A/N: Here's the second chapter! I know you all were waiting for this! Chapter 3 will be following tomorrow! Written by Verticallychallangedcutie and Lilbrokendolly!
Disclaimer: We do not own any of the characters we only borrow them. They belong to Alan Ball and Charlaine Harris.
The sun shone dazzlingly over the body of Sookie Stackhouse, reflecting off the coconut-scented oil that covered her form, lending to her skin a look of shimmering luminosity. She was sprawled in a lounge chair on the deck behind what she had learned was one of Godric's safehouses, a soft burgundy towel spread beneath her. She had already spent several hours in the sun, contemplating her present predicament with Eric Northman, ancient vampire and head honcho of Louisiana's Area 5.
The night before, she had found him on the roof of the Dallas hotel she, Bill, and Eric had been staying at while they investigated the disappearance of Godric, another vampire sheriff. Godric had been recovered, but had chosen to meet the sun due to his own psychological exhaustion after two millennia of undead life. Sookie had arrived on the rooftop where Godric had been awaiting dawn to find Eric in a confrontation with him. Godric had used his authority as Eric's maker to command him to leave him on the rooftop and allow him to die. Eric had had no choice but to re-enter the hotel, so distraught that he was barely recognizable as the arrogant, morally ambiguous vampire she'd started to know. Sookie had stayed with Godric as the sun took him, and then found herself the very next night standing on the same roof with a suicidally grief-stricken Eric. She'd fought him long and hard to leave the roof, and as her last gambit, she had offered to allow Eric to make her vampire. That had gotten his attention, gotten him off the roof, and gotten her into this situation. She was presently sunning herself in a strange house with a vampire who was dead for the day and who would drain her at dusk. If she hadn't lived through it herself, Sookie would never have believed it possible. Except…she was Sookie Stackhouse, and impossible things seemed to happen to Sookie Stackhouse with alarming frequency.
As she thought about how she had gotten to this place and everything that went along with her becoming a vampire, this morning's conversation with Eric floated back into the forefront of her mind.
After they had landed in front of a simple ranch style house, Eric had led her inside. He made sure all the doors and windows were secured and then told her to follow him upstairs, where he had shown her to a room that was decorated in hues of yellow and blue.
"You can use this room while I rest," he stated with a nod before turning to head down the hallway.
"Wait!" Sookie exclaimed, surprised he hadn't dragged her to the bed yet. "Aren't you going to turn me?"
"Miss Stackhouse..." he began.
"Sookie...please call me Sookie. No need to be so formal. After all, we're in for a long acquaintance, right?" Sookie said with a slight, nervous smile.
Eric acknowledged her request with a curt inclination of his head before continuing.
"Sookie...I will not turn you based upon what might quite possibly be a well-intentioned whim of yours." He stepped closer to the young telepath and deliberately yet delicately inhaled. It was odd for Sookie to see his broad chest rise and fall with the unusual motion. "Your scent is mingled with that of the sun. It was that way when you first came to Fangtasia, and has been so every time we've met. Despite the natural aversion of vampires to the sun, it is a scent we universally find…appealing. Since you smell so richly of it, it stands to reason that spending time in the sun is something you greatly enjoy. Thus, I have decided to grant you one more day in the sun's rays. Enjoy it, and think carefully on the commitment you're making."
He looked at her for a moment longer, then turned to leave. When he was halfway down the hallway, he stopped.
"If you need or desire anything today, there are keys to the car in the garage on the kitchen counter. Take it and get what you need. I've also placed some money near the keys. My only request today is that you not contact anyone. I don't want to alert Bill to where we are. If, when I rise tonight, you have decided that you have changed your mind, I will take you back to Bon Temps immediately and we will forget the whole matter." He turned his back to her and started down the hallway. "Please enjoy your day, Sookie. I will see you at sunset." With that, he disappeared through the door at the end of the hall. She stood there until she heard a beep that could only be the sound of an alarm being armed.
Sookie sighed and turned over onto her stomach, her front already a beautiful golden color. As she laid her head on the towel and closed her eyes, she smiled. Eric was showing small signs that he wasn't quite the monster everyone made him out to be. If she were to compare Eric to anything, it would be an onion. There were many layers to him, and the more layers she peeled away, the more he revealed.
Although, of course, he smells much better than an onion, she mentally amended. He smells rather nice, actually…a little bit like a fall morning, when there's dew on the grass and the soil is wet with it. She sighed again dreamily, then remembered herself with a jolt. Her eyes flew open in surprise. Why the hell am I thinking about Eric like that? He's…Eric! Earth to sanity! Come in, sanity! She huffed indignantly at her own brain, annoyed at it for taking her down a path she did not want to explore.
