As always, Viking and Bones kisses to our incredible beta's, FarDareisMai2 and WildCat79. This was probably the most difficult chapter for ANY story that the three of us have ever written. Believe it or not, we started writing Wife Swap in November of 2009. So we've been hemming and hawing for months about where this story would go, and just how far we would push the boundaries. FDM and WC…you two will never know how much you guided this particular chapter. Thanks to you both!
These characters belong to Charlaine Harris and Jeaniene Frost. We're just taking them along on this crazy ride of ours.
Eric POV
I woke with an ache in my body I couldn't ignore. Sookie had been gone five nights, and each day I was more distressed. My body craved her blood. My mind craved her company. Had I been that lonely before she came into my life? Somehow, I didn't remember my time before I met her as being so desolate. Which was exactly why most vampires hesitated to take up with humans-it was too painful to deal with their absence when you outlived them. I pushed the thought out of my head, refusing to consider it a possibility. Sookie was coming home to me—she had to.
How much longer did Marie Laveau plan on playing her game, if indeed she was the one behind it? I wasn't going to be able to keep the situation under wraps, and keep my cool, much longer. Marie was either trying to goad me into doing something rash so she could discredit me, or she wanted to test my reaction, but I wasn't about to take the bait. Nevertheless, it was getting more difficult to be rational each day as the ache inside me grew, and it wasn't going to heal until I had Sookie back in my arms.
The Law Guardians had not contacted us yet with a tribunal date, and I didn't understand the delay. Was Marie controlling them? Keeping them from setting a date? I didn't know how she could manipulate the Law Guardians, but I would do the same if I was trying to provoke an adversary. It was also entirely possible that someone else was behind this, but who, aside from Marie Laveau, knew that Bones was even in town? I racked my brain, thinking of the guests at the Dracula Night party. Who else at that party would have the guts to do this to me and my wife?
Majestic had to be involved in some way, and she would feel my wrath because of it.
I forced myself out of bed, and into the shower. The warm water did little to soothe my ache, and I tried to sense Sookie's location as I stood under the spray. Maybe if I relaxed, I could feel her. Where was she? Was she hurt? Was Bones with her? I tried "calling" her, like I would a child of my creation, thinking she might have enough of my blood in her to make that work, but I felt nothing. And when the loneliness hit me, I turned my thoughts to angry acts of retribution, to divert the pain.
It was clear to me—I needed to do something to find my wife and save her from this trumped up tribunal; I couldn't just wait for answers. As I dressed, I composed myself enough to start making a plan to search the city for Sookie and Bones. I mentally drew up a list of key contacts throughout New Orleans that could help us, and I would find out who was loyal to me in the process. Maybe Cat had some of her own contacts she could tap into. At least we would be doing something.
Cat stayed in one of our guest rooms, although she went back to the house she shared with Bones to check for messages every night. She struggled with this situation, just like me, wanting to do something, while not wanting to lose any advantage by being too rash, although I knew she was itching to throw her knives into someone. Whenever she returned from the townhouse, she looked tired and sad, and my impulse was to comfort her.
I hated seeing her like that-I preferred the fiesty, fiery Cat I saw after our visit to Marie Laveau. But I knew exactly how raw she was feeling. I insisted she sleep at my residence during the daylight hours when she was weakest. Although she was physically strong, and equally strong in spirit, Cat was teetering on the edge of losing it, just like I was.
Her dependence on vampire blood to survive and the loss of the source of nourishment from Bones was pushing her limits. When she told me they were to be married that week, I couldn't help but think of my human wedding ceremony. Even though we had been pledged, and considered wed by vampire law, Sookie and I had a human wedding ceremony one evening, shortly after she had agreed to come to New Orleans with me. It was a small affair, not my usual blow-out, but it was what Sookie wanted. We were married by a justice of the peace, under the stars, in her yard on Hummingbird Road, one warm summer night, with only Pam and Sam in attendance.
I closed my eyes and let myself remember the joy I felt that night...how I felt on top of the world. I was king of my state and the woman I loved had given herself to me. Months later, someone was testing my authority as king, and my wife was missing. Those joyous feelings quickly turned to something else at the thought.
As I mentally closed the book on my marriage reminiscing, I wondered if Cat and Bones would ever have the wedding they wanted, but could never seem to make happen.
I shook it off and went back to thinking about my plan to search the city, as I made my way to my home office. Pam was managing Fangtasia, and we were trying to maintain a façade of normalcy. My rivals could not know my security was lax enough for my wife to be missing. At the thought, anger once again replaced the pain I felt.
