It was a hard day for both Eric and Brooklynne. The half-fairy had to silver the vampire and her heart squeezed more and more each time she heard his screams of pain. But that was nothing compared to the many hours that followed during which he fought and begged to be unchained. It was as if he was possessed, as if he had forgotten who he was and who she was too. All he wanted was to go out and meet the sun, and Brooklynne lived her afternoon in fear that he would somehow manage to escape the many silver chains she had put him under.
The entire vampire community of Bon Temps had never been more relieved to feel the moon rise in the sky. As soon as the sun had set, Brooklynne had thrown the chains away, ripped them off like bandages, freeing Eric from the constant pain which had saved his life.
Her blood healed him quickly, and though she wanted to spend the rest of the night with him, making him forget all the pain he had just gone through, they couldn't stay in as Bill was waiting for them at his house, if Bill had survived the day, that is.
"One vampire? Are you sure?" Brooklynne asked Sookie as she found her sister watching TV in the living room.
"Yeah, only one vampire died today."
"That's already one too many," Eric said.
"How come she didn't chain herself?" Brooke asked.
"No one knew she was a vampire, apparently. She's Maxine Fortenberry's neighbor, she would've known," Sookie scoffed.
"So no one warned her," Brooke guessed.
"Bill needs us," Eric said as he took Brooke's hand. "He's gonna have to explain what happened to the media, and he's gonna want to talk to that witch."
Brooklynne nodded. "Let's go."
Sookie waved her sister goodbye before she took the remote and started changing channels. But, a few seconds later, she realized something that made her jump off the couch.
"Wait, what do you mean 'talk to that witch'?!"
***
"Nice interview," Eric said as Bill walked through the doors of his office, where he, Brooke and Sookie were waiting for him, along with the other sheriffs.
"Thank you, Eric," Bill replied with as much sarcasm. His cocky smile disappeared, however, when he saw Sookie was there. "What are you doing here?"
"Eric said you were going after the witch. I wasn't gonna let her come here alone."
Brooklynne rolled her eyes. "I did fine 'alone' for a year, Sook."
"And now I'm here to help," she shrugged.
"I don't need your..."
"Any help is welcomed," Bill cut her off. "Especially against Antonia. She's agreed to a meeting. Tonight."
"She has?" Brooklynne raised an eyebrow. "I thought all she wanted was for all of you to die."
"Indeed," Bill sighed. "Which is why, even though I promised we'd meet alone, you all will be coming with me."
"She won't keep her promise either, anyway," Eric said.
"I'll offer her a peaceful resolution to our... problem. And she will refuse, I expect... Which will lead to..."
"A fight," Sookie interrupted him.
"Which is why you shouldn't be here," Brooke mumbled.
"If you can be here, so can I."
"I've been doing this for a year, Sookie, I know what I'm doing."
"I have the same..." she paused, realizing there were other vampires around, vampires who didn't need to know about their powers, "...abilities, as you. I can wield a stake just as well."
"Bill..." Brooke whined, hoping he could stop her from coming. But the vampire misunderstood the situation.
"I will keep an eye on her, I promise," he nodded.
Brooklynne opened her mouth but no sound came out of it, stunned. She looked up to Eric for help.
"I'll look out for her too," he promised, knowing, just like Bill, that there was no stopping Sookie.
"Urgh," Brooke gave up. "Fine. What's the plan?"
***
The plan. The plan had gone terribly wrong. In all the ways it could have, and even in ways no one could have ever imagined. As previously thought, Marnie/Antonia didn't come alone, and even though they were outnumbered by Bill's people, human and vampire, it appeared that Marnie had won this battle, and they had lost more.
In an effort of sparing human lives, despite their efforts to kill all vampires present in the cemetery, Bill had lost control of his men, and Sookie got caught in the crossfire. Was she hurt by a wooden bullet from the witch's side or by a regular bullet from Bill's guards, no one knew. But she was hurt, and only vampire blood could save her. However, Bill was nowhere to be found. But unlike the vampire, a werewolf had appeared out of nowhere, to save the day. Or rather, the night.
"Alcide what are you doing here?" Brooklynne asked between two breaths, as she was running as fast as she could behind him. He was tall, he was strong, and it didn't help that he was a werewolf too. He was twice faster than she was, even with a half-dead Sookie in his arms.
