Quo Veritas?

Tuesday August 24, 2010

Oh What Rash and Bloody deed is This? Hamlet act III scene IV

I waited impatiently in Fangtasia for the sun to go down. Ginger and another human waitress were cleaning up the bar, getting ready to open. They gave me side long looks and worried expressions but said very little. I sipped the wine in my glass, the expensive Bordeaux that Eric stocked for special human customers. I lit another Turkish cigarette, from the provider of the wine and smoked meditatively. I was on a mission. A mission for the truth.

I understood many things. I understood hatred, I understood revenge and God knows, as often as I have read and seen The Godfather, my personal I Ching, I certainly understood vendetta. I wanted answers. I knew the telepath was underneath me, in the basement, where he had held Lafayette and power shagged the disappointed Yvetta. The aforementioned dancer and temporary plaything of the Big Viking was clearing away her g strings and other paraphernalia…just how many g strings did this girl have? I stopped her.

“What do you want?” she asked in her heavily accented voice.
“Just a look in your boxes,” I said.
“Fuck you,” she said.
“If you steal from Vampires, especially this Vampire, you are dead, now, turn out what doesn’t belong to you and I will be happy to return it, without a word to the proprietor,” I said. She sullenly emptied pictures she had taken of various Vampires, a disc I suspected that would go for big bucks on the fangbanger black market….they could not get enough of watching Vampires screw…and a few things I knew came out of the bar. “Stupid woman.”
“What do you know about it?” she asked.
“I know enough that if I tell Eric you are filming him giving you one of his power shags, he will have you drunk dry faster than an Irishman over a pint of Guinness,” I answered her, piling the contraband on the bar. “Now get the hell out before I get mad at you.” She didn’t waste time. She was gone in moment.

Ginger, in a fit of admiration or just dumb loyalty to the Viking poured me another expensive 20 dollar glass of wine. I thanked her and lit another cigarette. I looked at my watch. It was nearly sundown.

Eric arrived about an hour after sundown. He saw me and chose to ignore me. He went in his office. Obviously he had never heard about me…my late husband often said that if I fell in the river, I was so stubborn I would float upstream. I sat there patiently. Finally he came out.

“Aslinn, as charming as you are, I haven’t the time to spare you,” he said.
“Well, make time for me Eric, and I will leave you be, at least til tomorrow night,” I said.
“Have you been downstairs?” he asked.
“No,” I said. “I know who you have down there.”
“So, you aren’t going to save her?” asked Eric.
“You know what Eric, I am confused…do you like Sookie or are you going to fuck her over?” I asked.
“Fuck her over…that is so elegant Aslinn,” said Eric, fingering the bits and pieces on the bar.
“Well, no one could accuse me of being elegant,” I said.
“Do you care?” said Eric.
“I do, but not because of you, and not really because of her,” I said.
“Bill? Because of Bill? I thought you and Renee and the other wives would be happy,” he said. “What is this stuff anyway?”
“I took it off the Estonian hell cat you jilted,” I said. “Do you know how much a sex tape with you is worth?”
“Worried about my reppy?” he asked.
“No, but I figured if anyone should make money from it, you should,” I said.
“Thank you,” he said, unconcerned. “So, let me have it, say what you came to say and then take off.”
“Okay, here is my beef, and you take it or leave it. What the fuck is the deal with Pam? Why be mean to her…why keep her in the dark?” I asked, looking the Vampire in the eyes.
“You care about Pam?” he asked.
“Hello? Yes, I love her, she is one of us, she loves you and you are treating her like an Estonian stripper,” I said. “Pretty shabby Eric.”
“The less she knows, the better she will be,” said Eric.
“That’s bull shit, didn’t you listen to her? She loves you, as much as you loved Godric,” I said. “You freed her from her miserable human life and you made her Vampire. Don’t you care anything for her?”
“Of course I care,” he said, looking away from me.
“Then show it, tell her what’s up.”
“Aslinn, I may meet the true death, be definitely dead, don’t you care about that?” he asked. He took the Tru:Blood Ginger had drawn from the tap and sipped it at first and then gulped it down.
“You told me to trust you, I trust that you are going to do whatever you can do to survive,” I said. “But shutting out Pam, this is not the way to do it. Nor is draining the telepath.”
“Aslinn, you don’t have it in you to hate so much that you would do anything to get revenge, you don’t have the stomach for it,” said Eric.
“You don’t know me very well,” I said. “There is a person but he has already met the true death.” I was using word he understood. I would not accept his ‘don’t words I don’t understand’ bull shit.“Are you ever going to be honest with Pam?”
“Like Bill is to Sookie?” he asked.
“Someday, perhaps sooner than I like, the truth will come out. I will not uphold Bill in anything, but that is different from what you are doing. This is Pam, your child, your blood, and this is all about the blood right?" I said tersely.
“Do not get in the way Aslinn,” he said.

