Little Star

Unfortunately, the next day came far too quickly for Celestia, about 12 hours too quickly. She was startled out of a mid-day nap by Sookie’s thoughts screeching through her mind so loud she almost tumble off the side of the roof ledge she had been using as a bed. Groaning, Celestia quickly tracked Sookie back to Fangtasia, wondering why the girl hadn’t returned home by now. She was a little surprised to see a new door already in place and smirked as she caught the essence of werewolves in the surrounding area. Ah, it must be good to have skilled day workers on hand. Celestia made a note to get Eric’s bank account info so she could pay him for the door before trying to enter the closed bar. Unsurprised by the fact that the door was locked, Celestia rolled her eyes, easily using her powers to push her energy into the locking mechanism and clicking it open. As if a locked door would really keep anyone who was extremely determined out. She would have to have a word with Eric about daytime security, especially if Sookie was going to be around him and his not-so-well-protected establishment.

Strolling into the now open front door, Celestia became unamused very quickly when she came face-to-face with Sookie being held at gun-point by an anorexic clearly over-glamoured waitress…if you could call her that. Celestia’s fangs came down quicker than you could say holy crackerjack and the blonde mousy woman jumped, muddy brown eyes wide in shock.

“H-How is that possible. I-I-Its d-daytime!” she stuttered out, the hand holding the gun shaking so bad Celestia worried that she might accidentally discharge it and hurt Sookie.

Celestia stayed standing very still, bright, glowing green eyes locking easily with fearful and dull brown ones. She slowly allowed her aura to reach out and caress against the shivering, pale, ghostly one of the human in front of her. She had a harder time grabbing hold of it, controlling it, than she did for most people. This woman wasn’t her own person, everything about her had been stripped away by too many glamours and drugs and alcohol. A person who didn’t even know themselves, the feeling of this person’s aura made Celestia sick to her stomach.

Once she was able to finally gain control of the blonde’s body, she easily made her chuck the gun across the room. Wide, frightened brown eyes welled up with tears. “S-Stop! What are you d-doing to me! STOP!” She got louder and more obnoxious as Celestia took measured steps toward her. The hybrid woman scowled up at her, part of her a little upset that she was shorter than this sad excuse for a woman, before she returned to the task at hand, shutting this human up. Celestia reached out, her hand pressing over the woman’s eyes, and she forced her aura fully through the other’s body, knocking her unconscious. She caught her body as the woman collapsed, easily lifting her up and moving to lay her out on a nearby table.

She had been so concentrated on getting the blonde tweaker quiet that she hadn’t noticed the sun descending or Eric, Pam and Bill coming into the room from god-knows where. Celestia turned just in time to watch Sookie send her hand swinging across Eric’s face and her green eyes sparkled in amusement at the sight. Bill of course stepped in to stop her from doing anything further but Celestia easily stepped up and Eric’s attention turned to her.

“How did you get in?” He asked, one blonde eyebrow raised in interest. Celestia stepped up to him, raising a hand to pat his chest. “Locks are kind of my thing, hun. You should look into better security than some crazy over-glamoured bimbo with a gun. A bit dangerous.”

Eric chuckled, smirking at her words before Sookie made it all too clear that she was in no way shape or form amused by the situation. Seeing her charge so upset had Celestia switching gears quickly. “What exactly is going on here anyway? I could feel Sookie’s angry half-way across town.”
Sookie quickly stepped into the conversation. “Eric has my friend Lafayette locked up in his grungy basement changed to a wall and they’ve bitten him and shot him and left him in his own filth for weeks!” she said, practically spitting with angry at the tall Viking. Celestia looked at Eric incredulously as Bill asked some questions of his own, focusing more on reaching out with her mind, trying to sense the person who Sookie spoke about.

As she had said, Celestia could make out a faint aura in the basement of the establishment, something about him was different than other humans but not to the point that Celestia was going to examine it too closely. He was injured, gun-shot wound to the leg that was not going to heal nicely unless he was either given vampire blood or she was allowed to heal him. Celestia chuckled at her own thoughts. Ha! Allowed. That would be the day.

Eric had Bill, Sookie and Celestia come into his office in the back while Pam went to go get Lafayette out of the basement. “A vampire has gone missing in Dallas, Texas. He is a sheriff and very old, more than twice my age and twice the vampire I will ever be. I have been called in to help find him, and it would be…helpful, if both of you ladies were to accompany me to Dallas. You will be compensated, of course.”

Celestia shook her head. “Take it out of the door I owe you. I have no qualms helping you find a lost soul, so count me in. As long as I’m allowed to heal Lafayette’s injuries. He has been traumatized enough by you for his entire lifetime I should think.” She negotiated, arms crossed over her chest.
Eric chuckled but agreed, turning his attention then to Sookie. “I’ll do it, but I want $5,000.” Eric’s eyebrow raised up and Bill chided Sookie for her comment, to which she replied that she had already missed a lot of work because of Eric and being attacked and the fact that she needed a new driveway.

