Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the books or True Blood. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Still Involved
Chapter 25Lafayette delayed his hand momentarily before applying eyeliner to Godric's face. Those beautiful eyes looking at him. Normally, Lafayette would not have considered himself into blue eyes. He enjoyed the warmth of brown eyes. Godric's eyes were not cold and penetrating like Eric's, the other pair of blue eyes that Lafayette knew well, and could see just as easily when he closed his. Perhaps he was a still a romantic at heart, even as a vampire, to call it love.
Rather than brushing on the make-up while it was still wet, Lafayette brushed his thumb over Godric's cool cheek. His maker's warning that he would tire of his company could never come true. Godric was his Prince Charming.
"Do you still wish to go?" Godric asked.
"Course I do. Bunch of left-footed losers here dance worse than you, papi."
"Then what do you have to prove?"
"I don't like the way they snub me, when you're not looking. They're jealous."
"If you say so, yet I am not interested in having any of them live in my nest. It will remain you and I."
The corners of Lafayette's lips lifted. Unlike Dallas, Godric only allowed the vampire king to come into physical contact with him here, and Lamar was a preening bitch afraid of Godric ever saying 'boo' to him so his orders were phrased as suggestions, which Godric did not always take.
Godric was his, his alone, with Eric hundreds of miles away.
"Have you finished with my face?"
"No, cher, stay still," Lafayette replied, dipping his brush back in the liner.
He did not have to tell Godric to remain still because Godric was quite good at not moving. If Lafayette poked his lover in the eye, he suspected Godric would calmly ask him not to do that again, rather than flinch.
Lafayette fussed with a little brush, even though Godric's eyebrows were fine. He loved touching his maker. He even got away with putting some balm on his lips, even though Godric argued that they would never become softer.
Kneeling before Godric to check the laces on his boots, Lafayette's hands rubbed his bare knees, then slid up under the kilt, into the legs of his snug-fitting boxer-briefs.
"We are not going dancing at a club?"
"Just getting' you all hot and bothered for later," Lafayette promised, even though he knew it took a great deal of foreplay to get Godric in the right mood. He was still capable of having sex, but Lafayette wanted Godric to enjoy it too.
*** Tru Blood *** Tru Blood ***
Sookie woke early to the sound of Benedict crying. He certainly had a healthy pair of lungs. There, she started the day with a positive thought, and it was going to keep getting better. Better and better, she said to herself as she got out of bed. She was going to get a lot done today. The sun was just rising, so that meant no vampires for hours. Hopefully, no fairies too.
Her positive attitude overcame the tiredness she should feel. Sookie was home, where she wanted to be, and all she needed was to have some coffee in her own kitchen to get herself in the starter's blocks.
Tara was downstairs, wearing a robe and alone, using the stove, heating something up in a saucepan.
"Did we wake ya?" she asked.
"Yeah, but that's okay, I wanted to get an early start," Sookie replied, before adding, "good morning."
"Yeah, mornin'. He does this every day, y'know. Benedict thinks he's a god damned bird or something."
"Uh huh," Sookie agreed, opening the cabinet to get a filter. She did not have an opinion to offer since her parenting anecdotes came from Arlene.
"You haven't said much about Lafayette."
"He's … um, good."
"You didn't stay long. Who paid to get you back here so quick?"
"Uh, I didn't make myself clear. I said I wanted to get home right away, and by the time something was said to me, there was a ticket and a car to pick me up."
"So, how fat is the guy he's with?"
"Huh?"
"Old, like in his 50s or 60s? Some of them that were around when they treated us bad get a taste for the dark meat …"
"Tara, it ain't like that. He's living with Heimdall, the vampire from the hospital who saved my life."
"Lafayette's got a thing for them. I think he used to do some old white vampire. So you didn't see their Daddy Warbucks then?"
"Tara, I think Lafayette's happy enough for now, after what happened to Jesus. Heimdall's got problems, and Lafayette takes care of him, along with some other people."
"He's gone off to pretend he's some kind of nurse for vampires? What kind of fucked up shit is that?"
"It's something to take his mind off things."
"So what's Lafayette do during the day while the fanger's dead? They got a drag queen store there where LaLa can get new shoes in his size?"
"Tara, you're cranky, and takin' it out on Lafayette. He's … fine, and he's doin' his own thing out there."
