A/N: Sorry for the delay on this chapter; some friends kidnapped me for a night out, and I didn't wind up back home until yesterday afternoon. I've only this morning started to recover; that's how you know a good time was had.

In other news, I've updated my profile with contact information, and am going to be posting updates on Twitter, since reader axadams was kind enough to let me know that the update notifications here tend to be a bit persnickety.

Sookie POV

Eric had growled in frustration when I'd pointed out that we should be on our way. I can't say I blame him; I didn't want to stop any more than he did.

Since everyone had cleared out earlier, there was no one to see us looking disheveled as we were. While he was double-checking that the front door was locked, I got my things together. We headed out the back door and into the parking lot. I saw with relief that my car was still there.

"Oh, Eric, hold on…"

There was a brief flash of panic on his face before he simply looked concerned. "What's wrong?"

"If we're taking one car, how will I get home in the morning?"

He grinned. "I can have my day man bring it over before you wake up, so you can drive home."

"It won't be too much trouble?"

"Pff. His job is to run my daytime errands. It's not putting him out if I'm paying him for it."

I laughed. He held the car door open for me and helped me in.

Once he was in and I was buckled up, the car roared to life. We burned rubber out of the lot almost as quickly as we had done the night of the raid. I wondered if he always drove like this, or if he was just in a hurry to get home. With some shock, I realized that the raid had only happened the night before. So much had happened, it felt like at least a week had passed. Maybe it just seemed like a lot, given the context of my usually uneventful life. Or maybe time just acted differently when Eric and I were together.

"Do you think Pam knows it was me?" I seriously hoped not.

"Tomorrow night I'll find out what she felt, if anything. Most likely she'll blame me for it. Even if she suspects you, you're safe. She's my child; I wouldn't allow her to hurt you, and any secret of yours that is safe with me, is safe with her as well."

"Are you going to tell her about my influencing ability?" I asked.

"It would be best if she were aware of it. She would be able to help us find out more about it; if she could indeed feel it, then you would want to only use it around other vampires in case of emergency."

I nodded. "Hell, my original plan was to keep as many of my abilities secret as secret as possible. I never wanted to be found out at Fangtasia."

He thought about that for a moment. "You didn't have to reveal yourself the way you did. You could have simply not told us."

I snorted. "Without my doing anything, you guys were already messing with me. You may not have known what about me was different, but you knew something. It was only a matter of time. I was already on the spot, and if I tried to leave quickly…"

"We would have been suspicious and tracked you down anyway."

"Exactly. Add a police raid on top of that, and you'd probably think I had something to do with it."

"That was the initial impression, yes."

"So," I said, "It was in my best interests to come clean, at least about the telepathy. There was no other logical explanation that would have kept me safe. It was the lesser of two evils."

He shot me a strange glance. "You could have lied."

"No sir, I could not have. My Gran didn't raise any liars. I may omit the truth, and I may tell some creative truths from time to time, but I do not lie."

"Creative truths?" He laughed. "Tell me some creative truths about yourself."

"Oh, please. Surely, as a vampire, you'd be familiar with the concept."

"Maybe I just want to know more about you." He smirked.

I chuckled. "Okay, fair enough. A creative truth about me would be that I have no idea how sex with a vampire would be different from sex with a human man."

He blinked. Several times. "You can't be a virgin."

"Why not? Do you know something I don't know?"

"I just find it incredibly hard to believe."

"Harder to believe than the fact that I'm a telepath who can influence people? I thought you said telepaths were rare." I laughed.

"They are. How many virgins do you think come to a place like Fangtasia?"

He had a point there. "Hmn. I guess there's a first time for everything." He looked at me with a raised eyebrow, and I winked at him.

We rode in silence for the remainder of the trip. Eric was driving at breakneck speed, so even though it seemed like we were going a fair bit away from the city, it didn't take us too long to get there.

His house appeared rather ordinary on the outside. I never would have guessed that a vampire lived there; it was in a securely gated subdivision, and each house had a fair amount of space around it. As he pulled into the garage, the headlights from the car shone over his front lawn; I spied some garden gnome figurines, and wondered if they were part of an elaborate security system, like I'd seen in a Wallace and Gromit movie.

Once again, Eric had gotten out of the car and opened my door for me before my seat belt was fully off. As he helped me out of the Corvette, he pulled me to him for a mind-bending kiss. When he pulled away, he had a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

Without warning, he picked me up and slung me over his shoulder. I shrieked and laughed until I noticed that I had a great view of his ass. He wanted to play? Bring it. I smacked his ass and was rewarded with a hearty laugh. I loved that sound, loved the things it did to me.

