When does it get easier to be me?

***The following "fan fiction" begins sometime after book four. In my story, Sookie has forgiven Bill for his deception involving the vampire Lorena, and they have reunited. However, there is an obvious significant strain on their relationship, both because of Sookie's willingness to forgive but not exactly forget and, Bill's apparent jealousy over whom Sookie spent her days with while they were broken up; in this case, the godlike Viking vampire Eric, Bill's boss. All of this, results in an argument that once again finds the two no longer a couple. This chapter starts one week after Bill and Sookie's most recent blowout.

CHAPTER 1

I woke up in a cool sweat with a numb feeling that I was starting to get used to by now. I knew that I had been asleep for a while, and must have slept hard, judging by the indented lines on my face from the wrinkled pillowcase. But as I looked at the clock on my bedside nightstand; I realized it was still the middle of the night. I still had some sleeping ahead of me. Great, this was going to be a long night.

And then I felt the telltale sense that I was not alone.
“Sookie,” I heard Bill say in that cool breezy way.
“Ughh, Bill! What the hell are you doing here? You scared the crap out of me! I thought I made it clear that we needed some time apart.”
“I’m sorry for startling you, and I understand that Sookie, but we need to talk.”

The initial rush of just hearing my name roll off of Bill’s tongue with that smooth (albeit possibly devious) voice was usually all it took for me to conform to his every wish and desire and melt into his arms; but last week, we had had a huge fight. A fight that I was sure had marked the end of this roller coaster supernatural relationship, or at least would cause us to separate for quite a while. As it was, I had asked him to leave me alone, that I was done with the bullshit. I thought that meant more than a week--apparently not.

“What is it Bill? I said groggily, still half asleep. “Have you come to apologize, because I don’t really want to hear it?”
“I’m still not even sure why you’re mad at me.”
“Are you serious Bill? You still don’t get it do you?”
“Sookie, I came to talk to you about Eric.”

That caught me off guard. Eric Northman, Bill’s boss and Sheriff of Area 5, was a pretty regular part of my life now (not to mention a large part of my fantasies, based on actual occurrences when he hid out at my house for a short time during his witch inflicted bout with amnesia…a time he still doesn’t remember to this day).

“That’s why you’re here? For Eric? What is it now? What does the all mighty Sheriff require of me this time?”
“It’s not what he requires,” he paused. “It’s…what I require.”
“What you require?”
“Er, rather a request.”
“And what would that be,” I asked with a now not so subtle angry attitude. Wondering why once again, one of our fights had transitioned suddenly into another ‘vampire favor’. I was sure I would forever be entangled with the supernatural at this point in my life, which I accepted. And it had all started with Bill. Sheesh.
“So you’re not here to apologize, and you’re not here to talk about our fight. What is it you ‘require’ then?” I said motioning my hand in the air for him to spit it out.
“I would like you to stop seeing Eric, at least in a personal sense.”
Um, didn’t see that one coming.
“I’m not sure what that means but I’m fairly sure it’s none of your business either.”
“Sookie,” he paused for a moment.
“I can’t bear it. I can’t stand the thought of him with his hands on you, his lips on yours, his…” He paused again.

My jealous vampire. Apparently the time Eric spent here with me was not as secret as I had hoped.

“Bill, I’m not seeing Eric, or at least not in the way you seem to think I am. And even if I was, we broke up!” I said losing every bit of patience I had left after our last quarrel. “It’s really not your concern anymore.”

Bill turned away from me for a moment. Had he been human, this is where he might have blushed with embarrassment or at least anger. But he wasn’t human. And I was forever being reminded of that fact, not that I could forget. Not that that wasn’t the reason I was attracted to Bill that first night he came into Merlotte’s. But so much had happened since that night, lies, deception…murder, on both of our hands (self defense or not, the memories were forever etched into my human brain).

“Bill, what is happening here? What do you want from me?”
“You Sookie. I just want you.”
“Well, you had me, and I wanted you too, I still…” I trailed off.

He turned to face me, grabbing my shoulders softly, pulling me toward him.

“So this could still work, we might still be able to…” he said.
“Bill. Stop…” But I couldn’t argue with those eyes. That face. That hair. Those hands. That body. During the span of our relationship, anytime we separated, each moment that I had been apart from Bill, regardless of the circumstances, I longed for him. I ached for every part of his being. I was sure now that he had too. Even now, after I was sure we had had our last fight, our last try to make it work, I was being drawn into a hole I was somehow never able to get all the way out of.

“Sookie.”

And with that, his lips were on mine. His cool lips which only a week ago, in the moments leading up to our fight, were kissing me with animosity and anger, were now kissing me with unbridled passion and lust. Bill reached around and unzipped my night gown while I clamped one hand around the back of his head, and the other to unbutton his pants.

Why couldn’t I just resist him? I knew I couldn’t be glamoured by vampires but Bill, I sometimes suspected had his own way of making me forget our issues and focus on the act of love making. And he was so easy to make love to.

He had the zipper down, and pulled my nightgown up over my head and threw it on the floor. I had nearly gotten his pants off at the same time when he suddenly picked me up and readjusted me on the bed, hovering over me momentarily and staring up and down the length of my body before stopping to look me in the eyes. Before I could react, his mouth found my breast, and his fingers found the warmth of another spot and entered me eagerly. He was calm and collected but, I could still sense the feeling of hunger in him as he replaced his fingers with his stiffness. And he was suddenly rough with it, his pent up desire suddenly unleashed.

“Bill…oh…my…” I couldn’t form the words. There were no words for what I was feeling then. Within what had to be less than thirty seconds, my panting and his prodding had turned into one of the fastest and strongest orgasms of my life.
“We’re just getting started,” he practically growled at me while he kissed up and down my neck, trailing down once again to my breasts.

One week away and this man was hungrier for me than I had ever seen him. As I was recovering from the sudden pleasure of what had just happened, he picked me up again, this time flipping me over and immediately entering me from behind. I could hear his fangs retract, and I was barely ready for it.

He grabbed me hard by my shoulders sinking his fangs into the soft pocket between my shoulder and my neck, all the while holding me to him with earnest. It seared for just a second, and then I was lost in the moment once again, having another orgasm I was sure was more powerful than the last. And with my release came Bill’s. He thrust powerfully in and out of me several more times, grunting each time, draining everything he had, before collapsing beside me, panting in the human way he knew I loved. Mine was of course naturally uncontrollable.

I rolled over beside him, and we both stayed still staring up at the ceiling for several minutes. Bill rolled over in my direction, propping himself up on his elbow next to me.

“You are wonderful Sookie. You never cease to amaze me. Your beautiful body, your eagerness to…”
“Bill,” I stopped him and paused. “What are we doing?”
“Well, I recall you just having what seemed to be two of the most powerful orgasms you’ve ever had with me,” he said coolly, with one eyebrow raised and a coy smile forming on one side of his mouth. “And I was fairly sure you were now recovering in a blissful state, as I was.”
“Well, yes,” and there was no denying what our bodies had just experienced as a whole but, it was our minds, and our future I was now concerned with.
“I’m not arguing that, but...I think you know what I was referring to.”
“Sookie, I don’t know.” He paused. “I just know that I love you. I love you more than words can describe. I hate that we have these fights. I hate separating from you before the sun comes each morning, let alone for days or even weeks at a time. I hate that you say you’ve forgiven me, all the while harboring some form of resentment for…”

After all this time of wondering if Bill was capable of the proper communication that normal relationships require, my vampire was finally speaking openly with his feelings, but I had to stop him.

“Bill, I don’t harbor resentment for what happened, I told you I’ve forgiven you. I understand now that you were protecting me. As hard as that was for me to accept, I get it.”
“Yes but what you say, and how you act are contradicting Sookie.” He moved slightly away from me now, his fists clenched beside him, and his face turned half away from me, as if he was trying to find his next phrase.
“I can see it when you look at me. I can feel it when you touch me.”
“Bill, I don’t know what you want from me. I mean you come here after a fight that I thought ended this…this relationship, and you ask me to stop seeing Eric? Eric, whom I have no choice but to see when he requires my unique services? I don’t get it Bill. What is going on here?”

And before he could answer, there was a knock at my front door.


Chapter 2

Who was here, in the middle of the night knocking on my door? As if I wasn’t already flustered enough, what with Bill barging in and having his way with me, when I should have been mad at him for quite some time longer. Okay, I had had my way with him as well but still. I threw a robe on and started down the stairs for the door. In the middle of the night, my visitor could only be a vampire I assumed. I didn’t need to use my telepathy to know that.

I peered through the window next to the door eyeing the tall devastatingly handsome blond vampire on my porch.

“Urggg…” I grumbled. This was not going to be a nice visit. “Eric, what do you want?” I sneered at him after I opened the door.
He looked me up and down, no doubt curious as to why I was so ‘awake’ at 3 a.m., and dressed rather skimpily in a blue silk robe rather than a more appropriate nightgown.

“Am I interrupting something beautiful?”
“Actually, you are.”
“And would that be Bill I smell?”
“Not that it’s any of your business…but yes.” I said, in an irritated tone.
“So what’s up Eric, this is a really bad time.”
“May I enter?” Not that he had to ask I suppose, since I was fairly certain I hadn’t rescinded his invitation to enter my home since the last time he was here, and I was fairly sure that my slamming the door in his face right now would cause extended troubles, no matter how good it would make me feel for a few wonderful seconds.
“Come on in then.” I said, one hand still grabbing heavily to the doorknob, while motioning with my other for the Viking to enter. I really hoped this would be quick, and I really, REALLY hoped Bill would stay in my bed while I figured out what the second vampire to visit me out of the blue tonight wanted.

Any hope I had for Bill to stay put was immediately shattered. Of course he’d want to see who was here, god forbid he be left in the dark about something, or leave me, poor defenseless Sookie, vulnerable and alone with a stranger calling on me in the middle of the night.
“Eric.” Bill said in a deep, angry voice.
“Bill! How nice it is to see you again.” Eric said, his tone much too cheerful to be anything but sarcastic.
I didn’t have to turn to look at Bill, who already had a hand placed protectively--jealously--on my back, to imagine the searing look he was giving Eric just then.
“Sookie, may I have a word…alone?” Eric said in his calm, collected, superior Eric voice.
I took a deep breath and turned to look at Bill, who nodded just barely, his lips turned up in a slight snarl. Geez…the last thing I needed right now was a vampire WWF fight in the middle of my living room.
“Bill, I just need to see what he wants. It’s okay.” I said quietly, taking Bill’s hand in mine for a moment, trying to be re assuring, though I wasn’t sure he deserved that much. I was still stunned that he had asked me to stop seeing Eric moments before I melted into a pool of desire in his arms, not even an hour ago. And I still didn’t know what he had meant. I was as confused as I had ever been about what Bill had meant, and what exactly his intentions for our future at this point were.

Bill didn’t say anything more, but I wasn’t going to let him control me right now.
I asked Eric if he wanted to go out on the front porch, rather than ask Bill to leave the room. Eric obliged, and followed me out the door, with Bill behind us, never taking his eyes off of us for even a second.
I turned back to Bill.

“Bill!” I said sternly. “I’ll be right back. Chill out!”

And then Eric and I were alone on the porch. Though we were no longer in the same room, I suspected Bill’s heightened sense of hearing would probably catch a glimpse, if not our entire conversation anyhow, but I was simply too exhausted to care. I figured Eric knew the same. Hell, he probably counted on it.

“Sookie, lover, please sit,” he said motioning to my grandmothers old two seat porch swing.
He called me lover. Was he trying to start a fight with Bill? The way the word lover rolled off his tongue, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t send shivers through my entire body. Eric and I had been just that. Lovers, even if he couldn’t remember. As far as I knew, he remembered nothing of our short time together---a short but satisfying time.

“Eric, what is it? I’m tired, it’s the middle of the night, I need sleep, remember, I’m human? We sleep at night?”
“Yes, you certainly are human Sookie,” he said, with a half smile forming on his beautiful white face.
“So?” I asked.
“I came to tell you something.”
So spit it out already Northman, I thought, but didn’t dare say out loud.
“I think I remember making love to you,” he said bluntly.
“You think…,” I swallowed. “…you remember?”

Was he for real? Was Eric seriously sitting on my porch right now, with Bill not six feet away from us on the other side of the wall, telling me he suddenly remembered our intimate tryst?

Eric leaned toward me and grabbed both my hands in his.

“I’m remembering parts…some more clearly than others, but not everything,” he said, sounding suddenly frustrated. “I thought I would be relieved to finally know what we did, to finally remember your beautiful body crushed next to mine but, I’m more irritated than ever because I’m only remembering it in pieces. Like a puzzle.”

I rolled my eyes.

“So you came here to tell me you remember ‘pieces’ of the time you spent here…that constitutes a middle of the night visit? You couldn’t have used a phone?”
“Yes, because I needed to see you…in the flesh so to speak, I thought somehow, talking about it with you would make me remember more. I thought you could tell me what you remember.”

Oh boy. What I remembered? What I remembered was everything. Every touch. Every kiss. That perfect ass. Every inch of the Viking’s body…EVERYTHING. And there was a lot of everything.

Eric had been very well endowed in all the right places. Making love to Eric was different than making love to Bill. In a matter of months, I had gone from being a 25-year-old virgin, to having two of what I would assume to be the worlds most skilled men in my bed; men who had obviously had a lot of practice. And though that should make a girl happily satisfied, my vampire lovers had only complicated my life further. And here was Eric, wanting a play by play. This was so not the right time for this conversation.

“Eric,” I said almost in a whisper. “We cannot have this conversation now.”
“Then when? I need to know Sookie. I’m not myself anymore because I can’t get you out of my head. And I’m upset about that.”

He let go of my hands and stood in front of me now, placing his large hands on both sides of my face.

“Okay, go back to Bill…for now. We’ll talk again.” And then he was gone.

In a matter of five minutes, Eric had somehow set up yet another hurdle in the soap opera that was my life. I dreaded going back in that house. I dreaded finishing the conversation I was having with Bill before Eric had knocked on my door. Mostly, I dreaded Bill’s jealousy. I wanted to melt into the porch swing and never get up. As it was, I was useless and sluggish from sleep deprivation, and still rattled, in a pleasantly euphoric way by the sex I had just had with Bill. I didn’t have to pry myself away from the swing after all.

Bill was standing in front of me now.

“Sookie,” he said quietly, in a raspy voice.
I looked up at him. “I’m too tired; I don’t want to talk about any of this tonight.”
“That’s fine then,” he said even quieter.
“Would you like me to put you back to bed?”
“You know, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Why don’t you just go home?”

He looked hurt now. But I was too tired and irritated to care. “Alright. I will call on you again tomorrow…if that’s okay.”

“Fine…whatever,” I said yawning, as I got up from the swing and headed for the door.

He was gone by the time I reached it.

CHAPTER 3


I woke up the next day just before noon. I was thankful that I was scheduled to work the late shift at Merlotte’s, since my sleep had been interrupted last night, first by Bill, and then by Eric. The still unfinished conversations I had had with both of them last night were fresh in my mind, clouding my psyche like soapy water. I needed a shower.

After I showered, I was starting to feel better, physically at least. But I couldn’t help but wonder when I would have to conclude the previous night’s conversations. Who would corner me first? My on again off again boyfriend Bill, or my one time lover, Eric?

As I drove to work, I tried to clear my head. It was Saturday, typically a busy night at the bar, so I knew it would be too hectic once I got there to think about anything besides my job. I hoped anyway. And that’s exactly how the night went. We were slammed actually, Karen, the new girl called in sick, and my Boss, Sam Merlotte, was even running tables, which was out of his typical realm of tending bar and doing paperwork in his office. I wouldn’t be surprised if I never saw Karen again. Sam was in a mood for sure.

By the end of my shift, I barely remembered thinking about the looming conversations ahead of me with the two vampires that were both on my last nerve.
“You can go ahead and take off Sook,” I heard Sam call from his office as I walked through the hallway to put away the mop and bucket I just used to clean the floors, which had been unusually filthy, even for a busy night.
“Thanks Sam,” I yelled back. I knew his mood was better after we had closed but I wasn’t going to risk any chit-chat.
“Good night then, see you Monday,” I said as I threw my balled up apron into the dirty linens bin.

As I walked out of the back door and headed toward the parking lot, I was not surprised to see Bill leaning against his dark blue BMW. Well, I knew it was coming didn’t I?

“Hi Bill,” I said, trying to sound like I wasn’t too annoyed.
“Sookie,” he said, as he nodded his head slightly.

I walked over and stood in front of him, wrapping my arms around myself like a sweater. It was mid March, and winter was definitely not ready to let spring in. It was still cold, and like an idiot, I left my jacket at home.

“You’re cold,” Bill said in a concerned voice as he reached to open the passenger side of his car. “Please, take a drive with me.”

As much as I didn’t want to, the idea of a warm car enticed me. So I got in, and Bill closed the door behind me. He got in, put the key in the ignition and then paused to look at me. Rather, stare at me.

“Yes?” I said wondering if he was expecting me to start the conversation.
“Nothing,” he said with a small smirk. “I was just thinking that you’re even beautiful when you smell like grease and spilled beer.”

Um…thanks? Was that a compliment or an insult? I wasn’t sure but I blushed a little either way. He looked away from me finally, and started the car. As we drove, neither of us spoke. There was no music, and the silence was unnerving. I was beginning to regret having ever agreed to take this drive. All I wanted to do was go home and wash away my greasy waitress smell, and any other problems a hot shower might help.

Finally, Bill pulled over after we had been driving for about ten minutes, and stopped the engine.

