Daina knew she had to think fast if she was going to be able to pull this whole thing off without getting anyone, herself especially, hurt. Looking towards the restrained vamps she tried to figure out if any of them would be of any use to her right now. They were all so easy to read really it was kind of sad.
Godric and Eric were both old enough and smart enough to figure she was working an angle, while Godric didn’t know her from Eve she figured he was taking his lead from Eric who was calm and collected about her involvement.
Bill and Jessica were both so adorably confused it was almost funny, he had over a century of experience on her and yet was just as far from figuring out what was happening as she was.
Stan of course was furious thinking she and Sookie had betrayed them all, as unflattering as the thought was it did make a certain kind of sense. They show up and then disappear into the night just in time for everyone else to get snatched and then here she stood in their prison obviously unrestrained and as far as they could tell on friendly terms with the enemy.
The woman she didn’t know just seemed to be pissed off in general at the situation, which she could understand to some degree but honestly if the woman didn’t get that look out of her eyes soon she would have zero problems with leaving her behind. She was definitely one of the bad killer vampire peoples and she was a person she would never let stand behind her if she ever had a choice about it.
Isobel though had them all topped in the anger category. While the others were really just angry or upset about being there she seemed to be furious, angry to an almost homicidal degree. Why? What could have pushed her further over the line than the others? Under that anger seemed to be hurt?
Oh well, the emotional well-being of the vampires was not one of her current problems she needed to focus on the issues at hand, main one being how to get them all out of there. She’d seen it in Gabe’s mind, if they were all still here at dawn the Fellowship was planning to have itself a bit of a vampire bon-fire.
Not that she understood exactly how they thought they would be able to control not one but seven vampires when the time came, especially when two were over a thousand years old with extra vampire abilities beyond the norm but she was guessing that it had something to do with that witch she saw in Gabe’s mind before.
The witch herself was going to be another problem, if she could capture this many vampires at one time it wasn’t very likely that she wouldn’t be able to sense them on their way out the door. First things first though, how to unchain them, because no one was going anywhere until that happened. She needed some help, luckily she came with back up.
“Sookie! Stackhouse we have a problem.”
“What happened? You didn’t get caught did you?” How dare she say such a thing! If she wasn’t so far up the creek already she would be insulted. As it stood though she was just… no she was still insulted. It was like the girl didn’t know her at all.
“Alright, first of all the fact that that was your first and apparently only guess hurts my feelings it really, really does. How dare you think that I would be so easily caught! Second, the problem isn’t with me, it’s with the situation which had changed dramatically in a way that no one, least of all me, could have seen coming. And C, How dare you think that I would be so easily caught! I know that was part of the first one but it needs repeating.”
“I’m sorry? What happened?” Much better. Not perfect since the exasperation of the sorry was broadcasting loud and clear, but better.
“Since you said you’re sorry I’ll tell you even if your apology was in question form. Now, don’t panic but they have more vampires than we originally thought they did. In fact they have our vampires. Eric, Bill, Jessica, Isobel, Stan, some woman I don’t know and a guy I’m assuming is Godric are all down here just chilling waiting for the party at dawn.”
She stood very still making sure not to show any outward sign of the headache that was starting to form while Sookie panicked. It was a long and loud panic, almost a professional panic really.
“I know you heard me say don’t panic! Stop it right now or so help me God I will turn and walk out of here right now and leave them all to die!” How did she expect her to get anything done with her screeching echoing inside her skull?
“You wouldn’t.” Oh how wrong you are, cousin of mine.
“Don’t push me woman. I may like some of these people a little bit, but this is not my fight and I would have absolutely zero problems with leaving them here. Am I making myself clear? Good! Now shut up and do exactly as I say because with this many variables this plan has already been blown to hell and we need to move quickly if we’re going to have a prayer of any of us getting out of here with our lives.” She didn’t mention that the idea that all of them would make it out of here intact was a fond wish that most likely wouldn’t come true in the near future.
Godric watched the woman who was flirting shamelessly with their guard. When she had walked into the room he’d felt the shock of recognition shoot through his Childe’s body even though there was no outward sign of it. So Eric knew this girl then, not only knew her but seemed to see her presence as a good thing, most of the others seemed to know her as well.
It was pure luck that the man’s attention was solely on the girls body because if he’d been looking at any of the younger vampires faces at the moment of their arrival he too would have known that she was not the stranger she pretended to be. The younger ones allowed far too much of their inner thoughts to show through for all to see.
