For the Dead are Free

We shall be happy, for the dead are free.
Sarah Teasdale- If Death is Kind

And just as suddenly as she appeared Tara was gone…

I was worried now. Eric and Pam were to face off and Bill was in a standoff with Lilith’s progeny and Sookie was being drowned by her father in the form of Lafayette. This was just too much.

The next day, we were at the house. We had had visitors in the night. The LAVTF had been there and they had gone through all the rooms and tried to turn over our shelves as they left, but Alcide Herveaux had made sure they were bolted down. They were mighty pissed they could not open our private room but they knew our house was for Vampire living as well as human living. I was glad we had the foresight to hide a few precious remaining boxes of Tru:Blood, they would have been confiscated as Burrell’s new initiative also included the confiscation of blood products in the hands of humans without a Dr.’s license. Same goes for our weapons, most of them were anti Vampire weapons for those unfortunate days when you absolutely, positively had to shoot a Vampire right now.

So we spent the larger part of our day cleaning up the mess. They muttered something about us being next and even said a few choice words about witches and we just shrugged. We had been there before. We were not on the Fellowship of the Sun’s good list. That didn’t matter; we were worried about our friends in their various predicaments.

I was sorting out some damaged books at the dining room table when Diantha popped in. And when she pops in, she really pops in, out of nowhere. “What the fuck happened here?”
“The LAVTF,” said Minnie. She was not one for cursing but every now and then you could hear her grumble about the situation. “They barged into our house and tore the place apart.”
“What were they looking for?” asked the demon, perching on the edge of the table.
“Vampires,” she said.
“And they thought you all had them hidden in these books?” asked Diantha.
“I guess,” I said. “Maybe they thought we turned them into handy dandy bookmarks.”

She watched me as I carefully taped a torn page with archivists tape and check the next pages and close the book and slide it into a box to be put back into the shelves. I picked up another book and there were boot prints all over it. I rolled my eyes. It was Eric’s copy of the Vampire Bible, the true one, not that bilge Bill had swallowed, but the true Vampire Bible. It was not my holy book, nor Eric’s either if the truth be told, but it was a precious addition to our collection and a gift to all of us from Eric and I hated the way it had been hurt. I grabbed a soft cotton cloth and a gum eraser and began to rub the thin paper carefully, getting most of dirt off and then repaired the pages that were ripped. I wished I could hide them in the pages of a book, but we were not allowed to interfere with this world. Diantha watched us as we all carefully cleaned and repaired the books and then helped us sort them back onto the shelves.

“So there is nothing you all can do to help Eric and them?” asked the demon.
“No, we can’t interfere. We have to stay out of it,” said Aolani.
“I think we should call on Niall, try to reach him in whatever dimension he is,” said Renee.
“Do you all feel up to it?” asked Aolani.
“That is all we can do. We have the LAVTF parked outside our door and we don’t have contact with our vampires,” said Renee. “I want to call Bill.”
“We can’t,” I said. “We don’t know how he will be with us, and we don’t know if we can trust him.”
“And that damned wolf is near about worthless,” said Minnie. She was of course talking about Alcide Herveaux. Eric had brought him into our little family a few seasons ago and he had been helpful in the past, but now, he is worthless, like Minnie said.
“Well, we will have to do it tonight. Let’s go on ahead and close our storm shutters and we can order in Poppa Wong’s and then we can do the ritual,” I said.

We got all our books back into the shelves and gave everything a good dusting and mopping and had showers and our suppers and we brought out the black sheet with all the symbols and signs on them and laid it out on the table and went through the process of lighting candles and setting out dishes of herbs and water and incense.

“Wait guys… maybe Niall is not what we need,” said Aolani.
“Who do you think we need?” I asked.
“Maybe who we need is Lilith herself,” said Aolani.
“But, isn’t she like a god?” asked Barrister.
“No, she is just another dead Vampire,” said Aolani. “And we have contacted dead Vampires before, why not her?”
“It could be dangerous,” I said.
“Not if we conjure another Vampire to sit with us,” said Aolani.
“Who? Lilith is the first freaking Vampire?” asked Renee.
“Godric,” said Aolani.
“But he is not nearly as old as she is,” I said.
“It doesn’t matter,” said Aolani. “He is an old Vampire and he would be more of a threat to her than a newborn Vampire who has died.”
“We will have to have a protective spells around us,” I said.
“Wait, you guys just have to conjure Lilith, right, she is the first Vampire but who says she is the oldest? She isn’t much different in age than Russell. She died in 3400 bc, that means she is only that old, she doesn’t get older after she was definitely dead,” said Minnie.
“This is true,” said Barrister.
“We will set up the protection spells and then we will begin calling out to Godric, talk to him first and see what his counsel will be and then we can call on Lilith with him with us,” said Aolani.

We held hands in a circle and we called upon the spirit of our brother Godric and invited him into our circle. We were not conjuring him and forcing his to appear, we were inviting him. It took awhile but finally the slightly glowing image of the young Vampire stood in our circle.

“My friends,” he said, smiling beatifically at us. “How can I help you?”
“Godric, we are calling on you for Eric, he and Nora are in big trouble,” said Minnie.
“He is indeed,” said Godric sadly. “And I know you have no influence in this world.”
“Godric, we were thinking of calling Lilith into a circle and asking her to talk to us,” said Aolani.
“Lilith cannot help you, she will not help you,” he said. “She is consumed with thoughts of revenge, but know this, our kind was never meant to walk in the day and that is the plan all along for her to make her progeny, the one who killed her.”
“Warlow,” I said.
“He has had many names,” said Godric. “But that name will do as well as any other. You must think of ways to separate your friend Bill from her influence, she is mad: Mad with revenge, mad with jealousy, mad with a hunger for power. No one can flout the design of the Maker of us all, we are all his instruments.”
“Eric does not believe in anything,” said Renee.
“You are wrong. Eric believes in himself. He is a strong man, a strong Vampire. His only weakness is he cannot navigate his feelings about being Vampire, with the renewal of his human feelings,” said Godric. “It is easy for him to love certain people, people he deems worthy of his company, but now he has to look at the world entire and deem their value. Eric says all the right things, that we were you at one time, but he forgets how easy it is to be Vampire and be strong and free, but humans are ruled with their thoughts and their emotions because you cannot bend iron in your fists or move with great speed. These emotions are as strong as a Vampire’s hands, but they confuse us. Bill is confused. He knows this Warlow, as you call him, can help him with the problem of the humans, but he is in danger of overlooking what he must do and what Lilith wants him to do. She is indeed a Godless God. But like all false gods, she can be exposed as a petty creature who uses their believers like you would use a rag to clear away filth and throw it way.” He looked around at the room. “Bill must decide to save our kind on his own, without her help. He must awaken to a possibility that she is not Vishnu, the Creator, but she is Shiva the Destroyer. She cannot be reasoned with and the only reason she is still among us is there are those who will serve her as her avatars. Once the believer has turned his back on her and forswears he will love her no more, then he will be free. Then he will save us.”
“How can we help him?” asked Aolani.
“You can’t. He will only stop believing and turn away when he realizes he has been her pawn. But Bill gives his heart away so easily. Strange in a Vampire. We are not known for our love,” he smiled. “He must exorcise this particular spirit from himself, only then will he see more clearly. Then my children will be free to go to him and help him. Eric and Nora were my children, I created them with love and admiration of them and I made them as strong as me, but they must learn about their own humanity. It will be painful and bloody, I fear.” He began to fade away. “Be well my friends. I wished I had known of you sooner, perhaps I would not have met the sun. Goodbye.”

And he faded from our sight.