“Sookie, I’m sorry if I confused and angered you last night,” he started. “I’m not sure I approached it the right way.”
“Bill, I just don’t understand why out of the blue, you assume I’m involved with Eric,” I said, and I was about to ask him how much he knew about just how involved with Eric I had been, but he started telling me before I could even ask.
“I know you and Eric were intimate while he hid out at your house,” he said, with bitterness. “I know we were no longer together then but it’s not an image I can just get out of my head.”

I wondered how he had found out, not that I was ashamed or felt that I had done anything wrong. I was looking straight ahead staring out the windshield in front of me; he was doing the same, only wrapping his fingers tensely around the steering wheel while he spoke.

“I always knew, as I’m sure you always did, that Eric wanted you. I knew it from the very first time he laid his eyes on you. His desire grew with each meeting after that, I could sense it. And knowing that you could go to him if you so desired well; that was something that hovered over me, especially when I felt you were unhappy with me.”

If I hadn’t already suspected jealousy as a motive to Bill’s late night visit last night, I might have been surprised at his words, but I wasn’t. In fact I was starting to realize that jealousy was a fairly natural vampire trait—or at least a Bill trait. Not that it didn’t feel good to be desired so much by Bill, I was so attracted, and attached to him that it was hard for me sometimes not to jump on him and rip off his clothes when I saw him, even sitting next to him now. But Bill’s jealousy left me uneasy, and reminded me that that would be an awful idea, that would leave nothing resolved.

“You asked me if I had been there to apologize to you last night,” he said, now looking at me. “…and I meant what I said, that I still didn’t understand why you and I even had that fight last week.”

“Bill, do we even need a reason to fight anymore?” I asked, looking back at him, not actually expecting an answer. “I just don’t want to fight anymore. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I still have some unresolved feelings about our past, and all the things that happened. Like you said, you can’t get rid of the thoughts of Eric and me together; well I can’t just block the parts from our past from my memory either. I just…”

I turned away from him, staring through the passenger side window toward the dirt road that we had stopped on. I so didn’t want to cry, but I could feel the tears swelling, and my face getting hot. It was true; I had been lying to myself, and lying to Bill all this time. I did not completely forgive him for leaving me that December night, when he told me he was going to ‘Seattle’. Things had been going so well for me, that I was sure I would finally be happy. I finally felt like I had so much to be thankful for. I had the love of a man whose thoughts were a complete blank to me, and loved to love me, so I had thought. And he ruined it. He left me for his maker. And we had separated for a while after that, and when I finally let him explain his side to me, I believed him, when he said he had to leave to protect me. But I was just so bitter that my perfect world had disintegrated so quickly. I just wanted back what I had lost. I just wanted him. But I felt it was a losing, hopeless battle.

“Don’t cry Sookie,” Bill said as he put one hand on my face to turn my head toward him, and the other to wipe my tears away. “I just want to know what I can do to make you happy again.”
Couples counseling? I thought jokingly. I’d have to check the yellow pages, but certainly there must have been a therapist somewhere that offered their services at night, during vampire hours.
“Bill, I’m just not sure we can get back to happy. Ever.”
“So you need more time,” he said dropping his hands from my face and pausing for a moment. “I respect that Sookie, but I don’t like it.”
He paused again as if he had something else to say, but he didn’t. He started the car and drove me back to my car. The silence was even more uncomfortable than before we talked.

As we pulled into Merlotte’s parking lot, I saw my little yellow heap sitting right where I had parked it. I was dreading getting into that cold car. It would be a very cold ride home with no jacket. As I reached for the door handle to let myself out, Bill was already there to open it, as usual. I didn’t speak as I stepped from the warmth of his car.
“Sookie,” he said, as he reached in his back seat for something. “Take this.”
He handed me one of his long sleeved Henley’s that had been hanging up in a dry cleaner bag behind the passenger seat.
“Thank you,” I said, still trying to collect my disheveled thoughts.
“Would you like me to follow you home?” he asked, looking down toward his feet.
“No…thanks. I’ll be fine.”
As we parted back to our cars I already had a million thoughts running through my head. I just wanted to curl up into a ball in my warm bed and never come out.

I got into my ice cold car, and the tears came again before I could even shut the door. I sat for several minutes letting it all out. The confusion of what was next for Bill and I. The sadness and trepidation that I just now accepted still filled my heart. I made sure Bill was gone before I made my way home.

Of course, I wasn’t surprised when I saw Eric’s red corvette parked in my driveway.

CHAPTER 4

As I pulled in my driveway and parked my car next to Eric’s, I realized that he was nowhere in sight. I was stumbling to find my keys in my purse as I got out and walked up the stairs to my front door. As I started to put my key into the lock, I realized Eric must already be in my house, since the door was unlocked. Wonderful, there was nothing more annoying than an intrusive vampire making himself at home without your permission. As I walked in and closed the door behind me, I could hear soft music playing, and noticed there was a small fire started in the fireplace. What the hell was Eric up to?

“Hello?” I said as my eyes darted across the room. “Eric, you wanna tell me why you’re in my house…playing music…starting fires?” Intruding on my life, meddling in my affairs...
“Sookie,” I heard Eric say quietly.
I turned around and he was standing at the bottom of my stairs, wearing only jeans, no shirt, shoes, no socks…the top of a pair of black silk boxers were peeking out just above the waist of his jeans, and just below the muscles of the most perfect six-pack I had ever seen. Bill’s body was gorgeous but, Eric did have a slight edge in the muscle department.
“What the hell Eric?” I said both completely surprised at the sight, and I’d have to admit, a little aroused. “What are you doing in my house…wearing…no shirt?”
“Sookie, I thought we could re-enact my time here...please help me remember,” he said.

Was he joking? This was how he wanted me to remind him? No… he most definitely was not joking. I could see that much clearly from the heaping bulge in his pants.
“I know we were lying in front of that fire…,” he said motioning toward the fireplace as he started walking toward me. “...in that very spot, we were talking. Of course, I know we did more than just talk.” Oh yeah…we did much, much more, I thought.
I was still as a statue. I’d be a complete liar if I said I hadn’t thought myself of re-enacting every second of Eric’s time here. The pleasures I felt
with him fueled many of my lonely evenings during me and Bill’s first separation. But I knew that acting on any impulse other than to demand Eric to leave my house immediately, would be a very bad idea. But as he continued closer to me, I realized I couldn’t move. I was literally frozen in my place. And before I could think of what my next move should be, his lips were on mine.

Eric’s lips…they were amazing lips. The coolness of his mouth against my tepid human temperature was a perfect balance. We blended perfectly at that moment. But what the hell was I doing? I’m not the girl who has different men in her bed every night. I am NOT that girl! But I was seemingly unattached to Bill once again, and I had nothing left to argue in my head as I felt my own passion building.
So I reached my arms up and grabbed Eric’s face hard with both of my hands, and kissed back with all my strength. In return, he hunched down and grabbed both of my legs right at the base of my thighs, and lifted me easily up to him. As I wrapped my legs around his waist, he walked us over to the fire, where he had already placed a blanket and several pillows. Damn him. He knew I wouldn’t be able to resist. He had a plan.
“Sookie…lover,” he said, I could feel the hunger in his voice as he unwrapped my legs from him and placed me on the blanket by the fire. “Undress now.”

Ay-yay captain! I thought jokingly, as I immediately pulled off the Henley Bill had given me when he dropped me off, then my Merlotte’s tee. Eww…that reminded me…I really needed a shower.
“Eric…shower…” I said between breaths, he was on his knees in front of me, kissing the side of my neck…nibbling my earlobe.
“Well, why didn’t you say so? I seem to remember showering with you as well before,” he said, with a devious look on his face as he grabbed me and pulled me from the floor and into his arms. As he carried me up the stairs, he never took his eyes off of mine. He set me down in front of the bath tub and reached in to turn on the shower. While we waited for it to get hot, I began undoing his jeans, as he reached forward to undo my bra which came off easily. He stepped out of his jeans and reached for my black winter weather work pants, and I slid out of them. Standing there in front of Eric in only my panties, looking at him, wearing only his silk boxers…we stared at each others bodies for a moment, silent.
“I have thought about this moment for many nights Sookie. I knew eventually I would see you naked again…I just didn’t think it would be this easy,” he said with a half smirk on his face.
“Yes you did,” I replied with an equally devious grin.
“Now take off your panties,” he commanded softly. I complied.
“Now take off yours…I mean those…” I smiled, and I could feel my cheeks redden.

We stepped into the shower and he immediately pulled me to him, wrapping his arms around me tightly.
“This is one of the pieces I remember Sookie,” he said looking down at me. Eric was so much taller than me that I had to contort my neck just to look back up at him. He grabbed the bottle of lavender scented body wash I had picked up on sale at Wal-Mart last week, and squirted some into his left palm. Still with his arms wrapped around me, he placed the bottle back on the utensil rack, and rubbed his hands together behind my back. The calming scent of lavender mixed with Eric’s massaging hands on my back relaxed me.
“Mmm…” I sighed, closing my eyes and leaning into his chest. I was eye level with his rock hard nipples and wanted nothing more than to wrap my mouth around one of them. So I did. He was still rubbing my back, while I gently sucked first his left nipple, and then his right.
“You’re teasing me Sookie,” he said in a soft deep voice. Things were getting steamy, and I’m not talking about the shower.
We were definitely close enough to progress this rendezvous further…and so we did. He leaned down to kiss me again, finding my lips with his quickly as he placed one hand on the back of my head, and reached between my thighs with the other. His hands were big…I remembered that too. He was pretty much big everywhere. I moaned enough to have to let up on the kissing for a moment and catch my breath, and he was more than ready to replace the hand between my thighs with something else even bigger.

As he entered me, I let out a loud gasp, forgetting that to take in all of Eric required my body to be completely relaxed. As I let the tension out of my muscles, he pushed the rest of his length in easily. He pressed me up against the shower wall with the first thrust, and reached down and propped one of my legs up on the edge of the tub for better leverage. We were moving now in a perfect rhythm, and it felt amazing. We were kissing more passionately now, our bodies moving in unison. My entire body was tingling; the feelings only excelled when Eric’s mouth left mine and latched on to my left breast, his fangs retracting simultaneously. I wanted him to bite me; I was ready to feel the rush. He tilted his head to look up at me, never slowing down the rhythm of his hips, and bit down just at the outer circle of my areola, never taking his eyes off of mine, and drew. Of course if he had taken his eyes from mine, I wouldn’t have noticed after that moment because I was no longer seeing straight. I was seeing bright lights, as my eyes rolled back into my head, my body banging against the shower wall. And then Eric jerked, and made a brutal throaty sound, pushing into me with a few final hard thrusts. He wrapped both of his arms completely around me, crushing my breasts to his chest, and held me for a long moment, still inside of me. I was out of breath…of course he had no breath to speak of but, he also seemed a bit worn out—if such a thing was possible for someone with no pulse.

After we pried our bodies from one another, He leaned in and kissed me gently on my lips.
“That was what I was trying to remember,” he said, closing his eyes, and breathing in my scent. “You smell…and feel…and taste, so good. Now…you finish washing, while I go down stairs and check on the fire.”
“Um…” I said, still trying to remove myself from the security of the wall that was keeping my knees from buckling. “…okay…yeah…I’ll just…wash…my hair then.”

I could hardly think, or place a correct thought, let alone speak coherently, I was so euphoric…still tingling. Eric leaned in and kissed the top of my head, pulling back to reveal a warm smile before stepping out of the tub. Wait…that look…that was the amnesia Eric look I remember falling for. Was it possible that real Eric could be anything like amnesia Eric? I wondered as I washed my hair. I seriously doubted it, but couldn’t help but wonder. Of course, the more I wondered about Eric, I couldn’t help but think about Bill. Bill’s request the other night, and his obvious confliction with Eric, had rattled me. But now I was having another feeling…guilt. I mean, Bill and I weren’t exactly in any way in a stable relationship; that much was clear. And officially, if we were being technical, Bill and I were on a break. So why was I feeling like I just cheated on him?

I stepped out of the shower and headed for my dresser to grab a night gown. As I walked downstairs to find Eric, I couldn’t shake my thoughts of Bill. What would I say to him the next time I saw him? Not that I had planned on seeing him in the immediate future but, I was sure he had other ideas. I certainly had a lot to think about. What was I doing with Eric though? This was Eric I was talking about; the powerful-cares-about-no-one-but-Eric, vampire Sheriff. And there was more of my confusion. When Eric and I were in the shower moments earlier, I felt like he cared about me. Certainly it had seemed that way hadn’t it?

When I got downstairs, Eric was in the kitchen with his back to me on his cell phone, wearing only his boxers. I could hear bits of his conversation from where I stood in the living room. I didn’t know who he was talking to but he sounded upset.
“…I will be there…yes she will go…” he said in a somewhat commanding tone into the phone. “…no, don’t bother…I’ll deal with it…no, that won’t be necessary.” And then he hung up and turned toward me with a startled look on his face. It wasn’t easy to startle a vampire, least of all Eric. So I sensed that all was not well in the world of vampire politics once again. That was my guess anyway.
“Eric, is something wrong?” I asked, suddenly realizing his conversation had something to do with me. “What was that about?”
“Nothing, I have to go now Sookie,” he said as he started toward the living room stairs.
“I don’t understand. Who was on the phone?” I asked as I followed him up the stairs into the bedroom while he grabbed his jeans from the bathroom floor. He didn’t say anything.

“ERIC!” I said much louder and obviously more demanding. “What is wrong? Why are you leaving so fast?”
“Sookie, I cannot tell you…not right now anyway,” he said without even so much as looking in my direction as he hurried out the bedroom door for the stairs.
“So that’s it. You came here to screw me and now you’re using that phone call as an excuse to leave?” We were at the front door already; he had his shirt and shoes on in a matter of seconds, and paused as he grabbed the door handle.
“Sookie, don’t be a child,” something came up and I am needed elsewhere. “I will call you again.”
His words felt like a slap to my face, and I could feel the damn waterworks coming on. I can’t believe I was so stupid. The real Eric had finally had his way with me and was done. Any thoughts I had of amnesia Eric’s personality coming back were quickly crushed.
“Please don’t!” I snarled at him as he walked out the door. He started to turn around to say something when he was on the porch but I had already slammed the door in his face.

CHAPTER 5

I headed upstairs for bed almost immediately after Eric left, and was almost instantly struck with an overwhelming sense of uncertainty and hurt…hurt is the only label I could put on how Eric made me feel right now. Of course I could add embarrassed, used, manipulated.
I had the next two days off of work, which under normal circumstances would have been a welcome vacation, but after Eric’s bitter departure, alone time was probably the last thing I needed. I didn’t want any ‘free-time’ to translate into ‘thinking’ time, because I had so much of it to do.
I woke up late the next day; it was already two in the afternoon. That was one of the down sides to being involved intimately with vampires. You tended to develop nocturnal habits; staying up all night, and sleeping all day. And though it had been quite pleasurable while it had lasted with Eric the previous night, his parting had been anything but satisfying. I really needed to get out of the house and clear my head. I did have a few errands to run anyhow, I needed to return a few books to the library, and I hadn’t been grocery shopping in over two weeks so the cupboards were quite bare and ready for restocking.

And then I remembered there was another imminent conversation lingering on the horizon. I knew it was only a matter of time before Bill would be ready to ‘chat’ again. That thought motivated me to hurry up and get out of the house so I could let my brain think about other things.
By the time I was done with my errands and ready to head home, I realized I had burned several hours, as it was already getting dark. Day light savings time wasn’t for another week, and that meant my sleeping late during the winter often led to me having little daylight for other things.
As I pulled up my driveway, I saw there was a shiny black sedan with very dark windows parked in front of my house. It was as close to a limousine as anyone in my tiny town of Bon Temps was probably used to seeing.
The car came to a stop just beside my car, and the driver’s side door opened almost immediately. A tall thin man with a graying beard, wearing what I assumed to be a chuffer’s uniform stepped out.
“Evening miss,” he said with a large cheerful smile on his face. “Are you Miss Stackhouse?”
“Uh…yes, and you are?”
“The name’s Albert Mason ma’am, I was sent by Eric Northman. I’ve been hired to drive you to Shreveport.”
“Shreveport?” I said with surprise. “Eric sent you?”
“Yes ma’am. Said you’d probably be angry when I told you, but to explain that he was sorry about his hasty exit last night and to tell you that he will enlighten you with further details when you see him this evening.”
“Well I find that rather presumptuous of Mr. Northman, since I have no intention or desire to see him this evening or any other evening for that matter.” I said rather snottily to the driver. I realized he was just the courier here; the phrase ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ had entered my mind, but I was so irked by Eric at that moment that I didn’t apologize for my tartness.
“Mr. Northman said you might say that,” he said, his smile fading to a seriously stern look. “He told me to tell you that it was of the utmost importance that you come at once. He said your life may depend on it.”
My life? Why am I not surprised, I thought. Since I had started associating with vampires, and others in the supernatural realm that had encased my existence, my life had been threatened more times than I cared to remember. I had been beaten, bitten, and all but broken more times than the average person could live through. I was a glutton for supernatural punishment, and once again, I realized I had no choice but to go see Eric. To find out what dire circumstances had once again threatened my well being.
“Well then,” I said bitterly, my lips forming in a straight line. I paused to think for a moment. “I guess I have no choice in the matter. Can you just give me ten minutes to put these groceries away?”
“Oh, certainly Miss,” he said, wearing a now satisfied look on his face. I imagined Eric would have been very disappointed with Mr. Mason had he not succeeded in convincing me to come to Shreveport.
As I walked to the sedan, after putting away the groceries and locking up the house, the chauffeur opened the rear passenger door so I could get in.

