Let Love In
By Terri Botta
Disclaimer: I don’t own the Southern Vampires. Sole copyright belongs to Charlaine Harris. I’m poor so don’t sue.
Rating: M for later chapters.
Timeframe: Post-From Dead to Worse
Pairing: Eric/Sookie
Summary: Eric decides that it’s time for him and Sookie to come to an understanding.
A/N: I wrote this story last year. It has been up on FF.Net, but I am posting it - and its side stories - here on the Wiki. THIS WAS WRITTEN BEFORE DEAD & GONE, so all inaccuracies from the canon arise from that fact. I hope you enjoy it anyway. All feedback is welcome.
Let Love In
Chapter One
Sookie wasn’t surprised to see Eric leaning against her car when she walked out into the employee parking lot of Merlotte’s Bar. About half an hour before the end of her shift, her dismal mood had eased up, despite the fact that the crowd at the bar had just begun to thin after the post-game NFL show on ESPN, so she knew he was near. Sam had installed a new large, high-def, flat screen TV, and now Merlotte’s was the place to go for football in Bon Temps. On Halloween, no less. Yippee.
She loved the extra tips, but hated the rowdy crowds of drunken football fans. It was much harder to keep her shields up and stay out of people’s thoughts when she was being constantly bombarded with sex, beer, and football crazed male minds. By the end of the night, she was always exhausted, both mentally and physically. Tonight the game had gone into overtime and had run way late. Add to that the Halloween candy and orange popcorn getting tossed at the TV, and she’d had a whopping good time.
‘I’m getting too old for this,’ she thought wearily, yanking off the simple cat-ear headband and makeshift tail. Hey, the costume was cheap, easy, and didn’t interfere with her job. She’d even put on a bit of makeup to give herself “cat eyes,” blackened the end of her nose and drew a set of whiskers on her cheeks, but she’d washed it all off at the end of her shift.
Eric was dressed in a fine set of black pants and a bright white collared shirt with a dark red jewel at his throat. She guessed that the outfit had been part of whatever costume he’d worn for Fangtasia’s annual Halloween bash. Whatever he’d been, it must have looked amazing on him, but then she’d never known him not to dress to impress when he had to be on display. Hell, he’d even looked fabulous wearing nothing but a carefully placed robe and a smile.
She wasn’t unhappy to see Eric, but she certainly wasn’t looking forward to what his being there waiting for her represented. She took a deep breath, shored up what little energy she had left, and marched over to him, hoping to get whatever it was over and done with so she could go home and go to bed. Eric smiled at her – a soft smile, not his usual leer, which should have rang all of her warning bells – and pushed off her car to meet her halfway. She was opening her mouth to say something when he folded her into his arms without a word and held her close.
‘Oh…’ she thought, shocked by the unexpected embrace. ‘This is… different.’
“Eric?”
His arms tightened, and she heard him sniffing her hair. A satisfied rumble echoed across their blood-bond, and she relaxed, allowing herself to feel comfort in his arms. It was so easy to sink into her feelings. She was so tired and worn out, and she’d taken a lot of hits emotionally wise recently, if not physically. His hug wasn’t warm because he was always cool, but it did make her feel cherished and safe.
God, she hated that. Damn blood-bond. Damn fairy blood. Damn herself for getting involved with vampires and shifters and Weres, and making her life a crazy rollercoaster ride of danger and fear.
She shook off the warm-fuzzies and stepped back. He let her go, but she could tell it was with some reluctance. He’d been enjoying the closeness as much as she was.
“What was that all about?” she asked, craning her neck up to look Eric in the eyes.
“Pam tells me I am not being...” He paused, looking for a word. “sensitive enough to your needs.”
She chuckled and gave him a smile. “Has she been reading Dear Abby again?”
Somehow the thought of a centuries-old vampire getting advice from the agony column just cracked her up.
“Some, but now she’s gone on to watching some balding, television psychologist who calls himself Dr. Phil. She’s been taping his shows.”
Sookie burst out laughing and shook her head. “Tell me you’re joking.”
He smiled back, the soft one that made her insides twist because they reminded her too much of the Eric she had known when he couldn’t remember who he was.
“I’m not. She swears by him. She said I wasn’t giving enough of myself emotionally to you, so when I felt your weariness I thought a hug might help. How’d I do?”
He gave her a pleased look and stood up a little straighter, which only made her have to crane her already sore neck even more. Eric listening to advice from Dr. Phil seemed absurd until she realized that vampires often didn’t understand proper human interactions, and the “mainstreaming” ones needed a little help fitting in. Still, she had to give him points for trying.
“You did fine. I feel loads better,” she lied, sort-of. She did feel better, somewhat. “Not that I’m unhappy to see you, but what are you doing here? I figured Fangtasia would be in full Halloween swing tonight. I did get the invite, by the way, but I’d already agreed to work so…”
He waved a hand dismissively. “My staff is perfectly capable of wrapping up the party without me and cleaning up the mess. We had quite a crowd tonight.” He sighed, frowning. “I really am starting to hate special events. They’re such a bother half the time.”
She smiled. “I know what you mean. Tonight we had Halloween and football. It was such a great combination.”
He smirked. “Don’t lie. It doesn’t become you.”
She chuckled, feeling the tightness in her chest ease up some. She liked it when they were like this, quiet and casual, but she knew there had to be a reason why he was there, and it was best to get that out in the open as soon as possible.
“So… to what do I owe this pleasure?”
She half expected him to pounce on the word, and that had been her goal. His expression, and the feelings coming across the bond, was way too serious for her comfort, and she’d hoped to distract him with his libido. What she would do if her ploy worked too well… She hadn’t thought that far ahead. Her body, however, was already voicing its opinion, but then it had always been extremely fond of Eric. She stomped on it as quickly as she could and waited for Eric to leer at her.
He didn’t. Instead, he surprised her by stepping back. Oh, she saw the glint in his eye, and watched him lick his bottom lip, but that was all the reaction she got from him. Her body reacted to seeing the pink tongue flicking out, and she had to do some very furious stomping before she jumped on him. He had to be feeling it over the bond, but he gave no indication that he did. He was confusing her utterly.
“Felipe de Castro has returned to Nevada. His agent, Sandy, has gone with him,” the vampire said, leaning against her car again. “Victor has been installed in New Orleans to look after the king’s interests there.”
She nodded, reading the unspoken undercurrents in his words. “I’m sure you’re happy about that, about not being overseen anymore.”
He gave a little shrug. “Or not overseen quite so closely. Yes, I am… much more at ease.”
She understood. Eric had been playing a careful maneuvering game with the new King of Louisiana and his entourage. Having played the mine-ridden fields herself, she knew how taxing all the little details and nuances could be.
“That’s good.”
He grunted softly, an offhand noise that said it was neither good nor bad, and she once again admired him for his pragmatism. “And what of your issues with the Jackson Weres? I have heard nothing about Herveaux other than he is settling in as packleader,” he asked.
“I haven’t heard anything from Alcide that says otherwise,” she answered, wondering what he was getting at.
“And your brother? Any new developments in the situation with him?”
She clenched her fists and set her shoulders, the pain lancing through her suddenly. She knew Eric felt the stab because his eyes widened a little and his calm demeanor faltered for a moment.
“I’m still not speaking to Jason.”
He nodded as if she had confirmed something he had already known. “I am… sorry to hear that.”
“Are you really?” she countered, an edge of irritation to her voice.
“Yes, actually, I am. He is important to you, therefore he is important to me.”
“More Dr. Phil?” she pressed.
“Somewhat, but more my… memory of how much you were worried about him when he was missing.”
His admission took her back and she looked away. They were entering into some very sensitive territory, and her discomfort was growing. “You still haven’t told me why you’re here. If all you’d wanted to do was catch up, you could have just picked up a phone,” she snapped.
He gave her a measuring look that told her that she wasn’t fooling anyone. “I wanted to see you. I wanted to speak with you face to face.”
His sudden moments of bold-faced honesty never ceased to amaze her, and she stared at him in stunned silence.
“The point to all of this… catching up as you call it, is to confirm that now is a relatively quiet time. The new king has gone home, and I am no longer under intense scrutiny. The Weres and the shifters seem to be at peace, or at least there are no wars brewing, and things are as settled as they get.” He caught and held her with his eyes, taking a step towards her again. “Now is the time for us to have our… conversation before any new calamities or disasters strike.” He loomed over her, and her heart started pounding. “We must come to our understanding, my lover.”
She gulped, trying to quell the shivers of both fear and desire. “Eric…”
“Sookie,” he replied, the word slipping from his mouth like a caress.
She focused on how his tongue pressed against his bottom lip, how her name sounded when he said it in that tone of voice. She leaned forward and felt his lust buffeting against her own as he moved even closer. It had been so long since someone had touched her, especially someone as skilled and attentive as Eric had been.
The memory of how they had been when he was cursed, of what they had shared during those few days – so much more than sex. The closeness, the affection… The loss of those things cooled her ardor, and she stepped back, placing a hand on his chest, his perfectly sculpted, muscular chest.
“Eric… I’m too tired to do this with you tonight,” she managed to say.
“I know.” He didn’t seem upset or surprised. He looked away, his eyes focusing on the back door of the bar, his mouth drawing down into a frown. “You’re always tired after you work nights. This job is no good for you.”
She snorted and glared at him. “I have to work,” she insisted. “I have bills to pay.”
“Of course. I would never suggest otherwise,” he answered reasonably.
“So what are you suggesting?” she questioned, eyeing him with suspicion.
“That now would be a very good time for you to come away with me.”
It was the second time that night that he’d shocked her speechless. “You’re serious,” she finally stammered after several tense moments.
He nodded. “While things are quiet, we should go.”
“You want me to go away with you? For how long?” She was incredulous, almost appalled by his suggestion.
“Just a few days.” He held up a hand to stop her before she got started. “Before you start arguing, I know loss of wages is an issue. I intend to supplement your income to make up for the hours you would have to take off.”
“You’d pay me to go away with you?” she blurted, her pride wounded.
“If it will allow you to say yes, then yes, I would.” He moved close to her again, closing the distance she’d put between them and stepping into her personal space. “Sookie, our bond is strong. We must come to an understanding. I have waited for the time to be right. I have been more than patient, but we must settle this between us and soon.”
“There’s nothing to settle. I don’t belong to you,” she argued. “And our bond will fade over time so there’s no need for this drama.”
He pinned her with his eyes, and she felt the tumult of emotions careening across the bond. It hadn’t faded. It was still as strong as it had been on the day she had taken his blood for the third time in Rhodes. He was angry and frustrated, but underneath all of that was pain. She was rejecting him and it hurt him. She felt his pain keenly as if it were her own.
‘We’re bound a little too tightly to suit me, Sookie,’ he’d said on the day she’d found the soda can bomb in the Pyramid of Gizeh hotel, but then later had somewhat retracted the statement when he’d told her that he liked being bound to her. ‘I like being like this. You’ll like it too.’
And she had liked it, as much as she feared it. The bond was what had allowed Eric to find her when Debbie Pelt’s parents had had her and Quinn abducted. It was what had allowed her to know when Eric and the King of Nevada were captured by Seigbert and about to be killed. It was what brought her calm and joy and allowed Eric to share his strength with her. She’d found comfort in it, and knew he’d found comfort as well.
“It’s not going to fade is it? Because I’ve had your blood three times,” she stated, almost surprised by her own revelation.
“Technically you’ve had it four times. You bit me on the night the maenad attacked. I had my hand over your mouth so you wouldn’t scream,” he answered.
“But it’s not going to fade,” she pushed, already knowing the answer. If it was going to fade, it would have started to by now.
“No. You’ve had too much of my blood now.”
She winced. Even though he had only confirmed what she already knew, it still sounded so clinical coming from him. “Did you do that on purpose?”
“It wasn’t something I had planned. Andre forced my hand. If he hadn’t insisted on binding you to him, I would not have given you my blood that last time.”
His voice was calm and even, and she knew he wasn’t lying.
“You did it to spare me from Andre.”
“You know I did.”
“Did you know this would happen?”
“Yes.”
His simple answer set her back again. He’d known what giving her his blood in Rhodes would do, but he’d done it anyway so she wouldn’t have to drink from Andre. Considering the circumstances, she could not hold what he’d done against him. She knew, both mentally and emotionally, that he’d been acting in her best interests. And he was right. She much preferred being bound to Eric. She didn’t know what she would have done if Andre had not accepted Eric’s compromise.
“What would you have done if you hadn’t been able to stop him?”
He looked away and she could tell that he was struggling with his answer. The feelings coming across the bond were ones she associated with indecision and reluctance, and she wondered what was going on in his head.
“I would have had no choice but to let him bind you. But then I would have done everything in my power to break the tie. You have no idea how relieved I was when he did not survive the bombing in Rhodes. We were both very lucky,” he finally replied in a soft voice, as if he was afraid to admit his treason out loud lest someone be watching them.
“You would have tried to kill him?”
“Yes.” He looked at her again, his eyes intense, silently demanding that she not look away because what he was about to tell her was very serious and very important. “Once he’d had you, he would never have let you go. You were too valuable to him and the queen. He would have forced his blood upon you until the bond was permanent, and then he would have made you do his bidding. He would not have been a kind master.”
The thought of Andre being her master made her shudder and thank Quinn once again for killing Andre in Rhodes when the vampire was too injured to fight back. It had been a cowardly kill, but she was grateful for Quinn’s action every day of her life. To now hear that Eric would have killed Andre for forcing her to drink his blood was unsettling to say the least. To kill Andre Eric would have had to risk his own life, and she knew for a fact that Eric valued that life above all others. Or did he? She couldn’t think about that now so she went for sarcasm.
“As if he could have forced me to do anything. You can’t even make me heel nicely,” she sneered, throwing his words to Andre back at him.
Eric tossed his head impatiently. “It is true that my glamour does not seem to work on you, but you have never heeled because I have never asked it of you. Rest assured, my lover, if I had called you, you would have come.”
“Oh really?” she scoffed, crossing her arms over her breasts.
“I learned early on that you valued your freedom very much. I have always given you a choice. Sometimes you have defied me, but it has been because I let you defy me. I did not want to abuse our bond in a way that I knew you would hate and come to despise me for it,” Eric explained. “I have called you but one time, and you answered quickly.”
That shocked her, then she got angry. “When?” she demanded.
“The night Sigebert captured me and the new king right here in this parking lot.”
She blinked. “Oh.”
He’d called because he was about to die, and she had been the only one close enough to save him. All of her anger rushed out of her and she felt herself flagging. She was so tired. Too tired to deal with pushy vampires, blood-bond or no blood-bond.
“And you have called me, Dear One. When the parents of that bitch Debbie Pelt had you kidnapped. I heard you calling quite clearly: find me, find me, find me. And I did, didn’t I? I found you.” He brought his face close to hers and she held her breath. “I will always find you.”
She swallowed hard and dropped her eyes, unable to stand the blue stare he was giving her, and the feelings that look was stirring inside of her. He’d said he’d remembered everything. Did he mean everything? And if he did, how did he feel about all of it? Dreading that he didn’t feel the same now was one of the biggest reasons she’d been avoiding the conversation he seemed so hell-bent on having.
He was right though. Their bond was strong, and they did need to reach an understanding because they were going to be bound for as long as they both were alive.
She gasped, understanding now why so many people wanted to kill Eric. Quinn had expressed a desire to kill Eric outright. Niall had offered to do it for her if it was what she wanted. Sam, she knew, would not be sorry to see Eric dead for good either. None of them seemed to realize that the very thought of Eric dying was like stabbing herself with the stake they used to kill him.
No matter what she felt or how confused she was or how annoying the Viking could be, she did not want him dead. And she did like him. She’d liked him a lot. Then she’d missed him when he’d regained his memory, and missed him even more when she feared those lost memories had destroyed what relationship she and the real-Eric had shared. He seemed to be getting over that, especially since the bombing in Rhodes, and definitely since he’d remembered the time he’d been cursed. Maybe now really was the time to clear the air between them.
She sighed and let the fight drain out of her. “Alright. What did you have in mind?”
Now it was Eric’s turn to look a little stunned. Obviously, he’d been expecting more resistance from her. She let herself feel smug for a few moments while he recovered.
“Sunday through Wednesday. I’ll have you back by dawn on Thursday morning,” he finally said.
“This Sunday?” she repeated, blinking. So soon? That was only six days away.
“Yes.”
“Where will we go?”
“I can’t tell you that yet. Somewhere safe where we will be away from… distractions. You will have to trust me.”
He seemed confident, and she knew he’d never take her anywhere where he thought she would be in danger.
“All right. I’ll talk to Sam and tell him I need some time off.”
“I’ve already spoken with your shifter boss. He’s agreed to allow you to go with me if it was what you wanted,” he informed with a little smugness of his own.
Typical Eric. She sighed again. “I guess I could be angry about that, but I’m too tired to argue the point.”
She found herself in his arms again, wrapped in his comfort and solid strength.
“I know, Dear One. You are as weary as I am. You need this break as much as I do. Thank you for agreeing to accompany me,” she heard him whisper. There was a loving inflection to Dear One that made her insides flutter.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she muttered into his pects.
She took a deep breath, inhaling his scent and letting the contentment from the bond seep into her weary bones. It felt so good to be held by someone who appreciated and valued her. Her body began tapping her on the shoulder, telling her that she really wasn’t all that tired, and wouldn’t it be nice if she and Eric continued their conversation at home, preferably in the bedroom? She had to admit that the idea sounded good, and she was about to let her body have its way – hey after all she’d just agreed to go with him to an undisclosed location for 4 days, and she just knew what was going to happen then so why bother resisting her urges now? – when she felt Eric lift her chin and claim a gentle, but oddly chaste, kiss.
The lack of passion in the kiss surprised her because she could sense his own rising lust in the bond, and she could certainly feel his interest through his jeans, but rather than move closer, he actually took a little step away and placed his hands on her shoulders.
“I’ll come for you shortly after sunset on Sunday, my lover. Pack warm. We’re heading north.”
“O-okay,” she stuttered, pulling herself out of her own lust and quelling the feeling of disappointment she was experiencing.
He gave her a tender smile, and another kiss – this one on the forehead – and then he was gone. She looked at the empty place where he had just been, blinking and wondering why they weren’t headed for her house right now, despite the fact that Amelia and Octavia were still living there. After a moment, she sighed and turned to go back into the bar to tell Sam she was leaving on Sunday
Chapter Two
A dozen times she’d picked up the phone to call Eric and call the whole thing off, and a dozen times she’d put the phone back down. Even when he’d called on Thursday night to chat and finalize the plans for Sunday, she’d been about to tell him that she was backing out when the words strangled in her throat and came out as a question regarding whether or not the place they were going had a pool. Just so she would know if she needed to bring a bathing suit, of course. He’d roared with laughter and told her that any pool they’d be getting into would be suit optional. That had ended the conversation right there.
But for all of her anxiety and apprehension about the upcoming trip – hell she was going away for 4 days with Eric. Anyone in her right mind would be nervous! – she found herself looking forward to it. Maybe it was just the bond filling her with Eric’s happiness, even from as far away as Shreveport. They’d never really measured the distance the bond stretched, and she knew they could feel each other when they were talking on the phone, if only faintly. Lately, however, it felt like it was growing stronger or maybe it was just that she was more aware of it now.
Eric was euphoric, and she had to admit there were portions of the trip she was definitely going to enjoy. She had no illusions that sex was not going to play a big part in the “big trip,” and her sex drive was going into overdrive imagining multiple scenarios involving her, Eric, and a number of soft, flat surfaces (and maybe a few hard, vertical ones, too.) She wondered if Eric liked lingerie.
The sex she was looking forward to. It was everything else that was tying her into knots, and Sunday afternoon found her pacing like a caged animal as she waited for sunset. She’d been working like a mad-woman, taking as many shifts at Merlotte’s as Sam would let her, and she was fairly certain that she’d made enough money to cover her time off, not that Eric hadn’t promised to make up the difference if she came up a few dollars short.
He’d repeated the promise again when they’d talked on the phone in Sam’s office, after he’d been unable to raise her at home and had ended up calling the bar. He was worried that she was working too hard. He didn’t want her all worn out before their trip. Wearing her out was his job he’d said, and she could just imagine the leer on his face when he’d said it. If she could have jumped him through the phone, she would have. She knew she was in deep trouble if simply talking to him was like having phone sex right there in Merlotte’s.
But for all her anticipation of the more pleasurable aspects of the trip, it was the other aspects that were making her break into a cold sweat. Octavia and Amelia had gotten so tired of her pacing that they’d gone out, so now she was alone in her grandmother’s house, wearing a hole in the floor as she watched the clock ticking down to sunset. It was November. Eric would be rising early. He’d said he’d be there within a half hour of sundown. That was only 40 minutes away. Jesus, Shepherd of Judea, what was she going to do?
She was working herself up into a nervous fret when she suddenly felt perfectly calm and happy. She started. She hadn’t even heard a whisper of the crunch of tires on the driveway, but there was no doubt in her mind that Eric was coming, and he’d be there soon, probably very soon. She shook her head to get it on straight and did a final check to make sure she had remembered everything.
Sitting by the back door was her suitcase. It was new. On Thursday night she had mentioned to Eric that her old rolling suitcase hadn’t survived the bombing in Rhodes (it was buried somewhere in the rubble of what was left of the Pyramid of Gizeh hotel,) and that she needed to either borrow one or go to Wal-mart for a replacement. Less than twenty-four hours later a FedEx truck had lumbered up to her door to deliver a brand new set of luggage complete with a large rolling suitcase, a smaller rolling carry-on, a garment bag and a make-up bag, all in cranberry to match her coat. The same coat that was now resting overtop of the carry-on, waiting to go with her. He’d told her to pack warm, after all, and it was getting on winter.
Five minutes after she’d first felt him, she heard the sound of his Corvette purring down the drive, and she scrambled to make sure her hair and clothes were in order. Just for something to do. She had declared herself ready as she heard the car come to a stop and the car door open. She didn’t hear him coming up to the house of course, but he went immediately to the back door and knocked. She felt a pang as she realized that he’d remembered that she always came in the back.
“My lover?” she heard him call, and she hurried to answer the door, pulling it open like someone yanks a bandage off a wound just to get it over with.
He was there in the doorway, dressed in jeans and the heaviest sweater she’d ever seen him wear. It was woven in blue and purple with a scoop neck and long sleeves. It looked like wool, and it looked fabulous on him. He always did look amazing in the jewel colors. On his feet were what looked like hiking boots. Dress warm indeed. She felt naked in her long-sleeved knit sweater and blue jeans.
“Sookie,” he said, his voice even.
“Eric,” she answered, her voice not so even.
“Are you ready?”
She glanced at the clock. It wasn’t even six yet and he was already at her door. He must have spent the day close-by. Had he stayed at Bill’s? Would he be that cruel to his underling as to force Bill to shelter him so he could take Bill’s former lover off on a romantic trip?
Knowing what she knew of Eric, he might have done just that. She didn’t think Eric had quite forgiven Bill for his part in both the queen’s computer program debacle and her plan to recruit Sookie’s telepathic abilities through any means necessary; any means being to seduce her and bring her under control. Pam had told her that no one at Fangtasia had known about Bill’s mission, and that Eric had been particularly pissed off about it.
At the time Pam had led her to believe that Eric’s anger had been because the queen had usurped his authority, but Eric’s actions had told a different story. He might have been mad at Sophie-Anne for her deviousness, but he was even angrier with Bill for deceiving her. He had forced Bill to tell her the truth, thus crushing any hope Bill might have had of getting back with her. She might not hate him anymore, but the most her first boyfriend could expect from her was friendship and grudging respect.
“How’d you get here so fast? Did you stay at Bill’s?” she blurted.
The scowl on his face told her more than any words he could have spoken. “No. I have a… safe place between here and Shreveport where I spent the day. It is considerably closer.”
“Ah,” she answered, flushing a little in embarrassment, but filing the information away. So Eric had a bolthole near Bon Temps, and, judging by how fast he’d gotten there, it was very close to her house.
He looked at the little pile of luggage. “Is this everything?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“You got my gift,” he commented, picking up the carry-on suitcase and the garment bag. She hadn’t needed the larger rolling suitcase. It was only 4 days, and she was no clothes-horse. There were a couple of nice outfits in the garment bag, including the red dress and the black shawl Pam had once wanted to borrow, plus a new blue dress much like the one that had been lost in Rhodes. She knew how much Eric had liked her in that dress.
“Yes, they’re very nice. Thank you. I meant to send a card, but I didn’t get the luggage until I got home from work on Friday night, and I knew you wouldn’t get the card by Saturday,” she explained. “And I figured I could just… thank you personally.”
He gave her a heated look that made her insides melt and motioned her out the door with his chin because his hands were full. “I’m sure you can come up with many ways to thank me, my lover, but that will be later. Right now we need to go. The plane is waiting for us at the airfield.”
He all but chased her out the door, and she hurried to put on her coat, lock up the house and meet him at the car. He’d already stowed her bags with his in the Corvette’s tiny trunk, and was holding the door open so she could get in. She would have thought him the perfect gentleman if not for the impatient look on his face.
“Plane? We’re flying?” she questioned as she buckled herself in. The car was already moving before she had the thing fully clasped.
“Yes, my lover. We are to meet it at a private airfield near Shreveport,” he replied, guiding the car onto Hummingbird Road.
“Private airfield?” she stammered, blinking at him as he drove with both hands clamped firmly on the wheel and his foot heavy on the pedal, well, heavier than usual. “Are we in a hurry? Can you tell me where we’re going yet? How long is the flight?”
“The pilot will take off once we have boarded. The flight will be a little under three hours if memory serves. And no, I can’t tell you where we’re going yet.”
“Is it some secret hideaway spot you’re not allowed to talk about?”
She was half-joking so she was surprised when he answered, “Something like that. I’ll explain everything very soon, Dear One.”
“Oh.”
He was tense and driving like a madman. She was half afraid to look at the speedometer to see how fast they were going, and, if she didn’t know any better, she would say that Eric was afraid they were being followed.
“Eric, is everything all right?” she asked carefully.
“Of course, my lover. Everything is fine,” he answered, but she knew he wasn’t being completely truthful. “I’m glad you liked your gift. It matched your coat perfectly.”
“You have good taste,” she said teasingly.
“Of course I do. Look who’s sitting next to me.”
He gave her a smug smile that made her relax. No matter what was bothering him, they were together, and she felt safe in his presence.
“You must tell me, how has your week been? I know we spoke on Thursday, and you told me you were working many extra shifts. You didn’t wear yourself out too much, did you?” he said suddenly, speaking in a pleasant, conversational voice.
Eric was making small talk. Okay, now she was getting worried again. He cast her a glance, and she felt reassurance come across the bond until she settled down. She looked at him, took a deep breath and nodded, reading his silent command for calm.
“No, I’m fine. I worked the lunch shift this afternoon, but I left at 4:30.”
“Did you work last night?”
“Yes,” she admitted.
“So you haven’t gotten much sleep.”
As if she could have slept knowing he would be coming to whisk her away to an undisclosed location in less than 24 hours. “Enough. I’m not tired at all.”
His smile widened a little. “I’m glad to hear that.”
Ten minutes later Eric made a left turn onto a side road that she hadn’t even seen was there, and took the Corvette down a wide gravel lane that ended at a small airstrip with two hangers and one grass runway. He parked the car near one of the hangars and got the luggage while she was getting out of the passenger seat.
“Where’s the plane?” she asked, not seeing anything that looked like a plane.
“It’s over here,” he replied, and led the way around the metal building to the large open sliding doors.
She’d never been inside an airplane hangar before so she spent a moment just looking around. When she turned, she saw Eric handing their bags to a man in a dark uniform. He was standing next to a small jet with bent wingtips, and she walked over to join him. The jet was sleek and looked new, but it had no identifying marks on it, no company logo or name, only the registry numbers painted on the tail.
“Come, my lover. We will take off as soon as we’re boarded,” Eric told her, extending an arm and ushering her towards the folded down set of steps. He was carrying a black garment bag slung over one shoulder.
She felt his urgency so she hurried up the steps and entered into the cabin of the jet. Inside was nothing like she was expecting. Technically it looked like there was seating for eight, but the seats were four very plush recliner type upright chairs and two bench loveseats facing each other with a table in-between them. She’d paused to take it all in, but Eric was right behind her, shooing her towards one of the seats as he hung the garment bag in a stowage compartment near the door. She chose one of the recliner-type seats and fished around for the safety belt. The whole chair swiveled. Just great.
“There isn’t one,” Eric’s voice informed from the recliner next to her.
“There isn’t?” she asked, watching the uniformed pilot fold up the steps and shut the cabin door. He gave them both a nod before disappearing into the cockpit.
“No. In the unlikely event of an accident, I will kick out that door, grab you and fly us both to safety.”
The smug look was back and he sat in the seat as if he owned it, the king of his own little world. The thought struck her that maybe he did.
“Is this your plane?” she asked with a gasp.
He grinned. “No. This is a private jet owned by the establishment where we are going.”
“Can you tell me where we’re going now?’
He flicked his eyes towards the cockpit, and she felt the rumble as the plane’s engines turned on. It sounded like a fleet of lawnmowers all buzzing away on a Sunday afternoon in July.
“In another few minutes. After we’re airborne.”
“Can this thing even get off the ground?” she asked nervously.
“It’s a Learjet, so, yes, I think so,” he replied, an amused lilt to his voice.
There was a quick jolt, then she felt the jet begin to taxi forward, leaving the hangar and turning onto the runway. She clenched her jaw and set both hands on the armrests of the chair. As a whole, she wasn’t overly fond of flying. She’d never set foot on a plane before she’d gotten involved with vampires, and her flying experience had been limited to the flights to and from Dallas and the flight to Rhodes. Neither trip had ended well. She hoped this one wouldn’t make it three for three.
