Swimming to the Light (Southern Vampire Mystery)

Chapter 14 - A Sudden Squall

In the days that followed Pam would ask Eric why he hadn't questioned the nature of the contract transgression with Angie. When he reflected he realized that his failure to ask such a fundamental question spoke to the depth of his depression more eloquently than any other thing. She asked him if he had known that the transgression involved the agreement about Sookie Stackhouse, would he have made a different decision? Would he have turned down the regency?

If Eric was honest with himself, he would admit that even had he known all the facts that night he would have still chosen Oklahoma over returning to Louisiana and the telepath. But he also admitted that knowing would have been better.

The feeling Eric most vividly remembered from his conversation with Angie was the sense of having a great yoke lifted from his neck.

The chain of his maker's command when he was first made vampire was heavy and harsh. Appius Livius Ocella had been a stern and demanding task master. He had enforced a particular code that fit the times from which he sprang. It never occurred to him that anyone: humans, weres or his own progeny were there for any other purpose than to serve his needs. He was oldest. It was his right to be revered. As his child it had fallen to Eric to cater to his maker's every need. It had taken many years to not feel the revulsion that had first accompanied his new role as his master's primary sexual partner. As he had told Sookie Stackhouse so many years ago he had come to appreciate that form of sexual pleasure but it had not been at first.

Appius had felt the need to inflict humiliation as a teaching tool. When Appius felt Eric was not sufficiently eager to please him or when he was short of funds, Appius would sell Eric's body to others to use. Sometimes the job assigned was as a common laborer, but more often it was as a whore. While Eric was a great fighter, Appius preferred not to have Eric use that skill for money. There was too great a risk of being found out as vampire were he to be injured. Appius presented Eric as a slave and treated him accordingly.

What struck Eric and stayed with him was his sense that this second time of imprisonment; this forced contract had been more personally painful to him than his time with Appius. If Eric had to put his finger on it, it was that with Appius he had no choice. He was compelled to obey by forces outside himself. Additionally, Appius was cruel but he never pretended Eric had no value.

This contract with Oklahoma was a chain of his own forging. His sense of honor; a code that stretched back to his human life required that he uphold his promise and the promise of his maker. That was difficult. But it was Freyda's lack of respect for him that made the situation beyond bearing. Freyda had forced him to be useless. He was relegated to being a fixture at her back. Everything that he valued about himself; all the knowledge and cunning of a life lived was counted as nothing by her. He amused himself with reading and with arms practice. His days stretched endlessly before him and within the first year he could feel the walls closing in around him. "Yes," he thought to himself. "I would have done anything to have escaped this prison."

King Felipe de Castro arrived in a procession of black cars and a sweep of his cape. He made an impressive figure striding down the length of the throne room. Freyda rose from her throne and walked forward to meet him. They bowed deeply to each other near the middle of the room.

"Your majesty!" Freyda gushed.

"Your highness!" he returned.

She turned and they both walked together to the dais where there were two thrones set side by side.

"Oh, we have so many wonderful things planned for all of us. This is going to be the best visit. Felipe, it has been just too long!" Freyda fluttered her eyelashes at her fellow monarch.

"You are so right my dear one. Angie tells me that there is a dinner planned for tomorrow night to be followed with a ball? "

"Yes and the theme is Casablanca! Angie thought of it. We'll all wear those wonderful clothes and the ball room will look just like Rick's Café American. They are already working on it!"