"Why would he want to live with a vampire? How much can that little shit be paying him? You don't think Lafayette's selling his blood as V, do you?"
"No, absolutely not. Listen, Tara, I didn't want to tell you this but if you're gonna keep talkin' crazy like this, I might as well come out and tell you, that Lafayette's a vampire now. I don't …"
"What? I'll stake that little …"
"I don't think that's who turned him. It must'a happened durin' that fight, when Jesus got killed, there's other vampires, and Lafayette's sayin' that Heimdall saved him, 'cept he's usin' Heimdall's real name. I think that's why they headed out to California, to keep Lafayette safe."
"Just a moment ago you were sayin' that little bastard had mental problems and Lafayette was takin' care of him."
"He does, they are, but Heimdall, or Godric's old and strong too. If whoever did this to Lafayette shows up, he can stop it. All Lafayette's got to do is keep Godric from getting sad so he tried to kill himself again."
"What kind of crazy shit is that? He's a vampire. How can he kill himself?"
"The sun. He was on a hotel roof last time, when the sun was rising."
"What stopped him?"
"Uh, me, but I don't think he understood what I was sayin'. He thought I felt something for him."
"It sounds like you do. You've got some kind of death wish?"
"No, I didn't realize all that was wrong with him. I don't want him dead, but he could be doing so much with what he knows and what he's seen, and telling other vampires what to do. He's not doing anything."
"Except playing house with Lafayette?"
"No, I mean Lafayette made it sound dramatically passionate, but Godric's straight, and he's not easy to … I mean, he's not like other vampires. His instincts aren't the same, most of the time."
"He's a vampire. And now you're tellin' me my cousin's one too. Wait till I talk to him. If I didn't have Benedict to take care of, I'd be out there, kickin' his ass … oh, and the way he calls my Benedict names and me, I should go out there."
"You don't want to do that."
"Why not?"
"Lafayette's life is different now. He's vampire."
"That still don't change where he came from."
"We both know that, but Godric's not going to understand that, and you'll find yourself dropped back off at the airport before you get more than ten words out of your mouth."
Tara grinned, "Oh, so that's why you got jetted back to Bon Temps so quick?"
"No, I mean I got huffy with Lafayette when he gave me some clothes to change into, because I tried to tell him that Godric can be a very difficult person to deal with. He's moody, unresponsive, set in his ways, and thinks he knows everything."
"What are you, his ex-girlfriend?"
"No, I mean, I got to know him, when he helped get rid of Maryann, and then when Bill got kidnapped …"
"No, Bill tried to kill you."
"… he didn't know what he was doing, and then with Russell Edgington, and Eric getting attacked by witches and losing his memory, he hid here with Eric, and then the witches put a spell on him too, and I just came to realize I got too much going on in my life to be babysitting a neurotic vampire. I mean, you saw my back porch … he threw a huge ass tree onto it. What if it had been the house when I was sleeping or it caused a gas leak?"
"You're not making it sound like someone that protecting Lafayette."
"He is, but you know your cousin, Lafayette can keep Godric happy, but I was trying to tell Lafayette eventually that's going to be too much for him, and he got angry with me."
"You're sounding crazy yourself," Tara said, turning off the flame. "I'll call him once it gets dark."
"Don't tell him I told you he's a vampire. I think he wants to keep that a secret."
"How the hell's he gonna keep that a secret? He's gonna still be shakin' his groove thang when Benedict's entering high school."
*** Tru Blood *** Tru Blood ***
Lafayette was dancing behind Godric, pressed up against him, and enjoying how the platform boots got that booty just right for Lafayette to prove to his luscious lover there was no lead in his zeppelin when something grabbed him and sank hooks into his shoulder.
Even with vampire senses, Lafayette missed what happened until the action stopped. There was the embarrassment of the music playing on as if nothing was happening, and he was lying on his back on the floor. Godric's knee was painfully placed on his jewels, and pressed down. Now wasn't a good time to say something because his savior's hands were full. One held the wrist of a hand holding a wooden stake, and the other was clenched onto another vampire's face. Besides LMFAO, screams as people got away from the vampire fight, and the screams of the man whose face was being slowly separated from his head by Godric's clawed fingers, there was a grinding from the wrist and hissing of pain from the person's mouth attached to it.
