Eric
When I awoke the following morning Sookie was still asleep in my arms. I breathed in her scent and felt contented for the first time in a very long time, possibly ever. I would happily have stayed with her within the confines of our home for a very long time. I needed Sookie to think of this house as hers as well and figured that the more time we spent here the more at home she would feel. Things would have to change, however. I needed to employ a chef for her and someone to help with the housework. I knew she would not like my habits of never washing clothes rather just buying new ones. She was a down to earth girl raised with Southern morals and I would have to curb some of my more extravagant habits such as that one. I had trust issues with employing staff, and I certainly wouldn't let anyone else near my sleeping quarters. However it was a circumstance where Sookie's telepathy would prove useful and she could screen any staff before they were employed. I also intended to increase the number of guards at this home, and considered building another guard station at the rear of the grounds that would be closer to this cottage in the woods that Sookie seemed to love so much. I also decided that if Amelia was to come to our wedding then I would ask her to put some wards on the house. She was a more powerful witch then even she realised, and if I paid her handsomely I was sure that she would help her friend.
I had not initially planned to ask Sookie to marry me, as the further bond would have sufficed. However I also knew that in Sookie's world we were living in sin, and she would be more appreciative of a formal human marriage even though she didn't have many friends left that hadn't betrayed her. I wanted to do this as quickly, and I had no intention of telling de Castro about either marriage or bond until after it had happened. I realised this would not go down well with the King, but I was more fearful that he would take Sookie away from me and stake me before we had chance to perform either ceremony. If we were bonded the final time it would be against vampire law for him to even touch her without my consent, and he would undoubtedly be staked by the council for the crime. I was willing to marry Sookie as soon as possible and I knew I had to find out from Niall about the bond we went down that route as I suspected that Sookie's fairy magic was likely to play an important factor.
She was starting to stir in my arms and I leaned over her and gave her a gentle kiss, running my hands along her still naked body and feeling the warmth between her legs. I intended payback for the way she woke me up the evening before. As she awoke further, our kiss deepened and my fingers entered into her moist centre, my thumb rubbing her engorged nub. She moaned into my mouth, her hands running over my body and she bucked against my hand. When I could tell that she was close I left my assault on her mouth and kissed down her jawline and neck to her throbbing artery and sunk my fangs into her neck as her walls clenched around my fingers from her orgasm.
After both of our hungers were satiated and her human needs had been dealt with she found me outside of the cottage in the large jacuzzi. She smiled and walked out of the cottage completely naked and climbed in, sitting on my lap.
"Evening, my beautiful fiancée," she smiled, gazing down appreciatively at the engagement ring on her left hand. "I see that you are keeping vampire hours now!" I smiled a toothy grin at her and pulled her into a deep kiss.
"Maybe, but its going to do nothing for my tan, and I assure you I don't intend on getting married without a tan!"
I could not be happier that she was so keen to get married to me. "We'd better get married soon then so you tan doesn't have chance to fade." I smirked at her, yet I was deadly serious. I wanted, no needed, to be her husband in her world as well mine as soon as possible.
We had our fun in the water before heading back to the main house for Sookie to make her breakfast and me to have a couple of bottles of true blood. I was hoping that she would let me drink from her again later on in the night. We went downstairs to change our clothes and I popped into my office to make a few phone calls and deal with the urgent emails. When I came back upstairs I lit the fire in the den and pulled her onto the sofa with me. There was much that we needed to discuss. It was Sookie that spoke first.
"You know, I was going to ask you to marry me. I was going to talk to Pam and work out how best to do it. You've scuppered my plans now!" She mocked angry and upset but I obviously knew that she was nothing but content.
"Its not traditional for the lady to ask the man, but I appreciate the sentiment my love."
"Do we have to tell de Castro about this?"
I let out an unnecessary sigh. "We should tell him, but I have no intention of telling him anything until after it has happened. We therefore need to keep this as quiet as possible. It also means we should marry as soon as we can. Is that alright with you?"
"I'm more than happy with him not knowing, and I want to be Mrs Northman as soon possible, as long as its not going to cause you trouble. And what about the love bond? Are we going to do that?" Her blue eyes were staring deep into mine, and I kissed her nose softly as she nuzzled into my neck.
"That I need to speak to Niall about. I suspect your fairy magic may play an unexpected role, and I need to make sure what will happen. I have a way that I can get a letter to Niall in the portal, and as this is concerning you I hope that he be willing to help us out. Once we have had his answer we will know how best to proceed and whether we need to do anything differently. In the meantime, how quickly do you think we can arrange this wedding? And how many people are we talking?"