“You’re human is getting cocky Bill.” Eric said with a smirk, and then Bill retaliated by saying that Sookie would take $10,000 and that Bill would accompany her. Celestia rolled her eyes at Bill’s annoyingly over-protective behavior and walked over to the couch, sitting down and swinging her legs up to onto the arms of the couch, waiting for the debate to end.

All in all it was agreed upon that Bill, Sookie, Bill’s new progeny Jessica, and Celestia would be leaving for Dallas tomorrow afternoon, which meant Bill and Jessica would be stashed away in travel coffins while Sookie and Celestia rode in style. Eric said he would be meeting them at the Dallas vampire’s nest to speak with the Sheriff’s second-in-command about what could be done to find him. Bill and Sookie left first but Celestia felt that Eric was keeping information from her and so stayed behind until she knew they were out of hearing range.

Eric sat back in his lush chair behind the mahogany desk, fingers laced together and chin atop his folded hands. “What can I do for you, Miss Brigant?”

Celestia smirked. “Celestia is just fine thanks, don’t need everyone knowing my super-secret heritage. Just makes things more complicated.” She said as she pulled herself up onto the desk, turning so that her legs dangled off to Eric’s side. His icy blue gaze traveled up the bare skin of her legs that was showed off by the shorts she had decided to wear that day before turning back to her face. “We don’t know each other very well, Eric, so I cannot ask you to tell me everything about the Sheriff you want me to help you find. I will tell you that in order to fully be of use to you, the more information I have before we go to the nest tomorrow, the better I can do my job. I track people using their essence, their aura, whatever you want to call it. Part of that is the memories they make with others, the impression that others close to them have of them. I know this vampire must mean something to you and I will do what I can to help, but if you were to tell me about him, I do honestly believe I could be of more help.”

Eric stared into her eyes for a good three minutes, not blinking, trying to decipher if she was telling the truth or not. He gave an unnecessary sigh as he slumped back in his chair. “His name is Godric, and he is my Maker.” Celestia’s eyes shot wide in surprise at this new information but she kept quiet, knowing the information Eric was giving her was not something he would share with anyone else. “He is over two thousand years old and it worries many that he may have been forcibly taken by the Fellowship of the Sun, an anti-vampire church that has a large base in Dallas.”

Celestia turned her attention away from Eric when Pam came in dragging a dirty, bloody and obviously tortured black man, tossing him unceremoniously on the couch. Celestia winced sympathetically at the bullet wound in his leg, she’d been shot and it is not a fun experience, she just had the added benefit of quick healing. She jumped off the desk and made her way over to him, face sad as he flinched away from her, frightened. “Shhh, it’s alright. I’m just here to heal you and to make sure you get home safe. I promise you these vampires will not hurt you anymore.” She tried to sound as soothing as possible but with Eric making annoying comments it was kind of hard.

“It’s not nice to get people’s hopes up, Celestia.” Eric chuckled, getting up from his chair and coming around the desk to watch her work more closely.

Celestia hissed angrily at him. “You be quiet Eric Northman. You may be a vampire but this is a little much don’t you think?!” Not really caring about his answer, Celestia turned her soft green eyes back on the black man in front of her. “This won’t hurt at all, please just keep still. It may be a little scary but its either this or you get to drink tall-dark-and-fangy’s blood.”

Lafayette’s eyes widened impossibly as his gaze darted up to Eric who had let his fangs click into place to be more dramatic and then back to Celestia who was looking at him with such calm, soothing eyes. He didn’t say a word, just tried as best he could to relax and laid back on the couch. “Good, you’re doing really well. You don’t have to close your eyes but this is going to feel strange so I don’t want you to over-react too much. It’s going to feel warm and possibly a little irritating.” Without another word, Celestia closed her eyes, building the energy inside of herself up and out into her hands. Opening her eyes, emerald green eyes glowed in the dimmer light of the room as the energy in her hands gave off a pulsing golden light. Lafayette watched her closely, shock and awe obvious in his dark-chocolate eyes. Celestia pressed her hands gently over the bullet wound in his leg, not putting any pressure on it but still being in physical contact with the wound.

It took maybe five minutes because he had already started to develop an infection that if left untreated would have moved into his blood and killed him. Once the infection was taken care of the wound healed up quickly and Celestia moved on to the fang-marks on his neck, leg and arm. When she was finished, the glowing in her hands and eyes slowly dissipated and she drew away from Lafayette, giving him room to sit up and test out how he was feeling. The black man stood on unsure legs but looked at her, astounded when he found that there was no pain left at all.

Celestia turned back to Eric who was watching her with a calculating gaze. “I’ll take him home. See you in Dallas.” Eric said nothing else and Lafayette was all too happy to get out of the god-damned bar. He wasn’t too keen on the whole teleportation thing and ended up getting sick when Celestia grabbed him in the parking lot of Fangtasia one second and the next he was standing on his front porch. After getting sick over the side of the porch railing, Celestia rubbing his back comfortingly, he thanked her to which she just smiled, and said goodnight.

Celestia sighed as she once again settled herself on top of a roof for the night, though this one just happened to belong to her charge, Sookie. She could feel the girl sleeping soundly for which Celestia was grateful. She had a feeling Dallas was going to be a more complicated venture than they had first thought.