Chapter 42: Sacrifice

Disclaimer: I don’t own the characters in True Blood or the Southern Vampire Mysteries. So neither copyright infringement nor offense is meant. I simply want to make the characters do what I wanted them to do for a while. I am especially “unownerly” when it comes to this story. You will recognize a lot of the dialogue throughout as being quoted from Season 5 of True Blood, though I’ve tried to use Eric’s thoughts to make this story “different” from its source. That said, I claim no ownership to the quoted material and have placed it in bold so that it is set apart from my own words.

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The storm troopers had proven effective at following Bill’s orders. And—as expected—the silver injections had smarted like a son of a bitch!

However, the physical torment didn’t hold a candle to the threat that still loomed in my mind.

What if Bill decided that it was “Lilith’s will” that the others be told about Sookie’s telepathy? What if he decided it would be useful to have her around as an asset. It was a minor miracle that Russell hadn’t brought her up as of yet; however, for now, he was focused on his new infatuation with Newlin.

Ironically, I was also hoping that Bill and Russell would be close enough adherents to the Book of the Vampyr—or whatever it was being called these days—to follow it to the letter regarding Sookie. She was not just human, after all. And the book made clear that fairies were “abominations,” creatures never to be trusted. The book implied that to feed from them would lead only to doom.

I chuckled to myself. Maybe feeding from Sookie had or would lead to my doom.

“But what a way to go?” I muttered.

“What was that?” Nora asked as she entered the torture chamber.

“Fucking you,” I answered weakly, though without missing a beat. “It’s how I’d like to greet the true death. Would you care to accommodate?” I winked, despite the fact that I must have looked like shit thanks to my intake of silver.

Nora sighed. “As long as you remain firm in your betrayal of Lilith, I will not corrupt my flesh with yours.”

“Pity,” I said.

“Bring him to the Temple,” Nora said impatiently to the storm trooper that had been silvering me.

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“Thanks for your help,” I muttered as the storm troopers pushed me onto my knees in the so-called Temple.

Not surprisingly, Bill was already there, and he’d obviously gotten Salome’s permission to use some of Lilith’s blood on me.

“Your sister and I can only keep you alive for so long,” Bill shared. “Others wanted you executed already. The true death will come very soon if you do not accept Lilith, as it will for all nonbelievers.”

I shook my head a little. Hadn’t we already covered this? Maybe the repetition was for the benefit of the cameras, so I played along.

“So let it come. What does it matter to you?” I asked again.

“You saved my life,” Bill pronounced for his audience. “And in return we will save your soul,” he added sanctimoniously, looking at Nora, who nodded and then approached me. Apparently, she was going to “help.”

Bill pulled out the little claw that Roman had used for the blood ceremony with the Chancellors. I knew it had Lilith’s blood in it.

“No. I refuse,” I tried, knowing that wouldn’t work, but wanting to make a show of resisting nonetheless. Plus, I didn’t want to make things too easy for Bill and Nora; after all, I was still pissed off at them.

“Shh. I’ll do it with you,” Nora said, as if that act would be an unselfish one on her part.

She touched my forehead, meaning to sooth me. However, in her eyes, I saw her desire for the blood more than any care for me. She was an addict, and—like any addict—she was always looking for an excuse to use her drug of choice.

Fucking junky!

“No,” I repeated.

“Yes,” Nora replied.

“No,” I said yet again, even as I struggled. The silver, however, had depleted my strength. “Argh!”

Nora pulled open my mouth while Bill forced a drop of Lilith’s blood into it. My mouth was then shut so that I couldn’t spit the foul liquid out.

“We will meet her together,” Nora assured.

As I uselessly tried to choke the blood out of my throat with my mouth closed, Bill gave a very willing Nora a few drops.

“Take it in. She is in you,” Nora instructed me.

As I felt the blood taking hold of my body, I stopped struggling. Nora knelt next to me even as I sank down more fully onto my knees. I turned my head from her as I heard Bill leave the room.

I focused on retaining the control of my mind, refusing to give into the blood as I had before.

I opened my eyes, and through my vision blurry, I saw a light.

“She’s here,” Nora said reverently. “Give yourself to her.”

“Fuck that,” I thought, still trying to hold on. I’d given myself to only two beings, my maker and my bonded. I clung to the thought of them both. Even more, I wished for them both in that moment.

I felt my bond with Sookie flare a bit, but it was my maker who appeared.

“Godric?” I asked.

Nora gasped next to me as she saw what I did.

“No,” she denied. She was getting good at denying our maker, and I hated her for that—though I felt ashamed of that hate. Godric had asked me to save her, and I’d failed him.

“I tried. I tried to save her,” I said, pleading for his forgiveness with my eyes.

“My children,” Godric said, looking at us both with love—offering us both forgiveness.

“Father. How have you come?” Nora questioned.

“My blood is in you. I’m with you always,” Godric responded.

“No, you left me centuries ago. The blood of Lilith is within me now,” Nora argued.

Even as I worked hard to keep my focus on Godric, I wanted to contradict Nora’s revisionist history about Godric—likely supplied by Salome. He’d not been the one to leave her. Nora had decided on her own life-path, and our maker had always supported her. It had been Nora who had undergone the initiation required by all Chancellors—the one that basically severed her connection with Godric and his ability to command her. She’d made that choice!

