Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Persona Non Gratis

Persona Non Gratis


Eric came into the House and we were at the table having supper. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me to the door. “Rescind my invitation,” he said.
                “I beg your pardon?” I said, jerking my wrist from his hand. “I will do no such thing.”
                “You have to, all hell is about to break loose,” said the Viking. “Please.”
                “What if you guys need a safe place? What if we need help from Vampires? We can’t have you out there and them in here,” I said.
                “You don’t understand, the Vampires are in trouble, the Sanguinistas are about cause a civil war. I don’t know if any of us will be able to help you and I am trying to get Bill and Nora out,” said the Viking. We knew there was big time trouble brewing and we knew Eric had a reason for being in the middle of it. “We may not have control. Rescind our invitations.”
                “No,” I said.
                “Do you want Bill to come in here with his friends and drain you dry?” asked Eric.
                “What if Pam needs to come here? Or Jessica or you for that matter?” I asked.
                “Rescind our invitations. We will take care of ourselves,” said Eric.
                “No,” I said. Eric pulled my head up and I jerked away from him. “No you don’t. Don’t glamour me.”
                “Aolani, dearest, rescind my invitation, rescind all our invitations,” said Eric. “If I have to drink anymore of that blood, I will not be myself. I will not be reasoned with.”
                “But Pam and Jessica? What about Tara?” she asked.
                “They will have to take care of themselves. Please,” said Eric.
                “Do it Aolani,” said Renee. “We have to do as he wants, he would not tell us to do something like that if he wasn’t afraid for us.”
                “Aslinn, please, help me,” said Eric.
                “Fine, Eric, I rescind your invitation,” I said. Eric was moved out of the house like a wind picked him up and swept him out.
                “I will contact you soon,” he said at the threshold. “Pam and Jessica knows you are doing this and so does Tara. You have to rescind their invitations. Don’t forget to do this for Bill as well.”
                “Okay,” I said.
                “And no matter what, don’t invite any of us back into the House. If we are under the control of the Sanguinistas, we will do whatever we must to get in this House. Do you understand? Even if we appear to be injured, don’t invite us in and don’t look us in the eye,” he said. “When this is over, you can invite us back in.”
                “Fine,” I said.
                “Aolani, Minnie dearest promise me,” said Eric. Aolani nodded and Minnie looked away, wiping her face.  “Minnie, lover, this is to protect you.”
                “But what if you are really in danger?” said Minnie. “What if you are really in trouble?”
                “I will not come back here. I will go elsewhere,” said Eric. “Please help me keep you safe.” Minnie nodded.
                “Pay close attention, don’t over look any detail. Diantha Cataliades will be here. I can’t say Alcide will be there. If I must, can I send Sookie here?” he asked.
                “Yes,” I said. “If you think she needs to be here.”
                “Thank you,” he said. “I will do my best to get Bill out of this, and I have to try to get my sister out.”
                “Be careful Eric,” said Aolani. He nodded and was gone.

                Aolani rescinded the invitations of all our Vampires and Diantha Cataliades appeared not long after. “Some troubles huh?” she said in her teletype way.
                “Yeah,” said Aolani. “Do you all think Bill is really in with them or do you think he is faking him out?”
                “I would like to think he is faking them out, what with his hesitance to drink that woman. But I don’t know,” said Renee, despondent.
                “It’s a fifty-fifty thing,” said Len. “We just have to watch, pay close attention.”
                “This really sucks, we can’t help them in the summertime,” said Minnie, still hurt that we had to rescind our invitation.
                “We have to trust Eric that he can keep his head,” said Barrister. “And Alcide. He is in so much trouble. “
                “Man, he needs some guidance,” said Renee. “The only thing working for him at this point is his fine ass, but that didn’t seem to impress JD.”
                “And that whole thing about hunting humans. Weres didn’t hunt humans,” said Diantha. We all looked up at her. “Really, they didn’t, they may have caught a human out being stupid and being out at night and all that, but wolves hunted animals. It was more sporting. Wolves are really smart as a pack. They liked to chase and hunt. Weres would not find humans a sporting chase.”
                Len was nodding. “We have killed humans before, but hell, we are humans most of the time. I think the V enhances blood lust. Makes us more willing. It is like the V makes us a tiny bit Vampire.”
                “Well, I would never poke holes in the Werewolf collective coat. Vampires hunted humans too,” I said. “Is Luna gonna die since she shifted into a human?”
                “I don’t know. Being a Skinwalker is a dicey thing, and we have to remember, Tommy was beaten really bad too. When two natured shift, they are metabolically different. We heal differently and we tolerate injuries differently. Even when Tommy shifted to Sam. He was Sam but more. That would make everything different,” said Len.
                “Lafayette was sort of funny when he had his Rita Mae Brown moment,” said Barrister. “Of course then he got jumped by the spirit of that woman. Do you think Terry and Patrick will really face off?”
                “Yeah, both will be desperate to get this thing away from them. The thing is, Lafayette does not know what he is doing, that is how you have trouble with the spirits,” said Aolani. There was a knocking on the door. It was Jessica.
                “I know I can’t come in, but please do something for Hoyt. I know he is mad at me, but there has to be something you can do for him,” said Jessica.
                “We will if we can,” I said. “But honestly, I don’t know. You know our hands are tied.”
                “Well, that woman, do you think it might have been his momma?” asked Jessica.
                “Well at first I admit I thought so but then Luna smelled menthol cigarettes,” said Len. “I don’t think it is Maxine.”
                “Well, I gotta get out of here, I’m headed to Fangtasia,” said Jessica.
                “Be careful. Don’t go with just any Tom, Dick or Harry,” said Aolani.
                “I have learned my lesson,” she said.
                “That Sookie, she could be a lot of help now, if she would pay attention,” said Renee.
                “Yeah, wasting her magik like that,” said Aolani. “And who the hell in Warlow?”
                “I don’t know,” I said. “I could have sworn it was Russell, but maybe not.”
                “I would not count it out. It is hard to say how many names that Vampire has had. It still could be,” said Minnie.
                “True enough,” said Renee. She flopped down on the couch. “I am so sick about Bill.”
                “Bill will be okay,” I said. “He doesn’t have Godric to keep him on the path, even Eric was dicey for a while. Bill is lost, but he will come back.”
                “I hope so,” she said.
                “He will.”

I hope.

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