So there I was; any of my own plans for the night completely shifted and controlled by Eric, with my life hanging in the balance.
The drive to Shreveport seemed to pass fairly quickly. I would have liked more time to gather my thoughts, as unorganized as they were. As we pulled into the mostly empty parking lot at Fangtasia, I saw that it hadn’t yet opened for business. On some nights, I had remembered Bill saying, the bar didn’t open until eight or later, I guessed to give the vampires ample time to wake up. It was only seven fifteen.
When the car parked, Mr. Mason immediately came to open my door. As I stepped out, I had to take a few deep breaths in preparation for whatever was coming, but it really didn’t help at all. I was as prepared to see Eric as I was for a root canal.
Mr. Mason knocked three quick raps at the door, and Pam opened it after about a minute.

“Well hello Sookie,” Pam said in her typical droll tone, she apparently didn’t feel the need to acknowledge the chauffer’s presence. After all, he was just a worker bee I gathered.
“Hi Pam,” I responded drearily.
“Come on in, Eric has been waiting for you.” She looked at the chauffeur and said. “You may wait outside.”
As I walked through the hallway with Pam, I could feel a lump grow in my throat.
“So, I hear you’re mad at Eric,” Pam said with half a smirk growing on her face.
“Word travels fast,” I replied, not completely shocked that she knew something about what had happened, but a little bewildered as to why she thought it necessary to bring it up.
“You know, he’s only looking out for you.”
“Well maybe Eric needs to learn how to communicate better. If he had told me why he needed to leave so abruptly…” I didn’t finish my sentence before I was already standing in front of Eric’s office.
“Come in,” Eric said from his office chair. “Sookie, you’re looking ravishing as usual.”
“Eric,” I said coldly, not giving him the pleasure of a smile.
“Pam, leave Sookie and I and close the door?” He said.
“Yes sir,” she said. “Good to see you again Sookie. Don’t be too hard on him.”
“Pam,” Eric said sharply. “That will be all.”

And with that I was alone with Eric once again.
“Please, sit,” he motioned to a black leather couch. The same couch that had served as a makeshift hospital bed for myself after I was attacked by an angry maenad out to give Eric a message last year. Unfortunately she chose me to deliver it. I shivered just thinking about it. Eric got up from his desk chair and sat next to me; a bit too close for my liking.
“What’s going on Eric?” I said, glancing at him for half a second.
“Do you hate me?” he asked, actually looking concerned. I didn’t respond to that because it caught me off guard. “I am sorry that I could not explain to you last night. I didn’t have enough information at the time.”
“And you do now.” I said not making it a question.
“Yes, well, more information at least.”
“So?” I said, finally looking at him for an answer.
“First, you didn’t answer my question,” he said.
“Do you hate me?” He asked again.

I hesitated because half of me wanted to say; ‘Hell yeah I hate you, you no-good-bloodsucking-son-of-a-bitch!’, and the other half wanted and needed an explanation and knew I’d better not piss him off if I expected to get it.
“You really…” I paused. Did I really want him to know just how bad he hurt me? That calling me a child and running out on me had given me a reality check that reminded me of his true colors? Colors I was starting to think, up to that point, might actually have subsided enough for us to have…I dare say, a relationship? “I’m upset yes.”
“And that still does not tell me if you hate me,” he said.
“Geez. No Eric, I don’t hate you,” I snapped. “I think you’re a real jerk, but I’m above hating people. There, are you happy now? ”
“Yes, very,” he said smiling coyly, knowing full well that there was a nice comfortable bed for him just under my skin, and I was never going to get him out.
“Sookie, I have learned some disconcerting news. It seems that you have a price on your head.”
Well that rattled me. “What!?” I said now looking directly at him.
“Sookie, you are more valuable than you realize.”
“Explain?”
“It seems that your, abilities, have not gone unnoticed by others. You’re a woman of much fame in several other states I’m learning.”
“And?” I said.
“You’re wanted by the King of California. And if he doesn’t get you willingly, he will get you by force. Or at least he’ll try.”
“Wait, hold on.” I put my hand up in a stopping motion, shaking my head in disbelief, just trying to get a grasp on what he was telling me. “Who is the King of California, and why would this be any different than the other work I’m usually commissioned to do?”
“His name is Jasper Price, and it’s different because,” he paused and looked away from me. “He wants you permanently.”
Permanently. The word sent a disbelieving shiver from my head to my toes. “And I’m to go to him? Or he’ll come get me?”
“He will,” Eric said sternly. “But we are taking measures to prevent that. After I left your house last night, I made arrangements for you to leave Louisiana. I have spoken to Sam, and I will be having one of my employees sub for you while you’re away.”

I was flabbergasted for a variety of obvious reasons.
“Oh, and you will be traveling with Bill,” he added, which stunned me further. If Eric had arranged for me to travel with Bill, I figured he had no plans for the two of us to pick up where we left off last night. If he was ‘hooking me up’ so to speak with my on again off again boyfriend for this trip, he must want me to move on and forget our rendezvous. I should have been far more concerned with my new life threatening, or at least freedom threatening problem but, I couldn’t shake the feeling of being used by Eric. And then again, maybe I was reading into this ‘Bill’ thing too much.

But I couldn’t let it go.

“Why Bill?” I asked.
“He is the obvious choice. Certainly I cannot accompany you, I have too much here to leave unattended, and besides, I thought that would please you.”
“Eric, you are so damn confusing,” I said angrily, my eyebrows pressed together in frustration.
“What was the point of last night if you were just going to throw me at Bill the first chance you got? Was I just a conquest for you? Why did you set up that whole charade if you had no intention of us…” he stopped me with a finger pressed against my lips.
“Sookie, that was not my intention,” he said with a look of genuine concern and rue. “If I hadn’t received that phone call last night, I would have been obliged to stay and make love to you for the rest of the night. That call changed everything.”
“Are you going to tell me who was on the phone then?”
“Sookie, that is unimportant. What is important is getting you out of here as soon as possible. I have arranged for you two to stay in Nevada, Lake Tahoe actually. You’re leaving tonight.” I wondered why he chose Nevada, but I figured I would find out eventually so I didn’t ask.
“Tonight? That’s all the time you’re giving me? What about my clothes? I need to call my brother and let him know I’m leaving. What about…” He stopped me again.
“I have arranged for you to purchase clothes when you get to your destination, and you can call your brother from the plane.” I was trying to take in all the information I had received on such short notice, and come up with some kind of argument against it…well screw California, why should I have to disrupt my life yet again just because someone wants to use me for their own gain…he’ll just have to try to come and get me…fat chance! But I couldn’t realistically say any of that. I was going on a trip, weather I liked it or not. As it started to sink in, there was a knock on the door.
“Bill,” Eric said after he opened the door. “You are ready I presume?”
“Yes, Albert is waiting to drive us to the airport.” Bill said, glancing first at Eric, then at me. “Sookie. Are you ready?”
“Ready?” I said looking at Bill with a clearly frustrated face. “Bill…I’m still tryin’ to comprehend the fact that I’m coveted by some sleazy vampire in California…I am far from ready. But yeah, I guess I have no choice but to be.”

I looked at Eric, still confused about his intentions with me personally. But I knew that would have to wait. I was going to Nevada.

Chapter 6

As Bill and I headed out the back door of Fangtasia, he grabbed me by the waist and pulled me to him just in front of the car.
“Sookie,” he said looking serious as the night is dark. “I will protect you. You don’t need to worry when you’re with me.”
I swallowed. “Bill,” I said looking up into his eyes, grasping tightly to his waist. But I couldn’t get any more words out before I started to choke up. I was truly terrified about what this impromptu trip to Nevada would entail. I was confused about my relationships with my two ever-competing vampires. And I was just trying to figure out how my life got to this point. When does it get easier to be me?
“It’s okay sweetheart. It’ll be okay, I promise,” he said, and then he lightly pressed his lips to mine for a few long seconds. He had started to ease my mind I had to admit. Not because I actually believed that all would be well soon, but because I remembered how safe I felt in his arms. I remembered why I had felt guilty about sleeping with Eric, not twenty four hours after I had slept with Bill. Bill was a good man. He was. All faults, all differences aside, he cared about me. A quality that I wasn’t sure Eric would ever possess completely.

Bill continued hugging me for a few seconds before letting go and opening the door for me to get in the back seat of the sedan. He scooted in close next to me, pulling my body as close to him as possible and started stroking my hair. It felt nice. He felt nice. I was starting to forget why I was ever mad at him to begin with. Maybe this trip could be a do-over for us. Maybe I would finally have enough sense to move on, finally forgive and forget. I was willing to try.

We got to Shreveport Regional Airport within fifteen minutes of leaving Fangtasia. I couldn’t believe that within a matter of an hour, my life had been spun in a completely different, and once again precarious, direction. I had never been to Nevada, though I had certainly heard of Lake Tahoe. I remembered learning in high school geography class that it was the second deepest lake in the United States, and the tenth deepest in the world. Why I remembered these minute facts now was beyond me. I just wanted to get to wherever it was we were staying, and get whatever was coming over with. Of course nothing in my life is ever that simple.

We didn’t need to fly on Anibus, (the licensed and bonded vampire airline of choice) this time, because we would be in Tahoe well before the sun came up. I remembered how different my first plane ride last year had been, when Bill and I had flown to Dallas for business. Bill rode in his coffin below, and I rode with the human passengers above. I was glad to have him here with me now.

I slept for most of the flight, though I can’t say it was a comfortable sleep. We arrived at the Reno-Tahoe airport at about 2:30 a.m. where another driver was waiting to take us to our hotel which he said was about another hour by car. I knew that by the time we got to our hotel and got situated in our room, Bill would need to get into a coffin, because we were running out of time before the sun would come up. I’m sure that if it wasn’t still dark out, and I wasn’t so tired, I would have enjoyed the scenery more. I could smell the scent of fresh pine and a mixture of other scents from the forest as I rolled the window down slightly to let some fresh air in. As we drove South around the East side of the lake, toward Stateline Nevada, where we had a hotel room waiting, I caught a glimpse of the moon on the massive body of water like a reflection on dark tinted glass. It looked so serene. Of course, it only made me think about how my life was anything but ‘serene’ at the moment. Geez Sookie, get a hold of yourself! I thought. My gran had taught me better than to feel sorry for myself, and I was doing a pretty good job of not taking her words into consideration right now. I needed sleep. If I could just get to a bed, I’d feel better, I was sure of it.

When we pulled up in front of our hotel, The Remington Hotel & Casino, I noticed a sign that read; ‘Welcome to The Remington, Tahoe’s first and only vampire owned and run hotel and casino’. In small print underneath it read, ‘Sleep knowing you’re safe and secure; we’ll be waiting to entertain you when you wake’, while another sign read ‘All you can drink TrueBlood buffet only $8.99’.

“Sookie,” Bill said opening the door to get out as I yawned with my arms stretched. “I’m going to need to get in a coffin as soon as possible when we get up there, but Eric gave me specific instructions for you to stay in the room until I wake. Can you promise me you will?”
“Okay Bill, whatever you say,” I was too tired to argue. “I will explain the details of this trip then.”

As we walked in and headed for the check in counter in the lobby, I glanced around the massive expanse of the casino. I had nothing to compare it to but, to me it was enormous. I gathered that the lack of gamblers in this vampire accommodating casino could be credited to the fact that dawn was approaching. I had never been to Las Vegas or any other casino town, but I knew that generally, casinos never closed, and tourists and gambling addicts alike could be found plopped down at the slot machines and tables 24-hours a day. This was obviously a casino that was used to seeing a larger vampire clientele.

After Bill checked us in, we got onto the nearest elevator and headed up to our room, on the 14th floor.
“Here we are, room 1408,” Bill said as he put the card key in the slot. The room was quite large I thought. There was a small refrigerator with a microwave on top of it, the inside stocked with TrueBlood. The bathroom was nearly as big as the main room I could see from the open door, and included a full size Jacuzzi tub. I wondered if Bill and I would end up in there together at some point during the trip. Hey, how could it not cross my mind right? The bed was very big, a California King, Bill said (coincidentally two words I now shuddered to hear in the same sentence). Of course I wondered if we’d end up together in that big bed as well. Just on the other side of the bed was a coffin. I wondered how Bill felt about sleeping in a coffin that wasn’t his own, but then again what’s the difference, I had to sleep in a bed that wasn’t mine, right? I plopped down on the bed, more than ready to catch some Z’s.

“Sookie,” Bill said as he sat down leaning over me, placing a hand on my thigh. “I know this was very sudden, and I know you have only a vague idea of what is happening but…” he stopped, noticing that I was already falling asleep. “Okay, we’ll talk tonight.” He leaned down and touched his lips to my cheek gently.

And so we slept. We had both done a great job of passing the daytime hours by sleeping. I guessed my jet lag had helped that some. Bill woke me up just past six o’clock.
“Sookie…Sookie,” he said gently in my ear, shaking me lightly. “Wake up sweetheart.”
“Hmmm…Bill?” I had to open my eyes for a moment to recall where I was and why I was there. “Oh, what time is it?” I said yawning, stretching my arms out in front of me.
“It’s a quarter after six. You slept right through the daylight Sookie,” he said, with a smirk. “You know it’s oddly funny how you seem to be good at keeping vampire hours.”
I smiled back, as Bill looked down at me. He was lying next to me, stroking my hair again.
“Bill, what’s going to happen to me?” I asked, rolling over on the bed to face him. “What’s the plan?”
“Nothing is going to happen to you. We’re going to take care of this. That’s why we’re here.”
“But I thought I was here to hide out?” I said, realizing suddenly that Bill knew more than he had let me in on up to this point. “Bill?” He dropped his gaze from me quickly.
“Sookie, you have to pay Jasper Price a visit. We tried to get you out of it but, it simply was not possible.”
“What?” I said stunned and sat up. I wondered why we had been sent to stay in a city that was so close to the California Nevada border, I mean the city is called Stateline for goodness sake. I should have known that my proximity to California meant I wasn’t going to be able to get out of seeing the King completely.
“Why didn’t you tell me this? I thought you said everything was going to be taken care of. Bill, I have no idea what the hell is going on right now. This is ridiculous!”
“Sookie,” Bill said sternly, grabbing me by both shoulders and pulling me closer to him. “I received a call from Eric just before I woke you. He said he was on the phone off and on for several hours last night after we left Shreveport, trying to negotiate some kind of an agreement with Jasper. He said Jasper refused any agreement and demanded to see you in person. He’s upset that there is even a debate on our end for you to go to him. He doesn’t seem to understand how important you are to the Louisiana vampires. But he figures if you are that valuable to us, you should be his.”
“His?” I asked stunned. “What do you mean…his? Like his human pet?”
“Well…sort of, I mean…” Bill said, his voice shaky. And I could tell he was getting angry just thinking about what the king wanted from me.
“Sookie, we know that Jasper wants you for your abilities, just as you have helped Eric in the past, he expects you will make a nice addition to his servant staff. Only we believe he wants you at his disposal, which means he plans on keeping you at his compound, which means he more than likely also expects…” Bill paused and I could see him getting even angrier. “I suspect he expects you will serve well as a blood provider just as his other humans do.”

I felt the vomit rise in my throat as I stood up and ran toward the bathroom. I made it to the toilet in just enough time to puke. It wasn’t like me to just throw up at the thought of something, hell; I rarely even puked when I was sick. But the very thought of being someone’s blood and sex slave; I couldn’t stomach it, literally. I stood over the sink when I was done and splashed some cold water on my face. Looking in the mirror, I wanted to cry. But as I stared at myself, the tears never came. I guess I tapped dry.

Bill was already standing in the doorway looking at me. He looked like I felt.
“Sookie, we aren’t going to let anything happen to you, you have to believe that. Eric plans on meeting us down here as soon as he can, so we won’t have to face the King alone.”
“Bill, who’s to say that he won’t just kill you both to get what he wants?” I asked.
“He is powerful, no doubt, but there are still rules and laws that all vampires must abide by, even kings. He cannot simply take what isn’t his, let alone kill another vampire for it.”
“So why all the run around here? Why Stateline Nevada? Why not take me right to him in the first place, and get this over with if I have to go to him anyway?” I asked. “Tell him straight out that I am protected. Surely he can’t just have me…right?”

“Sookie, it’s all happened so fast, Eric and I weren’t exactly sure what to do at first, but,” he said, pausing. “We both knew that there was a strong likelihood that you would have to see him. If he had agreed to Eric’s negotiation, then I wouldn’t have to tell you any of this and this trip would be more pleasure than business. So we chose a central location. Out of his territory, but close enough to go by car.”
“So then, how close are we?” I asked.
“Jasper’s compound is in the Sierra’s, on the West side of the Lake, in a town called Last Chance. It’s about an hour drive up the Northern side of the lake.”
“Last Chance. You’re serious.” I said making it more of a dumbfounded statement than a question. I figured it wasn’t a coincidence that a vampire king would choose a location aptly named to scare curious visitors from poking around.
“Yes, I’m serious. It’s an old ghost town that hasn’t had any actual residents in more than fifty years. That is except for Jasper Price and his entourage.”
“So when are we going?” I asked.
“Well, I’m still waiting for word from Eric. He’s arranging the meeting. The king is out of the area on business for two more days. So we just have to sit tight and wait.”

Oh yeah, because I could really sit tight at a time like this. We both stood fairly motionless for a few moments, I was still leaning against the bathroom sink wondering if I was going to puke again.

