miracles - eric northman

chapter twenty-seven

| TWENTY-SEVEN |
MINDGAMES

The spells kept becoming easier and easier to break through. Something in her mind told her to run her hand along her neck and feel the scar that no false memories ever contained. Then reality would set in and Eira would try to escape the room she was stuck in but the doorknob was also spelled to send an electrical shock through her veins. She also tried multiple times to get the bracelet off her wrist that blocked her magic but to no avail.

She had talked to Ethan again in one of her moments of lucidity.

"You fight it as much as I did," Ethan said sadly. "But she'll wear that down eventually."

She regarded him with a pitiful stare, "I'm sorry for what she turned you into."

"So am I."

"Ethan," she said carefully. "Just because you lost hope once years ago doesn't mean you have to deprive yourself of it for the rest of forever."

"You're just saying that because you want me to help you."

"True," she agreed. "But I also want you to help yourself."

But her grandmother would always come back and send her back into a world of false memories and day dreams. It did not matter how many times she was put under that spell, nothing could make her forget Eric.

Her grandmother grew irritated and impatient. She had enough and she wanted to devise a new form of torture.

"Your mother should've never let you around those vampires," Velma said with a look like she smelt something nasty in the air as she thought of vampires after Eira came out of the spell, again.

"Don't talk about my mother," Eira glared.

Velma regarded with a steely look, "She was my daughter. I will speak of her how I wish. She was a disgrace much like you wanting to show vampires mercy."

"You think it's okay to end an entire race? What's wrong with you?" Eira stated. "Why do you even hate them so much? They never did anything to you."

"Never did anything?" Velma said. "Those vile creatures slaughtered my parents and...and my own child before your mother existed."

Eira was surprised to see that tears gathered in the eyes of her grandmother. She didn't think the woman even had a heart before now. But her grandmother quickly blinked them away.

"Those undead creatures got a second chance at life and how do they choose to spend it? Killing," Velma said angrily. "Well, they can go back to the grave. I will send them there."

"You don't have that power," Eira went back to glaring.

"Not yet," Velma said with an air of finality as she looked back to Eira.

"I won't ever be your puppet," Eira denied.

"You hold on for some imagined love," Velma said. "Tell me, where is this vampire that you claim loves you? He hasn't come for you."

Eira was silent for a moment. Why hadn't Eric come? She felt a pang in her chest that ached of uncertainty. But she quickly crossed her arms, "I'm sure you have some sort of magic blocking him from finding me."

It was true. As long as Eira remained in the house, Eric would never be able to sense her presence. But Velma would never admit that.

"Do I?" Velma said. "Even if I did, wouldn't he still be working hard to come find you? Let's see what he's doing with his time."

Velma raised her hand and the mirror over her headboard no longer showed their reflection. It swirled to a different scene. It showed Eric and he was in his office except...his hands were wrapped a corseted girl (that was probably a dancer at the bar) and he was kissing her.

Eira felt like she was going to be sick. Velma raised her hand again and the scene was gone. The mirror was back to being just a mirror.

It took a moment before Eira looked at her grandmother again with another look of defiance, "I don't believe that. It's just another one of your tricks."

"So much faith for someone who doesn't deserve it," Velma noted. "Fine. No more false memories. No, a new game."

Velma gained a small smirk before she flicked her hand. Eira fell unconscious. Her mind was trapped not in a false memory but in a scenario. One where she had to kill Eric over and over and over again. It never stopped and only repeated. And Eira couldn't seem to get out of this spell.

_____

Eira had been gone for a month and a half.

Russell Edgington had been dealt with and was buried under cement; Sookie had told them that Russell figured out Eric could in fact walk in the sun (since he wasn't affected by it at all when he handcuffed Russell to him and stayed out in the sun) and that it was because of Eira. Eric thought of killing him but the vampire was buried under cement and he had much more pressing concerns like that the fact that she was fucking missing.

Eric had been livid when Pam told him what happened. But his anger was outweighed by his worry. He could not feel Eira in the world as he had always been able to ever since he gave her his blood. It was like she fell off the face of the Earth or...had died.

He didn't think that, though. Not of his girl. He knew she had to be out there. Eric spent his every moment searching for Eira. He barely slept and he didn't much care if he got the bleeds. He would find her.

Although, apparently some didn't approve of his methods. Eric had been called to the office of King Bill (he rolled his eyes at the thought) and was lectured to.

"You can search for her, Eric. Not terrorize everyone in the whole state who you believe is a witch."

"I'll terrorize whoever I have to," he said carelessly.

"Eric."

"I'll..." he gritted his teeth. "Restrain myself."

                He did not restrain himself. He just terrorized people a bit more secretly. He'd terrorize the whole world if that's what it took. He was determined to find Eira and he did not care if he spent forever searching.