A Thousand Years
Eric saw her run from the door and the only thought that could possibly run through his mind that any reason he had ever needed for existence left. He had searched a thousand years to find someone like her. She had passion, and fire. Even before she knew how unique her existence had been she had never backed down from him. She had stood before him, loyalty as deeply imbedded into her veins as his had been, and bravery that surpassed even the oldest of vampires. Possibly even him.
Never truly knowing how badly his being ached for someone to love he had become a maker. Pam had been his child, a true extension to his personality and self. He had loved her for the past one hundred years and had treated her as any parent would a child. But to love Sookie was an entirely different thing. Part of him had been absolutely terrified to love this…girl.
He looked to his left to see Bill standing there in a daze and Eric looked at him with a level of respect, and defiance.
"My King, I need to know. You have both forgiven one another. But will you fight for her? Or are you walking away. Because if it the latter, I will follow that girl to the ends of this earth trying to prove to her that I've searched a thousand years for her and to have her be mine and walk away…she may as well have left me on that stake to be burned. She cannot fathom how much I need her. As I can profess to you. I will beg for the true death if she truly cannot be mine."
Bill looked at Eric truly for the first time in what seemed his entire existence. Aside from the case of amnesia, Bill had never been witness to the vulnerable, human Eric before. That part of him had long since been gone when Bill had been introduced to the Sheriff. He knew Sookie had been witness to it the dawn that Godric had died but she kept quiet in regards of what happened afterwards, affording Eric the ability to mourn in privacy.
It took Bill a moment to analyze exactly the extent to which he loved Sookie. He had no doubt that she had been a love of a lifetime, but he had lived more than one of those. He had left a wife, and children. And he had no doubt loved them as well hadn't he?
But Eric, Eric had lived a thousand years and had been searching all this time to find that person he wanted to share his existence with. Finally, Bill knew that it would never be a love that he would fight for over that many centuries. Eric's heart had stood still within the confines of his chest for ten centuries and for the first time, Bill could see it lying upon his sleeve, aching worse than pain could imagine. He had barely just escaped death upon a burning stake, and yet, he's professing he would rather still be dead then imagine life without her. He couldn't begin to fathom that extent.
"You truly love her don't you?"
Bill's words had slipped from his mouth before he could rein them in. He was King, and yet, here stood a man ready to forfeit anything for one treasure that no money could buy.
"With more than all of what I am or what I could one day be. And if she cannot be mine, then I myself will beg for the true death."
Bill's next statement brought Eric to his knees, his head bowed with but a single tear gathered in his eye.
"I revoke all claims I once had for Sookie Stackhouse. If it be her will my blood shall be siphoned from her veins and she shall be the complete claim of Sheriff of Area Five, Eric Northman. Go Sheriff."
Sookie raced from Bill's house at a speed she didn't think was human. Her heart ached in so many ways she didn't think she knew if she had the ability to process everything. She had to be honest with Eric; she had to tell him that a part of her always had and always would love Bill. She had given everything to him when she had met him. Her entire soul had been his. And although they had both hurt one another in ways far surpassing what any normal couple may have gone through, a weight had truly been lifted when she had been granted and given forgiveness only moments ago.
The look upon Eric's face when she had said she couldn't be with either of them what was what tore her to shreds. She had broken a man she didn't think could ever be broken. She had known him before the amnesia, and to know that side of him, the side she had invited into her bed, the side she had truly and utterly fallen in love with, she couldn't fathom not having him as part of her life anymore. Of not falling asleep and waking up with him in the cubby he had made. How downright human he had been, laughing, crying, dreaming. It had been what she had searched for her entire life. The man she knew her Gran would want her to be with. Her Gran had told her it's ok to be alone, but hadn't she been alone her entire life before she met Bill? And then Eric?
Although Eric had done so many terrible things in the span of time that she knew him, how much had he given to save her? How many times had he twisted and turned the tides so that her life was spared?
She knew she needed time to think. Time to sort her head. Time to left the blood dissipate from her veins so that she knew the only reason she would have feelings for either of the vampires in her life was her own heart and not the blood that flowed through it.
She knew she had more than enough money to tell Sam she needed a week or two to think. She knew at this moment that all rationality had left her. So she did the only thing she could think that would shut her from the world. She walked to the armoire that Eric had used to disguise his cubby. She climbed down the latter into the space that smelled of him, his essence, and his sheets that still had everything that reminded her of what had been and what had happened down in this space laid upon them. Crawling under the covers, she pulled them over her head and wept more than when her Gran had died.
Six weeks had flown, escaping Sookie's conscious frame of mind. She had lost her best friend and confidant, her lover, her former lover, and any sense of time she formerly had. Lafayette and Jesus had been by several times, each time only bringing Sookie another cocktail of medication, which Lafayette seemed to be dabbling in himself. Especially after Tara's funeral. They both had become ghosts of their former selves, and Sookie merely felt like one haunting the home of her childhood.
