I really should be working now, but all of your wonderful comments have influenced me. I am humbled by the interest in my story and I thank everyone for their input and comments.

All characters except for Callum are the property of Charlaine Harris. I own nothing.

And now for the Viking's thoughts on the matter…

Previously…

"Would you like to dance princess?" Callum asked, and I couldn't refuse, he called me princess! I loved to dance and it had been such a long time since I felt up to it.

Callum and I danced to a song that I didn't know, but it was upbeat. I noticed Eric giving us what I referred to as the death stare. Pam looked decidedly amused.

After our dance ended, we said our goodbyes with the promise of meeting tomorrow night to start training. Pam left with Callum to take him to the safe house, and I went back to work.

I really wanted to talk to Eric about everything that had happened in the last two days, what with him almost slicing my hand off, and all the Fae developments, but he was nowhere to be found. Probably with some fangbangers I would imagine. I walked back to his office, where I found the door closed. I could hear two people and I could feel Eric's void. The two fangbangers were thinking some incredibly dirty thoughts, so I decided to walk away and go back to work.

Eric never emerged from his office, but the two fangbangers did. He didn't glamour them this time, which is not the norm. I guessed that was for my benefit. They were still thinking about all the deviant sexual acts that they have just partaken in. I have to admit that it hurt my feelings a little, because I knew that was Eric's way of getting back at me for dancing with Callum. I never realized how vindictive Eric could be when he wanted to.

Chapter 10 – Eric's POV

This last week has been the most torturous of my entire existence and believe me, I have been subjected to some of the most sadistic forms of torture known to man. I've had to sit back powerlessly and bear witness to Sookie and Callum's constant flirtations and inane conversations. What's worse is that Callum is actually a decent vampire, he has honor and I know that his motives for helping her are pure.

The first night Sookie and Callum trained with one another, I felt compelled to watch, however my compulsion quickly faded once I realized that there was actual attraction between the two of them. Since that first night, I have only seen that attraction grow. All the while I'm left thinking about how much I had wronged her.

The night I nearly sliced her hand off, I lost it. I was supposed to be everything to her, her protector, her friend, her confidant, her lover. In one slice of my sword, I saw everything I wanted vanish right in front of my eyes. I didn't even have it in me to go to her, to make sure that she was alright. I was ashamed of myself for losing control like that. Only she could elicit such emotions out of me.

I wanted to go to her a thousand times since that night and explain everything to her, to tell her how much I hated myself for the way I treated her and to tell her that I had feelings for her. Instead I took fangbanger after fangbanger, all in a desperate attempt to push her away, to push my feelings for her away. When I saw her dancing merrily with the Irishman like a couple of teenagers, I took a couple of fangbangers in a jealous rage and shamelessly let them walk out of my office unglamoured knowing that Sookie would read their minds. Maybe I wanted her to feel the same degree of jealousy that I was feeling, but of course that logic was all dependant on her giving a damn about me.

Sookie and I have not spoken much in a week; our interaction consists mostly of polite yet meaningless small talk. In fact, she now spends most of her time with the Irishman, a fact that I resent wholeheartedly. It should be me.

Sitting on the throne at the bar, I couldn't take my eyes off of her. She was sitting in the booth with Callum, I could overhear their conversation. She was telling him all about her family and what is was like for her growing up being telepathic. I felt my resolve to win her slowly diminish as I knew that the two of them had far more in common than she and I did. In fact he was almost like the male version of her.

I overheard him asking her to spend the day with him. I knew for a fact that they had not had sex, but I knew it was only a delay in the inevitable. She looked nervous at the implications of what he was asking her. I knew that she had never had sex with anyone willingly and that this would be her first. Although I could clearly see her nerves, I could also see her excitement and anticipation. It was at that very moment that I knew I had lost her to the fucking Irishman.

Sookie glanced over at me, knowing that she needed to ask me if she could stay with Callum. My first reaction was, of course, to deny her, but I was neither her real maker nor her lover, so I had to let her go.

"Eric, can I speak with you in private?" She asked nervously. I quickly rose from my throne and motioned for her to follow me to my office. I sat behind my desk as she took her spot in a plastic chair in front of me.

"Eric, I would like your permission to spend the day with Callum." I noticed that it was more of a statement than a question.

"I see." I said disappointedly, even though I already knew she was going to ask me, it still stung.

"Are you seeing him?" I asked her as my stare never moved from hers.

"Not that it's any of your business, but yes. He is kind to me and he treats me well." She replied. The insinuation was not lost on me. She was implying that I was not kind and that I didn't treat her well. I couldn't refute her claim. For the last week I have been more than unkind to her.

