rise up. You tell this to Niall Brigant and his spiritless fae in the new world.” She smiled. “And I still killed your Vampires.”
“We’ll see about that,” said Scarlett and she raised her arms, knives in both of her hands and plunged them into her heart and Body Guard tore at the wound and in his mouth was the bitch’s still beating heart. He dropped it in the water and began to howl, an unearthly wail.
“Aslinn? Are you still there?” said Barrister on his phone.
“Yes,” I said. “Is the island gone?”
“No, it has stopped,” he said. “And I hear howling.”
“Sweet Jesus in heaven,” I prayed.
Body Guard turned into his human self. “We have to get out of here,” he said.
“Scarlett, “said Aolani. “Grab Body Guard. You will appear at the house. We will be right behind you. Tell them to get ready for casualties. Get all the Tru:Blood in the house warmed up and get ready to move them into the light tight rooms for their day rest. If they are alive, they may heal as they sleep.”
Scarlett grabbed Body Guard a little roughly and triggered the spell. There was a sudden bang as Scarlett and a naked Body Guard appeared in the yard. Jessica stood and with a Vampire speed was standing by Pam by the window.
“Who is it?” asked God Speed.
“It is Scarlett and Body Guard and they are alone,” said Pam. She raced out faster than we could see.
“They are right behind us, get ready. Bill and Eric are not in good shape,” said Body Guard. “Tru:Blood and get them into the light tight rooms. The sun is coming up soon.”
The water was still pouring down when Aolani looked at Fairy. “Yank really hard on him so you activate the spell,” she said. She bent over and put her hand in Bill’s hand. “Ready?” Fairy nodded, taking Eric’s hand in hers. “Let’s go.” They yanked hard on the Vampires and were gone as a wall of water came down the stair well and flooded the Oracle’s chamber.
They appeared just as we came out with blankets. Fairy was kneeling by Eric. Pam covered him and picked him up and carried the much larger man in her arms as though he was a sleeping child. The sun was coming and steam was rising from her body and his as they walked through the open door. Behind them, Body Guard had picked up Bill and slung the Vampire over his shoulder and carried him into the house. They came into the house behind Pam and followed them through the house to the light tight rooms. They laid them on the beds and Fairy hovered by Eric, helping to take the wet clothes off him.
“Chris, get out of the room,” said Renee.
“Mother,” she complained.
“Go and help Minnie and Vi get the blood,” said Renee, pushing her daughter out of the room. I was on the phone with Barrister.
“They are out,” I said. “Come back now.”
“Are they?” he said.
“I don’t know,” I said. “They are not flaking away, but I don’t know if they are alive.”
Renee and Bella were undressing Bill. I went to help them. He was dead weight, no pun intended, and I helped them lift each part of him and pull the wet smelly clothes off him. I looked at Rene. “Go check on the girls, make sure they aren’t wounded,” I said. She nodded and went to them. She looked into their eyes and asked them if they had any wounds. Jen was doing the same thing, noting a big bruise on Scarlett’s side and a black eye.
God Speed was helping lift Eric so the others could get his clothes off him.
“What the fuck is that stench?” asked God Speed.
“Fae blood,” said Fairy.
“You guys killed the Oracle?” he asked.
“Yeah,” said Scarlett. “We killed her. Bill saved Eric’s life, I guess.”
“What is wrong with Eric?” I said, as I helped Renee wipe down Bill’s body with a warm towel.
“He was glamoured,” said Aolani.
“I didn’t know Vampires could be glamoured by the fae,” I said.
“This was more than a fae,” said Aolani.
“Are we in danger?” asked God Speed. We all stopped and looked at each other.
“We may be,” said Aolani quietly. “Pam, what do we do if Bill and Eric die.”
“I could give a shit less about Bill Compton,” said Pam, wiping Eric’s hands with a dry towel.
“Wait a minute Pam, Bill may have saved Eric’s life, don’t you think Eric owes him a little?” asked Lina.
“Bill?” said Bella, smoothing back his wet hair. The wound on his head was healed and Bella and Vi had cleaned up the blood. He rolled his eyes around and shivered. They pulled the blankets up around him.
“You alright Bill?” said God Speed.
