My story is based on Southern Vampire Mystery. This is about Eric's life when he was still a viking. As always, all the known characters are belonged to Charlaine Harris. This is my homage to her.

Chapter One

Dum. Dum. Dum. It was silent for a moment, and then again. Dum. Dum. Dum. Then silent again. Dum. Dum. Dum.

Sookie sighed. It had been almost an hour that Eric hit the drum. What was he doing? He didn't play a music, or sing, he just hit the dream in that rhythm. And to be honest, it started to get annoying.

Sookie closed the book and threw it on the table. She had been trying to read the latest edition of "Julie and Dr. Samuel Patrick" romance series. She had been waiting for her order since two months ago, which in her opinion, it's definitely too long. What the heck did they do in that delivery service. Did they not promise "fast and reliable" in their advertising. Two months for a book, it was certainly unacceptable! Sookie made a mental note to send a protest letter to the company.

Now, that she finally had the book, read it with big appetite, like a person who had not eaten for days, Eric had to hit that drum like crazy! Aargh, she could kill that man, not that it would be successful, since Eric was not exactly a man. But it surely would give her satisfaction just to stop him from hitting the drum, even for a minute! Didn't he know, it's very intense in the House of Patrick family, after Mrs. Andrea Patrick, with the help of her loyal servant, James White, managed to falsify Julie 's birth certificate, and made it as if Julie was the step-sister of Samuel? The new series would tell how Samuel fought his desires toward Julie and how confused Julie about Samuel who suddenly became so distant.

Of course Eric didn't know. How? He never wanted to even touch the books. He gave her a smirk every time he saw her holding the book.

Slowly Sookie got up. She had to talk to that man, and told him to stop playing that drum. She accepted that he didn't like the book, but it didn't mean that he's allowed to bother her like that!

Dum. Dum. Dum.

The sound of the drum was getting louder as Sookie got near to Eric's room.

Dum. Dum. Dum.

Sookie ripped off the door. "Eric...." Sookie's words were gone before they were spoken, when she saw him.

Eric was standing in front of the window. Sookie could only see his back, but it's enough to stop her feeling of getting annoyed. He wore a long red tunic, and a leather trousers. On his shoulder hang a rob, which on its border was decorated with small beads. His long blond hair was plaited and there's a helmet with two horns on its top.

What is this? Thought Sookie. It's not yet Halloween, and he plays costume?!

Eric turned around.

Sookie's jaws were wide opened. There was blood running on Eric's cheeks. He had been crying. "Eric, are you alright?" she asked, after she could managed herself.

Eric was a vampire, not just an ordinary vampire, he was The Sheriff of Area 5. It was somehow strange for her to see him like this. Because Eric was the strongest and the oldest vampire in Shreveport area. Eric always looked so confident, and for some people he looked cocky and arrogant. And he never showed any fear or sadness, as if he knew what he wanted and how to get what he wanted. People sometimes said, it was because Eric had been living for one thousand years, gave and take. For somebody who had been living that long it must have been easy for them to trick, manipulate or lie. Because they must have known a lot of people during their lives that it would have been easy for them to recognize personality of each person they met.

But it's not only that. Sure, Eric had learned and mastered to make anybody to do what he wanted, and somehow always managed to get away with what he had done. But for Sookie, Eric was not only that, he was also a kind of person, who didn't like to show his feeling to anybody. His smiles, smirks or the twinkling of his eyes hid his real feelings or thoughts, at least that's what she believed. And some other time, Sookie also believed may be it's because Eric was a tall, very handsome man with a smile that would melt anybody's heart. When his blue eyes looked at her eyes -usually in a very seductive way- combine with a taint of smile on the corner of his lips...her libido would jump without warning....Sookie sighed, Focus! she told herself. It's so inappropriate to think about that right now.

But still crying and Eric were two words that didn't belong to each other.

Eric put the sticks on the drums. "No, I am not." he said softly, a mere whisper that Sookie almost could not hear. "It's the second day of the full moon in October, isn't it?"

Sookie was perplexed. She didn't expect to hear a question like that. "I don't know. Perhaps."

"It was the first time I saw her." he said. His blue eyes were looking at her, but they didn't exactly into her. As if Eric wanted to use her face to picture somebody else. There was somekind a mist that covered the brightness of those eyes, as if by looking at her, he had been taken to somewhere else, on some other time.

Her? Who is 'her'? Sookie thought. But she didn't ask. She had learned, with Eric, it was better to wait and let him open the door to his secret. Asking and pushing him to tell a story would only lead to silence. And she knew, silence was a scary sound. She would not hear anything from Eric, would not even see him for some nights, before he would come to her with his smirks and smiles, and a sealed mouth.

"And also the last time I saw her..." his voice trembled, and blood started running on his cheek. And he started talking in a language that Sookie didn't understand. It sounded like he spoke it from his nose, but very soft at the end of every word. It had a very sweet melody in it, but the way Eric spoke it, it sounded so sad.

