27 - Sookie Stackhouse and Eric Northman Look to the Future - Part Two

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Chapter Twenty Seven

"Who threatens my wife?" Eric said, standing abruptly, every fiber of his being reflexively prepared for battle.

If he had been wearing a sword he would have drawn it with a metallic whoosh that was like no other sound on earth. Like Pavlov's dogs I was conditioned to become excited at that sound, it was the sound I heard when Eric performed for me, showing his skill and quickness with his Viking blade in the moonlight.

I never got tired of seeing his arm and chest muscles become thick and defined as he swirled and cut through the night with a whisper of sound like doom, moonlight glinting off the heavy weapon.

Eric was ready at the instant to protect me with his life even though the three of us were the only ones in the room. It tugged at my heartstrings, seeing how he reacted to even the mention of some harm coming to me.

Should anyone have to live in such complete fear of something bad happening to a loved one?

Well, yes.

It is the fear every parent knows when their child is out of their sight. Even grown children.

"Please sit. The threat, if it arrives, comes from too far away for even your long arms to reach," Anna Hita said calmly.

After Eric was seated and holding my hand again she went on.

"Do you see that golden pyramid on the mantle? It can send and receive messages from our Founders."

We all looked at the amazing glowing object, now made even more exotic since we knew its true purpose.

"You mean it's like an answering machine or voice mail for space vampires?" I asked, not sure if Anna Hita would know what those terms meant. She had a secretary, Corinth, that took care of all the mundane matters like appointments and payment.

"Tabula left a message for me while I was away. He heard that you gave birth to a vampire's child. This interested him and the scientists from his planet. Their inability to reproduce is naturally their greatest problem. They believe you have overcome vampire infertility. They want to know what is unique about you, what would allow you to conceive Eric's child."

"Did you explain I used a donor?" I asked, not even daring to speak of Anna Hita's gift to us in this room.

"They have samples of your genetic material," she said. "They know the truth."

"Do you mean they have samples from all of us? Even Eric?" I asked, my voice sounding a little squeaky with panic and disbelief.

"Yes, they do not know how Eric's sterile vampire seed was able to grow within you. They believe it is something inherent in your make up that enabled you to carry his child. They want to study you, to learn your secrets."

I thought of the poor animals that were used in laboratory experiments. The Originals might need to dismantle me cell by cell looking for an answer that didn't exist. There was nothing special in my reproductive powers. I had gotten pregnant with sperm from a human version of Eric.

"Can't you tell them the truth, I mean, about how you ..." my voice dwindled off.

If they were all telepaths then they might already know what she could do. But if they did, why hadn't they tapped into her special powers to remedy their infertility? If she went back far enough in their history she could have averted whatever ecological disaster rendered the people of their planet unable to reproduce.

Anna Hita was already shaking her head, her expression serious. It would not be possible for her to tell them what she could do for the same reasons that she couldn't let anyone on this planet know. They would want to exploit her for their purposes. Who wouldn't want to alter the past to erase mistakes?

I could relate with her desire to remain free. It sounded like it was coming down to a case of either her freedom or mine. Of course, she might not have a choice about what to reveal if they took their focus off me and turned it on her. By that time I might be dead if she didn't 'fess up to save me.

"How did they get our genetic samples?" Eric asked. "Have they been here among us already?"

"There has always been one of the Originals among us, my son," Anna Hita said.

For a second I thought she meant herself. Then I realized she was talking about Dracula. Not the Bela Lugosi image I had seen, but the real hidden being behind the image projected to me. I felt it was probably a good thing I hadn't seen Dracula's real face. It might have driven me into madness.

"How did Dracula manage to get our DNA without our knowledge?" I asked.

I pictured him in his ominous black cape, hair slicked back like a raven's wing, standing over me as I slept, fixating me with his glamourous stare into near coma then taking a sample of my blood. It wouldn't have been that difficult for him to get to me and the girls, but Eric? How had he gotten Eric's DNA?

Anna Hita laughed softly. "His powers are beyond our knowledge or understanding. He can go anywhere, do almost anything. No door is closed to him, no human mind can keep him out. With his power we are all at his beck and call," she said. She sounded downright spooky when she spoke of him.

"When is Tabula going to get here?" I asked.

I knew it had been thousands of years without Tabula and Jagula setting foot back on this planet.

