“Please Godric! This is insanity!”
“Our existence is insanity. We don’t belong here.”
“But we ARE here!”
Godric looked at his child, his eyes filled with so much love and affection that Eric could see it even through the guilt and resolve. Eric fell to his knees, the blood tears making tracks down his cheeks as his Maker stood above him.
“Why Godric? Why are you doing this? I need you. The whole fucking world needs you!”
Eric’s head bowed as grief surged over him in a solid wave of unbearable agony. Never before had he felt such pain and he knew he never would again.
“I won’t let you do this alone. I can’t. I’ll be here with you-until the end.”
Resolved, he stood and clutched Godric’s hand, turning to face the impending dawn.
“No, my child. I won’t let you condemn yourself to the True Death as I have. Go. Live. Pamela still needs you. And you have much left to do.”
Godric invoked the command his rights as a Maker afforded him and he felt Eric fighting. Eric’s feet shuffled backward minutely, but he stopped himself.
Godric’s heart felt like it skipped a beat, though that was impossible. Eric was really going to fight through the Maker’s command; he was bound and determined to meet the True Death as well.
The Gaul wrestled momentarily with his indecision. But then fate took the choice out of his hands.
Time seemed to speed up as Sookie burst out of the door to the hotel. The sun crested the horizon in a time lapse of motion and Godric watched in horror as his child was engulfed with a spectacular burst of blue flames.
His face twisted in agony and grief as he felt his child’s pain as if it were his own, compounded by the fact that somehow he remained unscathed.
Eric’s body folded in on itself, crumbling into nothing even as his hand still reached for Godric and Sookie looked on in horror at the scene in front of her.
Godric fell to his knees in stunned silence. Eric was gone. He felt the connection sever; he had felt the unmitigated terror and agony of his last moments on this earth. That was not the way he was supposed to die. Hell, he wasn’t supposed to die at all. Eric was a Viking warrior, a king by birth, and a vampire of worth. Now he was nothing but a smudge on a random rooftop in Dallas.
“It sucks, doesn’t it?”
The small, unobtrusive voice came out of nowhere and Godric’s head whipped up to see…Sookie?
She wasn’t wearing the sundress she’d had on previously; instead wearing a flowing red sheath, and her eyes held more years of life than they had before.
“Who are you?”
He was almost ashamed to admit how much his voice quavered, but he couldn’t quite muster the energy to care. He was still reeling from Eric’s death and his emotions felt numbed to everything.
“I am who I’ve always been. Apparently I needed a kick in the metaphorical ass to see it.” Her sky blue eyes glanced sadly to the scorch mark on the roof to her left. “I didn’t realize…well-it seems like I’ve lived a lifetime since I opened that door.”
“I don’t-I don’t understand.”
The blood tears were making tracks down his face and he let them fall, burning up once they hit the sunbaked tarmac. He cocked his head with a curious detachment, wondering why he was still there-maybe this was some cruel punishment from the Gods for all the atrocities he’d wrought in his extremely long life. He only dreaded what would come next.
“Feeling the fledgling bond I had with Eric flare with so many emotions sparked..well, my spark, I guess. I actually left awhile ago…and now I’m back.” Godric’s eyebrow raised. “Fairies have always been powerful apparently, and my great grandfather managed to pause time to take me away.”
His eyebrows positively reached his hairline at that bit of news. “And who might your relations be then? The only ones powerful enough to enact a bit of magic that great would be-”
“The Brigants. Yes, Niall is apparently my great grandfather. Fintan had an affair with my grandmother that resulted in my father and aunt. So biologically I’m ⅛ fairy.” She glanced to Eric’s last location with sadness. “But Eric’s blood woke up that side of me.”
“I still don’t understand. Why did he die? Why am I still here? Why…why…” Great heaving sobs erupted from the ancient vampire as he curled in around himself. His head shook from side to side, his short hair ruffling in the early morning air.
