A/N: So this chapter has a little bit of naughty to it but it serves as a good distraction I think from all the bad stuff that has happened.

The room was bright when I woke, very bright. It hurt my eyes even before I opened them. When I did, groaning when I tried to squint with a swollen eye, I was met by my Gran's worried smile. She was sat in the chair in the corner knitting in hand. Her fingers continued on even though she was looking at me. I envied that. I try to smile back but my face won't cooperate.

Gran was up beside me water and pills in hand before I noticed she had stood up. She was very spry for a woman her age. I wouldn't have minded of bit of that right now.

Reaching for the glass something slipped to the floor with a clunk.

"Oh I've got one of those now too," she said pressing the pills into my hand before reaching to the floor. When she stood up she had the phone Eric had given me in her hand. The girlish grin on her face knocked about ten years off her.

"Mr Northman insisted we each have one and that we should use them day or night if there is any danger. Now you take those and I'll go make some tea then I'll help you into the shower. You've got dirt and blood all over you."

"Gran," my voice cracked as I spoke, my throat burning. "What are we going to do?" Tears were stinging my good eye but I wouldn't let them fall. I couldn't.

"Mr Northman will be back this evening. We were very lucky he was around last night. I doubt Bud or Andy would have done anything about it if we had called them up," she said straightening the blankets at the bottom of my bed.

"But those men? Rene?" She stopped at my question her eyes harder than I've ever seen them.

"Would have killed you. They may have come after me too. Now it's not very Christian, Sookie but I'm glad we are still here."

"What if they told someone where they were going?"

"That's why Mr Northman stayed for so long. I might not like the way he killed those men but I must say I'm glad he's on our side. He's very fast you know. All those men were gone and he had cleaned up all the mess on the lawn himself in just less than an hour. Imagine all the things we could do with ourselves if we were that fast."

I chuckled though it sounded more like a huff of air. Trust Gran to shift her thoughts that way. After stiffening when my bruises and cracked ribs protested my enjoyment Gran frowned at me before bustling off out the door, muttering something about stools.

The pills were still in my hand. Two small white pills that I didn't recognise. If Gran gave them to me they must be safe but I had a suspicion they were what Lafaytette gave Gran when she hurt her back and hip slipping on the stairs. I took them figuring whatever relief they provided would be appreciated. I didn't feel as bad as I did when I first woke in bed last night but it was still bad.

By the time I had drunk my tea I had a floaty, faraway feeling that made my limbs light and heavy at the same. It was an amazing feeling even when I became obsessed by my fingers.

I had to lean on Gran rather heavily when we walked to the shower. The way she held my arm made me feel like an old woman. I kept my head down concentrating on my feet trying not to feel defeated. She had switched on the shower before coming for me and she'd turned the temperature down a bit for me too. There was still some pain as I shifted but it wasn't as sharp as my small movements had made it before and it was nothing compared to last night.

The view of my face when I caught sight of it in the mirror actually scared me. My left eye was sealed shut the skin around it so overwhelmingly swollen it looked fit to burst, the skin coloured a solid black. There were grazes on my cheek and forehead and dried blood around my nose .My hair was stained with blood, the perky blonde colour now a rusty red over mud tainted grey brown. There were even a few leaves.

My shorts were easy to loosen and drop, my underwear too but there was no way I could get my Merlottes tshirt off. Gran appeared with her scissors and cut it from neck to navel. The pieces were cut away and gently pulled down my arms. My bra was easily done away with. With my bra gone I could get into the spray and make myself feel more human again but I had to see. Some part of me wanted to see what they had managed to do.

I was a road map of violence. The phrase beaten black and blue was never more true. There were patches of red surrounding black and blue patches. My ribs and stomach were almost one solid bruise stretching around to my back where it then went down, down down across my butt and down my legs. The colour was sporadic on my back but across my spine just above my tail bone there was a bruise in the perfect shape of a boot, a workman's boot. I held in the sobs that filled my throat. I refused to cry. They may have beaten me but they didn't break me. I survived. I would survive. I had to survive.

"It's fine if the dressing gets wet. We cleaned best we could before we set the finger but it would be best if it was cleaned again." Gran's slightly cheery voice broke through my thoughts.

A part of my brain was telling me to cover up, to run and hide behind the shower curtain. Not because of the damage but because I was naked in front of Gran. Normally Gran would turn her eye or leave the room for me to have my privacy. Today all she did was take my arm avoiding all the bruised skin as best as she could and helped me climb into the tub and get under the water. Gran just chuckled reminding me she'd seen it all before every time she looked in the mirror and that she had changed and dressed me for years. I blushed.