“So, do you want to get ready and go to dinner? You need to eat something.” Bill asked. One thing I always appreciated about Bill was his willingness to take me out to dinner even though he didn’t eat. “There’s really no point in staying here thinking about something we won’t even be doing for another two days. I have a credit card for you to use at the boutiques in the shopping village across the street. We could head over there and get you some clothes for the rest of the trip, and then dinner?”

Well, I was feeling a bit on the rancid side. I was wearing the same clothes I had on the day before, and now I had slept in them for more than fourteen hours straight.
“Okay, that might be a good idea.” I said. “Bill.”
“Yes?” he said.
“Promise me you won’t let anything happen to me. I’m a big girl but…even big girls need some reassurance. And I’m just too overwhelmed to reassure myself right now.”
“Sookie,” he said, and he walked over to me, holding me to him in an almost bear hug, allowing me to place my head on his chest. “If anything happened to you, it would destroy me.” He brushed the hair away from my face placed his hand under my chin tilting my head to look at him. “I promise this will work out,” he said and then paused. “I love you.”

Even if I wasn’t sure about our future together, I couldn’t deny him the words; because I felt it too. “I love you too.”
And then he leaned in and kissed me softly on the lips, I definitely didn’t stop him.

CHAPTER 7

I had never been in a casino before we had walked into The Remington last night, so when Bill and I walked through the casino on our way out of the hotel to go shopping, I couldn’t help but be drawn in by the lights, the noise, and the crowd. The Remington was bustling now that the vampires were up. And it was quite a sight to see so many mainstreaming vampires in one room.

“This is nothing, you should see Vegas,” Bill said, apparently he had noticed my preoccupation with the excitement.
“Here, give one of the slots a spin,” he said handing me a $20 bill.
“Okay,” I smiled at him and spun around to the nearest slot machine. It was a Wheel of Fortune $1 slot machine; like the TV show, it came complete with a giant wheel at the top. I was a little embarrassed that I had no clue what to do.
“See, you put the bill in here, and it will show you how many credits you have over here.” He said, inserting the bill into the machine and pointing at the small screen that instantly lit up 20 credits.
“So then you just pull the handle and if you win the money falls out the bottom?” I asked.
“Well, they used to work that way,” he said. “But now if you win, it prints a single paper ticket which you must take to the cashier to collect. And you no longer have to pull the handle, you just press a button.”

Darn, I thought. I had been hoping to see mounds of coins fall into my hands when I won a big jackpot--wishful thinking--but, I guess I’d just have to settle for a piece of paper.
“Go ahead, press the button,” Bill said flashing a playful smile at me. “And bet maximum credits, you’ll win more that way. You never win big on single credits.”
“Okay,” I said pressing the button labeled spin. A light suddenly flashed, and a recording of a simulated crowd blared ‘Wheel-of-fortune!’
“See, now you get to spin the big wheel and wherever the arrow lands, you win that amount.” The wheel had slots labeled from $25 to $1,000. I was already feeling excited that I had only bet three dollars and I was automatically going to win at least $25. I pressed the button and the wheel began spinning, blaring another recording, this time of a wheel spinning loudly. I crossed my fingers as the wheel came to a stop.

“Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! $500!” I started jumping up and down screaming. “Bill I won $500!”
“I know.” He said smiling, trying to calm me down, as a crowd started to form around us. “What can I say Sookie, must be beginners luck.”
“What do I do now?” I asked still in a happy shock.
“Well, some people say its best to quit while you’re ahead.”

Without a word I smacked my hand down on the cash out button and printed my ticket which read $517. I had bought $10 in lottery tickets the day I turned 18, and didn’t win a dime. I had no desire to ever gamble again, but then, I had never been to a casino before.
I had just spent three dollars (well, technically Bill spent three dollars) and came out with $517. Now I completely understood why people got addicted to gambling. What a rush!

“So, I guess this is at least half yours right?” I said grinning at Bill, holding the ticket stretched between both of my hands. “Oh, you can pay me back in another way, and we’ll call it even.”
“Oh really?” I said giggling, realizing what Bill meant, because he was suddenly in a flirty mood.

He clutched my hand, and led me to the cashier.
“Hi, I guess I’d like to cash this.” I said beaming to the woman behind the counter who was obviously a vampire.
“Big winner I see,” she answered back nonchalantly, glancing at Bill without making even an attempt for eye contact with me. She was obviously irritated at the thought of a human winning a large sum of money at a vampire casino.
“How would you like your bills? She asked in the same mundane tone.
“Oh, um…Bill?”
“Hundred’s will be fine,” he replied for me.
“As you wish…One…two…” she said counting them into my hand on at a time. “…and two makes five hundred seventeen. Will that be all?”
“Um yes, thank you.” I said to the vampire who was already looking past me at the next person; make that vampire, in line. She was smiling at him of course.

After placing the wad of bills in my handbag, Bill grabbed my hand again squeezing tightly before holding it up to his lips to kiss it gently.
“Sookie, shall we shop now that you have gotten gambling out of your system?” He asked.
“Well if I win like that every time, I’m not sure it will ever be out of my system.” I replied, as he gave me a questioning glance. “I know, quit while I’m ahead. I got it.” He smiled at that, and we walked outside.

The air was chilly to say the least when we stepped out into the night, and I had a moment to be thankful that I had at least been wearing jeans, a sweater and a jacket before leaving my house for Fangtasia when this trip came about so abruptly yesterday. There were still patches of snow on the ground in Stateline, though it had obviously been sitting there for many days without a fresh layer. Bill had said it would be cold, but Tahoe usually didn’t see much snow after mid march.

“So, where are we shopping?” I asked, linking our arms together for warmth as we started for the crosswalk.
“Well, there are several boutiques in Heavenly Village across the street,” he said. “And I’m sure you will find at least one of them to suit your tastes.”
“Oh I’m sure I will. And, since I won that money…”
He stopped me. “Oh no Sookie, that will not be necessary. This sudden jaunt forced you here with nothing but the clothes on your back. You will not be paying for anything on this trip, so don’t bother trying.” He said smiling crookedly at me.
“Well at least let me pay for my own dinner when we go.”
“We’ll see,” he said, though I had a feeling he wasn’t going to let me either way.

The shopping center was buzzing with people, both humans and vampires. There were rows of café’s and boutiques, as well as several ski shops, appropriately positioned next to a row of gondola’s that Bill said were used to transport skiers to the top of the mountain, that seemed to slope up into the sky. I was awestruck at the mountains above, what I could see of them in the dark anyway.
“The gondola’s belong to the ski resort called Heavenly,” Bill explained. “Thus the name ‘Heavenly Village’.” It was obvious that Bill had been here before but then again, I assumed there were very few cities he hadn’t been in his long life.

The first store we came to was called Pazzazz, and we went inside. Bill sat on a bench near the front of the store while I browsed. I immediately liked several things I saw. There was a really cute outfit on one of the mannequins in the storefront window. It was just jeans and a fairly simple sweater but I liked it. I immediately searched the racks for the same ensemble, throwing both the jeans and sweater in my size over my left arm, as I perused the rest of the racks. I wasn’t sure how much this sudden ‘jaunt’ as Bill put it, allowed me to spend but, I figured if there was an issue, my casino winnings would help.

By the time I was ready to try on the clothes I selected, I realized I had way more than I ever intended on buying. So I put back two shirts, a skirt set and a pair of jeans, still leaving myself with three pairs of jeans, three shirts, two sweaters, a pair of boots and a jacket. Hey, who knew how long I would be here right? I thought. And headed for the dressing room, glancing back to make sure Bill wasn’t too annoyed by my taking my time. He was actually up and browsing around for himself now. That made me chuckle a little bit.

As I had just gotten my clothes back on, and was hanging up the last of the outfits I tried on, there was a slight tap on my dressing room door.
“Someone’s in here,” I said, although by the time I had said it, I already knew it had to be Bill, judging by the blank reading I got from the brain.
“Sweetheart,” he said very softly. “I picked something out for you to try on. Will you let me in?”
While I didn’t really have a problem letting him into the room; I was more worried about anyone seeing him come in the room with me. This was a women’s boutique after all, I was fairly sure men were not welcome in the dressing room area, let alone in the rooms.
“Okay, hurry up,” I said quietly but harshly, pulling him in and quickly shutting the door behind him. “Did anyone see you come in here?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
He held up a pair of white lace panties and a matching bra.
“Bill…” I said with a tone of shock.
“You don’t like them?”
“Uh…oh…it’s not that but…”
“Will you try them on right now for me?” He was looking like he was having thoughts that were meant for the privacy of a bedroom, not a tiny dressing room at a women’s boutique in Tahoe. His fangs ran out.
“Can I help you into them?” he asked, pulling me toward him and putting his cool lips on mine. We started a passionate kiss that sent waves of energy throughout my body.
“Sookie, I want you here.”
“Bill, we’re in a dressing room…”
“I don’t give a damn I want you now,” he said hungrily in my ear, his hands unbuttoning my jeans and finding the warmth between my legs. I was definitely in the same mood as he was now but I had extreme fears of public trysts, and was sure I needed to nip this in the bud before it got any further.

And suddenly I remembered something I hadn’t planned on having to worry about before this trip. If Bill and I were going to have any kind of sex while we were in Tahoe, there would be no way for him not to see the fang marks Eric left on my breast during our romp in the shower the other night. Fuck me!, I thought, though in the opposite way that Bill wanted to fuck me right then. I started to panic, but considered my next words quickly and carefully.

“Bill,” I said pushing him away from me, trying to button my jeans back up, though he wasn’t having it. “Bill, stop right now!” I said, and he backed off.
“I, we… we can’t do this here. I just can’t, it’s a public place for goodness sake!”
“But there are four walls, and a door, and you and I are the only ones here.” He said reaching again for my hips.
“Bill, I won’t!” He was looking mightily disappointed, and ran the bottom of his lip out in a pout.
“So you won’t try them on for me right now?”
“Bill, I think you and I both know what will happen if I undress right now. That bra and pantie set won’t even make it on me.
“Exactly my point.”
“Bill!” I said tartly and opened the dressing room door for us both to exit as I grabbed the clothes I was purchasing. “Please, can we just buy these things so we can go to dinner? I’m starving”
“As am I,” he said, his fangs still showing.
“Bill, put those away, I’m sorry but this just isn’t the time, and it's certainly not the place!.”
“Fine,” he said. I guess you’ll have to model these for me in our room.”
Great, I had escaped it for now, but I had probably only bought myself a couple of hours before I would have to have another really bad conversation with Bill about Eric. He was not going to be happy. In fact, I was worried at just how angry Bill would be when he found out that I had sex with Eric about a half hour after he had dropped me off at my car in Merlotte’s parking lot after our ‘discussion’. Damn, you’re a stupid girl Sookie Stackhouse! I thought as I walked toward the counter to pay for my clothes. Why did I yield to Eric so easily? Now I was going to pay for that stupid mistake by hurting Bill. Who knew if he’d forgive me? He was already so jealous of Eric; I didn’t know what this would do to our relationship, the relationship I had stupidly thought was on the mend now that we were here together.

I set the clothes on the counter, and Bill set a credit card on top of the pile. I wondered if it was Bill's own card, or one that Eric had given him to buy my clothes. I guess I didn't really care either way. Bill didn’t seem upset, but he wasn’t looking at me, and I could tell that he was trying to put his libido in the back of his mind until later. Oh, how I wished that later would be enough time to figure out what I was going to say to him when we finally were alone, or even better, enough time for the mark on my breast to magically fade away.

The woman behind the register rang me up, her eyes going from Bill then to me, and back down to the clothes. I knew she thought Bill was probably my sugar daddy, and I just loathed being ‘kept’ woman, which Bill was well aware of. But I was far too pre occupied with the thought of the brand Eric left me with to say anything rude to the lady. So I kept my mouth shut and my eyes away from hers as she finished and put them in the bags.

And that led to another thought. Had Eric planned on this? I mean yes, that phone call came to him after we had sex, but had he purposely sent Bill as my escort, booking a single room for us, knowing what it would lead to? Knowing that Bill would see Eric’s fresh mark on my body? It was such an Eric thing to do, so I wouldn’t be surprised. But what would his point be? And now I was even more confused about what Eric wanted from me than I ever was.

“So, you are still hungry? Or would you like to continue where we left off in our hotel room?” Bill asked, with a mischievous grin forming on his face.
“I told you, I need to eat,” I said, as I tried to pull all thoughts of Eric from my head.
He grabbed my hand to kiss it again. “Okay, okay.”

We went to a restaurant in the village called The Nines. As we walked in the front door, I immediately felt under dressed. It was one of those ‘you don’t have to wear a ballgown or black tie but, you’d better look presentable’ kinds of places.
“Oh, Bill…this place is too nice for how I’m looking right now.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, you always look gorgeous my darling.”

“How many sir?” An older lanky gentleman in a suit and tie asked Bill as he started grabbing menus from the host’s podium.
“Two,” Bill replied, winding his arm with mine.
“Very well, follow me,” said the host.
“Here you are, I hope it is to your liking. Your waitress, Melissa, will be right with you.”
“Thank you” Bill said, before the host walked away. “See, Sookie, nobody cares what you’re wearing, so don’t worry about it.”
“I guess not,” I said.

But I was only thinking of one thing right now, and every time Bill spoke a word, I felt the pain I was surely going to cause him soon enough. What was so upsetting about the position I put myself in was that I had felt so used by Eric. I understood now that the phone call that led him to leaving me so abruptly that night had to do with me, and he had been trying to do everything he could to keep me from having to see the King of California, but I still wished I had never let Eric have me. I was a damn fool.

“Good evening,” came a soft seductive voice, as I looked up to see our waitress standing at our table. “I’m Melissa. May I get some drinks started while you look at the menu?” Melissa was all legs with long wavy red hair, red lips, perfect breasts and an amazing ass. She was the equivalent of a human Jessica Rabbit in a waitress uniform. Sitting there with this gorgeous woman towering over me, I must say I felt very inadequate; especially given the fact that I hadn’t showered and had been wearing the same clothes for the past 24 hours.
“Yes, thank you. I’ll have a bottle of TrueBlood O-Negative, and you Sookie?” he said never once taking his eyes from me to look at the waitress; which flattered me, but made me feel even more guilty.
“Oh, um…I’ll have a gin and tonic I guess.”
“Right away.” Said the waitress, and she turned to leave.
I sat fidgeting while I glanced at the menu, not wanting to make small talk but not wanting to look like I had something on my mind—which I so obviously did.
“Sookie, is something the matter?” Bill asked, placing his hand on one of mine from across the table. “You seem tense, like you want to say something you’re not. Please know you can tell me anything sweetheart,” he said, putting an emphasis on the word anything. Anything indeed, little did he know that what I had to tell him was going to either crush his unbeating heart, or send him into a jealous rage, or more than likely both.
“No, I’m just hungry that’s all.”
The truth was that I had lost my appetite back in the dressing room. And I knew he knew something was wrong, but he didn’t ask me again during dinner.

After dinner was done, and we had almost reached the hotel, I was at my limit with anxiety, and Bill could sense it.
“Sookie, I know you are not telling me something,” he said as he opened the door to the Remington’s casino entrance. “I wish you would let me know what’s on your mind.”
“Bill, can we just get to the room?” I paused. “I do have something to tell you.”

And now he looked as worried as I was.



CHAPTER 8

The casino was even more crowded now than it had been when we left it several hours earlier. There was a steady mixture of both human and vampire, and everyone looked as happy as if there were no cares in the world. I, on the other hand was feeling the opposite. I was walking with a man I was sure I felt feelings of love for, but was about to hurt with brutal honesty.

As Bill put the keycard in the slot to our room, I saw him tense up, knowing that he was not quite prepared for whatever it was I needed to get off my chest. We entered the room, and he didn’t waste any time asking me what it was I needed to say, as if he knew what to expect. He shut the door behind us, and leaned against it immediately.
“Sookie, you are about to tell me something I’m not going to like,” he said, staring at the floor and tensing his entire body in preparation. I waited a moment before I spoke.
“Bill, I…” I couldn’t get the words off of my tongue.
“Please Sookie, just say it.” He was tensing even more, and his entire body looked as if it would shatter if I touched it. I was just going to have to do this. I was out of time to stall.

I closed my eyes and prepared to free fall out of an airplane without a chute.

“I had sex with Eric,” I said bracing myself for whatever it was I expected Bill to do.
But he didn’t do anything. He walked over to the bed and sat down, not speaking a word or making a sound, waiting for me to elaborate I gathered.

“After you dropped me off at my car the other night, he was waiting for me in my house. I didn’t ask him to come over, I didn’t invite him in but, he was already in there waiting for me. I’m sorry. I just…I didn’t know where you and I stood as a couple, I didn’t know what our deal was and…and I just…” I was sobbing at that point. “I just…I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t think I was…I don’t know what I was thinking…Bill…please…say something…anything.”

But he was a blank. It was as if he shut down. When vampires have nothing left to say or do, weather they are going into sleep mode, or simply out of sheer boredom, they shut down. That was the only way I could describe Bill’s state. He didn’t move for several long minutes, while I stood in front of him waiting, breathing shallowly, and feeling as if my heart was going to explode.

I collapsed to the floor below his feet.
“Bill,” I said in a deep sob. “I never meant to hurt you. I’m so sorry, you have to believe me.” Interestingly enough, this reminded me of a scene played out not very long ago, only it was me on the receiving end of Bill’s apology.
“So I guess we’re even,” Bill said callously, his body and face never changing posture or looking at me. “You have nothing to hold over me now.”

