Chapter Text
Willa was terrified in a way she never could have imagined before. Tucked under the arm of a Vampire, his hand, monstrously huge and clawed, was wrapped around her ivory neck. “Please” She cried, stratching at him with her short, french tipped nails. Willa thrashed in the vampires stone arms, she kicked at his ankle and the monster lost his temper, bringing his stone cold knuckles down across her cheek, her skin split with a gush of blood and all the air sprung forth from Willa's lungs. The pain rendered her silent and black dots blotted her vision.
She’d emerged from unconsciousness in the trunk of a car, only remembering a knock at the door of her father’s home and the offending hand moving towards her. Yanked fighting from the car, Willa was pulled across rocky ground into a clearing illuminated by streetlights, surrounded by rowdy crowd. Her vision failing to focus, Willa wobbled on the ground in the man's hold. It was a hot summer night, same as she'd been taken but she felt the highway vibrate beneath her for hours
and hours after she awoke in the suffocating pitch black . "Let me go please" her voice cracked in her sobbing.
“Shut up” The beast huffed, tightening his grip just enough to make Willa choke under the pressure. She tried to look around, but his hold limited her range of motion. She could see the red dirt ground, huge concrete pillars and steel beams and people in her peripherals. Not people, she reminded herself, Vampires. The voices around her continued. A man in jeans and a leather jacket paced back and forth, he glanced her way only once as he passed her.
“Mr. Northman” An older looking man in a pinstripe suit spoke again, his voice silenced all the murmurs and noise from the crowd around them. “You killed a vampire last night. Our species is outnumbered, and every single one of us is needed.” His cane clicked as he walked back and forth across the dirt clearing. “You'll make another.” A woman's voice rung out at his words, the sound was a mix of a sob, a snarl and "No!" The scream was cut short, muffled with a hand at the peak of its passion.
“Magister” The blonde man's voice broke through the pounding of her heart in Willa’s ears. Her knees were bloody in the dirt, her nightdress was ripped and rubbed open in her dragging and writhing. “Russel Edgi-”
“There’s no argument you can make here, Eric.” He was interrupted. “You owe us a life. You will turn that girl.” The magister spoke. That girl, he’d said. Willa looked around, there were no other human girls hanging about. Willa’s fight renewed, she kicked, pushed and tugged against her captor as she cried out loud. The creature holding her ignored her efforts and began walking forward, pulling Willa in her white silk nightdress across the rocky ground, her hands dropped to the dirt; She clawed wildly at the earth, grasping at rocks and nothing as she tried to resist being carried. She thrashed with all her might, her wailing filled the air. Eric looked at her, actually seeing her for the first time. She fought so fiercely, had she faced a human foe she'd have overcome him, but in this beasts hands, she was a bird pecking at a tree.
Her skin was pale as a vampire already but she glowed with life. She’d been taken from her room as she got ready for bed, her lips and skin were free of makeup, but her eyes were still rimmed in kohl and mascara ran down her cheeks. She had the darkest brown hair, almost black and it still held the wide barrel curls she’d put in that morning. Her eyes were green as the forest of his homelands, just like Pamela’s. Blood flowed from the red, angry split on her cheek, and her eye was shading purple. The man dragging her lifted her away from the ground and tossed her at Eric’s feet, she landed with a yelp and thud against his leather Italian shoes.
Willa wrapped her hands around her head, sobbing and bracing for a blow, before she settled and weakly tried to lift herself to crawl away, Eric crouched close to her. He put his hand on her back and she cried out and recoiled from his touch. “Look at me,” he told her.
Willa was too scared to try and get away now, her terror and pain had won out and she’d fawned in the horror of it all, she collapsed into the dirt, her legs and arms folded beneath her, her forehead pressed to the ground between her knees. The cold hand she’d felt returned to her back and Willa trembled under it. “Look at me” he commanded again, putting his hands on her shoulders and lifting and turning her towards him. She grabbed at him, screaming as he easily maneuvered her. He pulled her into his arms and sat her in his lap like a lover. He did this with no effort as she fought against him. Finally she looked up into his face and the short second of eye contact was enough for Eric.
“Come now, look here” His voice was quiet and even. He spoke close to her face and her screaming quieted and then stopped as he spoke. “What’s your name, Cher?” He asked her.
“Willa” She answered breathlessly, her throat burnt from her screams.
