Disclaimer: I don't own 'True Blood' or any of its characters. The series is the property of HBO. So there is no copyright infringement intended, nor do I intend to tick anyone off – so please don't sue me, I'm poor enough already! But I do own the story itself and the non-'True Blood' types…. :O)
This is my first 'True Blood' fanfic. It is based on Eric and the rest of the 'True Blood' cast and series, but is really a stand alone story as I realise there is very little to Eric his history. I do not intend to rip off any other writer so if this premise has been done before I'm sorry, I just hope mine is different enough for it not to be too boring. But if I digress from the series too much don't shoot me as I'm old, and the brain (what little I have) is not what it used to be! LOL!
If you've read any of my other stuff and liked it, hopefully you'll like this too. It's been a long time since I've done any writing. Basically my heart hasn't been in it since my mum passed away in February. But I know she wouldn't want me to give up my writing and hopefully that, whilst this probably won't be a very long story, I hope it gets back into the saddle so to speak and I will once again be able to write for my other fics.
WARNING: POSSIBLY SOME BAD LANGUAGE ANDVIOLENCE; SO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
All reviews, and constructive criticism, gratefully received – but no flaming please; and I will try to update regularly.
'Thoughts'
"Speech"
Summary: When Eric Northman is confronted with strange woman at the bar what will he do? ENxOFC, BCxSS
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SAVIOUR
Chapter One
The eyes were on her again; she could feel them following her movements across the parking lot. This was the fourth time in a row she'd known she was being watched as she left the bar.
May glanced at her watch; 3:00am blinked back at her under the tiny light that lit the face. She sighed; it wasn't like there were going to be stacks of people around to help her even if she did get attacked.
Sookie glanced across at her "you okay sugar?"
"Yeah fine – you know" May forced a nonchalant shrug even as she threw up a brick wall in her mind between herself and her young friend. She knew Sookie wouldn't deliberately invade her mind without good reason, but May couldn't rule out Sookie feeling her fear and deciding that was reason enough. It was bad enough having a telepath for a friend, but a telepath pal with a vampire boyfriend who took protection duties of said human girlfriend and her friends very seriously was all too much to be dealing with right now.
She offer up a silent prayer of protection as a feeling that her silent watcher had moved closer, gripped her. Fine hairs on the back of her neck stood up and she resisted the urge to break into a run. One thing her granddad had taught her was never to show fear; it was the one thing any predator would react to. And these days the predators could be many, many things.
Sookie glanced across again, a small frown on her forehead "s'up? You look like you seen a ghost."
May smiled; hopefully it looked amused "nope, as far as I know I only got to deal with vampires these days, girlie."
As she'd hoped Sookie grinned "yeah, Bill has an effect on people that's for sure. But you should actually talk to some of his friends if you think he's scary! Pam for one is cre-epy!"
May kept her pace to her usual stroll to her jeep as she gave what she hoped was a light-hearted chuckle "no thanks, I think I'll take rain check on that offer! If my looks curdle milk, hers definitely freeze the blood!"
Her car was a relic from her earlier days in the US, but one she loved. May was a saver; she had more than enough for a much better vehicle (albeit still second hand), but the jeep had been her grandfather's and, like his old dog, she was loathe to get rid of it –no matter how cantankerous and stubborn they both got.
She slipped inside with a barely audible sigh of relief; once in the enclosed metal interior she felt safer, somehow protected from the world. She shifted the key into the ignition and thanked all the Holies that the engine rumbled grumpily into life. She really didn't want to be fiddling with the spark plugs again in the lonely area, not this time. Sookie had her abilities but getting this old bus to start was not one of them; even May herself was long used to cursing up a blue streak in Gaelic at it sometimes.
She casually reached across and locked the passenger door, before doing her own. Glancing around as surreptitiously as she could, she backed out of the space and pulled out of the parking lot, waving to Sookie as she went; only when she was on the main road home did she realise she'd been barely breathing.
0-0-0-0-0
From an alleyway opposite Eric Northman closed his eyes; it was her, definitely her. He had spent four nights now just watching her, listening to her speak to people at the bar. Now he was certain; it was the girl who had spoken to him, kept him sane so long ago at a time when he'd had enough and was about to face the dawn.