I didn’t know how to respond because he said it so cruelly. Was he saying we were even literally, as if we could move on and forget this indiscretion? Or was he making a point that what I did had been so wrong, that he now had something to look down on me for?
“Bill, look at me…please,” I said now practically groveling at his feet. But he didn’t look at me. Instead he got up from the bed without a word, and left me sitting in a ball of guilt on the floor.

I was stunned. I knew that this would be hard, but I thought at least we would be able to talk about it, and come to some kind of an adult conclusion. Instead, Bill had left. He left me because he knew that would hurt me the most. No long drawn out discussion, no further dialogue of anything. He just left. Would he come back? Was he going back to Louisiana? Was he going to make me face the king alone with Eric? Was Eric even coming still? I had too many questions and absolutely no answers.

I didn’t know what to do. And after several minutes turned into an hour, I realized Bill was not coming back. So I crawled into the bed and gathered the warm covers around myself, and cried myself to sleep.

“Sookie, wake up,” a cool voice said softly. “Sookie, wake up for me.”
“Bill? I asked, my eyes too heavy to open immediately. “Is that you?”
“Sookie, it’s Eric.”
“Holy shit Eric,” I said still completely groggy, though I couldn’t have been asleep for more than an hour. “What are you doing here, in my room?”
“Sookie, didn’t Bill tell you I was coming?”
“Yeah but…what time is it? Is Bill here?”
“Sookie, you disappoint me. Why is it that I wake you but you only ask where Bill is?”

In the next second, I felt all of my pent up anger at Eric, and at myself, rear its ugly head. I had no control as I unleashed my rage on Eric.

“Eric, I don’t know what you had planned but…,” I started to say but began crying again. “…why do you care if I ask for Bill? You have royally fucked up any chance I have for Bill and I now. You’re a fucking bastard! You asked me if I hated you, well I do! I do hate you now!” And I buried my face into the pillows on the bed, my hair sticking to my wet cheeks in mattes.
“Sookie, I am sorry for the troubles you and Bill are having at the moment,” he said, rather crossly, but unconvincingly. He was beginning to unleash his own anger on me. “But, there are certainly more important things for you to dwell on at the moment. You need to get yourself together.”
“What do you care?” I asked, lifting my face from the pillows for a moment. “You planned this, you knew what would happen. You knew that I would either have to confess to Bill that you and I had sex or, he would find out for himself when he saw your fang marks on me when we were intimate. You knew what you were doing.”
“Sookie,” Eric said as he sat down on the bed beside me and began to lean in toward me. “Lover, you would have rather I bit you on the neck, where it was visible to all?”
“NO! I’d rather you were never waiting for me when I got home that night. I’d rather you had never bitten me at all!” I blared; unable to bolster the wave of emotion I was letting loose. “And you don’t get to call me lover! You don’t get to call me anything! You used me you sick son-of-a-bitch! I can’t stand to look at you.”

I buried my head in the pillows again. I figured if I stayed there, and immersed myself in the hotels 1,000 thread count sheets, everyone would forget about me and I would be in peace. No Bill, no Eric, and no King of California. And I cried myself to sleep once again.

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


When I woke up the next morning I felt like I had been beat up and thrown back in the ring. The first thing I thought of was Bill and I looked toward the coffin by the bed hoping he would be in it. But the lid was open, and it was empty. Since it was late morning, I assumed he had flown back during the night to Bon Temps.

I felt wretched and completely and utterly lost. I was in an unfamiliar city with no knowledge of what would come or if anyone would come back for me now. I had broken Bill’s heart, and I had more than likely pissed Eric off to the point that he wanted nothing more to do with me either. Did they both go back home? I wouldn’t have blamed either of them. Now I could either stay here and wait until night fall to see if either came back or, I could fly home myself.

As I was debating my options in my head, I noticed a note sitting on the end table by the door. I immediately jumped from the bed to get it.

Sookie,

I didn’t want you to think that I flew home
and left you here to deal with Jasper alone.
I don’t know when Eric will get here so I
will at least wait for his arrival and further
instructions. I made other arrangements for
my shelter during the night. I will check
in with you tonight.

­­Bill

That answered that. I guess I was staying in Stateline. I was relieved that Bill hadn't flown back home but, it was obvious that he had been too angry to stay with me last night. So had he gotten another room? Or had he gone into the ground somewhere? And where was Eric? I was going to have to wait for yet another set of questions to be answered because the only people who could answer them would be asleep until sundown.

After a much needed shower, I was at least looking forward to wearing a new outfit. I grabbed the shopping bags and dumped all their contents on the bed. I pulled out a pair of jeans and a tee shirt, and one of the pairs of underwear, ripping off the tags before putting them on. I also grabbed one of the sweaters and put it on, before taking the boots out of their box and sliding my feet into them. I left the tags on the bra and panties Bill had picked out for me to model for him. I figured I wouldn’t have a need for them on this trip after all. And anyway, they only reminded me of the pain I had caused him.

I grabbed a card key from the top of the fridge, and headed out the door to find some breakfast; although, it was already approaching noon. I walked through the hotel lobby where there was a Starbucks. I chuckled to myself that there was even a coffee shop in a vampire hotel, since vampires not only didn’t drink coffee, but would never be up in the morning to drink it if they did. But this human certainly could have used some caffeine after her emotional night.

I very rarely ever had the chance to have brand name coffee; I was more used to whatever we had on hand at Merlotte’s, which was usually Folgers or Maxwell House or in my own house, which was usually whatever was on sale at the store that week, often the bland store brand. I ordered a venti, the largest size, house coffee with two shots of espresso. I wasn’t even sure I liked espresso but I knew it had a lot of caffeine, and that sounded good to me. I also ordered a blueberry scone and a cup of fruit.

I sat down at a table in the farthest corner of the room and prepared to fill my head with caffeinated goodness. By the time I had eaten my scone, half the cup of fruit, and most of my coffee, I was feeling better. My head felt at least a little bit clearer, and I had more energy than before, although my eyes were still burning from crying so much. I still had about four and a half hours until the sun went down, when I assumed that I would be seeing Bill or Eric, or maybe both. So I killed time by heading over to the shopping village for some more retail therapy; which was another thing I very rarely experienced. But I did have a nice wad of hundred dollar bills in my purse, and I was just itching to spend at least one of them.

By the time I was done browsing every shop in the center, and spending just over $100, this time on a dress, heels to match, and a light button down black cardigan, the sun had set. It was time to return to the hotel room and wait.

When I opened the door and stepped into the room, Bill was already there, sitting on the edge of the bed waiting for me.
“Hi,” I said reluctantly.
“Sookie…” he began to say something but stopped. I walked over to the bed.
“Do you mind if I sit next to you?” I asked.
“Please,” he said as he looked up at me.
“Bill, I’m so sorry. You have to believe me that I never intended to hurt you. If I would have thought with my heart for even one minute, I would never have done what I did.”
“No, Sookie, you were right. We weren’t together. You were free to do whatever you chose. You were no longer mine,” he said, his voice quiet as he looked down at his lap. “I had of course hoped that that would change very soon but, I know now that your feelings for me have changed.”
“Oh, no Bill,” I said choking back the tears I could feel were coming. “Bill, I do still have those feelings for you, I do. I was hoping this trip might be a way for us to get back what we were trying to feel again. I just didn’t think about having to tell you the truth about what Eric and I had done.”
“But you must have feelings for Eric,” he said looking at the backs of his hands nervously.
“No!” I said raising my voice to make my point. “I do love you Bill, I meant that. And I know that anything I thought I had with Eric was purely physical. He doesn’t care about me in the way you do, I know that now.”

But when I really thought about it, my response to Bill’s question wasn’t entirely accurate. Eric had seemed to care about me in the past. I felt he cared for me the night of the orgy, knowing I had no intention of having sex with him, and he escorted me for my protection anyway simply because I asked him to. He helped me in Russel Edgington’s mansion after I was staked at Club Dead, giving me his life nourishing blood…though the experience seemed to be a pleasurably erotic accomplishment on his end. And even now, though I didn’t entirely trust him, I was sure he was trying to help me with the whole Jasper Price debacle. Although after the way I yelled at Eric the night before, I wasn’t so sure. But right now, I needed Bill to believe that I truly was sorry, and I truly did want to be with him still, because I did.

“Bill…” I shut up and decided I would just show him how bad I did want to be with him, grabbing his face in my hands and looking into his eyes for a moment, before pressing my lips to his. I knew that he wanted it too when he didn’t push me away from him. In the next moment, we were ripping our clothes off of each other and kissing and groping every inch of each others bodies, like neither of us had had sex in a millennia.
“Sookie, I want to be inside you so bad,” Bill said, his voice as hoarse as if he hadn’t spoken in a hundred years. “I want to feel your thighs wrapped around me.” Bill wasn’t usually so talkative during sex, but he seemed like he wanted to make it clear to me just how bad he ached for me.

I didn’t say anything; instead I showed him how ready I was to give myself to him by pulling his hand between my legs, where two of his fingers entered me eagerly.
“You are so wet Sookie,” he said, his cool voice melting in my ear. “You feel so warm.”

The only words I could muster turned into moans of pleasure as he continued sliding his fingers in and out of me. After several minutes my body was aching for him to replace his fingers with something else of his, which I could see and feel very clearly was just as ready. As my back arched expecting him to enter me, I looked up at him as his eyes caught a glimpse of the tiny fang marks just below my nipple. His body was lined up perfectly to enter me but he hesitated, running his fingers over the marks.

I waited for him to say something, he looked angry as his fangs ran out; I could see his face go tense, his eyebrows running together in thought. And I froze waiting for his reaction. I didn’t think he was going to hurt me but, I was starting to think that our romp was over before it could begin, because Eric’s puncture marks had turned him off. But instead of retreating from my naked body, he thrust himself into me with force. I could feel his fury and resentment, but it no longer scared me, I wanted him to get it out. I needed him to get it out. And my body responded by locking my legs around his waist. That seemed to further his intensity. As he pounded me harder and harder, he made noises I had only heard animals make on the Nature channel.

“Oh…my…God…” I screamed as he rode me to my climax. He was far from finished with me though, as he continued thrusting in earnest. He grabbed both of my wrists with one hand, pinning them above my head. He was taking me, and he wanted me to feel dominated. It was like he was punishing me for what I had done, but the reprimand was pleasure for us both. He placed his freehand on my face gently and slowed his rhythm down to almost a complete stop inside of me. He turned my face on the pillow so that I was no longer looking at him, and he bent down to my neck, his lips and fangs caressing the furiously beating vein which contained my pulse. I was certain he was going to bite; but instead he let go of my wrists and crawled down, putting his face between my legs. I felt like I was going to come again any second, teetering just on the edge of splendor as he lapped at me. Then he replaced his lips with his fingers and crawled back up to my breasts, and before I had a chance to catch my breath, he had latched on at the exact spot Eric had bitten, drawing from the wound fervently. And I knew he was replacing evidence of Eric, with his own mark.

He entered me again before he was finished drinking from me, and we were reaching our completion together before I knew it.

And then he was lying beside me, our legs entangled with each others and the sheets.

If domination was what he was going for here, I’d say he succeeded.


Chapter 9

Bill and I both lay tangled in each others limbs, still breathing strongly for a good ten minutes before one of us spoke.
“That was…” he said and stopped, making a very human attempt at catching his non existent breath.
“Amazing…remarkable?” I interrupted, still trying to gather a coherent thought.
“Yeah…something like that.”

He began combing the fingers of one of his hands through my hair, while the other hand stroked the length of my stomach with the force of a feather, as he lay beside me. I took a deep breath before speaking again.
“Bill,” are we okay?” I asked, because I needed to know where we stood, regardless of the mind blowing…rough, angry, tremendous…sex we just had.
He removed his hand from my hair and reached his arm under my back and rolled me onto him so that I was straddling his waist. “I don’t know, maybe we need to try that again first to be sure,” he said with a deliciously seductive grin, which exposed just the very tips of his fangs.
“Bill!” I said playfully bold, knowing instantly that he was ready to go again.
With that, he grabbed my hips with both hands lifting me up a few inches, and pushing me down onto him again, and we picked up right where we left off ten minutes before, only with me on top this time, doing all the riding.

When we were done, we both thought it would be a good idea to make use of the large Jacuzzi tub that came equipped in the hotel bathroom. Vampires and their bath tub’s you know. Bill drew the bath, and called for me several minutes later to join him. When I walked into the bathroom and looked at him in the tub, it looked as though he had dumped a gallon of liquid soap in the water; it was practically overflowing with bubbles, and I couldn’t help but give him a playful giggle; it’s not everyday a vampire is made to look like an innocent child amid a tower of bubbles.

When I stepped into the water, he immediately pulled me to lay with my back in front of him. At first I thought he wanted to have sex again, but he wasn’t pulling me to him because he was in that kind of mood, rather his mood had turned more thoughtful and morose.
“Sookie,” he said, both of his hands wrapping around me from behind, his lips at the base of my ear.
“I do love you, as much as what you revealed to me last night made me crazy…still makes me crazy, I still love you. I still want you. What I wonder is how you feel now. What do you see happening with us?”

I wasn’t sure what to say, I knew I loved him too, regardless of the confused mixture of emotions and attraction I couldn’t deny my body still felt for Eric, I did want to be with Bill. Hadn’t I made that clear tonight with the unrestrained sex…twice? But then there was always the thought in the back of my mind that nagged the question, how did I see a future with any vampire? After all, us mortals tended to age and lose the appeal of our once youthful looks. And I couldn’t help but assume that Bill’s attraction for me would be somewhat different when I was old enough to order from the senior menu at the I.H.O.P. But I was going to focus on the matter at hand, and right now that was proving to Bill that I wanted to be with him here and now, in my still quite youthful state.

“Bill,” I started, as I reached down and grabbed one of his hands, bringing it to my cheek. “I wish I could take back what happened, but we both know I can’t. But…I do hope we can move on from it,” I said.
“Can we both move on then, from all that has happened?” He asked.
And of course by all I knew he meant his own indiscretions with his maker. The ones I had been finding it hard to get past as recently as several days ago.
I didn’t wait too long to say the words. “Yes Bill, I know I can now, if you can.”
He kissed the side of my neck and nodded his head.
“That’s good to hear. I love you, and I just want to be with you. That’s all I’ve wanted since I met you Sookie.”

We continued soaking in the tub for a while. It was so relaxing that we both fell asleep for a few minutes. But before we had any real time to relax, we were both shaken awake by a sound outside the bathroom door. The door was cracked open enough to let the dim light from the other room seep in.
“Bill, someone’s in the room.”
“Shh…,” he said, pressing a finger over my lips. “I know.”
I closed my eyes and listened in, but it was a blank hole.
“Bill, it’s a vampire.”
“Eric.” He stated cold and monotone, with no surprise in his voice whatsoever. And I could feel Bill’s mood shift from relaxed to irate, his body tensing behind me. I knew seeing Eric right now, while the wound was still fresh in Bill’s mind, would not be a pleasant experience—for any of us.

Well, maybe Eric would get a kick out of it.

We both stood up from the water, and Bill grabbed the two towels that were hanging up next to the tub, handing one of them to me without another word. I dried as much of myself off as quickly as I could manage before wrapping it around my body.
“Bill, my clothes aren’t in here, I’m going to have to go in there.” I said in a whisper. As much as I knew he would rather stick a needle in his own eye than have Eric ogle my wet body wrapped in a towel right now, he knew I was right.
“We’ll go together.” I said.
“Damn right we will,” he said shooting me a cross glance, his tone a bit too demanding for my liking.

Bill went into the bedroom first, I followed right behind him. Eric was lying on the bed; the bed that had so obviously been used as a sexual playground moments earlier, with his hands crossed behind his head, and his legs crossed at the ankles, which practically hung off the edge of the bed because he was so damn tall. This vampire had a lot of nerve, even for Eric.

“Well, well, looks like the love birds have made up. How…quixotic,” he said with a complacent glare and half a smile as he cocked his head to look at us. As I looked at Bill, I could see the anger building in his eyes as he stared at Eric.
“Bill, you look rather pent up for a man who was just ravaged by Sookie the sex kitten.”
Bill’s fangs ran out at the comment.
“You have no business in here right now Eric, and you have no business talking about Sookie like that.”
“Oh, but I speak from experience,” Eric said, his tone rather matter of fact. “Then again, you already knew that, didn’t you?”

I could feel Bill’s rage as I reached one hand to his chest to keep him from doing anything stupid, not that he wasn’t as strong as an elephant and couldn’t have easily shoved through my paltry hand. Eric didn’t have to try hard to push Bill’s buttons; he was doing a stupendous job with jabs of our sexual history. I didn’t want to witness a vampire brawl that I could feel coming any moment so I intervened.
“Eric, can you just tell us why you’re here, so we can move on and do what it is we came to Tahoe to do in the first place?”
Eric rose from the bed and walked toward the door reaching for the handle.
“Get your clothes on and meet me in the hotel lobby, we’ll discuss it there,” Eric said, his eyes staring up and down the length of my body as I stood there still dripping, in nothing but a towel. “Or don’t bother with the clothes Sookie. That towel suits you.” And he was out the door.