“Willa, everything's alright. You're safe now. You’re not gonna fight, it won't help you to fight, understand?” He whispered, moving a hair from her damp forehead with his knuckle as he spoke.
Willa silent body conceded, nodding but inside she was screaming and writhing. Her emotions and protests could not reach the surface. Her actions magically and horrifically overridden, she heard his words and her being took them as unwavering truth, an unbreakable command. She was fighting with all her might inside her brain, but her body was calm and still, unable to be anything else. Eric bagan to look her over, examining her neck and she realized these were the last seconds of her life. She was going to die and she was totally and completely unable to do anything about it. A look in his eyes, a look in his eyes had killed her.
Eric tucked Willa’s hands into her lap, he pulled her knees together, and pressed them against him, pinning her calves against his ribs with his arm. She weighed nothing in his lap, her body overcome by his broad frame and strong arms; her heart pounded against his chest. Willa’s tears flowed down her face, even in her hypnosis her breaths came in unsteady gasps. “Easy now, Willa.” He ghosted his fingers across her collarbone and then up her neck before he gathered her hair behind her ear and pulled it away from the worming vein under her jaw.
“Tonight, Northman!” The magister croaked, banging his cane in the dirt. Eric turned to the man and growled, fangs bared. The suited man laughed in response, a laugh meant to further belittle the man he’d forced into this heinous act. Vampires around them began to whisper and speak, voices pooled into the construction lot they held court in. At the loss of eye contact Willa began to sob again, she squirmed in Eric’s lap, trying to push and climb out of the hold he had on her.
The blonde haired vampire quickly used his grip on her hair to bring her to face him again. “Ahah, Cher, no fighting” He told her as he reclaimed her free will in his gaze. Eric was in a hurry to end this. The vampires around him grew rowdier by the second. The way Eric was being forced into something as sacred and intimate as creation infuriated him. If it weren't for his progeny and for his maker he’d just been reunited with, Eric would’ve fought so much harder against the despicable order. Willa stared at Eric, a deer in the headlights unable to pull her forest eyes from him. “This ending is only the beginning, brave Willa” He told her in her ear, his soft lips rubbed against her skin. Tightening his grip, to keep her from moving, Eric inhaled a deep breath of the girl. She smelled of fresh air and honeysuckle. Willa whimpered against him, and Eric planted a soft kiss over her jumping jugular before he used his razor sharp fangs to bore two holes in her soft skin.
Willa cried out, she reached up and wrapped her hands around his arm, pulling him tighter against her ribs in an attempt to pull herself away. “Stop, please p-p-please” Willa’s voice faded away as Eric swallowed mouthful after mouthful of honey-sweet blood.
Her heart pounded in her ears, drumming her away from life and into blackness. She filled his mouth with each open and close of the valves of her dying heart, pumping her life into him. It took only a minute for Willa to empty, her pearlescent glow faded to dull ghost white and the light left her eyes. The vampires around them screamed now, whooping and conversing in sick enjoyment.
Eric pulled away from Willa’s seeping wounds and bit into his own wrist, dragging and ripping his fangs through veins to open them for her. Willa’s head hung limp, Eric cradled her in his hand, supporting her as he placed his bleeding wound to her parted lips. His blood flowed in, pooling at the back of her throat. Lowering her head onto his knee, Eric rubbed his other hand up and down her throat, putting pressure on her esophagus to trigger swallowing. Long seconds passed and blood flowed out of her mouth without making it into her. A part of Eric hoped she was too far gone, lost and dead, to spare her an immortal life with such a birth. Finally his menstrations worked, she swallowed a gulp of his blood, and then another as he pushed the thinnest part of his wrist harder against her mouth. Swallow after swallow and Eric pulled himself from her mouth. Willa, though conscious now, kept her eyes closed tight as life and death fought over her, tears flowed from the corners and her chin quivered uncontrollably. Cold, freezing tingles crept into Willa, her warm life pulling deep into her chest and beginning to dissappear.
“Take them to ground” The Magister said, opening his arms in a sweeping motion to two henchmen standing amongst them. “Wouldn't want you to kill the girl before she turns” he finished. The two men moved towards them and Eric gathered Willa’s limbs in his arms. He stood up with his new childe like a bride in his arms and followed the men away from the crowd. “Goodnight, Mr. Northman” He chided.
