Meanwhile, Eric sat on his throne at Fangtasia and nodded approvingly, as women clamored to shove money down Chancellor Kibwe's thong! The former chancellor was proving to be quite popular here at Fangtasia.
He eyed Alcide. Eric had give him a reprieve from stripping since he was short a bartender this evening. But he grudgingly wondered, if maybe giving the former Were beast something else to do, might make things with Tara easier?
He was no fool. His lovemaking with Tara had been good. But it could've been better. There was a part of herself she was not giving to him in bed. And that meant she would probably be as distant out of bed as well. Eric decided that if he offered an olive branch, in the form of a promotion for Alcide, maybe that would speed up the thawing process with regards to Tara and himself.
Eric motioned for Alcide to come over from the bar. Alcide nodded curtly and then walked over during a lull.
"What?" Alcide asked in a surly tone.
"Now, now. Is that anyway to speak to your 'father'? Chancellor Kibwe is quite a hit, don't you think?"
Alcide did not answer that. Something was off about Kibwe's 'deal'. His half assed explanation was that he didn't believe in Alcide's ability to continue to impersonate Bill Compton. Fine. But he then decides to let Compton and Northman out of their cell and agrees to be a stripper for Eric? Kibwe was thousands of years older than both of those fucks! He could've just easily killed them. There was something missing there...
"Kibwe IS a hit. Seems there are some new faces here since the last time I was here." Alcide noted gruffly.
"Well, yes...and no." Eric said slyly. "But let's not talk about that. I've decided to promote you. I want you to take Pam's place and help manage Fangtasia. Granted, you don't truly deserve the honor, but I am bestowing it on you anyway."
Alcide grinned!
"Why? I mean you tell me I killed Pam every chance you get. So why are you pulling me out of stripping and in to management?"
"You were a business man in your Were life. You could be of some use." Eric replied.
"You know what I think? I think that you're trying to suck up to Tara in some way. Otherwise I can't see how you get anything out of not making my life miserable."
"Alcide, how is stripping making your life miserable? Women and men like you. I let you keep what gets shoved down your thong. I would think the life I have offered you is paradise."
"Fuck you!"
"Hmmm. Well, I'm not going to pretend otherwise. Tara and I are back together. And yes, it would make her happy if you had more respectable duties around here." Eric admitted.
Alcide stared at Eric for a moment, before replying to that.
"If Tara and you were as 'together', as you act, then you wouldn't need to do something for me to make her happy. She's not happy, is she? Kibwe told me about Compton selling her to you, just so he could get back in Sookie's pants."
"I wouldn't use that terminology around her," Eric advised, "and Tara certainly wasn't 'sold'. She was just given a gentle push in the right direction-which is towards me. And I didn't call you over here to discuss my relationship with the mother of my unborn children. But since you've brought it up, let me advise you on one other thing: I know that the both of you will be strongly attracted to one another. Especially after the babies are born. I expect you to resist temptation, are we clear?"
"But you can fuck your sister?" Alcide countered.
"Yes. I can fuck my sister. You may not-fuck YOUR sister. Now go to Pam's office and begin acclimating yourself to your new duties." Eric said, dismissing him. Alcide slowly turned and walked away. What was that part Northman said? The part about Tara and himself being strongly attracted to one another, AFTER the babies were born? What difference would that make? She would still be half vamp then. Maybe once she was not pregnant something would make her want him?
Alcide didn't think that was it. What he thought, was that Northman had slipped up and told him something. Maybe Tara would know what Northman meant...
Suddenly the police kicked in the door!
"THIS IS A FUCKING RAID! EVERYBODY GET THEIR HANDS UP!" the cops screamed. Alcide hurried out the back door, but not before seeing Eric and Kibwe, being taken away. Tara would want to know about this-since she was back together with Northman. Supposedly.
Alcide actually had the code to let himself at Eric's house, as well. But not for any damned good purpose! During the first couple of days when he was a fresh vamp, Northman had made him come here to clean!
He pulled his car up behind Tara's, got out and walked up to the front door. He found it just as unlocked as Tara had found it earlier. That seemed stupid, but maybe both Eric and Tara figured they could kick ass against whomever broke in.
Alcide let himself in and called out for Tara. There was no answer, but he could hear a shower running at full blast. He figured with her being half vamp, she wasn't hearing as good as she should.
Meanwhile, Tara closed her eyes in the enclosed shower, wondering how she could get LaFayette out of trouble, and keep Eric out of prison? It was only when she felt a cool breeze enter the shower, that she realized someone had opened the door.
"Christ, Alcide! What are you doing here? Eric is going to kill you!"
Alcide folded his arms and blocked the doorway of the shower, to drink Tara in. Tara rolled her eyes!
"Stop staring at me and hand me a towel."
Alcide moved out of the shower doorway to find a towel. Tara took the opportunity to exit the shower, pick up a nearby towel and wrap herself in it, before Alcide could offer her one.
"What are you doing here?" Tara asked again.
"I came to find out if you hate me for what happened." Alcide said quietly.
"You mean do I hate you for pretending to be Bill, then pretending that you were interested in me and then..."
"I never pretended to be interested. I think you know that." Alcide said, looking her in the eye. Tara sighed.
"I know you weren't pretending, Alcide. But you're in a enough trouble as it is. Doing that and coming here will have you on that stripper pole for centuries!"
"Actually, Northman promoted me tonight...right before Fangtasia got raided. I'm here because I thought you'd want to go the police station to see what was going on."
"Raided? By the local cops?" Tara asked.
