WEEKLY ONE-SHOT CHALLENGES of 2010
Week 2
Title: Dead Feelings
Pen name: smittenskitten
Word count: 5280
Disclaimer: All copyright and trademarked items mentioned in this story, belong to their respective owners.
Summery – This is a retelling of chapter 3 of 'Dead as a Doornail' from Eric's point of view.
A/N: Lines and dialogues are taken right from the books, I am just telling it from Eric's prospective. Which I am pretty sure I failed to do it properly.
~O~
All the vampires in Shreveport-area had to agree to serve at Fangtasia for a certain number of hours each week so the tourists would keep coming. A vampire bar without any actual vampires is a money-losing establishment.
No one said mainstreaming was going to be easy.
And I had to set a good example for my underlings by sitting out in the bar at regular intervals. Pam was attending taking cover charge and showing the customers to tables. Thalia was amusing some humans by giving them 'the vampiric power show' as she called it.
We have had a new bartender Charles Twining for two weeks now. He came from Mississippi, so I had written him down as one of Russell's discarded pretty boys. I had even called Russell, to ask him if Twining had worked for him. Russell said he had so many new vampires in the mansion, he had only the vaguest recollection of Twining.
Russell, as I observed at Josephine's doesn't manage his bar as I do. And Fangtasia wasn't a bar as Josephine's either.
I had to hire Charles as a bouncer after losing Chow. He had met his final death in the Witch War.
War.
The single word brings back memories of all the battles I have been to in the last 1000 years. But the Witch War was something I wanted to remember eagerly but couldn't. Unfortunately I was cursed by this bitch, witch whatever. Hollow. I am glad Pam decided to kill her. She did the right thing. Perhaps.
But due to the curse I had lost my memory for few days. Nearly a week. I was desperate to remember what had happened in that time. And even desperate to know what happened between me and her.
In the last few months I have been feeling out of place, like something is missing. Something I should know, something, just that something, I just couldn't remember but I should. And this feelings have me all messed up and not satisfied at all.
Feelings.
A word I don't like and at this point I am most certainly having a lot of them.
'And I do not like having feelings.'
I suddenly felt anxiety a sudden nervousness perhaps even eagerness, she was coming. I could feel her even though I have had a very little of her blood.
She was the one who took care of me during my little amnesia episode.
Sookie Stackhouse.
And she is the only reason for me to trying to remember that time so very desperately.
I was sitting in the corner booth while I motioned for Pam to fetch her. After a couple of minutes she was walking across from the bar behind Pam. As she walked towards my booth I took in her appearance.
She wore a white long-sleeved sweater giving me the view of her perfect flat tummy with her belly bottom peaking out a little as she walked and the jeans, oh the sinful jeans! It hugged her bottom perfectly. I sigh a little looking down at my hands, wondering how my hands would feel cupping her bottom. I couldn't help the smirk that broke in my face. It faded as quickly as it accrued. My hands just might have cupped, felt every inch of her body. But for the dead life of me I could not remember no matter how much I tried. And she would not say if I did. Maybe I should try again.
'I am a patient man after all'.
As she got to my booth I rose up to my full height to greet her. I bent down giving her a kiss on the cheek, I couldn't help but linger a little. I could feel her go through some lustful emotions at the contact but she didn't act upon them. And I knew she never would.
As we sat on the booth we talked about my return to work. I didn't even realize that I have just told her about Hot Rain, I scolded myself for letting it slip. I definitely didn't want to mention Hot Rain or Long Shadow, not in front of her.
Long Shadow had been the first bartender of Fangtasia. He'd been stealing from me for a long time which I didn't know of course. At the time I had to hire Sookie's services so I could interrogate the barmaids and other human employees until I found out who the actual culprit was. As soon as Long Shadow realized his act was going to be revealed, and she had found out about him, he launched himself at her.
Everything had slowed down. I saw him launching towards her her eyes going wide with horror. I did what any sheriff would, I stalked him with a wooden stake or …. I don't even want to think about what if.
Killing another vampire is a very serious matter in our community and I had to pay the penalty, I paid damages to Hot Rain, Long Shadow's master. He wasn't satisfied with that, after all he did have some affection for his child. But as far as I was concern, the matter was settled I paid handsomely. It was a small price compared to her life.
