True Blood/Southern Vampire Mysteries Fan Fiction ❯ Counting Stars ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

I hit the ground hard—and not very gracefully. I must have blacked out for a couple seconds, though, because the vampire is no longer on top of me. I stay where I am, nervous that if I move she'll come back.
"She is gone. And will not be coming back," says a familiar voice. It's Godric. He reaches a hand out and helps me off the ground.
"Is she...did you kill her?" I ask him softly, avoiding his gaze.
"She has been ended, yes," he says, his face softening. He puts me behind him, however, and turns to face a growing crowd. "Go back inside. There is nothing to see here," he says with authority. I don't know how old he is, but people seem to listen to him.
Turning to me, he looks at me closely. "You need a ride home, yes?"
"Uh, yeah. I guess I do. I was just going to call a cab, though," I tell him, kicking off my shoes. Etiquette be damned.
"Let me drive you. Where do you live?" he says, with concern in his eyes.
"I'm all the way in Bon Temps," I say. "But I'm not going home tonight. My parents don't know I'm here. I'm supposed to be at a school thing tonight..." I trail off, noticing the flash in his eyes.
"What are you doing at a vampire bar, then?" he asks looking at me hard.
"I...uh...wanted to?" I tell him, mentally slapping myself. I could use more practice in social situations.
He groans, and rubs the bridge of his nose. "You definitely weren't supposed to be drinking alcohol then, were you?"
"Probably not," I say honestly. "I would have been anyways. It's the senior prank at my high school, and there's always booze."
"Senior prank?" he asks slowly, making a face.
"Oh, the seniors pretty much destroy the school."
"Uh huh. You put me in a precarious situation—is your friend underage?" he asks me, pulling out a cell phone.
"Yeah," I say solemnly.
"This is my child's bar. I don't want to risk him losing his business due to the immaturity of two little girls," he says roughly, grabbing my arm and pulling me back to the building.
"Hey there, buddy, don't patronize me. Okay, we fucked up. But you don't get to talk to me that way. You don't even know me. So what if I wanted to come out and relax tonight? I'm tits deep in college application, AP tests, and final exams. I'm maintaining a 4.3 GPA at my school, and wanted a drink. And I wanted that drink to not beat school," I rant, poking him in the chest. While I'm working on my social skills, I should probably work on my self preservation skills, too.
Luckily for me, he doesn't do anything. He smiles slightly, and cocks an eyebrow—a ridiculously sexy eyebrow—before shaking his head. "I would recommend not trying this again. You seem intelligent. This, was not an intelligent move. You're lucky it was me who found you out and not another vampire. Namely my son. You should call your cab and go home."
"You know what? Fine," I say, grabbing my shoes and stomping off.
GPOV
That girl is...irksome. She could have gotten Eric into a serious amount of trouble, and for what? A good time. Godric sighs as slowly walks back into the bar.
In all honesty, he was getting tired. Jaded. After two thousand years, life was getting boring. A fuck was just that—a fuck. A feed was the same. He had no passion anymore. He had been entertaining the idea of meeting the sun for a while now, but couldn't bring himself to do that to his child.
When he walks back into the bar, he motions for his child to meet him in Eric's office. When they are alone, Godric breaks the news.
"There were two underage's in the bar tonight. One is still here, the other left. I had to kill Taryn for attacking her," Godric tells his son gently. "Taryn was also feeding on a human in the restroom."
Eric growls at the revelation. "Thank you for taking care of the situation."
"My child, I believe it is time I return to Dallas," Godric says, smiling softly.
"But you just got here."
"I have been here for two weeks Eric. I'm sorry, my son, but I have responsibilities," Godric says solemnly.
Eric doesn't say anything. Godric knows that he is just hurting—he feels it through the bond.
"When would you leave?" Eric asks after a long silence.
Godric sighs. "Do you wish for me to stay?"
"For just a while longer. I wasn't prepared for you to leave so soon," Eric says, sighing in relief. He knows that his maker will stay if he truly wishes it.
Godric nods and walks out of the office, in search of Penelope's friend. He spots a young woman in a booth with a fangbanger, and walks up to them.
"Let me see you ID," he says frankly, reaching out his hand.
"I gave it at the door," she says petulantly.
Godric just glares at her until she reaches for the ID. "No. therealone."
She huffs and pulls out the real ID. Just as he thought.
"Well, Tiffany Anderson, you can be here. Technically. That drink, however, isveryillegal. You need to leave," he says firmly, grabbing her elbow. "Can you drive?"
"I, uh, yeah," she slurs, stumbling.
Godric rolls his eyes and puts his hand out for her car keys. "Where am I taking you?"
"Bon Temps," she says already taking her heels off. "You're not going to kill me, right?
"No," he says, and unlocks the car, looking for the headlights. When they reach the car, he helps her in and buckles her into the seat.
The ride to Bon Temps is quiet. From the even breathing coming from beside him, he assumes that Tiffany is asleep. With the quiet, he has time to think about the girl from earlier—Penelope. Yes, she was bothersome. But it was because she was intelligent. She didn't back down from him. She was confident enough in herself to own her mistake. The more he thought about the girl, the more he liked her.
When she sat down next to him, he actually felt something for the first time in a while. He could see in her eyes that she had wisdom for someone well beyond her years, and if what he understood about her schooling, she had the grades to prove it—at least he figured that's what a GPA was.
Godric actually feels bad for the way he acted with the girl. He didn't really even try to get her side of the story. It was still unacceptable for her to get liquor underage, but maybe there was more to it.
He shakes his head slightly. He notices that Tiffany wakes up when they are about 10 miles away from Bon Temps.
"Tell me about your friend," he says, surprising the girl.
"Well, she's probably the smartest person I know. She loves to read. She always says that in her books, she can be anybody she wishes—she can do anything her heart desires. She likes the escape, I guess. She's spent her whole life worried about college, and from the time I've known her, she's always wanted to be a nurse. She likes to help people. She's my best friend and I love her. It's my fault we were out tonight. I pressured into coming, and told her that we would be fine with the fake ID's. She just wanted to blow off some steam," Tiffany says softly, avoiding Godric's gaze.
"Your friend sounds like an interesting girl."
"My friend is everything I always wished I could be. I was never the smart one—I used to be so jealous—she got beautyandbrains. Every girl wants that, deep down."
"I...I'm afraid I was a little harsh with her tonight. I've had some things troubling me, and allowed myself to be anything but kind to her. I want to make it up to her," Godric says thoughtfully. "What would she like?"
"I can tell you that she's not the knight in shining armor type," Tiffany says laughing. "She's so damn independent. The best way to get across to her is just simply talking. She likes the logical solution, not the emotional one. She's never really been emotional about anything."
Godric listens to what the girl has to say, and slowly puts together the best way to make up for his transgressions. He can't understand it—he just knows that he feels a pull towards the beautiful girl.