“He didn’t die.”
“DO NOT LIE TO ME, FAIRY! I saw him die-right there!” His hand shot violently out to point as he leapt to his feet. He stalked closer to her, his hand wrapping itself around her slender neck as she stood motionless.
“I’m telling you the truth. This is what WILL happen if you continue on this path. Eric will die. You’ll live long enough to feel him go and you’ll be in unimaginable pain. And you’ll be ruining more lives than that.” Her small hand, so soft and gentle, came up to caress his cheek. “Please don’t do this Godric. Don’t do it to us.”
“You-you don’t even know me.” He dropped his hand from her neck, stepping backwards in horror at what he’d done. “You see? I deserve to die. I’ve done horrible things in my long life-things you can’t even imagine-”
“Let me stop you right there, buddy. Telepath, remember? I’ve seen some pretty depraved things in people’s heads. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. Please. I only have one shot for this to work.”
His eyes narrowed. “How? How can you undo all this? How can you bring my child back from the dead?”
Sookie huffed in annoyance. “All y’all have hearing problems, don’t you?!? He’s not dead. You saw what would happen. I…I made…”
She paused, shoulders heaving with some unidentifiable emotion. “I’m still having trouble with this whole fairy thing…sorry. Fintan gave my grandmother this…wishing thing. It’s called a cluviel dor.”
Godric gasped, astonished at the significance of what she’d just told him.
“I see you know what they are.” Sookie’s eyebrow raised and a smirk plastered itself across her face. He had to chuckle since it was the exact same face his child had made so many times in the past. “When Niall pulled me from reality and stopped time, he gave it to me. And I couldn’t let this happen. So when I jolted back into my body I used it.”
Awe. Awe was the only thing Godric could pinpoint as he stared at this enigmatic woman in front of him. Gone was the naive Southern flower he’d met the night before. This woman was strong-a Valkyrie-worthy of a man like Eric.
“You love him then? You wanted to save him.”
She blushed, beautifully innocent even with the hard glint of defiance in her eyes. “I-I didn’t quite realize how I felt until now. Niall pulled some more fairy voodoo on me…which reminds me, I need to have a chat with darling old Bill.”
Godric’s eyebrow rose involuntarily as a growl escaped her luscious lips. She was more bloodthirsty than he would’ve ever imagined. This was not the direction he saw the dawn taking.
“Then how do we leave this…what exactly is this?” Pain surged back through him. “I felt him die. I felt the pain he suffered. How can you tell me it wasn’t real?”
“I never said it wasn’t real. If you still choose this path, then I’ll retract my magic and you’ll burn-same as Eric. But if you choose to change the path you’re on, we’ll go back. Simple as that.” His eyebrow raised sceptically and she grinned, shrugging innocently. “Alright, maybe not simple, but….what’ll it be?”
Suddenly serious, she gave him the time he needed. Could he go on? Could he continue living with the guilt of all he’d done?
“Agreed. Just-give him back to me.”
She beamed a brilliant smile at him before stepping forward, her bare feet barely seeming to touch the ground. Her small hands grasped his cheeks and she pulled him down to her lips, laying a light kiss on his forehead.
“Thank you.”
A brilliant flash of blue light lit the sky and when Godric opened his eyes, he saw Eric kneeling before him.
“ERIC!”
His child reared back as if he’d been slapped when Godric shot forward, wrapping his arms around his neck. Eric froze when he felt the sobs rip through his maker, unable to comprehend what was happening.
“Master, what-?”
“Oh thank GOD!”
The men’s heads whipped around to see the blonde Southern Bell, gripping the door frame as she fought to contain her emotions.
“Sookie? Godric? What-what…”
Sookie shot forward, wrapping herself around the two men as she showered kisses on any exposed skin she could find.
She pulled back, ignoring Eric’s utter confusion to look Godric straight in his beautiful periwinkle eyes. “I knew you’d make the right choice!”