She held her breath as the jet paused at the end of the runway, knowing what was coming next. She hated this part, the takeoff, the feeling of something that should just not be able to fly throwing itself into the air. Suddenly a cool hand wrapped around hers, peeling her fingers from the armrest of the seat.
“Don’t be so afraid. I’m with you,” Eric whispered.
She grabbed the offered hand and squeezed tightly, turning her head so she could look Eric in the eyes. He held her gaze.
“Look at me,” he commanded. “Don’t look out the window. Look at me.”
She flashed back to a horrible night in Jackson when she’d been staked at a club for Supes, and she’d been in agony. Eric had been there. Eric had followed her to Jackson and taken care of her when she’d gotten hurt. Eric had sat beside her and held her hand when Ray Don had yanked the wooden stake from her flesh. Eric had not let her look away from his face. ‘Look at me. Look at me, Sookie. Don’t Sookie! Look at me!’
The jet engines roared. They sounded nothing like lawnmowers now, and the plane lurched forward, gathering speed as it hurtled towards the other end of the landing strip. She felt the G-Forces pressing her into the plush seat, but all she could see were Eric’s blue, blue eyes.
They reached cruising altitude about fifteen minutes later, and she let go of Eric’s hand. At least this time she hadn’t cut him with her nails. “Thanks,” she managed licking her suddenly dry lips.
He smiled. “Anytime, my lover.”
Now that they were airborne, she noted that he’d visibly relaxed, the little signs of tension draining out of his face and shoulders. She watched as he got up and went to a set of cabinets, opening one that turned out to be a cleverly disguised refrigerator.
“Water, soda or something stronger?” he asked.
“Water will do fine, thank you.”
He pulled out a bottle of spring water and uncapped it for her, bringing it over to her and deftly unfolding a table that had been lying flat against the cabin wall. She accepted the drink and took a swig.
“Thank you. Now can you tell me where we are going and what all the speeding and secrecy were about?”
He resumed his seat in the recliner next to her only now it was across the folding table. “I’m sorry for that. I didn’t know if Felipe or Victor had bugged my car or had me followed. I half expect that they did because it’s something I would do.”
She put down the bottle of water and looked at him. “Why would they bug your car and have you followed?”
“Because they suspect I am being devious in some way, which is what they would do if they were headed out of town shortly after a major coup.”
Eric being devious. What a shocker. “Didn’t you tell them where you were going?”
“No. The only thing anyone knows is that I am going on vacation and I’m taking you with me. Not even Pam knows where I am going to be.”
Now that was a surprise. What did he have to keep from Pam so much that he couldn’t even tell his second-in-command where he was going? “I don’t understand. Why all the secrecy?”
He leaned forward and folded his hands in front of him on the table. She recognized the posture and matched it, holding the water bottle between her palms.
“Before the Great Revelation, when our kind revealed our existence to yours, there were… places known to us, and other supernatural beings, where we could go to be safe. They were sanctuaries of a sort, neutral places that served the supernatural community, and provided safe haven for travelers. Some were resorts in desirable locations, some were retreats for those seeking solitude, some were hostels offering simple lodging and food for the night,” he explained. “All of them were secret and protected, and viciously guarded. There are strict rules inside them. You cannot kill in a sanctuary. There are no territorial disputes or rivalries within their borders. The neutrality of the sanctuary is sacrosanct…”
Sacrosanct. She knew that one. It had been a word of the day. “They’re like Switzerland. I get it,” she interrupted, urging him to get to the point. “Secret places vamps and Supes could go and be safe. You’re taking me to one of them.”
He nodded. “Yes. One of the oldest and most carefully guarded sanctuaries on this continent.”
He got up again and walked over to the stowage compartment where he had hung the black garment bag. He lifted it out and brought it over, offering it to her. She accepted it reluctantly.
“What’s this? I have a garment bag,” she asked, eyeing the item.
“Presents from me. Things I knew you would need where we are going, but that I also knew would be hard to find in Louisiana, especially on such short notice,” he answered, lowering himself down into the seat again, stretching out his long legs and crossing them at the ankles.
She blinked at him, but unzipped the garment bag, revealing four items. The first two were heavy sweaters like the one he was wearing, only in her size and cut for a woman’s body. They were in jewel colors like his, deep blues and purples with a bit of red and green smattered into the geometric patterns. She gasped when she saw them and carefully lifted them out of the bag. They were surprisingly soft to the touch.
“Oh Eric… They’re beautiful. Thank you.”
“I’m glad you like them.”
“Yes, very much.”
She set the sweaters aside and reached into the bag again, this time pulling out a genuine parka, heavier and warmer than any coat she’d ever owned or needed in Bon Temps.
“I’m seeing a running theme here,” she commented, holding up the parka.
He grinned. “There are warm, waterproof boots at the bottom of the bag.”
Huh. She hadn’t seen those yet. All she saw was a plastic dress bag at the back of the garment bag, but she dug down into the bottom of the bag and found the box with the heavy hiking boots. The tops were high enough to cover her ankles and lined with wool.
“Let me guess. When you said we were headed north, you meant it. You’re taking me up to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus.”
He laughed, his mouth breaking into a pleased smile. “Not exactly, but you can expect it to be cold. The temperatures will be below freezing at night. There might even be…” He paused for dramatic effect. “snow.”
Her jaw dropped. He had to be kidding. “Where are you taking me again?”
Joy and contentment came flooding across the bond.
“It’s called Isle Elena. It’s an island on Lake Superior off the coast of Michigan. The owners have run the sanctuary for over two centuries. It’s not listed on any map, and it’s not claimed by any country.” His smile faded and he looked serious. “Isle Elena’s reputation is well known, but very few are ever invited to visit. The only ones who can go there are those who have been there before or who have been brought as a guest of someone who has.”
“I’m guessing Felipe de Castro and Victor Madden aren’t on the guest list,” she commented dryly.
“I honestly don’t know. I’ve only been to Isle Elena once and neither of them were there during my stay,” he answered.
“But you didn’t want them to know where we were going.”
“I didn’t want them to know where I was taking you. This trip is for us, and I did not want the new king crashing in on our time together or sending someone to spy on us.”
“Would he do that?” she asked, then realized the idiocy of her question. Of course he would. Castro had orchestrated a hostile takeover of Louisiana that had resulted in the deaths of a number of vampires she’d known. A little surveillance on the only remaining sheriff from the old regime was nothing for him. “Nevermind. Forget I asked that.”
He gave her a smile that was not quite a smirk. She smiled back and looked away shyly, the inside of the plane suddenly becoming too close. Across from her, she heard Eric shift to sit up a little straighter and cross his legs.
“So that was why you were driving like Jimmie Johnson on the back roads of Bon Temps?”
“Who?”
She rolled her eyes. Some days she forgot who she was talking to. “Jimmie Johnson, the NASCAR driver,” she explained.
“Ah. A racer.”
“Yeah. With the way you were speeding, I thought you were trying to qualify for something.”
“I was trying to get us to the plane before something else happened. Disaster and calamity seem to follow you, Sookie. I half expected a Were to come popping out of my trunk before we even left your house.”
“Eric, I’ve seen the trunk of your Corvette. A Were could never fit in there,” she deadpanned, feeling a little stung. It wasn’t her fault that danger seemed to follow her now. Her life had been relatively boring before she’d met Bill, aside from most people thinking she was either disabled or crazy. “And I’ll have you know that I was never in any trouble before I started getting involved with your vampire shit. I never had to go to the hospital in all my life, and now I can’t seem to stay out of them.”
Eric frowned. “I’d noticed. To be honest, your penchant for finding yourself in the middle of danger is disturbing, especially since you seem frustratingly unwilling to ask for help.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she snapped back.
Anger flared across the bond and she felt his irritation as well as her own. “It means that even after I expressly told you to call me if the Shreveport Weres tried to drag you further into their pack war, you blatantly ignored my wishes and went to meet with the two rival packmasters. You nearly got yourself killed in the process.”
“I was just supposed to be going there to mediate a sit-down. It wasn’t supposed to be a blood bath. How was I to know some crazy Were-bitch was going to attack? What happened wasn’t my fault, and besides, Sam was with me,” she countered.
Eric sneered, his fangs running out. “Yes, the damn shifter was by your side. You are my blood-bonded, Sookie. I should have been there to protect you, but instead you had him.”
“I didn’t want him there. He insisted on coming! His being there wasn’t my idea!”
“Thank goodness one of you was thinking straight! You were an idiot to walk into that situation unguarded! What were you thinking?”
If they hadn’t been on a plane cruising at god-knew-how-many-thousands of feet in the air, she would have stormed off and left him sitting there. Instead she had no choice but to stay there. She didn’t even know where the bathroom was.
“I didn’t plan for it to end up like that. I was just trying not to get killed!” she yelled, the tears already starting to fall.
“Do you have any idea what that did to me? Did you think I couldn’t feel your terror through the bond? I rushed out of Fangtasia to find you, but when I got to the office center, all I found were fucking Weres and bloody body parts. You were nowhere to be found. I tracked you all the way back to Bon Temps, trailing you and that damn shifter. I made sure you got into the house, then I went back to Fangtasia to wait for your explanation. And what did I get? A phone call from Pam telling me to go fly a kite!”
She almost laughed. She would have laughed, if she hadn’t felt the pain through the bond. She’d hurt him again and that knowledge shamed her. More tears fell and she couldn’t look at him. A moment later, she felt something touch her cheek, and she reared back to see him reaching over the table to wipe her tears away.
“I hate it when you cry,” he admitted softly.
She sniffed and took the napkin he’d been using to wipe her face, dabbing at her cheeks herself. “And I hate the fact that I can’t seem to stop.”
“Let’s not talk about this anymore for now. We still have another two hours before we land, and I don’t want to spend it fighting.”
She could agree to that. “Okay,” she answered, and then blew her nose into the napkin. Another one magically appeared in his hand and she accepted it when he offered. “Thanks.”
“Are you hungry? There’s a dining room on the island. I planned for both of us to get supper there after we’d checked into our lodgings, but there is a small kitchen here with some offerings.”
He didn’t wait for her answer, and she recognized the futility of asking him to stop once he’d gotten something into his head. At the rear of the plane was a divider that portioned off what was probably the kitchen he’d mentioned, and she watched him disappear behind the wall and listened to him rummaging around. A few moments later, he returned with a sandwich for her and a bottle of TrueBlood for himself. She choked up again when she realized that he’d made her favorite, right down to the kind of mustard she liked. He truly had remembered everything, even the stupidest little details.
“Is something wrong with the sandwich?” he asked, his voice uncertain.
“No, it’s perfect,” she said between sniffles.
“You’re crying because it’s perfect,” he pressed, eyebrow raised.
“Yes.”
He closed his eyes and shook his head. “I’ll never understand human women.”
Chapter Three
She got herself under control while she ate the sandwich, keeping her eyes down so she wouldn’t look at him. He seemed to be doing much the same, leaning his head back against the plush seat and staring up at the jet’s ceiling. Remembering what he had just said, she came to a revelation about the night of the Shreveport- St. Catherine Were War.
“It was you,” she blurted suddenly.
“Hm?” he replied, turning his face to her.
“I knew you were coming. I knew you were on your way. You gave me your strength,” she continued.
“When?” His eyes were bright and he was listening intently, but she was too busy having an epiphany to notice.
“During the Were War. Priscilla had jumped on Sam, and I… I jumped on her. Something snapped in me. I… saw her kill Amanda, then jump on Sam, and I… just lost it. I leaped onto her back, and clamped onto her, and just kept squeezing her around the neck until she had to let go of Sam. She was shaking me, and trying to bite me, but I wouldn’t ease up. Sam finally got himself together enough to fight, so I let go, and he killed her just as Claudine got there.”
“The fairy was there too?” she heard him growl.
Anger came barreling across the bond again, but she felt him struggling to rein it in.
“Well… yeah. She popped in in the middle of it. I don’t know how she knew I was in danger, but she did, and she just appeared next to me right after I let go of Priscilla.”
She saw him clench his fists and grit his teeth. His fangs were out again, and she scrambled for something to say that might help.
“But it was you. You gave me the courage to jump on Priscilla. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew you were reaching out to me…”
“I gave you the courage to idiotically jump onto a Were in the middle of a pack war?” he scoffed, then clamped down on his next words, shaking his head.
She saw a smear of blood on his lower lip so he must have been biting down to keep his temper under control, and she waited while he struggled with himself. He finally let out a huge burst of air through his nose, and she felt the tension flood out of the bond.
“Perhaps it was best that I did not catch up with you. If you had smelled of blood and war and fairy, I might not have been able to stop myself from fucking you on your front porch and damn all who saw us.”
Score one for the bluntly honest vampire. She stayed silent because there was nothing she could say to that. After a few more tense moments, Eric let out another breath and made a motion towards the forgotten garment bag lying on the floor next to her chair.
“I don’t want to talk about that anymore. You have another gift in there. Hopefully it will help us focus… on more pleasant things,” he said.
She nodded and wiped her hands on a napkin to get off any crumbs from the sandwich before she reached into the garment bag. The plastic dress bag was still in there, opaque white so she couldn’t see what was inside it. She unhooked the hanger from the holder and pulled out the bag, draping the item across her lap so she could lift the plastic and see what was inside. She gasped when she saw an exact copy of the blue dress she had worn to the ball in Rhodes.
“Oh…” she breathed, lifting the ice blue, silver beaded garment up with reverence. “Eric…”
Now she was even happier that she’d brought the other blue dress because it meant that she had the shoes and jewelry that would go with this one.
“I know you lost the other one in Rhodes,” he said, his voice almost too soft for her to hear.
“Yes.” She remembered the ball. She remembered dancing with Eric, how he had spun her around in his arms, and made her feel like she was flying. She felt a pang for everything that was lost when the Fellowship bombed the Pyramid of Gizeh Hotel, but thanked God that everyone who had been important to her had survived. “It’s beautiful. Thank you.”
“You were stunning in that dress. I have dreams of you wearing it.”
She felt the stirrings of lust building low in her belly, and she allowed herself to feel the heavy warmth. Eric’s interest echoed across the bond, and she licked her lips, giving him what she hoped was a sultry look. Judging by the expression on his face, she was succeeding.
“And will I… have an occasion to wear this dress while we’re away?” she asked, keeping her voice low.
“It will be far too cold for you to go out in it, but perhaps for a… private showing,” Eric replied, his eyes smoldering at her as his fangs came down a little.
Read: ‘Put it on so I can take it off you, or fuck you in it, or both. I don’t care.’
She didn’t care either. The warmth in her lower abdomen was spreading, and she found herself lifting out of her seat to lean across the table between them. She balanced her hip on the edge and lowered her face close to his until their lips were almost touching. She closed her eyes as she heard him inhale to breathe in her scent.
“Eric…” she breathed.
“Sookie…” he answered in the same soft voice.
Their lips met and she felt him reach over to pull her across the table, his hands on her waist as their tongues dueled. Lust flared and wrapped around her, fed by Eric’s growing desire, and she lifted her hands to tangle them into his long hair. Eric moaned into her mouth, and the sound was so low and desperate that she almost thought he was in pain. It was an amazing turn on.
Her mind went into hyper-drive as it began to rationalize what she was about to suggest. She and Eric were the only passengers, there was no cabin crew to see them, the pilot was behind a closed door… With the presence of the two loveseats, she was sure she wasn’t the only one who had thought of what she was about to do.
“Would you like to join the Mile High Club?” she murmured when he let her breathe.
He chuckled low and soft. “I hate to tell you, my lover, but I’m already a charter member.”
Why was she not surprised to hear that? Well, at least he could show her the ropes.
“Well then, maybe you can help initiate me,” she said, kissing him again.
His hand slid up her side, pausing a moment to cup one breast. She groaned and used her leverage on his head to pull herself closer, pressing her body into his hands. She felt his fingers squeeze ever so slightly, then was shocked when he gently, but firmly pushed her away.
“Eric?”
She saw him move his mouth, but it took him a few moments before he was able to speak. She looked down, confused, because she could clearly see the large lump in his jeans.
“As much as I would love to, my lover, I’m afraid we can’t.”
His careful refusal brought her back to earth, and she was ashamed of her own brazenness. Getting a hold of herself, she took a deep breath and smoothed back her tousled hair.
“Right. You’re right. We don’t know if the plane will hit turbulence or if the pilot has to pee and accidentally walks in on us…”
Who would have thought that Eric would have been the rational one of the two of them?
“It’s not that. In fact, it’s taking every bit of effort I have not to throw you onto those loveseats and fuck the daylights out of you,” he admitted, his eyes dilated with want.
Well, okay. “What’s stopping you?”
“You are.”
“Uh… Eric. In case you hadn’t noticed, I wasn’t saying no.”
He smiled. “I noticed. And I do appreciate your… enthusiasm, but I promised myself that I was going to handle you differently from now on, and I’m committed to keeping that promise.”
“What do you mean, handle me differently?” she repeated, not liking the sound of that at all.
“It would be far too easy to give into my urges and take you. Once I got started, I don’t know if I’d be able to stop. I’d fuck you here twice at least, once across this table and once on the loveseat. I’d fuck you on the couch after we checked into our lodgings, or on the floor if we didn’t make it that far. And of course, the moment I got you into the bed, you wouldn’t get out of it until dawn,” he explained, his hand reaching down to absently stroke himself through the denim of his jeans.
“I could spend the next four nights doing the same thing,” he continued. “I’m sure both of us would enjoy it very much. But then none of the other reasons I have for bringing you here with me would get addressed, and settling things between us is much more important to me than a string of sexual escapades, no matter how much I might want them.”
She stared at him, incredulous and not believing what she was hearing. “So basically you’re telling me no sex until we’ve worked this shit out between us.”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”
She was now convinced that the vampire sitting before her was not Eric, but an undead Pod Person who looked like him, because the Eric she knew would never pass up sex with anyone, least of all pass up sex with her. “Who are you and what have you done with Eric?”
He chuckled, but it was bitter, as was the smile he gave her. “I realize that this might come as a shock to you, Sookie, but I don’t always think with my dick. I can, on occasion, think quite clearly with the head on my shoulders.”
She frowned, looking away, because she could think of numerous times when Eric had thought quite clearly with the right head, but then invariably ruined whatever progress he’d made with her by thinking with the wrong one. Come to think of it, however, those incidents had stopped quite a while ago. Eric had been much more serious around her lately, especially since Rhodes. The realization made her very uncomfortable, and that made her defensive. She’d learned that the best defense when dealing with a vampire (or any Supe for that matter) was a good offense.
“Oh, so, what you’re telling me is that, unless we “come to an understanding” as you put it, we’re going to – what? Play cards for the next four days? Will you make me wait in the other room while you call for room service?” she snapped.
“Excuse me? What did you say?”
His voice was sharp, bordering on angry, and she paid attention. “I asked if we were going to play cards.”
“Not that babbling idiocy, the other part; the part about room service.”
There was a dangerous glint in his eyes, but she didn’t think his growing outrage was directed at her.
“Well, you’ll… have to feed, and I know places that cater to vamps they have… donors on staff who…” She stopped because Eric’s face had paled and he’d gotten very, very still. Not a good sign.
“Are you telling me that someone did that to you? Ordered a donor then made you wait in the other room?”
She gulped and was almost too scared to answer. His eyes narrowed and she could practically hear the wheels turning in his head.
“Did Bill do that to you?”
She didn’t have to reply because her reaction gave her away through the bond. Eric curled back his upper lip, his fangs fully down, and growled.
“I’ll kill him.”
That sent her scrambling. “He didn’t want to do it! But he was hungry, and he knew he couldn’t feed on me because he’d weaken me too much, and I had to be in top form because…” She rounded, going on the defensive again. “Because you had rented me out to the Dallas vampires, and I had to be strong enough to find Farrell!”
Her jibe didn’t work. He was still furious, the waves of rage careening though the bond, and she thought he was going to break the seat because he was gripping the arms so tightly.
“Eric, calm down!”
“Calm down? He paid you one of the highest insults one of us can pay to a human, and you want me to calm down?”
“Oh, like, you wouldn’t have done the same thing,” she accused.
“Never!”
He said it with such force that it stunned her speechless.
“Never,” he said more softly. “I would have drank a whole case of that synthetic crap or gone out to the donor myself before I would have degraded you like that.”
His admission struck her in a warm place and she teared up. “Yeah, well. You’re a lot older than Bill. You don’t need as much blood,” she said, her voice a little sulky.
“That’s no excuse.”
She hadn’t thought so either, but she hadn’t had the courage to tell Bill that at the time. Funny how she’d always been a little afraid of him. She’d been terrified of Eric, but that had never kept her from speaking her mind. If anything, she was convinced her willingness to get in his face had kept her alive.
There was silence between them, and she was glad to feel his anger fading. What replaced it was an odd jumble of emotions that she had difficulty interpreting.
“Does that mean you won’t order room service? Even if we…” she began tentatively, picking at a bit of lint on her sweater.
“I can subsist on synthetic blood if I have to, and Isle Elena will have food choices that I wouldn’t normally have available to me. I do, however, harbor a deep hope that we will resolve our differences quickly,” he replied before she could finish the question.
He’d said the word “quickly” with a husky rasp in his voice, and his accent deepened like it always did when he was struggling with his emotions.
She cast a glance at him. He was watching her like a lion watches the gazelle he’s chosen to eat. Butterflies started fluttering around in her belly, and a new wave of lust hit her, but she tamped it down for both of their sakes.
“And if we don’t? Are you going to be okay?” she questioned, motioning to the bulge that was still in his pants – or had it gone away when he’d gotten angry but come back when she’d started feeling frisky again? She hadn’t noticed. She was noticing now. She could almost see the complete outline of his erection pressing against the confines of the jeans, and she remembered how… adequate his endowments had been. It made her squirm a little.
“You really need to stop that or I’ll break my promise,” he warned, his nostrils flaring. “And as for whether or not I can go without sex for 4 days, I have gone without for a lot longer than that.”
Somehow the thought of Eric being celibate didn’t enter into her worldview of him.
“What are you saying? How long has it been since you’ve had sex?” she asked, not even thinking that it was too personal a question to ask. Her grandmother would have been appalled, but Eric did not seem to be offended.
“Three weeks and two days,” he answered without hesitation, as if he’d been keeping count – counting the long, arduous nights of depravation.
For Eric, who spent much of his time in Fangtasia surrounded by fang-bangers who were desperate for his attentions, that was kind of like tossing a recovering alcoholic into a room full of booze. She gasped.
“You’re joking. That’s…”
“Exactly the number of nights that have passed since I remembered our time together at your house,” he confirmed. “This isn’t how I wanted you to find out, but,” He waved a dismissive hand. “you asked.”
She stared at him. He was sitting there, calm as could be, admitting that he’d gone without sex for almost a month, all because he had remembered the sex they’d had when he was cursed.
His erection hadn’t faded. Now she knew why.
“You’re joking,” was all she could say, but inwardly she was remembering another vampire who had denied himself for three weeks, or more vividly the amazing sex she and Bill had had after they’d made up. Eric had gone just as long. And he was better in bed… Oh, God.
“I’m not.”
His voice was strained. He could feel her reaction to his admission, and it had to be stretching his control. She tried to rein it in before he jumped on her, because right now if he moved she knew what would happen. She’d be splayed out on the loveseat lickety-split, and half of her would be overjoyed to find herself there. The other half was backpedaling like crazy because she didn’t want to face the implications of what he’d done.
“Why would you do such a thing?” she demanded.
“Fidelity is very important to you. I wanted to prove to you that I could be faithful,” he replied, then shifted a little uncomfortably. “All the same, with all of the distractions of the new king and your brother, and also because you have spent the last three weeks avoiding me as much as possible, it has been very… difficult for me.”
She stood up, needing to put distance between them in order to process what he’d just told her. The reasoning went too deep, and she just couldn’t deal with it right now. She still hadn’t sorted out how she was feeling about him, and now he’d dumped this in her lap.
“No. Oh no, I don’t believe you. You forget that I never forgot those days you were at my house. I know your sex drive. You couldn’t go four hours let alone almost four weeks!”
“Are you doubting my ability to commit? You think I cannot control my urges enough to remain true?”
She ignored the edge of warning in his voice and pressed on, “I’m saying that you spend your nights surrounded by fang-bangers who’ll jump at the chance to throw themselves at you. You can’t tell me you haven’t had any of them for almost a month.”
“I gave up fucking, Sookie. I didn’t give up feeding. Of course I’ve had them. The difference is they haven’t had me.”
“I’m sure they’re so disappointed,” she sneered.
“As a matter of fact, they are. Pam accused me of being bad for business.”
“Then why did you do it?”
“I told you why. Fidelity is one of your most strict expectations.”
“Eric, we aren’t dating! We aren’t a couple! We aren’t anything to each other!” she shrieked.
His hand slapped down on the table and the little peg leg holding it up cracked. The whole thing gave way and crashed against the cabin wall. The sound made her freeze and stare at the broken table that now hung by one hinge. He rose up, a blond Norse God of rage, and towered over her.
“You are my blood-bonded,” he growled, reaching for her arm. She cowered and cringed away from him, but that only made him angrier. He grabbed her by the shoulders and made her look at him. “Do not be afraid of me! I am not going to hurt you.”
“Let me go!”
He complied immediately, and she almost stumbled because she’d lost her balance when he’d grabbed her. She steadied herself by grabbing hold of the back of the closest recliner seat and used it to keep herself standing. She was panting and going into overload. Eric was angryanguishedhurtworriedfrusrated. She felt the tears welling in her eyes, and she bent her head to rest her forehead on the seat in an attempt to get herself under control. If she could calm down, he would too. Maybe. Judging by the amount of pain and frustration coming across the bond, that was doubtful.
Suddenly everything stopped. Oh not the jet or the Earth spinning on its axis or her own head spinning with it, but everything from the bond. It went from a screaming tangle of emotions to one big blank. She felt nothing. Nada. Zip. Not even the buzz of Eric’s life force humming along in the background. It was like he wasn’t there anymore.
Horrified, she whipped her head up to see that he’d sat down in the plush chair. He was motionless, staring straight ahead, and she thought he’d gone into downtime, but if so it wasn’t like any downtime she’d ever seen any vampire do. At least then, she’d had a sense of the being in the reanimated body, but this was like there was a hole where Eric had been: a big, black empty chasm his presence had once filled. The hole was cold and it ached.
Was this what it would feel like if Eric was killed? Her knees went weak.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
His voice drowned out the rushing in her ears, and she looked at him, her eyes wide. He was back, the buzzing, the humming of his life entwined with hers, and the hole filled up again, but it was full of sorrow and heartache.
“Eric! What did you just do?” she cried, forcing her legs to support her long enough for her to slide into the seat of the plush chair.
“I cut off the tie.”
“You can do that?” Her chest was throbbing, aching like a limb that was coming back to life after it had gone numb.
“If I try hard enough, yes. It’s a protection. If I were being tortured, I could make it such that my blood-bonded couldn’t feel it.”
“To spare me the pain.”
“Yes.”
He looked away, and she’d never seen him so… subdued. She probed the bond, sifting through the emotions and trying to figure out which ones were hers. She was frightened and confused. Eric was miserable. Great way to start a four-day trip.
“You don’t want to be tied to me,” he stated. His voice was devoid of all emotion. “I knew in Rhodes when I offered myself in Andre’s place, that you would come to resent it. Do you hate me already?”
“No, Eric. I don’t hate you.” Of that much she was certain.
“That’s good. That’s a good place to start.”
She looked down at her hands. “I don’t know how I feel,” she admitted.
“That seems to be a common issue with you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I want you to be honest with me. We have no hope of reaching any understanding if we aren’t completely up-front with each other.”
She nodded. He was right, of course.
“If we’re being honest,” she began, biting her lip. “then, no, I wouldn’t like it. I admit, being blood-bonded to you is… confusing and inconvenient at times, and frustrating most of the time, but I wouldn’t be happy if we weren’t connected because then that would mean that… you were dead.”
“My death would hurt you.”
“Yes.”
“Your rejection hurts me. You fight our bond all the time, Sookie. The only time you didn’t fight was when I couldn’t remember who I was. Then… then you were everything I knew you could be.”
He stopped, but his face said that there was more he wanted to say. Whatever it was, he held it in. He looked at the ceiling of the jet, then out the small window to the night sky. She looked out too, seeing the clouds lit by moonlight and more stars than anyone saw from the ground these days because of all the light pollution.
They watched for a while. She breathed. He didn’t. But in the silence broken only by the humming of the jet engines, the chaos swirling in the bond ebbed and faded. They both calmed, and she felt the contented happiness that had become so familiar to her when she was in his presence creep back into her mind. Normally, she would resent what she felt was an artificial manipulation of her emotions, but right now she was glad for it.
She let her eyes slide to the side a bit to peek at him in profile. He was still looking out the window, his expression thoughtful and far away. It was so different from his trademark leer and overconfident look, but then she had seen less and less of that Eric lately, especially when they were alone. Knowing what she knew now about his sacrifice, she wondered what else he would be willing to give up.
“Did you really give up…” she asked softly.
“Yes. But I don’t want to talk about that now. Things aren’t calmed down enough between us,” he interrupted.
Read: I’m a hair’s breadth away from losing it again.
“Okay. What should we talk about?”
“I have no idea.”
“Why don’t you tell me more about where we’re going? You said you’d been there once before?”
“Yes, a couple of years before we went public. The Queen brought me and the other Louisiana Sheriffs to Isle Elena to discuss our feelings on the subject,” he said.
“And how did you all feel about it?”
“There were mixed feelings, of course, but we all agreed that it was getting harder and harder to hide our existence. Advances in human science and technology were outpacing us, and we knew it was only a matter of time before we were discovered. With the release of synthetic blood, we had a reason to take off the masks. We ripped off the veil before it could be done for us, and in doing so, we ensured our survival.”
