“Sookie, we can’t promise you we can do anything,” said Aolani as we walked up on the porch. Sookie had called the Council for our help and we were anxious of course to see Eric, but we didn’t understand the content of the spell nor the true caster of the spell because we seriously suspected Marnie was being possessed by someone or something else.
“Just do what you can,” said Sookie, a little tired a frazzled looking.
“We will, we said we would,” I said to her. I looked back at Renee and we both looked at Fairy. We debated about bringing our Fairy with us, because she is even more fae than Sookie but I had my velvet covered silver pads to use on him if he got a little over excited with her. I didn’t want to hurt him, because hell, I knew he was like the big friendly abominable snow man in the Bugs Bunny cartoons, but he was a thousand years old and he was a Vampire. Eric, you are going to owe me big time.
We came in carefully to Sookie’s house. But it looked great after it was cleaned up and painted. We looked around and there was Eric. He looked different to us, somehow unsure and not frightened precisely but…anxious.
“Eric, these are some of your friends, they wanted to come look at you and see how you are,” said Sookie.
“These are my friends?” he asked. Fairy moved past me faster than I could grab her. She sat down by Eric. She was crying. “Why are you crying?”
“I have just been so worried about you,” she said. She impulsively threw her arms around Eric who patted her on the shoulder.
“You smell so good,” he said, and then his fangs popped out. He looked embarrassed again, and pressed his hand over his mouth to stifle himself. “What are you?”
“I am your friend,” she said. “And it’s okay when your fangs pop out, you don’t have to hide them from us.”
“I smell my blood inside you,” he said, He snuggled into Fairy’s neck and sniffed hard. Had Fairy been a daisy, her petals would have gone all up inside his nose he sniffed so hard. “Are you mine?”
“Yes,” she said. “I am yours.” Eric looked at me and Aolani and Renee.
“Are you mine?” he asked.
“I am Eric,” said Aolani. “But Aslinn and Renee belong to another Vampire.”
“Eric, we are here to see if we can help you,” I said. “Is that okay?” I didn’t want to do anything against his will, anything that would alarm him or upset him. Losing your memory may not seem like a very big deal, but really it is. Especially with someone who is like Eric who has had a thousand years of life behind him and no memories of it besides a walk on the beach and a woman’s cold soulless eyes.
“How can you help me?” he asked.
“We are good witches Eric and we can’t harm you or do anything against your will. In fact we have to have your permission to take a look at you and see if we can help you,” said Aolani.
“You are witches?” he said, pulling away a little from Fairy, that sad, scared look in his eye.
“Good witches Eric, we can’t hurt you or help you without your permission,” I said.
“How come they were able to hurt him?” asked Sookie.
“Well, witches work on nature’s laws. All nature defends itself. When he attacked Marnie, he gave her permission to defend herself from him,” I said. “Can we just take a look?”
“Will it hurt?” he asked, like a child.
“No, we wouldn’t hurt you big fellah. I know you don’t remember this, but you and me are friends and you beat me at poker at our weekly poker games,” I said.
“But not last week, someone needed a new pair of shoes,” he said.
“That’s right, Renee here won the pot and she bought the very glamorous shoes she is wearing now,” I said, and Renee modeled her new kicks.
“Those are great pumps,” he said, looking at them.
“So can we give you a look?” I asked. Eric nodded. “Take your shirt off there big fellah and let’s see if they marked you anywhere, then you can go in with Fairy and Aolani and they can look you over on the rest of you.”
“You want me to take my clothes off for you?” he said, a funny little smile on his face.
“See, now that is a familiar look, “I said. “Renee and I want to look at the public bits, since Aolani and Fairy are yours, they can look at the other bits.” He took the shirt off and we crowded around him, looking at his skin. There were no marks. Sometimes a curse will leave an impression on the bearer of the curse, a hex mark if you will. “Raise your arms Eric.” Having Eric obey orders was strange because he is usually impatient with any examination. Again, I don’t know if it the man part of him or the Vampire in him.
“I don’t see anything,” said Aolani. “Look up at me hun.” Eric raised his face. “Open your eyes really wide.” He did as he was told. “His eyes aren’t empty so his soul is still in there.”
“I have a soul?” he asked.
“Of course you do,” said Renee.
“They do?” asked Sookie. I personally thought Eric had it right the first time when he called her Snooki.
“Yes, Sookie, he has a soul,” said Aolani, irritated. Fairy gave her a hard look. “Okay Eric, go in the dining room and strip off to your underwear and we will be in there in a second.”
“I’m not wearing any,” he said, a little embarrassed look on his face.
“That’s okay, don’t be embarrassed,” said Fairy. He nodded and went into the dining room.
“What are you all looking for besides just all of him?” asked Sookie.
“We are looking for any marks or tokens of the spell,” said Aolani. “Some spells leave a mark.”
Aolani and Fairy went in to the dining room and Renee and I sat down on the couch. “What are you guys gonna do next?”
