DAY 23: A Gift for ciasteczko – Part II

 

 

Ooh part II. Watch out for signature twists and turns 😉

 

Also, apologies to those who clicked the link yesterday and ended up on last year’s post. Part I of this story is here.

 

(still unbetad)

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Day 23: A GIFT FOR CIASTECZKO FROM HISVIKS

 ◊

THE SUBSTITUTE

 

Chapter 2

 

“She left,” Eric exclaimed, thoroughly perplexed.

 

“Isn’t that what you wanted?” Pam questioned.

 

“Well, yes, but-”

 

“But what? No kiss goodbye, farewell my eternal love? Get with the programme Eric, a modern women can enjoy a dalliance every bit as any man can these days. You may have forgotten since we were stuck in Middle of Nowhere, Louisiana for forever but times are a changing elsewhere.”

 

“I’m aware, Pam,” he growled. “I just feel so, I don’t know?”

 

“Used?” Pam supplied with a cackle.

 

“Sort of,” he frowned, “Wasn’t even interested in anything beyond the bite, just took it, and up and left. She has a boyfriend apparently, and he’s fine with it as long as there was no sexual stuff.”

 

“Did she tell you this beforehand?”

 

“Well, yes, but-”

 

“You thought it was all talk,” Pam grinned. Annoyed, he merely huffed, not really wanting to admit that but failing to counter the argument at the same time. “Hate to break it to you, but the fangbangers of Finland are a different sort, Maker mine.”

 

“It’s the hair, isn’t it?” Eric demanded, discontentedly swatting at the darkened locks. “I look like an overgrown emo. I should just draw in some acne and be done with it.”

 

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she laughed. “We have a plane to catch. If we miss it one teeny telepath is going to have an epic meltdown, I don’t know what he sees in that Sookie and that goof brother of hers but if he has to go without them this Christmas there will be hell to pay, Eric Northman. So fudge your hair!”

 

“Fudge, Pam? Seriously? When did you stop saying fuck?”

 

She shrugged, “It’s not nice to swear in front of children and it’s like those crisps Hunter likes, once you pop you can’t stop.”

 

“That makes no sense, Pam. Besides he’s with the nanny in the car,” Eric replied with a roll of his eyes. “Who no doubt you’re fudging during his nap times.”

 

“Nothing wrong with a woman satiating her sexual appetite with a consenting party,” she purred with a lascivious grin. “It’s not my fault you seem to court a different sort.”

 

“It really is the hair, isn’t it?” he demanded angrily shaking the carefully combed shape out of it with his fingers. “I am no longer attractive with it, I mean really who wants to fuck this dark shade of shit. I look like a fucking emo Play Mobil puppet. Who the fuck would be attracted to that?”

 

“Will you stop it,” she huffed while swatting away his hands and smoothing the hairs back in place. “You’re attractive as fuck, nothing’s changed that in a thousand years, so why would it now? Besides, you’re attracting exactly the type of woman you want right now.”

 

“Which is?”

 

“A feed without a fudge,” she replied with little patience. “You’re practically wearing a promise ring for that Sookie. Although a cock cage to which she has the one and only key to would probably be more accurate. Can we go now and unleash that monster, already?”

 

“Fine,” he replied tersely.

 

“You never did explain what happened between you two-”

 

He sighed, taking pity on Pam’s questioning look that he never fully answered, not that he would now, “Let’s just say she won’t be relinquishing that key anytime soon.”

 

“I knew we should have just handed her over to Sophie-Anne when we had the chance,” Pam complained. “Look at us now, hiding like scared dogs. This isn’t the way you raised me ,Eric. We could still-”

 

“Pam,” he warned lowly, silencing the conversation immediately, his mind falling back to the first time they had this conversation, but certainly it wouldn’t be the last.

 

 “So,” Pam drawled leisurely, sipping her blood from an oversized wine glass when Eric joined her in the living room. “We give her to Sophie-Anne, right?”

 

“One telepath for another,” he grinned, tapping his fingers lightly against the glass of the window that gave a perfect view to the guest quarters containing their latest boon that simply fell into his lap, well close enough to his lap. “It’s almost as if the gods were looking out for us.”

 

“It’s good to know we’re in agreement then, our troubles are over.”

 

“Pam,” he spoke disapprovingly. “You’d subject her to the fate you so desperately want to spare Hunter from? What we’re moving heaven and earth for? Breaking vows and oaths as if they mean nothing?”

 

“Eric Northman, have you gone soft?” she demanded with a wrinkle of her nose, the distaste of the mere notion palpable. “Oh, fuck! You like her! You don’t like anyone! Don’t you dare turn her!”

 

“You could stand to extend the same sympathy you grant Hunter to Sookie,” he pointed out.