She processed what he’d said and took it in.
“So it was a political move for you.”
“It was a self-preservation move. None of us would have gone public if we hadn’t known our very existence depended upon it.”
She nodded. She knew quite a few vamps who were not at all happy with the status quo.
“What’s Isle Elena like?”
“It’s a peaceful place. There is a main lodge near the lakeshore. The dining room and communal rooms are there. There are a few suites in it as well, but most guests stay in separate lodgings situated around the property.”
“What kind of room will we be staying in?”
“I’ve requested a cottage suitable for someone with my particular needs. Which means it will have a light-proof room attached to it in some fashion where I can spend the day.”
“So we’re going to be in our own separate cabin?” she pressed, trying to form a picture of the place in her mind.
“If we get the accommodations I requested, yes, and I can’t see why we wouldn’t. The last time I was there, there were plenty of cottages and cabins. Most guests coming to Isle Elena value their privacy.”
She tried to imagine a little cabin on a lakeshore, tucked away amid the trees. Maybe there would be a fireplace. Maybe it would be in the bedroom. She glanced at Eric to see that he was watching her. She looked down at her hands again.
“I’m sorry this trip isn’t turning out the way you wanted it to.”
“No. I knew, given your history with men, that reaching an understanding with you would not be easy. To be honest, this is actually going better than I expected.”
She gave a mirthless snort. “Given my history with men,” she repeated dourly.
Funny how the only one she’d really connected with had been a vampire with amnesia. What did that say about her?
“Don’t be so sad.”
She winced. He’d said the same thing to her in her living room, right before he’d realized that she’d had his blood.
“I’m not. Not really,” she sighed. “Just…”
“Let’s not talk about this now, Sookie,” he said, his voice very gentle. It was the kind of voice that always put her at ease, and she relaxed. “We’ll land at Isle Elena in under two hours. From there we’ll check into our lodgings and have some supper. After that, we’ll begin our conversation. We have… much to say to each other, I think.”
She had no doubt about that. That was what she was afraid of.
Had she been at home, she probably would have taken any excuse to beg off and get him to leave her alone. She might even have gone as far as rescinding his invitation to her house just to get rid of him. If he chose to object or follow her, she could have listed many reasons for why it wasn’t a good time for her to talk. But with the advent of the trip, all of those excuses had been removed. She couldn’t claim work or trouble with her brother or issues with the Weres or a problem with the house in order to avoid facing him. The moment she had stepped on the plane with him, he’d taken her away from all of those distractions.
How pragmatic. How typical of Eric to do such a thing. He knew she had been avoiding him and making excuses for not seeing him. Now he had removed all of those obstacles and forced her to deal directly with him. And she’d walked right into his little trap like a blind cow.
Piggybacking on that revelation was another one that was equally distressing. Eric knew her habit of leaving when things got rough between her and Bill. He’d asked her specifically if that was how she handled problems in her relationships. At the time she’d said she hadn’t known (and she hadn’t. Bill had been her first boyfriend. How could she have known?) but now even she was noticing a pattern. If she’d had a choice in the matter, she would have left him there an hour ago. If they’d been landing in a city, she would have booked either a flight back home or rented a car and drove. But they weren’t going anyplace like that. No, once again Eric had been shrewd in his choice of locations.
He’d chosen a remote island retreat so she wouldn’t be able to run away from him.
Chapter Four
She was silent while she digested her newfound understanding. Eric was silent as well, his face unreadable, but his emotions saying that he was calm and, mostly, content.
‘As he should be. I’m his little prisoner, and he didn’t even have to kidnap me to get me. I just walked into it all by myself,’ she thought.
But then she realized that she was being unfair. Eric hadn’t kidnapped her or coerced her or persuaded her to go with him under false pretenses. He’d been very upfront that the trip would be for them to get away so they could talk about their bond, his returned memories, and where they would go from there. It wasn’t his fault if she was having second thoughts, nor was it his fault if she was resenting how well he knew her.
She sighed mentally and looked out the window again just so she wouldn’t have to look at him while she worked some things out. No. If it was anyone’s fault it was her own. She knew Eric. She knew he was a master manipulator and highly effective at getting what he wanted. She should have realized that he was up to something the moment he suggested the trip. She really had no one to blame but herself, and now she had to figure out a way to get out of the mess she was in. Maybe she could get someone on Isle Elena to help her get home. Maybe she could convince a staff member to stow her away on a return flight. It would serve Eric right if she gave him the slip, and prove to him that she was not someone he could bend to his will.
Her brief moment of righteous indignation faded when she realized that leaving Eric high and dry would probably do irreparable harm to their relationship – such as it was. No matter how much she might wish things were different, she and Eric were blood-bonded permanently, and nothing short of the death of either of them was going to change that. And since it had already been established that she did not want Eric dead, even though she knew of two individuals who would be happy to do the deed for her, she had no choice but to deal with him.
Given what he had told her about his abstinence, she could predict that he was going to make a very serious play for her attentions, and she once again winced at his powers of observation. He was damn right that she would insist on complete fidelity and monogamy from him before she would accept him, and the fact that he’d already predicted that, and had begun to comply, was a huge show of commitment on his part – not to mention deeply touching. He knew very well that she knew the extent of his libido, and he knew very well what his sacrifice would mean to her, especially since he’d stuck to his decision even after she had made it inordinately hard on him (no pun intended!)
Nearly four weeks. He’d gone without for almost four weeks. Eric the Sex God Northman had just said no. For her. Wow.
She looked at her watch and marveled that only 90 or so minutes had passed since he’d picked her up. It seemed like eons ago, and she felt like someone had run her through a ringer, but forgot to hang her up to dry. Exhausted, she let her head fall back against the seat and closed her eyes.
“Tired?” she heard him ask in a tender voice.
“Yeah,” she admitted. There wasn’t any point in denying it because she knew he could feel her weariness through the bond.
She heard him get up, and she opened her eyes to see him going over to the loveseats. Curious, she watched as he pressed some tabs on the legs of the table and pushed it down to the level of the seats. With practiced ease, he flipped up the seat and pulled forward, surprising her when the whole thing slid to lie flat. He did the same with the other loveseat, and soon the two loveseats had been converted into a bed with the lowered table serving as a support for the newly formed “mattress.” Lastly, he pulled open a built-in storage compartment under the loveseat and retrieved a travel-sized pillow and a blanket. When he was finished, he presented the bed to her with a flourish and a wry smirk.
“How’d you know it did that?” she asked.
“I’ve seen similar designs in other places,” he answered.
“When are we supposed to land again?
“We have another hour and three-quarters, give or take twenty minutes,” he replied.
She eyed the “bed,” puzzling out how much actual rest she’d get if she tried to take a nap. She doubted that she would get any sleep, but pretending might give her an excuse not to talk to him, although she had no illusions that he wouldn’t get into the bed with her – or at least try.
She was still mulling it over when she saw him offer her his hand. “Dear One, you are exhausted. You’ve worked yourself to the bone the last few days, and by your own admission, you’ve barely gotten any sleep. I predict that we will be up late tonight talking at the very least, and I’d rather you not fall asleep on me.”
She debated her options and tried to predict the consequences of defying him. She knew she could be stubborn like her brother, but she wasn’t a fool. Eric was right. She was worn out on a number of levels, and she needed to be thinking clearly when they got to where they were going if she was going to be able to outwit him.
“Alright,” she agreed, refusing his offered hand and rising to her feet on her own. “But no funny business,” she warned as she sat down on the makeshift bed. It was surprisingly soft and comfortable.
“I would never,” he whispered as he knelt on one knee at her feet.
The next thing she knew, his hands were sliding down her calves and his fingers were hooking into the backs of her sneakers, slipping them off and dropping them to the carpeted floor. Then he picked up her right foot and began massaging her ankle, letting his fingers move down to rub the ball of her foot. She groaned, and it was the only sound that was made for several moments until Eric broke the silence.
“My feet were bleeding,” he said in that same gentle voice he’d been using, as his fingers worked their magic all along her calloused heel and aching toes. “I’d been running on the road and I’d ripped them open. You brought me into your kitchen, you made me sit down, and you washed my feet. You crouched down and placed them in warm water. You bathed the cuts and gently took out the dirt. When you were finished, you toweled them dry.”
He switched feet, placing her right foot down and picking up the left. His touch was reverent and sublime. She closed her eyes, unable to process the sight of him, gorgeous undead Viking that he was, kneeling before her like a supplicant. She could feel the echoes of pleasure through the bond and the pads of his thumbs.
“No one had ever done such a thing for me. I didn’t remember it then, but I do now. I remember how safe and cared for you made me feel. I was a stranger to you as far as I was concerned, yet you took me off the road and gave me shelter. Your touch was a balm to my addled mind. You took away my fears. I had no idea who I was. No idea how I’d gotten on the road, no idea what had happened to me, but in that moment, sitting in your kitchen, watching you wash my feet, I knew I was in a safe place with a good woman who would take good care of me.”
She felt a single tear escape her closed eyes to run down her cheek, but if Eric saw it, he didn’t call any attention. Instead, he finished with her feet and shifted to hook his arm under her legs while the other went around her back. Gently he lifted her up and placed her carefully down on the bed, tucking her legs up onto the mattress.
She was drifting, her body limp and her mind on the edge of blissful oblivion, and she felt him put the pillow under her head and cover her with the thin blanket. Then his fingers brushed back her hair and his cool lips kissed her temple.
“Sleep well, my lover. I’ll wake you when we’re about to land.”
She thought she made a little mumble of assent, but she wasn’t sure it actually made it past her lips, and then it didn’t matter because she was asleep.
**********
“My lover. My lover, wake up.”
She groaned a protest because she’d been warm and comfortable, and she hadn’t wanted to move, but then a tongue, moist but cool, ran a wet trail from the juncture of her shoulder, along her throat, up to the soft spot behind her ear. Tingles ran down her spine as her entire body came to life. Beside her, Eric growled soft and low. Eric…
“Eric!” she scolded, slapping his mouth away as she opened her eyes.
He was beside her on the convertible bed, his blue eyes dilated, his fangs fully down. The very sight of him made her shiver.
“You promised no funny business,” she accused, trying to rein in her screaming body. Yes, it had been almost four weeks for him, but it had been even longer for her, and her sex drive was doing happy dances all over her sanity.
He bent his lips down to kiss the same soft spot behind her ear, his fang scraping lightly. “I don’t know about your sense of humor, lover, but I don’t find anything remotely funny in what I am doing.”
Her answer was a strangled grunt as his hands slid along her ribcage, and his fingers began kneading her flesh like a contented cat as he sucked her skin into his mouth, pressing it against the front of his teeth and fangs.
“Ungh,” she gasped as her body betrayed her. Was he going to bite her? Was she going to let him?
Her heart was going wild. She knew she should stop him. She knew there were very good reasons for stopping him, but she just couldn’t think of any at the moment. She cried out when he bit lightly, not enough to break the skin, and he gave another one of his tortured moans. She writhed and arched her back, and he responded by throwing one leg over hers so his crotch came into contact with her thigh as he nibbled on her earlobe. He began an erratic grinding against her leg in time with his staccato suckling. Their mutual lust merged in the bond, sending all semblance of conscious thought out of her mind as her body screamed a victory cheer…
“Attention Isle Elena guests. We will be landing in approximately fifteen minutes. Please return all luggage you may have retrieved to the stowage compartments, return to your seats, and prepare for landing. We hope you have had a pleasant flight, and enjoy your stay on Isle Elena,” came an overly cheerful, pre-recorded voice across the jet’s P.A. system.
“Fuck,” she heard Eric growl.
‘Yes! No! No! Don’t stop!’ she wanted to scream, but he was already pulling away from her, his eyes wild, his hair in disarray, the tent in the crotch of his jeans straining against the seams.
She reached for him, one last desperate attempt to pull him back, but he’d moved to sit on the edge of the bed, his head in his hands.
“Saved by the pilot,” he said, but he didn’t sound too happy about it.
She sighed, trying not to pout too much, and joined him on sitting on the edge of the bed. Their legs were touching, and he turned to look at her, a wry smile on his face.
“You’re so much trouble,” he commented with a little shake of his head.
She snorted. “You’re the one who wanted to drag me onto this trip.”
His face softened and he brushed her cheek with a fingertip. “True.”
She wanted to say something now that she was starting to come down off of her high, but words got caught in her throat, and he was urging her to stand up anyway so he could put the two loveseats back into their original positions and pull the table back up to its original height. She returned to the big plush recliner seat and settled herself into it, feeling a little uncomfortable without a seatbelt.
“What are you going to do about that table?” she asked, indicating the broken support post and bent hinge when he resumed his seat in the chair across from her.
“Pay for the damage of course.”
“What will you tell them about how it got broken?”
He shrugged. “I could be honest and say I hit it when I lost my temper, or…” He leered at her, a perfect picture of the Eric she had come to know. “I could tell them we were being friendly and discovered that the table couldn’t support both of our weights.”
She resisted the urge to slap him on the arm. It was just like him, but the lewd suggestion actually made her feel better and put her on a more even keel.
“You would too.”
He preened a little. “Of course.”
“And you say I’m so much trouble,” she complained. “You’ll have everyone thinking we did nothing but have sex the whole flight here.”
“We wouldn’t be the first,” he replied reasonably, but that didn’t make her feel any better. She frowned at him, and he frowned back, his face growing thoughtful. “I’m glad though, that we were interrupted. I was about to break my promise, and then I would be angry with myself. But you were too tempting lying there all tucked in the blanket. I couldn’t resist.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m a big scrumptious vampire éclair, complete with fairy blood,” she scoffed.
He gave her a disapproving look. “You really need to stop blaming your fairy blood on why I feel for you. The fact that you are part fey is not why I am attracted to you. I have been with many, many women who have claimed a fairy ancestor, and none of them have touched me the way you do.”
She swallowed and looked away from his intense stare, feeling the heat rise in her cheeks.
“You once said it explains a lot,” she mumbled.
“I meant it explains why you’re a danger magnet and why so many supernatural beings are drawn to you. I didn’t mean for you to assume it was an excuse for why I…”
He stopped because she had whipped her head back up and was staring at him like a deer in headlights.
‘Don’t say it. Don’t say you love me!’ she thought frantically. She couldn’t handle that right now, not with the memory of his hands and kisses so fresh in her mind. She longed for the Eric he had been, not who he had become.
“For why I knew you were special from the moment I met you,” he finished carefully, but it sounded hollow even to her.
She pursed her lips and looked away again, peering out the window in hopes that she could see the approaching ground, but it was too dark.
“Did you sleep well? It seemed like you did. You weren’t restless or uncomfortable,” he asked, probably trying to distract her from her second least favorite part of flying: the landing.
“I guess so. I do feel more rested, but if I dreamed I don’t remember it.” She remembered something he had said earlier when she’d found the blue dress. “You said you had dreams of me in the blue dress. Do vampires dream?”
“Sometimes, but it’s not the same as human dreaming. If we dream during the day, we usually don’t remember them.”
She nodded. It sounded pretty much like human dreams to her, but she wouldn’t argue. She could feel the plane descending, and could almost sense the ground getting closer and closer. She tensed up and Eric grabbed her hand, making her look at him. She let him hold her with his eyes, willingly allowing herself to sink into his blue stare until the world condensed into nothing more than his face looking at hers. A moment later, the jet touched down without so much as a bounce or a bump.
She let out the breath she was holding as the plane taxied safely on the ground, and Eric gave her a sardonic smile and released her hand. She cast around for their things and discovered that he had repacked the garment bag while she was sleeping, leaving out only the heavy parka. Since her cranberry coat was nowhere to be seen, she assumed that he must have packed it in the garment bag with her new sweaters and dress. He’d left the boots in there too, it seemed.
The plane was still moving, so she stayed seated, but she focused her eyes on the closed cockpit door, anxious to be out of the small jet. Eric cleared his throat – a very human thing to do – to get her attention, and she turned her head to see him regarding her with a very serious expression.
‘Uh-oh…’
“My lover… There are some things I must tell you. Some things you must be… prepared for,” he began carefully, and her anxiety levels went through the roof.
She felt him trying to influence her mood through the bond, trying to calm her down so he could continue. She took a deep breath and looked him directly in the eye, mustering up her courage.
“Okay, what do I need to know?”
He regarded her seriously and nodded, seeming to have come to a decision.
“You will see things most humans never see. Keep in mind that the vast majority of guests on Isle Elena are not human. Some of them will not look like anything you have ever seen. Some of them may look very frightening and alien to you.” He reached over and took her hand again, and she felt his strength flowing into her, just as she had felt it flowing into her on the night of the queen’s trial in Rhodes. “But remember this: you are perfectly safe here. No one will hurt you; no matter how scary they might look. There are no enemies here, for either of us. I am with you. If there is a problem, I will deal with it. I will protect you if need be, but I have no reason to believe that you will be in any danger while we are here. Do you understand?”
She nodded and he went on.
“Now if you see something that startles you, don’t stare. Avert your eyes and give yourself a minute to process. Do your best to stay calm. The guests here come here to be themselves so they will make no attempt to hide what they are. You must be ready for that. Understand? You must be your usual perfectly mannered Southern Belle.”
She smirked but nodded. “Okay.”
He smiled back, his smile tinged with pride. “That’s my Sookie. I know you can do this. You are brave and smart. It will take you a little bit to adjust, but I know you will do me proud.”
She straightened up, bolstered by his belief in her, and he leaned forward to give her a kiss. She returned it, then sat back as he released her hand, and turned her attention once again to the cockpit door.
The jet had come to a stop while he was talking to her, and she clenched and unclenched her hands impatiently as she waited for the pilot to exit so he could open the door and let them out of the plane. She heard the snick of the lock disengaging and saw the door swing open, then she saw exactly what Eric had been trying warn her about.
What had gone into the cockpit had been a dark-haired White man in a blue uniform. What came out was a… a birdman. Or something. He had feathers for hair, gray ones that stuck close to his head, and a beak where his nose and mouth should be.
She swallowed her gasp and dropped her eyes, but not before she saw him reach for the locking mechanism on the exterior door and saw that his hand only had three, long, grey-skinned, taloned fingers like those on a bird of prey. She gulped, but felt Eric close to her, calming her and giving her courage.
“Come, my lover,” Eric said, offering his hand. She grabbed it and held on for dear life.
He ushered her to her feet then released her long enough to slip her new, super-warm parka on her, his hands massaging her shoulders briefly, then he took her hand again and guided her to the open portal. The “pilot” was still standing there, waiting for them to disembark, and she cast him a brief glance and a nervous smile.
“Hi. Pleased to meet you. Thank you for the pleasant flight,” she said, knowing her Southern accent had deepened in her nervousness.
The birdman looked at her, his eyes completely round and yellow just like a hawk’s, and gave her a small nod and a little high-pitched trill that she hoped was a good sound. She felt her lips pulling back into her trademark grin.
She was about to say something else when the wind from the outside rushed in and hit her in the face.
‘Oh. My. God.’
She stood stock still, not believing what she had just felt, but Eric turned his face to the door and breathed in, letting out a satisfied sound. He grabbed her hand to pull her forward. She resisted. He felt the resistance, looked back at her with a frown on his face, then rolled his eyes and stepped towards her. She took a little step back, afraid that he was just going to pick her up and sling her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, but he just dug his hand into the pocket of the parka and pulled out a hat and gloves. He shoved the hat impatiently, but gently, on her head – a little lopsided she might add – and slipped the gloves onto her nerveless hands.
“Come, lover,” he said, taking her hand again.
She dug in her heels. “No. No. No,” she pleaded, but it was useless to fight him as he pulled her, inexorably, towards the open door. She heard the birdman making little cheeping noises that sounded suspiciously like laughter as she was dragged past him.
Once out of the jet, she experienced the full horror of it. It was cold. No… It was freezing. The wind was a wild beast that ripped its way across her tender, Southern skin. The frigid air threatened to freeze the moisture on her eyeballs. She was certain that if she were to spit, it would be solid before it hit the ground.
“Eric!” she cried as he brought them both to stand at the top of the folding stairs.
His eyes were bright and he was grinning like a madman. He was jubilant in the face of the frozen wind. It took his hair and sent it in frenzied, blond whips that lashed against his white skin. She saw him open his mouth and breathe it in, his fangs fully down, then he turned to her, his expression ecstatic.
“This will go much faster, my lover, if you let me carry you.”
She was too cold to argue, already shivering, and she managed a nod. He laughed and presented her with his back, gesturing her to climb on the way she had ridden him the night Hallow and her brother had been sneaking around Bill’s house. She slid onto him, her hands gripping his shoulders as her legs wrapped around his hips. He hooked his arms under her knees and leaped down the stairs. She held in the scream, certain that the wind would freeze the saliva in her mouth. Why! Oh why, had she ever agreed to this?
She tucked her face into his shoulder and the back of his neck to shield it from the cold, and she mused that if she’d bothered to date a man who actually had a pulse, he might actually have been warm. As it was, the most he could offer was protection from the wind.
“Eric! I’m going to kill you!” she threatened, squeezing her eyes shut because they were watering so badly.
His only reply was a throaty laugh as he ran with her clutched close to his body.
‘I’m dead. I’ll be a Sookie-sized popsicle by the time we get inside. Would serve him right if I froze to death before he could get me into bed! Stupid, Sookie! Stupid! Stupid! He’s an effing Viking. He loves the cold! Oh, I’m going to die!’
“We’re almost there, my lover.”
‘Oh good, because I can’t feel my toes anymore. Or my face, or my hands…’
A moment later, she heard the sound of his booted feet landing on a wooden surface, and she cracked her eyes open to see that they were on the deck of a massive stone and wood lodge. It looked like something out of the Great North: rough-hewn logs as wide a Volkswagen, huge panoramic windows spilling warm light out into the darkness, stone walls supporting a sprawling, steeply pitched roof.
He brought her in through a set of sliding glass doors that emptied immediately into a stone entryway, and through a second set of doors that opened after the first set had closed. Once inside, he strode purposefully into a huge great room with a ceiling that had to be three stories high and a massive stone chimney that had to be even higher. He set her down in a rocking chair, one of at least a dozen, placed in front of a large hearth with a set of cast iron fire-grate doors with carved-out patterns to let out heat and light. The roaring fire in the hearth began the process of thawing her out as Eric gently pulled off her hat and gloves.
“There, my lover, now you will be warm. Stay here while I go check us in.”
She wanted to tell him exactly what she thought of his choice of venues, but her teeth were chattering too much. He gave her a swift kiss, his lips icy from the cold, and vanished.
It took her several moments to thaw out enough to unzip the parka and peel herself out of it, but she finally managed, and soon she was feeling less like a popsicle and more like herself on a cold day in Bon Temps. She slid the rocking chair closer to the fire, and warmed her hands, before she took a good look around.
So far, she was the only one in the huge room, and she noted numerous sitting areas defined by large, woven throw rugs that looked Native American. In addition to the rocking chairs, there were also several leather loveseats with tables, café tables and chairs, and even a grouping of large beanbag chairs all clustered around what looked to be a Parcheesi table. The décor was mountain rugged, with exposed beams along the roof and furniture in deep earth colors like brown, tan and green. It really did look like a hunting lodge, the kind she saw featured on the Travel Channel as some of the best places to stay in the Frozen North. She never thought she’d actually ever be inside one.
If she hadn’t been keenly aware that she’d been dragged there by an undead Viking who was way too happy to be there, she might actually have liked the place. It was warm and homey in its own way. Not Bayou Chic or Southern Antebellum, but nice, and she could appreciate how well cared-for the place looked. But she had to figure out a way off the island before she either froze to death or did something stupid, such as letting the undead Viking keep her there until they’d “come to an understanding” and giving him even more hold over her than he already had.
She cast about mentally, trying to get a lay of the land. There were many minds all around her in rooms nearby and moving about the large structure. Most of them were only marginally readable to her telepathic powers and a few were “nulls” like the vampires. She brushed over them, searching for a mind she could reach out to in hopes that she would find someone willing to help her. She couldn’t possibly be the only human on the island, could she? If she was, her cause was sunk.
She was just about to give up hope when two minds came into her range. Both were unmistakably human, but one was clearly a much better sender. She brushed against them, tentatively probing, and was shocked when both noticed they were being scanned immediately. One blipped off her radar as if the person – she was pretty sure it was a woman – had thrown up a shield, but the other honed in on her.
‘Who are you? What do you want?’ came a rather belligerent “voice.”
She mentally scrambled, trying to retreat, but the mind followed her.
‘Who are you?’
‘I’m Sookie. Sookie Stackhouse,’ she answered.
‘What were you doing probing our thoughts?’
So the two humans were together, she realized. ‘I’m sorry. I just got here and I was trying to see who was around.’
‘Don’t you know it’s not polite to go around poking into other people’s brains?’
She winced. She knew too well, but she was in trouble and she needed help. The mind, she was sure this one was female too, picked up on her thoughts and came “closer.”
‘What kind of trouble?’
‘I need to get off this island.’
‘Why? You said you just got here.’
‘I…’ What could she say? That she’d been kidnapped? That she’d been dragged there and was now being held against her will? She felt guilty for even thinking about it because she knew it wasn’t true. But desperate times called for desperate measures, right?
Mental laughter echoed in her head. ‘No one will believe you,’ came the rebuke.
The scolding stung and she rallied, ‘Why? Because a Supe would never kidnap a human and hold her against her will?’
‘Of course they would. Happens all the time. The difference is they wouldn’t bring them here,’ came the cryptic explanation.
‘What do you mean?’
There was silence, then the voice said more gently, ‘What did the “Supe” as you call it, tell you about this place?’
‘That it was a safe place for Supes to come.’
More silence. ‘Nothing else?’
‘Not really. He said Supes come here to be themselves, and that it’s one of oldest and most carefully guarded places like it in the United States.’
‘That’s true. Only those who have been here before or who have been invited can come here.’
‘He also said it was cold, but he didn’t tell me it’d be freezing!’
More mental laughter. ‘You think this is cold?’
‘Yes!’
‘Honey, you don’t know cold. It’s not even in the single digits out there yet. It’s only going down to 22 tonight.’
‘Twenty-two! I’m a Louisiana girl! I’m going to freeze to death!’
‘Ask your Supe to keep you warm,’ came the sly reply.
‘He doesn’t have any body heat!’ she bemoaned.
‘Ah, one of them.’
Just then the object of her consternation returned looking far too joyful for her misery.
“We’re all checked in, my lover. We’re in cabin 16,” Eric told her.
‘Boyfriend’s back?’ the voice asked, obviously picking up Eric from her thoughts.
‘He’s not my boyfriend.’
‘Whatever. I don’t really care. But you ought to ask him to tell you more about this place and why demons come here.’
She wanted to ask the voice more, like her name for instance, but the mystery woman had put up a shield too, and had blipped off her radar like her companion. Her last words bothered her, however, and she wondered what the woman was getting at.
“It’s just after 9 o’clock. I figured we’d get some supper, then retire to our cabin,” Eric suggested. “Are you hungry?”
“More thirsty. I could use a hot drink.”
He offered her his hand – he seemed to be doing that a lot – and she took it, allowing him to gently pull her to her feet.
“I am sure we can get you something hot to warm your insides. Come, lover, the dining room is this way,” he said, tucking her arm into his and guiding her from the room.
“How are you feeling?” he asked gently, an amused smile on his lips.
“Well, I can feel my feet again, and since my nose already fell off, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.”
He chuckled and kissed her nose briefly. “You’ll get used to it, I promise. It really isn’t that cold. It just shocked you because you weren’t ready for it.”
“It shocked me because it’s effing cold out there! You could have warned me,” she scolded as they walked together.
“I did warn you.”
“You could have tried harder,” she argued.
“I did my best to prepare you by giving you the things I knew you would need to stay warm,” he pointed out.
She scowled. ‘Stupid, pragmatic vampire.’ “So you did, and I thank you for it. My cranberry coat would not have been able to keep me warm while we were here.”
“You’re welcome. I couldn’t have you catching cold and going home sick. Your shifter boss would stake me if I brought you home with the flu.”
She snorted. “Forget Sam. I’d stake you if you made me get the flu.”
“Duly noted.”
As Eric guided her along a wide corridor, she heard an increasing hum of conversation that grew louder and louder until they came to a large, solid wooden door. Eric opened the door and they entered into a huge dining room with a wall of windows that faced some sort of view that she couldn’t see because it was nighttime. There was another big fireplace like the one in the great room, but this one was in the middle of the room, its stone chimney dominating the area.
They stopped at the hostess’ desk and waited to be seated. She took a very brief moment to look around the room, taking in the numerous guests all seated at the sturdy, wooden tables and in the rustic, mismatched chairs. She dropped her eyes almost immediately, her heart pounding with worry and fear. Eric took her hand.
“Don’t be afraid. Remember what I told you? You are safe here; even moreso because I am with you. I won’t let anyone hurt you, my lover,” he reminded her.
She cast him a frightened glance, half wanting to bolt, screaming, from the room, but pride and commitment (and Eric’s arm) kept her there. She only hoped she wouldn’t live – or worse, die – to regret it. Closing her eyes, she found her center of strength and felt Eric giving her all that he could through the bond. She calmed, opened her eyes, and gave him a smile. He smiled back, a warm, genuine smile that made her forget that she was the only human being in the room.
One minute later a young woman with blue skin and black hair came to take them to their table.
Chapter Five
“A table near the fire please,” Eric told the hostess. “My companion is not used to the cold.”
The blue-skinned woman nodded and veered her path to move towards the large stone hearth. “Of course, sir. This way, please,” she said in a voice that was heavily accented, but Sookie couldn’t place it.
They were guided to a table adjacent to the fireplace, and Eric pulled back the chair closest to the warmth. He took her coat and draped it on the back of her chair as she sat down and pushed her seat in like a Southern Gentleman, then he sat in the chair opposite. The hostess handed them each a menu, but Sookie noticed that the one she was given was different from the one given to Eric. Her menu was large and had three pages, but Eric’s was a single page of cream-colored paper attached to a 6 x 9-inch rigid backing.