"I'd do it tomorrow if I could, but we need to apply for a marriage licence, which I can do tomorrow as long as I can have your papers, and we can find someone vampire-friendly who will marry us. In terms of people, I'll ask Amelia if she will come, and Pam, of course. Anyone else from Fangtasia you want to invite, Bill?"
Ah, Bill. Would he even want to come? Sookie had told me that he'd been supportive of her being with me, and for that I had arranged extra blood donors, including some with fairy-laced blood to help him heal. I had spoken to him on the phone and understood that he was doing better. I know that even after everything they had been through she'd remained on good terms with him. Given half a chance I'd have staked him years ago, especially after Lorena was dead, but Sookie did not want that and would have known I was behind any 'accident' he may suffer.
"Would you like him to be there?"
"I think I would, if he wanted to come, that is. So with him, that would just make five of us if Amelia comes. I'll call her tomorrow and see if she's free. What if we provisionally set a date for Saturday evening?" That was five days from now, and if she was happy that everything could be sorted by then, I was more than willing to marry her. "Of course I'll need some time to get a wedding dress and sort out flowers and things, will you allow me an evening out with Pam so I can do that?"
"Sookie, I'd be more than happy for her to help you with this. I'll handle the reigns at Fangtasia for an evening and you girls can go shopping. In my office downstairs I have some unlimited credits cards and store cards set up for you, so go and spend yourself silly."
She was looking at me with the determined look on her face, and I knew that she was about to argue with me at giving her money. She'd always baulked against me giving her gifts, even when they were needed (her driveway, for instance), and telling her like that I'd set up credit cards for her without even asking her was something I suddenly realised she would not like. I was about to explain my case when she placed a soft finger over my lips.
"Before you start backtracking, I'm not going to flip out. I appreciate it Eric, I really do, and for this occasion I'll happily accept your gift, but I really do want to work with you so I can feel that I contribute to this relationship as well. You're soon to be my husband in my world as well as yours, and I know that a marriage is a partnership when both parties share all that they are. I give everything that I am to you and know you do the same to me. I understand that in your case your wealth comes with it, and I need to be more accepting of that. But I can assure you I will not go spending your money for the hell of it, that's not who I am."
She took her finger off my lip and I pulled her to me for a passionate kiss and moved on top of her on the sofa. I pinned her down onto the soft cushions and breathed in her sweet scent.
"I love you, Sookie Stackhouse, and I always will. I believe you will be the perfect wife and I look forward to every day with you. Once we are married we will talk more about the business venture and I will discuss Fangtasia with Pam. She has been suggesting ideas to me recently about things we can do with the club, and I feel she'll do a great job on her own."
She started kissing down my neck and I growled as she started nipping my neck, and I silently wished she would draw some blood, which she did causing me to moan loudly into her hair and dry hump her into the sofa. As she finished she licked the wounds clean in a very vampire-esque fashion and I was literally seconds away from ripping her clothes off when I heard a noise at the door that I knew must be Pam. She soon after opened the door to the room and perched on a chair facing us, a pile of papers in her hands.
"Oh, I do hope I wasn't interrupting anything. Please don't stop on my account, I would happily watch, or join in if you wish!" She was smirking at us, and while Sookie turned a beautiful shade of pink at nearly being caught, I growled at my child and she quickly wiped the smirk off her face recognising the seriousness of my threat. She lowered her head to me, "My apologies, Master, I will make sure I knock next time."
Sookie had regained her composure and tidied up her clothes I'd been half way to ripping off her and offered Pam and I a blood which we both accepted. She scooted off to the kitchen and I turned to my child.
"You have found a way that I can contact Niall?"
"Yes, it seems that a few of the elves that have remained in our world have the ability to enter into the portal without the need for the openings, and one in particular remains loyal to Niall as an old friend, and would surely help out Sookie. But she will need to speak to her as she is distrustful of vampires. This elf is called Anja. Should I arrange a meeting for her and Sookie?"
"Yes, I will write the letter to Niall and ask Sookie to deliver it to this elf. Are you sure she can be trusted?"
"As sure as I can be, she lived within the Brigant household for many years, and chose to stay in this world to be with her human lover. She therefore may be more willing to help Sookie as she also has a supernatural lover in you. I expect that she will deliver the response from Niall within hours."
"Thank you Pam, you will be rewarded well if we can pull this off. Can you arrange for her to meet Sookie here on Wednesday? Say at around five in the afternoon. I will inform the guards and make sure that one is stationed near to Sookie to make sure nothing happens"
At this, Sookie entered back into the room with two bloods for Pam and myself and a glass of sweet-tea for herself and a sandwich. She sat down next to me and curled into my body, nuzzling her head into my neck. It almost seemed that she had forgotten Pam was there, but after breathing in my scent she pulled back and spoke to Pam.