You could cut the air left in the room with a knife. Bill was brooding worse than I had ever seen him.
“Bill, I’m sorry he had to be such an asshole just now,” I said, before I realized I should probably just keep my mouth shut for the time being.
“It pains me that he talked about you like that and I did nothing.”
“Bill, what could you have done?” I asked, reaching down to take a hand in mine. “He is your Sheriff, you’re his subordinate. If you say or do the wrong thing, it could have bad consequences, you’ve always made that fact clear to me.”
“I know. I just hate that he has more power over me than ever.”
“What does that mean?” I asked. “Because of me?”
“Yes Sookie, now that he has had you again, and this time with full recollection of your time together, he will not be keen on letting me have you. It is the vampire way Sookie, he is older and stronger. If he wants you; I won’t be able to stop him without a fight, a fight which I am sure I will lose.”
“Bill,” I said grabbing his face with the palms of my hands. “It wouldn’t be up to him now would it? I am with whom I want to be with, I don’t give a rat’s ass what Eric wants, what Sookie Stackhouse wants is what matters…and I want you!”
His lips parted, the bottom one quivering slightly, but he didn’t say anything more. He just took my hands from his face, gathered them together and kissed them gently before dropping them and turning to gather his clothes from the floor.

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

Eric was sitting on one of the large fluffy leather couches positioned in the lobby’s center, his hands folded neatly in his lap, and one ankle crossed over the opposite legs knee. Bill and I sat down on the couch facing opposite Eric, separated by a coffee table which held a vase and several copies of the last several issues of Vampire Weekly.

Eric wasted no time before speaking.
“Jasper will be ready to see you tomorrow night. We will drive to Last Chance soon after the sun sets. Sookie, you will dress in attire befitting a visit to a king, use your… imagination. Bill and I will not leave your side, that was part of my arrangement, but you will have to answer Jasper’s questions, and I recommend you be as cordial as the Southern Belle you are. We don’t want to anger him…or you might not be able to leave with us.”

A lump rose in my throat at the thought, and I wondered if I might puke again. But I managed without incident.

“Enjoy the rest of your night, and try to get some sleep Sookie.” Eric said in a monotone voice, as he rose from the couch and walked over to me taking my hand in his and pressing it to his lips. “You’ll need it.” And he turned around and left Bill and I there in the lobby, me with a look of confusion, and Bill with a look that could kill.

It was bizarre. After my harsh words the night before, I wasn’t even sure Eric would speak to me again. But as soon as he realized I was back in Bill’s arms, it was like he was purposely trying to make Bill jealous, and saying anything he could to allude to our sexual past. It was uncomfortable to say the least, and I could tell it was going to be a major issue with me and Bill.

I grabbed Bill’s hand to hold it, but he tensed up and gave me a look that told me he wasn’t about to shake the tension from Eric out of his mind anytime soon, so I dropped it.
“Bill, I don’t know what to say. You’re just going to have to deal with Eric. He’s trying to piss you off, and it’s obviously working.”
“Sookie, I want nothing more than to kill him!” Bill said, with pure hate in his voice.
“Well now that’s real mature Bill,” But I fully understood where he was coming from. After all, I had wanted nothing more than to kill the vampire ho he had left me for…and I actually did end up killing her.
“Bill, you and I both know that’s not going to happen. It would be a very bad thing if you even tried, and you know it.”

He was still very angry, his body as tense as ever. I knew one way to fix it, at least temporarily.
“Bill, lets you and I go back to the room,” I said softly, easing my hand up his leg to his crotch. He immediately responded. I could see that much clearly as he shifted and the center of his pants began to move on their own. He shot me a sideways glance which included a slight devious smile. Without a word; he picked me up off the couch scooping me into his arms and immediately headed for the elevator doors.
“See, I knew I could put your mind somewhere else.”

And I did just that…until dawn.

Chapter 10


With Eric’s words echoing in my ears…I did just as he said I should, and slept. I slept nearly the entire day until sunset. I ended up waking before Bill, which gave me enough time to slip into the shower. Of course, he ended up joining me shortly after I stepped in.
“Good evening beautiful,” Bill said as he pulled the curtain back and stepped into the tub.
He didn’t even startle me because I half expected him to join me if he woke up.
“Hello,” I said; turning to give him a kiss on the lips, a kiss which turned passionate within two seconds.
“Oh…Bill,” I said between breaths as he continued kissing the length of my neck all the way down to my breasts. “I thought I was supposed to be well rested for tonight.”
“Oh you are…” he said, pausing between kisses as they covered my body. “…I thought…since you did such…a superb job of…relaxing me…last night…I would return the favor…right now…”
“Bill…” Now how could I deny him that right? So I let him have his way with me.

As much as our romp in the shower had eased my mood, my mind started thinking about the night ahead. What in the world was going to happen? All I knew about Jasper Price was that he was powerful, he was possessive, and he wanted me—the extent of what he wanted was still to be determined.

Eric had said to dress nice so, I was really, really, thankful that I had found a dress on my second shopping outing to the village. It was a gold, sleeveless woven silk dress with a rounded neck, with pleated and studded detail around the collar. It was short so it exposed a good portion of my legs, including the muscular calves I was very proud of. And, since I purchased it with my own money, I knew it would feel extra beautiful on. And damn it, if I deserved anything from this unbelievably odd trip, it was a night to feel beautiful—even if it was to be spent at a creepy old vampire’s compound.

“Bill, can you help me get this zipper up?” I asked, still fiddling with my hands behind my back while looking in the bathroom mirror. Bill walked over and pulled the zipper up to the top.
“Sookie, you look…amazing. This dress is…unbelievably sexy,” he said, his expression half stunned and half aroused as he stared at me in the mirror.
“It’s just a dress Bill, but thanks.”
“Oh, it’s not just the dress; it’s you, in the dress. Do you not know how beautiful you are?” He asked, placing his hands on both sides of my hips behind me while looking at me from head to toe, his eyes shifting back and forth slowly from the length of my body in the mirror to my eyes.

I was never one to accept a compliment without throwing up some kind of shield before accepting it, but Bill, had been doing his share of complimenting me recently; and I had to admit, it was growing on me.

“Thank you, you look pretty beautiful yourself.” I wasn’t sure if beautiful was the correct word to use but, it’s what I saw when I looked at him. He was a beautiful man.
He just smiled at my comment. “So, are you ready to go? Eric text messaged me for us to meet him in the lobby. He said the King is sending a limo to pick us up at seven, which is in fifteen minutes.”
“Well yeah, I’m ready but, do you think you can keep your temper in line riding all the way there in the same car with Eric?”
“I guess we’ll find out, wait…I know, maybe you could just sit on my lap the whole way,” Bill said with a playful smile as he escorted me out the hotel room door and towards the elevators.
“Oh yes, that would simply thrill him. Bill, I think it would be best to be adults and try to get along for the sake of this trip don’t you?”
“Well, as long as you’re with me, I guess I might be able to be adult, as you put it.”

When we walked off the elevator and into the lobby, Eric was sitting on the same sofa as yesterday, this time he rose when we entered and the three of us walked toward each other.
“Sookie,” Eric said, taking my hand and kissing it softly with his lips, which I’m sure was intended to get the first rise of the evening out of Bill. “You are a striking eye-full this evening.”
“Thanks.”
“Bill,” Eric said with a slight head nod, before finally dropping my hand.
“Eric,” Bill replied coldly, enunciating the syllables of Eric’s name with pure disgust.

This was going to be a long car ride if these two were at each others throats the whole time. And of course, I was the subject of the tension.
“So, is the limo here?” I asked, trying to divert the attention of testosterone driven males away from each other. I had never ridden in a limo, and I was eager to see the inside of one. Of course that was where my eagerness stopped; once inside the limo, it would be getting out to see the king that I dreaded.
“It should be here shortly,” Eric said finally looking away from Bill’s heated gaze.

When the limo arrived, the driver called Eric on his cell phone to let us know he was waiting for us out front. As we walked outside into the night air, I wondered if wearing a short dress was a mistake. Oh well…I thought, at least I would look hot while I froze.

The first half of the ride to Jasper's compound went surprisingly smooth I thought. Eric sat at the front of the limo with his back facing the privacy glass that separated us from the driver, and Bill and I sat on the seats directly opposite, putting as much distance between us as possible. It wasn’t until the second half of the ride that reality began to set in, and I realized that none of us really had a firm grasp on what the evening would entail, and that absolutely scared the crap out of me.
“Bill,” I said quietly squeezing his hand.
“Yes?”
I leaned into him, resting my head on his shoulder. “Please promise me…” I stopped.
“Sookie, I promise I won’t leave you. We aren’t going to let anything hurt you, believe that.”
I was glad he seemed to be able to read what I was thinking, so I didn’t have to finish my own sentence, and I kept my head firmly rested on Bill’s shoulder as he stroked my hair and I rested my eyes.

When the limo came to a stop after we had been driving roughly an hour, it was quite abrupt. We pulled to the shoulder at an angle. Bill and Eric shot each other concerned glances, and we all waited.
“We’re not there yet, right?” I asked, knowing the answer already.
“No, something’s not right,” Bill said, shooting his arm around my waist protectively. “Eric?”
The tinted windows of the limousine made it more than impossible to see what was going on outside. Eric pressed the button to roll the privacy glass window down, but it didn’t budge. He tapped on it with some force, but the driver didn’t respond.
“One of us needs to go out there and see what the hell is going on,” Bill said.
“Yes, let me out,” Eric said, I guessed he wanted to be Prince Valiant tonight, which was fine with me.
Bill and I moved to one of the bench seats at the side of the limo’s wall, as Eric reached for the door handle and opened it slowly. Well, so far so good it seemed. He stepped out the door, closing it behind him.
“Bill, I don’t like this, something feels really wrong,” I said, as I closed my eyes to listen for any possible brain activity.

Nothing.

I had no way of knowing if our driver had been a vampire or not since I had never actually seen him; but if he wasn’t, he certainly wasn’t anywhere near the limo now…alive at least. And then I picked up a blank hole…Eric’s maybe? And then another…and then another…and then another. There were a total of six other vampires surrounding the limo besides Eric that I was picking up.
“Bill, we’re surrounded,” I said in a hushed yell. “There are at least six vampires out there, what the hell is happening Bill? Oh my God, Eric! Do you think they’ve gotten Eric?”
I didn’t give a damn right then if Bill knew I was worried about Eric, because I was. I was so worried my heart ached. And now, Bill and I were alone, how were we going to get out of this one?
“Sookie, it’s okay…we’ll figure it out, please, it’ll be okay…” he sounded even more unsure than I was.

But before we could gather our thoughts to form a plan, the doors were ripped from their hinges, a vampire wearing special protective gloves threw a thick silver lasso around bills body restraining him instantly, and another reached in from my side and grabbed me with the force of a tornado, ripping me from the car and into the cold dark night.

I didn’t see Bill or Eric again.


CHAPTER 11

I wasn’t sure how long I had been unconscious when I woke up tied to a chair, in an unfamiliar room, and I had little knowledge of how I got there, other than recalling being ripped out of the limo abruptly by a mystery vampire. The last thing I remembered was the desperate look on Bill’s face when he saw me being pulled away from him. And he, being bound by silver, could do nothing.

I opened my eyes, squinting hard trying to adjust to the light in the room. My head felt foggy, like I had overdosed on NyQuil and was just coming to after a long drunken night of hard sleep. My hands were bound and tied behind my back, and my legs were bound together, and tied to one leg of the chair. As I looked around, I could see the room had no windows, and in front of the door, stood a very large man with a rough disturbing demeanor; one of the vampires who took me to this room I assumed.

“Hey…” I started to say to the vampire by the door. “Where the hell am I? What did you do with my friends? You better not have hurt them or I swear to God I’ll kill you myself!” Each word garnered little reaction from Mr. Grumpy, who simply pulled out a cell phone and proceeded to dial a number.
“Jasper, she’s awake,” was all he said into the phone, before putting it back into his pocket and resuming his ‘guard’ position.

Jasper, how’d I know?

“So the king kidnapped me?” I waited. “You’re not going to answer me are you?”
No, he was not going to answer me. So I just breathed deeply and waited. I assumed that Jasper was on his way to me now, and I would have to demand my answers from him. I had suspected it wasn’t a coincidence that I was snatched on my way to see a king who desired to make me his pet. Now I knew for sure.

After several minutes, there was a knock at the door. I looked up as the vampire guard unlocked and opened the door. I was stunned at what I saw, having expected the king to be creepy and old, Jasper was anything but creepy looking. And his vampire age of just over 800 years, as Eric had told me, didn’t seem to show a bit. Jasper couldn’t have been a day over 25 when he was turned. And I had to admit, he was stunning. If it wasn’t for the fact that I knew this man had just kidnapped and tied me to a chair in this room, and taken and done who knows what with my boyfriend and one time lover, I would have found him extremely easy to look at. He was gorgeous.

Jasper Price had straight hair that came down just past his ears, and it was about the same color as Bill’s, such a dark brown, that it was almost black. He was over six feet tall, with broad shoulders and chiseled muscles that seemed to be straining to break free from underneath the semi snug button down shirt he was wearing. His skin was pale, as expected, and his face was as chiseled as his body.

Of course, whatever attraction I might have had to this man, was completely moot when I remembered that fact again I had been kidnapped, and now sat bound by ropes to a chair in the middle of a room with no windows…I don’t care how good looking you are, that’s not okay in my book.

“Miss Stackhouse,” Jasper said walking toward me, his voice authoritatively melodic. He was grinning like a cat that had just captured a mouse, eager to play with his food before consuming it. “You are nothing like I expected. I would kiss your hand but…that doesn’t really seem like an option…yet.”
“So you’re Jasper Price. Is this the normal procedure for welcoming your guests? What have you done with my boyfriend and my friend?”
“Boyfriend? I was under the impression that you were un-attached. Mr. Northman mentioned you were protected but, I never heard the word boyfriend. Is he your boyfriend then?”
“No, Bill is…but Eric is my friend, and I want to know where they are.”
“That is amusing,” Jasper said, his smile growing on one side of his lips. “Your friends are fine I assure you. In fact, I have no doubt that they are frantically searching for you as we speak. But I don’t think you will be seeing them anytime soon.”
“Why are you doing this?” I said, knowing that holding my composure rather than bursting into tears was my best bet at this point in time. “I thought we were coming here to talk. I was willing to help you if you needed my help, but all of this is just unnecessarily rude!”
“Sookie. You have quite the inquisitive tongue don’t you?” He still had somewhat of a smile, but I could see his expression changing to less than amused. “We’ll fix that. After a night with me, you’ll forget all about your friends. It will be like you never knew another man.”
“You’re sick buddy! I don’t know what your plans are, but this scheme you’re planning, is not gonna fly.”
“Shh…quiet now…” he said, though he didn’t really sound demanding as he bent down toward me, stopping just inches from my face. “…or I’ll have to cover your mouth with tape. And your lips, Sookie, are far too pretty for that.”

I turned my face away from his and closed my eyes, wishing I was anywhere but where I actually was. I shook my head to myself, wondering how I was going to get out of this situation, or if getting out was even possible. Whatever the case, I knew I didn’t want Jasper anywhere near me, regardless of how gorgeous he was.

“Let me ask you something, Sookie.” He said, grabbing a chair and placing it directly in front of me, straddling it from behind. I resented the complacency in the way he said my name. We were face to face now, and his smugness was starting to annoy me. “Why is it that glamouring does not work on you? That has to be frustrating for the vampires you surround yourself with.”

I didn’t want to answer him because I didn’t have an actual answer for that question. Did that mean he had already tried to glamour me?
“I don’t know. Maybe you’re just not as powerful as you thought you were?” I said, pulling my lips taught in a tense smile of haughtiness. “Does that upset you, Jasper?”
I was probably going to get myself in more trouble if I continued with my attitude, but I didn’t care. When my fire comes out, it’s hard for me to turn it off.
“Sookie, Sookie, you are going to be a challenge for me, I can feel that,” he said, leaning in even closer to my face. “But I like a challenge. And you’ll conform to my wishes eventually, I’m sure of that.”
“Never,” I practically yelled in his face. I would have spat on him too if my mouth wasn’t so dry. “Are you really so pathetic that you have to kidnap and tie women up to get them to sleep with you?”
“Oh, no, no…. quite the contrary. You really have no idea how desired I am by women. I have no trouble at all in that department. But you’re different, though I didn’t have any idea of your beauty when I sought you out, I only knew of your special gift, and that is why I also knew that getting what I wanted would require certain measures on my part. I needed to get you away from Eric and the other man, in order for you and I to be alone. I needed your brain to focus on me and only me when we met for the first time. After Eric insisted that they would not leave your side while you were here, I was left with no choice.” He was slowly leaning in closer and closer, closing the gap between us, stopping just at the base of my left ear. “But as far as sleeping with me Sookie?” His breath on my neck sent shivers through my body, and I closed my eyes, half anticipating his bite. “By the time I’m done with you, you’ll be begging me to take you.”

But he didn’t bite me; instead he brushed the side of my cheek with his lips, and stood up.
“I don’t want to keep you locked in here and tied up but,” he said as he took in the length of my body with his eyes. “I’m not certain I can trust you not to give me trouble yet. So just sit tight lovely, and I’ll be back after a while.”
“You asshole, what the fuck are you going to do with me? You can’t just keep me here!”
“Now, Sookie, is that anyway to speak to your future lover?” The word lover had the complete opposite affect on me than it did when Eric had said it.

“I really am going to have to do something to get that mouth in line.” And before I could say another word his hands were on my face and his mouth was on my lips with force. It’s not as if I could have shoved him away since I was tied to the chair, but within a second, something was happening. It was as if my body was responding to the sudden possession of my lips, and I began to feel aroused. This was not happening…was it? I had to get my head in check, and I had to overpower the response my body so wanted to give. He eased up just long enough for me to yell.
“Get away from me!”
“Oh, but your body seemed to say otherwise didn’t it?” Jasper said with his hands still on my face.
“I will never, ever want to sleep with you, EVER!”
“We’ll see,” he said, backing up from me again. “I’ll be back in an hour. Maybe you’ll be cooled off by then and we can have a more serious chat.”