“Thank you,” Eric said pleasantly.
“Toth will be your server. He will be by shortly to take your order.” The woman turned to her. “Can I get you anything from the bar?”
Sookie gulped, but the woman did not seem offended or phased by her discomfort. “Umm, a gin and tonic, please.”
Their hostess nodded and left them be. Eric perused his menu with interest, but she was afraid to look at hers. She didn’t want to know what a demon retreat would offer as acceptable human food. She finally bit the bullet and was shocked to find such banal offerings as meatloaf and chicken Parmesan. While she was deciding, a cocktail waitress delivered her drink. She’d needed it because the girl had animal ears on her head and a cat-like tail twitching out from the back of her short skirt. She shoved her face into the menu and pretended she hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary. A glance towards Eric found him smirking at her.
She was half afraid to order the barbeque baby back ribs, opting instead to try a honey roasted half-chicken entrée that she hoped they didn’t screw up too badly. Once she had made her selection, she put her menu down and took a more thorough look around the room, forcing herself to take in all the different Supes who were eating their dinners or conversing with their companions. The room was full of multiple languages, some of which she knew weren’t normally spoken anywhere she was from. Soft Classical music was playing in the background, something violiny and smooth. She knew Supe hearing was heightened and sensitive to loud noise. So much so that she often wondered how the vampires stood the blaring music played in Fangtasia. She’d never actually asked how they did it.
But looking around, she recalled what the unnamed telepath had told her. She’d said that she should ask Eric about why Supes came here, and seemed to hint that the resort had a reputation of some kind – one that would make people skeptical if she went around saying that the undead Viking had kidnapped her and was now holding her against her will.
‘Happens all the time. The difference is they wouldn’t bring them here,’ the voice had said. So what did that mean? What kind of a place was Isle Elena if no one there would believe she was being held hostage?
She gasped, her eyes going wide. What if… what if it was one of those “couples” places? Like the ones she’d always seen advertised on television? All-inclusive places for people to go on romantic getaways, usually on a beach somewhere with lots of sunshine and skimpy clothes. What if Eric had brought her to the equivalent of a Supe Sandals?
She grabbed her drink and took a deep swig, trying not to choke on it. Would Eric do that? Oh, you bet he would! It’d be just like him to drag her to a Vamp Love Nest. She scowled and turned to accuse him of just that when the look on his face gave her pause. He wasn’t watching her, his eyes were on the fire in the hearth, and he looked… far away yet sad. He looked like he’d looked the night he’d driven her to meet her great-grandfather when he’d admitted that she had saved his and Pam’s lives.
Swallowing her indignation, she took another look around the room. If her theory was correct, then there should be lots of happy couples mooning at each other over dinner. But other than one couple who were holding hands across the table, she wasn’t seeing any signs of marital, or extra-marital, bliss. At the same time, she didn’t see any children present either, so it didn’t look like it was a “family” resort.
What she was seeing were groups of Supes in many different shapes and sizes (lots of different shapes and sizes, some of which were very different indeed!), all enjoying the company of their companions in what looked to be a relaxed, casual way. There was nothing posh or formal about where they were; in fact emphasis seemed to be placed on comfort and surcease.
She dropped her shields a little to take a mental barometric reading, and found that the overall vibe in the room wasn’t love or lust, but peace and ease. The guests were mostly happy, imbued with a welcome calm and contentment that permeated the room, and there was nothing rushed or frantic about anything, not even the waitstaff who were moving about the dining area efficiently, but not hurriedly.
“Eric, what is this place?” she questioned, picking up on another undercurrent, but it was one she was having trouble identifying.
He looked at her and, for the first time since she’d met him, he looked a thousand years old. Not physically, of course, but his eyes. His eyes were ancient and reflected back a millennium of living. She stared at him, and her next words caught in her throat because she had no idea how to respond. Then the point became moot because a fresh-faced, mostly human-looking, young waiter in a simple uniform of black pants and a white collared shirt arrived at their table.
“Hi. I’m Toth. I’ll be your server tonight,” the server greeted.
He was thin and wiry, about five foot eight, with a head of silvery colored hair that appeared to be in dreadlocks. His eyes were a piercing Supe violet, but Sookie noted that he had five fingers, human ears and no tail, and she wondered if the choice of waiter was deliberate. She was quickly beginning to figure out that making guests feel safe and comfortable was part of what was happening at the resort.
“Hi,” she said, pleased to be making herself look at him, and even more pleased that she was managing to control her nervous grin.
“Would you like to hear about our specials tonight?” Toth asked.
“Sure,” she replied, folding her hands in front of her.
“Tonight we’re offering a veal Oscar as our meat selection, broiled Maryland Style crab cakes or Lake Superior Whitefish for our seafood selections, and spinach fettuccine with porcini and oyster mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, asparagus, and squash in a light marsala sauce for our vegetarian selection,” Toth recited without hesitation or having to look at any notes.
She blinked. “Wow.”
Toth smiled, then turned to Eric. “For you, sir, we have a limited supply of fey Bloodvine and Rhesus AB negative on hand.”
“Human AB neg or Bloodvine AB neg?” Eric asked.
“Both, sir.” Toth looked at them. “Are you ready to order?”
“Ummm. What the hell, I’ll try the crab cakes,” she answered, handing him her menu.
“Excellent choice. And for you, sir?”
“I’ll have the fey Bloodvine, diluted with O neg,” Eric replied.
“Would you like to mix the dilution yourself or would you like us to mix it for you?”
“Bring me the pods and I’ll do it myself.”
She creased her brow. It was like he was speaking another language for all she understood what he was saying.
“And for your O neg, would you like human, synthetic or Bloodvine?”
She looked at him, one eyebrow raised.
“Bloodvine, and bring me one shot of the AB neg, also Bloodvine. In deference to my companion, I won’t drink human blood in her presence.”
She half expected him to add “unless it’s hers,” but he didn’t. She wasn’t certain if she was impressed by his restraint or disappointed.
“Understood, Sir.”
With that, Toth was gone.
“What was that all about?” she asked.
“What specifically are you referring to?” he replied, looking innocent. She knew better.
“The bit about not drinking human blood in front of me, and that stuff about fey Bloodvine. What is fey Bloodvine?”
“Bloodvine is the demon-world equivalent of TrueBlood. It is a genetically engineered plant created to imitate human blood. It comes in a number of varieties. Obviously O and AB neg are human blood type varieties, but the fey one is designed to mimic fairy blood,” Eric explained.
“So you’re getting fairy blood or the plant equivalent of it,” she stated carefully. She knew fairy blood was intoxicating to vampires.
“Yes, but it’s potent so I am going to dilute it with the O neg.”
“And the AB neg? That’s the rarest blood type in the world, isn’t it?”
“The second rarest. The rarest is Bombay blood. I’ve had it, and found it… not to my taste. Humans with Bombay blood are not appetizing to vampires.”
“Why not?” The subject was macabre but interesting.
“Bombay blood is…” He paused to search for a word. “sour. It tastes… off. Like meat that’s gone too long without cooking.”
“It tastes rotten then.”
He nodded. “Something like that.”
Just then the cat girl came by to bring her another gin and tonic, whisking away her empty tumbler without a word.
“What is she?” she asked, trying not to stare at the girl’s tail.
Eric shrugged. “A cat demon of some sort. Half-demon from the looks of her.”
“How can you tell?”
“She looks half-transformed, like a Bitten Shifter instead of a Born one.”
“So she was bitten?”
“I didn’t say that, but it’s unlikely because even Bittens look human most of the time. That one looks like that all the time. I’m inclined to believe that one parent was human while the other was an Asian neko-youkai. She has the bone structure for it.”
His matter of fact answer was both welcome and disturbing. She was trying to think of another question when he waved his hand to the general room and looked askance at her.
“So, what do you think so far?”
She narrowed her eyes. “I think its freezing and I want to go home.” There she’d said it.
He didn’t seem surprised, but he didn’t seem like he was going to do anything about it either. His mouth tugged up into a small smile.
“It isn’t that cold,” he stated.
“Look, Eric, you might have come from the frozen North, but I’ve barely left Louisiana. I’m a Southern Girl, and I can’t handle these cold temperatures,” she argued.
His eyes opened wide and she felt his amusement before she heard him laugh.
“Sookie. Sookie…” he answered, shaking his head, his shoulders heaving with his chuckles.
She was about to start in on him about laughing at her when their eyes met and she stopped short.
“Sookie, my dear. You have faced down religious zealots. You have survived being shot, staked, kidnapped, beaten up, and burned out. You have lived through a Were War, Witch War, a bombing and a coup. Are you seriously going to tell me that you fear you will be done in by a little weather?”
As she tried to formulate an answer, he reached over and took her hand. The touch was electric and part of her cracked open. She didn’t want to tell him that it wasn’t the weather she feared would do her in, but her own feelings. She didn’t want to tell him that she missed him or that she loved him or that she wanted him back the way they had been. She didn’t want to admit that he was the only man who had ever made her feel important, the only one who had ever put her first (even if he couldn’t remember who he was at the time.) She didn’t want to say that she would give nearly everything she had just to feel the way he’d made her feel for those few days again, or admit that she grieved him as one would grieve a lost loved one. She didn’t want to say any of that because that was scary, and honest, and risked too much pain.
She was trying to figure out a way to escape the rush of emotion that was taking her over when suddenly he was in her, all around her, flooding her with the very essence that was him. It was like they had merged, like the bond had opened completely, and they were one being in two bodies now rejoined. She thought she might drown.
But just as quickly as it happened, it was over, and she felt him receding like a spring tide, scraping away the layers of sand to reveal the buried shells beneath.
‘All the masks are coming off now,’ she thought, but she had no idea where it had come from.
They were still holding hands when she came out of it, and she knew she must look shell-shocked, but he appeared unruffled. His steady confidence did more to reassure her than anything else, and she cast a nervous glance around the room to see if anyone had noticed that the world had stopped spinning on its axis for a moment – at least for her, but the incident seemed to have gone unmarked.
“I’ll make you a deal. Give me one day. If you still want to go home by tomorrow night, we’ll leave,” Eric offered.
She pulled her hand from his grasp and tucked it into her lap, still reeling. Eric came into her again, not as completely this time, and she felt his calming influence, like he’d taken her gently by the shoulders and steadied her. He didn’t seem at all phased, or surprised, by what was happening.
“Eric…”
She was interrupted by Toth bringing her salad and Eric’s drink. He placed the decent sized salad in front of her, then set what looked like a small, black lacquer rice steamer in front of Eric, along with a tall glass and small knife with a narrow blade. Eric thanked him. The server nodded and disappeared again.
Glad for the distraction of the food, she began to eat her salad while she watched Eric lift the lid off the steamer to reveal what looked to be a bunch of steaming, squishy avocadoes. She saw Eric breathe in and let out a satisfied sigh before he selected one of the things and pierced it on one end with the narrow-bladed knife. She tried not to choke on her cherry tomato as he squeezed the red liquid inside the pod into the tall glass. He did the same with another, then lifted out a third, but this one looked different. It was smaller and had bright pink veins along the surface.
Eric raised the small pod to his face and breathed deep. She felt the rumbling pleasure come across the bond, and she was surprised by her own echoing pang of arousal. She watched as he pierced the pink veined pod just a little and squeezed a bit into the glass, then he put the small pod back into the steamer, closed the lid to keep in the heat, stirred the liquid in the glass and took a drink.
She stopped eating as ecstasy crossed his face, followed by a deep appreciative groan that came from low in his chest. She felt it even lower, and she crossed her legs. It didn’t help when he closed his eyes and licked his lips like a cat that had just gotten into a bowl of cream.
“Enjoying yourself?” she questioned.
“Oh yes,” he answered with a sigh.
The sex in the voice made her shiver, and she quickly returned to her food, refusing to look at him and trying not to hear his little sounds of satisfaction every time he took a sip. It was bad enough she was feeling it across the bond. She’d once referred to fairy blood as chocolate for vampires, but now she was beginning to think that analogy was a little off the mark. Maybe it was more like top shelf liquor or pure heroin even. Whatever it was, she knew it spelled trouble for her later. Odd that she couldn’t seem to bring herself to care. Eric was in raptures. Damn blood-bond.
She finished her salad, and Toth magically appeared (not literally, but obviously like he’d been watching them) to remove her empty plate and deliver her entrée. The crab cakes smelled delicious.
“Another drink, miss?” he asked, seeing her nearly finished gin and tonic.
Judging by Eric’s growing intoxication, she opted out. “No, thank you. Do you have iced tea?” She didn’t dare hope for sweet tea.
“Yes, miss. We have unsweetened, raspberry and sweet tea.”
“Y’all have sweet tea?” she blurted, surprised.
“You’re from the South, aren’t you, miss?” Toth asked suddenly.
She nodded. “Yes. I’m from Louisiana.”
Toth nodded as if she had confirmed what he already knew. “We knew you were coming so we tried to have things you would like on hand. Mr. Northman gave us a list.”
A quick glance to Eric had him looking very smug. She recovered from her shock and smiled.
“Well, then, I’ll have a glass of sweet tea, please. Thank you very much.”
Toth nodded and vanished again. She turned to her undead Viking.
“You gave them a list?” she asked.
He set down his glass and smiled at her. “Standard questionnaire for first time guests. I tried to remember everything.”
She dropped her eyes and turned to her food. Knowing him, he’d told them all of her likes and dislikes, right down to the brand of ketchup she preferred.
“Thank you. That was very thoughtful of you.”
“I want you to be comfortable here, Sookie. I want you to enjoy yourself. Do you agree to my offer?” he asked in a gentle voice.
She gave him a surly look and nabbed a bite of her crab cake. It was delicious.
“One day. I’ll give it one day, and if I still want to go home tomorrow, you’ll take me home, right?”
“Agreed.”
“Okay.”
They ate, or rather she ate and he continued to have vampire food orgasms as he drank his blood squeezed from squishy, demon-engineered avocadoes. One of his hands was down below the table, and he was sitting back a little in the chair. She didn’t dare to speculate what he was doing, but she did notice that he was pacing himself; mixing only a small bit of the fey Bloodvine into the larger portion of O neg. The grossest part of the meal came when he lifted another smaller pod from the steamer, this one veined with purple, and bit directly into it, sucking out the blood directly from the source. His mouth came back bloody, and he licked his lips slowly, savoring the flavors. She tried not to gag because her dinner really was fabulous.
She was just finishing up the last bite of the rice pilaf that had come with the crab cakes when Toth came to take her dirty plate away and ask if she would like dessert. She was about to say no, but Eric answered for her.
“Yes. Please bring the dessert tray over.”
“As you wish, Sir.”
“I really am full…” she argued.
“Chocolate hadn’t been discovered when I was still alive. It will give me pleasure to see you eat it,” he answered, a smoldering look in his blue eyes.
“I would think you’ve had enough pleasure for one night,” she countered, pointing to the almost empty glass in front of him. He was nearly finished drinking his meal.
He smirked and raised the glass to his lips, watching her over the rim. “You should know me better than that.”
She swallowed hard and was grateful that Toth brought a tray full of unbelievably sinful-looking confections that made her mouth water and her waistline shriek. She finally chose something she thought was the least offender of the lot: some fruit dipped in chocolate, although she could see that Eric had wanted her to pick the mousse. Toth nodded his approval and placed the plate of chocolate-dipped strawberries, orange slices and a medley of raspberries, blueberries and cherries in front of her.
“Eat them slowly,” Eric told her, and she saw him shift a little further down on his chair. She didn’t need to look under the table to know he’d spread his legs.
Taking deep breath, and not believing what she was about to do, she picked up a strawberry and held it to her mouth, letting her lips wrap around the fruit as she sucked off the chocolate. Eric watched her with intense eyes, and she saw that his fangs had come down a little. His tongue was pressed to his bottom lip. She bit down on the fruit, letting the juice flood her mouth. God, it was good. Eric groaned. Sweet Jesus, Shepherd of Judea, that was a turn on.
The small berries were in a little bowl, swimming in melted chocolate. She picked one up and slipped it into her mouth, never taking her eyes off her former lover. She savored the sweet-tartness, then swallowed. Eric’s eyes seared into her as he watched the play of her throat, and she squirmed in her seat. She’d never done anything like this before, but she was amazed at how exciting it was. She almost wished the plate had included a chocolate covered banana.
She was shocked by her own brazenness. Sweet Southern Belles did not imitate oral sex with fruit in the middle of a crowded dining room, but then she speculated that she hadn’t been a sweet Southern Belle since she’d started dating dead guys. She ate another strawberry and followed it with an orange slice. She thought Eric was going to jump her right there and screw her on the table. She would have let him.
She was eating the last of the small berries in the bowl, and anticipating a very hot and satisfying evening, when the room took on a definite hush. She stopped eating as she noticed the change in the air, and she searched for the source. Eric was looking too, his eyes sharp and alert, all of his previous heat and lust smothered by the tension. She did a visual sweep of the room, following the gazes of the now quiet guests, and found that they were all focused on three newcomers being led by the blue-skinned hostess to a table close to their section.
It was the two human women whose minds she had touched, or at least she assumed they were since she was still the only other human she had seen, and they were accompanied by a little boy who appeared to be about 6 or 7 years old. One woman was lovely with glossy black curls that framed her sweet face. She looked like a gypsy princess, all delicate grace and tempered fire. She was dressed in black jeans and an off-the-shoulder black Jersey sweater that made Sookie shiver just looking at her.
It was obvious that the boy was hers because he had the same hair, although not as curly, and the same light-boned frame. He was also dressed in black with a sleeveless muscle shirt, cotton pants, and a pair of long, fingerless gloves that went all the way up to his elbows. Sookie heard him laugh about something as he trotted next to his mother.
The second woman was drab compared to her companion. Dressed in blue jeans and a dark blue, long-sleeved shirt, she had brown hair that she’d shoved back into a ponytail and a round face that wouldn’t repulse anyone but that wouldn’t make the covers of any magazines either. She was the kind of woman who never got noticed, who faded into the background because she was plain and ordinary, but Sookie got the impression that she was anything but ordinary. The woman followed the mother-son pair with an air of alertness and tension, looking at each of the guests until her eyes fell on her.
‘So there you are,’ came the mindvoice she had heard earlier.
She gulped and shored up her shields. Cutting mental laughter broke right through them.
The woman’s eyes fell on Eric and an odd expression crossed her face. ‘Oh honey, I see the problem, and I can’t help you. You’re gonna have to face that one yourself.’
She wanted to ask her what she meant, but the connection had closed again, and she watched from one corner of her eye as the three moved past them to sit at a table several places away near the back wall of the room, alongside a large window.
She was still trying to process when she heard Eric address the hostess.
“Excuse me.”
She looked up to see the blue-skinned woman standing next to their table. Eric must have motioned her over when she wasn’t paying attention.
“Yes?” the woman asked.
“Is that who I think it is?” her Viking vampire asked in a voice that was almost reverent. She sat up and paid attention.
There was no need for the hostess to ask who Eric was referring to. The trio were still being watched by most of the guests, although they did not seem to be offended or surprised by the scrutiny.
“Ms. Piazzi. Yes,” the hostess answered.
“Is she here personally or professionally?” Eric questioned.
“Both actually. She’s been here all week, but her last performance is tonight at midnight. They’re leaving on Tuesday.”
“Are there any tickets left for the show?”
“There aren’t ever any tickets, Sir. Ms. Piazzi plays for whoever wishes to hear her, and the great room is large enough to hold all of our guests. If you wish to attend, all you need to do is show up.”
“Thank you,” Eric said and dropped his eyes.
She looked at him when the hostess was gone, waiting. He looked very thoughtful, so thoughtful that she was almost afraid to interrupt. She glanced over at the table where the two women were sitting. They seemed to be having a pleasant conversation with their waitress, who was a gorgeous young woman with magnificent black hair, creamy coffee colored skin and four arms. She gulped. The plain one flicked her eyes her way, and she looked down at her dessert plate immediately.
“What was that all about?” she asked.
Eric didn’t answer right away so she looked up at him to see him sitting there with a very serious expression on his face. All of the earlier heat and anticipation had disappeared from the bond, and she wondered what the hell was going on. Three minutes ago she’d been certain that they were about to leave to go have the greatest sex of her life, but now…
“What’s going on, Eric? Who is that woman?”
He snapped out of his reverie and regarded her with a mixture of disappointment and indecision.
“She is a… performer. One I was not expecting to see here,” he replied carefully as if he was afraid to give too much away.
“Okay. So… I’m guessing that you want to go to the show tonight?” ‘And maybe skip the sex with me?’ she was afraid to add.
He looked positively torn in two, and she could feel his struggle through the bond. Instinctively, she reached out.
“Eric, what is it?”
“If I were a religious person, I would say it was a sign from a higher power.”
Well, that was the last thing she expected to come out of his mouth.
“A sign of what?”
“That I made the right decision. That I brought you here to the right place at the right time.”
“Why? What does her being here mean to us?” she asked, pushing the dessert plate aside and leaning forward to take his hand.
“An opportunity. One I… don’t think I can ignore,” He looked miserable to have to say it, and she tried to be the understanding girlfriend, even if she wasn’t his girlfriend, or not yet, or… oh whatever!
“Look. The hostess said tonight’s her last performance, right?” she prompted
He nodded.
“So you might not get another chance. That’s what you’re thinking, right?”
He nodded again.
“And you’d really like to hear her play whatever it is she plays, right?”
“Violin, and yes, I would very much like to hear her play.”
She patted his hands reassuringly. “Then we’ll hear her play. I mean, it isn’t like she’s going to play all night, and we’re going to be here another three days, so it isn’t like there won’t be time for us to… talk.”
Suddenly she realized that Eric’s wanting to go to the performance postponed the talk she had been dreading. Yes, it postponed the sex, but it also bought her more time before she had to face whatever it was he wanted them to become.
“Do you really mean that?” he asked, and for a moment he sounded so much like the Eric she had loved, she almost choked up.
“I do.”
He closed his eyes, then raised her hands to his lips and kissed them tenderly. “Thank you. Once again, I can’t believe my luck.”
Now she did get choked up, but she fought it back. It was no time for a weepy scene no matter how much she wanted to throw herself into his arms and cry her eyes out.
“Hey, I can tell it’s important to you. You once said that what’s important to me is important to you. Well, the same holds true for me. If you want to go, we’ll go. You’d do the same for me.”
He nodded and she felt his gratitude through the bond. He released her hands and they separated, each of them sitting back in their chairs in order to give each other a little distance to process.
“Are you finished eating?” he finally asked her.
She looked at the dessert plate and nabbed the last strawberry, popping it into her mouth. “I am now.”
He rose to his feet, walked to stand beside her, and offered her his hand. “We have some time before the performance. I want to show you some things here in the lodge.”
She looked at her watch; it was just after 10:30pm. They had an hour and a half before the performance.
“Should we go to our cabin first? Do I need to change?”
He shook his head. “No. You’re beautiful just as you are. Besides, if we stay here in the lodge, you’ll only have to brave the cold once.”
“Where is our luggage anyway?” she asked, accepting his hand and allowing him to pull her to her feet.
“It’s been taken to our cabin for us.”
“Do you know where that is?”
“Ironically, yes. Cabin 16 was the cabin the queen and Andre stayed in when she brought us here eight years ago,” he answered, curling her arm around his and guiding her out of the dining room.
“That is ironic. Is it nice?”
He nodded. “It is adequate. It’s surrounded by trees, very secluded and private. The bedroom is a loft on the second floor with its own balcony that has a view of the lake, and there’s a windowless room off the back of the first floor for me to spend the day,” he described, walking with her down the corridor they had traveled on their way to the dining room.
“Sounds nice.”
“It is.”
They were back in the great room with the huge fireplace.
“This is the great room. You’ve already been here. It is the main gathering place for the resort,” he told her. “If there is anything going on as far as an activity, it will be here or start here.”
He took her past the great room down a short hall to another large room, this one set up like a hotel concierge. A pleasant-looking woman with green hair and horns on her head was behind the check-in counter. She looked up as they went by and gave them a toothy smile. Sookie managed to smile back, earning her a pleased look from Eric. Hey, she was getting better at dealing with all the weirdness.
“This is the concierge. If you have any problems or concerns, or if you need anything during the day, this is the place to come. There is no phone or satellite service in the rooms, but each cabin has an intercom that connects to the main desk here.”
She gasped. “No phone and no TV?”
He chuckled. “The guests who come here are usually seeking to escape the technology of the modern world, although I learned that the lodge recently added an Internet café on the lower level, and of course, there is satellite television in the sports bar and in a number of lounges here in the main lodge.”
They left the concierge and he took her to a grand staircase made from split logs. One set went up, and another went down to a lower level. They took the flight that went down, and the stairs emptied into a large game room set up with such pastimes as billiards, darts, and air hockey. There was also a large screen TV equipped with a game console, and two young male demons with fox tails were there playing Grand Theft Auto, yelling and whooping at the screen. She shook her head.
They skirted the room and went through a set of double doors that opened onto a cozy study with a small fireplace and a number of comfortable chairs and lounges.
“The library is through here,” Eric told her, guiding her through yet another set of doors. “I know you have some interest in reading. I think you will find their collection to be extensive.”
She looked around the large, softly lit room, taking in the shelves and shelves of books with appreciation until she noticed what looked like a microfiche machine. Eric followed her line of sight and moved them closer.
“That’s a universal translator. Any book you place on it will display the language of your choice on the screen. Most of these books are in different languages. The translator allows you to read anything you like no matter what language it’s written in.”
“My goodness, Eric, that’s amazing. Why don’t the Supes share that with the humans?” she blurted, staring at the device with awe.
He gave her a soft smile. “We can’t solve all of humanity’s problems for them, lover. Besides, there are some things humans aren’t meant to know.”
She snorted and gave him a look that made him stop and bend down to kiss her.
“I can taste the chocolate on your lips,” he breathed, making her shiver all over.
Bill always hated to kiss her after she’d eaten. So much so that she always scrubbed her teeth thoroughly after each meal so he would never taste food when he kissed her. But Eric didn’t seem to mind the taste of certain things in her mouth as long as it wasn’t garlic. All vampires really hated garlic.
They looked at each other, emotions swirling across the blood bond, until Eric moved to guide her from the library back out to the game room.
“Come, lover, there is something in particular that I want to show you.”
“Okay.”
They passed the game room and entered into a wide corridor, Eric walking slowly so she could look at all the paintings on the walls. Some of them looked familiar and she wondered if they were originals.
“Many guests of Isle Elena have donated works of art to the lodge. You’ll find art displayed everywhere here. There’s even a gallery on the third floor,” he told her.
They came to a set of closed doors and Eric reached out to push them open, moving her across the threshold into a large, circular room. The center was mostly open, but there were a few chairs and places to sit on the floor. All around the perimeter of the room were statues, each backlit with soft light, and each representing a deity.
They were in a shrine.
She looked around, taking in the figures. There were some she recognized: Buddha, Isis, one of the multi-armed Hindu goddesses, a Chinese goddess playing the lute… she even thought one might be the Virgin Mary, but most of them were unknown to her.
Eric released her arm and walked over to one of the statues. It was a wooden carving of a woman in a long gown with a wide belt. It looked very old and Sookie stayed quiet as Eric knelt on one knee before the deity and lowered his head. She heard him whispering something but it wasn’t in any language she understood. She stayed quiet and waited until he had finished his prayer.
When he was done, he rose to his feet and rejoined her.
“Who is she?” she asked, nodding her head towards the wooden statue.
“Hlin, Handmaiden to Frigga,” he replied, pronouncing the names in the true Old Norse tongue. “She is the goddess of consolation.”
He gestured to some of the other statues in the room, identifying them for her. “Isis, Egyptian Goddess of Life and Healing. Kwan Yin, the Chinese Goddess of Compassion. Tara the Hindu Goddess of Peace and Protection. Brigit the Celtic Goddess of Healing. Imhotep the Egyptian God of Healing. Ishtar. Kwannon. Hina. Baba. Buddha. Gula. The Virgin Mary.”
He stopped and turned to the figure of Hlin again.
“You asked me at dinner what this place was. Isle Elena is the place you come to when you are weary. When you need healing and peace. It is the sanctuary of solace and comfort.”
He looked at her and his eyes were a thousand years old again.
“I don’t think either of us can argue that we don’t need some peace right now. We both have… suffered greatly in the recent times. We both have suffered… loss. And I…” He sat down on one of the chairs. She sat down next to him, close but not touching. “I am… tired.” He said the word as if the weight of the universe was on his shoulders.
His admission scared her. She remembered what Pam had told her in Merlotte’s about old vampires wanting to meet the sun, and, of course, she remembered Godfrey, but she never thought she would worry about Eric wanting to die.
“Eric…”
He waved a hand. “I don’t want to die. It’s nothing like that. I just want everything to stop for a while. In the past year or so, since I met you, I’ve been shot numerous times, been badly burned, cursed, nearly blown up, and almost killed by a rival state.
“A massive hurricane decimated our kingdom and made us ripe for takeover. Many vampires I considered my colleagues and friends died, and my queen was murdered as she lay helpless, recovering from the bombing in Rhodes.
“The new regime still isn’t sure about my loyalty so I am in constant fear for myself and for those who owe me fealty. I am always looking over my shoulder, wondering if someone is spying on me to discover a reason to kill me.”
He took a deep breath. “All of it is exhausting. I needed to come to a place where none of that could follow me. I needed to be where I could rest. So I came here.”
He looked at her. “And I brought you with me, Dear One, because you need solace too. You’ve suffered so much: the loss of your grandmother, Bill’s betrayal, Quinn’s betrayal, your brother’s deceit… Not to mention your frequent injuries and brushes with death. If I could shield you all the time and prevent you from suffering another bullet wound or bruise or horror that made you cry, I would. I would take a thousand bullets for you, my lover, if it would spare you pain.”
