Chapter Four

Sookie woke without any touch or warm skin in contact. Without pleasure and without pain.

"Wake up."

She was ordered. She blinked and found a fully dressed Eric staring down at her from across their bedroom.

"Eric what is it?" she mumbled, confused as hell and with a massive buzz pushing at her skull. She almost felt… hung-over… okay, that's a barrel of weird.

"Are you insane?" okay… someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Either that or he's holding a pretty big grudge from last night. But really, she had said worse and got away with it. Maybe it was the Fox thing. She groaned as her words came back to her. No way could she look at that boy again without feeling utter guilt. What had possessed her to say such things?

"I'm sorry I said those things. I was just pissed from earlier."

"Despite that being the world's worst apology, thank you. But you didn't answer my question. Are. You. Insane?"

Sookie screwed up her face, what the hell was Eric on about? Maybe he was the insane one.

"Are you mentally coherent Sookie? Or should I stake you now?"

"What are you on about? Yes I'm coherent. No I'm not insane." she snapped and rubbed her forehead soothingly. How did it hurt so much? Did she fall onto something last night? Her memory felt fuzzy.

"Then explain to me how you thought sleeping in front of a window was a good way to spend a sunny day?" Then it all came flooding back.

"Oh shit. I didn't mean to. I just thought… I just didn't think." She could hardly say she didn't think he'd want her around after what she said, that would start another argument, and she was trying to keep the total down. Honestly she was.

"You didn't think?" he repeated with disgust. "Are you suicidal? Do you think our bedroom is in the basement just for kicks?"

"I…" she sighed and let it all flow out. "I thought you'd be too mad." She bit her lip then puzzled at the taste touched her fingers to it, returning with crusted blood. "Did I bite someone?" she asked.

"You don't remember if you bit someone or not?" his tone dropped to caution. Sookie shook her head.

"Everything's a little fuzzy; I don't really remember anything clearly." She rose from the bed and stumbled into the bathroom. The mirror showed blood across her lips and chin. "What happened?" she asked, and turned back to Eric leaning casually in the door frame.

"I gave you my blood." Sookie turned back to the mirror, then dove her hands into the running water washing her face. "Sookie, you were already smoking before I reached you. You didn't feel anything?"

"No, I just remember feeling a little out of it, mood wise, then feeling sleepy. No pain, and I don't remember you feeding me either." She turned back, fear swirling in her eyes. "Eric, why don't I remember? What happened?"

"Did you drink from anyone at the club?" he crossed the bathroom, standing before her, but refusing to touch. The lack of contact hurt her more than she thought. Sookie just shook her head and sat on the rim of the bath tub. "Did you drink anything when you got back? Maybe ate some fairy product?"

"No" then she remembered "Wait, there was an open bottle of beer in the kitchen, I figured it was one of the boy's they had forgot about. But beer didn't do this, alcohol doesn't affect vampires." Eric flashed from the room then returned with said bottle.

Sookie nodded, answering silently to confirm his discovery. Eric sniffed the top, then screwed up his face.

"It's feint, but there's something else in this." He turned, stone faced back to Sookie. "Take a bath. I'll find Lukas."

"But Eric I c-"

"Sookie. Do not argue with me. Take a bath. I will return soon."

10 minutes later Sookie was humming wordlessly a sad tune in the warm water, the jets massaging down her spine, her peace disturbed by Eric's sudden speeding into the bathroom and scaring her slightly.

"We may have a problem." he started. "The drink was left by the door addressed to Lukas. He intended to ask us about it when we got in, just in case, but forgot to tell you about it. Obviously." Sookie felt worse by the second, outsmarted by a 15 year old was just one of the reasons. Another was the hard gaze of Eric's tranquil eyes that looked past the nudity and didn't find an uncontrollable urge to join her, naked in the water. The third was the True Blood he handed to her, flavoured O positive, her least favourite. He really must be pissed at her. "It seems someone intended it to be drunk by our son, maybe for teenage fun, maybe for more serious reasons." He drank from his own bottle and perched on the cold ceramic of the sink, as far from her as the room allowed. Sookie's heart would have fallen from her chest if it had not stopped so long ago and turned over into Eric's hands. "I'll have someone analyse the substance by the end of the night, but for now Lukas will be staying with Claudine for a while till we find those responsible."