He left the room, leaving me alone once again with Mr. Grumpy. God, I just wanted to be rescued. I felt like I was in a movie. Helpless woman, taken against her will, her controlling yet attractive captor forcing himself on her, as she awaits rescue by her one true love. Only, I really wasn’t sure a rescue was written into the storyline. And I knew I wasn’t in a movie.

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


I must have dozed off before Jasper returned. I woke with a startle when he came in with a tray full of food.
“How are we feeling now lovely? Have we calmed down yet?” He said, straddling the chair in front of me once again. “I’ve brought you some nourishment. I bet you’re famished.”
“I don’t want your damn food.” I said in a low grumble, trying not to look at him.
“Oh but you must eat, I need you to be well, and healthy for me. You will be useless to me if you are too weak to speak.”
“I plan on being useless to you anyway, you can kiss my ass.”
“See, you’re already threatening to take off your clothes and show me your ass. I knew you’d come around,”
“You wish,” I’d have slapped the smirk right off his face if I wasn’t still tied up.
“Here, have a grape. I hear they’re delicious,” he said holding a small red grape about an inch from my mouth. “Open up that pretty mouth and eat please.” Oh well if he’s asking nicely…as if.
“I said I don’t want your damn food,” I said turning my face away from him again. But he grabbed my face with one hand and turned me to him. “You will do as I say because you don’t have a choice. Now open up.”

As much as I wanted to keep resisting, I was rather hungry, and I knew he’d persist, so I opened my mouth, half hoping he’d accidentally slip a finger in along with the grape so I could bite it off.
“Now that’s a good girl,” he said, holding up another grape as he waited for me to swallow. “You know, you’ll learn that I’m not as much of a monster as you think I am.”
“Why don’t you just tell me what your intentions are?” I asked. “What is it you find so necessary about me that you had to go to all this trouble?”

He set the tray on the floor, and stared at me as if he was thinking carefully about what his answer to my question would be.

“California has not been looked on favorably by the other states for quite some time now. It seems that some in my state have decided that I may no longer be worthy of my position as king. With a human such as yourself under my power, I am hoping that you will be able to attend meetings and parties held by my sheriff’s in the various areas in the state to listen for traitors.”
“Ha! See, maybe if you’d have done some research, you’d know that I can’t read vampires minds,” I said rolling my eyes at him, with a told-you-so snip in my voice.
“Ah, but you can read their human companions minds, and that’s as much as I’ll need to get the answers I’m looking for,” he said, throwing my words back at me.
“So what then, you expect that I’ll just do as I’m told, and come back to you when I’m done? How do you know I won’t run the first chance I get?”
“I already told you, you’ll be begging me to take you before too long. Staying with me won’t be an issue; you’ll always want to come back to me.”
“I’m getting mighty tired of what you think I’ll want to do. Bill and Eric will never let you get away with this.”
“Lovely,” he said. His little nickname for me was getting old. “Bill and Eric have no idea where you are…You have no idea where you are.”
“Wait, we’re not at your compound in Last Chance?” I asked startled.
“You think I’d be stupid enough to hide you there?” He said looking morbidly shocked. “Sookie, my lovely…you give me very little credit as a ruler. In my long life, I’ve learned a thing or two about hiding. That applies to things I want to hide as well.”

Oh shit. The bastard was right. If they didn’t know where I was, they would never know where to look. I was screwed. I was going to die here; whether that death would come sooner or later was anybody’s guess.

And as soon as the realization of my situation settled in, I couldn’t have held back the tears if my life depended on it.

CHAPTER 12


I closed my eyes, my face moistening as the tears trickled down, and a moment later, Jasper practically flew over, instantaneously licking them away. As much as I never minded Bill licking my tears, this was an entirely different situation, and I couldn’t help but be repulsed by his actions, even though I supposed, even for him, it was an act of decorum.

“What the hell are you doing?” I said, opening my eyes and jerking my head in reflex.
“Sookie, there’s no reason to cry. I told you you’re going to like being with me. You just have to give me a chance,” he sounded so sure of himself.
“You think that ripping me from the life I know, and the man I love, and tying me to a chair in God knows where is going to help me like you? You’re insane!”
“I’m just trying to tell you not to be scared, you really have no reason to be,” Jasper said, now placing one hand on my face. “I’m not going to hurt you. And though you may not like my methods, there are vampires who have done much worse.”

Oh, well lucky me then, I thought.

I looked at him for a moment, before pulling my head away from his hand. I felt like he was telling the truth, that although he had taken me and restrained me here, he hadn’t physically harmed me…yet, and I got the feeling that he really did want me to be as happy as a kidnap victim could be.

That reminded me of a book I read about Patty Hearst, the granddaughter of the famous newspaper publisher, William Randolph Hearst. After she was kidnapped by a crazy libertarian army group, she grew to side with them; eventually joining them and helping them rob a bank. They labeled Patty as having Stockholm syndrome, which is what they call kidnap victims who grow to like or even love their captors.

Jasper was insane if he thought I was going to be one of those victims.

Even if I had my doubts about my dilemma, there was a part of me that had no doubt that Bill and Eric would find me. I felt it. It had to be so.

And then, as if I had been too preoccupied to think rationally before now, I thought of it.

Barry! Of course!

I bucked up, because I managed to find a silver lining in what had been a very dark cloud until this moment.

When I had been in similar circumstances in Dallas, at the Fellowship of the Sun compound, I had used my gift to communicate with Barry the bellboy. I met Barry when we stayed at the vampire hotel in Dallas. Barry had been the first and only telepath I ever met besides myself, and though he seemed to have very little control over his powers at the time, he was still able to contact Bill and tell him I was in trouble.

I hadn’t talked to him in months, mentally or in person, and I had no clue how far away was too far for us to communicate but, if it worked for me then, there was no harm in trying now. Unfortunately, my biggest problem in this situation was the fact that I had no idea where I was. I figured I couldn’t have been too far from Jasper’s compound since I was pretty certain the fact that Jasper was still awake and talking to me meant it had only been a few hours since I had been in the limo. But dawn had to be approaching I assumed. This also meant I had little time to contact Bill and Eric, if I was even able to talk to Barry.

I needed to think, because I needed information. Of course, getting that information would require me to be civil to Jasper…probably more than civil.

“I know,” I started to say, as I looked up at Jasper, who was straddling the chair in front of me again. “And I appreciate you caring enough to be concerned with my, uh, happiness…with you.” Was I laying it on too strong already? Would he be suspicious if I was suddenly being…nice to him? I’d find out soon enough.

“I just…It’s just that, I don’t know what’s happening, and I don’t know what you expect from me…” I said, attempting to take advantage of his concern for my happiness at the moment, and playing the poor defenseless kidnap victim. “I’m just scared is all.”

I’d start small and go from there.

I stopped sobbing long enough to ask, “What time is it? How long has it been since I was in the limo?” I asked. If I could get a time frame, that would be a start. Those were innocent questions, weren’t they?

“Well, I sent my crew out at about eight to wait for you. It was probably ten thirty when you…” he stopped suddenly. I thought he might have stopped because he was starting to get suspicious. “…when you arrived. It’s approaching two now.”

“So I was out for a while then before you came in the first time, wasn’t I?” I asked, now wondering what exactly they had used on me to make me pass out for so long, but trying to make the tone of my small talk feel like like just that; small talk. “Why is that?”
“You were given a shot,” he said.
“You drugged me?” I said, with a look of horror.
“Well yes, I told my men to do anything they needed to do to get you here, safe of course. They felt that was the best way. And here you are. I was surprised that the drug also was able to subdue Eric and Bill long enough for my men to get you and get out. We vampires tend to be fairly impervious to such things but, the one they used on them was much stronger than the one they used on you; a special concoction that I’ve been working on for decades.”

I cringed at the thought of being man handled by Jaspers buffoons while I was in a drug induced sleep, but was relieved that it sounded like he had only drugged Eric and Bill, rather than kill them. So when he had said he had no doubt they were probably looking for me already, he meant that. Of course, he couldn’t have known that I might have had a way to contact them from this room. I decided that I’d better try to contact Barry before I asked Jasper any more questions.

“Barry…Barry…Barry…It’s Sookie, Sookie Stackhouse. I don’t know if you can hear me but…I’m in trouble…again... I need your help.”

I waited.

Nothing.

Okay. Maybe Barry was too far away to hear me, or maybe he heard me, but was ignoring me because he didn’t want to get involved…who would blame him, right? I mean, I was a lot of drama.

“Sookie? Is that you?”

He heard me!

“Barry! Yeah, it’s me, hey, I hope you’re doing well, I know it’s been a while since we talked but…listen, I’ve been kidnapped. I have no idea where I am other than I’m approximately within a few hours of Stateline Nevada. But I couldn’t tell you in which direction. I couldn’t think of anything else to do other than to try to contact you.”

“Sookie, how’d this happen?

“It’s a long story Barry”

“Well, what can I do to help?”

“Listen, Jasper Price kidnapped me, he overcame Bill and Eric, and he took me to some underground room with no windows…but that’s as much as I can tell you. You have to find Bill & Eric and tell them that I’m okay…”

“Wait…Jasper Price? As in the King of California?”

“Yeah, that’s him. Bill, Eric and I were supposed to meet him at his compound in Last Chance which is about an hour and fifteen minutes northwest of Stateline Nevada. We headed there in a limo sent by Jasper, when we were stopped and overcome by a group of Jaspers vampires. Evidently he had deeper rooted plans for me than any of us had imagined.”

I must say, Barry had fine tuned his telepathic skills quite a bit since Dallas. I was impressed.

“Has he hurt you?”

“No, I’m fine. Well, as fine as I can be tied to a chair.”

“He’s got you tied up?”

“Yeah, and I have to say, I am so not wearing the right outfit for the circumstance.”

“So you want me to find Bill & Eric, but you have no idea where they need to look for you?”

“No…I’m sorry. I’m trying to get more details. If I can figure out about what time I was taken from the limo, we’ll be able to figure out how far away from Stateline I am.

“Think hard Sookie.”

“Hold on.” I said.

Okay…if it was seven thirty when the limo picked us up, and I figured we had been driving for about an hour…and Jasper said I got to this room at about ten thirty, then that left a three hour gap from Stateline and roughly a two hour gap from Last Chance to wherever I was now.

“Barry, I’m roughly two hours away from Last Chance by my estimates. I have a feeling that if Bill and Eric know at least the radius to look in, then Bill will be able to feel me through our blood bond.” Of course, I was technically bonded to Eric now as well but, I didn't feel the need to disclose that information to Barry.

I hadn’t had Bill’s or Eric's blood in many months, and I wasn’t sure how many times we’d have had to exchange for us to be truly bonded, but Bill had certainly had mine many times recently, and Eric had once recently as well. Bill always said he could sense me when we were apart, and when I was in trouble. It was worth a shot. So I gave Barry Bill and Eric’s cell phone numbers, hoping they even still had them after being attacked by Jasper’s entourage.

“Okay, I’ll call them, and get right back to you.”

“Thanks Barry, you’re a real life saver you know that?”

“Thanks, but nobody’s saved you yet…but, I’ll do my best!”

“I know you will Barry, I know you will.”

And now I would play the waiting game…with the king of California.

Chapter 13


I had been so busy concentrating on getting my message to Barry, that I hadn’t even noticed Jasper leave the room. But no sooner had I realized he was gone, he was walking back in through the door.
“So Sookie,” he said as he walked toward me with some sort of bracelet looking thing in his hand. “I think it’s time I untie you. First, there’s something I must do to keep you from running.”

He bent down to my ankles and attached the bracelet around the left one, clasping it shut, before untying the rope that had bound my legs.

“What is that?” I asked.
“Oh, I call it insurance; you might call it a monitoring bracelet.” He said with a slight chuckle in his tone.
“So it’s like one of those bracelets people have to wear when they’re on house arrest or something?”
“Yes, basically; only this one is an invention of my own, modified to emit enough of a shock into your body to immobilize you while I get you back in line.”
“Back in line?” I said, inserting my own chuckle. “You know, for someone who claims that I will grow to like you and enjoy myself here, you contradict that statement greatly by putting an electric shock device on me.”

He had unbound my hands now too, and I instinctively grabbed at the bracelet around my ankle, moving it to adjust it more comfortably. I had to consider the fact that the shock bracelet might pose a problem during my rescue, well, assuming I was going to be rescued.

“Oh, I don’t anticipate that you will actually feel its power, as I’m sure you are a smart enough girl to figure out what a bad idea that would be,” he said. “I assure you, it would be a very painful mistake.”
“Now, feel free to walk about the room, I’m sure you need to stretch your legs. There is a bed in the corner, I imagine you’re getting quite sleepy,” he said, and suddenly I noticed a few things I wasn’t able to see behind me while I was tied up. There was also a door leading into another room near the bed.
“What’s through that door?” I asked pointing to it.
“Oh, that is a bathroom,” he said. “I hadn’t thought about you needing that until you mentioned it. Forgive me for forgetting that particular human need.”
“Well then, I guess I’ll just go to it,” I said walking toward the bathroom. Jasper started to follow me. “Do you mind? Most humans like to pee alone.”
“Oh, of course,” he said.

I did need to pee pretty badly, now that I mentioned it. I wondered if I would be lucky enough to find a window in the bathroom large enough for me to squeeze through. No such luck. There was a teeny, tiny window with bars across it. I might be able to get my hand through it but that would be about it. Of course now that I was able to see out this window, I was able to tell how far under ground I was, which meant I was maybe in a basement somewhere, rather than in the depths of a deep underground dungeon. This might help Bill and Eric find me. I thought it might be useful to let Barry know about the window, and the fact that I wasn’t as far under ground as I had thought.

But Barry chimed in before I could.

“Sookie,” he said.

“Hey Barry, I was just about to contact you, did you talk to Bill and Eric yet?”

“Yes, I got a hold of Bill, but Eric wasn’t with him, and there’s no answer on his phone, but I did leave him a message. Bill hasn’t heard from him yet.”

“Oh no, where could Eric be? I hope he’s okay. Oh no.”

“Listen, Bill is close to you, he says he can feel you.”

“Really? Just like that?”

“Yes, but he’s still trying to figure out which direction he can feel you the strongest.”

“Barry, I was going to tell you that Jasper has untied me and there’s a bathroom in the room with a tiny window in it. I can see outside just barely. That means I must just be in a basement or something. That might help Bill find me.”

“Okay, how much can you see out the window?”

“Not much,” I said, as I eased the tiny window open to get a better look. “Um, I see a lot of pine trees; we’re definitely still in the forest. I can see the moon, so I guess the room I’m in is facing south, maybe southwest.”

“Okay, that might help him, I’ll let him know,” he said. “What is Jasper doing right now?”

“I don’t know, I’m still in the bathroom, but I’d better hurry before he suspects something is up.”

“Okay, he hasn’t hurt you has he?”

“No, but he did put an ankle bracelet on me that he says will immobilize me with a shock if I try to escape…that might be a problem if Bill finds me.”

“Okay, I’ll let Bill know that too,”

“Be careful Sookie, don’t worry, I have a good feeling Bill will be there very soon.”

“Thank you Barry…I owe you.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t mention it.”

Almost as soon as I had cut away from Barry, there was a knock at the bathroom door.
“Is everything alright Sookie?” Jasper said through the door.
“Uh…yeah, everything’s fine. Just freshening up a bit,” I replied. Oh no, I hope he wouldn’t misconstrue my freshening up for his benefit. “I’ll be right out.”

Even after all I had been through tonight, I was surprised that I still looked half decent. My dress, however slightly wrinkled from sitting in the same position for so long, was at least still pretty to look at. The fact that I wear very little make up kept me from having raccoon eyes, and my hair, which I had worn down and blow-dried straight had a slight wave to it now, but still looked good, I thought.

But I sure didn’t feel good. I was wary of how the rest of the night would go. I was scared that even if bill did find me, there’d be no way for him to fight off Jasper and the other vampires. And I was worried for Eric. The man was over 1,000 years old, and perfectly able to take care of himself, but if that was the case now, where was he? Why hadn’t Bill heard from him? My thoughts would have to wait, because Jasper was knocking again.

“I’m coming out, hold on!” I was irritated that my train of thought had been interrupted once again by the demanding vampire waiting on the other side of the door for me. I opened the door to a now dark room, occupied only by Jasper, and lit only by candles; many, many candles. Maybe hundreds, from what I could see. Wow, I hadn’t been in the bathroom for more than ten minutes, and he had managed to transform the room from dark and depressing to dreamy and illuminated. This was not good. I knew what Jasper wanted from me, well one of several things I suspected. But I hadn’t expected him to ask for it so soon.

“Um, what’s all this?” I managed to say a bit shaky, as I still clung a hand to the bathroom door handle. Jasper was sitting on the bed near the door.
“I wanted to make you comfortable lovely,” he said, rising from the bed and walking toward me. I could feel a shiver shudder throughout my body as he placed one of his cool hands on my cheek. “Do you like the candles?”
I might have appreciated the romantic gesture if it had come from Bill, or even Eric. But Jasper scared me. And I didn’t know what I was going to do to get out of the current situation with him.
“I, I’m not feeling very well Jasper,” I said, which was the complete truth. Just the thought of having sex with him made me feel sick. And it had nothing to do with his looks, under normal circumstances; I would have jumped his bones. Had he come along while I was single, and had actually treated me like a respectable woman, that would have been different. But there were a million reasons why I could not, and would not yield to him without a major fight. And I sure hoped it wouldn’t come down to that, because I would obviously lose.