I got up and grabbed my bag and made for the door. “You know, I thought I could talk to you, but you are too blind to see the truth…I should have followed my instincts and not trusted you. You treat your child this way, and I expect better from you but you have failed.”
I made my way to the door but Eric beat me to it. “Failed? I have failed?”
“Yeah, the one person who has your blood, who could help you, who could be better served by your honesty, who could help you make a plan and you don’t even have the honor to respect her with the truth of your plan,” I said.

He pulled me up to him, his fangs out.

"Tell the truth, and help Pam, whatever happens, well, it happens…” I said.
“And Sookie?” he said.
“Eric, doesn’t it ever occur to you that she would help you without the bull shit? If she knew that whatever plan you have for Russell would end with his death, she would help you with whatever it is?” I asked. “All of you, so fucking dishonest.”
Eric let go of me. I reached behind my back for the door knob. “Think it over Eric. If anything is real in this life, even in your life, honesty is the best policy.”
“Keep that in mind, Aslinn,” said Eric.
“Don’t worry about me. I know the truth, even the motives behind untruths, even if no one else does,” I said.
“Why do you say these things?” he asked.
“Because…I like you Eric….Why, I don’t know why, but I do, and I want you to do what is right,” I said.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The Day’s as Dark as the Night is Long- Acrobat- U2

Fairy was making homemade spaghetti sauce and I was sitting at the computer, working on the database for Bill. I could smell the basil and oregano and garlic and onions and peppers she had cooked to add to the sauce. I told no one about the visit I had with Eric. I was rough with him, I know, but he had to know what I was thinking. I could care less about Sookie. I didn’t want her to be hurt, but I thought of it only in terms of Bill. I did not want her physically hurt, because in so many ways she was us, but I did not care enough about her to spring her from Eric’s jail. She would have to get through whatever she had to experience.

I was concerned right now with Lafayette, for whom I had a real soft spot. I had traveled a rocky spiritual path myself. I went to one church after another, always being disappointed, no creed being complete in my mind until I found the Craft and rediscovered the age of miracles and embraced it as my own. For all life is magik, as Bill had said, and we all run on it…whether you call it a soul or energy or magik, it made little difference to me. And he would have a long journey and I wondered how far it would take him and whether or not he would understand the truth.
And truth I suspected was the theme of the discussion of the group tonight. Quo Veritas? What is truth? I did not know the truth…at least as how it pertained to Vampires. How it pertained to humans was another thing altogether and we had seen many truths.

I can’t tell you how disturbed I was to see to the cross burning in Bill’s yard as the two Vampires stood and watched it burn. How often had I gone under the train trestle in my hometown with the words “No N*ggers” spray painted on it and I hated it. Bigotry made me mad. Even the craziest members of my family, one who would find her way out of the nut house today would shiver at the sight of a swastika.

And for that I loved Eric Northman, the way I loved the freedom riders and Martin Luther King and Rob Roy and William Wallace and Bobby Sands and Gerry Adams and anyone who fought against those who would embrace bigotry and hate. Quo Veritas, indeed. Maybe I was like Sookie, half way to Vampire.

But , I also knew that the truth could hurt. Jason was hurting because he told Tara the truth. Bill would suffer because he had never told the truth except he loved Sookie, and after the lies, how could she trust him…I don’t think I would. Eric had never told the truth to a human, but that concerned me less than the truth he was concealing to his progeny. Jessica was telling the truth and she was doing her best to understand her nature versus what she had been. Lafayette? My brother in the Craft though he may not know it or realize it, what of him? Would he be brave enough to know the truth? Terry? What would he do? Does he understand Arlene’s hesitation? Does Jason really understand what he saw when the black cat, bone, skin, and blood revealed itself? Black magik, fairy magik, magik of the soul, would it save the ones who loved us and the ones we loved? That light that fills the world…God help me, the day was as dark as a Vampire’s dawn.

As we all gathered, one by one in the parlor, we ate the wonderful spaghetti and drank a lot of wine and chatted about what we had seen. Our adventure was almost done and we were on our way to another adventure. Raki checked the new Tru:Blood tap. She adjusted the temperature on what I could only call the speed heating feature. The tap would be ice cold but as it traveled the speed heater is was warmed to a toasty 98.6 degrees.

"Does it work Raki?" asked God Speed, looking at the tap.
"When we get a couple of Vampires in here, we will soon know," she said.
"Does foam like a Guinness?" I asked.
"A little," she said.