Other vampires quickly surrounded them, and another vampire got pressed face-first to the floor.
Lafayette was scared. Godric was good, but counting feet and legs, he could see they were really outnumbered.
The music stopped. The DJ saw the floor clear around some problem – fight or medical emergency, but couldn't see what was going on through the circle of backs surrounding the problem. He suspected fight with casualty or fatality because of the number of people running away.
"Sheriff," someone said.
Lafayette looked up and realized he knew this guy. He'd been at their house a couple times.
"Shit," the immobilized vampires being made to kiss the floor uttered.
"Rolph," Godric said, "we need to leave here. This attack in public, disturbing and possibly harming others is unacceptable."
When the other vampires grabbed hold of Godric's two, his maker shifted to look down at him.
Lafayette saw the concern in his lover's eyes, though it turned to annoyance when his sweetie said, "You are fine. You are vampire. Stop lying there, looking like that."
"Your knee is pinning my testicles."
"I do not weigh so much," Godric said, gracefully rising as only a vampire could in those boots, and without using his hands to push himself up.
Lafayette found him beautiful, even when he was dying. Now was only the figurative dying from the amount of pain he was in. He could see the exasperation on Godric's face prior to him reaching down a hand to help him up.
"Your feelings are hurt. Nothing more."
If Lafayette did not love Godric, he would unleash a wave of profanity on him, rather than glaring at his back as he walked away. Godric's public vampire personality was distant. Lafayette knew it, and Eric had given him the 'suck it up' speech enough times in Shreveport to know that whining about an injury was not their way.
Lafayette could not walk straight for the first couple steps till his nuts were back to being uncrushed and hanging where they should be. They were not swinging right till he got outside and caught up to Godric.
They joined the other vampires from the club in the darkest part of the half empty parking lot. Valets could only work so fast, so some had used their feet to get some distance between them and a vampire brawl.
Three were kneeling, and being held down.
"Why was I attacked?" Godric calmly asked.
Lafayette wasn't so forgiving. These motherfuckers were going to stake them, and all they could mutter was they didn't know there was a new sheriff in L.A. and Godric did not dress like one.
His foot kicked one in the face and he snarled, "If Godric feels like wearing a fucking tutu and glitter …" The words petered out both from Godric's touch and shake of his head, and the motherfucker shrugging off his steel-toed boot to the head with a sneer. Obviously Lafayette was a younger vampire, and the one on his knees decided to be a bastard about it rather than admitting he lost.
"You object to the king's decision to appoint me sheriff, or you object to a sheriff frequenting a human-run establishment known to welcome our kind and our business? Why must you make a spectacle of your horrifying behavior?"
Lafayette glanced around for a big metal pole to use as a weapon to bash these guys when they had the nerve to switch to other languages. He hated that. It was so motherfucking rude.
Godric interrupted, "I care not for this. I find your actions intolerable. Rolph, take them and find out who they are, what they wanted, and anything else. Call Lafayette when you are done. I have seen enough bad behavior for one evening."
"Yes, Sheriff."
Godric's fingers slipped into Lafayette's hand unexpectedly.
"I'd like you to take me home please."
"Now?" Lafayette asked in confusion.
"Yes."
Lafayette let go of Godric's hand and explained, "I see the car, but I gotta go get the keys from the stand in front."
"Please do."
He thought he had been fast getting the keys and tossing a tip, but when Lafayette got back, only Godric was still there. All the other vampires had left.
As he hit the alarm to unlock the doors, Lafayette asked, "You angry?"
"Why would I be angry with you?"
"Not me. Them," Lafayette replied, starting the car.
"I don't understand why they did what they did, though I would have preferred it not be in the middle of so many people that could have been seriously injured."
Lafayette stayed quiet. Godric was being Godric right now. Bunch of motherfuckers tried to stake them, and he thinks it's more important to find out the answers to who, what and why, instead of taking charge and showing them Clue-style it's Godric, with a stake, in the middle of the fucking dance floor. Right, Hammeraby. Godric had told him about the eye for an eye, hand for a hand guy. His maker was not a supporter of that simple, God damned common sense.
"So you really want to go home?"
"Yes, please." After a moment, Godric asked, "Was there somewhere else you wanted to go?"
"No."
"Why did you ask then?"
"I sometimes don't get you."
"What do you need to know?"