From the stories she'd heard in Godric's nest two nights prior and the whispers (and thoughts, she had to admit) of the staff at Fangtasia, she knew Eric was considered a fair-minded sheriff, and an even more just maker. She could certainly do worse, as far as makers went. She could, after all, have gotten stuck with the blood-thirsty Stan Davis, or even that creepy Chow she had seen at Merlotte's with Eric and Pam the night they came to pick up Bill for the tribunal. She couldn't imagine having to spend eternity with either of them.
By the time four o'clock rolled around, Sookie was a beautiful caramel color all over with not one tan line in sight. Thanks to the privacy of the deck and the tall trees which surrounded the sizable backyard, she had been able to sunbathe in the nude. By the time she was wrapping the towel around her body to head inside, she knew she was going to go through with her deal with the Viking. She was a Stackhouse, and Stackhouses kept their word.
From what she'd learned of vampires from Bill and what she had heard elsewhere, she knew she wouldn't have to stay with Eric forever. Maker and child often went their own ways after a time; even the strong bond of love and mutual respect between Godric and Eric hadn't kept them at each other's side permanently. She would eventually be on her own again, and when that happened, the sky was the limit as to what she could do and where she could go. Vampires didn't seem to be very constrained in their life choices in the new post-Revelation world.
She had spent a lot of time thinking about her life back in Bon Temps. As much as she would like to think there were things waiting for her, she couldn't find many definite pros to the situation. There was her brother. Jason had never really thought much about anything but himself, and that was a constant ache in Sookie's heart. She loved her brother, but she also knew him extremely well. He had his life and there really wasn't a big place in it for her. The only time Jason came to visit these days was for a meal or for her to help get him out of trouble.
Then there was Sam and her job at Merlotte's. Sure, she had enjoyed working there and Sam was a great friend, but did she really want to be a waitress forever? How much longer would she be able to handle the mean thoughts of those around her? How long could she continue to live in her guise of Crazy Sookie? It definitely put a strain on her self esteem and her level of inner peace.
There was also Gran's house to consider. She really didn't want to give it to Jason. She knew he didn't have the time to care for it, and he definitely couldn't afford the additional property taxes he would incur. Sookie was very attached to the old farmhouse, it being the setting of so many of her happy memories, which surely outnumbered Jason's, if only because she had continued living there after he had moved out eight years earlier. Perhaps Eric will let me keep it, for when I am ready to be on my own. She'd ask him when he rose for the evening.
She sighed heavily as she contemplated Bill. Her relationship with Bill had begun and progressed faster than you could shake a stick. She really thought she had been in love with him. However, after she had sucked those bullets out of Eric's chest, Bill had slipped and let out a secret. He told her that she might become sexually attracted to Eric, and that Eric would always be able to sense her emotions, and he would always know where she was. After her initial shock and her anger at Eric for tricking her faded, she realized that Eric was not the only vamp whose blood she had ingested. Bill had given her his blood to save her life after she had been so severely beaten by the Rattrays, and it hadn't just been the few drops she hadn't managed to spit out from Eric. It had been mouthfuls and mouthfuls. After that, she had felt such gratitude toward Bill for saving her, which had opened the door for her to feel so much more…and she had. Now, with her newly acquired understanding of the effects of drinking a vampire's blood, the telepath found herself with so many uncertainties. Why had he failed to tell her what his blood might do to her? Was her attraction to Bill based solely on the fact that she had taken his blood? She tried to remember the feelings she had about him before the night of the beating. Sure, when she'd first seen him at Merlotte's, she had been intrigued by him; he was, after all, the very first real live vampire she had ever seen after hoping for years to glimpse one. She had genuinely enjoyed their interactions, and she had loved the silence of his mind. She had found him attractive, but she found lots of people attractive without falling in love with them.
When she met Eric for the first time, she knew without a doubt (or any of his blood, thank you very much) that she was bone-deep attracted to him. How could any heterosexual woman not be? The man was absolutely gorgeous, exuded confidence and charisma, and had light blue eyes that twinkled as if he had just heard a very funny, very naughty joke. He had also exhibited a very unambiguous interest in her.
And now she was discovering that he wasn't quite the evil creature she had thought him to be, or that Bill had implied that he was. Yes, she hated the way he had abused Lafayette when he had been caught selling V, but he had spoken the truth when he stated that someone else would have treated him much worse.
She also hadn't forgotten that Eric had let Lafayette go…for her.
The other thought that wormed its way into her brain was that Eric let her speak her mind, even if her mind happened to involve a remark that questioned his character. Every time she was in supernatural interspecies company with Bill and she tried to speak freely, he would say "Sookie, no!" or "Sookie, stop!" or just "Sookie!" or he'd give her a squeeze that clearly meant for her to shut up right now. It was almost as if he was embarrassed about what she might say. She knew she wasn't well educated, but that didn't mean she was an idiot with no clue as to how to behave socially. Her Gran had raised her as befitting a Southern lady, and that had included the art of conversation. She respected Bill enough to be careful in her speech if she thought she might not understand a situation, but even when something was crystal clear, Bill was always ready with the gag order of an exclaimed warning or a just-slightly-too-firm grasp.