Wanting to avoid the subject I asked how she had been. As she answered me with a serious and businesslike manner to tell me she was here on business. So I played along she was very sexy when she acted all business.
"What can I do for you, my Sookie?" I asked. I might have growled when I said my.
And it did not escape her as she visibly shuddered at my comment. I was glad I had managed to make her feel this way about me. Though I have no idea what I did. Must have done something. Right? Regaining her composer she looked over at me but not quite meeting my eyes. "Sam wants to ask you for something,"
"And he sends you to ask for it. Is he very clever or very stupid?" I asked myself more than her wondering if the shifter had finally gone nuts.
"Neither," her voice sharp. I loved it when she snapped. Her nose would cringe a little making her frown. It was all too known face for me. From the first time she walked in the bar, to our little mind reading sessions, in Dallas, Mississippi she would always make that face at me. At some point I was pretty concerned if the girl knew of making any other faces, rather than that. My favorite memory of her was not one of her best moments but still she was so brave! She was wounded and she had taken a stake in her body not such an easy matter for a human body to go through.
"He's very leg-broken. That is to say, he got his leg broken last night. He got shot." I was astounded to hear about the shooting. My pique to her story did not falter. I asked her to describe every little detail.
"How did this come about?" I asked.
She started to explain. As she explained I could see her shivering a little when she told me how the shifter got shot. And that had they been alone! It could have been an attack on her. She isn't just a human.
She is mine.
She had been a target for so many times she can't be that naïve to think it was on the shifter!
"How close were you?" I asked
"Oh," her voice shook as she said, "I was real close. I'd just turned to . . . then he was . . . There was blood all over."
I was furious. Furious with the shooter; her, the shifter, her, me. Does she even realize how close she was to dying? She could have been dead. What if it was her who got shot?
I cannot lose her.
She was never yours to lose!
I will not lose her.
I was having my inner battle but I never let it show in my face.
"What did you do?" I asked her.
"Sam had his cell phone in his pocket, thank God, and I held one hand over the hole in his leg and I dialed nine-one-one with the other." At least she was quick on thinking.
"How is he?" I inquired. I don't really care what happened to him.
But I needed her safe. The shifter would keep his eyes open for her safety. He seemed to be fiercely loyal to her and perhaps he even loved her, as far as I have observed. And not to my liking she seems to be fond of him.
"Well." After inhaling a little she started, "He's pretty good, all things considered. But of course, he's down for a while, and so much . . . so many odd things have been happening at the bar lately. . . . Our substitute bartender, he just can't handle it for more than a couple of nights. Terry's kind of damaged."
'He is unable to tend his bar.' Not good and I think I might know why he sent her with a request. He might have some brain after all.
"So what's Sam's request?"
"Sam wants to borrow a bartender from you until his leg heals."
If my suspicion to why he had sent her with a request to borrow a bartender is true, something might be terribly wrong. Shifters seldom got organized, even if the Shifter isn't in a pact, Colonel Flood the pack master of the Shreveport werewolves would be obliged to help him. 'Maybe he refused to help him'. I amused myself. But I need confirmation from her.
"Why's he making this request of me, instead of the pack master of Shreveport?" I guess she didn't know either.
She was looking down at her hands wrapped around the glass. The answer she gave me wasn't something I expected.
"Someone's gunning for the Shifters and Weres in Bon Temps," she said this in a very low voice. I could hear her nonetheless.
This isn't good at all. Someone is targeting Shifters and Weres. This may lead to huge problem for the vampires. If a vampire is behind this it's even worse.
I could spare a bartender for a while. But the shifter would owe me. I was thinking who I could spare, when I saw a man poking Sookie's shoulder. 'Did she know him?'
"I don't believe I know you," she told him. My question was answered and I watched how she was going to handle this.
"You shouldn't be sitting with a vamp," he said. "Human girls shouldn't go with dead guys."
"You should go back over there to your friends, Dave. You don't want your mama to get a phone call about you being killed in a bar fight in Louisiana. Especially not in a vampire bar, right?" she was trying to send him off with a vocal warning. But he seemed drunk enough to question her in front of a vampire. He definitely had a death wish, to which I would love to help him with I was quite a bit hungry.
