If you ever want something badly, let it go. If it comes back to you, then it's yours forever. If it doesn't, then it was never yours to begin with.

--Dianna, Indecent Proposal


Her soft gasp of pleasure was only audible to him because he was a 1,000 year old vampire.

Fuck, she was beautiful. Her golden hair, the color of sunshine, spilled out around her, standing out starkly against the black silk sheets she was lying on. It tangled wildly through her arms, which were pulled up above her head. He growled with shock and want as his eyes fell on the leather strap, tightly wound around those beautiful tanned arms, binding them in place. Delicious little beads of sweat formed and clung to her skin ... they even seemed to form on the leather strap.

Wait ... huh?

Was she burning so hot for him, that she was sweating through the binding? He noticed that the beads of sweat were beginning to turn red ... as if tinged with blood.

And then, her whole body was suddenly covered with tiny droplets of blood—or sweat? Or both? He didn't know, but couldn't at this moment stop to think about it. Her pleasure threatened to consume her, and her movements under him began to take on more urgency.

Her eyes flew open, meeting his, as she tumbled over the precipice.

He still couldn't believe it. Dreams! Vampires don't dream. As he sped down the highway, he couldn't stop thinking about the images he had seen in his death rest just minutes before dusk. His lover was into bondage ... and she was sweating blood. Was this an image of the future? Just a fantasy? Or was his unbeating heart just torturing him?

Pulling up to Fangtasia he slammed the gear into park violently, remembering her words from the night before:

"I don't know if the—comfort—I feel with you is the blood exchange or a feeling I would've had naturally,"

"I don't know what's real and what's not."

Fuck. If there was one thing he hated most in the world—and had steered clear of for hundreds of years, it was feelings.

As his lover would say ... ewww. With a capital E.

Damn. This is why he hated feelings ... once you allow them, they were just so persistent and pathetically saccharine. Ewww, indeed.

He slammed the car door roughly, walking briskly towards the employee entrance of Fangtasia. Not loud enough for nearby humans to notice, but certainly giving away more than he usually did of his well concealed emotions. She probably thought she was being kind, that she wasn't leading him on ... probably even told herself she was being honest.

God, he hated what she could do to him. Most of the time he admired her, knowing her to be capable of so much more than a mere human; but other times, he found it irritating as hell to see that she could be as deficient of brain cells as a chronically-glamorized fangbanger. Was she really this stupid, or was she just too afraid to be honest with herself?

"It quite troubles you, my child." He felt the words spoken against his back as much as he heard them.

Eric turned around with vampire speed as he knelt onto his knee. "Master," he said respectfully, inclining his head slightly to the left as he lowered it down, careful not to shift his glance upward until permitted. He felt the almost forgotten rush of excitement and happiness, mingled with apprehension and fear that he always did in the presence of his maker.

Vampires usually summoned a child to them, not the other way around. While Appius was an unusual maker, treating his child with more respect and affection than most, Eric had never before come to be in the company of his maker without first being summoned.

"Rise, we have much to discuss," he said, gently touching Eric's shoulder. He moved towards Fangtasia without waiting for his child to follow. Eric rose up swiftly, following him a pace behind through the bar's back entrance.

As soon as Eric closed the office door behind them, Appius moved to his side. Stopping just inches from Eric's body, he slowly raised an eyebrow. "It really weighs on you heavily my child, does it not?"

"What?" He asked, as he was swiftly searching his mind attempting to understand just what Appius might be referring to. Appius never did like to spend any excess energy on explaining himself, but it was as if he was finishing a sentence that Eric had heard the beginning to—which he had not.

"The human of yours," Appius answered with thinly disguised impatience. "She is bothered by the ties of your bond ... and you are, in turn, bothered by her bother."

If Eric had to guess, he would say that the questioning look in his master's eyes was mixed with a good dose of worry and amusement. But why would a human be deemed important enough by this 2800 year old vampire to cause genuine worry? And if he was worried, how the hell could he find this entertaining? Eric searched his maker's face and their bond for some clue as to why this concerned him enough to prompt a visit, after centuries of staying away. He bowed his head in deference. "It is of no relevance, Master. She is mine."

When Eric looked up, he saw that Appius had seated himself on the leather couch across the room. Yet he could still hear his voice with his entire body, as if coming from right next to him. "Ah ... but you find yourself troubled by the idea, that she may not be entirely yours but for the magic of the bond. And your human, as advanced for a human as you may think her to be — she is slowly being drained by the thought that her choices are no longer hers to freely make."

"Appius, we both know the bond only enhances what is already there. It is not me who doubts. The only thing the bond has done was perhaps accelerate the course of events."

A knowing smile tugged at the corners of his maker's lips. "Yes, but you stacked the deck in your favor. And you won. But now you cannot help wonder ... would the outcome have turned out as nicely if you didn't tip fortune in your favor?"

"What are you most afraid of?" Appius posed, inclining his head to the side. "That she can't admit her love for you or that she doesn't love you, at all?"

Their eyes locked for the briefest of moments, and Appius gracefully rose from the couch. He moved to stand beside Eric, laying his hands affectionately on his shoulders.

"I have a proposal for you, my child. I offer to help you discover if you would have won, after all. I will break your bond." After a long pause, Appius continued. "That is, If you really wish to know if she is truly yours."

A/N Just wanted to thank sunkisz for helping me with this chapter and for holding my hand so patiently for my first fanfic. Of course, reviews are welcome, just go easy on me please. *contents are very fragile: handle with care*

I do not claim any rights to the Sookie Stackhouse Series or the HBO series True Blood