I didn't want to give her my approval, because frankly knowing that she was going to sleep with him filled me with an ungodly amount of envy. But I knew that she would only resent me if I denied her. I learned that lesson the hard way through the shifter.

To know that this beautiful, smart, powerful being was giving herself freely to someone else killed me inside. I shouldn't have ever let it get this far and now there was nothing I could do about it. He would be the one she would smile for; he would be the one she would laugh for. He would be the recipient of her sweet affection and that sobering thought pained me more deeply than I thought possible.

How could someone so young change me so much I will never know, but I miss watching her twirl her hair around her finger as she read, the way her nose would scrunch when she would take the first sip of TruBlood, the way she would bite her lip when she was in deep thought.

As she awaited my answer with baited breath, I found myself grieving for the loss of her and the killer part was that it was all my own doing.

"If that is what you truly wish, I cannot deny you." I replied solemnly. She smiled austerely at my response. All I wanted to do was to take her in my arms and breathe in her intoxicatingly addictive scent.

She nodded and left my office. I slumped over my desk with my head in my hands, knowing that I just let the one person who could make my undead heart beat, walk out of my office. It was only a matter of time until she would walk out of my life as well.

Not more than a minute later, Pam barged into my office demanding to know why I let Sookie go home with Callum.

"What were you thinking? She has feelings for you, just as you do for her." Pam exclaimed angrily. Pam and Sookie had gotten off to a rough start, but in the past month, they had become fast friends. Pam just so happened to be a big "Seric" cheerleader.

"If I deny her, she will only resent me for it." I said sadly.

"You are my maker and I will always love you, but you screwed this up royally. You have treated her like scum for the past week, all because of your petty jealousies." She was absolutely right and I knew it.

"You think I don't know that Pam!" I yelled in exasperation. "Just tell me how to fix it!"

"Go after her!" Pam exclaimed.

"No! This isn't some tacky romance movie, it doesn't work like that. She wants to be with him, I could feel it. "

"No, you are wrong, she wants to be with you, he is just second best." Pam slammed her hands on the desk in frustration. I didn't want to argue with her anymore, I ordered her to close up and told her I was going home.

Since the night her training with Callum started, I couldn't stomach fangbangers any longer, I was subsisting on TruBlood. It wasn't really for her benefit; I was just disgusted with the lot of them. When I got home, I grabbed a bottle and morosely went into Sookie's room. I just wanted to feel close to her, it didn't feel right coming home without her.

I sat on her bed, looking around her room. She had really made the space hers and I regretted not taking the time to notice all the small things about her life. On the side table sat a picture of her and her grandmother. Sookie looked like she was still a teenager in the photo. She looked so incredibly happy and innocent. I wished more than anything that I could take the pain away from her to be able to see her smile like she did and see the light return back to her eyes like they did in that photo.

I went into my day chamber to die for the day, the only thing on my mind was the regret that I was feeling for treating Sookie the way that I had. I hoped that I would have the opportunity to make it up to her, even if that meant waiting until her tryst with Callum ended.

Waking up to an empty house was an unbearable feeling, I never realized how lonely my existence was until Sookie came into my life. It angered me to no end knowing that she had spent the day with him, probably fucking all over the house. Another advantage he had over me, he could spend the day with her and she would not be lonely in the daytime hours waiting for me to rise.

I arrived at Fangtasia, and I was in a very dark mood. The vermin would be lucky if I didn't kill one of them tonight. I looked around the main area, but I didn't see Callum or Sookie, I assumed they were training, or fucking. I headed straight to my office and shut the door. Tonight I would deal with area business, since I was basically useless to my bar.

After about an hour of dealing with inane paperwork that the Queen required of me, I heard some sounds coming from the basement. I didn't have any prisoners, so I went to investigate who, other than Pam or I, would dare go down there.

Before I could get to the basement, I saw Callum walk out and head to the bar area. He reeked of Sookie and sex and it enraged me. I went out to the bar area to find out what the hell he thought he was doing. Callum picked up a fangbanger and took her back to the basement area. The slimy Fuck! Was Sookie not enough for him?

I waited a few minutes before I barged in on him. I intended to catch him in the act. But when I descended the stairs to the basement, all I saw was Sookie feeding off the fangbanger. She once told me that she didn't feel comfortable feeding on humans unless I was around, so the sight of her doing it with Callum saddened me more than it should have.

"How did you get here?" I asked both of them.

"We teleported." She responded proudly. I hadn't noticed how much her skills had developed, mainly because she didn't share the details with me anymore and I stopped watching her train.

