*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Chapter 7 *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Eric's Point Of View

I was wholly aware of the precise moment Compton had pulled Sookie outside of Fangtasia, easily registering the loss of her beautiful scent from the air. It was a tragic loss I felt deep down in a place I had long thought finally dead. These feelings were foreign and frightening, but somehow oddly intriguing and comforting as well.

I had already known that I wanted Sookie as my lover. I knew that undeniable fact the first time I saw her sun-drenched skin amidst the sea of moving corpses vying for my attentions. It came as a surprise to me that the more time I spent in her presence the more I wanted her for much more than just that.

What was the sudden catalyst for such a dramatic change in my typical desires? She certainly wasn't the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen, but she might have been the most frustrating. Maybe the challenge that Sookie presented was actually what I craved? It was the best answer I could come up with, but that excuse felt in adequate somehow. It was enough to appease my curiosity for now, as she was nothing less than infuriating and I adored her more for it. She was the solution to my boredom, like a warm, sunny day relieving me of my cold, endless night.

She was both a mystery to me and yet very familiar at the same time. It made me infinitely angrier than it should have that Compton found her first. I had every right to take her from him the first night she came to my club, though if I had I would never have gained her as an asset to my area or as a prospect for anything more. I would have used her and discarded her without ever knowing the true potential which lay within that enigmatic southern belle.

I couldn't help but be irritated at myself for allowing Compton to touch her so roughly. How dare he put his undeserving hands on her with anything other than respect or adoration? Why didn't she see that he was not worth her limited time on this earth? I could make her happy in every way. I would. She would yield to me - soon and always.

The moment I smelled her blood in the air, I realized that I wanted her for as long as she would have me. Devising a plan which would keep her safe would take some thought because I could not let anyone know she was my weakness. It would undoubtedly bring her even more trouble if my enemies sought her out to use as leverage against me, lest there be more Comptons milling around her waiting for an opportunity to claim what should have already been mine.

Sookie simply deserved better than that. I admired her ferocious warrior inclinations as a defender of her family and friends. She was truly noble in her ideals and subtle in her sensuousness - so different than any other girl I'd met in a thousand years. Especially since the Great Revelation, everyone was so willing and so eager to get in my pants or under my fangs that they took all the fun out of being a vampire.

I was a proud lion, not the tame giant cat in the zoo that was given his food without sport. I was the predator on the savannah, king of the beasts, and deadly to my prey. I relished the moment she yielded to her position as my gazelle because nothing about the chase of Sookie Stackhouse would ever prove easy.

Although this trip to Dallas was a very serious matter for me as my need to find Godric was overwhelming, I looked forward to the prospect of further ingratiating myself to Sookie as a potential lover and possibly more. Besides my opportunistic position regarding his girlfriend, something was very off about Compton tonight. I hoped but could not be sure if Sookie noticed the way he looked at her – almost appraisingly – as if to assess damage to his goods. Was he aware that he had already lost her to me? Was that the source of his underlying hostility with her?

I was certain he could smell me on her from how close to that kiss we actually were. I had even purposely tried to touch her clothing to put my scent on her as well. Now I regretted that tactical decision because he grabbed her so forcefully out of jealous aggravation – a situation I had provoked without considering the consequences for the telepath.

There was something else about his behavior that begged to be thought over. My doubts about Billy's true intentions were bolstered by something that Sookie said which really did not track with the anal retentive Bill Compton that I had grown to loathe. Bill was one of the few vampires I had ever known to be obsessively punctual. Time took on a different meaning when you learned to deal with your immortality. Vampires would show up for meetings with one another at the right time out of respect, not a rigid sense of routine or conformity.

Bill Compton, on the other hand, was not one of those vampires. He was the type to tap his foot until the precise moment his floor duty was over at Fangtasia before bolting for the door. This was not someone to make an appointment with a pretty, telepathic barmaid and not keep it. The fact that as a result of his tardiness he got to swoop in and save Sookie, lick her wounds clean, and give her his blood while she was unconscious did not seem to be coincidental.

Perhaps Bill Compton was a better strategist than I originally thought, although anyone could get lucky once. It stood to reason though that he not only waited for the drainer couple to attack, but possibly put the notion in their minds with glamour. That would be quite a scheme, but why would he go to such extreme measures?

It seemed Sookie was in more danger than she realized from the snake in the grass that she had unknowingly let coil around her smooth, tan body. Not only did Bill Compton not deserve her, but now I could not stop thinking that he might actively be trying to harm her.

With a stroke of genius, I hatched a scheme of my own to remove Bill from Sookie long enough to re-address the situation and the extent of the damage he had done to her without his relentless affinity for interrupting me. Lorena Krasiki, his deranged, lovelorn Maker, was a great candidate to not only distract Bill Compton, but perhaps drive a wedge between him and the telepath deep enough to expose Bill's true motivations in moving to a backwater town in the sticks to mainstream.

That move in and of itself should have been enough to peak my interest, but Bill was always such a bore that I never thought he would be up to something as interesting as Sookie. Confronted by my own logical argument, I had to believe she was his endgame. I was simply unsure as to the reason if it was not for the love he claimed. He was fiercely protective of her in a way that was not normal for our kind. Plus he had previously mentioned her needing protection, but I knew of no royal edict in regards to Sookie.

That was an intriguing thought in itself since Bill was part of the Queen's court before moving from New Orleans back to his ancestral home in Bon Temps. Maybe that was not a coincidence either and all of these pieces to this puzzle added up to one startling picture... Sookie Stackhouse truly did need me in her life, even if she did not realize it yet.

A/N: I don't make money from these characters or concepts, but will happily accept reviews on this story as compensation to any of my first-time readers. Thanks!