“Well, Aolani and I are Empaths. We should have brought Raki with us too, because she is an Empath too, but she is helping Pam with something,” I said.
“Can you guys take him and hide him?” said Sookie. “I really am not equipped to deal with this.”
“We can’t, I am sorry,” I said. The two girls came back in with Eric, decently clad. He even had his shirt on.
“Come here and sit on the couch with us,” said Aolani. Renee stood up and I turned to look at Eric.
“What is going to happen now?” he asked.
“Well, you and I are going to hold hands and Aolani is going to hug you and we are going to read your emotions,” I said.
“You are going to read my mind?” he asked.
“No, big fellah, we can’t do that, but we can feel what you are feeling, we can feel things that maybe you don’t know you are feeling,” I said. He looked impatient. “I know this is getting to be a pain for you, but just be patient, we’ll be done in no time. Renee, come and put your hands on my shoulders.” Renee put her hands on my shoulders and I took Eric’s hands in mine. Aolani put her arms around Eric’s waist and laid her head between his shoulder blades and Fairy put her hands on Aolani’s shoulders. We were borrowing energy.
I could feel his confusion and pushed that away, I knew he was feeling that. I could feel his fear, so I delved into that a bit. Aolani was feeling the same thing because her hands were patting Eric’s chest. I looked into his storm colored eyes.
Yeah there was fear there and a feeling of something else. Guilt perhaps? A sense of loneliness? I totally got that. Then there was something old and I wanted to let go immediately because I did not like it. It was angry about something being denied. I got a sense of betrayal and the taste of vengeance and blood. Eric sensed it and held my hands tighter. He looked at me with a beseeching look of ‘help me’ so I sighed and pushed that away too, to look at later. Then there was something pure Eric. Regret, but this seemed like a new, fresh feeling. Godric maybe. We did this for 15 minutes, just sort of fishing around in Eric’s mind, feeling his emotions. By the time we were through, we had tears in our eyes.
“Why are you both crying?” he said, a little alarmed.
“You have a lot of emotions there buddy, and they are really strong, even if you don’t know how to feel them,” I said.
“Can you tell us how you feel?” asked Aolani.
“I feel confused and very angry and I feel desire, I want her,” he said, nodding toward Sookie. “But I know she doesn’t want me, she has been trying to get rid of me because she is a little scared of me and I don’t understand why.”
“Okay,” said Aolani. “How about your anger?”
“I am angry because I can’t remember what happened to me and I don’t know who I am and what I am supposed to be doing,” he said. “And I am scared, because I don’t know what will happen to me.”
“Well, just be on guard, mind Sookie, she does care about you, even though she is a little confused about what to do for you, and she is a little upset with you…”
“A little????” she asked and Eric looked as though she had slapped him.
“Sookie is a little upset with you but it is nothing that can’t be fixed when you get your memory back. So do as Sookie tells you and be careful. You are a strong Vampire, but that does not mean you can’t be hurt or even killed,” said Aolani. She looked at Sookie while she said this.
“You know me? Am I a good person? Do I hurt people?” he asked.
“Eric, you are a very good Vampire and you are a powerful one and you have responsibilities, but I don’t think you hurt people just because you can. You usually have a reason. So you are a good person in your own way,” I said.
“I hurt people,” he said, looking sad about that.
“Only if they hurt you,” said Renee. “If you were a bad person, I would not be here to help you.”
“None of us would be,” said Fairy, stroking back his hair.
“We have to go,” said Aolani.
“Why?” asked Eric.
“We have stuff to do so we can help you,” said Aolani. “But we will back.” She walked past Sookie and gave her a look like follow me. We all went outside with the blond waitress. When we were some ways away from the house, Aolani turned Sookie around and looked into her eyes.
*Sookie Stackhouse, I know you can hear me,* said Aolani. Sookie nodded. *He needs you, you put your selfish pettiness aside and get off your ass and help him instead of treating him like something nasty on the bottom of your shoe.*
“Me? Treating Eric like trash…” she began. Aolani looked at her.
*Will you shut up?* she thought. *Yes you, let your anger go for now and help Eric. He needs your help right now, and being petty and vindictive is not helping him. It could get you killed as well.* Sookie nodded. *Talk to him Sookie, Eric is still in there, just talk to him, tell him things and get him to thinking about who he is. That will help him a lot.*
“So you can’t break the spell?” she asked.
“No, Marnie has to do that,” said Aolani aloud. “And even then, I suspect it is not enough to just have Marnie.”
“The whole coven?” asked Sookie.
“No, the ghost of the witch inhabiting her,” said Aolani. “She has to have the witch inside her who really cast the spell. Marnie is a piss poor witch without this spirit. She has opened herself up by delving with the dead. She has let her out and did not put her back. It is a mistake necromancers often make.”
“We have to go Sookie,” I said. “But we will be back.”
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