"It could be Jessica." Sookie spoke up, then immediately saw sense. Not only was Jessica with Eric the majority of the night and impossible for her to plant the drink, but Sookie had made a silent promise to leave the girl innocent until proven guilty, out of respect for her son's ability to make the right choices. "What did you find out from her last night?" she followed on with, before Eric could answer her first question.

Eric paused, casting his gaze over her expression before replying. Like he was evaluating her mood and deciding upon that whether to tell her or not. Sookie didn't even give him a chance.

"Fine. Don't tell me. Just stop looking at me like you find me repulsive and disgusting. If it hurts so much to even be in the same room as me, just go. Please. I get the fact I was stupid and I should have checked the bottle before drinking. I get the fact I maybe jumped the gun about Jessica, and I get the fact you have no patience for me."

"Soo-"

"Oh please, between the huffing and puffing and the long torturous glances I can tell you're pissed with me. Then you bring me O positive and need the width of the room between us to breathe." Eric rose his eyebrows in the 'finished yet?' expression. Sookie wasn't finished, not quite yet. "And you haven't called me 'lover' since I woke, so I know you're pissed off. I always get plain old Sookie when you're angry at me, or tired with me annoying you. So I'm sorry for annoying you. I'm sorry for yelling at you. I'm sorry for unintentionally almost killing myself this morning. But get over it and piss off to Fangtasia if my presence is bothering you that much!" Eric expression remained. "Yes, for god's sake, I'm finished ranting now."

"Good." He pushed up from the perch, wordlessly took the bottle of true blood from her hand and placed it next to his own. He then stripped off his top and unbuckled the jeans, letting them fall to unveil his wondrous body. He tapped Sookie's shoulder and slid into the water behind her, pulling her back to his chest. His lips rested next to her ear, his arms holding her as close as she could get.

"I am not annoyed-"

"Er-"

He placed a hand over her mouth, his teeth gently biting on her ear lobe in punishment.

"You were finished. It's my turn now. Like I said; I'm not annoyed. At you." Sookie muffled out some words around his hand. He carried on like he heard nothing. "Sookie. Lover. The only reason I came back into that room last night was because I felt something odd. But I had every intention to leave it be, to roll over and go back to sleep. And I would have, but it wouldn't stop nagging me. So when I walk out to see bright sunshine about to rise to the world and my wife starting to sizzle passed out on the sofa, I felt guilt heavier than anything I had ever experienced. If I hadn't been so annoyed by that little nag and our fight earlier, I would have left you to burn, and that thought kept eating at me. I could have lost you Sookie. Do you not see how that would have destroyed me?" Mumbles butted in but Eric took back control. "Still my turn lover. Every time I look at you, I see you covered in burns, unable to do anything in your comatose state and it eats at me. I don't know what I would have done if you would have left me lover. I don't even want to think about it, but it's all I see." His hold tightened around her, like he never wanted to let her leave his sight. "I think you will be accompanying me to Fangtasia tonight, where I can keep an eye on you and we can get some real food in you. We're down on True Blood… I drank the majority after the incident last night. Or rather, this morning. So I apologise for the crap I delivered for you this morning." Sookie couldn't help but smile and twisted in his arms to wrap her arms around his neck.

"Thank you. And sorry… about the rant as well." she bit her lip. Eric smiled and captured it as his own. His tongue slipping into her warm mouth, his hands familiarising themselves with her ass. She moaned into his mouth as she felt the wonderful tingles below the belt, begging for him as it did so often. He was one drug she could never give up, no matter how lethal loving him proved to be. No matter how mad he made her, no matter how many times he ordered her around, she knew she'd never be able to give him up. And she wouldn't change it for the world.

