Wednesday August 18

Tuesday Evening

Pam was the last person I expected to see in the parlor when I went in, my arms loaded down with books and papers and note cards that made up the collection of things I was working on for the forum. I figured I was going to be able to get in a little computer time. It was a cool and cloudy evening and the rain was soft and intermittent. I was looking forward to it. But my quiet was not to be had.

Pam was sitting on the couch. The first thing I noticed about the Vampire is that her impeccable clothes were wrinkled and her hair, long, lovely and blond was hanging limply on her shoulders. She looked tired and very pale, which is really something to say about a Vampire. I sat my stuff in the computer chair and laid my big bag of crazy on top of it and went over to the couch.

“Pam honey, you alright?” I asked.

“Men are so stubborn,” she said.

“I could not agree with you more,” I said. “Any man in particular being bull headed?” I knew damned good and well it was Eric Northman, the Viking Vampire Sheriff of Area Five. Eric was a very single minded individual and he was known to be ruthless when pursuing whatever he had his sights on, whether it be a crown or a woman or an enemy. On the other hand, he could be tender too, and I suspect this was also affecting Pam.

“Don’t be coy Aslinn, you know who I am referring to,” she said, her voice always sharp and succinct and correct.

“Yeah,” I said. “I do. But no matter what, Vampire, Werewolf, Shifter, Witch, Fairy, all the men of any species are stubborn. It’s not a characteristic exclusive to Eric. They come complete with it when they get their testicles.” My bluntness made the Vampire laugh.

“Women are so much more reasonable,” said Pam. She sat up a little straighter and smoothed the skirt she was wearing in vain. It was wrinkled for the evening.

“Want a Tru:Blood?” I asked. “I was about to pour a glass of wine.”

“Sure,” she said.

I went to the fridge and got Pam a bottle of A- and I grabbed a glass and the bottle of burgundy already opened in the fridge and poured the glass. When the microwave went off, I reached in and got the bottle and gave it a shake and went back over to Pam. She accepted it without a word and took a sip.

“So, is the AVL and the Authority going to help Eric now?” I asked.

“Eric needs to help Eric now,” she said under her breath. “You know, I think that for the first time in a long time I am actually afraid for Eric.”

“I am too,” I said. “But I worry about everyone.”

“He never told me how his human family died,” said Pam. “Why didn’t he?”

“For exactly what he said to you. That is some pretty emotional stuff Pam, seeing you family ripped apart. Maybe he didn’t want to get emotional in front of you and appear weak in your eyes. He has a lot of love and respect for you. Those things are not always mutually exclusive,” I said. “I don’t know how that Vampire Maker/ Child thing is supposed to be, what the perimeters are, the rules and nuances are. But they seem pretty complex and I for one find it interesting.”

“So it was just to be ‘strong’,” she asked.

“Hey, Eric is a man, never forget that Pam, he has all those notions about what makes a man all tied up in what makes a Vampire. And the two, the expectations are really high. Thing is, I don’t know if it was such a good thing for you guys to come out of the closet. Now you will have every Tom, Dick and Jane looking for a Vampire to turn them…like it is some sort of fashion statement, like carrying those little mutts in their purse. Thing is, when fangs fall out of fashion and Vampires are just another social group, you can’t drop your Vampire self at the pound or give it away and be human again. Dead is dead.” I said.

“So how are you going to handle this next episode?” said Pam. “Eric is going to force Bill…”

“I have already accepted it. There is nothing to be done about it. Frankly, I don’t care. I don’t think our telepathic friend is good enough for either Vampire,” I sipped the wine and brushed back Pam’s hair. “You know, better than I do that Eric is very clever. He will figure this out.”

“Yes, he will,” said Pam.

“Do you guys love each other?” I asked. “You and Eric?”

“I do love Eric. He is my maker,” said Pam. “You love your father don’t you?”

“Of course…I want to strangle him sometimes, but I love him,” I said. “So you have never made a Vampire?”

“No,” she said. “I never was interested much in making a Vampire. Frankly, I just never wanted to be tied down to the training and care of a baby Vampire.”

“Jessica is coming along,” I said. “Thanks to you.”

“If she survives to see her fifth birthday she will be the toughest little Vampire around,” said Pam. “I imagine there are a lot of young Vampires now, not under the control of their masters, slipping the tradition of staying with the Maker a while to learn how to do all the things a Vampire must be able to do.”

“They don’t have much of a chance,” I said. “I haven’t noticed a flux of homeless, vagrant Vampires panhandling for Tru:Blood. I recon they die don’t they?”

“Die or are staked,” she said. “Or drained. Even baby Vamp blood is priceless on the V market.”

“Are you going to?” I asked.

“You volunteering Aslinn?” she asked.

