After what seemed like hours I finally got everyone settled and out of my house. Bill took the longest to agree, stating he wanted to stay and make sure no one came back. I thought I was going to have to rescind his invitation once again, but he finally agreed to leave. Amelia went to meet with Pam, in need of some special comforting after such a stressful night. Eric had just disappeared when the vampire Victor left to give his King the good news that Eric would be pledging his loyalty to him with no qualms. I shut all the lights off around the house that had been rudely left on by all my guests and headed to my bedroom for a long night of no sleep and lots of thinking. Of course I would try to push everything from my mind. Not think about the future and what a new regime might mean to me, if not Eric. Eric…. I supposed he could worry about himself and I was sure he would, but I couldn't help worry about him. He was bonded to me and I could almost always get some idea of what he was feeling. Apparently he had not gone too far I could still feel him. He was confused, conflicted, worried, and relieved at the same time. I didn't want to try to dissect his feelings right now. All I wanted was to think about my own feelings, and to be honest, I didn't really want to do that either. I didn't want to know what I was feeling, whether good or bad, Eric was part of me, no matter what.
I let out a little yelp when I opened my bedroom door to see him seated on my bed, head in hands. I knew he knew I had entered the room but he didn't move a muscle.
"Eric?" I said at a whisper. The look on his face would have scared me if we were normal people, but we weren't, were we. "Eric, are you okay?" Yup that's me, Sookie the Vampire counselor. His eyes were pleading with me and his emotions were chaotic suddenly.
"I remember." He whispered right back. I think I stopped breathing for a moment. I couldn't believe two little words could knock the wind from my lungs, but there I was… breathless. I knew one day he would remember. In my heart of hearts I hoped he would. "I remember everything." I wasn't sure what to do, go to his side and console him for the time that he had feelings, kiss him, or ask him to leave at once. Apparently he wasn't sure what to do either, so we stared, him on my bed, me standing in the doorway to my bedroom. The bedroom I had once shared with him, if only for a few days. As he stared, I knew we were both remembering. His new memories, mine old ones that I had been avoiding for what seemed like forever.
A knock at my front door jostled us out of our staring match and Eric stood at once. Always the protector I thought to myself.
"Eric, sit." I insisted and he looked at me through insulted eyes, he hated being told what to do. "I'm sorry, please sit. No one can come in from the wards, I'll be fine." I reassured him and he surprisingly sat back down on his place on the bed. I tried not to look so surprised and turned to walk towards the front door. When I opened the main door, or what was left of it, I found Quinn standing on my porch.
"Babe!" He almost screamed as he tried to open the screen without any success. Thank you Amelia. "Are you okay? Let me in." He had urgency in his voice, but I just leaned against the door and stared at him.
"What can I do for you Quinn?" My voice sounded cold, I hardly recognized it.
"Babe, let me in." He went from urgent to pitiful. "You aren't safe here, let me stay here tonight, I'll make sure no one can get to you." He was sincerely worried about me, I could see that in his eyes, but I couldn't seem to care.
"I'm not safe here?" I asked, still not letting him in.
"No, you shouldn't be alone, not when they know where you are." He was starting to plead with me in the manliest way possible.
"And I wonder how they found out where I live." I stared straight into his eyes and could tell I had hit a nerve. "Besides I'm not alone." I added, hitting another button. With that said Quinn lifted his nose into the air and took in a breath through his nose. His eyes went from pleading and sincere to violent in an instant.
"Bloodsucker." He hissed through clenched teeth. "You think he'll keep you safe, he's done nothing but put you in danger." I could feel anger build through the bond, well aware that Eric had heard everything said. Not even a moment later Eric was coming up behind me, the look in his eyes hadn't changed from the soft confused look I had seen earlier, but his face was wearing its best cocky smile.
"I was just leaving." He pushed past me, laying a hard kiss on my mouth but for exiting. After getting my heart calmed down a bit I followed after him. He had just reached the bottom of the porch steps and I could tell he would be taking off into flight any second.
"Eric!" I screamed it without meaning to. He turned to me, cocky smile and sad eyes. "Don't go." I didn't know what I was doing, I just knew I didn't want him to leave; I couldn't leave this hanging in the air. Quinn ran up behind me and grabbed a hold of my arm keeping from barreling down the stairs after Eric.
"Sookie!" Quinn yelled, I was glad to be rid of the babe name calling. "You can't be serious, he can't protect you he can only cause you more trouble." His hand was rough on my arm but I didn't take my eyes from Eric. "Babe," oh gosh we were back to babe, "are you listening to me, he's a monster."
"You have no idea what you're talking about Quinn." I spoke but once again didn't take my eyes off Eric afraid that he would take off the second I did. "You've always done everything you could to protect me." I shook Quinn's arm off, easily, he must have been too shocked by what I was saying to keep his grip on me. I took a step closer to Eric, down one step. "Longshadow," I started naming the times I could recall he had been there, but I was sure there had been times I didn't even know about, " Maenad, Dallas, pink lycra," I remember with a smile, "the stake, the trunk," that was a painful memory, being raped by someone I had once loved, "all the bullets…" seriously how many bullets did a man have to take for you before you realized there was a pattern. I paused when I saw the cocky smile had faded and I took another step closer.