Willa did not open her eyes, but rested limp in Eric’s arms as they moved quicker than humans could see towards home in Louisiana. “You’re ok, Willa.” He told her as they moved. “You’re just fine. We’re gonna go to sleep now.” His voice was a whisper in her ears and as much as she was absolutely terrified of him, they did help her to settle in her panic. The blood Eric gave her was killing her organs, shutting them down one by one, she felt them ticking off as she was slipping out of consciousness, into oblivion as he hurried her through the swampy air. Willa’s hand unconsciously balled in Eric’s shirt, the fabric pulled at his neck and carried the vibrations of her squeezing and sobs deeper into his awareness. 'Easy, Willa, hold on” He heard her fears in his head, and saw her visions of the River Styx. He was her ferryman.
They arrived in a little wood in Shreveport. Eric moved Willa from two arms into one and used his free hand to pull his jacket off. He laid it on the ground at the foot of a willow tree and laid Willa down. Barely any life left in her, Willa’s head rolled to the side and she blinked in discomfort. “Sleep.” He told her as he retreated to help the magister's cronies dig their shallow grave.
The sky was turning purple as they finished. Eric collected Willa and carried her to the hole he’d dug. Moving his jacket from one spot to the other, he laid her in her thoughtfully smoothed plot. The movement brought what life Willa had left back to her and when she realized she was in a hole, a grave, she began to weakly squirm. Eric quickly lowered himself in and laid down beside her. He hushed her and smoothed stray hairs out of her face, coaxing her to settle. “It’s not death” He spoke in her ear as the men above threw dirt over them.
Willa felt the rocks and soil hail on her and she cried out, whimpering and sobbing with all the energy a dying body could possess. Eric covered her face with his hand, and moved closer into the crook of her neck. He tucked his other arm around her waist, pulling her tight to him as the soil began to blot out the moon's light. “Not death” He repeated, again and again, a mantra filling her ears to carry her into the next life. Earth covered them, pressed down upon Willa with each shallow breath; forcing life out, squeezing away her existence. Finally, there was no more air. No more room for it in her crushed lungs either. Her body went numb, cold had filled her and all the pictures of her life blurred to black.
~~
A knock on Pam's casket woke her, she wiped away the streaks of blood she knew would linger from last night and combed locks of hair behind her ear with her fingers before opening the cover.
"Eric is waking. We should be there." Godric looked down at Pam as he spoke. She nodded in agreement, swallowing a tired, fearful lump in her throat.
The woods Eric chose were close behind their home. The two walked through the twilight in silence, Pam so upset she struggled to keep her footing in the rooty mud. Godric walked along behind her refraining from offering comfort, sensing her pain but knowing Pam prefers to suffer alone.
Pam paced the clearing, chewing her red painted nails as Godric got on his knees next to the freshly turned earth and began to dig with his hands. It didn't take him long to feel the denim of his childe's jeans, to see the silk gown of the girl next to him. He sat back on his heels, pulling up clumps of grass as he took in the low moon and waited.
After a dragging half hour, the dirt began to shift. Pam ran to the edge of the grave and looked down with a mix of concern and terror on her face. She looked from the ground to Godric as they waited. Finally, Eric shook himself free of earth, wiping it from the creases in his eyelids and the hollows of his nose. He sat up to his maker and his childe, Pam. Willa laid unmoving at his side.
The three looked between themselves for a moment, no one daring to speak yet. Each one understood the heaviness this brought to the other. Finally, it was Pam, who Eric fretted for the most, that broke the silence.
"Are you alright?" Her voice was smaller than it usually was. Her confidence and tough exterior stripped down in such a dark moment. Pam and Eric had been together for almost two hundred years, just the two of them. Now there was another. It was hard to admit the jealousy she felt, knowing the woman emerging from the ground with Eric would feel the same intense bond Pam shared with him. Eric knew she’d feel this way.
"I'm fine." he told her, his eyes soft and comforting as he looked up at her. She swallowed and bit at her lower lip as she nodded at him. She was grateful he was unharmed after such a rough trial. She’d been warned to behave, but the ruling triggered her outburst and when she fought to get to Eric, Godric had to drag her away. She'd waited in torment to see him.
Godric's eyes moved to the woman next to Eric. Her torn gown was stained and bloody. The blood from her turning was caked down the front of her chest, sticking the silk to her skin. Eric and Pam spoke silently, eyes locked on each other.
Willa's brain was powering back up. "Not death, not death" filled her ears as she felt her body coming to life. She didn't dare move, didn't even open her eyes as she took notice of the sensations invading her so recently empty vessel. There was grit between her toes, but the pressure of the soil atop her was relieved. She could feel a breeze and could smell the swamp air.
