A/N I'm sorry this update has been a long time coming. Thank you to everyone who reviewed and Pmd about it.

Eric's Fate

Chapter Seven

Cold misty sunlight filtered through the low cloud cover and made the dewy grass sparkle. Around the keep no trace remained of the fighting that had occurred save the odd smear of blood or dropped weapon that had been missed in the darkness. In the gatehouse Trausti and Grettir where throwing dice and watching the expanse of ground beyond the keep.

"What do you suppose Godric will do with the girls?" Grettir asked as he cupped the dice to throw again.

"I'm not sure, but I don't think it's going to be the noble stuff of sagas," Trausti said humourlessly. He wasn't impressed by the way Godric had claimed the girls, or the way he had locked them away in his rooms.

"Should we do something?" Grettir asked, unsure of how to voice what he was feeling.

"Only if you want to give him a reason to kill you," Trausti answered.

"Do you think it would come to that?"

"You saw what he did to the vampires, and they were his friends. He doesn't even know us, so what makes you think he'd give a damn about killing one of us," Trausti almost whispered that last bit, as if fearing that Godric would indeed hear them and come tearing into the room and kill them both.

Up in the tower Godric heard every word that was said by the guards. His hearing was so acute he could almost tell what way the dice had fell by the noise they made when they landed. Godric knew he was at the peak of his abilities, and that life had just got interesting again.

In his chambers the girls cowered away from him. They expected the beautiful young man to stop laughing at any moment and then the hurting would start. But he just smiled his odd smile at them, laughing occasionally, while he seemed to be listening to a voice they couldn't hear.

"Will you hurt us?" one of them asked.

Godric stopped laughing and looked at the pretty girl who cowered away from him.

"I will not," he told them.

"Will you let us go?" the girl asked.

"I will not," he told them again.

"Then what would you do with us?" the girl asked.

"Nothing," he laughed again, a different warmer laugh than the one they had heard from him before.

"So why are we here with you?" she asked.

"You can be my friends, for now. While you are no-one will hurt you," he laughed again, knowing that they didn't believe him. In time they would, and time was something Godric had plenty of. He admired the work he had done, covering over every window and door, nailing them shut and blocking out the sunlight before it came. After a thousand years of being a vampire Godric didn't need to sleep as the others did. He just had to stay out of the sunlight. It would be a pity to meet the sun now when Eric and Sookie were making it all interesting again. Through their bond he could feel that their minds were dormant as they rested.

My children sleep, he thought, then started to laugh again.

When the dark came again Godric was waiting. He smiled benignly at Eric and Sookie as they rose from their rest. Both had fresh blood marks on their necks, and the smell of sex was in the air. Godric laughed a little, he had been aware of the frantic love making through the bond. It had excited him intellectually if not physically. After so many years it took more than the knowledge that others were copulating to raise a reaction from him.

"Shall we hunt?" Godric asked the pair. It was said as a question, but the instruction was there.

"Of course, Godric," Sookie answered.

"We three?" Eric asked.

"Yes, rest the men," Godric laughed, a little higher than would have been comfortable.

"I'll let them know," Eric said, and left to see Ulrich.

"You love him, Sookie?" Godric asked when Eric was gone.

"For eternity," she told him.

"I hope you get that long," he told her, a look of sadness in his eyes.

"Why so sad, Godric?" she wanted to know.

"I loved once, I hoped for eternity," he told her.

"What happened?"

"I grew bored, I killed him. Sometimes I regret it," he said. His eyes were big hollow pools, rimmed with red as the memory brought tears.

"Why did you kill him?" Sookie was horrified.

"He didn't want me to leave him. In the end it was kinder."

Sookie looked at her maker with a question on her face, even if it didn't pass her lips. When Godric saw it he smiled at her.

"You're right, I'm not great with friends, am I?"

"Will you kill me and Eric when you bore of us?"

"Only if you let me, Eric has a thirst for his second chance, I think he'd struggle a bit," Godric said. "Besides, you are my child, I made you."

"Does that help?" Sookie asked.

For a moment Godric thought about this.

"No, I don't suppose it does," he said.

Three figures launched themselves from the roof of the keep. As they flew they delighted in the thrill of the night air, the smells from the rich countryside below, the sounds of creatures of the night hunting. Just like they were.

Eric spotted a solitary farmhouse and pointed it out, but Godric just shook his head. They flew on, looking for a target on which they could feed, but that would offer a challenge. Twice more they passed single houses by, twice more following Godric with the far away look in his eyes. Only when Sookie began to wonder what kind of hunt this was going to be did they find something more to Godric's liking.

In the dark they saw a column of mounted men leading a wagon through the countryside. It was Godric who said they should take a closer look.

"I think they're Vikings, Eric," he said.

"I see them. Should we go find out who they are? Perhaps they will be allies for us?"

"We need no allies, Eric. Let's hunt them," Godric said.

"I cannot. I will not feed of my own kinsmen," Eric refused.

"Then Sookie and I will hunt them, for she cannot refuse," Godric laughed. "You may watch."

"But Godric, we came here so as not to hunt our own," Eric protested.

"This is your first lesson Eric. Your own kind are vampires, all others are here for us to take from!"

"But there is no need for these men to die," Sookie protested.

Godric laughed.

"Someone has to, we need to feed. Must I do this alone?" he asked, as his fangs dropped.

"Godric, please, not these men," Eric said again.

High in the air above the armed men the boy with the tattoos stopped his descent. His gaze shifted from Eric to Sookie, then back to Eric.

"I had thought you stronger than this," he told Eric.

"Which is stronger, to follow you and do something I don't want to, or defy you and hope to make you see sense? Besides if you're so ruthless why are the girls still alive?"

Eric couldn't see Godric's smile, but he looked away from the armed raiding party below, seeking something else on the ground below them.

"Do you suggest we run through the forest and hunt animals?" he mocked Eric.

"No I suggest we take what we need from where we want. Just not from my own kinsmen," Eric told him.

Laughing again Godric nodded. Life with these two was indeed going to be more interesting.

On a beach in a sheltered cove, not far from their original landing site, they found four fishermen making their boat ready to catch the tide. Death descended on them from the air, their lives ending in a frenzy of violence and feeding. When Sookie and Eric went at each other for afters, blood-lust becoming pure sexual frenzy, Godric strode away from them.

It was enough for him that his children were happy, he didn't need to see why.

A/N Sorry this was so long coming, hope it's okay