“How is Eric?” he asked looking at the Vampire in the bed next to him.
“He is still gone from us,” said Raki, tucking the blankets up around him.
“Here, drink some blood Bill,” said Jessica. He sat up and drank from the warm bottle. He looked at Jessica.
“The sun is up, you should be at your rest,” said Bill.
“I’m going,” she said. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“Go on now,” he said. Bill tilted the bottle and drank the blood down. He made a come on motion for another bottle and began to drink it.
“Bill,” I said. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I will be fine,” he said. “Why isn’t Eric awake?”
“I think he has been glamoured,” said Aolani. “Have you ever heard of a Vampire being glamoured?”
“No, but faeries are so intoxicating and we are around them so rarely,” he said.
“Are you saying he may have oded on that fae?” asked Body Guard.
“He may have,” said Bill. “He may need Vampire blood.”
“How much?” asked Minnie.
“More than Pam can give him. Perhaps she and I together can give him enough to bring him around,” he said.
“But he is unconscious, will he feed?” I asked.
“I do not know,” said Bill. “He may wake up on his own and then he can be fed.”
“Well, he isn’t flaking away,” said Barrister who came into the room, Linzy behind him.
“No, he doesn’t seem to be dying,” I said, looking at the Vampire. I got up and kissed Barrister.
We settled the Vampires in their daytime sleep. Fairy stayed with Eric, sitting up in a chair by the bed. Renee was doing the same for Bill. Beside them lay their children. Jessica looked like a sweet angel in her day rest, flat on her back, her head slightly to one side, her porcelain skin preserved in perfection.
Pam was lying curled facing Eric. She was a beauty, and could have passed for an enchanted princess from a fairy tale. I shivered. I would never look at fairies the same way. I finally left the room and went into the living room. Barrister was alone in the living room. I sat down beside him.
“Tired?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “I didn’t do anything. I frankly don’t know if I can cope with what I have seen.”
“What was it like?” I asked.
“It was horrible,” he said. “When the lights come up from the ground, I thought they were all dead. Linzy wouldn’t let me leave when our enchanted mirror broke. All I could think of was getting back here and getting you out of this.”
“I hope Sweden is calmer,” I said as I drifted into sleep.
Minnie was shaking me. I opened my eyes and looked up at her. I had snuggled down with my head in Barrister’s lap and he had stretched out his long legs and slumped down in the couch and gone to sleep.
“Are you awake?” she asked.
“Yeah, is it sundown yet?” I asked.
“About an hour away,” she said. I sat up and looked around. Vi was curled up in a chair asleep. Bella was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee with Scarlett and Body Guard. Westexan and Butter were cooking something tasty on the stove. Lina and Linzy were chatting with Raki as she made a salad. Chris was working on the computer, still doing her job for Eric.
“Has Eric changed any?” I asked.
“No, he is still…away,” said Minnie.
“Where is Aolani?” I asked.
“She is in there with Renee and Fairy,” said Minnie.
“And God Speed?” I asked.
“He is outside,” she said.
I got up and stretched and walked stiffly down the hall. I used the loo and washed my face and dried it and went out and went on down the hall to the light tight bedroom. I opened the door and stepped in. Bill and Jessica was still asleep. Pam was sitting up, watching Aolani looking at Eric. She gently flipped up his eyelids. His glassy eyes looked at her.
“He still hasn’t disappeared on us,” I said. I hated to refer to the way Vampires died. They either simply ruptured like a water balloon or they fried up and turned to dust or they flaked away. Eric was showing no signs of doing that, so I held out hope.
“Fairy,” I said. “Go get shower, hun.”
“I don’t want to leave him,” she said.
“He’ll be okay,” I said. “I’ll watch him.” She nodded and got up and moved like a sleepwalker to get her stuff together for a shower. I sat down in the chair she had occupied and looked at Eric.
I was not a good girl, but I was not a bad girl either. I believed in all things under heaven and earth and believed in the creator. Perhaps my perceptions did not jive with the orthodox church I belonged to but I still believed. I took Eric’s cold hand in my own. He had never believed in my God and perhaps he stopped believing in his gods as well. I wondered what God would say if I began to pray for a creature that was supposed to be a demon in everything we had ever known about them. I sat there and looked at him and I closed my eyes.