It was a quiet voice whispering in the darkness for help; a small sound amidst the noise clamouring at him, deafening him with the sound of his desolate loneliness. The little voice had kept him anchored at a time when the rest of his kind, and even himself, thought he would either run mad or meet the noon sun with his chest bared. Even the vampire lord had marvelled at the way he had managed to grip onto his sanity with the aid of a small human child.
But it had been a child's grief that had called to him; had called to a side of himself he thought lost forever. He couldn't let her go; just the thought of her had kept him going for so long. So he had chosen to leave the others for many years, to look for the child who had aided him almost as much as he had helped her.
He knew she would've grown by now; so many years had passed since that time, that he knew she would've aged - she was human after all. But still, he had to find her – the insistent compulsion in him to locate her, watch her, make her his anchor for all time had never left him; only kept driving him forward, always looking.
They had talked him and her; many nights, over years it seemed – she had even called him her angel. He still smiled at the memory; but she trusted him, never questioned their ability to converse just by thought.
Then one day it had stopped; he had called to her and she had said that her family worried for her. They thought the voice in her head was bad; she knew he wasn't but she worried for him.
She was older now, she'd said; she knew he might be real. If he was living they would hunt him, never give up until they'd destroyed him – they would accept no threat to her as they'd lost too much already. She wanted no harm to come to one she thought of as a friend, she'd explained sadly; more than that, one she thought of as a best friend....indeed her only friend.
He had agreed to cut contact – but still his disobedient mind would reach out to hers. They did not speak to each other anymore; indeed she never acknowledged his touch in her mind, he knew she was too fearful of her family discovering their continuing contact. But at least each knew the other was there.
Eric could not help but reach out to touch the velvet calmness of her when his life was so difficult; the part of her that he knew she kept just for him, the part which kept him anchored. Occasionally he could feel her caress in his own mind, and he would smile and know their friendship remained.
Then that too stopped; it was as if she had put a wall between them. He thought at first he would run mad, such was his rage at her loss. He knew she would not do this herself; someone must have forced her to cut him off this way.
Eventually he had calmed, some what, and others of his kind had grasped the opportunity to try and reason with him. They tried to make him see sense; she was not like them, they had told him; vampires had not gone public back then, but perhaps she'd guessed at what he was.
Perhaps she could not understand his life; perhaps, by accident, in one of her visits to his mind she had seen things which had frightened her. Remember they had fed in the past from living victims; the synthetic blood was only a recent invention and he had lived so long. That was why, they argued, she had forced a block between them.
But Eric would not believe that; he knew her, knew her soul. She would not be so cruel; not unless someone had made her, forced her. So he had smiled and agreed with the others......and bided his time. All the while trying to make contact with her; not so she'd notice. Oh no, he'd learnt that lesson well; this time he just wanted to find her – to finally see her; to make sure she fared well. He had closed himself off from others; become a robot. Acted as sheriff when he had to, allowed the vampire Lord to use him as troubleshooter where necessary.
As it was she had come to him in the end. The vampire lord had finally made him sheriff of Area 5. He had watched Bill Compton find Sookie Stackhouse and watched their love grow in spite of all the pitfalls and obstacles between them until it dwarfed everything around them.
He ached to find someone like that for himself; he wondered about May. He wondered whether she was meant for him, human though she was, as Sookie was obviously meant for Bill. He had Pam, but Bill was right in a way; Pam was so eager to please, so eager to kiss his butt that Eric could never look on her as more than she was – a means to an end.
Another vampire who was willing to kill, a suck up to him because he was sheriff of Area 5 and he was ruthless; she knew where her bread was buttered if nothing else.
Eric was lonely; so lonely that sometimes it made his bones ache. He could relieve the sexual hunger in his body, he could relieve the ache for blood too. But nothing relieved the ache of being alone the way May did; and now she was here. He'd been surprised when he came into the bar and saw a new face. Sookie had bounced over like a happy puppy and told Bill about the new girl.
Tara had rolled her eyes and said the new girl was okay but nothing to get all worked up about. Although she had added that she had a way of making the more troublesome customers behave that was pretty cool.
"Oh?" Bill had asked "how's that then?"