So, she ran, leaving Eric, Bill, even Tara and Holly behind in the cemetery. Though she was worried for all of them, she couldn't help but feel more than irritated towards her human friends who were actively trying to kill her boyfriend.
"I heard about the meeting, I came to see if you had stayed out of it!"
"You came because you knew we hadn't." "Where the fuck are Bill and Eric?" she cursed mentally.
As if summoned by her thoughts, a vampire passed them by suddenly, taking Sookie out of Alcide's arms, making him trip over his own feet. He growled, unhappy by the vampire's disrespectful actions towards him, hoping it would at least save Sookie.
"Who was that?"
"Didn't see," she replied. "Come on."
He got to the house before she did but saw the same thing he did as she entered the living room behind him. Sookie, lying on the couch, Bill hovering before her, feeding her his blood. Her eyes were opened, and she already looked more alive than a few seconds before.
"Is she okay?" Brooke asked as she kneeled near the couch.
"She'll be fine," he said with a worried tone as if that wasn't true at all.
"Then why you're looking like she's already dead?" Alcide barked at the vampire.
"It's Antonia..."
"We should have killed her when we had the chance," she mumbled.
"Brooklynne," Bill started to say as he stood up with a grave look on his face. "She took the sheriffs."
"What?"
"She's controlling them. She's a necromancer, remember? She left with the sheriffs. All the sheriffs."
"All the... what?" she repeated in a weak voice as she started to understand.
"Brooke. She left with Eric. I'm sorry."
It seemed like the air had left her lungs suddenly, all of it, at once, and was replaced by pure rage. Her hands turned to fists and her eyes turned to weapons as she drew a slow breath.
"I'm gonna kill that fucking bitch."
***
Brooklynne fidgeted all day, sometimes pacing around, waiting impatiently for night fall, sometimes trying to calm herself down and stop herself from going to Moongoddess Emporium herself. But she knew she wouldn't be able to save Eric in bright day light. It would be useless, and nothing more than a suicide mission to go out there alone. Sookie watched her sister closely all day long, and it's only near the end of the afternoon that an opportunity arose for both sisters to do something useful, without the help of a vampire. For once.
Both sisters were confused when they found Debbie standing on their porch. Sookie almost had a heart attack when the werewolf took out flowers from behind her back, like it was a shotgun she was pointing at her chest.
"What are you doing here, Debbie?" Sookie asked awkwardly as she took the flowers.
"Can we talk?" the werewolf replied with a nervous smile. "About Alcide?"
"Is he okay?"
"Yeah, he's fine," Debbie waved away Brooklynne's concerns. "So... can we?" she asked Sookie again.
Sookie hesitated, trying to ignore the flashbacks of the first and last time Debbie had come to this house and tried to kill her.
"Sure," she attempted to smile. "Come on in."
The three women sat around the table in the kitchen, all of them nervous, but for vastly different reasons.
"So... what's wrong?" Sookie asked.
"I know Alcide came here last night."
"Did he tell you?"
"No."
"Then how do you know?"
"He had your blood on his shirt."
"How do you know it was my blood?"
"I recognized the smell."
Sookie grimaced. "Nothing happened last night... if... that's what you're worried about."
"I... no," she chuckled as she shook her head. "Alcide cares about you... And... I care about Alcide... And I know... I know it would mean a lot to Alcide if we got along... And I know you're having some troubles right now... with witches... so I came to offer you my help... you know... so you can grow to trust me."
"Debbie... you tried to kill me."
"I know," she nodded. "I was really fucked up back then and... nothing will change the fact that I tried to kill you... twice. And I would be crazy to think we can become best friends," she let out a nervous laugh. "And I ain't crazy... I just... want to be of service... so maybe someday we can all hang out together, with Alcide and all."
Sookie wasn't convinced, though Brooklynne had accepted Debbie's apologies a long time ago, back when she had needed Alcide's help to look for her sister.
"Let me listen to you," Sookie said as she tried to grab Debbie's hand.
"What?" the werewolf easily freed her hand from Sookie's grip.
"Let me hear you," the telepath insisted.
Unable to focus long enough to hear whatever Debbie was thinking, Brooklynne effortlessly stayed out of the werewolf's head, but whatever it was, Sookie seemed to be satisfied with it.
"You meant it, when you said you wanted to help?"
"Yeah!"