"Lover." he purred and she felt her entire body weaken and melt into him. He chuckled, feeling her relax as well. "Before we get distracted, maybe you would care to know about Jessica." Sookie blinked, coming back.

"Is it anything important?" she pleaded it wouldn't be.

"It could be." he whispered, kissing her neck. She groaned and detached from Eric, placing her back to his chest again. He welcomed her again, one hand on her breast, massaging slowly, the other running teasingly up and down her stomach, stirring her insides into tight sexual knots. Her own hands followed their own will, one curled to wrap around Eric's neck behind her, playing with the short hairs there and arching her back. The other hand was tightening on his right thigh where she could reach easily.

"The girl doesn't remember a lot about her first day, but it seems Bill turned her almost instantly when he escaped. He found her travelling with family and pulled them from the road. She ran, and he slaughtered her family while she did, but finally caught, raped and turned her."

"Eric" Sookie moaned. It was somewhere between a 'that's so terrible' and a 'god I need you'. Eric brushed a thumb over her peaked nipple peering out from the warm water, exciting another gasp from her.

"A woman found her and took her to her Warlock friend thinking she had been cursed. The warlock formed the maker ties and kept her in check for the past few years. He left a few months ago for Africa and cut the ties, satisfied with her progress. She's been mainly mainstreaming on True Blood and kept isolated, so a lot of this world is new to her. Since she has no other family, no siblings of vampire nature either, I agreed to keep an eye on her. She's living in one of the apartments from the vampire block."

"And Lukas?" Sookie breathed.

"I'm afraid she has no intention of drinking from him without consent, so you're organ re-arranging will have to be cancelled." Sookie moved her hand from his leg to take his from her own stomach and glide in further south, where she wanted him. He chuckled, taking the non-subtle hint. "She is very much like you were when you first saw me."

"Appalled, harassed and disturbed?"

"Smitten, lust consumed and fallen." he stated as fact, his fingers stroking her folds.

"So we can trust her?"

"I see no reason not to, but we best let it unfold itself. Rather than mingle, as I know someone likes to."

"Says the man that tricked me into drinking his blood. That's really not mingling." she whispered, her grip tightening, begging for more.

"That would have happened regardless, I was simply hastening the process."

"Clearly you used up all your haste because we're getting no-where right now." Her tone bit, her own fingers replacing his between her legs, no longer satisfied with the slow pace. Eric laughed, his lips back to her throat, trailed kisses up and down between words.

"I intend to have you. Hard and fast if that is what you desire. But you owe me for last night, and this morning. So I'll torture you all I want."

"It's not my fault you lost out on two no doubt thrilling sexual experiences. If you weren't so argumentative, everything would have run smoothly and we could be having our third go round of the night by now."

Eric chuckled again, his leg moving under the water and pulling the plug from the bath. Sookie groaned, feeling the cold air come back to caress her now warm skin. Eric de-tangled his limbs from hers and picked her up in his arms, collecting the snow white towels from the radiators and wrapping them both around Sookie, rubbing up and down, drying her skin and exciting her further with rough strokes over sensitive areas. Sookie caught the towel and dropped it, stepping up to his naked body, regardless of the water drips. She rested her chest a mere centimetre from touching his then let her hand curl around his hard girth.

"You don't have to torture me." she whispered, her hand slowly moving on his length. "You could just persuade me to be nice." She rose on her tiptoes, the ruby lips closing in on his pale ones.

"That would be merciful." he allowed with a sinful smile. "But I'm not known for mercy." he countered and caught her lips, his arms pulling her back into body to body contact with him.

"Perhaps I could persuade you then?" she asked, her eyes sparkling, her hand making the strokes on his manhood longer and more pleasurable, hinting her hidden meaning.

