It was not something that he was used to. But she had wanted to start a new tradition, even if it was only for one day a year. And it hadn't been until recently, during a conversation on the couch that the topic of birthdays had come up. He had admitted to her that he had not ever celebrated birthdays, it wasn't really a big deal back where he had grown up, in the time he had grown up. The big deals were made when one turned 13, when a boy became a man and was able to wield weapons to fight. And then at 18, when one was able to marry and start procreating more to be raised up, either to be faithful wives and shield maidens of brutal Vikings, sent to pillage, plunder and kill. Birthdays were simply not on his radar and secretly, she wanted to change that and knew better than to bet a cake with candles. Because for one, he couldn't eat the cake and second, if she was to get the amount of candles that equaled his age, she would likely burn down wherever they set up. And as she had said this to certain members of their family, she was given varied responses. Willa had laughed at the idea of seeing a cake alight with over a thousand candles while Pam had rolled her eyes, dismissing birthdays as being meaningless milestones. She had also gone one to tell Sookie about her abusive childhood in which she had had no birthdays and had been fortunately o get out of her house with her life, her own father having been the one that had sold her into prostitution, thus guiding her into the world of brothels she had been a part in until the night Eric had turned her. Though Pam had said Eric could care less about birthdays himself, Sookie wanted to do something and so it was on this late August evening, she had planned a little something she knew he would, in fact, be up for. She had taken great care in her selection and it hadn't been cheap. And instead of having a party for all their friends and family-that was coming tomorrow night, either to his chagrin or delight, depending on how tonight went- she had decided that perhaps something small was a good stepping stone, something a little more…..intimate for tonight. Though Pam had been more than willing to help the girl pick out some things for gifts, she outdid herself as she revealed something to Sookie, wheeling out something from behind the bar that had been covered in a diaphanous shroud .
"I thought we weren't doing a cake, its impossible…." Sookie said, looking shocked by the three tiered cake prepped with red and black candles what fit the color theme of the bar perfectly.
"I fibbed. I've had this in the words for weeks, ever since you brought up the idea of a party. It wasn't cheap and the people who made this said it wasn't easy. But techniques in the realm of vamp meals have grown immensely. Its entirely made of blood with some ingredients they have found that vamps do, to a point, tolerate. Nothing lie sugar or anything like that but it allows to bind the blood and voila….." she gestured to the cake which appeared to be covered in a fondant like substance. "The center is literally oozing with goodness." she winked and licked her lips. "Granted, he will always prefer what's in your veins but what I selected for inside this cake…" she shrugged. "I know there is nothing in this cake you would want…ideally, I know what you prefer to eat-"
"it must be my vamp side flaring up because honestly, all I want to do is tear into that cake without a fork." Sookie winced. "Does that make me sound like a ghoul?"
"No. it means you've got the balls to embrace your inner vamp." Pam said with a grin. "This is a lot of cake, you would think but considering what is in it, it would suffice for the few of us that are gonna be here. And I know you've got a big surprise party planned for him tomorrow night but this…..this is going to be much more intimate….I think we agreed that just the four of us…...well, I think we all needed time to enjoy one another and be….grateful." Pam said and rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you rented out a lazer tag place for tomorrow….he may have loosened up somewhat but seriously?"
"There's more at the Fun Center than that." protested Sookie, who pulled the brochure from her pocket. "Batting cages, bumper cars, arcade games in which he can blast the crap out of stuff…."
"And after his strength inadvertently shows up and he inadvertently-maybe-destroys everything in sight….you know how intense he can be….you'd risk him leveling this place all in the name of fun? He gets carried away playing that dang x box you got him a few months ago and though at one time, he turned his nose up at things like that…..I think you've affectively made him like a teenager again…..Viking or not, I am pretty sure its universal teenage boys like to blow crap up and kill things."
They laughed as they brought the macabre cake out and set a few forks and plates out and again, the waitress breathed in the scent of the cake. It was scented to smell like vanilla but it was what was within it that she was enjoying more. "How did you get him to stay away for the night here?" Sookie asked.
"I reminded him that he still owed me some pumps after that time that I went out searching for what attacked you that one night. That Maenad….remember that?" Pam smirked
"Gee. I forgot about the time by back was scratched to hell and I was laid up in the bar here. No, please do remind me." Sookie said sarcastically, a hint of a smirk on her face.
"Eric was only too eager to help heal you even then." Pam said in a drawl. "You had him hooked from the moment you walked into this place that first night, though he was too prideful and stubborn to admit it. He preferred playing the part of a glowering badass. Which of course, he still is. But he's got his heart back thanks to those closest to him….and you, of course." Pam joked, smirking. Her wit was as sharp as ever and she always was one for a good snaky comment, no matter if it was a loved one or not.
"Gifts." Sookie said with a frown. "I forgot the gifts. Be back in a flash. Literally." and so she vanished in a flash of light, returning a few minutes later with some wrapped packages. "I know we are doing the full family party tomorrow night and he already knows about that but…." she grinned. "I love that he knew nothing about this night."