I pushed open the door to my office and Cat was already waiting for me. She looked up from the couch but then pulled back when I walked into the room.
"Eric, what's happened? Is there some word? Why are you so angry?" Cat got off the couch and followed me to my desk.
"Why am I angry? My wife is missing, and you ask me that?" I looked at her, standing next to me. Her emotional state wasn't all that different from mine. She backed off and took a few laps around the room. We were both getting good at finding ways to release our nervous energy.
"Still no word about the tribunal?"
"No, nothing. I am not waiting any longer. We need to search for them, and get them back ourselves. Then we go after whoever set them up."
"Search and destroy. I'm good with that. I can call in my old team, I'm sure my uncle can help—do you have any problem with that, Eric?"
"No. Call him."
For the next hour, we compiled a list of everyone that could help us search for our spouses, along with places to look for them. It was better than pacing around and looking at each other, waiting for word about a tribunal that might never happen. Cat was enthusiastic, smart, and reminded me of Sookie. They had the same spirit and reckless determination. At least I had some practice dealing with that.
Just as we were going to start making some calls, there was a knock at the office door.
"Enter."
"Your majesty, this letter just arrived via courier for you."
The butler handed me the large white envelope and Cat was immediately at my elbow. I thought she might grab it out of my hand. I ripped the little tab, separated the envelope and reached inside to find a white card, printed with the following message:
King Eric Northman, State of Louisiana
You are summoned to attend as witness to offer testimony in the following case.
The accused:
The vampire Crispin Russell, renamed Bones, and human co-conspirator, Sookie Stackhouse Northman
The charges:
Unauthorized use of magic.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
11 p.m.
Saenger Theatre, New Orleans
I turned the card over and read it again. Co-conspirator! If that was what they were charging her with, she was in just as much trouble as Bones. They could both be sentenced to death. Cat stood there, staring at me, waiting for me to say something. When I looked at her, images of Bones, in my office, offering to "help" us thwart the contracted hit, flooded my head, and the anger I was holding back broke loose. I grabbed her by the shoulders and roared at her.
"This is all his fault. You do realize that, do you not?"
My fangs extended and I did not care that I was frightening her. Being angry was much better than facing my own incompetence at not being able to protect my wife. Now, she was looking at a death sentence, and my lawyer, Catiliades, was out of town on an extended trip on kingdom business. I couldn't trust this to anyone else. Things had gone from bad to worse with the delivery of a piece of paper.
"Can I see it?" She asked quietly, obviously afraid of me, although she stood her ground, trying not to let me see how rattled she was. She held her hand out for the announcement, and I handed it to her.
Saving Sookie and Bones from a vampire tribunal determined to find them guilty would not be easy. As I watched Cat read the tribunal notice, I wondered if she realized what we were dealing with here. I'd seen enough vampire adjudications to know the tribunal was only a formality-the charges would not have been filed if there was any doubt as to the outcome.
Bones and Sookie would be executed, and I would do all I could to stop it. If whoever was behind this succeeded, I would have my vengeance, and then I would join Sookie in death to be with her, forever.
Maybe Cat was feeling as I did, or maybe she just read the expression on my face, but when she spoke, it was with a kindness designed to comfort me.
"Eric...it's not over yet. We're going to save them from this sham, whatever the cost. I'm ready to die for Bones, if that is what it will take."
The ache inside of me roared, and I couldn't reply. Cat put her arm around me, and when she hugged me, my arms went around her. I wasn't the only one in need of comfort.
As we held each other, I could feel her fangs brush my neck. It felt good, and she was probably hungry, as she had only drank from me once since Bones was arrested. I pressed her head against my neck. She slid her fangs into me, with a gentleness that surprised me, and she started feeding.
Thinking of Sookie as Cat drank from my neck brought about a natural vampire reaction, and I felt the blood rush below, filling me, and my body cried for release. Cat drew my blood into her, sucking my anger away as she swallowed, leaving me with a terrible longing for my wife.
I could smell the humanity that remained in her, and my own fangs throbbed at the scent of it. The lack of blood nourishment, coupled with the sight and smell of her beautiful skin, so close to me, ignited an uncontrollable need to sink own my fangs into flesh, and drink.
I knew it was wrong, but my body ignored my mind and my vampire instincts took control.
Cat POV
As I watched Eric read the card, several times over, his expression changed from hope, to anguish, to anger.
"This is all his fault. You do realize that, do you not?" Eric belted out, his tone and steely glare intent on me.