"Perhaps." he qualified, his breath a whisper-like tickle against her lips. Sookie grinned, then resumed kissing as she moved him back till his legs hit the bed and he fell back. She crawled on, over him and shuffled to the centre, beckoning him forward to lie down and relinquish control. He submitted willingly, his hands folded behind his head, legs out stretched on the long bed, inviting her to do with him as she pleased. Sookie straddled his waist to start, laying a kiss on his luscious lips then slowly, she moved down his frame, her hips gyrating against his flesh, her lips trailing, leaving kisses randomly placed. She stopped to wrap her tongue around his nipple, pulling him from relaxation and finding an accompanying whimper to match. Success filled her and she slid further down, reaching her intended victim. There was no way she could ever fit him all in her mouth, not even now she didn't need to breath, so one hand wrapped around his base, gliding gently. She stuck out the tip of her pink tongue and played pathetically teasing at his tip, feeling him writhe beneath her hand, begging for more. Oh how the tables had turned. But Sookie was more merciful and took his tip into her mouth, her tongue swirling around, tasting the flavour only Eric had. Eric closed his eyes in blissful pleasure. If he were to speak she knew it would no longer be English. She pulled back, her teeth lightly scraping, tongue licking the full length of his underside, till she popped off him. Her eyes flickered up to his tortured expression. God he was beautiful. His hands fisted the ridiculously expensive sheets without a care and with nothing more on his mind than her. His eyes flashed open, stars spinning in an ocean of blue, pleading her to continue. To just touch him, contact, even ever so minimal would be worshipped.

"I love you." she confessed, truer than ever before. 15 years since she had first said the words and meant them, and now they seemed so insignificant in describing how she felt. She had seen marriages fall apart in this small time frame, doubts, insecurities and infidelity had torn people apart, yet Sookie had only grown closer to Eric. Her feelings had strengthened, doubled, intensified and continued to do so. How had she been so lucky; to hold such a miracle? Even to hold that miracle as a maker was lucky, but to spend an eternity of forever with him, that was beyond her quota of luck for a million different lifetimes.

"Lover." he purred, melting her core, drawing a moan. He chuckled and pulled her to collide with his body and captured her lips, his tongue welcome to stir her hormones ever more so. His hands snaked down her back settling to knead her ass, tingles erupted all over her. How did he have such power?

"Say it." she pleaded, her voice wobbling that tiniest bit in doubt. She had no doubt Eric caught it.

It was a change of pace for them, Eric was the possessive one, the one that needed to comfort and belief from the words. Especially after Bill. But tonight it was Sookie that needed the knowledge.

"Lover." he growled and suddenly she was on her back, his frame pressed against her. His blue orbs swirling darker. "I am yours. I will always be. You know this. You can feel it, even when you're screaming at me. I know you feel it, because I do to. Lover, you are much mine, as I am yours. So you know how much a simple statement of my love for you will not even measure up to how I feel." His eyes calmed, the storm staring to pass over the water. "But if that is what you desire to hear, then know that I love you. Honestly, truly and eternally." With that declaration he shoved forward, entering her, taking her gasp with his mouth. Her fingers gripped his biceps, nails dinting the skin with half moon crescents. He rocked forward, deep into her again, his thickness stretching her walls oh so pleasurably. Her ever tight walls contracting around him in bliss, her juices scenting the room. Sookie could swear she could feel her heart beating against his length, the blood pulsating beneath the skin where she joined with him. She threw her arms around his back, feeling the muscles move in him and drew herself closer. Kissing his neck, tiny gasps of pleasure grew louder and longer. Her breathe tickling as she held on, her panting quickening. Eric shoved again, dove deeper into her warmth, his hips rocking against hers, rubbing her clit as he did so. He watched and felt her climax, her inner muscles quivering in rhythm around him. Her face screw up so delicately, her lips separate as she called his name. He vaguely registered her nails drawing blood from his back, its cold trail sliding down him, but really, who cared? He was as deep as he could be into her, feeling exactly how much she loved him as she screamed his name. All his thoughts spoke was one word: Mine!