"How'd you know my name?" he asked slowly.
"Doesn't make any difference, does it?"
"How'd you know about me?" he asked in a calmer voice.
"I have x-ray vision," she said "I can read your driver's license in your pants."
"Hey, can you see other stuff through my pants?"
That's it. I am draining him right now. I don't care if I have to glamour every last person in the bar.
But Sookie apparently finds his comment amusing as she smiled back at him and tells him "You're a lucky man, Dave, Now, I'm actually here to talk business with this guy, so if you'd excuse us . . ." she tried to dismiss him with that and I was glad that it worked. And with that he was on his way to his friends.
Though everyone in the bar had tried to pretend they weren't watching the incident, this had so much potential for some juicy violence, which I would have provided without any hesitation. They had to scramble to act busy when my eyes swept the surrounding tables. I was somehow glad to keep a nonviolent face in front of her.
"You were starting to tell me something when we were so rudely interrupted," I said.
"Yes. Sam isn't the only shape-shifter who's been shot in Bon Temps lately. Calvin Norris was shot in the chest a few days ago. He's a Werepanther. And Heather Kinman was shot before that. Heather was just nineteen, a Werefox." Her voice sounded hurt from this weres getting shot.
"I still don't see why this is interesting." I voiced my thought to her.
"Eric, she was killed."
I still didn't know why that was interesting. She was getting angry at my behavior and had no idea why. Am I supposed to care that some Werefox or panther died?
"I'm trying to explain to you why Sam doesn't want to ask another shape-shifter or Were to step in to help," she said through her clenched teeth. "He thinks that might be putting him or her in danger. And there's just not a local human who's got the qualifications for the job. So he asked me to come to you."
This woman was an enigma to me. I had no idea why she cared for someone she barely knew or she was afraid of. I have this new feeling from her for me. She was suppressing it at the moment but it was most definitely there. She felt it, for me.
For a terrorizing Viking a frightening vampire, who caused her many mishaps after meeting?
Why though was beyond me.
What did I do to you Sookie to feel this way?
I don't know if I should be glad that she felt this barely there feeling, which I wanted her to feel only for me. Now I feel lost not knowing what I could have possibly done in a week that she was so vulnerable.
"When I stayed at your house, Sookie . . ." I tried to bring out the time of us at her home but she interrupted me and stopped my advances by saying "Oh, Eric, give it a rest."
'Only if you knew how much I wanted this at rest'.
But I cannot, I have to know what had happened at her house.
"Someday I'll remember," I had more determination in my voice at the moment.
She looked troubled by my words. Her eyes were wild with thoughts and her heartbeat sped up. It only rose for a few seconds but then she started to calm down.
"Yes," she said softly, looking down at her hands. "Someday, I expect you will remember." There was a slight regret in her voice as she said this. 'What did we do Sookie that has you regretting our time together?'
"Sam was clever to send you to ask me, I'll spare someone." I told her trying to clear the air and she relaxed visibly.
I was looking around the bar, considering the vampires present. Who would be perfect for the Shifter's bar and to keep her safe?
Thalia, the bar would probably turn into a tin can by the next day if she was there.
Indira, but being a women the rednecks would make a pass too often, and she is a vampire she can take care of herself all too well. Not worried about her being safe!
Maxwell, well he isn't a regular bouncer even in Fangtasia.
Charles, he was new but he did work well with humans and it is a human bar after all. And I would have her keep him at her house.
"What if I send Charles?" I asked her casually.
"Or Pam or anyone else who can keep their temper." She said this while watching Thalia with a horrid expression.
"Charles is the least temperamental vampire I've ever met, though I confess I don't know him well. He's been working here only two weeks."
"You seem to be keeping him busy here."
"I can spare him." I said it in a matter a fact manner.
"Um... okeydokey."
She always had a way with words. And Pam was very fond of it, so was I. She seemed pleased with the choice of the bartender. Here goes nothing hopefully she would agree to my terms.
"Here are the terms, Sam supplies unlimited blood for Charles and a secure place to stay. You might want to keep him in your house, as you did me."