That, however, came to a screeching halt on the evening that a knock came to her door. The pounding had been a bit insistent so she opened the door to a sight she hadn't been ready to behold.
Bill stood before her, his eyes distracted a distinctive clench to his jaw.
"Sookie, I have a question and it is extremely important that you answer me honestly, and I beg of you not to get upset."
Her heart clenched in her throat, not knowing what to expect. The only answer she could give him was a terse nod of the head.
"Since we were last gathered, have you seen Eric?"
Her breath caught in her throat as she gave the honest answer of a shake of her head.
Bill's eyes fluttered momentarily, as if trying to figure out the best way to say the next words to fall from his tongue.
"And you haven't felt him in…pain…have you?"
Sookie continued to feel as if her breath might just stop all together unless King Bill Compton started to explain himself soon. Her second answer was another shake of her head.
Finding her voice for what felt like the first time that week she asked him simply to explain himself.
"No one has seen or heard from Eric. Including Pam. And the last we spoke he said if he couldn't be with you, he was going to beg for the true death. That he should've been left on the pyre that we had been burning on. That he loved you, and had searched for you for a thousand years. I revoked the claim I once had on you and told him if it be your wish to siphon my blood from you so that you could be together. I may love you Sookie, and you were the love of a lifetime for me. But Eric, you are the love of his existence, and even I know I cannot compete with that."
Before anything else could be said, Sookie felt the wind escape her lungs, and black surrounded her.
Sookie felt like someone had punched her in the stomach. Eric, her Eric was gone. No one knew where he was, or even if he was still alive. Even his own child. The only thing that could replay in her head was the words that Godric spoke to her on his last dawn, "You'll take care of him?" and she did. She thought she did. And now, now he could be gone. Reunited with his maker. Whatever ounce of self control she had was gone. And the flood gates she thought that had been damned bursted again as she ran from Bill to Eric's cubby.
"Please," she whispered, knowing Bill could hear her. "Please, just go."
She bent over a garbage can that had been thrown down there with his pile of books, and random notes he had from the club. Puking what little food she had eaten that day, she crawled to his bed and pulled the sheets over her head. She knew she could find solace in one of Lafayette's pills but at the moment, she was sincerely trying to trick her mind into still believing that this cubby smelled of him. His clothes, his expensive cologne, his essence that haunted her dreams.
She deliberately hadn't said his name in over six weeks, knowing that his name would call him to her. But each tear that escaped her eyes screamed his name instead. She knew she hadn't mourned Bill this way. Knew in her heart that she may have tried to give them both up, but whereas Bill had been a piece, Eric was her entire heart. She knew this, even if then she hadn't wanted to admit it. It wasn't his blood that made her love him. Rather his heart that was a permanent fixture within herself. She knew her blood was clean because she had intentionally made them siphon it after Tara's funeral. Her own blood for the first time in almost 2 years. But she couldn't deny that the heartbeat drumming under her breast belonged to him.
"Eric," his name tumbled from her tongue. Although her thoughts had screamed that name many times, she allowed it past her tongue just once. In a damn near silent single worded prayer.
Another prayer followed, two words mixed with tears.
"Please Eric."
It had been a whisper in the wind. He had been almost sure of it. He had been flying near the water, the inky black sky reflective with the lights of this dirty rotten beautiful city known as New Orleans. Although he had stayed in Louisiana, he hadn't spent more than a day anywhere he stopped. Often taking to flight to avoid any run ins with werewolves he knew were friendly with her, or any other creatures of the night that could report him to their king. He didn't want to be found. Many nights he had spent underground like a savage, and other evenings spent in safe houses belonging to acquaintances that promised to keep their mouths shut that they had seen him. Surviving solely on Tru Blood. He couldn't bring himself to taint what had once been her blood flowing through his veins.
But six weeks was quite the time to run like a heartbroken boy, and he knew he would need to return home soon to put his affairs in order. He had meant what he had said to the king. If he couldn't claim her as his own, then no one would stop him from meeting his maker. Every day he had felt a part of him die in wait. He had often wondered of death, true death, and if he would one day meet Godric again. Father. Brother. Son. If only he had his wisdom now. He didn't know why he had run instead of ending things then. He knew she had needed a chance to clear her mind. As well as their blood because he could no longer feel their connection. But she had yet to call to him, and he knew his time was coming to a close. He was not afraid to burn. He felt his makers words reverberate in his head. Maybe the Norse Gods he came to hold faith in as a child would once again welcome him into the Halls as a Viking Prince. Allowing him once more to play near the North Sea in the sunlight, if only one last time.
But he swore, with every ounce of his being, he had heard her say his name. "Eric." Quietly, like a prayer.