Together, the two women, along with Willa, had picked out some weapons to add to his collection that he maintained in the fortress like cabin he had had built on Sookie's property, down a path and well hidden from those not wanted to be there. "He's always picking up new swords and I knew he came home a month or so ago with a Viking shield. He says its hard, but not impossible to get his hands on relics from his younger days…..but I think he will like the axes and the sword we got for him." Sookie paused and held up another parcel. "Though I think he certainly won't protest at getting his very own emergency pint of me. I even had a label made up for the bottle….kind of like the way you two had labeled New Blood."
"So its your pretty face on the bottle." Pam said, sounding amused.
"The pose is the same too, me blowing a kiss, though I admit, I think I am a little tastier than Sarah ever thought she was."
Pam sighed. "Before we sold the company, we should have changed the photo, seeing that bitches face on all those cans and bottles…..ugh…..even though she's long dead now, its still annoying the people we sold it to are insistent on still using her face on the bottles. Whatever though. We made money off her ass and now her ass is feeding the grass." Pam quipped with a grin, both she and Sookie more than glad to know Sarah was long dead now. She looked at heir phone and frowned. "I send him away for the night, saying he should do something nice for you, put together something nice at your house. And of course, he always aims to please you. But that was him…he's coming back here to check in and- " she was stopped by a flustered looking Willa who had entered by way of the rear entrance, only accessible by a eye scanner device….coupled with some magic on Sookie's part. Only those within this room, Ginger and Eric could use the rear entrance and as far as the front entrance went, new security cameras were installed and they had hired a pair of vamp bouncers to help try keeping the club free of slime balls who would only want to cause trouble. And though this was not foolproof, things had become more safe, secure since these measures were put into place.
"He's in the office." Willa said, eyes panicky. "I tried keeping him from coming in…." her gaze drifted to the cake, the gifts on the table beside it. The decorations in the club were beautiful and yet somewhat macabre, solemn and yet festive. "Everything looks amazing…..why don't you go get him, he was all about getting to look at the paperwork but….." Willa said as she took Sookie by the arm and led her to the few feet before she reached the door of the closed office, the light from the room streaming through a crack under the door. Leaving her to it, Willa rejoined the others in the main part of the club as Sookie knocked on the door and hearing him say to come in, she gingerly entered the office and couldn't help but be amused as she watched him trying to balance the books. As she laughed gently and shook his head, he looked up at her with amusement of his own. Leaning back in his chair, he arched a brow
"Something amusing to you, sweetheart? " Eric asked, throwing his long legs up on the table, looking cool as could be.
"Its just…..I know there is a lot I don't know about you….I was wondering where you went to school to learn bookkeeping. I mean, do they grant scholarships to Viking vampires? Is that a minority?" she was cracking up at her jokes, even more so when she took in the look on his face, staring at her but that stare turned into a laugh of his own.
"You little minx." he rounded the table and she knew what he had on his mind but instead, she led him out into the club where the others broke out into a round of Happy Birthday, and for Pam, that was something not usual for her. Clearly, even she was willing to make an exception,. "We couldn't really do as many candles as you are old because, well, we would prefer not to take out the neighborhood." Pam said as she grinned at the surprise on her maker's face. "August 25 in I forget what year, exactly and I'm sorry but when one is well over a thousand years old…."
"I stopped counting the years after a thousand…but its happy 1,040th to me, I suppose." he replied dryly, though he couldn't help but appear touched by the gesture, albeit looking awkward.
"Better blow out those candles before we have trouble." Sookie grinned as she nodded to the cake where several were pit in place and they watched with amusement as they went out with a breath from the hesitant Viking, only to light up again. And again he tried and again they lit up. The three women laughed as they watched him try a third time to put out the flames, before crushing the candles in his bare hands, flame and all. And though it stung and burnt his skin for a moment, it healed fast, though a film of wax remained on his hands as the three laughed more at his expense.
"Magic candles." he said flatly as he rounded the bar to wash his hands, though the ghost of a smirk had appeared in his face. "Cute….I don't think I need to ask just whose idea it was."
"WE all thought it would be….amusing." Willa said with a wink. "I had them when I was a kid, my mom put them on almost every year, a tradition…." she trailed off wistfully reminiscing about her human life before shaking it off and joining the others by the unusual cake. Pam handed a knife to her maker to cut it and of course it was not anything delicate, but a modern and deadly looking hunting knife. And though he looked befuddled still she explained that the cake was mart of the new technology being used to make it more….fun for vamps to eat. Rather than drinking it, she explained, technology was able to make blood be able to be eaten in other forms, non of which would make a vamp sick. "They found some chemicals that cam help alter the blood into more solid material while keeping it strictly blood." Pam finished her explanation and watched as he cut the blood cake and like one of those molten lava cakes, there within was a gooey, liquidy center. Five minutes later, all were sitting at one of the booths in the club, eating a wedge of the unusual cake and though for her, it was something she knew she had to do to keep her vamp side strong, Sookie secretly admitted it was rather tasty, though she quit halfway through her piece as she watched her family devour the odd cake ravenously. Considering all three of them preferred their blood straight from the source, that they were so into this treat spoke volumes as to how far things had come.