 

“Why?” she cried out, incensed. “This is what we’ve been waiting for Eric. Sophie-Anne wants a telepath, we give her one and she’ll leave Hunter alone. He has a chance to be normal! To stay with us without constantly being on the run.”

 

“You’re not thinking it through,” Eric growled out. “What will happen when inevitably she dies? In Sophie-Anne’s court she’ll last ten to fifteen years, max. That is if another monarch doesn’t come in for the kill.”

 

“Sophie-Anne can breed her and leave Hunter alone. Stop thinking with your dick! A nice pair of tits isn’t everything,” she retorted with a huff. Eric had to smile, the contrast so rich to the first moment a young Hunter had been placed in her arms with screeching protests, from Pam, of course, but somewhere along the way the vampiress had come to care for the little boy beyond the duty imparted on her, and perhaps she cared a little too much. Eric had never thought her capable of caring much for another beyond perhaps him, let alone for her to possess a single maternal bone in her suitably chilled body but Hunter had a natural attraction to vampires and vice versa.

 

They soon discovered the cause, a lack of thoughts offered silence no beating heart, no matter how warm or affectionate, could ever provide and they finally came to understand why they were placed in charge of Sophie-Anne’s most prized possession that had gone missing within the palace one too many times. Eric, too, was quickly taken in by the tiny teacup human and somewhere along the way Hunter had weaselled his way into Pam’s cold dead heart and she, in turn, found it difficult not to reciprocate those feelings, never daring to say it aloud, but Eric knew without a doubt that she loved him beyond anything. Even him.

 

“And when she fails to produce an army of telepaths? Her brother isn’t one, Hadley wasn’t one, there’s no guarantees in breeding and after the disaster that was Hadley’s turning they won’t risk turning her. When she’s used up, they’ll demand Hunter. All this buys us is time, not enough of it. Sophie Anne will demand what is hers soon enough.”

 

“He’s my baby!” Pam growled possessively.

 

“Well, I guess,” he smirked, “that makes Sookie mine.”

 

“Gross, Eric!”

 

oOoOoOo

 

“Will you give it a rest already?!” Jason growled out. “Everything’ll be fine!”

 

“Something doesn’t feel right,” Sookie gritted out, pacing the carpet of the modest airport hotel room as if it had personally offended her. “I just can’t put my finger on it.”

 

“You scanned the place three times now, you said it was safe.”

 

“It is,” she sighed. “It just doesn’t feel it, I just-”

 

“Can’t stand the thought of anything happening to that lil’ boy by us being here,” her brother finished pulling her restless body into a hug. She relaxed momentarily before looking up at him with big eyes wordlessly. “Shit, we’re going to have to get out of here, aren’t we?”

 

“Sorry,” she whispered, “It doesn’t feel right. Eric always said to trust my gut in situations like these. Better safe than sorry you know.”

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Jason dismissed with a sigh, he was really looking forward to that Harry Potter movie that was about to start on pay-per-view. “Get yir bags, we’re movin’ on up.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Emergency procedure,” he replied with a shrug. “Fanciest hotel in town, ask for the presidential suite. Safety first.”

 

“Right,” she nodded, remembering Eric’s instructions. “Let’s go.”

 

God, how she yearned for a bit of safety now. She’d never regret leaving Louisiana under the cloak of darkness to assure her nephew had the best possible life he could. Only coming to realise what exactly he, and in turn she, had been spared from under Sophie-Anne. She’d never spent a moment since looking back but Sookie could barely remember not feeling so dislodged from consistency and regularity, the closest thing to it being Eric, an absolute jerk of a vampire who somehow made it all seem okay.

 

“The club?” Sookie asked. “The rules, the enforcement, you did all that for Hunter?”

 

“I told you she was intelligent,” he smirked at Pam. “Indeed, we’re required to operate a club by our queen but with Hunter on the premises we had to keep it a safe and clean place for all the stray thoughts, otherwise it would have been like any other fangbanging establishment. It might even have been profitable.”

 

“Whatever,” Pam replied with a roll of her eyes, she was rather proud of the classy club and genuinely sad to be leaving it behind. “In or out, Stackhouse. The clock’s ticking, the sun is long down.”

 

“If I wish to leave later, you’ll let me?” Sookie asked, ignoring Pam’s incessant tap of her nails. “I’m not to be your prisoner.”

 

“If safety allows,” Eric replied. “Without Hunter of course.”

 

“Why are you running? What danger is Hunter in?”

 

“The same as any telepath in the world of the Supernatural,” Eric replied cryptically once more. “Have you come to a decision?”

 

“You really care for him,” she said, startling herself that it was a statement, not a question. “Me coming with, it’ll keep him safer?”