I couldn't exactly see where we were going, but I heard the door to his house open and then close behind us. He set me down on something flat and cold: a island counter in the middle of his kitchen. There wasn't much time to get a good look around before he was kissing me again. I scooted closer to the edge of the counter and wrapped my legs around his waist. He groaned and leaned forward to press his face to my breasts.

I needed to get out of these clothes. I also needed to not be covered in dried blood, even if it was only True Blood.

"Eric?"

His head was still in my cleavage, and I was temporarily trying to resist his attentions. I laughed when he gave a muffled reply.

"Eric, how would you feel about a shower?"

He growled and came up to kiss me again, this time much more passionately. His hands tightened around me and he picked me up to carry me in what I presumed to be the direction of a shower. He didn't bother turning on any lights until we reached the bathroom.

He set me down and took a small step back. He reached down to grab the hem of his shirt and pulled it off in one fluid movement. I watched, entranced at the movement of his muscles rippling under his skin. He walked over to the get the shower started, and while he wasn't watching, I quickly unzipped the back of my dress and let it slide to the floor. When he turned around, he took an unnecessary breath and lust flared in his eyes.

I held eye contact with him, silently willing him to stay where he was. I slid my hands up my stomach, over my breasts, and then slowly undid the front clasps of my bra. As much fun as this was, I recognized I was playing with fire; Eric's hands were clenched by his sides, and his fangs were starting to dig into his lower lip.

I slipped my bra all the way off, let it fall to the floor, and walked over to him wearing nothing but my panties and a smile. When I put my arms around his neck and stood on tiptoe for a kiss, he grabbed my waist and spun me around. Once again I found myself sandwiched between a wall and a very eager vampire.

Eric was standing half under the spray of the shower; his lips and hands were everywhere, overwhelming me. I reached between us and tried to unbutton his jeans; he growled and swatted my hands away. I felt his hands brush against the hem of my panties; I heard more than felt it when he ripped them off of me. One of his hands slid between us, between my thighs. I moaned into his mouth and pressed my hips closer to him when I felt his fingers teasing my nub.

Faster and faster, his fingers moved. I gasped when I felt one of his fingers enter me, testing me. I was more than ready for him. I was writhing against him, my fingernails digging into his shoulders as he kissed, licked, and nibbled my neck.

I whimpered when he pulled his hand away from me and gasped when he lifted me even higher. He placed my thighs over his shoulder and began nuzzling the golden curls between my legs. He gave me a long, slow lick, and my hands instinctively grabbed his head. I felt one of his long fingers slide back inside me, moving in and out in a deliciously slow rhythm. After a few more licks, he added another finger, and I thought I was going to explode.

When his fingers started pressing against that special spot inside of me, I could feel myself getting wetter. He groaned and his tongue started moving faster. The sound and vibration set me off, and I suddenly I was there, bucking against him and screaming his name.

Gently, he removed my thighs from his shoulders and slowly lowered me so that was standing in front of him. He leaned down to kiss me, and I could taste myself on him. He pulled me into the spray of the shower so I could at least rinse off some of the grime from earlier.

I had no idea when his jeans had come off, but I could feel his hardness pressing directly against me. I reached down and brushed the tips of my fingers against his length, causing him to groan and bury his head in my neck.

"Bed?" I suggested.

In an instant, Eric had turned the shower off and picked me up. He carried me into the dark bedroom; the only light was coming from the bathroom. We were both soaked from the shower, but I didn't care if he didn't. He laid me down in the middle of the bed and gently lowered himself on top of me. I bent my knees and raised my legs to cradle his hips on my thighs.

He started licking the water from my breasts, working his way around them until his mouth found one of my nipples. He latched on and started sucking gently; one of his hands was on my other breast, mimicking the movements of his tongue.

I spread my legs farther apart so that he could get even closer to me. I felt him enter me, and I gasped as he slowly inched his way inside of me. When it seemed like he could go no further in, he reached down and started rubbing my most sensitive spot. I moaned, and when my hips involuntarily twitched, he pushed even deeper. I winced at the slight sting, and he stilled inside of me.

He brought his head back up to mine and looked into my eyes. "Are you all right?" he murmured.

In response, I brought my face up to his and gently bit his lower lip. His mouth crashed against mine, and I pushed my hips up to him. We started moving then, slowly at first, getting faster and faster. He was watching me, his eyes locked with mine. I could see his fangs glisten in the darkness; when I got closer, I turned my head to the side and offered him my neck.

"Please, Eric… I want you to…"

Instead, he leaned down and caught one of my nipples in his mouth. I felt the sharp sting of his fangs for only a brief second. When he started to pull on the slight wound, he sent me over the edge, screaming out his name as I came. He seemed to grow harder in me, and he growled and shuddered as he finished just after me.