What could anyone say to that?
“All the masks are off,” she whispered, more to herself than to him.
“Yes. You can only be what you are here. No pretenses. That’s it’s magic and it’s Gift,” he said.
Well, now she understood what the woman meant when she said no one would believe she was being held against her will. Who would bring a prisoner to a place where no one could hide their true self? She had noticed that Eric was becoming more and more like the man he’d been when he was with her, and less the arrogant, manipulative boss vampire. Maybe she’d been right about that persona being a front Eric had assumed in order to survive.
“Thank you for sharing this with me,” she said, trying to get her thoughts in order. “I really appreciate it when you talk to me like this. It makes me feel important and valued.”
“You are always valued.”
“But I don’t always feel that way. Thank you for being honest.”
“You are my blood-bonded. I know you don’t really understand what that means, but I am hoping that you will by the time we leave here.”
“Me too,” she replied, and she was surprised to realize that she meant it.
He sighed and cast a glance around the shrine. It was a quiet, peaceful place.
“We should go back upstairs. Others will be gathering in the Great Room to wait for the performance,” he said.
“All right,” she agreed, and they both rose to their feet.
Eric took her hand and they exited the shrine. He closed the door and made sure it was secure before they both left it behind and headed up to the main floor.
Chapter Six
A/N: Here’s the next chapter. I think you will enjoy the ending. There will be more of it, although there is a plot here you know… :D
“So… where’s the pool?” she asked, trying for some levity as they walked arm-in-arm, back up the stairs to the main level of the lodge.
It worked because he laughed. “Well, one could argue that we are surrounded by a very large one.”
“I am not going swimming in Lake Superior,” she stated flatly. “I really would freeze.”
“That you would,” he agreed with some seriousness. “The pool is in a different building behind this one. The gym and sports bar are there as well.”
“Is there a hot tub?” she questioned.
He laughed again. “Yes, I do remember a hot tub… and a sauna too.”
“A sauna?”
“Yes. A… a hot room. You know, with steam, although most times it’s a dry heat,” he explained, fumbling a little as he tried to think of words. The look of concentration on his face was endearing.
“I know what it is, but I’ve never been in one.”
“Ah. We should… fix that while we are here. Saunas are wonderful things. I have one in my house.”
“You do?” That was kind of like Bill and his bathroom for six. Bill had a huge shower and the big soaking hot tub. Now Eric had a sauna. What was it with vampires and their bathing habits?
“Of course. I’ve always used saunas. They were invented by the Finns, you know,” he said, bending his head towards her.
“No, I didn’t know. Are you telling me that you had saunas a thousand years ago?”
“Oh yes. We would build them from stone and put a woodstove inside. The wood would heat the rocks and warm the room, then we would pour water on the rocks to make the steam. We would bathe that way in winter. In summer we bathed in the lakes.”
She snorted. “I never thought of Vikings having good hygiene.”
“We were a very clean people,” he insisted.
His indignation made her giggle. “I’m sorry. It’s just that the image of Vikings taking lots of baths doesn’t fit with the whole rape and pillage thing.”
“We didn’t all rape and pillage. Yes, there were raids, and there was robbing, but only a few of us raped, and those that did were not looked upon kindly. I’ve never forced a woman in all my long life,” he countered, his voice offended.
Of course he didn’t. He wouldn’t have had to. The women were probably throwing themselves at him.
“I know you didn’t. You could have forced me lots of times, but you didn’t. You pushed the line sometimes, but you never crossed it. And when I talked to the new bartender at Fangtasia, Felicia, she said you don’t demand sexual favors if the woman isn’t interested,” she assured him, hoping to soothe his ruffled feathers.
They were almost to the great room, having passed the concierge and moved into the main hall.
“I’ve never had any need. If I wanted a woman, it was easy enough to find one who was willing,” he replied simply.
They entered the great room. Even though it was still a half-hour to midnight, the room was already beginning to fill with… people? Supes? Demons? All but one of the café tables were occupied, and Eric headed for the one that was open. It was closest to the bank of rocking chairs that sat right in front of the fireplace. She noticed that the fire was still burning merrily in the hearth.
“Well, you do have an… impressive figure. I’m sure you turned heads even back then,” she commented as they sat down across from each other.
The flames in the fireplace were making patterns of light and shadow on the walls and surfaces in the room, and she noted that it lit on Eric’s hair, making it blaze golden for a moment. She looked away.
“You called me beautiful,” he whispered, and she snapped her head up to see him gazing into the flames. The firelight did the most amazing things to his eyes. She blushed, feeling a tightness in her chest, but he wasn’t finished. “You liked my butt. You would ogle me when I wasn’t looking. You thought I didn’t notice.”
She choked on a giggle, and they looked at each other. His eyes were glowing, but they were warm. It made her tingle inside.
“And you were so offended when I didn’t say I liked your gracious plenty best,” she teased lightly.
He laughed and his eyes turned smoky. “Yes, but I think I brought you around to my way of thinking.”
“Nope.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Nope?”
She shook her head, smirking. “Nope. I still like your butt best.”
“I see… then I shall have to redouble my efforts to change your mind.”
Heat rushed from her groin down to her toes and she shivered, but she tried to tamp it down. “Oh I don’t know if you’ll be able to do that.”
“Sookie, I am far more talented with my… gracious plenty than I am with my ass.”
She shrugged. “I’m sorry. Some guys like to ogle boobs. Some girls are size queens… not that you have any trouble in that department. But I like butts. It’s just a preference.”
He let out a deep laugh and shook his head, then he leaned close across the table and whispered in a voice that was pure sex, “Then I’ll put up a mirror above my bed so you can watch my butt while I’m fucking you.”
Oh. God. The heat was going to burn her alive if she didn’t have her fire put out soon. Did he really want to stay there and listen to some strange woman play her damn violin? She didn’t know if she could last that long. She was certain that she would implode before then.
“Can I get you anything from the bar?” a voice asked, nearly scaring her out of her skin.
She jerked, not even realizing anyone was there, and whipped her head around to see the cat-girl from the dining room.
“I’m sorry if I frightened you. I forgot that humans don’t have heightened hearing,” the cat-girl barmaid apologized.
A glance towards Eric showed that he was silently laughing at her, and it pissed her off. He could have at least given her a heads up.
“No, it’s okay. I should be used to it by now. I’ll have a gin and tonic, please.”
“Anything for you, Mr. Northman?”
“Not at this time, thank you.”
The cat-girl nodded and walked away.
“She knew who you were,” she commented. “So did Toth.”
“Both of them were here the last time I was. Most demons have perfect memories. They remembered me,” he explained.
“That must be a neat skill to have.”
He just shrugged.
“Now I understand why it irked you so much when you couldn’t remember the days you were cursed. That must have been very frustrating for you.”
“It was,” he admitted. “Forgive me if I was at times too… forceful with you in my frustration.”
He was referring to hurting her with his strength, she was sure. Like the time he’d been gripping her shoulders and had clamped down too tightly. Now it was her turn to shrug.
“You didn’t hurt me.”
“No, but I hurt you in other ways.”
She didn’t answer, and couldn’t look at him, so they fell silent. The cat-girl returned with her drink, and Sookie smiled a bit when she noticed the half-demon was slapping her feet down to make noise when she approached. She thanked her and mentally promised to give her a big tip.
Eric was still being quiet, looking at the fire again, and she was happy not to be talking, so she stayed silent and sipped her drink.
“I told you that we could go back, that I could live with you, and love you. You told me that it sounded like a marriage, and I said yes,” he said suddenly.
She almost choked on her drink. She had to swallow quickly and wipe her mouth with her napkin.
“Eric…” she began, scrambling for words, but he wasn’t looking at her and his eyes were far away.
“You answered that you were an idiot and got out of the car, but you’d wanted to say yes. I could feel that you wanted to say yes, but you knew you couldn’t. You knew I wasn’t yours to keep.”
The raw truth to his words was a knife, but her pain wasn’t his fault.
“On the way to the witches’ compound, I asked you if you would still see me after it was all over, and you said sure.”
The knife went deeper, and her hand shook. She wanted to say something, but she couldn’t speak, and he wasn’t done anyway. He needed to twist the blade a little more.
“But then I didn’t remember any of that, and you… wouldn’t tell me. Even when I tried to force it out of you, even when I hurt you, even when I could feel that you wanted to tell me, even when I blackmailed you into telling me some of it… that you kept to yourself. You stayed silent. It must have hurt you so much to see me, knowing what you’d… what we both had lost.”
That required an answer so she breathed around the pain and pulled out the knife herself.
“Yes,” she admitted, then amended. “No... Sometimes.”
She wrapped her hands around her drink tumbler and studied the patterns on the melting ice.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t choose to forget.”
“I know.” She took another sip of her drink and added, “For what it’s worth, I do miss you.” It was the closest she’d ever come to acknowledging her pain.
“I understand. Sometimes I miss me too.”
And of course, Eric would choose to be Eric in that moment, and stab her all over again. He seemed to realize what he had done because he looked guilty.
“I’m sorry. I know you wanted me to tell you that I’d missed you too, but the truth is I didn’t remember that there was anything to miss. Until four weeks ago, I had no idea what we had meant to each other. I knew what you had told me, and what I’d felt through our bond, but I didn’t truly grasp what it all meant. I couldn’t understand my heartache. I didn’t know why I felt loss when I thought of you. Now, of course, I know better, and I am full of missing you, but I am sorry that it took so long for you to be missed.”
She understood. He did miss her, and he was sorry it had taken him so long to remember. The knife slid out, leaving only the bleeding wound behind, but she knew from experience that it would heal.
“You carried that knowledge inside of you for all that time. Since I’ve remembered, I’ve thought long and hard about what you must have been going through. Everything I did to you afterwards that must have hurt you: my coldness, my anger, my erratic behavior. I wanted to be with you, but I didn’t know why. The not knowing scared me, and confused me, and yet I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” he admitted softly.
“It was hard for me. Especially when you stopped talking to me after you made me tell you what happened. I thought I’d lost what little relationship we had left,” she said just as softly, letting herself say it out loud for the first time.
He closed his eyes and she could see a ripple of pain cross his face. “My behavior was unacceptable. I am so sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
“No. You are too forgiving. You could have let me die in Rhodes. I’d spurned you, blackmailed you, forced you to take my blood… It would have been better for you to just let me blow up. Instead you risked death yourself to stay in an exploding building to rescue me and Pam.”
She gasped in shock and offense that he would even have thought she would be so petty. “I can’t believe you would say that. Do you really think I would do such a horrible thing? I even went back into the building to save more vamps, and then Barry and I worked ourselves witless trying to find survivors in the rubble.”
“I know. Mr. Cataliades told me. He told everyone of your bravery and courage.”
A tear fell down her cheek and she pursed her lips, remembering that horrible day. “I’m not brave.”
“Yes, you are. You are the bravest person I know.”
“Eric…” She wanted to beg him to stop because the wound was still bleeding, and she couldn’t staunch the blood flow.
He slid the chair around the table so he could sit beside her. She heard the scrape of the feet on the wooden floor, and then he was enfolding her in his arms, and she was against his chest, surrounded by his presence and scent. She sunk into him, and into her feelings, as the bond opened up and his strength came into her.
“When I was with you, I was deliriously happy,” he whispered into her ear. “I would have willingly given up everything I had in order to stay with you. But you… you knew the truth. You knew who I was. You knew that no matter what happened with the witches, you would lose me. Yet you accepted me anyway, in spite of it even. You knew how it was going to end, but you loved me despite all that. And when it was all over, and I didn’t remember anything, you let me go. You held all that pain and loss inside. That’s the bravest thing anyone could ever do.”
She was crying in earnest now, trying to stay quiet because they were in a crowded room, but letting “all that pain and loss” come out. Finally. And she was doing it in Eric’s arms which is where she wanted it to be, because it had been between them, and he was her blood-bonded, and he was the only one who could make her feel as safe and valued as she did right now.
“I’m always weeping when I’m around you,” she said a minute or two later when her tears subsided.
“I’d noticed that.”
“You hate it.”
“I’m getting used to it.”
The way he’d said it made her laugh, and she pulled away, glad that he’d been wearing the warm sweater because it had absorbed her tears without so much as a damp spot left behind. He handed her the napkin that was on the table, and she dabbed her eyes, then blew her nose in it.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go to our cabin right now?” she asked, noticing that the great room was even more crowded now and embarrassed by her emotional display, even though it looked like no one was paying any attention to her.
“I would like nothing more, but no. We need what Maria Piazzi has to offer, even moreso now,” he replied with no small regret.
“What’s the big deal with her anyway? You talk about her like she’s some kind of special performer, and the Supes in the dining room looked at her like she was the Second Coming.”
For a moment, she wasn’t sure he was going to answer, and she felt his conflict through the bond, although why he wouldn’t want to tell her was beyond her. Maybe Maria was the Second Coming, and Eric knew she was religious and wouldn’t take it well. Would Christ come back in the guise of a woman violinist? A Gypsy violinist? With a kid? She gulped and looked to Eric.
“Maria has a… special gift,” he finally said. “When she plays, she has the ability to heal.”
Heal? Well, as far as she knew neither of them were injured. Oh. Maybe Maria didn’t heal physical wounds. Maybe she healed other kinds of wounds, the kinds no one could see.
“Heal? Heal what?” Hearts? Minds?
“Souls.”
That was a ringer. “She heals souls?”
Eric nodded, his face very serious so she knew he wasn’t joking.
“Maria is a Soul Healer. She’s the rarest kind of healer in the world. She can take the pain and suffering of a lifetime and wash it away. She is especially adept at healing non-humans, and she does this when she plays.”
“Oh.” Really, was there anything she could say to that?
“Soul Healers are so rare most of us never see one in all our long lifetimes. In a thousand years, I’ve only heard of two and one is dead. Maria Piazzi is the other,” he went on, ignoring her stunned expression. “So you can imagine my surprise when I realized who she was. For her to be here on Isle Elena at the same time we are… I am sure you can understand why I want to stay.”
She nodded, suddenly afraid. She’d killed three people: two humans and a vampire. She’d witnessed the deaths of numerous others. She’d been a contributing factor to some of them. What had those deaths done to her soul? What would Maria find there to be healed?
“Don’t be afraid or ashamed,” Eric said, taking her hand and rubbing her palm with his thumb. “I can assure you that just about everyone else here, myself included, has darker wounds on their souls than you do.”
She pulled her hand from his abruptly, her Christian upbringing rattling her mind, “Only God can wash away my sins.”
He gave her a tender look, and she felt him soothing her through the bond. It felt like he was stroking her hair from the inside out.
“That isn’t what Maria does. She doesn’t offer forgiveness. She helps you to forgive yourself, and to forgive those who have hurt you,” he explained very gently.
Oh. Would she forgive Bill? Her brother? Her uncle who was now dead? Would she forgive Rene for killing Maudette, Dawn and Gran? She wanted to say something, but right at that moment the woman in question entered the great room, and all the conversations that had been buzzing around them fell silent.
A raised, wooden platform had been placed on one side of the hearth, and now two tall, burly Supes with gray skin and even grayer hair began to set up microphones and chairs on the makeshift stage.
Maria was carrying a violin case, and she put it down on the stage as she turned to speak to another Supe who was sporting a furry wolf-tail out of the back of his black dress pants. As she talked, Sookie noticed the other woman come in carrying a guitar case with the boy behind her, carrying his own violin case.
“Who is the other woman?” she asked Eric.
“That’s Isabelle. Everyone calls her Izzy. She is Maria’s friend and protector. The boy is Maria’s son, Vincent.”
She looked at the child, noting that he was still dressed in the sleeveless shirt and long fingerless gloves. What parent would allow a child to wear such light clothing when it was below freezing outside? She reached behind her to feel her new parka, shivering just looking at the kid.
“He isn’t 100% human, is he?” she asked Eric, already knowing the answer.
“No. Vincent’s father is a Fire Demon.”
Well, that explained the clothes. Kid probably didn’t get cold.
“Izzy’s a telepath,” she stated.
“I’m not surprised.”
As they watched the group set-up the stage, she saw the two women engaging in conversation with any number of strange and alien creatures, none of which seemed to phase them in the least. She felt a pang of envy when she saw Izzy casually talking to a Supe that looked like he was part squid, complete with bulging eyes and tentacles for hands. The very slight of him made her queasy, but the small woman seemed completely at ease.
‘Careful, girlfriend, you’re starting to look a little green,’ a mindvoice jibed.
She jolted and saw Izzy looking at her from the corner of her eye.
‘Not everyone can look like tall, blond and gorgeous there. If you’re gonna hang with demons, you’d better get used to some of them looking like something out of a bad monster movie.’
‘And just how am I supposed to do that?’ she snapped back.
‘Watch Sci-Fi on Saturday afternoons. Their low-budget stuff is always good for a laugh, and half their Sci-Fi Originals production crew are demons.’
“Is she talking to you right now?” she heard Eric ask.
“Yeah.”
“What’s she saying? It’s upsetting you, I can tell.”
What was a good way to answer? “She’s telling me that I should… get over my… prejudices.”
“Hmph,” her Viking vampire snorted and turned his blue eyes towards the woman, giving her a warning glare.
‘Oh, ha ha. Loverboy’s gone all mediaeval,’ she heard Izzy laugh.
A second later Eric jolted, and his eyes opened wide with shock.
“What? Eric, what is it?”
“She just… No. Never mind, I won’t repeat it.”
“She spoke to you? She can read your mind?”
“Apparently so.”
‘You can read vamp minds?’ she sent.
‘Sure. Can’t you?’
‘No. I have trouble reading most non-human minds.’
There was a beat of silence, then, ‘Interesting.’
As frustrating as it was, she couldn’t get any more out of the woman because the set-up was finished, and it was almost time for Maria to perform. She noticed that there wasn’t an empty seat in the room, and there were even a number of individuals standing against the walls. They looked like staff members. She recognized some of the servers from the dining room, Toth included.
Eric kept an arm around her as he arranged them to sit side by side, facing the stage. She could tell he was being protective, and that made her smile, but Izzy didn’t appear to be paying them any mind. She leaned into him, pressing close, and he turned his head briefly to smile at her and give her a kiss.
A minute later she felt him stiffen a bit and his attention turn towards something off to their left. She followed his line of sight and saw a beautiful woman approaching the stage.
“Who is that?” she asked, noting Eric’s tension.
“That is Elena.”
She watched as the woman made her way through the crowd with a grace that no human could ever possess. Dressed in a lovely winter white sweater and long winter white skirt with white suede boots, she was the very picture of Hellenic perfection. Her hair was a cascade of thick, black curls held back from her face by a silver clip, and her face looked like something one would expect to see on a Grecian Urn.
Instinctively, Sookie knew the woman wasn’t mortal, although she looked completely human. Everything about her screamed Other, and Sookie had been around Supes long enough to know that this Supe was the mother of all Supes.
“Eric, what is she?” she whispered hoarsely, afraid someone might hear her.
“She was once one of the Greek Pantheon,” he replied equally as quietly.
“Greek Pantheon?” she repeated.
“You know, Zeus, Hera and all them. The mythology had them living on Olympus, but they never actually did.”
She gasped. “You… you’re talking about gods.”
“Yes.”
“Elena’s a goddess?”
He nodded. “One of the Moon Goddesses. As gods go she was a very minor one, but it was her obscurity that allowed her to survive. Most of the others have faded away to almost nothing.”
“Why?”
“No one to worship or believe in them. Without believers, gods die. Elena endured because she never had much power to begin with,” Eric explained.
“Oh.” A goddess. Elena was a goddess. Jesus Christ, Shepherd of Judea, what was going to happen now?
Elena took the stage and stood behind the microphone, waiting for the crowd to notice her. The room was silent in less than a minute. She stood there like a statue, perfectly poised and collected, scanning the audience. Her dark eyes fell on her and Eric, and Sookie ducked her head, shivering. Eric tucked her in closer to his body, but the goddess’s eyes slid over them, paying them no more mind than a butterfly would pay to an ant. When Elena’s gaze moved on, Sookie relaxed.
“Welcome, my friends,” the goddess spoke, and her voice was like cool water, soft and soothing. “We have been blessed all week with the presence of a rare guest who has graciously shared her talent with us. Tonight is her last performance for she and her family will be leaving us on Tuesday.”
The crowd let out a collective murmur of sadness and dismay.
“We are grateful that she and her family have spent so much time with us here on our island, and we are sorry to see them leave. But we do hope she that will return to enjoy our hospitality and share her gifts with us once again.
“Please welcome, Maria Piazzi.”
The audience erupted into applause as the Gypsy woman took the stage, coming to stand next to Elena. The two shared many attributes: the same hair – although Elena’s was considerably longer – the same basic coloring, and the same serene expression in their dark eyes, but that was where the similarities ended. Maria looked tiny and fragile next to the statuesque beauty of the goddess, dwarfed by the presence of a figure much larger than life, but she didn’t seem diminished by the difference. She bowed to Elena and nodded her head to the crowd.
“Thank you, my generous hostess,” she said into the mike, addressing both Elena and the audience. “I and my family have enjoyed our stay here, and we are very sorry to leave ourselves. I assure you that we have every intention of returning as soon as our lives permit.”
The crowd let out a happy cheer. Maria smiled, and she was all the more lovely for it. Her eyes scanned the crowd, taking in all of the guests watching her with rapt fascination.
“I am happy to see so many faces; those I have come to know during my stay here and those I have yet to meet. I bid you welcome and good fortune. I have been told that my music is soothing, and I am glad to share it with you. I hope that each of you will find what you need when I play, and that you will leave here with a sense of peace and comfort.”
She bowed to the crowd, bowed to Elena, then stepped back to pick-up the violin case and open it. Elena left the stage as Maria sat down on a chair that had been set there for her, and the crowd grew silent and still as the human woman raised the instrument to her chin.
Sookie was no connoisseur of Classical music, but she did recognize the first piece Maria played. It was Air on the G-String and she thought Bach had written it. The music filled the room, capturing everyone with its simple beauty. Sookie glanced at the area to the left of the stage and noticed both Izzy and Vincent sitting in the wings, both were watching Maria play with twin expressions of pride and satisfaction on their faces.
She wasn’t certain what she had been expecting, but other than enjoying the music, she didn’t feel any different. Eric was motionless, not even breathing, his eyes fixed on the Gypsy, his attention completely taken up by the woman on the stage. She didn’t get it.
Maria finished the first piece, and Sookie had to admit that as violinists went – not that she’d heard many of them and most of the ones she had heard played Cajun music – she was very, very good. The kind of good that played with an orchestra and did all those fancy symphonies in big cities like New York and Los Angeles. She’d never been to either of them. She’d never been to the symphony either.
When Maria started the second piece, Sookie relaxed. Nothing was happening, no big mojo magic, no soul altering, life changing experience, so she settled down to enjoy the show and hoped that Eric wouldn’t be too disappointed. How little did she know that Maria was just getting warmed up.
She began noticing something odd going on about the middle of the third piece. She had no idea what Maria was playing, but it was in keeping with the soothing, gentle theme she’d been going with since she’d started. The music was… coming into her. She felt little tendrils of it poking around, making gooseflesh break out along her skin, and then it was sliding along her arms, running just under the surface. She froze, her eyes wide, and for a moment she thought she might bolt, but then something grabbed her from the inside out and held her there.
She gasped as the music began to vibrate inside her body, sending tremors and shivers throughout her muscles, and moving into her blood. Her heart was pounding. She looked at Eric and found him still and hard as stone. It had gotten him too. She was on the verge of panic, fighting and fighting hard against what was happening…
Suddenly, she calmed down and all her fear disappeared. Was it Eric? Was it the music? She didn’t know. All she knew was that she wasn’t afraid anymore, and her heart slowed down to normal and her body relaxed. Then the fourth piece began and she was soaring.
The music had her, it was cradling her, bringing her to a place of peace and comfort she hadn’t known since her parents were alive. It was wrapping around her heart and soul, finding the dark, wounded places and exposing them to the light. She felt raw, ripped open, and she began to cry. She looked at Eric and saw that he was crying too, red streaks staining his white skin as the tears ran down his face. She reached out to him, fumbling for the hand he had placed on the table – the other was still around her shoulders, but it was a dead weight – and managed to grab hold of his fingers.
The bond opened and they were one again, like they had been at dinner. Everything he was feeling, everything he was experiencing, came into her, and she into him. It doubled the effect of the music, and she found herself caught in the rising tide.
‘Let go,’ came the gentle command, but she didn’t know who had said it or where it had come from.
‘Let go.’
She resisted, holding desperately onto the last vestiges of her sanity, but then Eric let go, and she was swept out to sea with him.
How much time passed, she wasn’t sure, because minor things like that had lost all of their meaning. There was only the music and Eric, and the two of them in the bond, showing each other their wounds and sharing their pain. The music found everything, every blight, every scar, every still-open wound, and seared it with Power, purging it, sealing it, making it whole again.
When it finally began to release them, she felt as if it was putting her back into a new body that had just shed its skin. She shivered, and then felt Eric move. He was back, too, and their eyes met. She was sure they both looked the same way: stunned and shaken, and he gripped her hand tightly, holding on for dear life as they stared at each other, emotions swirling across the bond in a seamless stream. She had no idea who was who anymore.
The music was changing, taking on a faster tempo, the healing fading and being replaced by a joyous frenzy. She looked at the stage to see Izzy and Vincent joining Maria. Vincent had his violin out already, and the child was starting to play. He was good too, for a little kid, and he took the seat to the right of his mother.
But she and Eric had no interest in the dance that was beginning to develop. Each of them was far more interested in a different dance, one that required privacy. She had no memory of him slipping on her coat, or picking her up to carry her out of the great room. She had a brief memory of the frigid cold, broken by the encompassing warmth of a fire burning in the hearth of their cabin when Eric opened the door. How had it gotten lit? And who had known to light it? Such questions could be answered later.
Eric laid her on the floor in front of the fire, and they began to dance. It was the dance of kisses and shedding clothes, perfectly choreographed and set to music only they could hear. Bare skin slid across bare skin, moans escaped dry mouths, creating their own symphony just for the two of them. They licked each other’s tears away; she tasted his blood on her tongue and swallowed. His fingers stroked and teased and prepared, and she gave herself over eagerly, wanting him, her soul singing in tune with his.
When he finally entered her, it was like he was coming home.
He moved inside her, filling her with himself as she filled him, rocking each other in perfect rhythm and ecstasy. Hands gripped and bodies merged, words of love and comfort spilled from their lips, and in their joining, complete, sublime, and sacred, they healed each other.
Chapter Seven
Sookie sighed and let herself drift on a soft wave of contentment. She had her head nestled against Eric’s chest, her arm stretched across his broad pects, and he was absently playing with a lock of her hair, twirling it around his fingers.
They were upstairs in the loft bedroom, nestled in the huge, king-size bed they’d fallen into after Eric had carried her up the stairs. They’d had sex again on the broad mattress, Eric hooking his arms under her knees to lift her hips as he rode her. He’d plunged deep, and ridden her hard, both of them hungry for more after so long without. But for all his urgency and passion, he still hadn’t been as rough with her as she had expected him to be after almost a month of abstinence. Bill had practically broken her pelvis that night after the football game, but no matter how frenzied Eric seemed to be, he never hurt her with his strength or bit down too hard when he sank his fangs into her. She knew she’d be sore in the morning, but she doubted that she’d be sporting any bruises.
Now that they were sated – for the moment – she could feel the stirrings of malcontent coming across the bond, and she lifted her chin to look at him. There was a serious, unhappy look on her Viking’s face.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I am disappointed in myself,” he admitted. “I had promised myself that we wouldn’t do this until we’d reached an agreement, but it seems I have no control when you are involved.”
“Oh yes, I seduced you, poor innocent, with my fairy wiles,” she teased.
He snorted. “If you keep believing your fairy blood is what makes me so attracted to you, I’ll be forced to do something drastic.”
“Like what?”
“Like dumping you, naked, into the lake if you don’t cut that bullshit out.”
“You wouldn’t,” she choked.
“Try me. I’m sick of hearing it.”
“But…”
“No buts. The only but I want to hear is you talking about my butt since you’re so fond of it.”
She snickered. “It is still as impressive a as I remember it,” she confirmed. “So much better in real-life than in that calendar you gave me. I never took it off January, you know.”
“We’re going to do another for next year. Shall I make my photo a rear view just for your viewing pleasure?”
“You would too.”
“Of course. Anything for you, my lover,” he replied immediately.
“Would you really put a mirror over your bed so I could watch you?”
“I’d panel my entire bedroom with mirrors so you could see me from every angle you desired if that is what you wanted,” he answered with complete sincerity.
“That’s… kinky.”
“I admit to there being some allure to being able to watch you watching me while we have sex.”
“That’s even more kinky.”
“But a powerful turn-on.”
She thought about that and had to agree. In fact, the idea of being able to see Eric’s gorgeous ass as he… Mmmm, definite possibilities there. She snuggled closer and let her hand drift southward. She heard Eric moan as her fingers brushed against his hardness. He was ready again, and she was shocked to find that she was just as eager. Maybe there was hope of her being able to keep up with him after all.
Things were just starting to get interesting when Eric’s hand gripped her wrist and gently, but firmly, pulled her hand away.
“No,” he said, then added more forcefully, “No. I have had you twice. I hope to have you again many, many times while we are here, and again after we have returned to Louisiana, but right now we must talk.”
She sighed and pouted. She was not looking forward to this at all. “Must we?”
“Yes.” His voice was steel and about as malleable.
She rolled to her back and crossed her arms over her chest, frowning at the ceiling.
“I don’t know why we have to. Can’t we just leave it like this between us? This is fun. This is uncomplicated. Anything we decide will be complicated and messy.”