There was also the fact that every time she asked Bill about his world, the world of vampires that she now found herself in, he would usually respond with something like "It's complicated." Did he not trust her? She surely trusted him, and wasn't that trust supposed to go both ways in a relationship? At the end of the day, she had frequently found herself with more questions than answers, far more than she cared to have about her relationship with Bill.
As she slipped into her borrowed room, she decided to just keep the towel on. She didn't know how messy Eric was when it came to feeding (Bill had usually left blood all over his cream-colored sheets), and she knew she didn't want blood on the only outfit she had with her. She lay back on the bed, arranged the towel to preserve as much of her modesty as she could, crossed her ankles, and waited for Eric to rise.
Shortly after, there was a knock on the door.
"Come in!" she called out, as her belly flopped with nervousness.
Eric entered wearing the same black sweater and black slacks from the night before. His hair was slicked back and as always, he looked stunning. Sookie raised herself up onto her elbows to meet his gaze as he sat on the bed beside her.
"Have you made your decision, Sookie?" Eric asked bluntly. No "Hello, Sookie" or "How was your day?" from Eric Northman. The man was straightforward as always. At least he hadn't ogled her towel-wrapped form; that had to count for something.
"I have. And my answer is still the same. I want you to turn me," she announced.
He nodded and stood from the bed.
"What about Bill? I thought you loved him." he asked, just slightly mocking.
"I thought I did too. But Bill said something to me after we got back to the hotel after the bombing. It made me question our entire relationship. I'm not sure Bill Compton is who I think he is. Perhaps after you've turned me, I'll tell you all the details, which I'm sure you want to hear."
She turned her head to the side, offering her neck to him.
A tiny smirk transformed his stoic face as he watched her offer her succulent neck to him.
"So impatient? Sookie, you surprise me yet again." As the human girl turned her heart-shaped face back to his in astonishment, he let his smirk linger long enough for her to glimpse it with her wide, surprised eyes, before replacing it once again with a bland expression of gravity. "I need you to get dressed. If your answer is still as you say, I will take you for one last human meal." When she gaped, he feigned a look of mock offense and crooned, "You look surprised. Do you think I am so cruel as to deny you the taste of human food one final time? After all, even your Jesus had his famous last supper; why should Sookie Stackhouse have anything less?"
Sookie's mouth hung open. She knew Eric would have another side to his personality but she never really expected this. She smartly chose to ignore his barb at her religion, and instead ponder what exactly it was Eric was up to. He wanted to take her to dinner? She knew from Bill that vampires liked to eat very close to, if not immediately upon arising. He had told her that it helped them to think more clearly, helped them to "keep the beast at bay," as he had put it. That, however, was decidedly not what Eric was doing now, though. She had even offered him her throat. She knew for a fact that Eric hadn't fed tonight, and she wasn't as naïve as others thought. She knew Eric didn't mainstream like Bill and she also knew for a fact that Eric despised True Blood.
The vampire in question smirked yet again, placed his cool finger under her chin and gently closed her mouth.
"Sookie...you'll find in the coming years that I'm not always as I appear to be. What is that phrase you humans use? Oh, yes…do not judge a book by its cover. Get dressed, my little bullet-sucker. I'll be waiting downstairs." With that, he turned and walked soundlessly out of the room.
Sookie grabbed her dress from the closet and headed into the bathroom. She took a very quick shower, left her hair down, brushed her teeth once again and pulled the dress on. Twenty minutes later she was walking into the kitchen. She found Eric on his phone, speaking in a language she did not recognize. From the tone of his voice, he was irritated with whoever was on the other end of the conversation. She mentally noted that she would have to ask Eric to teach her how to speak whatever it was he was speaking. It sounded beautiful.
As Eric snapped the phone closed, he turned to her.
"Pam will be here around four AM to help us afterward," he said with a wave of his hand.
"So, Little One, do you know where you would like to dine tonight?"
Sookie thought for a second and then nodded. "I'd like something simple, really. Since I don't know any of the local restaurants out here, I thought maybe we could head out to one of the chain places, like Applebee's or TGI Fridays?"
Eric shrugged. "It matters not to me, Little One. I'm not the one who will be eating at the establishment. If that's what you wish, then let us not delay." He paused, glancing at her sidelong with merrily twinkling eyes. "I can, after all, hear your digestive juices gurgling."
Sookie's eyes once again became round with shock while her cheeks turned red with embarrassment. Damn that super-sensitive vampire hearing! She hung her head in mortification and raised a petite hand to cover her eyes. After a second of hiding her face, she parted her fingers slightly and chanced a peek at Eric. His posture was relaxed, and he was smiling.
"Come." He reached his large hand toward her, and she took it without a second's hesitation.