"She just stares at them honey!" Lafayette hollered with a grin; having overheard the exchange "I swear the girl could curdle milk with that look though!
Tara nodded "uh-huh – she just gives them a look and I swear they just shut up and behave or leave."
Sookie grinned "yup, now that is something we could've done with here a long time since!"
It was only when Sookie had dragged the new girl over and got her to introduce herself that Eric had sat in stunned silence, recognising the soft voice immediately; it had aged, but the tone was there, the inflections remained unchanged. "Go on, introduce yourself!" Sookie had grinned "They don't bite! Well not always; they're nice really!"
The other girl had sighed but smiled and held out a hand "I'm May; May Tierney. Nice to meet you."
Bill, thinking Eric's silence was nothing more than his usual reticence, smiled back as he shook her hand "I'm Bill Compton; nice to meet you too. You don't sound local."
"Nope, you figured that out huh?" May had smiled self consciously "I come from Ireland originally. But then I came to the US a few years back with my younger brother and grandfather. Then Theo went back to the UK and Gramps died, so I decided to travel for a bit."
She shrugged "but then I got to Louisanna and I liked it, then I came here to Bon Temps and I thought I'd settle. It reminded me of where I grew up you know; friendly people, slightly eccentric; only thing missing is the Irish accents."
May chuckled "I could do with some eccentric friends for a while...and don't mind them with my stare – I think it's the Irish accent that gets them to behave actually, either that or the swearing at them in Gaelic."
She had winked in Eric's direction, as if sharing the joke with him, even though he hadn't uttered a word to her. The she'd gone back to the bar with Sookie; and that had been the start. He had watched her there for four nights; never speaking, just watching. But now he had to find out where she lived.....
He took off into the night; running like the wind through the dense woods, jumping fallen trees with ease – the joy of the night filling his lungs. Yet all the while ensuring he kept pace with her beaten up old car.
As he ran he let his mind wander back to that first encounter – so long ago to her, but seeming as only moments past to him. The moment she'd saved him and made who he was today.
0-0-0-0-0-0
Eric lay on his bed fighting the loneliness as once again it stole across his mind. Suddenly he felt a cry reach across the divide of time and space; one so heartfelt that it moved even his unfeeling soul. It was a child's cry, but one of grief. A loss she could not understand; compassion, a feeling he'd long thought he'd lost, stirred once more.
'Are you alright little one?' He reached out to her; knowing despair and wanting to save her from suffering as he did. The child wondered if her grief was making her go mad; she was hearing a voice in her head. Eric had smiled as that thought had crossed her mind; insanity did have a way of creeping up on you. He knew that better than most.
'I…I am very sad.' For some reason beyond her childish understanding, she trusted that voice at once and implicitly and so she answered it. She did not question how she heard it, or how he spoke to her; neither did he.
That thought, that she would trust him and so easily, touched Eric; so few of his kind even liked him, let alone trusted him. 'Why? What would cause such a brave heart to break so?'
'Our parents died – we are orphans.' She took a deep breath before admitting her biggest fear 'I do not know what to do; I worry I will not be strong enough, that I will let everyone down.'
'How old are you?'
'I am six and my brother is four and a half.'
There was silence for a few moments as Eric digested this information. God she wasn't much more than a baby herself, and yet here she was worrying about being able to help others. He damped down his annoyance at those around her who could not see past their own grief to see the loss and confusion of a child; he had sought to reassure her 'I will be here for you – you will have me with you always.'
It was scant comfort at the moment, he knew; but he felt her calm instantly. 'What do I do?'
God, how do you council one so young about grief? He sighed and thought about how he felt when he lost his own family; different reasons perhaps, but the loss was the same. 'Breathe; that is all you must do for now – breathe. No matter how terrible the pain, how badly the tears burn, you must breathe for me. Can you do that?'
'Yes; yes, I can do that.' He felt her grief pounding at her; the tears welling, calling to be shed. But he also felt her strength, her reluctance to cry; her fear that by doing so it would mean she was weak.
'Tears are not a sign of weakness, little one.' He wanted to reassure her that it was alright to cry; to move on she had to grieve and tears were part of that 'You can grieve for those you've lost, shed tears at their passing and still be strong; you're very brave.'