She was wearing the same clothes she left in last night, and they smelled of their collective juices. My sadness turned to blinding rage in that moment, but I knew it was completely misplaced. I was angry at myself for letting her slip through my fingers. How fucking ironic was it that the man I called in to help her ended up taking her from me.

"Eric, can we speak privately?" Sookie asked. This was not a good sign, last time she wanted to speak privately she basically asked my permission to fuck Callum.

"Yes, let's go to my office." I said sternly. I followed behind her up the stairs, which was not pleasant for me; I actually closed off my olfactory receptor because her scent was torturous.

I shut the door to my office and stood behind my desk facing her. She looked so beautiful despite having his scent all over her.

She crossed her arms defensively and began to speak. "Callum has to go back home next week." She started. I prayed to the gods that she was not asking me if she could go with him.

"What does that have to do with me?" I asked tersely.

"He asked me to go with him." She said as she nervously tapped her finger on her forearm. She was looking down at her feet, so I knew that she was nervous.

"I see. And are you asking permission to go with him?" I replied. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. She didn't know what she wanted; I could pick that up from her body language.

"I, uh, I don't know. I mean I'm nothing but an inconvenience to you, so part of me thinks it's for the best." She said as she continued to stare at her feet. I felt incredibly hurt that she would think of herself as nothing but an inconvenience.

"Sookie, look at me." I demanded. I was going to put an end to this right now.

"You are not an inconvenience. You are a breath of fresh air. Besides, I couldn't let you leave even if I wanted to." That didn't come out exactly like I had hoped. I wanted to convey to her that I would miss her, that I cared deeply for her, and that I wanted her.

"So that's it huh. You can't let me go because you would look like a bad maker in the eyes of the Queen and the AVL." She huffed angrily as she continued her rant. "Well you are a bad maker, I mean you nearly cut my arm off and didn't even have the decency to come and check on me. Oh and believe me I know you left those fangbangers unglamoured for my benefit. You are petty, vindictive and jealous!" She seethed. She was unleashing all of her pent up anger on me, and I deserved it, but I couldn't allow her to get away with the blatant disrespect.

"You will watch your tone with me!" I growled warningly. "I readily admit that I have made mistakes where you are concerned, but I am not a bad maker." I said and I heard her make a groaning disbelieving noise.

"I have never experienced this level of emotion in my entire existence. Fuck Feelings!" I yelled. How could I look her in the eye and tell her how much I cared for her when she clearly hated me. She just looked at me with a shocked expression.

We both stood in stunned silence each waiting for the other to say something, until I finally broke the silence in a grave tone.

"Do you want to be with him?" I asked dejectedly.

"Does it matter what I want?" she said and she wasn't being sarcastic. I could tell there was some hidden emotion behind her words.

"Yes. Tell me what you want." I demanded softly. I hoped that her answer would be me, but hope was a fleeting emotion for me.

"That night, when we burned down Compton's house." She paused, stealing uneasy glances in my direction as she nervously explained herself. "That night, I was broken. Knowing that you saw those videos first hand humiliated me. I didn't want you, of all people, to see that. I feared that you would see me as damaged goods. You were there for me that night, but after that you became distant. That's when I knew that you would never see me as more than just a pitiful pet project from the AVL and the Queen. I needed you, but you refused to let me in in more than just a superficial way." I started to interrupt her to explain that I had never meant to be so cold to her, but she put her hand up effectively stopping me.

"No, let me finish. Please. Callum has been there for me. I told him all about the torture and the sexual acts, but he never flinched, he never made me feel ashamed. He comforted me, cared for me and showed me that there is life beyond torture. I feel comfortable with him." She finished glumly, but I didn't buy that she had any real feelings for him.

"I never meant to isolate you like that. I thought we were growing closer until that night when the shifter kissed you. Yes I was jealous, you told me that you loved him! And yes I took a fangbanger that bore your resemblance. I lost my entire ability to think rationally, hell I almost cut your goddamn hand off. I am ashamed of myself for the way I treated you in the last week. I would give anything to take it all back and re-do it. And now you tell me that you basically hate me and want to leave me." I pleaded with her.

"I don't love Sam like that. He's like a brother to me." She said quietly.

"I don't know how to resolve this Sookie, but I'm in hell right now, a hell that I created for myself. We will work this out I swear, just please tell me that you want to stay with me." I begged, fucking begged. Thousand year old Viking vampire sheriff and I was begging a 21 year old vampire to stay with me.

"I never wanted to leave in the first place, but I'm not going to stop seeing Callum at least not until I have to." She said more confidently. And for the first time in a week, I felt optimistic. I would see to it that I change her mind about continuing to see Callum.