Eric felt her breath begin, a human instinct carried over but unnecessary. He looked down and watched as her eye's moved under her closed lids. Pam peered down at her and regretted not bringing a change of clothes for the girl.
"Willa" Eric spoke quietly and the girl beside him went ridgid. Too scared to move but wanting to get farther away, Willa's stiff frame jerked away from the man she could feel next to her. "It's ok, Cher" he whispered for her comfort.
Willa opened her eyes, she looked up at Eric who loomed over her, resting on his elbow. "Everything's alright." He told her. Willa began to spill silent tears, she turned her head away from the blonde man next to her and suddenly the stars above her pulled forth a gasp.
They were close enough Willa was sure she could touch them, pluck them out of the sky like berries on a bush. Pinks and purples, glittering white swirled around clusters of fire, stars burned bright enough she could almost see the flames dancing on their surface. Willa sat up in wonder, her eyes locked on the sky, the audience around her forgotten. It was like looking through a telescope, or one of the pictures NASA printed in her childhood textbooks. But the picture was alive, moving and glinting above her. Willa's breaths came out as amazed laughter.
Godric smiled at her, it'd been a long time since he was a maker. To see the wonder of a newborn, to see the wildness in brand new eyes delighted him. Eric sat unmoving at her side, watching her take in her first sights, unwilling to move and disturb her. Pam took her in, the girl was younger than she had been, twenty three at most. Old makeup, blood and dirt covered her face and she knew woman to woman that Willa would hate to be seen in such a state. Even so, she was lovely. Her gown was ripped heavily, the buttons on the lace bodice had popped and hung open, Pam began to remove her jacket and pass it slowly to Eric for Willa to wear.
The movement in her peripheral caught Willa’s attention and when she looked over to see Godric and Pam standing over her, she reacted in fear. Instinct overrode any human reaction, fangs sprung for the first time from Willa’s gums as she hissed and threw herself back into the farthest corner of the square hole they sat in. The pain of her teeth extending, along with the animalistic sound coming from her, brought Willa’s hands up over her mouth. “It’s alright, Cher '' Eric raised and crouched towards her with one hand up, the other offering Pam's red leather jacket.
“Stop callin me that, I don't even know you!” Willa spat at him. His face had her blood on it. His face had her blood on it and Willa was suddenly overcome with rage. “You did this to me.” she said, her voice hot and loud.
“Yes, I did. And I'm terribly sorry.” He held the jacket out farther. At his insistence, Willa looked down to see her gown hung open, not revealing her entirely but entirely too revealing for her comfort. She pulled the gape closed with a fist and wearily, with eyes dancing from Eric to Godric to Pam, she reached forward and snatched the garment. She turned from them and with unsteady, tearful breaths pulled the cool sleeves over her dirty and rough arms. She zipped it all the way up to the collar and held the wall to support herself as she gave into a sob. Eric took a few purposefully noisy steps towards her. “Let me take you inside. You can clean up, rest for a while.” His voice was as soft as he could muster.
“I want to go home,” Willa croaked.
“I understand.” Eric told her. To have stolen someone, to have made their turning so much more traumatic than just the transformation was loathsome. So many layers of pain had been created here.
“Please, let me go home.” She turned to face him, keeping her eyes away from the other two. Their presence was too much for her to acknowledge.
“I can’t.” Eric told her, his voice as sad as hers. “It’s not safe.”
“My father won't hurt me” She told him, hoping that to be true.
“You could hurt him, Willa.” Her eyes grew at this. The moment she realized she was dangerous. She was a vampire. A dangerous monster, a creature like the one who kidnapped her and hurt her, and like the one in front of her who'd taken her life, She was like them. Willa sunk to the ground, she wrapped her arms around her legs and put her head into her hands. Blood. Willa tasted it, her eyes shot open and in her hands her tears had gathered to create bloody maps of her finger prints. Two breaths came as gasps, before she was screaming, lost to shock and the horror of her reality.
Eric moved to her, he hushed her gently and took her hands between his, wiping the blood on them away on his jeans. “I'm sorry, Willa. I'm so sorry”. Out of her wits, she allowed his touch and he pulled her into his arms. Eric picked her up, she buried her face in his chest as she sobbed and shook. Out of the grave and through the woods he carried her. Godric ahead of him, Pam behind.