“It will be complicated and messy regardless, but we can simplify things if we make some decisions now.”
“Like what?”
“First things first. Am I correct in assuming that you are no longer seeing the tiger?” he asked.
“Yes. We broke up.” The words stung but they were true. As much as she’d hated to do it, she had let Quinn go. What he had done had been too close to a betrayal on his part, and he would always be beholden to his mother and sister. She wanted to be first for once, and she knew Quinn would never be able to give her that. She wasn’t so sure Eric could either.
“Are there any other suitors courting your attentions?”
“Other than Bill and Sam? No,” she answered.
She knew Bill would jump at the chance to get back with her, and he’d said as much. Sam, on the other hand… she knew he liked her, but half of his interest stemmed from his desire to keep her away from vampires. Calvin and Alcide had both been in the running, but Calvin’s idea of monogamy didn’t mesh with hers, and she’d had enough of were-panther politics to last her a lifetime. Alcide… he’d missed his chance, twice.
“Do either of them have any chance of winning you?”
“Bill? None. Sam? I believe in not dating your boss.”
He nodded. “Very well. Sookie Stackhouse, will you be my woman?”
Well, he couldn’t have made it any plainer, could he?
Her answer caught in her throat. If she said no, then nothing would be the same between them. If she said yes, nothing would be the same between them. The difference was in what she wanted from him. If she wanted to sever her connections with vampires, then she should say no and swear off dead guys for good. She would also have to leave her job, her friends, her home and everything she knew because she had no illusions that the vampire community in Louisiana would let her go. She was far too valuable to them to allow her to live in peace. She would have to get out of Bon Temps and relocate somewhere far away from any vampire that might recognize her.
On the other hand, if she said yes, then she would be under Eric’s protection and no other vampire could touch her because she’d be his. According to vamp protocol, that meant she was off limits to any other vampires unless she severed her tie to Eric herself or he “passed her on” to another vamp – she’d stake him before she’d let him do that to her, and he damn well knew it.
Saying yes would mean she could stay in Bon Temps and continue living life as she knew it, but it would also mean she would become even further entrenched in the vampire world with all its crazy politics and power struggles. She could be used against Eric in order to get him to do things he might not want to do, and Eric could be used against her in the same way – although Eric really could take care of himself; she’d seen that numerous times. A vampire didn’t get to be a thousand years old by being slow and stupid. She was much less concerned about Eric’s safety than she ever was about Bill’s.
She supposed she could opt for Door #3 which was say no, but stay in Bon Temps and do the whole awkward “ex” thing every time a new man came into her life. But that would be problematic because her blood-bond with Eric was permanent now, and she would always be privy to his feelings as much as he would be privy to hers. Plus, she doubted that he’d ever give up if she refused him, then stayed where he could continue to woo her until she broke down.
So it all came down to what she wanted. She liked Eric – could probably love him if she gave herself half a chance. She liked her life, and she wouldn’t want to give it all up. And the sex was out of this world. When she thought about it, he really had been there for her, and he’d shown her more consideration and respect than any other vampire she knew. Pairing with him would be much more like a meeting of equals, and hadn’t he already proved his willingness to commit? If being celibate for nearly a month hadn’t shown her he was serious, nothing else would.
She was taking too long and she knew it. Eric was getting agitated by her silence, and she didn’t like the jumble of feelings coming across the bond. “Masks-off” Eric was a lot like the Eric he had been when he didn’t know who he was, and he needed reassurance from her that everything was all right.
“I’m going to answer,” she told him. “Just give me a minute.”
“If you have to think about it, you probably don’t know.” His voice was sad and resigned.
“No. It’s not that. It’s just… a lot to deal with. No matter what choice I make here, my life’s never gonna be the same.”
“Tell me this: if I hadn’t forgotten our time together, what were you planning on doing once the witch’s curse was broken?”
“To be honest, I figured you’d want to forget the whole thing. Well, maybe not the sex, and I figured you’d try to get me back into bed, but I doubted you’d be happy about the rest of it. And then after I’d killed Debbie Pelt, I was worried you wouldn’t like being beholden to me, and I was afraid of the power you’d have over me.
“I know you think I held my feelings inside because I was letting you go, but don’t make me out to be martyr. Most of why I didn’t tell you was because I didn’t want to get dragged into anything about Debbie Pelt or the leverage you’d have on me if I did.”
“You were afraid I would renege on my promises to bring you to me. You thought I would lose affection for you and treat you like one of the numerous, brief associations I have had with willing female donors,” he stated, his voice cold.
“Something like that. It would have been consistent with what I knew of you.”
He snorted and gave a self-depreciating laugh. She didn’t like it.
“You know nothing. You know nothing of my feelings and desires. I was ridiculously happy when I was with you. I would give anything to be that happy again.”
She swallowed, allowing herself to feel a little pang of regret.
“You said I made you very happy too,” he reminded.
“You did. You were sweet, and talked to me, and put me first. I liked that.”
“You loved me.”
“No.”
“You could have.”
“Yes, probably,” she admitted.
“Are things so different now?”
“Of course they are. You remember who you are. You’re the Sheriff of Area 5, big boss vampire, and budding tycoon.”
“Do you wish for me to give it up? Leave it all and come live with you?” he asked suddenly.
“What? No! No, absolutely not. You like what you do. You’ve worked hard to get where you are. I’d never ask you to leave everything you’ve built just to come live with me.”
“But I am not happy. I would leave everything and stay with you if that is what it would take for you to accept me.”
“You were happy enough before you met me, and you told me you picked up the reins with no problems after Hallow’s curse was broken,” she shot back, afraid that he would give up everything for her. He might forgive her for asking it of him, but she’d never forgive herself.
“True enough, but that was before I knew what I had lost. And I was not happy. I was content. You made me happy. But it would not make you happy if I were to give up my position and come live with you. I can feel that.”
“No. I’d feel guilty and afraid that you’d resent me for making you give it all up.”
“Will you leave your job and come live with me?”
“No.”
He didn’t seem to be surprised or upset by her answer.
“Then we have our beginning, our base position. To be honest, you haven’t told me anything I was not expecting you to say. You will not leave your work, and you do not want me to leave mine, even though I would.”
“I can’t believe you’d walk away from Fangtasia and everything you’ve built just to date a barmaid,” she stated.
“Sookie, I have lived a very long time. I have had everything and lost everything. There have been times when I all have done is escape with the clothes on my back and my life,” he told her in a gentle voice that was only slightly a rebuke. “If I were to leave Fangtasia and Shreveport, I would rebuild wherever we were. We would probably have to move out of Felipe de Castro’s territory. He would never believe I wasn’t plotting against him, and he knows of your talent. He would seek to use you to his benefit, and I would no longer be in any position of power to protect you. Staying in Louisiana would be very dangerous for both of us.”
“I don’t want to leave Bon Temps. I don’t want to leave Gran’s house. Or my job.”
He nodded that he understood. “So we have reached our second base position. You do not wish to relocate, therefore I must stay in my position in order to ensure your safety.”
“This sounds like a negotiation.”
“It is. But you still haven’t answered the primary question. Will you be my woman?”
The $50,000 question.
She rolled to her side, lifted herself up on one elbow, and looked at him, really looked at him. He was gorgeous, a god among men and probably always had been. He looked at her with his blue eyes, his face unreadable, and she reached out to finger a lock of his long hair.
“Could you put me first?” she asked.
“Haven’t I already?”
In his own way, he had, hadn’t he? He’d followed her to Dallas, and to Jackson. He’d given her things she needed, things that mattered. He’d thrown himself in front of bullets and stood by her when she was holding a bomb. He’d all but challenged Andre and stood up for her when she had to face the Ancient Pythoness during Sophie-Anne’s trial. He’d fought his own daytime stupor to make sure she didn’t fall to her death escaping the bombed hotel in Rhodes.
Over and over again, he’d used his body and his position to protect her. Hell, he’d even agreed to go to an orgy with her, knowing full well that she wasn’t interested in sex with him (at that time,) so she could flush out a killer. And every time she’d needed him, he’d come through for her. That was more than she could say for Bill, or Quinn, or Sam or Jason – definitely Jason. The only person who had done more for her had been Gran.
She pursed her lips and prayed she wasn’t making a huge mistake. “Alright then. Yes, I’ll be your woman, but I am still my own woman. I don’t belong to you. Understand?”
He grinned and she felt the pure joy coming across the bond. She’d be lying of the strength of it hadn’t frightened her, but she had to admit that agreeing made her happy too.
“Don’t be afraid, my lover – for that is now what you are officially – we have come to our first agreement.”
“Great. Are we done talking now?” she asked hopefully.
“Not even close. Now we must set the conditions of our relationship.”
“The conditions of our relationship?” she repeated, not liking the sound of that at all.
“Yes. I am assuming that you will not want me to feed on anyone else, and you definitely don’t want me having sex with anyone else. So we must decide on when we will see each other because going nearly a month without sex was very hard for me.”
She smirked. “I bet it was.”
“You have no idea,” he admitted with a suffering sigh.
She actually smiled and he smiled back. He was still sending joy across the bond and that was lightening her mood.
“Okay so, what? Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I drive up to Shreveport? You come down on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and we trade off weekends, or what?” she said, only half-joking.
He laughed. “I was thinking more along the lines of I drive down on the nights you work, and you come to me on the days you work the lunch shift. On our days off, we’ll compromise on where we will be, and I am sure there will be nights when our schedules and workloads keep us from seeing each other. Regardless, I think I should do the majority of the driving because I have the better car. Although I would be happy to buy you a better one…”
“No,” she refused immediately, even though a tiny part of her longed for a brand new car with working air conditioning and less than 100,000 miles on the engine. Preferably one that hadn’t been used to run over a vampire. She knew Dawson had done an excellent job fixing the car, but she still had nightmares of parts of Sigebert coming out to get her.
He sighed. “Yes, of course, you don’t want to be a “kept woman.” I am well aware of that, but, my lover, you cannot expect me to ignore your need.”
“I’ve never taken anything that I haven’t earned, and I’m not about to start now.”
It looked like he would say more, but he brushed it aside and got back on point. “We will negotiate that later, but for now we are setting ground rules. What do you think of my suggestion?”
“You’d come to me after Fangtasia closed on the nights I work?”
“Yes.”
“So you’d get to my house about 3am?”
“Something like that.”
“Doesn’t give us much time, does it?”
“I could stay until dawn, sleep in your “hidey hole” as you call it, and leave for Shreveport when I rose. Pam is perfectly capable of opening the bar and running things until I get there,” he answered reasonably.
“And I’d drive to you on the days I worked lunch, and do what? Hang out at Fangtasia until closing?”
“If you wanted. You could sit by my side when I am out front, or be with me in my office, or wait for me at my house – I’d give you a key.”
“And I’d stay overnight at your place?”
He nodded.
“What about days off?”
“If I wasn’t already at your house, I’d spend the day in my place near Bon Temps and join you as soon as I woke.”
“You’ve given this a lot of thought,” she said, creasing her brow.
“I have. I’ve tried to anticipate everything that would concern you and offer solutions. How am I doing?”
“I’m impressed.”
He smiled again. “Thank you. Do you have any counterproposals?”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re making this sound like business transaction, Eric. Whatever happened to just showing up out of the blue with a dozen roses and a box of candy?”
“Well, of course, I’ll do that too. I reserve the right to surprise you, and to sweep you off your feet and whisk you away for a weekend.”
“To where?”
“Well… anywhere. Wherever you want to go.”
“Sam would just love that,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“I admit to some… apprehension with you continuing to work for the shifter…” He caught her unhappy look and quickly added, “But I trust you, and I know you will do the right thing if he makes you uncomfortable.”
“He’ll try to get me to break up with you.”
“Will he be successful?”
“Doubt it.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“I’m just as… apprehensive about you sitting out in Fangtasia with all those fangbangers drooling over you,” she said, picking at a piece of lint on the bedcovers.
“That might be a problem. There are a number of customers who come solely to court my favor. They will be unhappy when I refuse them. That is why I wish for you to sit by me on a regular basis, so they will see you and know I have chosen you as my companion.”
“Oh great. Why don’t you just paint a big target on my forehead? I’ll be getting death threats from all the jealous whackos who think getting rid of me will improve their chances with you,” she complained.
“Anyone who threatens you will be dealt with swiftly.”
That made her shiver and not in a good way because she knew he was deadly serious.
“Okay, okay. You’re willing to make all these concessions for me, so I’ll make a few for you. If a fangbanger who only wants you comes into the bar, it’s… it’s okay for you to bite her… or him.”
She couldn’t believe she’d just said that.
“Really?” he asked, both eyebrows raised.
Apparently, he couldn’t either.
She took a deep breath and nodded. “If… if I’m not there, and you know it’ll be trouble if you say no, then I’m… I’m okay with it. I’m not happy about it, but I’ll live with it. Besides, you told me Pam said you were being bad for business.”
“That’s only because I was making a habit of kicking them away,” he grudgingly admitted. “But if I am seeing you regularly, I will have no need to vent my frustration out on the customers.”
“Well, you probably will have to kick a few of them just to keep up appearances.”
“Yes, but that will be for entertainment and not for anger,” he pointed-out.
She shook her head and laughed, then grew serious again. “No sex though. I’m the only one, got it?”
“Of course. Haven’t I already proven my fidelity?”
“Well, yeah, but I know you. If temptation comes through the door dressed in red latex and heels, and she throws herself at your feet, you’re gonna say no and send her packing, right?”
“You are a hard-hearted woman,” he replied with a frown, but his eyes were laughing.
“You’re damn right I am.”
“Oh, I know. I took a bullet in the neck for you, and when I asked for surcease from my pain, you sent me away.”
She winced. “Okay, you’re right. That wasn’t very fair of me; it was downright rude and awful actually, but I knew if I didn’t send you away, I wouldn’t have let you leave.”
“Really?”
“Really,” she confirmed.
“Humph. I thought so. I should have pushed harder that night. I had a feeling you were on the edge,” he admitted with a smug little smile on his lips. He was looking far too pleased with himself, but then he looked at her and his expression softened. “But I am glad I didn’t. I’m glad we waited. If you had yielded to me then, it would have been before I’d remembered our time together, and we would not be here now, having this conversation.”
“There’s no telling that you wouldn’t have remembered in the… middle of things,” she said.
“I’d be lying if I said that possibility hadn’t crossed my mind. But then I was also sure I would remember after we shared blood again in Rhodes,” he said, creasing his brow. “But I didn’t, not really. I guess though, that’s when I began to feel… differently. And I did start to get bits and pieces back, just little flashes of memory. They started after that night, and I had more while I was… healing.”
“Pam would call me and give me an update on how you were doing. She said your face was burned, but not as badly as Bill’s,” she murmured.
His face grew dark and serious. “Yes. I was… we were very lucky. The queen…”
“She wasn’t as lucky.” Sophie-Anne had lost her legs. In the end, she’d lost a lot more than that. Sookie hated the Nevada vamps for taking over when Sophie was incapacitated, and then killing her and Sigebert. Felipe de Castro had thrown her whole world into chaos, and cost her a boyfriend, but… maybe her and Quinn weren’t meant for each other anyway. The universe certainly seemed to be against them from the beginning.
For the first time, she saw the grief of loss on Eric’s face, and it brought her out of her woolgathering and back to the present.
“No, she wasn’t,” he whispered. “Rhodes changed everything. Mr. Cataliades told us all about how you and Barry tried to warn everyone, and how you tried to get as many people out as you could. I still can’t believe you came for me and Pam. I would have let me die.”
“I would never have done that. No matter what was between us, Eric, I didn’t want you dead.”
“You came for me, first of all.” He closed his eyes, his brow creased with remembered pain. “I remember your scream. That’s what woke me. You were yelling at me, and slapping me, but I only dimly remember that. Then you screamed and I felt your terror. That galvanized me into action more than anything else. The hotel was blowing up all around us, and you were there, insisting I get Pam into the coffin, helping me break the glass…”
She felt him shudder, and she reached out to put her hand on his chest in comfort. His large hand closed over hers and held it tight.
“When I woke in the sanctuary we were taken to, I thought it had been a horrible nightmare at first, then I saw my face and I knew I hadn’t dreamed it. My first thought was to find you. I had to make sure you were all right. I was trying to get up, to get out and look for you, but Mr. Cataliades stopped me. He told us all that you were safe and heading back to Bon Temps. Knowing you were safe was the only thing that kept me there, and allowed me to rest while I healed. I’d listen in on your conversations with Pam, you know.”
She wasn’t surprised, but Pam had kept that little detail to herself. She wasn’t surprised about that either.
“I couldn’t speak at first. The sun had burned my lips and throat, but I would lay there, listening to your voice. Pam would sit close-by so I could hear better. Knowing you were alive and well brought me comfort.”
“But you knew I was okay, didn’t you? I mean, you’d feel if I was hurting, right?”
“Oh yes. I knew you were fine physically. But I had no idea how you were emotionally. I knew I was shaken, and it takes a lot to shake me, so I couldn’t imagine how you were handling everything. You felt like you were dealing, but I was so injured and jumbled myself, it was hard for me to tell.”
“You know I would have come to see you while you were healing, but I had no idea where they’d taken you,” she told him, moving closer. Talking about Rhodes always made her feel vulnerable.
“It was best for you to stay away. Healing vampires are hungry vampires. It would not have been safe for you to be there, although I would have been heartened to see you,” he answered.
“I figured as much.”
“Yes.”
She lowered herself down to rest against him again, her head on his chest, and placed her arm across his body. She felt him slide his arm around her and pull her close.
“Are we done talking?” she asked.
She was starting to feel the effects of over work, little sleep, air travel, stress and great sex.
“I’m not sure. Have we reached our agreement?” he answered, his voice slightly amused.
“You tell me.”
“Well, if I am correct, we agreed that, yes, you would be my woman,” he stated, sounding very pleased. She could feel the satisfaction coming across the bond.
“Then we agreed that, schedules permitting, I would come to you on the days you work nights, and you would come to me on the days you work afternoons, and we would decide our days off on a day-to-day basis. On nights you come to me, you’ll stay overnight at my house, and I’ll stay with you on the nights I come to you. How am I doing so far?”
“Doing great.”
“All right. Then we discussed fidelity. I offered it unconditionally, and you offered me the option of biting certain fangbangers who come to the bar solely for me. I reserve the right to refuse them if I so choose, but I will stop kicking them in the head. However if “temptation comes into the bar dressed in red latex and heels,” I am to kick her to the curb immediately. Right?”
“Right.”
He chuckled. “As if anyone could be as tempting as you, my lover.”
“Claudine,” she stated.
“Claudine is a full-blooded fairy. If she wants to live, she’d do well to stay away from us.”
He was serious.
“True, but she’d more alluring than I am,” she commented.
“No, she’s not. If she had been, then I would have walked right through you that night at the bar. Instead I let you hold me back with your hand. Then when we returned to your home, I attempted to show you with words and deeds how alluring you were to me,” he told her, his voice edged with impatience, and she could feel the icy waters of Lake Superior already. She shivered.
“Did you really mean all those things you said?” she asked, diverting him from his irritation.
“Which ones? That you are beautiful and smart? That you have a sense of fun and adventure? That you’re brave, responsible, and hard working? That you have the most beautiful breasts I’ve ever seen?”
She gulped. “Yeah. Bill thought I had beautiful breasts too,” she said with a hint of bitterness.
“Hmm. One thing we can agree on,” he commented, reaching one hand up to cup one of her breasts lightly, his thumb absently teasing the nipple.
She loved the gentle touch, but thinking of Bill had reminded her of something; something she wanted to get settled between them since it was the night for honesty and compromise. “Eric…”
“Yes, my lover?”
“I… I know Pam told me that you didn’t know about Bill’s… real reason for coming back to Bon Temps…” she stammered, feeling stressed and insecure.
She saw him scowl and his face grow hard. He stopped playing with her nipple, but the arm around her tightened and pressed her closer.
“But… Would you have told me? If you’d known?”
The look on his face was almost comical in its indecision. She’d never seen Eric bite his lip like that before.
“The queen… she would have forbidden it. It would have interfered with her plans. If I’d told you, and she’d discovered my… indiscretion, she would have punished me. But… I… would have tried to warn you without outright telling you. I think she knew that. I think she knew I would try to warn you, and that was why she didn’t tell me. She once accused me of treating my subordinates too fairly.”
As if that was such a bad thing. After what she had witnessed in her dealings with vampire head honchos – the “kings” and “queens” especially – she could see that it was.
“Okay. Thank you for being honest with me.” In truth his answer had reassured her more than anything. He would have defied his queen for her, and that was no small admission.
“After I found out about what Bill had done, I was furious,” he went on. “I can admit now that I followed you to New Orleans because I knew there was a good possibility you’d find out the truth, and I wanted to be there to gloat over Bill’s discomfort – or so I told myself. But then you were bitten by the new vamp, and I raced to the hospital to see for myself that you were alright. I couldn’t stand the thought of you being hurt, but I didn’t know why. Then I hurt you even more by forcing Bill to tell you the truth.”
He stopped and looked at her, begging her to understand. “I had to do that, Sookie. It was wrong of him to have deceived you like that. I know it hurt you terribly, but…”
She placed a hand on his lips. “No. I agree. It was better for me to know. You did the right thing, even though it hurt.”
He nodded and she removed her hand. “I wanted to comfort you even then, but I knew you wouldn’t accept me. And I was also too angry with Bill and the queen for using you like that.”
“I wasn’t in any mood to be comforted by a vampire anyway,” she assured him.
“I could feel that. That’s why I stayed away. But I was thinking of you.”
“That was probably the best thing you could have done. I needed my space that night.”
“And of course, me not remembering our time together made you feel as if you couldn’t turn to me. Again, I’m sorry,” he said with regret.
“It’s okay, really.”
He frowned. “Not really. You cried yourself to sleep. I felt it.”
Turning his head, he cupped his hand under her chin and lifted her face to look at him. His blue eyes were intense, and she felt laid bare by the raw emotion in them.
“Sookie… you say you want me to put you first. Well, the same holds true for me. I want to be first in your life. That means I want you to reach out to me. I want to be the first person you call when you need help. If something happens in your life, I want to hear it directly from you, not through gossip at the bar. That is what blood-bondeds do. They turn to each other first. Understand?”
She nodded. “I understand.”
“Good. You are my woman. If I hadn’t already pledged my life for you at Felipe’s request, I would have done so by now on my own. I will never let anything hurt you, Sookie. Ever.”
She teared up and pulled her chin out of his grasp so she could tuck her face into the crook of his arm. Vampires didn’t have B.O. so there was no need for her to be worried about his underarm or his lack of deodorant. His hand stroked her hair.
“Thank you,” she mumbled.
His fingers stroked the line of her jaw, and she glanced up to see him giving her a heated look. She reached for what he was offering and grabbed it with both hands.
The third time was slow, reverent even, and he took his time with her, kissing and tasting every inch of her skin. Then he rested on his back and positioned her atop him, sliding her onto his erection until she’d taken all of it. They enjoyed each other that way for a short time, before he cupped her underneath her back and bottom and flipped them both over in a smooth move that didn’t even jostle him inside her.
His tongue slid into her mouth and mimicked what was going on between her legs. She moaned and whimpered, sliding her hands down to cup his gorgeous butt and pull him even closer. He groaned and thrust harder, his hips moving from side to side a little as he searched for the spot within her that would bring her maximum pleasure.
When he found it, she gasped and her body involuntarily convulsed. He pulled back to rest on his elbows, looking down at her as he hit the spot again.
“Look at me,” he ordered gently, and she obeyed, focusing on the Norse God riding her, claiming her as thoroughly and completely as any man.
He struck her spot a third time and she felt the wave of pleasure building.
“Eric…”
“Thank you. Thank you for being my woman. Now I will do this to you almost every night. I will know your body in every way possible, and I will bring you as much pleasure as you bring me,” he told her, his voice rough with passion, his rhythm never faltering.
Her answer was a strangled groan because the bond had opened fully again, and she was feeling everything he was experiencing as surely as he was experiencing her. Her eyes opened wide as she gripped his arms and arched her back, sending him even deeper. She was still staring directly into his eyes when he hit her spot again and sent her soaring over the edge. Her climax triggered his, and she watched as he threw his head back and roared.
In the aftermath he kissed her, feather light kisses on her face and eyelids as she struggled to get her heart and breathing under control. Murmured compliments and expressions of gratitude spilled from his lips as she drifted on an ocean of contentment, her body lax and tingling with remembered pleasure. Exhaustion really started to set in, and she was too tired to go to the bathroom for a post-coital wash, so he licked her clean, bringing her to another climax that was all the more profound in its gentleness.
She passed out shortly thereafter; her last conscious memory being his arms sliding around her, cradling her as he snuggled them both under the blankets. His lips kissed her temple, and she fell asleep feeling safe and cherished and loved.
Chapter Eight
When she woke it was well after noon, and she found herself all tucked into the soft Veluxe blankets and white eiderdown. A dozen beautiful, deeply fragrant, red roses were on the bedside table along with a small box of very expensive-looking chocolates. With them was a card that said: “The first of many, my lover. Enjoy your day.” It was signed simply “E” as was his custom.
She lifted herself up on one elbow to smell the roses and peel open the box of chocolates. They were very, very good, but they weren’t decent nutrition, and Eric had told her to go to the lodge for breakfast when she got hungry. Or lunch, considering the time. She noticed that Eric had been considerate and practical in addition to his romantic gesture, and had draped her blue satin robe at the foot of the bed. Putting it on, she slipped out of bed and went over to the closed curtains, drawing them back to reveal a set of sliding glass doors that opened onto a balcony. Sunlight poured into the room, and she got her first look at Isle Elena.
Eric had been right when he’d said that their cabin had a view of the lake, and she was gifted with a spectacular view of Lake Superior sparkling in the sunlight. Looking to either side of their cabin, she saw tall trees and the suggestions of other cabins not far from theirs, but hidden in the woods. Directly in front of their cabin, she saw paths that led off to the right, and she could make out the roofline of the lodge jutting out above the forest. Since it seemed to be closer to the shoreline, she could only guess that it was on the lakeshore itself.
Closing the curtains again, she went to the bathroom that was attached to their loft bedroom. It, too, had a window, but it looked out onto heavy forest. The shower was a huge dual head one that was almost sinful, and she made plans to recreate it in her own bathroom should she ever have the money to remodel. She frowned. She’d never be able to afford it on her salary.
‘Bet Eric would pay for it in a heartbeat,’ a little voice said. ‘He might even consider it a necessity since you know how much he likes showering with you…’
She choked it before it could say anything else. She remembered her shower with Eric very well thankyouverymuch.
Noting that someone – hopefully Eric – had put away her clothes in the loft’s dresser and closet, she dressed in one of the new sweaters Eric had given her and her warmest pair of jeans. She even put on the new boots, then she headed down the stairs to inspect the cabin. She admitted to not being terribly interested in the accommodations last night. Eric’s tongue being down her throat might have had something to do with it. Their discarded clothes were still strewn on the living room floor, and she picked them up as she passed them by and put them on the stairs leading up to the loft.
In keeping with the theme of warm neutrals, the cabin was decorated in shades of cream, brown, yellow and blue. The exterior walls were logs, stained a warm, rich honey color, and the ceiling of the loft was the exposed beams, also stained the same honey color. The interior walls were drywall, painted a light cream, and the furniture reflected the theme.
On the first floor of the cabin, she found a small living room, dining room and kitchen. The hearth separated the living room from the dining room and kitchen areas, the wide stone chimney serving as a central focal point of the small space. The kitchen and dining room were next to each other and connected by a doorway, and there was another bathroom off the kitchen, adjacent to a back door which led to a small, screened-in porch with a built-in breakfast nook table and bench set.
At the rear of the dining room was a closed door, and she opened it to find a small bedroom with a double bed. The room had no windows and her vampire Viking was sprawled on the bed, covered by a thin blanket draped over his legs and hips. He was naked from the waist up, and she imagined that he was probably naked under the blanket too. She didn’t bother to peek as she went over to him and gave him a kiss on the temple. He barely moved.
“Thank you for the roses,” she whispered.
“Mmph,” was all the response he made.
She pulled the blanket up over his shoulders, then left the room, closing the door firmly behind her.
She cracked open the front door a tad to get an idea of how cold it was, and she was surprised to find it tolerable. The air had warmed in the sunlight, and she placed the outside temperature around 50-degrees or so. A clock/barometer/indoor temp/outdoor temp combination that she hadn’t noticed hanging on the wall next to the door before confirmed that the temperature was 48-degrees with the barometric pressure rising. A glance at the trees showed a light wind, but nothing like the frigid blasts of last night, and she decided to wear her cranberry coat instead of her new parka.
There was a notebook with a map of the resort and a list of its amenities on the cocktail table in the living room, and she took a moment to orient herself before she went out into the November afternoon. Apparently, Isle Elena boasted both an indoor and outdoor pool, plus numerous other outdoor activities such as boating, tennis, hiking, volleyball, and golf. It also had its own 4-screen movie theater, plus health spa, gym, and the sports bar she’d heard about. It was called Nike’s of all things. Talk about puns. Well, Bill had said puns were considered the highest form of humor – at least for very old vampires. Considering Elena was once a Greek Goddess, she probably fit the description of very old.
There was also a leaflet in the notebook listing the current week’s activities at the resort. Oh look, she was missing a lecture on the influence of Quixiotal Demons on Early-Aztec Society. Damn. She’d have to wait for the movie.
Putting her hair back and donning her cranberry coat, she opened the front door and stepped out onto a porch that stretched the length of the front of the cabin. It was furnished with two rocking chairs, a small table and a swing. She smiled at the rocking chairs. They looked new, and she wondered if the resort staff had put them out just for her. Lord knew she doubted vampires ever felt the need to sit on the front porch and watch the McPeople go by. She pushed that thought aside. She’d just committed herself to dating one of them (again!) so she needed to just get over it.