Focusing on his Childe’s inner most emotions towards the girl he found fondness, annoyance, and hope. Eric saw the girl as their salvation? Not that either of them had given up on trying to free themselves since their capture, but he seemed to see the girls arrival and misdirection as a step in the right direction. Interesting.
Looking towards the girl herself, he found that while her body and voice seemed to be doing all the right things to keep their jailors attention he saw in her eyes that her mind was a million miles away from their cell and this place.
It had been clear from the moment of shock that had shown in her eyes upon first stepping foot over the threshold that she had not expected to find them all here, since the others had only arrived barely an hour past he assumed she’d been expecting to find only him within the walls of this holding place.
Whatever plan she’d had before was likely now either completely useless or needed to be adapted and he found himself fascinated by her ability to do so, it was rare in the youth of this era. He could hardly wait to see her in action. Strangely he seemed to harbor no doubts within himself of her success.
Sookie had no idea what the next step was going to be after pulling the fire alarm and got everyone out of the building and hopefully out of their way or even what the next, next step was going to be. Daina was keeping her and Jason in the dark about the new plan and she was steadily letting Jason know exactly what she thought of that high handedness.
“What if there ain’t no real next step Sook?” Her brother’s curious question pulled her out of her rant and back into reality.
“What do you mean?” There had to be a next step. It wasn’t like they’d evacuate the vampires with everyone else after she pulled the alarm after all. If anything they were more likely to let the whole building burn just to burn the vampires inside it, it wasn’t like they couldn’t afford to rebuild if they did.
“I mean from what you done told me the plan y’all came in here with done been shot to shit and now you’re just slapping this one together on the spot. Maybe the ‘next step’ depends on what happens after this step.”
Maybe he was right. Maybe Daina wasn’t sharing the next step because even she didn’t really know what it was yet. Well, if Jason was feeling chatty there were a few things she wanted to know about.
“What in the world are you doing here anyway Jason? You know these people are just all a bunch of fanatical nutjobs right. Hell, if you wanted to join up with people like that you’d have been just as well off joining up with the local skin heads back home. More so really cause at least then you would still be in Louisiana and around people you actually know.” Sometimes she just didn’t understand what went on in that head of his.
“Only because you refuse to take a look.”
“Shut up Daina! I am not invading his privacy like that. He’s family.”
“We’ll analyze that statement later, after we’re all not dead, for now just pull the alarm. It’s time to get this party started.”
“Don’t start with me right now Sook, I know I got some explanations to be giving you and everyone else but not right now alright.” He sounded so beat down already that she decided to let the issue drop.
“Okay, I’ll wait.” For now. Reaching over she pulled the handle to sound the fire alarm and watched as the entire building filled with lights and the sound of an electronic voice advising evacuation.
“Now what Daina?” When the answer came she could almost taste the impatience that laced every word.
“Now you two get down here!”
Oh right, that made sense.
“Come on Jason we gotta get to Daina.”
“Alright Sook, lead the way. I’m right behind you.”
It took a bit of doing and some really creative suggesting but Daina finally managed to get Gabe to leave her alone down in the basement with the vampires while he went out to see what was going on. After all he was the big strong second in command. Oh boy, was she glad she didn’t have to deal with him any more, stroking his ego was a hands on activity she could do without.
Turning back she got to the vamps just as the door leading towards the main level closed behind his inflated backside.
“Okay here’s how this is gonna go, we didn’t really plan on having to rescue this many of you so we’re sort of just winging it here. Sookie and Jason should be down here any minute now and we’ve got about five minutes after that before everyone else realizes that this whole thing is a false alarm, they give the all clear, and we’re all caught. I got the key off of good times Gabe back there but even with it having to unlock six locks per each of you and there being seven of you this is still gonna be cutting it close to the wire. Eric and Godric are the oldest so I’m gonna undo them first, then I’ll just work my way down the line first person to try to attack me gets left behind. We all clear? Good, let’s get started.” The fellowship had truly gone a bit overboard with locking them all up. Not only were they cuffed around each wrist and ankle, but also one around the waist and another ‘round the neck. They did not want them down easy.
“How did you manage to get the key?” Yes Bill, because that is the most pressing bit of information at the moment.
“What, did you think I kept feeling up Gabe’s shorts because I wanted to see the surprise inside? I picked his pocket, duh.” Such a waste of, well everything.