"Brooklynne needs to wait for night fall cause Bill's got this meeting at the town hall with a bunch of journalists and stuff, and they're gonna go look for Eric afterwards."
"You want me to go with you so you don't have to wait?"
"The three of us won't be able to take down Marnie," Sookie explained, "or Antonia, or whatever her name is. But if we leave now, it'll be nighttime when we get there."
"You want to free Eric?"
"I don't think I'll know how to do that, but maybe I can hear what Marnie... Antonia, whatever, wants or is planning to do, so we can stop her."
"Why isn't Bill helping you with this? Can't he cancel that meeting?"
"He tried," Brooke said. "They Authority won't let him."
And, by the Authority, she meant Nan Flannagan, who, even if she had wanted to, couldn't cancel that awaited event.
"But isn't Eric your boyfriend?" Debbie asked. "Why aren't you coming with us?"
"I signed a contract," she sighed. "I'm working tonight. I'll be making sure no human is even thinking about screwing this up to make the vampires look bad."
"Nan promised to give resources to help find Eric and the other sheriffs if Brooklynne comes and helps them tonight."
"And like she said... it's just the three of us without them."
"I see..."
"Don't get my boyfriend killed," she told her sister.
"I think she has other plans for him, we just need to find out what."
***
The evening was going smoothly, with all participants, aside from a few idiots armed with cameras, hoping for a catastrophe to occur, on the same page. Vampires are good, vampires aren't a threat, vampires deserve rights, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
Nan had thought out the entire evening from start to finish. She found a perfect American girl from a good family with a blue headband in her pretty hair and a vampire sister. She gave her a speech and she gave her a mic and all she needed to do was talk about how vampires gave her her sister back when they came out of the coffin three years ago. Some tears here and there in the audience and voilà. The perfect flawless plan to gain some sympathy points.
Perhaps Brooklynne would have been impressed. Perhaps she would even have noticed how, in this event where they were supposed to celebrate vampires, only three vampires in total were present: Bill, Nan and Julie, the vampire sister. But Brooke was too impatient, and she was only waiting for it all to be over so they could go and tear that witch apart. And as of a few hours before the event even started, she had another thing to be worried about, as Sookie still hadn't called or texted. She wondered how Bill was going to react once he knew where Sookie had gone.
The event was slowly coming to end as Nan finally gave the mic to Bill for a last speech. A speech she may not have written, but she had at least read and approved, for sure. But she had nothing to fear from Bill, and she knew it, at least on this matter. Bill was a loyal mainstreamer on whom she could count on to not fuck such an important event up. That was why she had made him King after all.
"What a wonderful night for a wonderful cause," Bill started to say with a smile plastered on his face. "But make no mistake. There is still much work to be done, for history teaches us that war can sound a louder call to action than can peace. That a message of hate can seduce an impressionable mind far more readily than a message of love. Which means we must remain vigilant..."
"Bill!"
The vampire paused as he heard Sookie call his name. Brooklynne stood up from the chair she had been sitting on for almost two hours now and started looking for her sister hidden in the crowd, ignoring Nan's next words.
"Oh, Jesus fucking Christ."
"Sookie?"
But both Bill and Brooklynne were unable to find the telepath as they were distracted by screams and were now trying to locate the cause. As the room started to empty itself in a dangerous hurried mess Brooklynne looked up to find the three missing sheriffs holding three armed human guards by the spine above the balcony. They then proceeded to remove their heart and their lifeless bodies fell on the ground but not as fast as the sheriffs found their way downstairs, among the scared human crowd.
"Bill!" Sookie called again.
Brooklynne looked but could only see the sheriffs from area 1, 2 and 4. Eric was nowhere to be found.
"Bill! He's coming for you!" Sookie shouted.
"Sookie!" Brooke called, hoping the 'he' wasn't who she thought it was.
But there he was, standing at the balcony, his beige shirt stained with blood, his fangs out and menacing.
"Eric!" she called, but even if he had heard her his mind wasn't his own at the moment.
The possessed Viking flew to the stage and grabbed the King by the shirt before sending him fly across the room.
"Eric!" she tried to get his attention, but even though they were a few feet from each other, he barely acknowledged her.
"Must kill the King," he said before running off the stage and towards Bill.
Eric jumped on Bill who was on his knees. Unable to defend himself he felt Eric's arms around his head and his hands on his neck and the True Death seemed closer than ever as he felt like his head would be removed from his shoulders in the next seconds.