“No, just a question,” I said. I have to admit that when Eric or Pam or Chow asked that question it was a little creepy. It reminded me just how controlled those Vampires are. “I met some human Vampires once.”

“I have met people like that, humans who pretend to be Vampires. They have very silly notions about what is Vampire,” said Pam.

“I am sure they do,” I said. “We should sit down some time and you can help me work on a comparison of human Vampires and true Vampires.”

“That would be lovely Aslinn,” she said. She tipped the bottle and finished it off. “I think Eric should install a tap here for Tru:Blood. It really is better than the bottled stuff.”

“Whatever you desire, Pam, it is your parlor too,” I said. I stood up and took the empty bottle and went to the kitchen and rinsed it and put in the recycler. I went to the computer desk and sorted my stuff and sat down and began to work and Pam sat back and began her ruminations again.

Wednesday

I was looking at the menu from Wong’s Chinese Carry Out. God Speed was giving the menu a dirty look. Chinese food was scary to God Speed, all those veggies and sauce didn’t appeal to him, but the menu said “You Ring, We Bring” so we were giving the kitchen a rest and ordering out.

“GS, you could call in a pizza or something,” I said.

“Oh, I will, don’t worry about me,” he said. “What are you getting?”

“I am getting something I think you would actually like GS, I am having sweet and sour pork with fried rice and eggroll,” I said, writing my order down on the note pad, under Renee who had chosen the General Tsoa’s chicken. “You know, you may even like something like Teriyaki Beef on skewers and some fried rice or lo mein noodles.” GS looked a little dubious. “Barrister sweety, what do you want from Wong’s.”

“MSG and peanut oil and a cup of salt and sucrose,” he said, grinning at me. I gave him an evil look and he leaned over me and looked at the menu and pointed to the beef and broccoli combination. “And add some wonton soup to that.” I wrote down his order and passed the menu and writing pad to Aolani and she and Body Guard looked at it and made their selections. It took a while for us to get our order together and for the delivery guys to bring in all the food. We ate and chatted, as we were wont to do and cleaned up our mess and got ready for the counselors to come. We had a lot to say. The adventure had not been uneventful.

Bill and Jessica came in first. Jessica was smiling and happy. She kissed Scarlett and God Speed and settled by the Kid for the meeting. Renee gave the young Vampire a look and she sighed and went to where Raki was standing at the microwave warming up Tru:Bloods. Violet was waiting for Bill’s bottle to pop out.

Alcide came in next. Eric was a big man, fair of hair and skin but we were quite accustomed to seeing him. Alcide was his polar opposite. The only thing they had in common was size. Alcide was dark of skin, hair and eye and he seemed bigger because of it. He sniffed the air, taking in the smells of Asian cooking.

“I don’t recon there is any of that for me to sample?” he said.

“I think there are several containers in the fridge,” said Jen. “Let’s see what you might like to taste.” She took the werewolf’s hand and led him into the kitchen where she showed him the collection of containers and their contents. GS was giving the were the hairy eyeball and I was sure that Eric would be doing the same since Jen had a date with the were.

Fairy came in a little late, a couple of pecan pies in her hands. Barrister, a new connoisseur of southern cuisine was up in a flash, hoping to be the first to sample the authentic pecan pies. Fairy rewarded him with the first slice and he dug in.

Pam was the next Vampire to come into the parlor. She looked better than she had on Tuesday and I was glad. These were stressful times coming up and I knew she wanted to show just as brave a face as Eric. I settled down with Bill and Barrister and Bill kissed my cheek and slid his arm around Renee. The next episode in our little adventure was going to be rough for we Bill girls, but we knew that things would have to work out this way and we were prepared for it.

Eric came in and gave Alcide the patent evil Eric glare and went to retrieve the warm bottle of Tru:Blood Aolani had warmed for him. He kissed her warmly and they went and sat down together on the couch where Lina was saving them a space. Fairy came over and kissed him on the cheek and sat down behind him on an ottoman. Pam began the meeting as she always does, by asking us what we thought about he adventure.

“So has Russell Edgington gone completely out of his skull?” asked Lina

“Will Jason find out the deal with Crystal?” asked Linzy.

“Will Bill tell us what Sookie is and will Claudine ever come out of Barbie’s Playhouse and be in the human world?” asked GS

Pam held up her manicured hands to settle the barrage of questions and we did calm down. There was so much going on, we could not wait to chat about it.

“Eric, will the Authority help you guys out now?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” said the Viking. “I would imagine I will be hearing from Miss Flanagan soon.”

“Are there Vampires who are really living just on Tru:Blood?” asked Body Guard. “Or are all of you getting little sips and nips.”

