Sorry this is a shorter chapter the next one should be much longer, I have up to chapter 7 planned out but I have University in the morning so I'm off to sleep now. Next chapter Sam's old friend, Sookie and Eric's first date, and Amelia makes another magical mistake...
Chapter 3
The weather was unusually grim, I had the afternoon shift later and I couldn't help thinking about last night and grinning ear to ear. Amelia stumbled into the kitchen, hair sticking up in all directions, yawning widely.
"You made tea?" she asked surprised. I wasn't usually a tea drinker, but coffee or coke would only give me a caffeine buzz and I wanted to stay relaxed a little while longer. Plus living with the witch the last few months, the tea's she made had started to grow on me. Not literally of course but with Amelia's spell casting it could happen.
"Yep just poured myself a cup before you came out of your room, so it should still be good" I answered. I looked out at the yard and thought of Eric's nest, it really was wonderful and a part of me was already missing him. Snap out of it, I told myself. After all we hadn't even had out first date yet.
"Wow. Nice flowers Sookie, courtesy of Eric I take it?" she asked smiling wickedly "You two must have had a very good time" she added raising her eyebrows a little. When Eric had brought me home Amelia had been sound asleep, so she didn't know about the pampering.
"Actually we did. He asked me out for dinner on Friday" I smiled adding "For our first date"
"Woah, woah, woah. First date? So you guys didn't get all hot and sweaty?"
"Not exactly" I said enjoying the shock on my roommates face "He cooked for me, he gave my hair a trim, gave me a full manicure, pedicure, massage and then he brought me home, like a real gentleman, he didn't try to kiss me once" I said watching Amelia's eyes go wide and her jaw drop. I didn't mention that whilst we were dancing, the last time he dipped me there had been a pause, where any other couple would have enjoyed a cinematic snog, and from the look in his eyes I'm sure he had wanted to, I certainly wouldn't have objected.
She burst out laughing "You're kidding right? You're pulling my leg?"
"Nope. He said I needed to relax and be pampered, and he was right. He gave me what I needed." I replied glancing at clock as I walked to the fridge for some of the left over peach pie. "Here, have a bite." Amelia obliged and tentatively took a bite.
"Ohmygod that's... wow... it's delicious, where did you buy it?"
"I told you he cooked for me, well he baked this for desert" I answered enjoying her expression.
"Compliments to the chef, he's good considering he hasn't eaten for a thousand years, it's a shame he can't try any of it".
"Yeah" I replied, suddenly thinking about all the things Eric couldn't do or experience, yes he was well travelled and well read, but he hadn't felt the sun in an age, and though he had heightened senses he had never (I supposed given where he started out his human life) enjoyed eating a piece of chocolate, or had Ben & Jerry's. I wondered if that was part of why he had such a great sexual appetite, to make up for the loss of his human appetite. "I wish I could show him all the things he's missed out on, and show him how I feel" I said softly.
"Why don't you?" Amelia asked.
"Uh how? Draw pictures? Take him to the movies?" I responded sarcastically.
"No but you are a telepath, you said yourself you managed to project happy thoughts into Terry, and it worked calming me down" she responded.
"Yeah but he's a Vampire my little quirk doesn't work on them" I threw my hands up and slumped into a chair by the table.
"Didn't you tell me that you got a flash of his mind once?" I had told Amelia this once in confidence after I discovered Eric had retrieved his lost memories, Amelia was fed up after a failed attempt at turning Bob back and I was freaking out, so we did what normal people did to cope. We got drunk. A rarity for me, and we both confessed far too much.
"Yeah but that's not helpful, if he can only get a flash of what I'm trying to show him." I grumbled, oh hell, my good mood was starting to strain.
"Let's practise then" she said smiling that bright smile of hers. "Look the last time you tried to project calming thoughts at me a saw an image of a sunset over a beach, the sky was purple and there was a dog running on the beach. That is what you were sending right?"
I looked at her agape, that had been exactly what I was sending to her, my grandmother had taken Jason and I not long after our parents had died, it was the first time I felt hopeful since it had happened. "Wow. But that still doesn't mean..." I began but Amelia cut me off again.
"Look, you are a powerful telepath, with a unique glimpse into a vampires head to prove the mental connection works at least one way, right? Also you have the freaky blood bond, right? So really of anyone Eric should be the best person to open your mind to." She smiled knowing her argument made sense, at least in principal.
"Fine." I replied partly to shut her up, and partly to see how it well it would work.
"Excellent, right, first of all we should try in close proximity"
"Wait try what?" I asked momentarily confused.
"Try having a mental conversation" she smiled, as though that should be obvious.
"But I've only ever done that with another telepath, and no offence, but just because you're a witch doesn't mean it'll work with you" I responded panicking about the idea of having Amelia in my head twenty four seven if something went wrong.
"Listen to me Sookie, the best way we as humans communicate is through speech, yes? When you think about things, you hear your own internal voice as well as everyone else's right? It's not all the time you get mental pictures from people, so why should you be able to send video footage straight away, we know you can briefly send images, and we are certain you can project feelings, so now we are going to practice mental communication, all right?" Damn she was persuasive when she wanted to be, she was definitely her father's daughter. Oops hope I hadn't sent that. I smiled in spite of myself.
"Sookie" she thought at me.
"Um hello" I sent back as hard as I could.
"Goddess' Sookie" she said with her hands over her ears "are you trying to deafen me?"
"Sorry" I thought in response more softly this time.
"Wow" I said aloud.
"Yeah" Amelia agreed.
"What did you think of that pink sweater I got last week" she asked in her mind voice.
"I think it should be torn up and used for bedding for stray cats" I responded automatically, I could see from the look on Amelia's face that I had actually projected that thought rather than kept it to myself.
For the next few hours before lunch time we practiced, by the end of our session I had successfully managed to show her two childhood incidents and a piece of gossip straight from the local pharmacist's head. We were starving by the end of it, and I made sure I had put my shields back up. Just in case. I genuinely liked my roommate, but occasionally I had mean spirited thoughts I wouldn't like her to hear. I wondered if my slip earlier about her sweater had given her an insight about what it would be like to be telepathic, hearing all the unkind thoughts about me. I guessed it had because as we got up from the floor, she hugged me and whispered "You're so brave" then in a blink she was back to her usual self.
"Right! Time for food!" she cried and pulled out the ingredients to make a roast dinner, I smiled to myself hoping that our experiment would work so I could share my thoughts and feelings with Eric.
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