True Blood/Southern Vampire Mysteries Fan Fiction ❯ The Plague of Darkness ❯ Forbidden From Valhalla ( Chapter 2 )

Author's Note: Some of the information about Bill I took from the books and others from the show. I thought Erasmus was a cooler middle name anyway.

Forbidden From Valhalla

His eyes snapped open and he sat up in bed quickly as another nightmare plagued his sleep. At the foot of the bed stood Sookie. He looked up at her in disbelief as if she were a spectre.

“There's a cure.”

Bill looked down at his chest. The corruption in him had spread as the black veins covered his chest and covered more of his body. “Sookie, there is no cure,” he whispered.

“No, no! You're wrong!” Sookie answered quickly as she sat beside him in bed. She took his hand and looked into his icy-blue eyes. She held Bill's hand to her chest. “Bill, there is a cure. I called Eric. He will be expecting us tonight.”

Bill's eyes closed tightly as a wave of pain spread through his body. His hand trembled as he resisted the urge to crush her hand against the needles piercing him, every organ blazed with fire, his skin felt fire-hot. “Eric, what does he have to do with this?”

Sookie reached out and caressed his face lightly. “You're burning up. Lay down.”

Bill released Sookie's hand and clutched his stomach with a groan. “I'm fine.”

“Yes, of course you are. Because only when people feel healthy as a horse they are doubled over in pain.” Sookie helped Bill lay in bed and covered him with the sheets. Jessica stood in the doorway as she watched Sookie caress his dark hair. Sookie followed Bill's eyes to the door. “Jess, can you get me a wet cloth for his forehead? He's burnin'up like wildfire.” Jessica nodded and rushed away.

Bill rolled onto his side and took her hand. His body spasmed as he took her hand. His breathing quickened as he looked up at her. “You shouldn't have come here.”

“Bill, I'm so sorry for everything,” Sookie sniffled. “You wouldn't be dying if it weren't for me.”

Bill closed his eyes and buried his face in the pillow. “I never wanted you to see me like this.”

Sookie caressed his dark hair,her fingers running over every strand as she did so. “Bill, we'll go to Fangtasia tonight. You'll be cured. You won't need to die.”

Bill turned his head as Jessica returned to the bedroom. Sookie thanked Jessica and placed the wet washcloth on Bill's head. “What is the cure?”

“Sarah Newlin. She drank the antidote to Hep-V. She is the antidote.”

Bill took a deep breath. “And Eric…”

“He's cured.”

Bill looked up at Jessica and Sookie in disbelief. A cool drop of water from the cloth slipped down his cheek. “What do you mean he's cured?”

“Cured! Cured, Bill! As in no more pain, no more of these black veins, no more death. You can live, don't you get it? Live!” Sookie sobbed as she caressed his cheek tenderly.

Bill sighed with resignation. “I haven't been alive for over 140 years.”

“You know what I mean, Bill,” Sookie said flatly. “Go back to sleep and get some rest. We leave at sundown.” Sookie leaned over and kissed Bill on the lips. She turned to Jessica. “Take good care of him.” Sookie left the room and walked down the stairs.

“I always do,” Jessica said as she approached the bed. She watched the sick vampire turn onto his back and look up at her. “It's a miracle. You don't have to die.”

Bill took a deep breath and laid his head against the pillows with exhaustion. “I don't know if I want the cure.”

Jessica moved around the bed and stood beside him. Her eyes narrowed with fury. “What? What are you talking about?Why would you want to die?”

Bill looked up at Jessica and pat the bed beside him. Jessica slowly sat beside him and looked down at him with anger. “Jessica, you are still a baby vampire and-.”

“I'm not a baby! I'm a grown woman who already had her period on in her human life,” she said with a bloody tear running down her face.

“In space and time right now, Jess, you are still a baby. You're only seven vampire years old. There is so much danger out there. Werewolves. Drainers. Vampire haters. These are a few examples of who pose a threat to our kind. You've learned so much in your short vampire life.” Bill reached for Jessica's hand and offered her a reassuring grip. “As a vampire, I have done terrible things. I've murdered people. I've used people for my own pleasure and sick fantasies. Perhaps if I leave this world, I will take away some of the evil within it.”

Jessica shook her head. “More of us are being made every day. You may die tonight, but hundreds more will undergo the ritual. What about Sookie? How do you think she will feel if she watches you die?You know how much she cares for you. Do you really believe she will willingly watch you suffer?”

Bill closed his eyes as a trails of blood seeped from his eyes and the corner of his mouth. “She is human. She has human dreams. She wants marriage and a family. While I can marry her, Jess,” Bill wiped away the blood on his lips. “I cannot give her children. I cannot father any children by her.If she is with me, I would be robbing her of that which she desires most. That would not only be cruel of me; it would be selfish. William Erasmus Compton is not selfish.”