We stayed there for a few moments while I tried to catch my breath. He slowly pulled away and laid down on his side, next to me. His hand was rubbing slow soothing circles on my stomach as he silently watched me, waiting for me to speak.

I turned to look at him. "Thank you."

He grinned. "You're always welcome for that, lover."

"Mmm. Very good to know. I'll have to take you up on that, once I figure out where you hid my bones."

He laughed and pulled me closer.

Eric POV

It had been hanging between us all night, the question of whether or not Sookie would be going home with me. I had teased her about it, but hadn't outright asked.

But then this brilliant woman had casually suggested we head back to my house. She had to know what that entailed. Had to. And yet, she didn't – not really. I had been more than happy to show her. More than once, even.

I watched her as she lay sleeping; I wished I could peel away the layers of mystery surrounding her as easily as she'd so deliciously peeled off her clothes.

After tasting her rich blood, I realized several things. First and foremost, I would be a pouty bitch if I didn't get her taste her again - and often. But also, I knew that I'd been right when I'd suspected she wasn't fully human. When I first smelled her, she'd reeked of otherness. Her blood was so much more delicious than any other human I'd tasted.

Whatever she was, her Gran knew about it; her warning to me made that abundantly clear: It's not me or my gun that you should be worried about, Mr Northman.

I had the feeling that Sookie's abilities, at least the ones I knew of, could get her into more trouble than they could get her out of. It was certainly possible that there were more that she hadn't told me about. Her brother was still an unknown, and couldn't be ruled out entirely; either way, I didn't have nearly enough information about Jason to come to any conclusions.

While it was possible that Adele thought Jason could be any kind of threat to a vampire, it was more likely that she was referring to someone else. Sookie's story about Bartlett's death was the proof of that. Adele smelled entirely human. If Bartlett had been killed because of his crimes against Adele's daughter, then it was likely that Sookie's grandfather was the key to this mystery.

Everything I'd heard about Sookie's family indicated that her grandfather was dead. How would he be able to seek revenge from beyond the grave?

Adele's daughter, Linda, was not Sookie's mother; it was Adele's son who was Sookie's father. There were two possibilities. The first was that Bartlett's killer had taken revenge not for what was done to Linda, but rather for the pain that Adele felt over her daughter's molestation. The second possibility was that both of Adele's children had the same father, and that man was not Adele's dead husband.

The latter was more intriguing, which in my mind made it more likely. It implied a long-term extramarital relationship, not a mere fling. It meant that whoever fathered Adele's children had not done so accidentally, and perhaps not even unintentionally: he had emotional ties and obligations to them.

If Sookie's real grandfather was fully not human (and if Sookie's mother was fully human), that meant Sookie was a one-fourth non-human. But what was she?

Telepathy was an interesting trait: while incredibly rare, it wasn't particular to any one specific race. Even a full-blooded human could be telepathic. I believed Sookie when she told me that she didn't know what she was if she wasn't human; once her secret was out – something she willingly admitted to, albeit under pressure - she'd been open and honest with me about her telepathy.

No, it was her other ability that was more likely to give some clue as to Sookie's nature. She'd referred to it as "influence", but it was remarkably similar to a vampire's glamour. Obviously, she couldn't be part vampire, since the only progeny we can create are the ones we make by blood.

Glamour wasn't limited to vampires, but different races called it different things. I didn't know of any race that referred to it as influence. Not only could she use some form of glamour, she herself was immune to it. That narrowed things down.

Fuck. Sookie was probably part fae. Whether or not she was aware of them, they had to be aware of her: they were aware enough of her family to seek revenge on those who caused them harm. If she had fairy protectors, then I had two options: get the hell out while the getting's good, or protect her well enough to ensure that their interference in her life was completely unnecessary.

Fairies, or any of the other types of fae creatures, were not to be trifled with. They were beautiful and irresistible to my kind, but they were far more frightening than we could ever be. The fae would never come out to humans as vampires had, but even so: humans were mistaken if they thought we were the top of the food chain. The only advantages vampires had over fairies were our numbers, and the ease with which we could create new vampires.

I turned my attentions outward and looked back down at Sookie's sleeping form. A stray hair had fallen over her face, and I lightly brushed it aside. She was so beautiful, so unlike any creature I'd ever been with; even when I wasn't sure whether or not she intended me harm, I felt the pull between us. It wasn't just her scent, wasn't just her blood; there was something deeper, more mysterious.

In such a short amount of time, she had already affected me. I was so fucked.

Disclaimer: All of the characters contained in this story are property of Charlaine Harris. I don't own them, I just like to play with them a bit.