She was; he felt she was being incredibly brave. There had been a pause and then she'd asked 'are you an angel?'
Eric couldn't halt the chuckle at such a thought 'I am many things child, but never that.'
'You are to me' she had told him, decisiveness in her little voice 'you are my angel…..my friend.'
'Then I thank you; you could give me no better compliment.' He was amused at the title, but also warmed. Grateful that she could think such things of one like him; a monster to torment naughty children at best, a demon to haunt the adults at worst.
He heard the question in her mind, even before she asked it 'I will not leave you; whenever you need me, you need only call out in your mind and I will be here.' Surprisingly he never questioned how they communicated; as a vampire he should not be able to do so, but then he had learnt that life, or death, meant anything was possible.
He'd felt her sigh; a feeling of peace had come over her, reaching him at the same time. But still she'd asked 'am I mad; or are you my conscience?'
Again Eric had laughed lightly at her imagination 'I am neither; you are not mad and I am not your conscience.' He'd felt he should explain...a little; he should offer to help. 'I am…..alone, apart. But I can counsel you if you wish it, I too have lost my family a long, long time ago – but if you ever need any help, call out to me and I will hear you.'
'You sound sad' her voice had held such compassion for him, that long forgotten tears had pricked his eyes. Eric had held a drop on his fingertip; shocked at the little salty sphere adhering to his skin.
'I was; but not any more' he'd smiled, causing more tears to fall – but realising he was happy to feel something other than the bone crunching loneliness again 'I have a friend at last.'
There had been a smile in her voice 'my name is May, May Tierney - what's yours?'
'I am Eric' he wondered where she actually was in the world 'where are you May?'
'I am at Kilkara Castle with my brother Theo and grandpa Jacob'.
He had heard of Kilkara; a small town in the Republic of Ireland 'your name does not strike me as being of Irish descent May?'
'It's not; we are…' there'd been a pause, and then a sad inevitability 'grandpa calls to us; he says we must go down and speak to the other mourners, it is the way it is done.'
Before Eric could stop her, she broke the contact; but not before he felt her almost gather herself. Far away from the grief stricken little girl, Eric Northman had sighed and finally found sleep; but he meant to keep his word; he would be there for her.
After all, she had saved him; called out for aid and comfort at the precise moment he thought no one would ever need him as little more than a killer ever again. She called him angel, he smiled, she thought him a heavenly creature – when in reality he was so very different to that.
0-0-0-0-0
Eric came back to the here and now with a jerk as he realised she had pulled into a small driveway. The house was of the old 'clapboard' design; it was two stories, with a porch and a veranda that hung off the front of the house, and some wooden step leading up to the front porch and door.
It was painted a nice cream colour; something that May replenished as soon as she'd taken ownership just to keep the exterior paintwork, and wood, in good condition. There were three bedrooms upstairs, the fourth having been turned into a bathroom; there was also an attic – where May kept all her junk.
Downstairs the old bathroom had been turned into a utility room, leading off the roomy dining kitchen. Also off the kitchen was the sitting room; from there was a door to the hallway and the stairs. All in all it was a lovely little house, if a little cluttered with knick knacks and other memorabilia, and May loved it. She had worked hard on the little house since she'd bought it - but the toil and dirt had been worth it.
Outside Eric watched her exit her car and trot up the stairs to the front door – shoving a key in the lock she went in calling out "stop whatever havoc you're causing – I'm home!"
Just before the door swung shut, Eric saw a huge Great Dane and an equally large St. Bernard fling themselves at her and knock her to the ground, another smaller and much older dog hanging back slightly – her giggles and laughter floated across the divide as the three wrestled on the floor, before the door finally closed and hid them from view.
All at once the terrible pain and sense of desperation that had been gnawing at him for so long, began to immediately subside; he felt at peace once again. Something he hadn't felt since he'd last touched her mind.
He stepped back into the darkness as he saw her approach the window and draw the curtains. She seemed to live alone; but he would wait and see, would bide his time to make sure – perhaps in the daylight another might show themselves to reside there. If they did he knew he would kill them; no one and nothing would come between them ever again.
He found a spot to get comfortable in, and so began the wait for morning. He would brave even the sunlight for May Tierney.