 

Eric gave a nod while Pam hissed out, “You’ll remember I’m his mother.”

 

“I’m well aware,” Sookie smiled, hoping to thaw the stern face the vampiress wore. “You’re all he thinks about, he loves you very much.”

 

“Naturally,” Pam replied in a bored tone, as if it was nothing new to hear, Eric though, could clearly sense the pride she felt at that revelation.

 

“You’ll guarantee Jason will be free?” she fidgeted.

 

“It’s the promise I made, is it not?”

 

“You promise we’ll be safe? All of us?”

 

“As much as I am able, and it is all I am able to offer,” he conceded. “The risk will always be there, but it’s a known risk, if you walk out this door anything could happen. By my estimation ‘anything’ will happen, you don’t disguise yourself well Ms. Stackhouse.”

 

“Okay, I’m coming with,” Sookie finally agreed, her stomach churning at the thought of leaving home and everything she once knew. “And stop calling me Mr. Stackhouse.”

 

“Very well, Sookie.”

 

oOoOoOo

 

“Thank the Gods, you’re safe!”

 

“Eric?” Sookie whispered sleepily, she hadn’t meant to fall asleep, wanting to make her escape at any moment if necessary, what exactly she was fearing was still unknown but the feeling of unease had yet to depart. “Eric!” Now fully aware her arms flung around the infuriating vampire, that she was only all too happy to see again. If only for a moment, as in the next a hard slap rang through the air as she smarted his cheek. “You promised us Switzerland was safe! I knew we should never have left Ireland! Where’s Hunter? Did they take him?”

 

“For fudge’s sake, woman!” he growled, rubbing his cheek, the little hybrid packed quite an unexpected punch and he’d been completely taken unaware by her rather uncharacteristic welcome as she’d actually latched onto him bodily as if he’d disappear otherwise.

 

“Fudge?”

 

“It’s not polite to swear in front of children,” he shrugged, “or so says Pam.”

 

Sookie smiled briefly before worry overtook her once more, she hadn’t been this concerned since she and Eric had gone to pick up a newly released Jason from the Dublin airport and were forced to separate when someone had spotted Eric, a stray thought alerting her of inevitable disaster. As per the outlined emergency plan Sookie and Jason had stayed in Ireland, backpacking from town to town like any old tourists, shaking any form of detection soon enough as Eric sped back over to the mainland and onto their safe house in Berlin that was quickly relocated to Riga, and then to Helsinki before they moved onto Switzerland, hoping the weeks in between were sufficient enough to sever any notion of connection between them.

 

”Where are they?”

 

“They’re safe,” he assured, “Sent them right on as soon as Hunter detected you weren’t at the agreed location.”

 

“It didn’t feel right,” she whispered almost embarrassed about it now.

 

“You did the right thing,” Eric emphasised, his thumb caressing her cheek and for once she allowed it.

 

“I’m still mad at you,” she whispered, the threat of it lacking in the statement as her hands had yet to leave his body.

 

“You wouldn’t be you without a bit of madness,” he grinned down.

 

“Are you calling me crazy?!” she demanded, wriggling out of his hold to stare him down.

 

“I said no such thing!” he denied.

 

“You soooo did!”

 

“Will you just shut up already!” he growled out.

 

“Make me!” she fired back in challenge, her next were words swallowed by his mouth suddenly latching on to hers, she resisted but for a second, not wanting to give him the upper hand per usual, her hands pushing at his chest lightly till the moment he appeared to move away from her in response and her fingers clawed into his chest daring him to leave. “I missed you.”

 

“Missed you too,” he grinned. “Guess you’re not that mad after all.”

 

“Only cause I was worried,” Sookie defended lamely. “Still mad about before.”

 

He smiled before kissing her temple, inhaling her scent and letting a sense of calm wash over him that she was safe and here with him.

 

“I have it on high authority the boy is fine,” he informed, and with her rather unbelieving expression he elaborated, “as much as a fangbanger can be, anyhow. An old friend took him from the new Sheriff as a favour to me, Compton wouldn’t dare take him from Thalia.”

 

“I still can’t believe you handed over some random boy claiming he was Hunter along with the keys to your fiefdom without an ounce of regret.”

 

“As I said then, and will repeat over and OVER again the fangbanger was more than happy to pretend!”