"Yeah. Who else would be raiding the place?" Alcide asked. Tara turned and walked out of the bathroom. She went back into the bedroom she was now sharing with Eric and opened the closet. She had to find something to wear.
"Tara? Who else would be raiding the place?" Alcide repeated. Tara turned from the closet and faced him.
"No one. I don't know what I was thinking. I was just talking, that's all."
Alcide moved towards her.
"Northman said something strange to me earlier. Something about the two of us feeling especially attracted to one another, after you gave birth. Has he said anything about that to you?"
Tara raised a brow.
"What's going to be different after I give birth?"
"The hell if I know!"
"He's just fucking with us, that's all. Just ignore him." Tara advised. She then turned to the closet and pulled out a beige, tube dress.
"Is that what you're trying to do? Ignore him? What's going on here? Why'd you really go back to Northman? Because he's like the other guy in that other reality?"
Tara turned and glared at him!
"You know something? I don't care that you had to pretend to be someone else, to be with me! You don't get how fucking pissed off I am at you, for dragging me back here, when I BEGGED you to let me stay where I was! Now we're both fucked."
Alcide said nothing for a long moment. He then spoke.
"So how long do you plan on hating me for that? I mean shit, Tara, there was no bathroom there! I was doing you a favor!"
"You think I gave a damn about a toilet?"
"I would!" Alcide countered. Tara countered herself, by dropping her towel, putting on the tube dress in front of him and slipping into some shoes. The dress itself, accentuated her baby bump.
"Let's go to the police station to see about this shit." Tara said and sauntered from the room. Alcide smiled to himself, before following after her.
The media was everywhere at the Bon Temps police station. Tara, who was sitting in the passenger seat, looked over at Alcide.
"Why isn't Eric at the Shreveport police station?"
"The hell if I know! He probably killed up someone here in Bon Temps."
"So the police weren't 'raiding' the place, so much as they were just looking to take Eric in?"
"They grabbed up everyone they could find. What does it matter?" Alcide asked suspiciously. "The cops said it was a 'raid'."
Tara nodded, but her mind was on the Feds. Why would they raid Fangtasia, before finding out what they needed to know? Alcide was right. This whole thing probably did have to do with something else Eric had done.
The windows to the car Alcide was driving was tinted, but the flashbulbs were going wild! They seemed to know that the Queen of Louisiana was about ot get out of the car. Tara began to feel uneasy! Shit! When Bill woke up he'd be pissed off to see this in the next day's paper.
Alcide got out and someone screamed, IT'S THE STRIPPER!" He hurried around to Tara's side, opened the door and pulled her up and out.
"Mrs. Compton, is Eric Northman the father of your unborn children?"
"Is there something going on between the stripper and yourself?"
"Is it true that your husband is seeing a local waitress from around here?"
Tara felt iill prepared to answer any of that, something Alcide sensed, as he slipped a muscular arm around her high waist and began leading her to a side door. His hand cupped the shelf of one of her breasts and Tara was about to say something, but Alcide did the talking, as the reporters cleared a path for the two of them, while still shouting questions.
"I had no intention of leaving you in that other reality, Tara Mae, and if you want to tell yourself you hate me for it, fine. But we shared something when you thought I was Bill, and know we'll be fucking again before you know it. Eric said we won't be able to help it and he plans on screwing Nora again. So be as mad as you want, but don't fight what's between us." he said, before delivering her inside the station and removing his hands from her body.
"I'm going back out to the car. I'll be waiting for Northman and you." Alcide said gruffly. Tara stared after him and exhaled. She didn't need this right now, on top of everything else. And yet she felt powerless to tell Alcide to fight his feelings for her.
Eric and Kibwe were about to be released, when they spied Tara. Eric walked over to her.
"What are you doing here?" he asked curtly.
"Alcide brought me down here. He thought I should know about what happened tonight at Fangtasia."
"Yes, he wasn't arrested. He must've run out of the back door. Anyway, it's nothing. Let's go home."
"Eric, WHY were you arrested? Why am I down here?"
"You are here because Alcide was foolish. Let's go home." Eric said and gave Kibwe a warning look, before taking Tara's hand and pulling her out of the police station...via a private exit. Alcide seemed to know where to find them, because he suddenly appeared with the car. Eric took the keys from him.
"Find your own way home."
"This is MY car."
"Pick it up tomorrow night from Fangtasia then. You should not have brought Tara here." Eric said in a warning tone. He made sure Tara was secured in the passenger seat, before getting in to the driver's one. He then slammed the door and took off.
When they returned to Eric's home, Tara went off!
"How could you leave Alcide like that?"
"He had no business interfering. And he should've allowed himself to be arrested in the raid tonight."
"Why were you raided?" Tara asked, throwing down her purse.
"Someone overdosed on V in the club. I had nothing to do with it. Mine was just the establishment the girl died in. The police seem to understand that now." Eric replied, his eyes running over her.
"Then maybe you shouldn't sell V or anything else."
"Who says I'm selling V? Or anything else?" Eric asked, walking over to her.
"I know LaFayette has sold for you in the past. I know you kidnapped him..." Tara began, but Eric cut her words off by smothering her lips with his own. He quickly loosened his pants and sat down on a couch, while pushing Tara's dress up...
Before Tara knew what was happening, she was bobbing up and down fiercely on Eric's engorged organ. Eric had pulled down the top of her dress as well and now it was bunched at her waist, as his head stayed firmly buried between her breasts. Tara continued her seamless movements upon him, her mind screaming many things, while her mouth emitted soft, passioned strained cries.
What both Eric and Tara would discover, is that by tomorrow night, Bill Compton would not be pleased with either of them.