I couldn't wash my hair so Gran had me sit on an old stool from the cupboard under the stairs and she did it for me. It was fine til the shampoo stung the back of my head. The blow to my head must have broken the skin. Gran tried to be gentle but every time the hair on the back of my head moved it stung like crazy. The rust coloured water that was running for the plughole wasn't helping either.

Getting out was easier than getting in. The heat from the water had loosened my muscles, softening my movements. Everything still hurt like crazy only not as much as I thought it should. Maybe those pills of Lafayette were working better than I thought.

I still wasn't too steady but once I pulled on a pair of shorts and a button up shirt I felt marginally better. Gran thankfully did my hair for me. I may have felt better but my ribs weren't interested in that kind of activity. They didn't really like any kind of activity including breathing. She smiled and reminisced about when she did it for me as a child. Only Gran had known how to do my hair how I liked.

I was ushered into bed, fed an alarming amount of food given my condition and promptly passed out. When I woke again it was dark out and I had my usual nightly visitor. I didn't move. I wasn't sure I could without hurting myself but I could see him with both eyes now, the swelling having gotten better. Much better.

"I'm going to offer you something. It will heal you completely. When you are in trouble again I will be able to find you because of it. It will allow me to know if you are being truthful with me even though I doubt you have been anything but. What do you say?"

"What is it?"

"My blood."

"But you said..."

"When given from the source it is very different . I do not do this lightly."

"Then why?"

"You are useful. Right now you are of no use, my blood will fix that."

"That's it?"

"I find Miss Stackhouse that I have become very fond of you. I do not like to see what those savages have done to you."

He was fond of me. I know we had built some sort of friend style relationship recently, a genuine rapport building up between us. I had been looking forward to his visits. Not only was he silent allowing my head the rest I so desperately needed but I felt comfortable with him. That said a lot. I was rarely fully comfortable around my friends let alone a very tall, very handsome man in my bedroom. He was the only one who wasn't gay or a family member who had been in my room.

"OK."

Eric was knelt by my bedside eyes searching my eyes faster than I could comprehend. He moved so fast he was barely a blur. Satisfied with what he saw he bit into his wrist, the crunch of the breaking skin making me cringe. His bleeding wrist was over my mouth a drop landing on my bottom lip. Without thinking I licked the drop. The taste registered as one I knew but the explosion on my tongue overrode everything. It was amazing and I wanted more. When he commanded me to drink I didn't hesitate. After the first swallow I gripped his arm holding it to me tighter. My body felt alive, tingles running through me like tiny lightening bolts. I was moaning around his skin. I wanted him closer. My aches and pains had faded into a euphoric ache, a desperation for him to just touch me. His wrist disappeared from my mouth but before I could protest his mouth was on mine.

His mouth was cold against my overheated one, his tongue battling mine. His hand threaded its way through my hair holding me to him as he devoured me, as I devoured him right back. My fingers were in his hair scratching at his scalp as I licked and sucked at his fangs. The growl that filled his chest vibrated into me making me moan and twitch in pleasure.

I tugged at his shoulders wanting to feel him, all of him, on me, around me, in me. He complied stretching himself out over me, his weight resting on his elbows on either side of me. His lips trailed down my cheek to behind my ear where he sucked before heading down my throat. The pleasure was instant, lighting up beneath his skilled mouth. His hips were moving against mine, the friction even through fabric hitching up my body temperature. I shifted my legs wrapping them around his hips. As my hips began rocking with his rhythm his fingers were undoing the buttons on my shirt his mouth kissing and licking each inch of exposed skin. He soon had one hand on a breast, his mouth on the either. Licking and nibbling and sucking with his mouth his fingers mimicking on the other side I found myself becoming frantic. My hands were clawing up his back and across his scalp, his growls making me scratch harder. I had one hand down the back of his jeans holding his glorious self just so when he bit into my breast.

I was lost.

My body arched, a silent scream leaving my body. He was still moving still sucking at my breast making wave after wave of intense pleasure run through my body. His mouth left my breast suddenly, his lips back on mine sucking out the little breath I had as he froze above me. His eyes were locked on mine as the kissed slowed and his body shuddered. His hands slipped back into my hair the kiss ending as his forehead came to rest on my forehead. I watched his eyes slip from black to that glorious shade of blue.

I was sweating and panting and felt more alive than I think I ever had. There was a euphoric afterglow that we seemed to be sharing and I couldn't help the smile that covered my face.

"God, I feel amazing."

"You're welcome. Although my name is Eric."