Sookie came to Eric, and took him by the end. "Sssst, Eric, Eric." she said. "I don't understand what you are saying..."

"O-duh, O-duh...she left me..she...she..."his shoulders were shaken. "She..."

Sookie took him in her arms, and pressed him tight against her body. She didn't know if it would help, but she also didn't know what else to do.

Eric hugged her tight, so tight that Sookie almost could not breathe. But she didn't push him away.

For some times, they were in that position, until Sookie shivered. Slowly, she released him. Her blouse was wet with cold blood, and sticky. She didn't like that feeling so much, it reminded her to the time when she was covered with Longshadow's blood. About a year ago, Longshadow, a vampire who worked for Eric in Fangtasia was staked by Eric when he tried to attack her. Just like a balloon which was stitched with a needle, Longshadow poured blood all over. And Sookie was closed enough to him to be watered with it. Since then, she didn't like to see or to touch blood. Human, or vampire.

"I am sorry, " Eric said. He ran his finger on her blouse, as if he could wipe off the blood with his fingers. "I am sorry..."

"Come, let's sit." Sookie said. She took his hand and led him to the couch. Strange, just like a lost puppy, Eric followed Sookie. And without protesting he sat beside her.

Sookie sighed. This was another side of Eric that she never saw before. This was not Eric, the Sheriff of Area 5, the vampire whom every vampire was afraid of, even The Queen of New Orleans would think twice to raise her voice in front of him. Sookie remembered how the vampires at The Ball in the palace of The Queen stopped whatever they did, when Eric and she entered the hall. They dared to move only after The Queen greeted him, and Eric nodded and smiled. The room which was quiet so suddenly, slowly returned to alive.

But now, he looked like a little boy who lost somebody whom he loved very much and didn't know what to do anymore.

Was that it? Did Eric cry for the the one he loved very much? More than her? Who was she? Why did Sookie not know anything about her? Was she somebody whom she knew?

Stupid. Sookie thought. Why should I be jealous? There is no real commitment between Eric and I. He is free to do whatever he wants, and to have anybody he wants, the way I am free to do and to have whatever and whomever I want. And I will be very stupid to expect Eric not to have somebody else before me.

Was it that simple? Even when they agreed to do and to have whatever and whomever they wanted, they spent seven days a week together, made love to each other almost every night and sometimes more than once, and thought about each other, or at least in Sookie's part, she always thought what Eric might have or have not liked. And since they were together, Sookie saw bottles of True Blood in his big fridge, which he bought since she moved in, and besides that, Sookie believed he fed only from her.

Now, Eric was laying his down on her lap and holding her legs. His blond hair was spreading like leaves of yellow flower in the meadows. It smelled of lavender and calendula. He must have washed his hair today, because the smell was so strong.

"Who is O-duh?" finally Sookie asked. She could not wait anymore. She knew it was stupid to ask, but somebody had to start talking, otherwise they would continue doing it. Eric cried, and she watched, without being able to do anything. She hated when she could not do anything.

Eric looked at her. His eyebrows met in the middle. "O-duh?"

"You said her name some minutes ago."

For some moment Eric stared at her, and then he answered. "You mean Aude. A-u-d-e"

"Yes, Aude." Sookie felt stupid. What is that for a name anyway?!

"It's Gallic, you know it today as French." said Eric, as if he had heard what she had thought. "Aude daugther of Arnvidr, wife of Vídarr and later Eirikr the sons of Magnus."

Vidarr and Ei...Eric? Sookie was surprised. Aude was his wife? I never knew that Eric was married before. When? Before or after he met Pam?

Eric took a big breath, as if he needed it. But Sookie liked it when he did that. It made him somehow...human.

"Aude was the widow of Vidarr, my brother." Eric said. "And I married her after Vidarr died. It was common at that time to marry the woman of your brothers if they fell in the battle."

"Why? Did you love her?"

"Love didn't play any role at that time. But in my part, yes. I loved her. But in her part, it was her duty to keep her husband property under the name of the husband's family. Unless the family didn't have any other sons, or they decided something else."

"If I was her, I would run away. It's bad enough to lose my husband, and then to marry his brother, whom I don't love? By the way, isn't that incest, to marry your sister-in-law?"

Eric looked at her in disbelief. "Were you only sleeping in your class?" his voice sounded more mocking than angry. "Of course it's not incest! She was my sister-in-law, not my sister! And yes, she didn't love me at the beginning. But as soon as she knew me better, she loved me as much as I loved her. Didn't it happen to you too?"

Sookie smiled. Yes, it happened to her too. Knowing how charming Eric sometimes could be, she would not be surprised if Aude would have fallen for him too.

Eric touched her face. He was smiling now. But the blood on his face made that smile looked somehow sad. "I thought I was going astray when I saw her. She was standing beside the lake Vänern, in her hand was some wild flowers. Her skin was pale, and her dark red hair was glowing under the moon. I thought I was on the island of Asgard and seeing an Asynia, a goddess who dwelt on Asgard...."

And with soft voice, Eric continued his story.

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