"Nothing," Lafayette responded. They were at a club because he wanted to go to a club, not Godric. His inky twinkie did compromise and would do things Lafayette wanted to do frequently enough, and then a couple of shithead fangers had to go and ruin it.
"You are angry with me?" Godric asked.
"No. Maybe. I don't know. You're not even saying that we'll never go out again, or that this is all my fault."
"You knew those people?"
"No."
"Then how can this be your fault?"
"I wanted to go dancing with you."
There was a pause before Lafayette received a response. "I think we both agree that the fault with that is I do not dance well, but after taking lessons from you, I do not think I am so bad I deserve to be staked."
*** Tru Blood *** Tru Blood ***
Things had not gotten better for Sookie. Every call she made just made things worse. Except she kept telling herself things could be worse than they were now.
Paying Eric back the extra $20,000 he paid her for staying at her house was off the table pretty quick. Sookie didn't have $20,000 left. Sookie had barely $1,000 in her account, and some big-time medical debt because Jason had only been paying the minimum that Sookie had negotiated before she knew she'd be running a Bed and Breakfast for Amnesiac Vampires.
Jason, with Bill's guidance regarding 'what Sookie wanted', improved the house with Sookie's money rather than paying off her debts. What the real Sookie wanted.
And then, she called this lawyer – Mr. Cataliades. She forgot about stupid Jason and lying Bill as this smooth-talker told her that her cousin, Hadley, was dead. When? How? And somehow, Sookie owned a townhouse in the French Quarter.
*** Tru Blood *** Tru Blood ***
Lafayette's night was full of highs and lows.
He was back on top of the world, cuddling with Godric when his cell phone rang. He should'a dropped that mother fucking thing in the pool, but Lafayette had a keen interest in finding out who those vampires were, how much they needed to be tortured, and just the simple closure of knowing they had their asses staked.
But no, it was a call to get their asses over to the King's. Lamar taunted mortals through YouTube about what a gosh-darned great motherfucking neighbor he'd make. That's why Godric lived nowhere close to Lamar, even though they both resided in the Los Angeles area.
Since Godric wanted to travel by foot, Lafayette dressed more comfortably than the outfit he had worn earlier to the club. Getting dragged across town by Godric was nothing like dancing.
During the trip, Lafayette speculated on who those vampires were that Lamar got involved. Lamar let Godric do his sheriff thing solo. And that's the way Godric wanted it.
So who the hell were these out-of-town hookers? That's what Lafayette had in mind as they bypassed the waiting room where the little people vampires got to cool their heels night after night till Lamar could bother to see them.
Godric was not a little people vampire, and neither was Lafayette.
Lafayette already had Lamar in the jive-ass column. He had some style, nothing when compared to Lafayette, and when it came to substance, Lamar seemed shallower than a half-filled, $9.97 plastic kiddy pool from Wal-Mart.
Not even sitting up from where he was sprawled on his gold-leaf chaise lounge, Lamar commented, "You got here fast."
Godric nodded. "I saw no reason to keep you waiting, my liege."
"I need a Sheriff or two to come with me to the upcoming summit, and I've chosen you."
"I am not a negotiator," Godric answered.
"True. But I don't want to worry about what kind of deals my sheriffs are making that might run contrary to my desires. You're perfect, Godric."
His maker was perfect. Lafayette would stake anyone who said different. He liked travelling with Godric. There was first-class, and then there was vampire-class. And Lafayette was born to be vampire-class. He laid his fingers on the back of Godric's arm.
"Will you be hosting the summit this year?"
"No, it's being held in Rhodes." Lamar added, "Not the real one. The one near Chicago. You can travel with me on Anubis. And if your fledgling can't handle himself since he seems to not want to let go of your hand, him too – but fledglings are to be seen but not heard."
Lafayette was a work of art. Of course, people would want to see him with Godric. They needed to go shopping.
*** Tru Blood *** Tru Blood ***
By evening, Sookie had to admit, she needed help. Double shifts at Merlotte's, once she paid Sam back for the taxi ride and got her job back, was gonna take a real long time to get her back on her feet.
She made the dreaded call, and after maneuvering through Pam got Eric on the phone. "Eric, I'll do that job, but after that, I'm out. No more vampire work."
"Excellent, lover. I am also attending the summit as part of the Queen's retinue."