Again, just a quiet whisper of words.
"Please Eric."
He didn't know if this was magic. He knew too much of magic to reject the theory. His silent heart felt like it was painfully going to attempt to beat with the adrenaline that flooded his veins. He took to the skies immediately. Hope was such a fickle thing. But nonetheless an emotion that equally surmounted to the word love. He had to see her, even if he had been wrong. He needed to see her, if only for one last time.
Landing in front of her home, he smelled the scent of his king. Although he had come and gone, he could smell that he had been here. Steeling his resolve. He walked to her front door. Every hour of waiting had come to this, and he couldn't bring himself to walk any faster. One step closer at a time. Standing in front of her door, he gently laid his head upon the wooden door frame if only to listen for just a moment, to locate her heartbeat within.
Surprisingly, he found it was below him, meaning she was in his cubby. His dead heart leapt in his chest and he felt like he had been exposed to the sun with how weak he momentarily felt. He knocked.
His patience had never increased over a thousand years, so waiting to hear her climb the latter rungs, and walk to the door seemed to take a small lifetime. But he would wait. For right now, he would wait.
Opening the door, she saw him standing before her. For how often she had drugged herself as of late, her first thought was that she was dreaming, and that she needed to thank Lafayette for whatever he had given her this time to have such a sight to stand before her.
Before she could say a word, unlike many of her other fantasies, he quickly spoke ahead of her.
"Did you call for me Sookie Stackhouse? Because if you did, I'm here. If you did not, I will go."
Words couldn't come fast enough, but the tears did instead as they streamed down her face before her mouth could even open. The door flew open as he gathered her face between his hands delicately and wiped each of them away instead.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
He had never felt so human before in his existence. That this girl before him had arisen this within himself was still boggling. But here he was, pulling her swiftly to him to abate her every tear. Before he could hold her for too long, she pushed away from him with both arms to look him swiftly in the face.
"Why did you tell Bill you wished for true death if you couldn't be with me? Are you planning on dying on me like everyone else I've ever loved has? What the fuck Eric? Why did Bill have to tell me you fucking disappeared and then lay on me that you may have died? Why?"
His jaw clenched as he looked down at her.
"One question at a time little fairy. I did tell that to the King. I can't tell you if I'm going to die. And I don't know why the King told you that. I did disappear. I gave my duties to Pam and did not tell her where I was going simply for that purpose."
"So you could die?"
"So I could think. Possibly die. I didn't quite know where or what was going to happen. I just left."
Sookie sank to her knees, hugging her middle.
"You want to die because of me."
That was not a question. And not something Eric was going to answer either. He smelled her for the first time in such an extended period of time however. And it was not what he had been expecting.
"Sookie, why is your blood muddled?"
He looked to the kitchen counter where he saw the array of bottles that his best salesman had left there. He didn't know another person who readily had such a cocktail available for distribution. Looking back down at her, he felt his jaw clench and let out an unnecessary breath.
"Nevermind."
She looked up sharply. Though their wasn't judgment displayed on his face, she could tell he was displeased with the route she had gone to numb herself. Shakily, she attempted an explanation.
"You were gone. I needed something to make it all stop."
Picking her up, he flew down to the cubby, pulling her to him as he cradled her in his lap.
"I'm right here."
She laid her head under the nook of his chin and shoulder and cried. She didn't know whether it was tears of joy, regret, sadness or happiness, but tears couldn't stop themselves from streaming from her face. Several moments passed where no words were spoken between them. She had shifted from the cradling position she had placed her in to wrapping her arms around his middle. She wanted to do nothing but touch every possible inch of him that she could to make her jumbled thoughts believe that this was no dream. He had come back despite how far away she had pushed him.
"I love you."
His closed eyes had flown open at her words. Lifting her chin with his finger his eyes pleaded with her as they had a similar day when they had shared blood in this same place.
"Are you saying this because you do not wish me to die, or saying this because you wish to be mine?"
"Both."
An endless sea of blue bore into her eyes as Sookie stared into Eric's eyes. For the first time in her life she wished she could read someone's thoughts. Her gift had long been seen as a nuisance, but so much could be answered if she could simply hear his mind.
"I have waited a thousand years to find someone that I wished to bind myself to, in every way a person can be bound to another. Time has finally brought to me what I have sought for that long. Now if you do not wish me to be that person, please tell me, because it is only then that I would seek the true death. Otherwise, forever would not be long enough Sookie Stackhouse."
She kissed him deeply, her arms wrapped around his neck as she felt the feeling of home for the first time in weeks.
"I claim you as mine Eric Northman. Just as I am yours, you are all mine."
((inspired by A Thousand Years by Christina Perri, thinking of making a second chapter so we could all enjoy some lemony goodness so I hope you all like it!))
xoxoxo
piercedstarling