"Sookie, you don't know what you're doing." Quinn was convinced I had lost my mind as I edged closer to the Vampire standing on my lawn. "What are you doing to her?" he growled at Eric who didn't take his eyes from me. The bond was sending me a garbled up ball of emotions, a weaker woman would have gotten ill from all the feelings at once, but I continued.
"The soda bomb, the Pelts, Andre." I heard a snort from behind me and knew it had come from Quinn who didn't agree that Eric's bonding with me had been protection at all, but hadn't that been his intention. "All you've ever done is tried to protect me." I couldn't read Eric's expression. It was almost blank, but I could see something there beneath the surface, perhaps without the bond I wouldn't have seen it, but it was there. When I reached the last step I was a mere foot from Eric and closer to eye level thanks to the boost in height from the step. I searched his eyes as he searched mine; it appeared we were both looking for the answer to why he had done all this.
I couldn't say how long had passed or if Quinn had continued to rant, but suddenly something passed through the bond, something stronger than the multitude of other emotions he was feeling, I gasped at the feeling. His eyes widened for only a second when he felt it too. I tried to keep the smile from starting to creep up the corners of my mouth, but was failing miserably. I didn't think it was possible for Eric to look anymore uncomfortable or fearful. I could see Quinn out of my peripheral vision now that I had found the answer I had been searching for in Eric's face. He was standing with his arms crossed on his chest looking like a spoiled child not getting his way. Okay a big bald muscle-bound child but a child none the less.
I looked deeper into Eric's eyes than I ever had before just when I proclaimed the answer I had found, "You love me." I couldn't help the grin that was spread across my face. Quinn made a sound of disgust and then laughed at me.
"You're kidding me, right?" Quinn asked through his laughter.
"Don't be ridiculous Sookie." Eric's face was stone, but he couldn't lie to me not with the tricky little bond that was between us. The smile never left my face, even with his attempt at denial.
"See Babe, you're wrong, even he said you're being ridiculous." Quinn was back to grabbing my arm. Eric finally broke my stare to hiss at Quinn who let go but didn't back away.
"You hate it." I said matter of factly. He did I knew he didn't like having feelings, but that didn't mean they weren't there. I knew that from personal experience. "I hate it too."
He flinched but quickly resumed his blank face, "You hate that you think I'm in love with you?"
"No, I hate that I'm in love with you." The corner of his mouth jerked up for a second and could have sworn I saw his eyes sparkle. I sighed. "So what will it be," I caught Eric gaze again, "are you going to stay with me, or should I let the tiger stay?" I felt his amusement at my referring to Quinn as "the tiger" as the award winning Eric smile crept back onto his face.
"Night babe." his eyes flicked to Quinn on the word babe.
"You can't be serious Babe…. Sookie?" I didn't move my eyes off of Eric.
"You heard him, run along little kitty." I flinched for a second when I heard the growl that Quinn released into the night air. He left though, with his tail metaphorically between his legs.
After along moment of silence Eric broke it, "Go pack."
I lifted my eyebrow at him, "Pack? Eric I said for you to stay, not take me away."
"You really don't think I'm staying in that hole in your floor, I have more suitable accommodations. Besides he'll be back." He pointed his head where Quinn had left from.
"Afraid of one little cat?" I asked him teasingly. He pulled me close to his chest and bent his face to mine.
"I don't want to be interrupted." Before I could say anything back or even get a handle on the explosion that was going on in my body, his lips firmly pressed to mine. I met him with eager willingness that I was sure he hadn't expected. His hands pulled me tighter against him as he wrapped his arms around my waist. My hands found his hair to make sure he didn't try to run away from the kiss we were sharing. When I finally broke the kiss in order to take a deep breath he took the chance to lay light kisses on my neck making my skin fill with heat. His hands moved quickly to my shoulder. He used this position to turn me back the house, lay a swift tap on my bottom and tell me to go pack. I did so, without argument.
We drove to Eric's in my car, he drove, disgusted with my car. I tried to convince him to fly along side, but he didn't appreciate my suggestion. Instead he growled and hissed every time my car wouldn't go along with whatever he was trying to make it do. I fell asleep despite the fight he was having in the seat next to me. When I awoke I was nuzzled comfortably in Eric's neck, draped with the softest fabric I had ever felt. I considered never moving again, being the most comfortable I'd ever been, but of course I'd have to move eventually. I untucked myself from Eric's body with some difficulty; he had his big arms wrapped around me, not to mention his legs intertwined with mine. I was able to make it out from his arms but my legs were stuck so I sat up at an odd angle and pushed my hair from my face.
The room was dimly lit. I could see the walls were some kind of cream color, all the wood in the room was dark cherry and there were no windows (big surprise). I looked down and realized I was no longer in the clothes I had traveled in; instead I was wearing pajama pants and a camisole. I was shocked out of my observation when a hand pulled me back to the bed, leaving my face centimeters from Eric's.
"Lover." It wasn't a question. I think he just wanted to hear himself say it without getting a dirty look.
"Why didn't you wake me up?" I wondered how he accomplished bringing me in from the car and changing me without me noticing.
"It was a long night." He answered simply. He closed in the space that was between us and pressed his lips against mine. His hand found my hip and his fingers slid effortlessly inside the bottom of my camisole to feel my skin. I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest. He pulled away from me and looked into my eyes. I attempted to catch my breath, but quickly decided that breathing is overrated. I pressed my lips firmly into his and my body followed.