"What are you two up to? And did Eric tell you that we're getting married on Saturday?"
"No he didn't!" Pam yelled at me, jumped up and pulled Sookie into a warm embrace. "Less than a week, that is by no means long enough to arrange a wedding for you two. We need caterers, flowers, clothes, wedding dress, bridesmaids ..."
"Pam, stop!" Sookie held her hand up to Pam and she stopped in her tracks with a confused expression on her face. "Pam, I want to keep this small and personal. We don't want all that. I just want to marry Eric and be his wife. And anyways, we can't let de Castro know about this, so it has to be quiet."
Pam looked stunned. She turned her attention back to me "You're not going to tell de Castro?" I glared at her and mentally told her to shut up. I did not need Sookie knowing quite how bad it would be that I wasn't going to tell de Castro before the event. Pam regained her composure and turned back to Sookie, who appeared to be none the wiser, or at least she didn't let on that she understood the severity of the situation. "But I'm assuming you will need a wedding dress, and that is where I can come in very useful."
"Pam, I would like nothing more than for you to help me with this. And I certainly will need help choosing a wedding dress."
I could tell that the girls wanted some time alone to discuss the wedding, so I kissed Sookie gently on the head and headed back down to my office. I needed to write my letter to Niall in order that Sookie could pass this to the elf when she met her in a few days. I was not happy about relying on someone else to deliver the message to Niall, but I had no option but to trust this woman, and Pam seemed to trust this creature. I had trained Pam well and I knew her judgement was almost as good as mine.
I also dealt with some sheriff duties that I had neglected over the last few days and emailed my weekly reports to de Castro and Madden. I had not told Sookie that if they found out about our marriage before the time that we were bonded than it was likely that he would kill us both. It was killing me keeping this information from Sookie as I had promised I would always be honest with her, but I could not have her worrying more about the situation then she needed to. I knew that I was taking a huge risk, but hoped that Niall would be able to tell me more about the bond. I had provisionally contacted Stan Davis, the Texan King who I had developed a close working relationship over the centuries, and he was willing to attend on the Sunday night following our marriage, even staying at my house the night before so the ceremony could go ahead at first dark on Sunday. Pam, of course, would also be here.
After a few hours and I had finished my work I went back upstairs to find Pam and Sookie poured over a laptop, laughing and giggling. As I walked in the laptop was quickly shut and both girls looked at me with guilty faces. Seeing my two favourite girls like this filled me with immense pleasure. I was very happy that Pam and Sookie got on as well as they did.
After Pam left, I took Sookie's hand and led her back down to the bedroom. I peeled the clothes of her and took her back into the tub. I sat facing her, our legs interlocked and our hands joined. I needed to tell Sookie about her meeting with the elf to pass on the message to Niall. I told her what Pam had said to me, and asked if she was happy to meet the elf without me being there.
"Of course I will, Eric. I'm beginning to realise how important this is to both of us. I have to admit to be initially against the bonding after what you told me." Her eyes were prickling with tears as she referred to my telling her that I would meet the sun if anything ever happened to her. "But I know how closely we are tied already, and to be perfectly honest I know now that I could not survive without you. I will meet Anja, and I promise I will do everything that I can to make sure she takes the message to Niall." I think at that point I understood how Sookie felt when I told her that I would meet the sum if anything happened to her. It was heartbreaking to hear that she too would not wish to live after me, but I understood this was a side-effect of being so closely tied. I never intended this to happen like this. However I was happy she was so keen to meet Anja.
"Thank you Sookie. She is our only hope, but I trust you to do this. You may find that you have things in common with her, she has a lover who is human and has chosen to stay within this world after the portals were closed. She has the ability to travel between the worlds still as she is of the higher level of elves, but she still chooses her human lover of immortality in her own world."
"As I would choose you over anything." She pulls me to her and as she straddles me she slides painstakingly slowly down by shaft so I am fully encased in her. She sets the rhythm which is rapid and needy and as my hands find my way between us to her nub she comes hard and bares her neck to me. I bite down and draw deeply at her beautifully sweet blood and come hard as I do. Sookie is also screaming with pleasure as I do this, and her eyes are hooded with lust as she meets my gaze. I pull her out of the tub and speed us into the bedroom to continue our love-making session.
We both pleasure each other on multiple occasions, and I cannot think of a place I would rather be than with my beautiful fairy. We will have a busy week, and I know that I should attend Fangtasia at some point during the week as I have been neglecting my duties. However the sooner I can get rid of that place the better as far as I am concerned.
After tiring her completely she falls asleep in my arms, and for the first time in a long time I fall asleep before dawn, completely satisfied by the events of the evening. I can't wait for my life with this part human, part fae. And I now know for sure that I could not live without her.