“Wait so you didn’t turn against us?” Since it was Jessica who asked she supposed she could go ahead and answer her. If it had come from Bill or one of the older vamps she would have just ignored them on principle. If you’re that old and still don’t have the brain power necessary to puzzle something like this out then you deserve to be left in the dark.
“No, we didn’t turn against you. After Billy boy over there ordered himself some room service in the form of a shapely redhead who moans like a pornstar, Sookie and I went out for the night. We went to the Fellowship bar here in town to try and find out for sure one way or the other if Godric was really here, because I so hate wasting my time looking for things that aren’t really there to be found. While we were there we did find out that he was here but we also found out that our cousin Jason was hanging around here and we didn’t want him catching the heat for us letting the nice vampire man escape. So we decided all spur of the moment like to come here tonight so we could get Jason out and at the same time free the one vampire we thought we needed to rescue when he was able to just walk out the door under his own power and we wouldn’t be stuck trying to carry a heavy coffin past security. The rest of you were a bit of a surprise, but I’m very flexible and now we’re doing things this way.”
By the end of her little explanation Sookie and Jason had finally shown up to lend a hand. She handed Sookie the key, while Jason found a discarded prybar and she got to work with the makeshift lock picks she’d found in a pile of discarded tools and odds and ends. Hopefully they could get this all done before the alarm shut off and they were back in the hot water they’d just barely gotten out of before.
“What was Jason even doing here?” Wow, baby vamp had to be one of the most annoying creatures she’d ever met. She was suddenly beyond glad that she was going home after this little adventure.
“Well, you’d have to ask him what the original plan was for coming here but from what I’ve heard in reality he was mostly just doing the Reverend’s wife.”
“Daina!” What? That was hilarious and was just begging to be shared with the group. It was definitely a moral booster.
“In the church no less.”
“Jason! How could you?” Sookie sounded so scandalized she just wanted to laugh.
“Oh, don’t be so hard on him Sook, she started the whole thing. He was behaving himself, trying to be a good boy, keeping his pants firmly zipped for the first time in forever when suddenly there was a hand grabbing hold of him out of nowhere. Believe me when that happens you just shrug your shoulders and go ‘why not’. Trust me on that one.”
Sookie was looking back and forth between her and Jason like she didn’t know who to be more angry with. Eric on the other hand was looking distinctly amused and even seemed to have that male look of agreement in his eyes. The one that just seems to scream “What else was he supposed to do but jump her if she was asking for it so bad?” She was in complete agreement, it takes two to commit adultery after all.
“Stop being so pious Sook, you know us better than that. Now we need to get this done!”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than the lights and alarms stopped. Looking up and down the line she saw that while Eric and Godric were nearly completely out all of the others were still either mostly or still completely restrained. So much for that plan time to move on to plan B. Apparently when the Fellowship really wants to they can move with the swiftness of a cheetah, plus they were probably extra motivated to deal with this whole thing quick and quiet like without the aid of the actual fire department what with their special guests here.
“Well, I guess it’s time for plan B.”
“Daina, this was plan B.”
“Alright then, plan C, honestly Sookie now is not really the time to be criticizing plan names.”
“Sorry, what’s plan C?”
“I’ll tell you as soon as I’ve thought of it.”
Hearing the door to the basement begin to open she caught the thoughts of Gabe and he wasn’t alone; both Newlins were coming with him to check on their “guests”. More than that though, right on their heels like a faithful puppy came the reason for Isobel’s anger and hurt feelings, it was Hugo, her “pet human” she’d intended to loan out for this super secret rescue mission. The Dallas vamps had been betrayed and now they were all so screwed.
Daina took a deep breath and decided on a plan, sort of, well it was at least more of a plan than what she started with so she felt just fine with calling it a plan now. Heck it was even more of a plan than the original plan of action. Turning back towards the room she ran up to stand between Jason and Sookie and explain what was about to happen.
“Okay, Sookie you’re gonna stay here and get these vamps down. Eric and Godric first, I swear if I find out you let Bill go before the two who can actually help save our bacon I will kill you myself. Jason you’re coming with me.” Sookie gave her a look that screamed how insulted she was at the suggestion, but come on now it’s not like the thought never crossed her mind to save her honey first.
“Well, alright, what’re we doing?” Good old Jason, always willing to lend a hand even when he didn’t have a clue.
