A/N: Thanks to everyone who has placed this story on their favorites list, given it an alert, or, especially, submitted a review. You are too kind.
She should have learned long ago to never say never; unfortunately, that was a harsh lesson the former barmaid had been doomed to repeat like the annoying knock, knock jokes that Coby and Lisa favored.
Maddening.
Freedom had been so close, independence a highly sought after partner that was almost within her firm grasp. They'd nearly been coupled in a mental waltz that would have her sachet past the insufferable Sheriff without him being able to do a single thing to bar her escape. Her footwork had been flawless, her form simply perfection as Sookie used Quinn to choreograph the situation to her liking. While the baker hadn't wanted to move to New Orleans, or worse, ever be under the Queen's vile manner of protection, Mr. Long Dong of Vampire Law hadn't known that and, even better, he had been reluctantly arranging a new set of steps between them if it meant that she wouldn't leave his area. She'd powerfully framed the deal to her liking, another little skip ball change and she'd have been twirling back to her own solo production without any fangs accompanying her.
Then, unexpectedly, her red headed employee had crashed their somber little soiree. The other female cut into the nimble sway of her negotiations and forever changed the tempo, her rhythm broken, her moves out of tune, Sookie's dance card was now permanently held by the opportunistic bastard all because of a crimson waterfall of tears.
Damn.
"You can't do this," she angrily challenged not wanting to believe that the virtual stranger would callously make a decision that was so cruel and unfeeling toward her friend and worker.
"I can and I will," he evenly rebutted. "Jessica is still a relatively new vampire; Bill was a fool to indulge her this way."
"Jessica isn't like that," Sookie hastily denied over her young friend's heartbroken sniffles, the girl's melancholy still flowed in an unrelenting cascade of red down her cheeks. "She loves Hoyt, she'd never hurt him. She-"
"As her Sheriff and, more importantly, her new Master, that's not a chance I'm willing to take," his low tone slithered across her skin, his words coiled in hissing warning, ready to viciously strike when he added, "unless you'd like to make a deal."
Though the poisonous sting had been expected, it still burned, singeing her pride and leaving nothing, not even a charred ember of hope as she fumed, "You disgust me."
"Perhaps I'll grow on you," the blonde vampire stood his ground with a sensual promise that decried his subtly uncertain statement as if he thought her surrender to him, to all aspects of his domineering sexuality, was already a foregone conclusion.
She was about to caustically respond with something about preferring anything, maybe a marrow destroying cancer over his vile attentions, when Quinn snarled with a feral undertone, "Babe, you don't need to do this, not to save a vamp from being taken from her fang banging boyfriend."
Somehow, the tiger's unmitigated prejudice made her capitulation just a little bit easier to bear. When Sookie looked at the weeping red head desperately clutching the duffle bag slumped over her lap, she didn't see a monstrous vampire who ruthlessly acted without feeling. Instead, she saw her pale friend tormented by the potential loss of her first love on the very night they were moving in together. A vulnerable female constrained by the antiquated rules governing a feudalistic vampire society and trapped in an existence that she'd never asked for or deserved all because the girl had been attacked by a trio of demented vampires in Sookie's place.
"Yes, I do," she adamantly scolded Quinn biting back the guilt that always accompanied her memory of Jessica's turning. "She's my friend."
That was all the explanation that the Were was getting. If he didn't understand how important friendship and loyalty were to her by this point, he never would. Besides, it wasn't like Quinn's solution would entail anything more than being the Queen's bloody sex toy like her unfortunate cousin Hadley no matter what he thought to the contrary.
Turning away from Quinn's pawing denial, Sookie leveled a steady warning upon the Sherriff, "I could never be with you the way I was with Bill."
Her new landlord's answering smirk mocked her assertion as he slowly proclaimed, "That's alright, unlike Mr. Compton, I'll require either blood or sex."
There was an unmistakable sneer of victory in the vampire's tone as he amended, "Lady's choice."
###
She'd almost had him humbled, hobbled, without leverage in their side stepping tango all because he didn't want Sookie to actually leave his territory. For the first time in his eternal existence, Eric had almost allowed a human to gain the upper hand in their relationship.
Unbelievable.
He didn't need Sookie's permission or acceptance. The beautiful vessel of sunny rebellion had been given to him by the Magister so the normal rules of a human's willingness no longer applied. After all, what deterrent was it to a convicted vampire if a confiscated pet could simply leave their new master?
No, by vampire law and tradition, Eric could simply haul her away right now, barbarically throw her over his shoulder and bind her luscious curves to him by chains if necessary. Her choice in the matter was of no consequence according to the Authority and, yet, he didn't want her submission brought about that way. He may not be able to compel her compliance through glamour, as he'd learned when he'd tried earlier, but he certainly wasn't going to force her by rape either.
Truthfully, Eric wanted her completely willing and needed her desperately wanting him in return. He planned to vanquish every mutinous curve of her flesh; he wanted to quell each bristling murmur of defiance in the war of stubborn wills suddenly raging between them. Yet, he couldn't be victorious if she wasn't even on the battlefield of seduction and, if Sookie accepted Quinn's escort to Sophie Ann, she might never be for he'd have to politically move against his Queen through The Authority to get Sookie back. She'd certainly be worth the organizational hassle but why waste the time and the machinations necessary when there was an easier solution. He'd been prepared to concede this skirmish, to temporarily drop his proprietary airs to keep Sookie willingly residing in his area when the annoying red head had come barging in virtually crying Sookie's white flag of surrender for her.
