First of all, I'm sorry for the delay updating this chapter: computer problems. Secondly, I'd like to thank BloodSucker815 for her help beta-ing this. But all the mistakes (unlike the characters) are mine. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter and please feel free to drop me a line. Tks! Célia

Eric "Bad Medicine"

As soon as we landed, I turned on my phone and heard a message from Pam saying that Appius Livius had called Fangtasia and she had given him my cell phone number. She also added that he was in Lisbon now and gave me my maker's new address. "He sounded happy to know that you are going there. But he's not alone. There is this new person there with him and… He said there were some problems… Just be careful Eric." A pause and then she continued. "Well, have a nice time there. Bye."

It was almost dawn when we landed that night and I decided to check into a vampire hotel for the day, after I booked another flight for the following night. My dinner was a lovely brunette. And as soon as I saw her long legs, I thought about having sex with her but the sun was almost up and I wasn't really in the mood.

The next night, I took a flight to Portugal and saw my maker for the first time in a little more than 40 years. We hugged and then he told me in my native tongue that I was welcome at his home and that everything would be alright. Hearing his voice made me fall to my knees and hug his waist. He then brushed my hair, called me his child and I could not prevent bloody tears from falling down my face. At his "get yourself together and come", I immediately rose, cleaned my face and followed him inside. There were one woman and one man inside and I was offered both. I immediately drank from the male and they soon left the house. Ocella and I sat and then we spent the next five hours talking about old friends and how the Great Revelation had been working out for us. He asked about Pam and felt my pride when I told him about her help in the last few years. And at dawn, we died for the day.

There was still much to talk about: his other child and the problems Pam had told me about, my blood bond with a human and Ocella's maker's death 30 years before. But neither of us wanted to talk about those matters and so we started this routine for the next two weeks: wake, feed (there was always a couple of humans ringing Ocella's door at 9 pm sharp), fuck (once with each other but usually with our dinners) and then meet some of Ocella's "old school" friends.

Back in the US, I am almost always the oldest vampire by centuries. But in Lisbon, in the old continent, most of the vampires I met were at least 800 or 850 years old and many were even older than me.

The Great Revelation meant little to them. They have their ways and they'll keep them forever. They still glamour every human they drink from, sleep in coffins (even if dark, light-proof rooms are available) and a couple are even proud to say that they sleep in the ground. And they will keep doing that perpetually. Besides, they don't work because they've accumulated so much money during their long existence and have been "using the same family name for generations" – every 30 years or so, they "officially die" and start using the identity of their made-up child, thus inheriting their own inheritance. This means living around highly-glamoured humans and staying in the same region for decades and decades at a time. I, on the other hand, love to start fresh in some place new from time to time.

But being with Ocella and those really ancient vampires was helping me to come back to the vampire-way. And besides, it was not that they treat humans badly. In fact, they are quite careful drinking just a bit of blood and fixing the bite wounds. And not one of them has a human-pet. Instead, they pay people for their services and then glamour them into thinking that they actually did the service they were hired to do – private teachers, carpenters, etc. They do not believe in sharing their lives with humans or even shifters or weres. They are absolutely sure that we are better than the human kind.

And their company was exactly what I needed.

-x-

After those two first weeks, Ocella and I finally talked. He told me about his new, almost 100 year old, child and the fact that he had no manners and killed indiscriminately.

"On the day I felt you were coming, I was really happy that I'd be with you again. Alexei, obviously, did not like it and misbehaved again. He's now in a coffin bounded in silver. I'll leave him there for a couple of months. But I fear…"

"What Ocella?"

"I fear that if there are other incidents, I'll have to finally kill him."

To have to kill a child. To have to finally kill your child. Wow. We stayed without talking or moving for an hour. But then it was my turn and I told him everything about Sookie. I could tell Ocella was shocked and a little ashamed of my actions and my feelings. But true to form, he just said "I see".

Again, we didn't speak or move for almost 40 minutes. And then: "You should close the bond."

"That's what I have been trying to do. But it's too strong. We exchanged blood too many times and then there's the…" I didn't finish my sentence.

"Feelings." He added, looking at me. I immediately looked at the floor.

"I'll help you. I'll give you my blood for as long as it takes. And then you will close the bond. She won't feel you. You won't feel her. It's the best for both." I nodded and he continued: "You'll break the bond. And then you'll forget her in no time Eric."

"Yes. Thank you. I will."

Two attractive brown-haired girls rung Ocella's bell then and we let them in. Ocella chose first, obviously, and he picked the tallest. And so, I was left with a small woman with a tanned, flawless skin that seemed to almost glow in the dim light. Her eyes were almost black, her long dark hair was straight and she was smartly dressed. Yes, a pretty face and a great body. She was hot. Damn hot.

She was already glamoured by Ocella when I drank her average blood. But after I closed her bite wounds I undid her glamour and began to seduce her. In 15 minutes, she was willingly under me, in my bed, screaming something in Portuguese too fast for me to understand. But I did understand her moaning: she liked it rough and I did as she wanted.

She orgasmed quickly and I followed her. And for the first time in Lisbon, when I came, I actually saw the brunette that I was fucking instead of a voluptuous Louisianan blond girl. My next thought was clear in my mind and I suddenly felt pretty sure of myself: "yes, Ocella is right. I'll break the bond. And then I'll forget her in no time. In no time."

So, will he be able to break the bond? Will he forget her? And how will Sookie react if Eric indeed breaks their bond? What do you think? What would you prefer?

"Bad Medicine" is a number-one single by Bon Jovi. It was released in 1988 as the lead single from the band's album New Jersey.