"Let go of him!" Sookie yelled as she jumped on Eric and tried to get him off the King.
Of course, her efforts were futile as the vampire effortlessly pushed her away and she fell back on her ass, surprisingly surprised.
Nan was going around the room, stabbing the possessed sheriffs in the heart with sharp pencils while Marnie/Antonia and her human acolyte were still chanting up there on the balcony.
"Eric, stop it!" Brooklynne shouted as she finally joined them on the battlefield.
"Go home," he growled.
But she had distracted him enough for Bill to free himself from the Viking's arms. The King took out a small gun from his pocket which he used to shoot Eric.
"What are you doing?!" Brooklynne shouted.
"Get out of here, Brooklynne. Take Sookie. That's an order!"
"Silver bullets..." Eric groaned as he got off the ground, the bullet falling from his bloody wound to the ground.
"Hell no! I'm not gonna let you hurt him!"
"I don't have a choice!"
As she saw Bill was once again pointing the gun at Eric, the worst idea she ever had in her entire life crossed her mind. It was like a reflex, as if an object had fallen off and she tried to catch it before it reached the ground and broke into a thousand pieces. It was exactly like that, except this time the object was a bullet, and when someone tries to catch a bullet, they're the one who break into a thousand pieces.
Brooklynne jumped even before Bill had the chance to pull the trigger. Even before either of them could hear Sookie shout. There had been so many warnings, so many reasons for Bill not to shoot, and yet, he did, and he would regret it for the rest of his immortal life.
It all happened at the same time, almost at the same second.
"Enough!" Sookie shouted. "No more!"
She threw her hands in the air as Brooklynne jumped between Bill and Eric. A powerful light came out of them and it enveloped the room, blinding everyone there for a few seconds. That was when Bill did it. That was when Brooklynne felt it, the hole in her body, the pain in her chest. That was when Eric recovered ownership of his mind, when Marnie/Antonia lost control over the only vampire left, when Roy cursed in both fear and amazement, and when Nan stared at Sookie like the fairy she now knew she was.
Brooklynne fell on the ground, maybe dislocating her shoulder in the process. Who cared? That pain was nothing compared to the fire in her chest. Her hands were hovering over her wound, too painful to touch, and yet they were still hot with her warm blood. Everything hurt. Even breathing hurt. She panted and gasped, trying to get some air in and out as the blood in her throat was blocking her airways. She thought she heard someone call her name, but a loud piercing noise was resonating in her ears. Her vision was bright and blurry. She could only see lights and shadows. She saw someone, Eric maybe, she wasn't sure, then she felt a hand slid behind her back, lifting her up a little. She wished he hadn't done that. That hurt. She thought she heard him call her name, maybe he did. Maybe it was someone else, maybe it was both of them. Someone else was there, now, before her. Another pair of hands were touching her. There was some yelling, some crying, some begging. Then, suddenly, she was lifted off the ground, scooped into strong arms, each movement more painful than the other.
Then wind.
Then cold.
Then darkness.
***
"Brooklynne!"
"What did you do?!" Sookie yelled as she ran towards her sister, joining Eric who was already with her.
"I... I'm sorry," Bill breathed out, realizing what he had just done.
"No, no, no, no," Eric said, lifting her body from the ground. "Brooke..." he bit his wrist, though knowing it would do nothing. She couldn't swallow anything, she was choking on her own blood. "Stay with me," he whispered as he stroked her cheek. "Don't leave me."
"Heal her, do something!" Sookie shouted at both of them. "Do something!"
"Brooke, stay with me," Eric begged. "Don't leave me," he repeated over and over again, in a small voice, almost sweet that neither Sookie nor Bill had ever heard from him, but that Brooklynne knew well.
"No..." Sookie broke in tears as she fell on her knees near her sister. "I can't lose her," she cried. "I can't lose her too."
"I'm so sorr-"
"Shut up!" Sookie yelled at him. "Shut up! I never want to see you again! Just save her or leave!"
The King stepped back, heartbroken, as he knew only one way to save her, and that wasn't for him to decide or to act upon.
"You're gonna be fine," Eric whispered to Brooklynne as a tear of blood fell down his cheek. He kissed her forehead before he slid his hand under her knees and stood up, scooping her up in his arms. "You're gonna be just fine," he repeated before he disappeared.