Brilliant.
Eric was never one to let opportunity pass him by especially when it would quickly gain him something he suddenly wanted very dearly. It mattered little which option Sookie actually chose, he could make either work toward her sensual downfall and his utter satisfaction and complete fulfillment. No, the only thing that counted out of this decision was that by making a selection, Sookie was squarely placing herself under his dominion all for an infantile vampire that he didn't really want underfoot anyway.
Priceless.
"So," he lazily drawled without moving a muscle, "which shall it be?"
"You know," Sookie petulantly countered with a scowl trying to delay the inevitable, "you could have just asked me nicely?"
Humoring her, already knowing how Sookie truly felt for the time being about their impending arrangement, Eric cynically offered, "Miss Stackhouse, would you like to be mine?"
The deafening hush that settled over his blonde bundle of sunshine did little to dissuade him for they both knew that her pointed silence implied consent that she'd already given the moment Sookie knew that she could possibly change her friend's fate.
"Well, either way, you can deliver the goods tomorrow evening when you accompany me at Fangtasia," he tauntingly broke the quiet lull in the now closed shop. "Then I'll see to it that both of you girls are presented as mine."
With a withering glance in his direction, his new pet ignored him as she moved to console Bill's nearly useless progeny. The child still didn't understand that because of Sookie, she'd be heading back home tonight to play house with her oversized lug of a boyfriend.
Speaking of houses, it was time for him to proverbially clean his. With supreme pleasure, he nodded dismissively toward Quinn, "You can scamper back to New Orleans now and let Sophie Ann know that your hunt will always be unsuccessful."
Mirthlessly, he grinned at the tiger's ferocious snarl of goodbye, suddenly, lacking the supreme pleasure he should have been feeling when Eric took note of the utter disdain tingeing Sookie's brown orbs, her transcendent light momentarily dimmed while she stared him down until he wisely decided to take his leave as well.
###
The fiery corkscrews that framed the younger woman's face seemed to shimmer with the heat of Sookie's unspoken rage. Her anger bouncing higher with each springy curl as Jessica wailed, "What are we going to do?"
Sternly, Sookie clamped down on her internal ire pulling herself together, knowing that she could wallow in her own personal bath of misery at home but, for now, she needed to show a resilient front, "We're going to go on just as before."
"What," Jessica demanded in disbelief, "how can you say that? Bill's gone. Sherriff Northman's now my step-Maker and you belong to him. Sookie," she cried, "this is bad. Really bad."
"Somehow, we'll make this work," she forcefully reassured them both running a soothing hand along the edge of her apron. "He can't be that horrible or Bill wouldn't have told me to seek him out if I needed help."
"Maybe," Jessica's face scrunched up in doubt, "but there's no way Bill would have been okay with the ultimatum that Sheriff Northman just handed you. Which are you going to choose?"
"Well, I'm certainly not sleeping with him," she replied with absolute certainty. There was no way that her virginity was going to be lost for anything other than pure old fashioned lust and affection no matter what the sinfully attractive Sheriff might want otherwise.
"I guess it'll be blood," she unhappily shrugged in defeat.
"Are you sure, Sookie," her friend hesitantly asked. "You really don't need to do this for me, Hoyt and I will find a way somehow. You could always go to the Queen."
"We both know that if Bill was really trying to bring her down, Sophie Ann isn't an option," she replied with a falsely calm acceptance of her situation. "Let's get you cleaned up and home."
"Thank you," her young friend sheepishly offered. "I appreciate-"
"No, don't do that," she swiftly interrupted. "We both know that you wouldn't be accountable to all this vampire hoopla if it weren't for me to begin with. You don't owe me any gratitude. You know that."
"Sookie, I don't hold you responsible for what happened," her companion denied with emphasis. "You know that as well."
"Sure," she negligibly acknowledged not wanting to argue this tired horse anymore tonight when there were so many other nagging issues to beat to death. "Besides," she added with a defiant twist, "who says that Sheriff Northman is going to want to keep me."
###
Written into the inky shadows of the night, he'd read the consolation and companionship the two new females in his life had offered each other after they thought he was no longer aware of them. It was oddly touching to see the care and affection that Sookie would so easily offer to those of his kind.
She was a veritable cornucopia of the better human emotions- love, kindness, compassion, loyalty, strength, even courage. Plus, her fiery defiance was a tasty compliment to her tantalizing form. She was a bountiful feast of vampire perfection.
So why hadn't Bill partaken? And, if his ease dropping proved accurate, why had Compton urged Sookie to seek him out if she was ever in trouble? Plus, why was his Queen so interested in her when Sookie obviously didn't have an affinity for the monarch's persuasion?
Silently, he listened to Sookie's tears track down her face to ignominiously splash into her bath water wishing that the sound didn't unhappily echo within his own undead heart. He may have many questions about his new human and the blonde enchantress may have a few obstinate tricks up her sleeve but her continued sorrow might be the only thing that would stop him from keeping Sookie forever.