Jessica looked at a photo beside Bill's bed. Bill stood beside his wife and children, smiling with fatherly pride. “Did you want a family when you were—alive?”

Bill smiled. “My father was dying and thought it would be a good idea for me to marry the lovely lady from next door to merge our plantations together. He wanted to make certain that my mother was properly cared for in the golden years of her life. Caroline was a wonderful wife and mother to my children. I loved all three of my children.”

Jessica looked at the picture “I only see two children.”

Bill looked at the picture as he wiped away a bloody tear. “Caroline and I lost a one-year-old boy to the pox. A Smallpox epidemic hit Bon Temps that year. Many children died. Lee was one of them.”

“Oh my god, Bill, I'm sorry.”

“So am I, Jess. For over one hundred years, I've seen their graves and miss them terribly.”

Jessica nodded. “I understand.”

“As much as I miss my family, though, I can't help but wonder what more I can do on this earth. I've been Vampire King of Louisiana, Sheriff, and I've written a book. I love my family, but I know that I cannot bring them back.” Bill looked at Jessica. “You are my family now, Jessica. With me gone, Eric could pursue Sookie. And I, I do love her, Jessica. I feel as if I could be a good husband for her.” Bill sighed as he relaxed in the bed. “If I die, I know I will be breaking her heart.I don't know what to do, Jess.”

“Sleep on it. We have a few hours before the sun goes down.”

Bill yawned tiredly. “I guess you're right.”

****************************

The sun's light had waned and night fell over Louisiana. Sookie lead Bill and Jessica through the hidden entrance to Fangtasia's basement. As she opened the door and stepped into the moldy, damp basement, Eric and Pam awaited them. One look at Bill and the couple's jaw's dropped.

“Fuck,” Pam said with a mix of disgust and pity. “You look like shit.”

“Why, thank you, Pam.”

Before Bill and Sookie could blink, Jessica grabbed Sarah Newlin and snarled at her. Bill held onto a pipe to remain on his feet. He was weak and tired. “Jess! Jessica!” Jessica backed away from Sarah as her Maker commanded. Bill looked up at Eric. “You look well.”

“I'm feeling pretty well,” Eric said, quickly warning the visitors to tell no one about Sarah and the cure for Hepatitis V.

“You know we won't,” Sookie quickly responded.

Eric and Pam stood back. “Go on.”

Bill slowly approached Sarah as she turned her head in horror. I should drink from her. But, what is holding me back? Once I drink the antidote, there's no going back. To not drink from her means certain True Death. Sookie. Jessica. Caroline. What should I do?

“The fuck are you waiting for?” Pam asked,irritation plain in her voice. “Drink the bitch and leave before we all die.”

What am I going to do? What should I do? For all the cruel things I have done, perhaps I do deserve True Death. An eternity of suffering would end. “No. I don't want her blood.”

Jessica glared at Bill. “What the fuck do you mean you don't want it?”

“Jessica…”

“Why,Bill?” Jessica asked in disbelief.

Sookie took a step forward. “You don't even know, do you?”

Bill approached Sookie. You wouldn't understand, sweetheart. “I don't know how to explain myself other than to say that I have accepted my fate.”

“And that would be all well and good if you had to, but you don't.” Jessica said. “All you have to do is drink this cunt's blood and this can all be over.”

As Sarah loudly protested behind the gag around her mouth, Pam grabbed Sarah's shoulder. “As much as I appreciate a compelling character drama, the Yakusa are upstairs and I need to remind you to keep the fuck down volume-wise.”

Sookie stepped in front of Bill. “Whatever this is, whatever you are doing, you don't get to hide behind the word fate. The cure is right fucking there,” Sookie whispered. “Look at her. She's your fate. She is your destiny. If you don't drink her blood, you're making a choice, Bill. A choice you won't have to live with, but we will, Jessica and Me.”

Bill sighed. “You're right. I am making a choice. I'm choosing True Death.”

“Fuck you, Bill,” Jessica's voice cracked and stepped a distance away from him.

“Jessica,” Bill whispered as he watched her walk away. As he turned towards Sookie, he never saw her hand whip across his face harshly. His head snapped to the side as his cheek burned. He turned his face back to her, hurt plain on his face.

“Don't you look at me like that,” she said angrily. “I'm with her. I want to know why.”

Bill looked down sadly at her. “I can't.”

Another open palm slapped him across the face. “Try!”

“There are no words,” Bill said tiredly.

Sookie raised her hand to slap Bill again, but Eric zipped to her side and grabbed her hand. Eric looked up at Bill. “You should leave. I will call on you in a couple of hours. I have some….guests…..upstairs that require my attention.”