“Something we’ll likely go to hell for.”
“Okay.” Oh, she could feel the favorite cousin status starting to shift. He didn’t really have much in the way of brains but at least he embraced it.
“Just follow my lead and hopefully before this goes too far we’ll have two big strong vamps backing us up and keeping us from getting killed.” Fingers crossed.
She waited until Steve Newlin was on the last step before she got started. She came running out towards them with Jason just behind her.
“Jason, I can’t believe you would do something like this! Didn’t you learn anything growing up? Mr. Newlin, hi there, I’m Jason’s cousin and I just want to apologize on behalf of my family. Honestly it was never our intention to raise such a low down dirty hound dog, but these things do happen. I’m just sorry that it had to happen to you. Here you are trying to give no future Jason a purpose in life, you invite him into your home, and this is the thanks you get.”
By now Jason had caught on to what she was doing and she could feel his resolve to play along strengthen. He might not retain much in the way of book learning and the like but when it came to people he had the Stackhouse gift for pushing their buttons.
“Now damn it woman you just hush up about this. It ain’t none of your concern what I do. I’m a grown ass man.”
She could tell their little audience was beyond confused, except for Sara who was now beyond scared. She knew what they were talking about and while she’d been planning to tell Steve about her and Jason all along so that she and Jason could be together this really wasn’t how she wanted it to go. She wanted him told in private where she could still save face not here out in the open where everyone would know her sin.
“Grown man my ass, you’re nothing but a spoiled little boy always wanting the new shiny toy.” Still nothing from Stevie boy, looks like Jason ain’t the only one here without a whole heap of smarts. Maybe if she was a bit more direct the lights would come on. “Even if the toy is married to someone as good and wonderful as Mr. Newlin here.”
Finally! Steve looked to Sara for her to deny what was being implied and when she did nothing but avoid his eyes he knew it was true. Just like that they were off. Every one of them was yelling at someone for something. Edging closer to Jason she started moving both of them back away from the group as she felt the two newly freed vampires getting closer.
Just as it looked like Steve was about to come off the steps and after Jason they all heard Gabe give a deep moan of pain. Like they were all attached by a string every head in the room snapped to the side to see what was wrong and what they saw stunned them all, though some were more stunned than others.
There at the bottom of the stairs against the wall stood Gabe with a vampires hand in his chest grasping his heart. About a dozen thoughts flew through her mind at the sight but the only two that stuck for more than a fraction of a second were Ewww and Awesome!
Slowly the hand began to draw back out of the chest until it was holding up the man’s heart that had been pulled free, they all stood frozen and watched in sick fascination as Eric brought the now severed heart up to his mouth and sucked on one of the ventricles like a straw in a juice box.
That action was what sent everyone into a screaming frenzy for the door, the door that Godric was blocking. Deciding she and Jason really weren’t needed for this part she dragged him towards the back where Sookie and the rest of the vampires were, she didn’t trust that female vampire enough to leave her cousin alone with her.
Sookie had gotten Eric and Godric down now, and watched them speed away to help her brother and cousin deal with the people they were stalling a few feet away. While logic said to just continue down the line and free Isobel next, she just couldn’t do it, she had to free Bill.
“Don’t worry darling I’ll have you down in no time at all.”
She didn’t know why she cared so much what happened to him, especially after what he did feeding off that girl back at the hotel, but he just looked so weak and adorable hanging there her heart went out to him. When she’d gotten him down she went to Jessica next intending to free her as well, when he stopped her.
“Sookie free Lorena next.”
What? Who the hell was Lorena? And why in the heck would she free her over Jessica?
“Why?”
“Because she is older than the others and she would be able to better protect us all should one of the humans get past Godric or Eric.”
Oh well she supposed that made sense and he looked so earnest when he said it, almost like he was pleading with her to agree with him. Why wouldn’t she agree with him?
“Okay.”
She was just freeing the last lock when something moved in the corner of her eye and she was about to turn to see what it was when the woman “Lorena” lashed out with one hand and grabbed her by the throat. What the hell?
Daina and Jason entered the little caged area just in time to see the woman grab Sookie by the neck and Bill just stand there doing nothing, wringing his hands like an old woman. When he noticed both of them standing there, seeing what he was doing, only then did he spring into action.