"And I might not," she said angrily. "I'm not running any hostel for traveling vampires."
"Oh, of course, I forgot. But you were generously paid for my board." I regretted my words as soon as they were out of my mouth, but I had to know if she did keep me at her house for the money. I had my doubts in many things, but I knew her enough to know she would've done it even if there wasn't any money involved. I never took her to be a greedy woman.
"That was my brother's idea," she flinched as she said this.
'I knew it'. She wouldn't ask for the money, even though she deserved it. She would never ask. She looked at my eyes and realized I had figures it out.
A slight shed of pink sneaked up her face from under her sweater when she realized she had confirmed my suspicion. And that color was one of the reasons of my undoing. And the memories in Russell's mansion with her are all too visible for me. I still remember when she turned in a deep red when my fingers had found her. I was fond of that particular memory with her.
"But he was absolutely right," as she tried to convince me "Why should I have put a vampire up in my house without getting paid? After all, I needed the money."
'I never said he wasn't right.' Her brother wasn't someone I would want her to be influenced by. But he was greedy or clever enough however you want to put it; to ask for money for his sister's work.
"Is the fifty thousand already gone?" I asked her gently. "Did Jason ask for a share of it?" Of course he would and even if he didn't she would surely give him.
"None of your business," she answered in an irritated voice.
Her face changed in some new revelations. She was quite while she was thinking. She didn't even realize my eyes were locked in watching her facial expression. Sometimes I really do wish I could read her mind as well.
Examining her face I voiced my thought, "I wish that I could read your mind as you can read the minds of others; I wish very much that I could know what was going on in your head. I wish I knew why I cared what's going on in that head."
She wasn't comfortable at my comment but tried to ease the tension around as she gave me an uncomfortable smile.
"I agree to the terms: free blood and lodging, though the lodging won't necessarily be with me. What about the money?"
"I'll take my payment in kind. I like Sam owing me a favor." Yes I would have him pay for it.
She called the shifter and he agreed to the terms. Everything was settled I motioned for Charles to come over the booth. He leapt over the bar theatrically, and the patrons applauded. Vampires love making an entrance I know it for a fact. I briefed him about the situation. He had to obey and she had to interrupt. The shifter might have needed a bartender. But he knew it well that the only reason I would give anyone to work for him if it was Sookie's safety in question. And Charles would answer to her not the shifter. And being Sookie, she would never comply.
Once that was done and settled she said something about getting her coat and leaving. I wasn't ready for her to leave. Not yet.
The music system began playing 'Here Comes the Night.'
I took the opportunity and asked, "Will you dance?"
She looked over at the empty little dance floor. "Thank you," she said sliding out of the booth.
I offered her my hand and she hesitantly put hers in mine. I lead her to the dance floor placing my other hand on her waist I dragged her close to my body.
Despite the difference in our heights, we glided quite well.
She was extremely close. Her head rested just under my chin. I inhaled the intoxicating smell she had. She was truly magnificent. I didn't realize her hands were clinging on to my shirt. Her breathing was erratic. As her hot breath hit my skin my hands were clenched tightly around her waist pulling her even closer, if that was possible. She didn't move away or protest on my advances. But her heart was pounding like drums. Every vampire within Shreveport area could hear her heart speeding up. Her head was tucked under my chin and her hair falling loose denying me the permission to see her face. I was eager to see the blue depth of her gorgeous eyes. She had the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen, they spoke of things she didn't want to say. She nuzzled her head a little on my neck breathing in my scent.
She was perfect in my arms.
She even felt perfect there.
No matter how absurd it may seem but it was like our bodies were made for each other as we fit so perfectly in each other's arms.
I had the most outrages thoughts of us. It wasn't like I never had them. I had recently discovered many things after my amnesia episode. Sookie was providing many of them. I wanted her, even before I thought of having her all for myself, doing things to her, give her such pleasure that it would be impossible for her to leave. I wanted her no matter what the conciseness was. And the lust I was receiving through her for me had me worked up.
She raised her head from my chest. She looked up focusing her eyes not to meet mine. She felt so familiar everything about her body felt familiar. It was like our bodies knew each other even if I didn't. The dance was over before we had the chance to pursuit it further.