“Is that what they are?” Pam asked. “What's next? Giving them feety pajamas, hot cocoa, and sending them off to bed?”

“Enough,Pam,” Eric said quietly. “I'll see you tonight, William.”

Bill nodded, momentarily shocked that Eric used his formal name. “Very well.”

********************

Bill sat in his office staring into the crackling fire in the fireplace. The ride home with Jessica and Sookie was colder than the wind in Iceland. The silence in the car was deafening. Both women were obviously too upset to speak. When he tried to initiate conversation, he was quickly scolded by Sookie to “shut up.”

Jessica refused to spend the night at home. When Sookie's car pulled up to the Compton home, Jessica quickly left the car and turned to Bill. “You may want to die, but I sure as hell don't want to watch it. I'm going to stay with Hoyt tonight. Be home tomorrow night.” Before Bill could react, Jessica left.

“You're being selfish,” Sookie said with tears running down her face. “I loved you, Bill.”

“Sookie, I'm sorry. It's complicated.”

“No, it's not. She was right in front of you and all you had to do was drink her. It doesn't seem complicated at all.”

Bill grabbed the door and leaned forward as the pain returned. “Sookie…”

“I'm going home.” Sookie drove away, making Bill fall forward onto the driveway.

Sitting in his office, he relaxed in his chair. He was clean. The veins burned. He was alone. Perhaps I made the right decision.

A knock sounded on the door.Bill stood up and walked over to the door. When he opened the door, Eric stood there.

“We need to talk.”

Bill closed the door behind Eric and lead him to the office. “When Pam found me, I felt the same as you. I was ready to meet my death. This disease doesn't only destroy the body…”

“It's not the disease, Eric.”

“It attacks the spirit, Bill.”

“Why are you here?”

“I came for Sookie. What you are doing to her is unconscionable.”

Bill lowered his head. “I'm doing this for her. Everything I have ever done has been for her.”

“Try listening to her, then. Because this is not what you want. You don't want to die.”

“It's what she needs.”

Eric leaned back in the chair. “What do you think she needs, exactly? To stand by helplessly as you suffer?” Flashbacks of Nora's death flooded his brain. He gripped the sides of the chair. “Because that is what is happening. She's watching someone she loves die.” Eric stood and approached Bill who was standing at the desk. Eric looked down at Bill and reached for Bill's collar. He carefully pulled down the side of Bill's collar and looked at the black veins. “Terrible,” Eric whispered.

“What are you doing?”

Eric looked into Bill's eyes. Queen Sophie Anne's last words to him rang in his head. You two should really just fuck each other and get it over with. Eric saw the black veins covering Bill's chest. “Your…..skin.”

“Eric, you're creeping me out.”

Eric stood back from Bill. “Sorry. Bill, you don't want to die. Just because of Sookie?”

“I'd do everything for her.”

“Well, then, by that logic, are you defying her will? Because she doesn't want you to die. If you would do anything for her, then you should want to live because that is what she wants. Jessica wants you to live.”

“It's the only way she can be truly free if I die.”

Eric shook his head. “She will always be bound by thoughts of you. We are attracted to her light as she is attracted to our darkness. She will never be truly free of you.”

Bill sighed. “I do not fear death.”

“That is what we are,” Eric said as he glared at Bill. “We are death.”

“I will be free of my sins if I die.”

Eric chuckled. “Your death will not erase everything that you have done. It will not bring anyone back to life. It will not return the blood you drank from each human on whom you have fed for over a century. Your death will mean nothing. One thousand years ago, that was true death for a Viking. My father always hoped for a glorious death. You are not going to go out fighting like a warrior. You will be whimpering like a child. Such a death would forbid you to enter Valhalla. Only warriors may enter the sacred hall and drink the mead.”

Bill sighed.

“Sookie wants you to live. There are many other humans in this world. Sookie can find another human. You can continue to be a Maker to Jessica. She's already lost one father. We both know how hard it is to lose a father.” Eric's jaw tensed as he thought of Godric,his own Maker who preferred to die in the sunlight. “Godric was a good man. He didn't deserve his death. Nora, my sister….Bill, please do not do this to Sookie. You don't know what I have seen. Watching my sister die of this virus was…unsettling.”

Bill looked into Eric's eyes. “It's going to hurt to leave Jessica behind. She's already lost so much. And Sookie….perhaps she can find one of her kind.”

“Try Sarah's blood, Bill. If you discover that you still want to die,I….I will give you a much more honorable death than on your sickbed.”

Bill looked into the fire and relaxed in his chair. “I accept.”

Eric grinned and stood up from his chair. “Good.” Eric disappeared from the room and returned seconds later with a bound and gagged Sarah Newlin. “Your new life begins tonight.”

Next Chapter: Jessica and Sookie discover Bill's change of heart.