"He may not come at all. He has shown interest in how you conceived a vampire's child but his explorations cover vast areas, whole galaxies. I am hoping his attention towards you is just a tiny spark of curiosity. I have explained to him that you have Turned, ended your human life. That might be enough for him to surrender his pursuit of this line of thought. In case it is not, I wanted to offer you a place to hide from him until he gave up and left."

With a stubborn set to his jaw Eric said, "Any place you have in mind will not do. If Tabula can read your mind anything you knew would be instantly known to him. I will come up with a hiding place that only I will know."

"I am confident that I can block him from my mind. I can compartmentalize my knowledge and only allow access to the front room, so to speak, as my clients are only able to access my parlor, not this apartment. That is how I have kept Dracula from discovering my special abilities."

Anna Hita sat back, looking smug and proud of her mental defenses. I had to wonder, had she really succeeded or was Dracula just biding his time, using her for information she didn't know she was giving him?

"You have met Dracula?" Eric asked, fascinated.

I knew meeting Dracula was a special desire of his, though why he would want to meet such a scary powerful being was beyond me. I wanted to keep as far away from him as possible.

"Oh yes, many times. He has always been most charming and gallant," she crooned, her eyes hazy for a moment, her long lashes lowering.

She seemed a tad smitten with Dracula's charms. Were these her true feelings or had Dracula bored into her brain with his mesmerizing stare and hypnotized her to feel he was the handsome prince of darkness as the legends describe him.

"Perhaps your mental defenses are not all you believe they are," Eric said bluntly, echoing my own reservations. His ice blue eyes regarded her without their usual affection. This was new.

Anna Hita snapped out of her romantic revery and looked at Eric with an expression of cold offense in her dark almond shaped eyes. I had never seen this side of her either. The emotional climate in the room got distinctively more chilly.

"He can not look into my mind. I tell you this," she said flatly, lifting her chin in a regal way. "Neither can Tabula or Jagula, though I doubt both will come here, if they come at all."

"Can Tabula look into your mind?" I asked Eric, trying to change the topic and defuse the tension between the two vampires I loved most.

"Not if he can't find me. I will stay hidden with you," he said, putting his arm around me, rubbing my neck with his hand, making sure the Dracula ring touched my flesh.

"How will I let you know it is safe to come out of hiding?" Anna Hita asked.

Eric shrugged. He either didn't have an answer or knew she would be insulted at his response. He was skeptical Anna Hita was as impervious to the powers of the Originals as she believed. She was sure she could block her thoughts. She needed to believe this. Eric and I couldn't make a plan that depended on powers Anna Hita might not actually have.

Eric considered this. "We will come up with a sign. It requires more thought and preparation than I have time for now," he said, standing again. "I will contact you in a few nights."

I stood up too. He never let go of my hand. Was his ring preventing her from reading my mind too as long as he held my hand?

We could not come up with anything more at the moment and we were anxious to get on our way. Linda would only be at Medvedgrad Castle in Zagreb for a few more days, then she wasn't sure where they were going next. I really wanted to meet up with her.

We decided, at my prompting, that if Anna Hita had anything more in the way of news we would adjust our travel schedule, in the meantime Eric and I would just go ahead with our plans to travel abroad. I really hoped that my new status as Vampire would put an end to any mistaken notion I had the secret to vampire fertility.

I also hoped it would not come down to a case of Anna Hita or me. She might not be able to keep her powers a secret if Tabula returned, no matter how confident she was she could shield her thoughts from his scrutiny.

Once he knew the truth his focus would shift from me to her. She might really be the key to fixing their problem if she could travel into their past and stop them from ruining their planet and destroying their powers to reproduce naturally. I couldn't help but feel that any attempt to tinker with the past would lead to even greater disaster.

I gave her an extra long hug and thanked her for thinking of my safety before we left. Eric rubbed my back as I hugged her, maintaining physical contact with me. I was sure then that he was blocking Anna Hita's ability to read our thoughts, or he believed he was. How could we be sure the ring was working without asking Anna Hita directly?

I looked back one last time as we left the lovely apartment, feeling a little sad. I wouldn't want to be in Anna Hita's golden sandals for anything. She held the keys to both the future and the past of both planets. Could anything be more dangerous?


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more to come .....(Happy weekend everyone! So glad some of you were able to post a comment. It really puts a smile on my face to read your words.

Thanks to geri1602 for writing to me through the FanFiction.Net site. Clever and creative solution to the problem we were having here. I am listed there though I do not post there. I like the closeness we have here. I feel like the people that are supposed to be will find us. See you Wednesday!)

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