“The notion that there are Vampires living solely on Tru:Blood is pure AVL propaganda,” said Bill, his southern voice making me shiver a little. “As much as we would like to say Tru:Blood is our substitute to human blood, I don’t think I have ever met a Vampire who is existing on it alone.” Bill’s blue eyes flickered toward his child. He knew it was useless to try and put her on a diet of just Tru:Blood, but he hoped that the new T:B on tap would change things and it would not be such a struggle to get Jessica to drink the synthetic blood between her little sips and nips with her lovers.

“Russell pulled such a boner that night, what a disaster,” said God Speed. “Does he really want to rule the world? Overtake humans?”

Eric nodded. “He does, but like Hitler, like Stalin, like Napoleon, and Nero, his blind belief in his radical cause will blind him to his insanity and will be his undoing. He has shown the world there are Vampires who are backward thinking and a very dangerous.”

“Do you think there will be a lot of backlash?” asked Minnie. “Are you guys safe?”

“I don’t know,” said Bill. “I think there will be backlash and there will be trouble to come. This will fan the flames of hate for Vampires. Edgington may very well be pushing us back into the coffin.”

“Stan was the same way,” I said. “He thought the Great Revelation was the biggest mistake the Vampires ever made. I have to say…I agree with him.” There was uproar of dissent. “Wait, wait, Vampires were safe in the shadows of their myths. So long as humans believed these guys were just horror stories, they could hide in plain sight. They were governing themselves; there were no public deaths attributable to Vampires.” I picked up and copy of the Bon Temps Herald. “There are three deaths in New Orleans alone directly connected with Vampires. They say it right there in black and white. And not to mention there has been deaths among your own kind. And that never gets the same amount of press when a human commits a crime against a Vampire. So yes, I think that as much as I care about you guys, maybe you should have stayed in the coffin.”

“Franklin is dead,” said Renee. “And funny as he was sometimes, it is good he is gone.”

“Alcide, what will the weres do while this Vampire thing is going on?” asked GS. “Will you guys get involved, because you know Edgington will gather up the last of the renegade weres with his brand on them and recruit even more to do what he wants to do?”

“I don’t know what they will be doing,” said Alcide. “I know that the ordinary were and shifter communities have done their level best to stay out Vampire stuff for centuries. So long as the Vamps don’t bother us, we don’t bother them. But recently, since the revelation, there are more and more occasions where we have to deal with Vampire politics. And I don’t like it.”

“We don’t like having to deal with you either,” said Eric succinctly.

“Okay, okay, you don’t have to like each other but you have to play nice in here,” said Body Guard.

“Now Bill, what was it like in Faery for you?” asked Vi.

“It was incredible. It’s not like a place on the map, it is this world but from another…point of view…” said Bill.

“Did you like it there?” I asked.

“I did,” he said. “But, it would not be good for Vampires to be there. It is in our nature to chase down the fae and feed from them.”

“The last full blooded fairy I drank was in Germany,” said Eric. “He was divine.”

“I remember that,” said Pam. “Very yummy. Fairies are just too great a temptation for any of us.”

“Bill, had you ever drank a fairy?” asked Aolani.

“I have,” he said. “But til now I didn’t understand what I had. I just thought it was a particularly tasty type of blood. But now, I know I had a fairy.”

“How can you not know?” asked Lina.

“I had never been taught about the fae, presumably because Lorena did not know about it. That was why she was fascinated with Sookie when she bit her. I always heard about fairies of course, from other Vampires, but I thought it was mythology, like the maenad,” said Bill.

“How is it that you guys are like that about other supernatural creatures?” asked Butter.

“Well, you have to look at it from our perspective. We were once human. Weres and shifters are humans, and we have always known they exist and vice versa. Fairies to ill informed Vampires like Bill would be like stories of dragons and unicorns . They would be allegories, and symbols of something else,” said Pam. “If we had not come out of the coffin, would you have thought we existed?”

“No. probably not,” said Barrister. “Or the Witches. What the bloody hell is Lafayette getting himself into? Is this bloke for real?”

“I have no idea,” said Aolani. “Perhaps he has good intentions but he is not powerful enough to know if they are in danger. He could be inadvertently be leading Lafayette into a very dark world of powerful and dangerous magik.”

“Do you think he could be a shifter?” asked Minnie.

“He could,” said Aolani. “The tattoo is significant. But he is of Latin heritage; the jaguar is a very powerful symbol with many energies and influences.”

“I have some stuff for the mythology threads, I just haven’t been able to put it up yet,” I said.

“And finally Crystal. She has done a terrible thing,” said Body Guard.

“In what way?” asked Jessica.

“Well, we in the were and shifter community tend to look after our own, keep track of them and their children. If a child becomes abandoned or alone for some reason, we tend to care for them ourselves because no one can know we exist. Placing those children in the system, if they are what we suspect they are, is dangerous. Not only to them but the foster families they go to,” said Body Guard.

I sat there for moment. “We have one more thing to consider? Is Andy going to start using V?”

We all looked around at each other. That was something we would have to consider.