“You’re just nervous,” he said, grabbing me gently by my shoulders and pulling me toward him in an embrace. “Shhh…everything will be alright. I won’t hurt you.”
I started sobbing into his chest, I could smell a trace of cologne on him, and I simply couldn’t control my tears. I closed my eyes, and Bill’s face flashed in my mind, then Eric’s. I had never wanted to see them more in my life. And while I was sure I would be fine if I just did what Jasper told me to do, all I could think of was Bill; and the possibilities of me hurting him again, even if I was being forced into sleeping with Jasper.
“Please don’t make me do this Jasper, I’m begging you,” I pleaded, looking up into his eyes.
“Sookie, I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to, but please give me a chance,” he said, as he moved me away from him and took both my hands in his. “Please, just sit with me for a moment.”
“Okay,” I said reluctantly, and we walked over to the bed and sat down beside one another.
“What is it you like so much about this Bill?” He asked. “What is so special that he does, that I could not take his place?”
“That’s a bit personal I think,” I said, and I had turned from sobbing to being rather annoyed by his invasive question.
“Well, I think I should know, so that I may know how to take your mind off of him. I know you’re thinking about him.”
That was the truth, I was also wondering just how long I would have to keep up the conversation in order to stave off Jasper’s intention of bedding me right here. Would it be long enough for Bill to find me?

“And why wouldn’t I be thinking of him?” I said, as I scowled at him. “I’m sitting here on a bed with a man whom I’ve known for all of four hours, who kidnapped me, and has every intention of keeping me against my will to do God knows what with, and you wonder why on earth I would be thinking of the man I love?”

I was irate now, and started to edge myself off the bed to run back to the bathroom and away from Jasper, but that wasn’t going to happen. Before I could get a foot away from the bed, he had grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into his embrace again. And before I could protest, he was kissing me deeply, one arm wrapped tightly around my waist, and the other behind my head. And like the first time he had kissed me, I couldn’t seem to push him away, and began responding to his lips with my own rhythm. He might not have been able to glamour me but I was sure there was some other power he was using to control me, and I couldn’t stop myself from kissing him back.

He broke off the kiss every several seconds to speak a few disheveled words. “I wanted you the instant I saw you…” He continued kissing me. “I knew…you would want me too…”
It was as if I knew in my head that I didn’t want to be kissing him, but I had no control over my body.
“I want to see you…all of you…” he said, reattaching to my lips, while grabbing at the bottom of my dress and lifting it up.
I let him remove my dress, and in the same motion he laid me down on the bed and was on top of me. My brain was screaming in distress. And I could do nothing about it.

And then I didn’t have to. Jasper suddenly stopped and jerked his head up, as if he could hear something I couldn’t. There was a loud bang on the door, and in an instant, the door had flown off its hinges, knocking over at least twenty candles in its wake.

It was Bill…and Eric. And I suddenly snapped out of my daze and took half a second to thank the Lord for my two vampires.
“What the hell? How did you find us,” Jasper said, though I figured he’d get a hug from Bill and Eric before he’d get a response to his question. They were full on ready for a fight, fangs and all.
“Get off her!” Bill yelled, wearing the most insane look on his face, his expression exuded anger, intent to kill and jealousy, all at once. For a moment, I wondered if it was directed at Jasper or me. Jasper quickly jumped off of me and flew to the opposite side of the room, landing in front of Eric.

I jumped to my knees on the bed, grabbing my dress to cover myself. I would have felt humiliated if not for the fact that I was more worried about Bill and Eric fighting Jasper at the moment, than I was about my near nakedness in front a vampire audience of three. I took in a direct heated glare from Bill before I flung the dress over my head and shimmied into it. He no doubt wondered why I was half naked under Jasper when they busted the door down.

By now, the candles the falling door knocked over had caught fire to a pile of blankets near the bed, and I screamed because the rapidly growing flames were blocking me from the exit, and keeping me right where I was.

In the next second, Bill was beside me on the bed scooping me into his arms, while Eric and Jasper were in a face off on the opposite end of the room. “Oh, Bill…” I started to say but suddenly found no other words appropriate for the situation. “Thank God.” He just looked at me momentarily, and jumped over the flames that had started to spread to the bed, with me in his arms.
“You’re not taking her anywhere,” Jasper commanded, looking at Bill with his fangs fully extended. “Royce! Royce goddamnit! Where the hell are you?!”
“Oh, Royce wouldn’t happen to be the really big ugly guy that was guarding the door outside, was he?” Eric said, with a palpable smile on his face. “He wasn’t a very good guard without his lasso of silver. In fact, I’d say you chose a bunch of pansies for guards altogether.”

At that moment, Bill put me down just long enough to put on a pair of gloves, the same kind the vampire who threw the silver lasso around Bill in the limo had worn, and then he threw a pair to Eric, who was still in a battle stance in front of Jasper. I must say, if the smile on Eric’s face didn’t show his love for fighting, I don’t know what would. Bill reached down and grabbed a silver rope, possibly the same one that had been used on him, and threw it toward Jasper. At the same moment, Eric, who had already put on the gloves, threw another silver rope from the opposite direction, and the two came together over Jasper simultaneously.
“You won’t get away with this! I’m the King of California for Christ’s sake!” Jasper wailed in anger, and possibly pain, the silver was touching his bare arms; he had yet to get his own shirt off after removing my dress. Too bad, I thought, if he didn’t have a shirt on, his chest would be in pain as well.
“Doesn’t feel so good does it?” Bill said to Jasper, and then looked at Eric. “Eric, what’s the plan here?” Both Bill and Eric had firm grips on their lassos which would have been all well and good if the room wasn’t burning out of control.
“You guys, we have to get out of here!” I yelled.
“Bill, tie his feet and I’ll get his hands,” Eric said. “Quickly, the fire is out of control.”
When Jasper was bound, I got in his face. “How’s it feel you bastard? How’s it feel!” I said tears running down my face again, but they were tears of rage. I was suddenly so passionately angry that I had almost been forced into having sex with Jasper, and I knew that any response I had given him while he was kissing and undressing me was purely artificial. He had to have had some kind of power over me at the time.
“Sookie, you have to control yourself. I know you were scared, I know this was horrible for you but we have to get out of here right now,” Bill said, grabbing me hard by the shoulders in order convey to the gravity of the situation.
“Okay. I’m fine, I know, I’m sorry,” I said, pulling myself together.

Eric grabbed Jasper, who was finally completely immobile, and threw him over his shoulder. No easy fete considering Jasper was nearly as big as Eric, and certainly bigger than Bill. Bill scooped me up, and we all headed out of the burning room. I didn’t know where we were headed, but I was certainly relieved it was Jasper who was tied up now rather than me.

Of course with the fire burning out of control, and Eric and Bill trying to detain Jasper, we had all but forgotten about the bracelet wrapped around my ankle; the bracelet that was about to render me immobile.

Chapter 14

The pain was searing into my ankle, and I could feel the burn throughout my entire body as I tensed and dug my nails into the flesh of Bill’s back.

“Sookie! SOOKIE!” I could hear Bill yelling at me, but I couldn’t respond. We were out of the burning room, but I knew we weren’t far. So this is what it feels like to be electrocuted to death, I thought. Bill placed me on the floor, and the waves subsided as the shock stopped for a moment, yet my body continued to writhe in pain. By then, the bracelet had done its job. I was just coherent enough to hear the conversation going on around me, but far from being able to respond, let alone able to move willingly.

“What the hell did you do to her?” Bill yelled at Jasper, while gently examining the length of my body with his hands. He yelled again when he reached the bracelet on my ankle. “Fuck! The bracelet!”
“Why is she wearing an ankle bracelet?” Eric asked.
“Jasper put a damn shock bracelet on her to keep her from leaving the room,” Bill explained. “Barry told me about it but I forgot, she must have too. I’m so sorry Sookie, I’m so sorry…”
Bill was holding me in his arms on the floor, rocking me like a baby while my body convulsed. Jasper just laughed, and Eric threw him to the ground with a thud. Jasper stopped laughing. Eric stooped down to my ankle and examined the bracelet, and both he and Bill took a turn trying to remove it.
“You’re not going to be able to get it off without the key you know,” Jasper said, through gritted teeth; he had landed hard on his head when Eric dropped him.
“You son of a bitch!” Bill said, with pure hate on his voice. “I’ll kill you slowly for hurting her.”
“And where might we find the key?” Eric asked calmly, while grabbing Jasper’s collar with one hand and a tuft of his hair with the other. “Why should I tell you?”
“Because I’m going to get the bracelet off with or without the key, I assure you,” Eric said sternly. “It’s just a matter of if I leave you here to burn or not while I do it.”

The pain was going away, but as the light from the fire in the next room grew brighter, I knew we had only moments to get out before we would all be in trouble.
“Sorry to break it to you, but the key was in that room,” Jasper said, as he lay on the floor hogtied like a rodeo calf. “And it will continue shocking her if you move her again, and, I never tested it on humans further than the initial first shock. I’m not sure she’s built to handle another one.”

Well, at least he wasn’t laughing anymore. From where I lay in Bill’s lap, I made eye contact with Jasper. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I saw him mouth the words, ‘I’m sorry’. A rouge with feelings. How sweet.
“We have to get it off of her right now,” Bill said to Eric. “Maybe we can’t get it off by ourselves, but together we must have enough strength to break it.”
“I’ve no doubt that we do, but it’s breaking her ankle in the process I’d be worried about,” Eric added.

If I could have talked right then, I’d have told them I didn’t care, that I had suffered far worse in recent months, and I would welcome a broken ankle over another electrocution any day.
“Well we have to try, whatever happens, we need to get out of this building immediately,” Bill said, tilting my head to look into my eyes. “Sookie, we might hurt you…but we have no other choice. Sweetheart…look at me.”
“Okay, the bracelet is on her extremely tight, you pull from your side, and I’ll pull from mine…” Eric started. “When you feel it straining, I’ll wedge my fingers between her ankle and both sides of the metal band, and I should be able to pry it open easily that way. Ready?”
“Yes,” Bill replied. “Keep looking at me Sookie, we’ll have you out of here in a second…I love you.”

I couldn’t respond, but his words were comforting. In the next second, they were both pulling, and I could see the muscles in Bill’s jaw clench as he pulled, never taking his eyes away from mine. Then I felt the horrific pain of skin to bone being sliced around my ankle, and suddenly I was able to let out a grotesque scream that I had been holding in since the initial shock from the bracelet. “Aggggghhhhgoddammitshitfuckfuckfuckkkk!!!” Bill knew I rarely cussed, let alone took the lords name in vain, so he knew how much pain I was in.
“It’s cutting into her too deep,” Bill yelled. “Hurry!”
“Sookie, we’ve almost got it…”Eric said.

After a loud cracking sound a moment later, which I had thought might be my actual bone, the band had been broken and removed. My bone was intact, but my ankle was a bloody mess. Even if the shock wore off enough to move now, my ankle would keep me from walking, I felt metal to bone a moment ago, and that is never a good thing. I was also bleeding a lot.

Suddenly, Eric ripped off his shirt and made a makeshift tourniquet, wrapping it around my ankle. I noticed him stop momentarily, fighting to resist his natural urge to take a quick lick of my blood. Though I could clearly see Bill didn’t appreciate Eric being the hero, or thinking about licking my blood, he didn’t have time to argue, and he gently lifted me back up from the ground and into his arms. Eric picked up Jasper, not so gently, and threw him over his shoulder again.

We practically flew down the hallway, and were heading up a flight of stairs. As I glanced around from Bill’s arms, I saw several piles of blood and ash around the room as we emerged from the basement. It was a bloody vampire mess, and I was sure Eric had a grand old time killing Jaspers guards.
“You two…killed…them all…?” I managed to babble so low that a human wouldn’t have heard me.
“Sookie, you can talk,” Bill said, with a pensive smile, as we continued running out of the building. “We’re almost outside.”

I knew it was close to dawn, and I wondered how far we were from the hotel. I just wanted to pass out; though a hospital was probably my best option, if I wanted to avoid permanent damage to my ankle.

When we were outside, we stood watching as the where house we had just escaped went up in flames; well Bill and Eric stood, Jasper was still on Eric’s shoulder belligerently protesting, and I was wrapped in Bill’s arm’s clinging to him for dear life.
“Will you give it a rest Jasper, you’re the whiniest vampire I’ve met in centuries,” Eric said.
“What time is it?” I asked, looking up at Bill. It is very close to dawn, we need to get underground, but you need to get to a hospital.
“Bill…I can drink your blood right? If...” I started. And before I could finish my sentence, his bleeding wrist was at my lips, offering my body its cure. I didn’t waste any time taking in the life force he offered. I knew we didn’t have time to get to a hospital before dawn, and I just wanted to be asleep in my own bed…at the very least, my bed at the Remington Hotel.

I was sure Eric was staring at us, and probably Jasper too, as we did something I found to be extremely personal under normal circumstances. But it wasn’t as if my definition of ‘normal’ was ever the same as most people. Nope, normal was the exact opposite of Sookie Stackhouse.

As I drank more and more of Bill’s blood, grabbing his wrist tight with both of my hands, I could feel my entire body restoring its health. Bill lowered his lips to my forehead while I drank. And I could also feel his free hand wrapping around my chest, grabbing the closest breast he could reach. He was getting turned on, and that was my cue to stop. I pulled away from him, still in his arms. He was breathing as heavily as if we had just made love…I suppose in a way, we had. Bill and I just stared at each other for a long moment, before Eric spoke.

“Sorry to interrupt this erotic display of bliss, but we need to get out of here and into hiding,” Eric said shrewdly, practically staring a hole into Bill. “Unless you’d like to meet the sun today.” I’m sure that would please Eric to no end, I’d be available then wouldn’t I?
“Sookie, you are well enough to drive?” Bill asked, before setting me down on my feet.
“Yes, I think so,” I said, as I patted my body just to make sure. “Yeah, I’m perfectly fine.”
Without a word, Eric dropped Jasper on the ground once again, and flew around the corner of the burning building. And before I even had a chance to ask where he was going, a shiny black Ferrari pulled up in front of Bill and I, and Eric stepped out.
“I don’t like the King, but I must give him credit for his impeccable taste in automobiles, kind of irresponsible of him to leave the keys in the ignition.” Eric said, grinning like a schoolboy. “Sookie, you drive stick?”

I heard a hidden meaning in his words, but I answered anyway.
“Um yeah, I can,” I said, catching the keys in mid air as Eric threw them to me over the car. I never would have caught them if not for my renewed strength from Bill’s blood.
“Impressive catch,” Bill said, planting a kiss on my cheek.
“But what about you guys?” I asked, a little reluctant about splitting up yet again.
“There’s no time for us to get to the hotel. We’ll find shelter, and take Jasper with us. When we rise, we’ll meet you again at the Remington first thing.”

Eric interjected, clearly needing to make his superiority over Bill known, even at a time like this. “I’ll have many calls to make, and arrangements will be made for Jasper’s transport. There will no doubt be a trial, though since you came out unscathed, I doubt his punishment will fit the initial crime.”
“So he won’t even be in any real trouble?” I asked, the term ‘blind justice’ running through my head. Something told me that term didn’t typically apply to the vampire court system.
“Well, the sheriff’s and other leaders in California will no doubt dethrone him. It seems he was well on his way down that path even before this incident; they were just looking for a means to an end.”

I looked down at Jasper who was laying about twenty feet away from where Bill and I stood, still as hog tied as ever, and I actually felt kind of sorry for him. Even though my common sense told me that he was a no good rat bastard, I couldn’t help but think that while I was under his capture, I got the sense that there was some good in him somewhere. I think he was just lonely. Maybe he thought a barmaid from a tiny middle of nowhere town in Louisiana would be much easier to control than I actually turned out to be. I guess I couldn’t blame him for trying.

“Do you think you can find your way back to the hotel?” Bill asked me.
“No need, I’ve already set the GPS system for her, follow the directions it gives you Sookie, and you should be at the hotel in an hour and a half…of course, if you actually drive the car at the speed it was intended, you’ll cut that time considerably,” he added, with a smile.

Bill gave Eric a swift scowl, and then looked back at me. “I know you’ll be safe.”
“Bill, I feel like I have to explain…what you guys walked in on in that room,” I started.
“It was like he had some kind of power over me…I couldn’t…” He stopped me.
“Sookie, I don’t need you to explain anything, least of all right now,” he said. “I love you, and I’m just so thankful that I got there, we, got there before he could hurt you…even if you ended up getting hurt by Eric and me anyway. I am sorry for that pain.”
“You couldn’t have stopped that if you tried Bill, I had to get out of there, and neither one of us remembered the bracelet at the time.”
“I know I just…” This time I stopped him. “Shh…Bill. Let’s just get out of here.”
I planted a long kiss on his lips, breaking away before either of us could get too frisky, and walked over to the driver’s side door of the Ferarri where Eric was still standing.

“Thank you Eric,” I said, leaning in to give him a quick hug…at least I hoped it would be quick. But he instantly wrapped both arms around me and hugged me back for a few long seconds, then let go and walked over to Bill, without saying a word. I looked at him and smiled, then at Bill. And then I ducked down low to enter the beautiful machine I was about to drive away in. I wasn’t really into cars but even I could appreciate the fine craftsmanship of a shiny new Ferrari and the purr of its engine as it idled, waiting for me.

As I drove away from the burning building and looked in the rearview mirror, I could see both my vampires standing side by side, hands in their pockets, watching me drive away. And as serene as the scene seemed…hogtied king and burning building in the background and all…I couldn’t help but wonder what was around the corner for me.


'When does it get easier'...CHAPTER 15