Bill and Jessica were the first to come in. I was stacking dishes in the dishwasher with Lina and Renee and he came over and kissed me on the cheek and kissed Renee. Raki grabbed a pint glass and drew Bill a half pint.
"Taste it Bill and tell me what you think?" she asked. The Vampire lifted the glass in a salute and tasted it. "Is it warm enough? Is there enough oxygen in the tank?"
"It tastes good," said Bill. He handed her the glass and Raki filled it up all the way. Jessica was in line and she watched Raki draw her a taste and she tasted it and handed it back for more.
"That is soooo much better than the bottled stuff," she said, taking the glass and sitting down at the bar to drink it. Scarlett came by and hugged her and grabbed the dish rag to wipe down the dining room table.
Pam come in next. Raki went through the same operation as before and she approved it. "I couldn't have a steady diet of it, but it works," Poor Pam. She looked like a Vampire with the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Eric came in next and Raki gave him a pint. He sipped it and nodded, giving her a wink. "That is better," said the Sheriff.
"Did you all get the tap installed in Fangtasia?" asked Raki. They were both bar owners and they had that in common.
"Yes," he said. "We have had some new Vampires in asking for it so they will be happy we got it installed." Vampires were required to show themselves at Fangtasia ever so often so the humans will get to see them in their natural habitat. If Eric was displeased by having to put himself on display like a lion in a zoo, he never complained. I guess he wouldn't it was his pint of blood after all.

We all began to settle in for the meeting. There was so much to talk about. There was tension between Bill and Eric, but really, when wasn't there? Pam composed herself to begin the meeting. Again I could see the strain on her face.

"What do you think?" she asked.

"What was it like in Fairy?" asked the Fairy of our group.
"It was amazing. It is like our world but very different. It was amazing for me to be in the light as I talked to Claudine," said Bill.
"Did Vampires really nearly kill off the Fae?" asked Lina.
"That is what I have always heard," said Bill.
"I am not so sure that is the truth," I said. "The Fae have their own Vampiric fairies and they are constantly at war with one another and they don't breed well."
"Do you think Adele was raped?" asked Westexan.
"It could have happened. Rape is not beyond the scope of the Fae," I said. "See, we are all used to the fairy tales we see in Walt Disney. They really are not like that at all."
"Why are they so tasty to Vampires?" asked Body Guard.
"I have no idea, but I don't understand why we are so tasty to Vampires, either, except that Vampires crave what they no longer have," I said.
"Vampires have blood," observed Jen.
"They do, but they don't have the life that is in the blood," I said.

"So, Eric, what is your plan with Sookie?" asked Renee.
"I don't know yet, but she is valuable," said Eric.
"It was really unnecessary to chain her up," said Violet. "If you explained things to her, she would help you, it's in her nature to help people."
"She needs to be somewhere safe. She left the protection of her brother's house to come to Fangtasia. She is a lovely, stubborn, impulsive thing, like some of you," he said.

"Bill, we have to give you credit where credit is due. You certainly came to Jessica's aid when she woke to find that cross burning in the yard," said Barrister. "But after the work we put in on the house and to have spray paint on it burns my ass."
"It will come off," I said. I have some Kilz for spray paint," I said quietly. "I worry about Lafayette and Hey Soos, what is going on there?"

"It is very dangerous to dream walk with no guardian and under something as unstable as V," said Aolani.
"I thought Shamans use drugs to alter their senses to dream walk," said God Speed.
"They do, but as part of a whole ritual, with the safety of the Shaman. That is very reckless for them to do," said Aolani.
"Is that what I did?" asked Bill. "Lafayette and Hey Soos dream walked with V, and I was filled with Sookie's blood."
"It very well may have opened a door for you that would otherwise be locked against you because of your being Vampire. It may have been the reason Vampires sought to have Fae blood to begin with, so they could go into the other world and even be in the light," said Aolani. "Is that why you want Sookie Eric? To be able to go in the light? You understand that the light of the human world is far different than the light of the world of Fae." Eric said nothing but that silence seemed to suggest what was on his mind. Perhaps he was going to use it so he could hunt for Russell in the day? Perhaps entice him with the notion that the blood can make him able to go out in the day and scare the shit out of humans that just when they thought they were safe from Vampires in the day, who should pop up but the noonday devil.

"Jason is miserable, so so sad and it seems that for each time he tries to be good, he ends up getting his ass kicked," said Jen.
"And Tara too," said Sugar. "She turned to Franklin in her anger and he turned into a monster."
"I still don't trust Crystal," said Butter. "That girl is crazy."
"She is, and her loyalties are all over the place," said Sweet and Wild.
"So now Jason knows she is a panther," said Scarlett. "Wonder what he will say about that."
"I think he said it all, oh momma," I said. "That was a pretty slick way of handling Russell in the PR...But I think we need to hush that Reverend Newlin up. I hate people like that."
"He will get his, they always do," said Eric.

So much to think about, so little left....