She stepped off the porch and tried to pretend that she knew where she was going, confidently following the path from the front porch of their cabin to where it joined a larger trail that arced to the right and headed towards the lodge. She was proud of herself when she saw the steep roof (it was green metal now that she could see) of the huge lodge. It was even more grand and impressive in daylight.
No one accosted her as she entered through the big sliding doors and made her way past the great room. Other than a couple sitting at one of the café tables near the big hearth, she didn’t see anyone until she arrived at the dining room. She was greeted by the same blue-skinned hostess who had seated her and Eric the night before.
“Good afternoon, Miss Stackhouse,” the woman said brightly.
“H… Hi. You know my name,” she blurted, surprised.
“Of course. We make it a point to know the names of all of our guests.”
“Oh. That’s great. That’s really great…” She leaned forward a little to read the woman’s nametag. “Noria. But you can call me Sookie.”
“Very well, Sookie. Please follow me. Would you like a table by the windows?”
“That’d be real nice, thank you.”
Noria chuckled. “You humans are so polite.”
She wondered why Noria didn’t ask about Eric, then realized how dumb that was. ‘They know he’s a vampire, duh. He won’t be out in daytime.’
The hostess took her past the dining room’s fireplace to the back wall that had the huge, triangular-shaped windows. Now that it was daylight, she could see the French doors that led out onto a large deck. In warmer weather, the lodge probably offered outdoor seating for meals. She noticed that the dining room was mostly empty, with just a handful of guests sitting at the tables. The most remarkable of them was a woman with shockingly pink hair, but other than that, the rest of the guests looked “normal.”
‘Normal’s a setting on the dryer,’ she reminded herself, and figured she’d left normal behind about two vampires and a weretiger ago.
“Enjoy your meal,” Noria said, handing her a menu and leaving her be.
She sat down, took a moment to glance at the lovely view of the lake, and then picked up her menu to see what they had to offer for breakfast/lunch.
“Good afternoon, Miss Stackhouse. Would you like coffee?” a familiar voice asked.
She smiled and looked up to see Toth standing there with a mug and a coffee pot.
“Toth!” she greeted happily. His silver dreadlocks shined in the sunlight coming in from the windows.
“Heya,” he answered, grinning. “How are you today, Miss Stackhouse?”
“I’m fine. And please call me Sookie.”
“Sookie, would you like coffee?” Toth said, pronouncing her name with an odd emphasis on the Os.
“Yes, please.”
Toth nodded, and placed the mug down on the table so he could pour the coffee.
“I saw you at the performance last night,” she commented. “Did you have a good time?”
“Oh yes. We were up until almost three in the morning dancing. Someone brought a Bodhran drum, and they set up one of the keyboards, and it became one big jam session that lasted two hours.”
“We left well before that. I was tired. It had been a long day for me. Seeing as you’re working, you must be short on sleep today.”
Toth waved a hand and grinned. “Oh, I don’t need much sleep. I get by on a couple of hours every three days or so.”
She blinked, processing. He certainly did look perky for someone who had been up until at least 3 am.
“That must be nice,” she commented.
He just shrugged and gave her a sheepish smile. She put down her menu and rested her hands on it.
“So. What do you recommend for breakfast?”
He looked up a little, his face pensive, and she guessed he was accessing that perfect memory Supes seemed to have.
“We have pecan pancakes. We also have grits, beignets and pain pardu, and we can make just about any combination of omelet you desire.”
“Mmm. I’ll have the pancakes with… do you have sausage?”
“Of course.”
“Sausage and some fresh fruit. Melon or whatever you have.”
Toth looked a little uncomfortable, then asked, “You mean human fruit, right? Nothing… exotic?”
“Umm… Y’know, why don’t you surprise me on that one.”
He grinned. “Okay. Will do. Anything else?”
“Nope. That’ll do it. Thank you.”
He nodded and took her menu. “I’ll put your order in immediately.”
She smiled as he walked away, then returned her attention to the view out the windows.
It was a beautiful day, and the sunlight was dancing on the water, sparkling along the waves that lapped at the lakeshore. The lodge itself was about the length of a football field away from the water’s edge, and she could see the sandy beach and boat launches from her vantage point. There were a couple of sailboats gliding along just offshore, and a few individuals were swimming. She shivered just looking at them.
All in all, she had to admit that it was a beautiful place, and she was having a nice time, even though she wished it were warmer. Everything about the resort was casual and restful, and she certainly couldn’t fault the accommodations or staff on anything. Hell, even her gin and tonics had been unusually good last night.
She was still gazing out the window, sipping her coffee (which was very good,) when she felt a little tingle that someone was nearby, and she looked up to see Elena standing a few yards away, staring out at the lake. The goddess was dressed in blue today, an outfit similar to what she had been wearing last night: a high-necked, long-sleeved shirt and a long skirt. Her hair was pulled back and secured with the silver clip, and the black curls fell almost to her waist.
Since she was fairly certain Elena had not been there when she was seated, that could only mean that the goddess had just arrived, and since there seemed to be no apparent reason for why she would choose to come into the dining room and look out the windows that just happened to be near her table, Sookie could only assume that Elena had come to see her.
Sure enough, Elena seemed to notice that she was being watched because she turned her head to look at Sookie with a mildly interested expression on her face. Sookie gulped when the goddess approached.
“You are the human woman who came with the Norse vampire,” Elena stated.
Sookie nodded and dropped her eyes. Elena was even more impressive up close. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Are you enjoying my island?”
“Oh yes, it’s wonderful,” she answered, looking up again.
Elena smiled and the smile reached her dark eyes. “I am glad.” She looked back out towards the lake. “This place has been my sanctuary for four hundred years. I am glad that others have found the same peace and comfort here as I have.”
Sookie frowned. If she remembered correctly, Eric had told her that the resort had been open for two hundred years, so that meant Elena had been there for two centuries longer than that.
“It’s a really great place,” she confirmed.
“Yes, it is. And now that you have been here, you can always return so long as you vow to preserve the safety of the sanctuary.” “Thank you, ma’am. I appreciate the hospitality.”
Elena reached out and touched her on the shoulder, directly on the place where she had been shot. The spot still hurt sometimes because the bullet had nicked the bone, and she felt a jolt burst through her like a zap of electricity. But more than that, she was dropped into a maelstrom of memories, a head-splitting cacophony of sounds, images and words all hitting her at once.
Suddenly she was in ancient Greece, a pawn in a game of chess where women had no say. The daughter of Zeus and a human woman, she was coveted for her beauty. She was kidnapped, rescued, and then given away to a stranger in marriage. Multiple suitors had drawn straws for her hand, and she had been forced to go with the victor. She was kidnapped again, and her husband had waged war to win her back. That same husband had vowed to kill her for her “infidelity,” but dropped his sword at the last moment. She had almost wished he had done it, because then she would have been brought home to her Supernatural family. As it was, she would have to wait many years until her husband’s death, and her own exile, before she was hanged by a woman whom she had thought was her friend. On her death, her mortal life had ended, and she had ascended to her rightful place among the immortals.
Years passed, centuries. She watched the powers of her relatives fade as belief in them waned. She had been lucky. Never very powerful to begin with, she was spared the worst of it, until, eventually, she was stronger than the others and could make her way out of their influence without fear that they could drag her back. She had known freedom for the first time, and she had found peace on an island in a new world.
Now she was the goddess of her own small kingdom, buoyed by the devotion of those who came to her for solace and shelter. She took pride in knowing that she had endured while the others had faded, and pleasure in the fact that her egotistical father was so diminished and cowed. She had not seen him since she left Greece, but others in her family had visited her over the years. She no longer feared them. Her weakness had been her triumph, and the pawn had become Queen.
The entire dizzying episode lasted only a few seconds, but when Sookie came out of it, she felt as if she had run a marathon, and there was one defining revelation that sharpened into clear focus even as the other memories faded: Elena was none other than the infamous Helen of Troy.
Her eyes shot up to meet the goddess’s calm face, and she knew without having to be told that Elena had imparted the memories to her on purpose. She also knew that her shoulder would never cause her pain or discomfort ever again.
The goddess released her, and she felt a profound sense of relief and gratitude, but she was unable to speak.
“May you find what you seek here on my island,” Elena said.
“Th… thank you, ma’am,” she stammered, finding her voice and forcing herself to calm down.
The goddess nodded and walked away, leaving her still stunned. A moment later, Toth was there with her breakfast and a tall glass of water.
“Drink, Miss Stackhouse. You look like you need it.”
She stared up at him. “Did you know? Did you know she’s Helen?”
Toth nodded as he set her pancakes and sausage down on the table. “Yes. We all know. It is our open secret here.”
He placed a bowl of fruit next to the steaming food. She recognized the grapes, sliced banana and blackberries, but there was a deep purple fruit about the size of a kiwi there as well, and she guessed that was Toth’s “surprise.”
“What’s that?” she asked, glad to have something else to focus on.
“That is a Scathan Plum. I thought you might enjoy it. Most humans that come here do.”
“Great. Thanks.”
Toth smiled. “You’re welcome. Enjoy your breakfast.”
She took a deep sniff and her mouth started watering. “I’m sure I will. It smells delicious.”
“I’ll check on you in a few minutes.”
She nodded and he went off towards the kitchen while she took her first bite of her pecan pancakes. They were amazingly light and fluffy, and they melted in her mouth. No matter what she might think of the climate and the odd guests, the food was incredible.
She ate her breakfast quickly, finding herself suddenly starving, and enjoyed every last bite, even the Scathan Plum which was very sweet and juicy. Toth had made a good choice. He’d come back twice to check on her and refill her coffee, but, for the most part, she was left to eat in peace.
When she was finished eating, Toth came to collect the dirty dishes, and she asked for the check.
“Check, Miss… Sookie?” he asked, confused.
“I know Eric probably paid for dinner last night, but it’s just me this morning so I’ll pay for it.”
Toth’s eyes lit up with understanding. “Ah. There is no… check. All meals are paid for in the room charge.”
She blinked. “Oh. Well, I guess I don’t have to worry about it then.”
“No. I don’t think so.”
She smiled. “Great. That’s great. I’ll… uh… go then. Do some exploring.”
Toth nodded his head and stepped aside so she could get up from the table.
“That will be nice for you. It is a beautiful day.”
“Yeah, it is,” she agreed.
“Enjoy your day.”
“Thanks, you too.”
“Always. Be safe.”
She waved to Noria as she passed her and left the dining room.
She did go outside to soak up some sunshine. She looked at her watch and saw that it was just 2:30 in the afternoon. Eric would rise about 5:30, so she knew she still had some time to kill. Her cranberry coat kept her warm enough, and the sweater Eric had given her was nice and toasty. She headed down to the shoreline to take in the rocky beach and clear waters of the lake. Superior was massive, and the smell coming off the water was different from the smell of the ocean, but of course that was because it was freshwater not salt. There was something untamed and raw about the lake, and looking at it made her feel small and vulnerable.
She’d never been so far north or ever seen Lake Superior up close, so she did the hokey tourist thing and went close enough to put her hand in the water. It was freezing, and sticking one finger in the water was enough to make her whole body shudder.
Still shivering, she shoved her hand into the pocket of her coat and pulled up the hood to keep her head warm as the wind shifted and picked up a bit. A particularly cold blast whipped across her cheeks, and she headed quickly for the warmth of the lodge.
By now, she had walked to the rear of the building and could see the smaller structure that housed the pool, gym, spa and sports bar. She could also see the large outdoor pool with built-in water slide and “canyon” motif. The pool was built along three terraces with little waterfalls separating the levels. She passed the building and entered the main lodge from the lower level, navigating her way from memory to the game room and library.
Thinking it would be nice to get a book that she could read back in the cabin, she headed for the library, passing the game room where the same two fox-tailed Supes were still playing on the game console. She wondered if they had been there all night as she walked by them and entered the sitting area just outside the library. A merry fire was burning in the small hearth, and it smelled wonderful.
She opened the door to the library and walked in, surprised to find an Indian woman there in a green and gold sari. She was sitting in one of the reading nooks tucked off to the side, and she had a wide headband across her forehead.
“Good afternoon. May I help you find something in particular?” the woman asked her.
“Um… I was looking for a good book to read. A mystery, maybe?” she replied, confused because no attendant had been on hand when Eric had given her a tour yesterday. Maybe the library was only staffed during certain hours.
“What kind of mysteries do you like?”
“I like Carolyn Haines and Nora Roberts’s books,” she answered.
The woman nodded and guided her to a set of bookshelves near the rear of the room. “Here is our mystery section. I hope that you find something to your liking.”
“Thanks,” she said and set about perusing the selections.
It didn’t take her long to choose a couple of paperbacks that she thought looked interesting, but then she had an idea and went back to the “librarian.”
“Excuse me…” she said.
The woman quickly slid the headband back over her forehead from where she had pushed it up onto her black hair, but not before Sookie caught a glimpse of what looked like a third eye. She steeled herself not to show any reaction when the woman turned to her.
“Yes?”
“Do you have anything on Viking mythology? I want to look up the goddess Hlin.”
Since she was going to be dating one, she thought it might be a nice gesture to read up on some of the Viking legends. The woman smiled knowingly at her, and she wondered if everyone on the island knew who she was and that she was dating “the Norse vampire.”
“I do believe that we do,” the woman answered, and moved briskly down a corridor between two sets of shelves.
She stopped at the end of the row and appeared to be looking for something in particular. Sookie followed, remarking to herself that all libraries smelled the same.
“Ah, yes,” the librarian said and reached up to select a book from an upper shelf. It was obviously very, very old and had odd symbols on the cover.
“Here. This is the most comprehensive account of the Norse gods and legends we have. You will have to read it on the translator,” she went on, handing Sookie the old tome.
She accepted the book with some hesitation because it looked so fragile and ancient. “Thank you.”
“You are most welcome.”
Laden with books, one of which had to be at least a hundred years old, she made her way over to the machine Eric had showed her the night before. She set the books down and placed the old book on the machine, opening it to the first page, then she sat down and turned on the thing, hoping that was all she had to do because otherwise she’d have to ask for more help.
The machine whirred to life and the screen lit up, acting like an overhead projector that reflected the image of the book pages at her. She heard it making scanning and adjustment noises, and a moment later the illegible writing on the page morphed into English. She once again marveled at the thing.
It took her a moment or two to get into it, but soon she was lost in the violent, warrior world of the Aesir with Thor and Odin and Freya and the Valkyries. She found the tale of Hlin, and her sorrow at the death of Odin’s son, Baldr. And she read of Valhalla and Asgard and Ragnarok, the death of the gods.
By the time she realized how long she had been there, it was almost five o’clock, and she had been reading for almost two hours. In fact, the only thing that alerted her to the time was the librarian packing up her things to go.
“Oh. It’s so late,” she remarked, looking at her watch.
The woman smiled at her indulgently. “Yes, I often lose myself in reading as well.”
She closed the old book and gently gave it to her. “Here. Would you please put this back where it belongs for me?”
The librarian bowed and accepted the book. “Of course. I would be happy to. Did you find what you were looking for?”
She nodded. “Yes, thank you.”
The woman nodded and Sookie watched her disappear behind the shelves to return the book to its proper place. While she was gone, Sookie turned off the translating machine and picked up her paperbacks. A moment later, the librarian returned and they left the library together.
“Thank you for your help,” she said.
“I live to serve,” came the answer, and Sookie had no doubts that the woman was serious.
They passed through the sitting area and entered the game room. The two fox-tailed Supes were still there, but now a little boy had joined them, and he was playing against one of the foxes. Sookie immediately recognized him as Vincent, Maria’s son, and she took a quick look around.
‘We’re over here,’ Izzy’s mindvoice said with some amusement, and she turned to see the two women at the pool table.
‘You’re looking much better. Did you have a good evening?’ Izzy continued, leaning over the table to take a shot at one of the balls. Maria was there, dressed in a dark blue sweater and jeans, awaiting her turn.
‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘It was a very nice night.’
The woman cast her a bemused glance. ‘With the way that vampire was looking at you, I’d say your night was a sight more than just nice.’
‘That’s none of your business,’ she shot back, miffed.
Izzy’s mental laughter was accompanied by an audible snigger. Sookie saw Maria slap her friend on the arm chidingly, but that only made Izzy chuckle.
‘Did you enjoy the show?’
‘Yes, please tell Maria that she plays very well. Eric, especially, was very moved.’
‘Tell her yourself.’
Knowing she was kind of on the spot, she walked over to the two and nodded her head to Maria. The Gypsy woman looked at her with calm eyes and waited for her to speak.
“I really enjoyed your performance last night. Thank you for sharing your gift with everyone,” she said politely.
Maria nodded her head back. “Thank you. I am glad to play for anyone who wants to hear.”
“Oh! I so own you! You are going down!” she heard Vincent yell. The yell was answered by an unfriendly growl.
She saw Maria frown and turn her head to look at her son. “Vincent, play nice.”
“I am, Mom!” the boy answered, pressing the buttons on the videogame handset excitedly.
“Kid’s fine!” one of the fox Supes added, not the one that was currently losing to a kid.
Sookie saw Maria smile and shake her head.
“Do you have children?” the Gypsy woman asked.
She shook her head, feeling a little pang in her heart. “No.”
Maria nodded knowingly, and Sookie decided to change the subject. “You know, Eric – he’s the vampire I was with last night…”
“The tall blond? The one you are bonded to?”
She stopped short. “Yeah. How did you know that?”
“It’s obvious from your auras. When you are close to each other, your auras merge,” Maria explained as if she should have known that.
“Oh.” Well, there wasn’t any sense in denying it since a) she couldn’t see auras to confirm or deny what Maria was saying and b) she and Eric were blood-bonded. She’d never denied the bond; it was the relationship she had denied, and now it looked like she was going to stop denying that too.
She heard Izzy chuckle, and it wasn’t a pleasant sound. It made her feel like the poor country cousin who got lost in the big city.
“It’s a strong bond. Stronger now, I think,” the woman added, drawing her attention away from her sarcastic friend.
It took her a moment, but Sookie recovered and got back on track. “Uh, yeah. Anyway, he… uh… owns a vampire bar in Shreveport, Louisiana, and I am sure he’d be real happy to have you play there sometime.”
“Louisiana? How is New Orleans? Izzy and I were going to go there to see how we could help with the… aftermath of Katrina, but first there was to be a gathering of the southern states vampires so we held off.”
“The summit in Rhodes,” she clarified.
Maria nodded. “Yes. But there was trouble at the meeting…”
Trouble? Try a bunch of religious nutcases bombing a hotel full of people and vampires. “Yes. I know. I was there.”
“You were there when the Gizeh was bombed?” Izzy interrupted. Her voice sounded exactly the same as her mental voice.
She gulped and nodded. “Yeah. I was in the hotel. I was one of the survivors.”
“Obviously,” Izzy commented.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, obviously.”
“That must have been horrible for you,” Maria said.
She pushed aside the memories of blood and death. “Yeah. It was.”
“Was your bonded there too?”
“Yeah.”
Hearing Maria refer to Eric as her “bonded” made her uncharacteristically happy where before she would have been very uncomfortable. She supposed that was a result of her agreeing to be with him, but she also found that the idea of being bonded to him wasn’t so upsetting as it had been. Maybe that was something that had been healed by Maria’s music last night. She really hadn’t even begun to poke around inside herself for what felt different. She’d been dutifully not thinking about it since she’d gotten up.
“Then that must have been doubly horrible for you. The hotel was bombed in the day,” Maria noted.
She took a deep breath and agreed. “Yeah, but I was able to warn people and get Eric and Pam out. Then I went back in to see what else I could do.”
“You’re one of the telepaths who helped find survivors,” Izzy said suddenly.
She looked at the woman like a deer in headlights. “How did you know about that?”
“Word travels fast in the demon circles. Especially when it involves a bunch of fanatics blowing up a hotel in broad daylight. We heard about two telepaths who looked for minds in the rubble. You saved a lot of lives that day.”
She shook her head. “No. I could’ve saved a lot more if I’d have been paying closer attention. I was warned beforehand that something might be up, but I didn’t take it seriously until it was too late. The Fellowship snuck the bombs in as unclaimed luggage and coffins, and they had help from human staff members on the inside. If I’d have figured that out sooner, I could have prevented the whole thing.”
“You can’t blame yourself for that,” Maria said.
She nodded the way she usually did, expecting to silently disagree, but she found that the guilt she carried about Rhodes had been eased. The realization shocked her, and she wondered if that had been something else that had been healed last night.
“Oh,” she whispered, then looked up to see Izzy smirking at her. She frowned and looked away. “I got out as many as I could.”
“That is what is important. And you saved your bonded. That is also very important,” Maria assured her.
“Yes,” she agreed.
“And how are things now? We heard that the queen was badly injured,” the Gypsy woman asked.
So much for word traveling fast in the demon circles. “Sophie-Anne is dead.”
“The rumors are true then. Nevada took over,” Maria stated with some sadness.
“Yeah.”
She saw the two women share a knowing look that said neither was pleased with having the news confirmed.
“Your bonded survived the takeover. He was lucky.”
“Felipe de Castro left him alive on purpose because Eric’s a good sheriff, and he makes a lot of money in his area.”
“That was good for him. Felipe has a… reputation for ruthlessness.” It was obvious that Maria was being diplomatic.
“Yeah, but not as bad as New York and Jersey. He’s a real bastard,” Izzy commented. “Used to be Mafioso before he was turned. I pity anyone who crosses him. They’ll wake up with a lot more than a horse’s head in their bed.”
“Yes, but Ragozzino is courting disaster. If he continues to anger the Interspecies Administrative Council, they’ll have him killed. At least Felipe knows how to keep the higher demons happy,” Maria corrected.
Izzy shrugged. “True.”
“How long ago did the takeover happen?” the Gypsy woman asked her.
“About a month now.”
Maria nodded. “You said your bonded owns a bar?”
“Uh, yeah. It’s called Fangtasia. It’s in Shreveport. But I already said that, didn’t I?”
Maria gave her an understanding smile. “Yes, but that’s all right. Fangtasia. What an interesting name.”
“Gotta love those vamps. They have a killer sense of humor,” Izzy snorted.
Maria rolled her eyes. Over by the game console, Vincent cheered about something, and the two foxes laughed. Whatever had upset the one had obviously been forgiven.
“With so much upheaval in Louisiana, I am sure my gift would be in high demand. I’ll give you my contact information, and you can have your bonded get in touch with me to discuss terms and timeframe.”
“Great. That would be great.”
Izzy flipped out a business card and held it between two fingers for Sookie to take. She accepted the card and glanced at it briefly, noting that it had a phone number and email address on it.
“Thanks. You guys are leaving tomorrow?”
“Weather permitting, yes,” Maria replied cryptically.
“Okay. I’ll give this to Eric and I am sure he’ll call you.” She glanced at her watch. It was 5:15. “And speaking of Eric. He’ll be getting up soon so I’d better go. It was nice talking to you.”
“For us as well. Maybe we will see you again later tonight,” the Gypsy woman said.
“Maybe. I’m sure Eric will want dinner so maybe we’ll see you in the dining room or something.”
“It’s Monday. Packers are playing tonight. They’ll have the game on at Nike’s,” Izzy noted.
She frowned, glad she wasn’t working, but also missing the tips she’d be making of she was. It struck her that she didn’t know if Eric liked watching football. He hadn’t seemed interested when he was staying with her, but then the season hadn’t really gotten started. She realized that she really didn’t know what Eric liked to watch at all. He’d liked Buffy well enough, but… It was something she was going to have to learn about him as they moved forward with their relationship.
“I dunno. Maybe. I’ll let Eric decide where he wants to eat.”
‘Other than you?’ came the mental jibe.
She didn’t grace that with an answer. “You two have a good night,” she said to Maria instead, ignoring Izzy’s leer.
“You as well. Be safe.”
Be safe. That seemed to be the parting statement among the Supes here. Like “Have a Nice Day” or “Bye,” only it had a slightly different feel to it. In the twisted, often dangerous, world of the Supes, “Be safe” was probably the best thing anyone could wish for someone else.
“Thanks. You too.”
She made her exit before Izzy could make any more lewd comments – not that her leaving would have prevented the woman from telling her something mind-to-mind – and made her way up the lodge stairs to the main level.
Leaving the warmth of the lodge, she was sorry she hadn’t worn the parka because the temperature had gone down significantly as it grew dark, and she pulled her hood up to stave off the wind. She was also missing the new gloves because the pockets of her coat were too small to fit the books she was carrying, and the wind was biting at her fingers. The sun was almost completely down so she knew Eric would be rising very soon if he wasn’t up already. She stepped off the porch and made her way along the lighted trails towards their cabin, hunkering down into the coat as the wind bit at her skin and hurrying to get out of the cold as soon as possible.
Eric would want to eat shortly after rising so she knew she’d be back in the cold again. Then again, knowing Eric, he’d probably want to have dessert first.
She ran a little faster.
Chapter Nine
Sookie realized she didn’t have a key to the cabin the moment she hopped up onto the porch, and for a moment she hoped Eric was awake to let her in. On a lark, she tried the knob and was surprised to find it unlocked. Maybe no one bothered to lock doors here because no one would be dumb enough to steal from a Supe (at least not while they were on vacation.)
Entering the cabin, she began to feel a powerful sense of anticipation as she set down her borrowed books and hung up her coat on the peg by the door. Then she went immediately to the door at the back of the dining room and poked her head in. The bed was empty. She frowned. Eric was already awake. And here she had been entertaining fantasies of being there when he opened his eyes. Ah, well.
Since he wasn’t in the little windowless bedroom, and he hadn’t scooped her up off the porch when she came in, she decided to try upstairs. Maybe he was already waiting for her… in the bed… naked. She felt a surge of lust and went running up the stairs.
Eric was not in the bed. He was in the shower. She heard the water running from the slightly open bathroom door, and she began imagining him standing under that sinful dual showerhead, the water running down his muscled chest and lower. She tingled all the way down to her toes, and began peeling off her sweater and jeans.
He heard her come into the bathroom because the moment she entered, the shower door slid open and one pale arm came snaking out to grab her wrist. She was never happier to be naked than when he pulled her gently into the stall with him, and positioned her under the hot water as his mouth found hers.
“You’re cold, lover,” he whispered. “Let me warm you up.”
He kissed her again and she felt the heat all over her body. She moaned. He chuckled.
“I was here all alone in this amazing shower,” he murmured, his lips against her ear. “And I began to remember another shower that I had taken with you, my lover.”
“Did you Call me?” she asked, not sure if she liked the idea.
“No. But I am sure you felt my… longing.”
Okay so what was worse? Being Called or feeling Eric’s lust? One was something he had some control over, the other… well… If that was how it was going to be between them, she’d better just quit her job now because she’d never get any work done.
Her train of thought was derailed by another searing kiss as his hands began to get seriously busy on her body. Oh yeah. Talented fingers began massaging and kneading and stroking in all the right places as he fanned the flames of their growing lust. She didn’t know who was feeling what, but whatever it was, it was mutual and soon flaring out of control.
She was shivering with need when he turned her around to face the shower stall wall, and slid his fingers into her, stretching and preparing her for what came next. She rested her palms flat against the slick wall and arched her back, offering, and she felt his pleasure at her action through the bond. His fingers pulled out, and she didn’t have time to miss them, as he gently grasped her hips, lifting them up a little and replaced his fingers with something much more satisfying. She groaned and braced herself as best she could as he began to move.
The angle was odd because he was so much taller than she was, but he managed it, thrusting slow and deep, and she rocked with him as the water poured over them. He released her hips and placed one hand beside hers on the wall while the other slid around her to tease her nub with his fingers. She gasped as he began to work her in counter-rhythm to his thrusts, and soon she was rising on the golden wave. She wanted to hold back because she knew he wasn’t anywhere near ready, but he pushed her over the edge and stilled inside her while she shuddered.
He supported her with his arms as her legs went a little weak, resting inside her as that part of him acted as a third support, until she was able to get control over her limbs again. She expected him to start moving a little more forcefully now because she’d climaxed and he hadn’t, but he obviously had other ideas. Where she was ready for some serious plundering, this Viking wasn’t in any hurry.
He thrust a few more times, still slow and deep, just to tease her, then pulled out. She almost sobbed, but he just chuckled again and reached back to turn off the shower. They stepped out together, and he dried her off with a thick, fluffy towel while she did the same for him. It was an imitation of what they had done for each other all those months ago, only now the air was thick with anticipation.
He took her hand, his blue eyes dark with want, and led her to the bed. She began to lie down, but he stopped her with a little shake of his head and a hand on her hip. He turned her around again, and she got the message, moving to kneel on all fours on the mattress. The position was exciting, kneeling there, waiting for him to mount her, and she arched her back again, letting him know she was ready. More than ready.
She felt his lust and pleasure at her presenting herself to him, and she arched further, trying to get him to get on with it. His big hands gripped her hips again as she felt him take his place behind her and slide back in, his feet still planted on the floor. They moaned in unison.
She now expected him to give her a good pounding, was eager for it even, but he was still set on taking his time. Slow, deep thrusts, pressing as far as physically possible with a little buck at the end just to push in that much further, then a long slide out before he pushed back in. She could feel every hard inch of him as he slowly drove her insane. She gripped the eiderdown, glad that her nails were short otherwise she would’ve ripped the cloth, and panted, nearly sobbing as he continued his unhurried exploration of her body.
“Eric. Eric, please…” she groaned.
He gave a little rumbling grunt in answer and thrust a bit harder.
‘Oh, God, yes.’
She began to build towards a second climax as he got down to serious business. Maybe all he’d been waiting for was for her to beg for it. She wished she’d known that ten minutes ago, but no matter because he’d gotten with the program – finally! The bed shook under his thrusts, but it didn’t creak. Beds in expensive, all-inclusive resorts owned by goddesses did not creak. Not that the noise would have mattered because she’d started making a few noises of her own.