My heart composed a prayer that my lips could not. I prayed that Eric would be healed and would be safe. I prayed that if he was meant to go, God would forgive him and let him into paradise. I could see proud, arrogant Eric standing before the Supreme Maker of us all and God forgiving him. I felt hot tears running down my face. How could God punish him for being what he was? He could not help his nature. Had Eric died on his pyre, he would have already been forgiven, as I had been taught in my catechism that Christ went into the bowels of Hell to deliver the souls from hell. I squeezed his cold hand tighter and asked the Virgin to intercede, the saints to pray for him.
“Aslinn?” said Aolani. I raised my head. She was smiling at me. I looked over and Eric’s eyes were rolling around in his eyelids.
I stood up. I looked over at Bill who was sitting up on the edge of the bed. Jessica was awake and she looked over at the other bed. Pam sat up and looked down at her maker. He opened his eyes.
“I am alive,” said Eric softly.
We left the room while Bill and Pam fed Eric. He needed the Vampire blood to heal whatever trauma the fairy glamour had done to his …psyche? Energy? Electrolytes? I didn’t know and I didn’t care. I sat down to the spaghetti and meat balls Westexan and Butter had made and Barrister poured wine liberally. Jessica came out and leaned down and whispered to Vi and she nodded and went to the back bedroom. She did the same with Scarlett and she nodded and followed Vi. Bill and Pam must need human blood now. I was relieved. They were safe and sound and alive, well, technically and we would finish our adventures.
I helped with dishes with Jen and Aolani. Aolani filled in the gaps of the story and the finale. We had watched the news and there was a report that an island in Lough Derg was sinking for reasons unknown. We of course knew, but how do you explain to a bunch of geologists the island is sinking because two Vampires, a werewolf, a half fae, a witch and human went in and killed an ancient oracle. There was talk of going to rescue the henge and erecting it somewhere else. If they did that, would they move the Oracle’s chamber magikally? And what might rise up from it if they did. I shivered at the thought.
The Vampires made their appearance a few minutes later. They looked pink and healthy. Eric sat down at the table and Raki brought him a Tru:Blood. Though Eric was like most other Vampires and hated the blood, he drank it off and asked for another. Chris came over to him with her computer and sat down by him. He stroked her hair out of her face and she gave him a smile.
“Did I worry you dearest?” he asked. She nodded, not trusting her voice. “Well, I am fine now, don’t you worry.” She nodded. “Did you take care of the record of our adventures?” he asked. Again she nodded but this time tears came down her face. Eric leaned over and kissed the tears in their tracks and he could taste their saltiness.
“The digital recorder worked and I have made a transcript of the recording,” said GS.
“Make sure my Chris gets a copy of it GS,” said Eric. God Speed nodded. “Tell me Aslinn, were you praying for me when I woke?”
“Yes, Eric, I was praying for you,” I said.
“Did you pray for my soul?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” I said quietly.
“So you believe I have a soul?” he asked.
“Sure, I believe you have a soul,” I said. “If you had no soul, you would not die.” He looked past me, contemplating what I had said.
“So, since I can die, you think that is evidence of a soul?” he asked finally.
“Eric, I am what people call an armchair theologian. I don’t have a high degree nor do I have any clear answers. But yes, I think the fact you can die is proof of a soul. The soul is simply the spark of life, creating who you are and animating your body. If you were soulless, you would not move around and you definitely would not have that engaging personality,” I smiled at Eric.
“You are a philosopher,” said Eric.
“Nah, philosophers have the answer. I am a wanderer,” I said.
“All who wander are not lost,” said Aolani in passing.
“True,” I said. “So when do we leave for Sweden?”
“Tomorrow morning,” said Eric. “You will drive back to Armagh in the morning and catch a flight to Stockholm. Anubis Sweden will fly you and you will go to a very nice Vampire hotel and you will rest and eat and relax.”
“What are we doing tonight?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said. “I want to get with one of my wives, relax and be with my…friends.” Eric said the word as if he had never really heard it before.
“Sounds like an excellent plan, Eric,” I said.
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