Biting her lip to keep from laughing, Sookie took in the scene of the three eating the blood cake, manners, as always when eating, went out the window for the vamps and it took all her willpower she had to keep from laughing at the dour faced Viking who had the blood fondant and the blood within the cake all over his face. Feeding frenzy indeed, she stood back as the trio finished the large cake themselves and it wasn't until after that bloodlust and hunger was abated that Sookie rounded the bar and fetched some wet wipes she knew Ginger had stashed there for her own use. She took the canister and offered one to the women and took a third one and with a very amused expression, sauntered up and wiped the mess from her Viking's face, finishing off with a saucy little peck on the nose, licking off a stray crop of the blood cake that had found its way there. "There….all clean." she said as she gave her a cheeky grin of his own whilst licking those delicious fangs of his.
"Oh I should warn you I am still pretty hungry…..even after all of that…." he gestured to where the scattered remains of the cake rested.
"Later….." replied the waitress as she took him by the sleeve of his leather jacket and forced him to have a seat, she and the other bringing their gifts from the table over to him. "These are all for you birthday boy." and she couldn't help note the way his eyes lit up at being so spoiled, there was a innocence about him here and now that she ached for., knowing that his life could have and would have been so different had he never met the fate he had, met Godric…. She shuddered to imagine a life without him and she just couldn't. her memories were interrupted as he tore into his gifts one by one, looking more than a little impressed by the weaponry gifted to him and Sookie didn't mind, she figured it would be all the more to add to his collection in the surprisingly vast underground bunker he had had installed in the fortified cabin he had built on the property near her farmhouse. "Thank god you've got your man cave because that would simply not go well with any of my décor in the farmhouse….I have let you put up a blade or two here and there but….." Sookie played the part of a put upon wife well, though everyone knew she was kidding….to a point.
"it amuses me to think who wears the pants in this relationship." Pam drawled. "You Won't let him put his weapons out on display in your little living room…..I think it would look good amongst the doilies and handmade quilts, to be honest."
They all shared a laugh and Sookie sighed. "I just don't want our house looking like a armory. it's a little farmhouse, its supposed to be cute and that's why he built the cabin….though we enjoy both and I know for a fact he has taken to enjoying my grans blankets more than the new, million thread count blankets he bought….." she grinned at seeing the slight embarrassment radiating from the proud Viking. "Come on, nothing to be ashamed of, my gran made some killer blankets and they will last long after those Sharper Image ones will….Brookstone, where ever that bedding of yours came from."
"I happen to prefer soft rather than rough things against my skin, is that a crime? Considering more often than not, I go without bed clothes…" he smirked at his family, all three women rolling their eyes as they sat down in chairs at the round table. His grin faded as he glanced around at his loved ones. "In all seriousness, this has….been a pleasant evening and I thank you all…..I know sometimes I can be-"
"A pain in the ass….a arrogant jerk…..cocky….smug…" Willa smirked, rattling some names and even though he gave her a look, she shrugged. "Hey, considering the fact you left me for months after turning me-"
"Fair enough." he raised a hand to stop her from going further, though he looked both abashed and amused. "The sass runs strong in this family, does it not?"
"Learned from the best…..meaning me." Pam said with a evil grin, sipping from a bottle of blood that she had procured from behind the bar. And for the rest of the evening, the quartet chatted and reminisced, before cleaning up for the night. And back at home in the yellow house with the light tight shades down, he stretched his long legs under the navy blue quilt Gran had made. Turning his head to the right, he took in the sight of the sleeping faerie hybrid beside him, he, for once, was glad to have celebrated a birthday. And it was at that moment, something caught his eye on the nightstand. In her hurry to make sure tonight went well, she had neglected to put away the notebook and brochure from the fun center and seeing the gust list and seeing her unoriginal headline written on the top of the page, he groaned and turned to look at her as she slept, though this time, she was smirking.
"Cat's out of the bag, huh?" she said without moving, without opening her eyes. "It may be more fun than you expect it to be….keep an open mind. And if you don't enjoy your second party, I will make it up to you personally." and she said nothing else, but moved her leg, her foot moved ever so teasingly against his bare legs, knowing full well he had decided tonight to go to bed in the altogether. Judging by the noise he made, she had hot the sweet spot and he relented.
"You are more dangerous than anything I have ever faced, you know that? There are very few I would relent to and just that wiggle of your foot…."
"A teaser to what will come tomorrow night after the party even if you do have fun. Which you will." she briefly sat up and being cute, she tapped his nose with a finger and dove under the covers.
"Saucy little minx." he said as he followed her under the covers and it would be a night neither would be doing too much sleeping.
THE END