 

No one was more surprised than Eric that newly appointed Compton never even questioned the nine year age gap between the homeless youth that regularly trawled the back alley of Fangtasia in search of a benevolent and fanged benefactor and the official Telepath under Area Five’s protection. He had gambled on the fact that vampires had trouble discerning human ages at best, especially those that sought as little interaction with them as possible like Compton, but even Eric was surprised at the complete lack of interest the new Sheriff had expressed, far more interested in the privileges that came with the title than the responsibilities. His estimated days before detection and news of their true defection and theft of Sophie Anne’s most prized possession had suddenly granted them weeks. However, it meant the Queen of Louisiana’s wrath would also be far greater when she found out, of course she did eventually and if by ill fortune it was right around the time Jason was finally acquitted of all charges. Bill Compton had not been seen for weeks once summoned to her Majesty’s court and the possibility of easily communicating with his old allies in Louisiana had become all the more dangerous.

 

“It’s not about what happened,” she huffed, “it’s what could have happened. You were ready to gamble away his life without a second thought.”

 

“And I would again and again, don’t even make me try to apologise for that! His safety is secondary to mine, to yours, to Hunter’s, even to that brother of yours who compromises our safety at every turn. I know value when I see it!”

 

“That right there,” she growled back. “That’s everything that’s wrong with this! You don’t get to decide whose life is worth more than somebody else’s! It ain’t fair!”

 

“Life ain’t fucking fair!” Jason interrupted their standoff, startling them both with his sudden presence. “And he’s old enough to know it, Sis! Remember those authorities who wanted to put dear ol’ Jas away, they would have if he hadn’t intervened, no way you gonna tell me any of that was played fair? We do what we gotta to keep going on.”

 

“Did we wake you, Jas?” Sookie asked, failing to cut the tension in the room, not quite willing to accept the words he’d spoken as the truth when they didn’t align with her idealised world views. Pussyfooting around her brother had almost become second nature since his short stint in confinement, her brother had suddenly aged quite a lot, losing with it some of that vibrant optimistic sparkle that once defined him.

 

“YES! Now you two shake hands and make up already! I’m going to have a shower and then we’re outta here,” he instructed sternly. “This place is giving me the creeps.”

 

“What happened?” Eric asked when the surge of stoked adrenaline had subsided in them both,  Sookie releasing it by thrusting the few loose items she’d taken out of her luggage back in the overflowing backpack that held all her remaining earthly possessions.

 

“I don’t know,” she sighed, “It just didn’t feel right, like someone was watching us but not? I couldn’t sense anyone or ‘heard’ anything but it didn’t feel right, but it hasn’t left us. This place feels so foreign, nothing like all the other places we’ve been.”

 

Eric nodded in agreement, Switzerland was safe, even by Supernatural terms but with that it was an unusual space to be in. Unlike the rest of Europe where Kingdoms, Duchies, and Fiefdoms had long disappeared with the erosions of modern borders and free movement, centring power mostly in the larger metropolitan areas in a far less feudal way. Switzerland, however, remained a stronghold with strict rules and enforced borders. It was also decidedly neutral and strict on condemning any forms of violence, if it hadn’t been so restrictive it probably would have been Eric’s first choice for a collective hideout and there always was the potential for it to become that. Yes, it was safer here than probably anywhere else in the world but it didn’t mean nothing ever happened there or that just about everyone was welcome. One never really ventured to Switzerland unless they absolutely had to.

 

He handed over her scarf and her eyes met his for a moment too long, causing her to remark, “You kissed me.”

 

“Was about time we finally did that, wasn’t it?” he grinned.

 

A small smirk echoed in her face, the pad of her thumb tracing the bottom of her swollen lip, “I suppose so.” She regarded him more carefully, seeing him fully for the first time since waking with a start to his sudden presence, she couldn’t help but comment, “I like the new hair.”

 

“Yeah?” he asked shyly. “Not too dark?”

 

“Nope,” she replied, fondling it for a second before peering over his shoulder, “You didn’t need to go through the trouble of getting me a present.”

 

“I-,” he frowned, following her gaze. “That’s not from me, Sookie.”

 

Instantly they were both on alert, Sookie yelled out, “Jas! Did you get me a pressie?”

 

The noise of the shower briefly turned out, “Eh, yes?”

 

“That’s a no, then?” Eric posed and Sookie couldn’t help but nod.

 

“Don’t open it!” Sookie squeaked as Eric approached the box, but all he seemed to do was sniff at it.

 

“It smells of you and nothing else,” he noted. “You’re sure this wasn’t here before?”

 

She nodded vehemently, arching her neck forward ever so slowly to see what the lid revealed which Eric carefully lifted with the aid of a pen, going by his expression she expected the worst, peering through her nearly shut eyes and wincing, praying to every known deity under her breath it wouldn’t be the head of anyone she knew.

 

“Oh my God! What is that?”

 

EHM… THANKS TO ME? I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT CIASTECZKO! THERE WILL BE A FEW MORE CHAPTERS TO FOLLOW. 

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