Unfortunately, his actions like everything else about him were well below average. The other vampire, obviously older and stronger than him, easily tossed him back leaving him looking a little dazed and confused almost like the action wasn’t part of some plan he had. Oh boy.
“Hey! Gruesome two-some out there if one of you is done terrorizing the natives could you please get your pale butt in here we have a bit of a grumpy vampire situation!” Jason just gave her a look like he couldn’t believe she wasn’t charging right in to try and save his sister. Without any kind of weapon against a vampire old enough to toss Billy boy around like a rag doll. Get real.
Besides for both Bill and this woman to be out and mobile Sookie had to have skipped past Isobel, Stan, and poor Jessica to release them both first. So a little karmic retribution wasn’t exactly a-miss. If she had just waited and gone down the line like any smart sane person would have done by the time psycho lady was out and about there would have been three other vampires besides the ever useless Bill able to help them out of this new mess.
“Daina what are you doing?”
“Waiting for back-up. Or did you think that watching me get tossed aside as easily as your loving beau would somehow make this all better?”
When no response came to that she just shrugged her shoulders, of course there was no response she was right.
“Let her go!” This from Godric, the original snatched vampire. He didn’t even bother coming back into their little section of the room; he just shouted his command and expected his disembodied voice to be obeyed. Which turned out to be a reasonable assumption since that’s exactly what happened.
With no one else in immediate mortal danger they were finally able to get the rest of the vampires freed, with one eye on psycho bitch at all times of course.
Just as things were starting to look up she turned to find the witch from everyone’s memories standing at the foot of the stairs staring at all of them with an impressive amount of hatred in her eyes. Whoa, they were in tr-ou-ble.
“Ah, hell.”
“Who is that?” Yes, because that is the most important question to be asking right this second.
“That my darling cousin is the witch who helped to catch all the vampires. Without her none of this would have been possible, let’s give her a round of applause.” If you’re not laughing you’re crying and she refused to cry in front of all these people.
“Darn it Daina, can’t you be serious for five seconds this is important.” Oh, no she didn’t just say that.
“Yes it is, thank you so much for pointing that out. I don’t think I ever would have figured out just how important this whole situation was or just how completely screwed we all were without you standing here next to me all but shouting it in my mind. What I would like to know is when you decided that I was so completely lacking in intelligence. Have you always felt I was a brainless buffoon or is this a new point of view for you?”
“Daina I didn’t-“ Sookie tried to defend herself, but she was having none of it.
“YES YOU DID! Somehow over the last few hours it has entered your mind that I am an idiot though I’m not quite sure what exactly it was that I did that gave you that impression. Ever since you and I hooked back up a few days ago all I have been hearing from you has been you talking to me like Bill talks to you. Like I am a brain damaged invalid incapable of rational thought, and I am tired of it.” Beyond tired of it. She might not be the smartest person ever, but she’d be damned if anyone made her feel like she was an inch tall. Damn it!
“Daina-“ Again Sookie tried to interrupt, most likely to defend herself and Bill all in one go, but she was just too damn tired to hear it. Any of it.
“No Sookie! I will get us out of this since you seem hell bent on laying all of the responsibility of this entire mess on my shoulders and then I will go back to my room at the hotel and then maybe if I am feeling generous you, me, and Jason can have ourselves a little family reunion chat.”
Without another word she withdrew from her cousin’s mind, making sure that the little bitch felt it, and proceeded to shut down her end of things making it impossible for Sookie to open the conversation back up without speaking out loud.
So, situation assessment. There was a very brassed off witch of indeterminate power standing between them and freedom. Godric and Eric hadn’t popped back up in the few minutes they were having their standoff which meant one of three things. Either they were dead, incapacitated, or they had left them all behind in the commotion and high tailed it back to safety all on their own. She was standing in a small caged off section of a concrete basement sandwiched between one unstable vampire, one baby vampire, two pissed off vamps who at the moment seemed either unable or unwilling to move, and her two cousins who were fairly weak in the supernatural department of things.
Wonderful.
Time to move on to plan D or maybe it was plan E now. Damn if she’d known she would have needed this many plans beforehand she would have planned ahead and brought a genius along for the ride or something.
What to do, what to do.
No sooner had a plan begun to form than the witch jumped as though shocked and a bloody hand appeared through her chest holding her heart.
Well, that worked too she supposed.
Kasey1939 
Ugh Scumbill and Jessica ask the stupidest questions and the dumbest times.
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