I didn't know what to say, but being shouted at by an intimidating and powerful vampire, my own vampire instincts kicked in, and my fangs ran out before I could control them. But defensive as I should have been, it was a need to nurture that took over. Maybe it was the remaining human part of me acting as I reached for Eric and drew him into my embrace.
"Eric...it's not over yet. We're going to save them from this sham, whatever the cost. I'm ready to die for Bones, if that is what it will take."
My words, and my actions were meant to comfort him, but I realized I needed the comfort as well. We were in this together. He must have sensed my need, and he tightened his grip around me. Standing in Eric's arms, I should only have been thinking about Bones and my need for his embrace, for his blood, for his body. But it was Eric standing before me. It was Eric comforting me. It was Eric's smell permeating my senses, it was Eric's neck hovering a mere inch from my mouth, and the urgent need to bite and feed from him was beyond anything I could control at that moment.
When I sensed that he was giving me the go-ahead, I relinquished any last thread of control my conscience had over my actions, and I pierced his flesh with my fangs, drawing in his blood like my life depended on it. It did, didn't it?
Eric's body shivered and, rather than push me away from him, he held me tighter. This is wrong, you need to pull away, Cat. Whatever I was feeling at that moment though, was almost as strong as anything I'd ever felt. And I didn't know how to stop what was happening. I didn't know how to step back, and run away from the moment.
After what felt like the longest minute of my life, he pulled me away from him, and I realized that I was probably about to be presented with the opportunity to get the hell out of the room, to put as much distance between myself and Eric as I could. But instead of retreating, and putting fundamental, mistake preventing, space between us, my hesitation led to his next action.
He swiftly flipped me over his desk, the same desk I had made love to Bones on, and I only had a moment to contemplate Eric's erection against me, his hands forcefully pushing me onto my stomach, and then his hand on my neck, holding me down. I couldn't see him, hell, I couldn't see anything as my own body began to betray me, and my eyes began to cloud with the moment.
As I felt his body pinning me beneath him, I hoped we weren't about to make the biggest mistake of our lives. When his fangs pierced my shoulder from behind me seconds later, I swear to God I almost came. Why the fuck are you letting this happen? The immediate response my body felt to the onslaught of the pleasure-pain of Eric's dominance, was unbearably wonderful.
Fuck! I wanted to scream, as the shock of what he was doing sank in further, but I remained quiet, tense, not sure what was going to happen next, or if I was even capable of stopping it. If not for the desk beneath me, I would have been on the floor; my body had turned to jelly in a matter of seconds.
When Eric withdrew his fangs from me moments later, he made no effort to move away; just moved closer, molding himself to my back. Resting his forehead in the valley between my shoulder blades, his hand still gripping my neck, he began stroking, almost soothingly, the skin and hair at my nape. As I began to focus, I knew I probably had only a few seconds to end it. It had already gone too far. Way too far. I had already lost my mind. I couldn't lose the last shred of decency I still had as well.
It was then I felt it. A very obvious wetness on my back, just between the crack of my ass, and my tailbone. I wouldn't need to see the front of his pants to know what had just happened.
As if he had been reading my thoughts, Eric lifted himself from me, and moved away. I stayed where I was a moment longer, before pushing myself from the desk, and bracing myself against it with my arms. I couldn't look at him yet.
When I did finally turn around, he was looking out the window, his back to me as he spoke. "Forgive me, Cat. I don't know what came over me. Are you okay? I said nothing, and he continued. This entire situation is making me crazy, I just want Sookie back. Please, let us forget this. I am going downstairs to call Pam so you can have time to yourself. When I get back, we can talk about our strategy for the tribunal, okay?"
My breath hitched. I wasn't sure what I had expected him to say, but that wasn't it. I forced a smile, and managed to find my words.
"Yeah. It's forgotten."
I almost laughed internally at the sheer audacity of the statement. As I watched Eric leave the room, I was sure this was something I wasn't likely to forget any time soon. Or ever.
I need you back, Bones! As the thought drifted through my mind, I wondered if the echoing voice of my conscience had become a permanent part of me.
When Eric was gone, I walked to the window and stood where he had been a moment before. Staring out into the moonlit night, I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked quickly to my right, just in time to see the dark shape of a person—a man—who must have been standing near the window, and a flash of what I was sure was red hair. Oh my God...
Who the hell was that? More importantly...how much did he see?
*Lan, Mare and Kristin run and hide*
Soooo...now have we gone too far? To what extent can some actions be forgiven?