She was just on the edge again when he stopped and pulled out. She was about to scream when he flipped her onto her back, shoved two pillows under her hips to raise them up to the right level, and plunged back in. She cried out as he thrust deep enough for her to feel him poking the back of her throat, and howled when he leaned down to bite her breast, sucking hard on the nipple. He released her breast, grabbed her thighs to bend her pelvis up, and started pounding. She let him know how much she was enjoying the ride, and wished she could grab that gorgeous ass just to keep him inside her that much longer.
“Look at me,” he commanded, his voice ragged, his eyes wild. “Sookie, look at me!”
She obeyed, and stared him in the face as he drove her out of her mind. The second climax hit, and her whole body shuddered under the force. She was still watching when Eric came completely unglued. His head fell back, his eyes rolled up in their sockets, and his mouth opened, but all that came out was a strangled gurgle as he jerked violently, spasming inside her.
He fell on top of her. Not a comfortable position considering he was half off the bed, but he rectified that almost immediately as he pulled himself together enough to disengage and crawl up to slump beside her. His hands gathered up the eiderdown and wrapped it around both of them as she shivered and quaked with aftershocks. She was still seeing little sunbursts behind her eyes, and she was sure she’d just witnessed a supernova. Eric was unbelievably smug and practically purring with satisfaction.
“Are you pleased with yourself?” she asked, still panting and feeling little aftershocks.
“Mmmmm. Very. That was incredible. I have officially confirmed that you are without a doubt, the best lover I’ve ever had.”
Well, he was definitely the best she’d ever had, but she was half afraid to tell him that because his ego was big enough already. He turned his head and gave her a tender kiss on the forehead.
“Thank you,” he murmured.
The words made her feel warm all over, and she squeezed her eyes shut to hold back the tears. He gave another little rumble of pleasure, and she was starting to be able to interpret his wordless sounds. The rumble meant: “I am happy and sexually sated for the next ten minutes.”
“Did you like my gifts?” he asked, his voice full of content fondness. Post-coital Eric was so sweet.
“The roses and chocolates?”
“Yes.”
“Yes, they are lovely. Thank you. The chocolates are very good.”
“Did you eat them all?”
“Not yet. I just had a couple of pieces before I went over to the lodge for breakfast.”
“So you saved some for me to watch while you eat them,” he purred.
She shivered and tamped down the rush of desire. Eric just crooned.
“I’ll eat them later, after we get back from dinner. Although you’ve already had your dessert,” she teased.
“Dessert? You think that was dessert? My lover that was just an appetizer. I intend to make a full three-course meal of you tonight.”
Okay, that had so many meanings on multiple levels, she didn’t know where to start. “You do?” she stammered.
“Oh yes. I will have you as many ways as I possibly can while we are here. I think I will make love to you in front of the fire again when we get back from supper.”
It was the first time he’d used the words “make love” when he still remembered who he was, and she got a little choked up. He seemed to notice how quiet she had gotten because his hand came up to stroke her arm gently.
“You don’t like it when I use that term?” he asked.
“It’s not that.”
“You don’t like any reference to love then.”
She stayed silent, but her silence spoke volumes. He sighed.
“You don’t love me.”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. Admitting that she loved the undead Viking would open up a whole new can of worms that she was just not ready to face.
He kissed her forehead again. “I know,” he said, then let out a theatrical sigh. “You’ll just string me along and use me for sex.”
He even punctuated his woeful complaint with a dramatic arm crossed over his forehead. She snickered and smacked him with a handy pillow.
“You,” she accused, smiling in spite of herself.
He was up on his knees in an excited whirl before she could even see him move. “Oh! Is this a pillow fight? I’ve never had one! What do I do now?”
There was a childlike excitement on his face that cracked her up, and she started laughing. She shook her head and smacked him again, getting him somewhere on his torso. He grabbed a pillow and followed her lead, batting her back with about one quarter of his strength. She giggled and he grinned.
“I don’t believe I’m doing this.”
“What? Engaging in infantile mock-aggression with stuffed cloth bags?” he asked cheerfully.
“No. Reliving my nonexistent childhood with a thousand-year old vampire.”
“But you must admit I’m entertaining.”
She smacked him right in the face for that one. He growled and it became a free-for-all, with both of them laughing like children, until one of the pillows ripped and sent poly-fill flying everywhere. She rose up, trying to get away from the flying fluff, when Eric grabbed her around the waist and plopped her right back on the bed. She didn’t have a chance to protest as his mouth found hers again, and murdered pillows became the least of her worries.
When he was finished with her, every bone in her body had turned to Jell-O, and she couldn’t even think about moving, let alone actually get out of bed.
“So? Was that the main course?” she asked lazily. He’d bitten her on her inner thigh, but the amount of blood he drew when he fed from her wasn’t anywhere near as much as Bill used to take when he fed.
“No. That was the antipasto,” he said with an Italian drawl.
She almost smacked him with a surviving pillow, but found that she couldn’t lift her arm. “I thought you said you would make a three-course meal of me tonight.”
“I changed my mind. I’ll make five of you. Possibly six.”
“And I’ll be unconscious for courses four through six.”
“No one has ever passed out from my attentions,” he told her, sounding slightly miffed. “I’m very good at pacing myself.”
She snorted, giggling as she pressed her face to the crook of his arm. Her stomach took that moment to grumble and remind her that she hadn’t eaten since that afternoon. It was almost seven now. Eric heard the noise too and was already moving.
“And on that note, my lover, we must get you fed. We need to keep up your strength.”
She made a little mumble of protest because she wasn’t looking forward to going out in the cold again, and she wondered if the resort offered cabin-service, but then she decided against it. There were more things she wanted to do with Eric other than spend the whole night in bed. If they were to have a relationship (as Eric obviously wanted) then they needed to do things outside of just having sex, no matter how great the sex was.
She got up and accepted the clothes he handed her – the ones she had taken off in order to join him in the shower. He held the sweater to his face and took a deep sniff of it, his fangs running out.
“This smells of sunlight and the lake and you,” he breathed, a blissful look in his eyes.
She smiled and pulled the sweater on after refastening her bra. He went to the dresser and pulled out underwear and clothes for himself: boxers, jeans, a t-shirt and a heavy sweater. They both finished dressing at about the same time, and she took a few moments to brush her hair and dab on a bit of perfume. Eric took her brush and smoothed out her hair for her, then did his own. By seven-thirty, they were ready to head down to the lodge.
He held her parka out for her, giving her his customary shoulder massage as she slipped her arms into it, only this time he accompanied it with a kiss to her neck before he pulled the collar of the parka up to protect her throat. Eric never bit her where others could see, unlike Bill who almost always bit her on the neck. She really needed to stop comparing Eric to Bill.
Her vampire Viking opened the front door of the cabin and held it while she skittered out, hunkering down into the parka with her hands deep in the pockets. She’d put the hat on her head and the gloves on her hands, but they did little to really hold back the cold. And her legs were freezing through her jeans. Her teeth were chattering before she even got off the porch.
“Come on, lover, get on my back. I’ll have us there in no time.”
She didn’t argue and climbed on, ducking her face into his hair. She felt him take off, flying this time instead of running, and the air moved around them as he carried her. Two minutes or so later, he set her down in the atrium of the lodge, and she began the process of thawing out.
Noria was still in the dining room acting as hostess, and she smiled when she saw her and Eric come in.
“Good evening, Mr. Northman, Sookie. A table by the fire?”
“Yes, please,” Eric confirmed in his most pleasant voice.
“Right this way.”
Noria took them to a table that was right next to the hearth, making it toasty warm, and it appeared to have been specifically reserved for them because it was the only empty table close to the fire. Having come in during prime dinnertime, the dining room was crowded, but Sookie noticed that the noise level was perfectly fine; very unlike Merlotte’s on a Football night.
Eric helped her out of her coat, then held the chair out for her while she sat down, and pushed it in when she was ready. The hostess handed them their menus – Sookie noticed that Noria gave Eric the same small menu as last night, but hers was different – and left them to their own devices. Toth appeared three minutes later to tell them about the specials and get her drink order. He seemed just as perky as ever.
In anticipation that she was going to need the extra protein and iron, she ordered a steak and accompanied it with a spinach salad and broccoli side dish. Eric ordered the steamed pods again, but refrained from getting the one flavored like fairy blood, sticking instead to O-neg and the AB-neg he’d liked so much.
“It’s no good to have too much of that. It has addictive qualities, even in its Bloodvine form,” he explained.
“So. I hear the Packers are playing tonight. Did you want to watch the game at Nike’s?” she asked, taking a bite of her dinner. It was fabulous. The meat melted on her tongue.
He blinked at her, and she could tell that he was trying to decipher what she’d just said.
“Green Bay? The NFL? They’re playing tonight.”
Recognition filled his eyes and he looked relieved. “Ah. Football. I never knew you to be a football fan, Sookie.”
“I’m not. Not really.”
“Then why did you want to go watch the game?” he questioned, his brows furrowing.
“I don’t. I was asking you if you wanted to watch.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you.”
“I have no interest in watching football, my lover,” he replied with a smile.
“Are there any sports you do like watching?” she questioned, figuring now was a good time to start finding out his preferences for things.
He took a sip of his drink, his blue eyes dancing with amusement. He knew what she was doing, and was going along with it – or at least she hoped so. She didn’t want to upset him by being too pushy or prying too much. She tested the bond and found him content and happy.
“Human sports? Not really. Although I do have a perverse fondness for curling.”
“Curling? What’s curling?” She was pretty sure he wasn’t taking about hair.
He grinned. “It is a sport played on ice. It involves three men with brooms and a large stone.”
She blinked. “Brooms and a stone. On ice.”
His grin grew even wider. “A team of four players must try to guide the stone into the goal area by sweeping the ice in front of it as it slides.”
“You’re pulling my leg.”
“I most certainly am not.” He raised his voice a little and called out to the general room “Bonspiel!”
“SWEEP!!” came the yelled reply from several dining room guests.
“I rest my case,” Eric said smugly, folding his fingers in front of his chin. He was laughing silently.
She hid her face in her hands.
“So you like curling,” she finally said.
“I didn’t say that. I said I have a perverse fondness for it. It’s so completely ridiculous that it’s endlessly amusing,” he clarified. “I discovered it one night when I was flipping channels during the last Winter Olympics, and I had to ask myself what depraved mortal ever came up with something so idiotic as to chase a rock around on a sheet of ice with a broom? Then I read that it was invented in Scotland and everything made sense.”
“Ooookay…”
“What sports do you like to watch?” he asked, turning the tables on her.
“Well… I like high school football. And I used to play softball.”
He smiled and sat back, cocking his head at her. “I can see you playing softball. I’d love to see you in short-shorts, show all that lovely leg of yours.” He paused, reconsidering. “Then again, maybe I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t like everyone seeing your legs.”
She frowned. She was hoping the vampire possessiveness wouldn’t rear its head quite so soon. “Eric…” she chided. “You’ve seen the uniform I wear at Merlotte’s in summer.”
“I’ll have to talk to the shifter about that.”
“You will do no such thing,” she hissed.
“You are my woman. I cannot have you displaying your assets for all to see,” he replied calmly, but his eyes were hard.
“I may be your woman, but I am not your possession. I belong to myself.” She’d expected him to be angry, but instead he was beaming. She creased her brows. “What?”
“You admitted that you’re my woman.”
She groaned and nabbed another bite of her steak before it got cold. Eric opened his steamer and squeezed himself another glass of blood.
“Alright. I’ll concede the uniform because I see the futility in it, and I am nothing if not pragmatic,” he stated, very pragmatically she thought. “Now that we have come to an agreement, I intend to pick my battles with you carefully.”
“Well lah-dee-dah, Mr. High and Mighty,” she snorted, crossing her arms across her chest. “Thank you ever so much.”
“Don’t be so angry,” he said, his voice conciliatory, and she felt his calming influence through the bond. She railed against it.
“I’ll be angry if I want, Eric. You know I hate being controlled,” she fumed through gritted teeth.
He sighed, but she felt him release her because her anger came back full force. She had half a mind to leave him right there, but then she remembered that he’d brought her to an island precisely so she couldn’t do that. She took a few deep breaths and got herself under control.
“Thank you.”
He gave her a little nod of his head and sipped his blood. She finished her dinner, but passed on dessert. She still had chocolate back at the cabin. When he was finished drinking his supper, they both stood, and he allowed her to lead the way as they left the dining room. He was being quiet, waiting for her to speak.
‘Picking his battles,’ she thought dourly, but she could feel his unhappiness echoing across the bond so she reached out and took his hand.
“Let’s go somewhere quiet,” she said.
“Don’t you want to go back to the cabin?”
She shook her head. “Not yet. If we do, we’ll probably end up having sex again, and I want to clear some things up with you first.”
“The study outside the library should be quiet,” he offered.
She nodded and they headed for the stairs. Eric was right and the study was empty, but there was a fire burning low in the small hearth. She sat down in a comfortable chair next to the fire, and Eric sat in another just opposite her. His face was serious so she knew she had his attention.
“Eric… if this is going to work between us, you have to trust me.”
“I do trust you, my lover,” he insisted.
She shook her head. “That means you have to let me make my own decisions and my own mistakes. And you have to let me feel the things I am feeling without trying to influence me…”
“Unless it is to keep you safe from harm or to help you when you need strength,” he interrupted.
She conceded the point. “All right. You’ve helped me that way before and I’ve really appreciated it, but for little things, like when we’re arguing, you have to let me feel what I’m feeling. You have to let me be honest, and you have to be honest too.”
He blinked at her, and she wondered if it was a vampire thing she was dealing with, like Bill having her uncle killed when he found out the man had molested her as a child. Come to think of it, that situation might help her explain this one better.
“Okay. Listen. I had an uncle. He… molested me when I was a little girl.” She saw Eric sit up and grip the arms of the chair. There was anger creeping up the bond, but she pushed it away. “Anyway. I told Bill about him. That night, my uncle fell down a flight of stairs and broke his neck. I knew Bill had him killed…”
“Good for Bill. If he hadn’t, I would have,” Eric growled in a voice that was absolutely lethal.
“No! See. That’s what I’m talking about. You can’t go around fixing things for me…”
“You were happy enough to let me fix your driveway,” he pointed out.
“That’s different. That isn’t you or Bill acting like a vampire Godfather and making someone an offer they can’t refuse. I want to be able to tell you about a customer who pissed me off without being afraid that you’re gonna pay them a visit later.”
“That depends entirely on what they did you make you angry. If they touched you or damaged something of yours, then they will have to deal with me. And, of course, anyone who harms you is dead.” He was serious and she knew it.
“No. No. No. You cannot go around killing everyone who hurts me,” she insisted.
“If they touch you, if they harm you, they are dead. I will not tolerate it. And it isn’t just about protecting you, my lover. It’s about me being able to handle the things that happen in my area. I must prove to Victor and Felipe that I am a competent sheriff. If I let insults towards you stand without extracting vengeance, that weakens my position,” he explained. “I can make the punishment fit the crime, and I won’t permanently damage a human if I can avoid it, but I can and I will defend you from all threats. I…” He paused, thinking. “I wouldn’t be putting you first if I didn’t.”
Okay, so it was a vamp thing and a territory thing. She could kind of understand that.
“You won’t kill any humans?” she pressed.
“I can’t promise that, my lover. If a member of the Fellowship comes after you, or some other person who has issues with your being seen with a vampire, I may be forced to seriously hurt or kill them in order to protect you,” he answered.
She remembered the nutcases in the Fellowship, and the witches that Hallow and her brother had gathered. Okay, they had been awful, and some of them had deserved what they’d gotten even if they were human. It was a very unchristian way of looking at things, and her own conscience poked her in the ribs, but she couldn’t pay it too much mind. When it came down to it, if she had to choose between dying or living, she’d choose living. Like she had started to suspect, she was a bad Christian, but a decent survivalist. She was starting to wonder if any of her moral high ground was left, and she sighed, defeated.
“What are you thinking, my lover?” he asked, and she could feel that he was getting concerned.
“I was just thinking that I once knew what was right and what was wrong, and now I’m not sure about anything anymore,” she admitted with some resignation.
“I’m sorry.”
“Are you really?”
“Yes. You are at a crossroads, and I cannot help you. I can only be here for you, and tell you how much I care, and that you can lean on me whenever you need me.”
Heavy words. She sighed, getting depressed. ‘Okay, subject change time.’
“Did you know that Elena is Helen of Troy?”
Eric’s eyes opened wide. “Did she tell you that?”
“Uh, yeah, sort of. I saw it when she touched me.”
“She touched you? When?” He sat up a little straighter, definitely interested.
“This afternoon in the dining room. She came to talk to me.”
“Did she say anything else?”
“That I could come back whenever I wanted as long as I promised to keep this place safe.”
He closed his eyes and looked relieved. When he opened them again, he was very pleased. “She’s accepted you then. She wouldn’t have extended the invitation and told you her history if she hadn’t.”
“So I passed some kind of test,” she commented.
“Oh yes, and I would say you passed with flying colors.” He grinned at her. “I knew you would do me proud, lover. You always have.”
Well, yay for her. Somehow she’d passed some kind of character exam without even knowing she was being tested, and now she’d found herself officially approved by a former Greek goddess who had turned resort owner, and her vampire boyfriend was proud of her. Great. She sighed, feeling suddenly exhausted and worn out.
“Sookie, my lover? What is wrong?”
She sighed again and looked at the fire. She was getting dragged in again, wasn’t she? Back into the deceitful, conniving world of the Supernaturals.
“Eric, what are we doing?”
“We’re sitting here waiting for you to figure it out in your head that I’m the best man for you, so we can go back to our cabin and have more sex,” he stated bluntly.
She burst out laughing because it was so… so Eric to be so frank and crass, but his statement had been exactly what she’d needed to snap her out of her pity party. Eric was gorgeous. He was great in bed. He kept his word, and he’d proven numerous times that he would support her in whatever way she needed. What more did she want?
He was now looking at her with an arched brow and a twinkle in his eye, and that just made her laugh harder. She reached over and patted him on the knee as she stood.
“C’mon, let’s find something to do that we both will enjoy.” He leered at her, but she cut him off. “Not sex. Something fun.”
“Sex with me isn’t fun?”
“Not really. It’s more like an earth-shattering experience.”
He sidled up to her, his hand snaking around to rest low on her hip. “Really?”
She stopped and looked up at him. “Eric, I want our relationship to be more than sex. I want… I want to know what you like, and I want to do things with you that aren’t sex.”
“Like what?”
She groan, frustrated. “Like going out to a movie or a show or dinner or bowling even.”
“I like bowling. I wanted to start a Fangtasia league, but vampires have a nasty habit of throwing the ball so hard it smashes the pins.”
She could see that happening. She chuckled and continued walking, leading them both into the game room. Oddly, the two foxes were nowhere in evidence. Maybe they’d finally gotten tired of playing video games.
“Look,” she said, pointing to the pool table. “Do you like pool? Or air hockey? Do you play video games? I have no idea what you like to do in your free time.”
She spied a dartboard with darts hung on the wall, and she went over to it, pulling out the darts and bringing them to Eric.
“Do you like darts?” she asked, handing them to him.
He grinned the same childlike grin he’d had on his face during the pillow fight and stepped back alllll the way to the other side of the room. With a hand, he waved her to step well out of the path of the darts, then he took aim and threw all four darts faster than she could see. A glance to the board showed that all four were bulls-eyes, and he was beaming like a fool. She rolled her eyes.
“I’m being an idiot aren’t I?” she sighed.
“No. You are making me incredibly happy,” he answered, going to a rack of pool cues and selecting two. “Let’s play pool.”
She accepted the cue with a frown. “I’m not very good.”
“Then I will help you,” he stated, retrieving the triangle and setting up the balls. “I understand what you are trying to do. True couples have more in common than sex. They share interests and hobbies and affections. They make each other laugh and depend on each other. This is what you want. I want this too.”
He set the balls and lifted the triangle, then he handed her the cue ball. “Would you like the first shot?”
She gave him a look, but set the cue ball down on the pool table and lined up her shot. She was about to make her move when she felt Eric lean close.
“Hold the cue like this,” he whispered, adjusting her fingers on the stick. “And don’t lean so far forward.” His hips pressed against hers as he moved her back a little bit.
This could get interesting really quick.
“Okay. Now, don’t look at the cue ball, look at the target. Pull your arm back just so…” She moved her arm and he placed his hand on her elbow to stop it when she’d pulled back enough. “Right there. Now, make your shot. Don’t take your eye off the rack.”
She obeyed and thrust the cue forward sharply. The end hit the cue ball and sent it rolling towards the rack. It struck and the balls broke perfectly, sinking the 9-ball in the corner pocket.
“Excellent. Looks like you’re stripes. I’m assuming we’re playing Eight Ball?”
“I guess.”
He nodded, and motioned for her to continue. She set up another shot, but missed even with Eric’s coaching – or despite it since he seemed to be more interested in touching her (oh so lightly and without an inappropriate thought at all. Oh no!) than actually teaching her how to shoot pool.
“Where did you learn to shoot pool?” she asked as he sunk the 3-ball in an impressive bank shot.
“Belgium 1754,” he answered.
“What other games do you play?”
He paused, considering another complex shot for the 5-ball, then replied, “Why don’t you tell me what games you play, and I’ll tell you if I play them.”
Well, of course, he probably knew hundreds of games, some of which hadn’t been played in centuries.
He missed the next shot, but she couldn’t be certain he hadn’t done it on purpose, and since he leaned suggestively over her as she tried to line up her next shot, she was fairly sure he’d had ulterior motives. She made her shot and sunk the 12.
“Beautiful,” he murmured, his lips against her ear. She shivered. “You are an excellent student. But then, I’ve always known you were a quick study.”
He stroked her neck with one finger. She made a strangled noise and moved away, but not before she’d felt him graze her with his fangs. Definitely some excitement there.
“Bill and I used to play Scrabble,” she commented.
At the mention of Bill’s name, he snorted and drew away. “I can play Scrabble in eight languages. What else did you and Bill used to do?”
She made a play for the 14 but missed. “We used to go to the movies or just watch TV.”
“We watched TV,” he said, his voice wistful. He went for the 5-ball and sunk it in the side pocket. “You left me one night watching Buffy. I laughed and laughed. And sometimes we’d just sit in front of your fire and talk. You had the most hideous quilt, but you used to keep dragging it out to keep my feet warm. We’d snuggle under it and… What did you call it? Gossip like old buddies.”
She swallowed. “Yeah. We did.”
He came close again, and his presence was both comforting and unsettling. He’d gone into that silent, brooding mood that always made her nervous because he was far too astute for his own good. Or hers.
“I remember lying with you on the floor. We talked about your life. About Bill. You showed me your scar. I remember thinking how brave you were, even though you were still a stranger to me,” he told her softly as he brushed back a lock of her hair.
“Then you told me about how I had given you my blood so you would heal from the injury, and I wondered why I would do such a thing. When you told me you had killed Lorena to save Bill even though he had betrayed you and been unfaithful, I was shocked. I knew then what caliber of woman you were even if I couldn’t remember our relationship to each other. I vowed to myself that I would win you and prove to you that I could be a good mate.”
He was pressed against her now, his body bracing her against the edge of the pool table, and she fought equal measures of lust and fear. Lust was winning out.
“When you yielded to me in the shower, I was overjoyed. Sex with you was amazing. Joining with you completed me. Then you shocked me again when you thanked me for the pleasure I’d given you. You did that a number of times, and it moved me each time. No one had ever thanked me for such a thing, and yet there you were, grateful to me when I was the one who should have been expressing my thanks.”
He lifted the pool cue from her nerveless fingers, and slid his hands down to cup her under her butt. Then he picked her up and balanced her on the edge of the pool table, his hips between her thighs, his hardness evident as he rubbed the seam of his jeans against her crotch. If she’d been wearing a dress, no doubt he would already be in her.
She moaned as he breathed a cool breath across her neck even as his hands were kneading her sides.
“Thank you,” he whispered, dipping his tongue into her ear, and then sucking lightly on her earlobe. Thank goodness she hadn’t put in any earrings in that day.
“Mmmph,” she choked, and arched towards him, spreading her legs further in invitation.
“Have you ever had sex on a pool table?” he teased.
“No,” she managed to say.
“Mmmm. Good,” he crooned, letting one hand travel southward to the button of her jeans. He deftly flipped it open and slipped his hand in, burrowing under her panties and probing her with two fingers.
His mouth covered hers and swallowed her mews of pleasure as he made her squirm. A tiny part of her brain was shrieking that they were about to have sex in a public place, that anyone could walk in on them at any time, but that only made the rest of her that was really into what Eric was doing that much more excited. The danger of discovery as a turn-on. Go figure.
She placed her hands on his amazing butt and pulled him closer. He let her with a deep, guttural groan and bucked against her pelvis as his other hand slid under her sweater to fondle her breasts. The tiny, protesting part of her brain short-circuited and blipped out. She was arching, hitching her legs up to brace her knees on his hips, when he came to a full stop and abruptly pulled away.
“Someone is coming,” he whispered as she moaned a protest, and quickly set her clothing to rights.
She got her higher brain functions working again as he placed her back on her feet, and they were the very picture of innocence playing pool when the two fox-tailed demons came back into the game room carrying three large pizzas apiece. She saw the two of them pause as they came into the room and take a quick sniff before turning their heads to spy them over by the pool table. They chittered and leered. Eric gave them a stern look and growled back, and the two were smart enough to scurry over to the game console and studiously ignore them. Eric gave a little snort of satisfaction in their general direction and she giggled, shaking her head.
“What are they?” she asked.
“Kitsune. Japanese fox-demons. Mostly harmless,” he replied, sinking the 4 and the 2-balls in two consecutive shots. He was winning by a long shot. Only the 1, 6 and 7-balls were left out of the seven he needed to clear.
“Ah.”
He missed the 1 and it was her turn again. He came close to offer instruction, and she was able to sink the 14 and the 10 before her hand slipped when he nipped her earlobe, and she missed the 13. She glared at him, but he just grinned and cleared the 6 off the table. She grabbed his butt and made him nearly gouge the felt as he misfired his shot for the 1 again. He gave her a leer that told her he wasn’t at all unhappy with her method of distracting him, but that now all bets were off.
‘He wouldn’t do anything really blatant in front of witnesses, would he?’ she thought, as she tried for a very tricky backshot for the 15. Oh, how wrong she’d been.
He pretended to drop his cue stick as she made the shot, and he bit her on her inner thigh as he came up. His fangs hadn’t been out when he did it so he hadn’t broken through the denim, but he’d made her whole body jerk. The 15 missed the pocket by half an inch.
“My turn,” he murmured into her ear as he walked past her to set up his next shot for the 7.
She tried to give him a sour look, but she couldn’t keep the corner of her mouth from turning up. He raised both eyebrows and sunk the 7 with a theatrical flourish. Only the 1 and the 8-ball were left for his side, but the 1 would be a very difficult shot because it was against the 11-ball and the 13 was also blocking it.
“Hmmm,” he said, sizing up the shot from all angles.
The look of concentration on his face was comical, and she hid her smile behind her hand. He cast her a glance that told her he was playing with her and enjoying every minute of it. He missed the shot for the 1, but it gave her an opening to sink the 11. Eric came over and put both hands on the edge of the pool table, bracing her between them as he lowered his mouth to her ear again.
“You’re catching up to me, lover.”
“Looks like it,” she agreed, noting that only the 13, 15, 1 and 8-balls were left.
“Hmm. Go for the 15 again. If you clip it, you can send it right into the pocket, but be careful otherwise you’ll scratch the cue ball,” he said.
She nodded. She’d been thinking the same thing too.
“I’m sorry we got interrupted,” he continued, his voice very low as he pressed his crotch to her backside. “Can I take a rain check?”
She bumped him with her shoulder, trying to egg him to move so she could take the shot. “Maybe. You know of any other pool tables we might have access to – other than the one at Merlotte’s?” she hastily added when she saw the glint in his eyes.
“Fucking you on the pool table in your shifter boss’s bar. Now that might be something. The lingering scent alone would be enough to make my point,” he crooned.
“You are not doing anything to me on Sam’s pool table. Now scoot so I can finish beating you.”
He snickered, but stepped aside, giving her plenty of room to make the shot. She clipped the 15 just so, and it plopped into the pocket. She gave Eric a smug look, but he just smiled.
“One left. What do I get if you win?” he said.
“What do you get? Don’t you mean what do I get when I win?”
“Yes, but anything you would want would be a treat for me too, so I don’t really care which one of us wins,” he replied with a shrug.
She knew she could think of a few things that he wouldn’t consider treats, but he was right in assuming she wouldn’t ask for any of them.
“What do you get if you win?” she countered.
“I already said what I wanted.”
“Sam’s pool table?”
He grinned.
“Oh great. Now I have to win,” she grumbled.
“You really know nothing about negotiating, do you?” he said suddenly.
“Huh?”
“I just told you that, if I win, I’ll ask for something you will find unacceptable. Instead of offering me something else in return, you automatically assume that you have no choice but to beat me. Why don’t you try making me a counteroffer and see if I’ll take it?” he explained reasonably.
‘And now I see why he’s such a great businessman. Well, okay… Since I know he’s going to want to do it anyway…’
“Alright. If you win, I’ll let you remodel my bathroom and install one of those dual showerheads we liked so much this evening.”
His eyebrows went almost all the way up into his hair. “Really?”
“Really.”
He gave her a devious grin. “Done.”
“Wow. That was easy,” she stated, half-amazed.
“I can fuck you once on the shifter’s pool table or I can have you anytime I want in that amazing shower. That’s not too hard of a choice for me, lover.”
Well, if he put it that way… She might just let him win.
TBC On Page 2 |
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