"Holding you seems very familiar, Sookie." I told her and her eyes were wild with thoughts; holding something back. But she settled for saying something else.
"You wish," She said as she let go of my hand all too quickly and she stepped away from my embrace.
I was feeling the loss of her body being close to mine, and wanting to ask her why she felt this way in my embrace but didn't want to push her about it.
"By the way, have you ever run across a kind of mean-looking vampire named Mickey?"
I grabbed her hand again and squeezed it little too tightly.
"Ow!" escaped from her mouth. I eased up instantly. Great on top of knowing Mickey she was hurt and I am the one that hurt her.
Great! Just great!
But I needed to know how the hell she knew him. He can't have her under any circumstances. He would be meeting his final death if he did.
"He was in here last week. Where have you seen Mickey?" I demanded.
"In Merlotte's." she answered with a dumbfounded look at the effect her question had had on me.
"What's the deal?"
Good she doesn't know him personally.
"What was he doing?"
"Drinking Red Stuff and sitting at a table with my friend Tara. You know, you saw her? At Club Dead, in Jackson?"
Yes I did. I did saw her but she was more of a blur to me. How was I supposed to notice her when Sookie was doing all the grinding and hip thrusting? I tuck away that memory for some other time. It wasn't possible to want her more but if I started thinking back to that moment, I don't know how much of a self control I might have. Willing that memory away I asked, "When I saw her she was under the protection of Franklin Mott."
"Well, they were dating. I can't understand why he'd let her go out with Mickey. I hoped maybe Mickey was just there as her bodyguard or something." Retrieved her coat from the booth she asked, "So, what's the bottom line on this guy?"
"Stay away from him. Don't talk to him, don't cross him, and don't try to help your friend Tara."
That was a matter of fact manner and it should be enough for her to listen to me for once.
Who was I kidding of course she wouldn't. She never does.
She opened her hands, asking me to explain.
"When he was here, Mickey talked mostly to Charles. Charles tells me he is a rogue. He's capable of . . . things that are barbarous. Don't go around Tara." she was still expecting more explanation.
"He'll do things the rest of us won't," there, that should do it.
She looked at me with shock and worries in her eyes.
"I can't just ignore her situation. I don't have so many friends that I can afford to let one go down the drain."
"If she's involved with Mickey, she's just meat on the hoof," I said it with a brutal ease more than necessary.
I took the coat from her and held it while she slid into it. It fitted her perfectly.
It was a gift from me, I am glad that she liked it. I had purchased this for her to replacement her old one which was blood stained. I came across the coat when I had went back to thank her for keeping me, and trying to find out why my coat had brain tissue I roamed her house while she was busy and found the old one blood tinted. She couldn't get all of them off.
My hands massaged her shoulders after she'd buttoned it.
"It fits well," I told her.
"You got my thank-you note?"
"Of course. Very, ah, seemly."
"I still wonder why your old coat had bloodstains on it," I murmured, and her eyes flashed up to mine.
Her eyes were enough to tell me we did something she didn't want to talk about.
"What did we do, Sookie? And to whom?"
"It was chicken blood. I killed a chicken and cooked it," yes she lied and I knew it. Being a lie detector and all.
But killed a chicken? That was a good one. I have to tell Pam just to see her face. She would most probably have laughing feet when I'll tell her about Sookie killing a chicken.
"Sookie, Sookie. My bullshit meter is reading that as a 'false," I said, shaking my head in a chiding way. I could be funny when I wanted to be. With that she started laughing, Charles was standing by the front door, thoroughly modern padded jacket at the ready.
"Good-bye, Eric, and thanks for the bartender,"
"Drive safely, and stay away from Mickey. I need to find out why he's in my territory. Call me if you have any problems with Charles."
I bent down and brushed her cheek with my cool lips. Her warm skin was sending sparks through all over her body causing me to twitch a little.
She got behind the driving seat of her car; putting on her seat belt she looked at me from her car window. She gave me a real smile which caused me to smile back at her. Waving her hand she drove away; I watched her car going towards Bon Temps. I stood there until the car was out of my sight.
~O~
Thank you for reading.