I went to speak, but a look from Godric stopped me.

He spoke to Nora. “Lilith is a godless god. She will lead you and all around you to destruction. If you kill and kill, there will be nothing left—not even you.”1

“How can you say that?” Nora challenged. “After all the years that you and I and Eric hunted and killed together? How can you tell me it’s wrong?”

Again, I wanted to speak—to contradict her. Yes—Godric, she, and I had hunted together. And we had killed Weres who had committed crimes against vampires. We had also killed those who threatened the secrecy of our kind. Godric had been an enforcer for the King of Portugal at that time—for fuck’s sake! However, never had we purposely killed innocents.

Again, Godric stopped me from speaking, choosing a different tactic to appeal to his second child.

“Because I have done what you’ve failed to do.” He looked at me significantly. “I’ve evolved.”

I sighed, and—in that moment—I knew why Godric hadn’t let me meet the sun with him. He’d talked about how vampires were “wrong” somehow. Thus, the logical thing would have been to let me end myself next to him—to “right” another “wrong,” so to speak. But my maker hadn’t wanted my true death. He’d wanted my evolution. And he’d asked Sookie to care for me because he had somehow known that she would be the key to that evolution. He’d been able to recognize, in my feelings, something that I had been denying.

That I loved her—even then.

It had been I who’d been “lost” then. And I’d lost my way even more after Godric had met the sun. But he’d also made sure I could be “found” again.

Seeing my love for him had helped Sookie to see “more” in me. It had helped her to know me.

And now it was Nora who was lost, Nora who needed the saving. I put voice to my thought and allowed my emotions to show—my gratefulness, my weakness, and my prayer. “Please save her, Father. She is lost.”

Godric looked at me with pride in his eyes, and that pride warmed me—protected me from Lilith’s blood.

“No. I am sworn to Lilith,” Nora said feverishly from next to me, denying that she needed our maker’s help.

A red mist grew behind Godric. I knew it was Lilith. She approached Godric from behind, her intentions obviously malevolent. It was clear that she didn’t like other apparitions commandeering control of the “trip” that Nora and I were on.

“Please. Please, spare him, Lilith!” Nora begged as she, too, realized what Lilith’s intentions were.

“Fight her! You must fight her!” I screamed by instinct, even though I knew he wouldn’t.

Couldn’t.

It was Godric’s aim to help Nora. And fighting against Lilith wouldn’t be enough to shake my sister from her devotion.

On the contrary, he intended to sacrifice himself for her. What that would mean to him in whatever afterlife he dwelled within was beyond me.

“It’s not I who must fight her,” Godric voiced, confirming what I already knew.

I had to fight Lilith. And Nora had to find a reason to fight against her too.

That reason would be Godric’s destruction.

In that moment I doubted I would ever have a vision of my maker again. He’d come to me multiple times, each one designed to make me “better” than I was. Hell—even when he’d encouraged me to bite Sookie, it had been in a vision that had shaken me to the very core and had taught me that nothing could hurt me more than hurting her. After that vision had ended, I’d gone to her. She’d told me what she knew of my maker, and she’d trusted me enough to allow me to rest next to her.

Sookie had comforted me, and she had helped me to find “myself”—the man I’d buried. Yes—because of Godric and because of my bonded, I’d no longer been lost, despite the fact that I’d had no memories.

I was in agony at the thought of losing Godric again, even in his ghostly form; however, I forced my eyes to stay open.

To say goodbye.

To respect my maker’s choices—even from a different plain of existence.

To become—because of Godric’s sacrifice—a better man once more.

Lilith dragged her fingernails across Godric’s throat, slitting his skin above his beautiful tribal tattoo.

I heard myself yelling “No!”

Nora and I both screamed as Lilith ended Godric by ripping his head off. As in the karaoke bar, she became—once more—covered with blood.

I wept, unashamed to be showing my grief—grief that had been in me since I’d walked from that rooftop in Dallas. Grief I’d been trying to repress. Grief that had compelled me to push the world away—until my life had been forgotten.

Through my tears, however, the world became clear.

Even as an obviously confused Nora whimpered beside me, I knew that she was beginning to question her “god.” I also knew what my own course of action needed to be.

I needed to wait—wait for Nora to find herself.

Godric had already started the clock for that outcome.

Roman had said that I had the makings of a star performer, and I’d played many roles since I’d walked into the Authority.

A convert wouldn’t be a stretch for me—though a patient one would be a challenge.

Lilith screeched and hissed, looking at first Nora and then me.

I didn’t look away.

The bitch could still blow me!

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A/N: Just to let you know, one of Godric’s lines was not in the actual scene, but in the flashback that Nora has later. Just another show inconsistency…Oh well.

I had a hard time with this chapter. I wanted to make it so that Eric understood what Godric was doing. Undeniably, this scene is the catalyst for Nora rediscovering herself. I wanted for Eric to realize that in this scene and to think for a moment about why Godric had been appearing in ghost form. In the end, I figured that Godric was coming as a kind of teacher for his children. He did what he needed in order to “save” both his progenies. And-in that way-I could see why ghost Godric was appearing. Of course, I wonder sometimes if the show creators gave this as much thought. LOL. Anyway, I hope I did the scene justice.

Best,

Kat

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