Before she could answer that, someone cleared their throat behind us and in a flash we were standing. I placed her behind me, and then I felt her step up beside me and saw her hands light up with one of those killer light balls.
I really had never ever loved her more than I did in that moment.
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Come With Me Now-Faed Into You
Before me stood an elegant older man in a grey suit, his long white hair wild about his head and in the pale moonlight I could see that his eyes held just a glint of humor and madness. I felt drawn to him, as though I knew him somehow, though I was sure that we had never met before. Before I could speak or move Sookie stepped in front of me, her hands still alight but held down, still ready if she needed them, but not threatening the stranger before us.
"Granddaddy Niall, what are you doing here?" She sounded a little surprised to see him, but surely no more than I. So, this is Niall Brigant, I thought and saw her head nod slightly in affirmation to my thoughts. Niall saw it, too and the corner of his mouth crooked up slightly. I doubted anyone with less than perfect vampire vision would have noticed.
"I was worried. You had been gone so long. I came to make sure you were all right." He stopped a moment and looked at her, still ready to fight and again his mouth crooked slightly. "Sookie, what is the meaning of this?" he asked, gesturing toward her hands. She did not dim her light, instead she threw her head back and held it high as she stepped back closer to me.
"I know you don't like vampires, but Eric is here under my protection. I won't let you hurt him."
"Hurt him? Child, what makes you think I want to hurt your vampire?"
"You told me that you didn't think they were good enough for me." So, Granddaddy Niall did not approve of vampires? And she was ready to fight for me? I felt elated and terrified for us at the same time. She would fight for me, but against an ancient adversary like her Grandfather she had no chance in hell of winning. Fuck, I probably didn't either. I was kissing her just a moment ago and now we were under attack. Couldn't a Viking get a fucking break?
"No, child." He said gently, shaking his head. "I told you that I did not like Compton for you. I said nothing about the Viking." From behind her I saw her tilt her head to side, processing and noticed the light in her hands growing dimmer as she slowly concluded that he was no threat to me.
"So, you approve of Eric?" she asked him, doubt still very obvious in her tone, and in her hands which had not completely gone out.
"How do you think he found you?"
"Oh!" she let out a little gasp and turned to me. I had suspected but not knew, so I shrugged and raised my eyebrows at her, telling her as much with my thoughts. She smiled slightly and turned back to Niall. "I see. May I ask why?"
"I told you, Sookie, when I told you that I didn't like Compton for you that I watched over you all the time. That I saw everything you did and that was done to you, and I have never seen this one do anything but love you as best he could." His words, in addition to all the ones I had fired at her tonight about how wrong she had seen things hit their target dead center and she whimpered softly and instinctively stepped back into my body, making my arms come up around her as surely as if she had commanded it. I pulled her close and gently kissed the top of her head.
"Be soft," I said to her Grandfather, not disrespectfully, but firmly enough to let him know that pain he gave her was also pain he gave me.
"You see?" Niall asked, gesturing to us, our actions having just proved his words better than any long drawn out argument ever could have.
"Yes," she said softly and brought her now dim hands up to cover mine as they held her close. He nodded, his smile bursting forth now.
"Good! You two don't make it easy, do you?"
"Apparently not," she said her tone filled with sarcasm and a smidge of laughter. I would have sounded the same, and felt a great relief that finally we were on the same page for what could just be the first time ever. Changing her focus she shifted back to why he was here.
"It's not safe for you to be in this realm for, too long. I came to bring you home." I held her tighter and challenged him over his head.
"I can protect her!" I said fiercely, my fangs coming down in my passion.
"You don't understand, neither of you is safe here right now." Her head tilted again against my chest.
"You mean Eric is coming, too? How?"
"Remember that Compton breached Fae by drinking your blood? And that once the Viking did as well, when he drank from a young fairy?" She nodded bobbing her head against my chest. "Well, we'll give him some more and bring him over!"
"And he'll be safe there? He won't burn? Or-"
"He'll be safer there than he is here right now."
"What the hell is going on?" I demanded, needing to know what this looming danger was that was forcing us to retreat to another realm for safety.
"Once we are in Fae I will explain it all to you. For now, come vampire and drink from me."
"From you?!" Sookie sounded shocked, which matched my feelings as well.
"To keep him there will require a substantial amount of fairy blood. I will donate some and then I will depart and leave you two to finish so that you can meet me there." Sookie turned her head to look at me. Is it safe? I asked her with my mind and she nodded her head imperceptibly, stepping away, but taking my hand in hers. Together we walked toward the ancient fairy and I took his wrist, looking at him one last time to make sure he was certain.
I am certain, I heard in my mind and saw him smile again. He could project his thoughts to me. Taking his hand gently in my large one I bit into his wrist and felt his warm blood cross my tongue. It was unlike anything I had ever had before. Better than Sookie's fairy godmother, but not better than Sookie. Nothing had ever tasted better Sookie to me. But after a few deep gulps I found just the faintest trace of her in his blood.
She is my kin, he said to me in my mind as I took several more deep pulls from him, feeling my head start to swim with intoxication that could only be achieved by my kind tasting his. "That's enough," he said aloud and I licked his wrist as courtesy to stop the bleeding and then stepped back from him. It was difficult to stop, but I found the strength from the tiny hand that had remained in mine as I had fed.
"Eric," her soft voice called to me, asking without asking if I was all right? I looked down at her through my drunken haze and smiled. I wanted to run and fly like I had the last time I had fairy blood. I wanted to play!
"Heeeeey!" I said in my best flirtatious voice. She was so fucking beautiful! The way the moonlight shone on her hair and she was smiling at me!
"Will you be all right with him?" Niall asked her. She nodded, not looking away from me.
"Yeah, this time if he runs away I can pop after him, rather than running."
"Imnotrunningaway!" I declared, hearing myself slur my words. She giggled softly and I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to kiss her now!
"I will leave you then," I heard someone say distantly as I brought my hands up to her face and leaned down to claim her lips as mine. She melted into me and kissed me back. I wanted to whoop with joy! But that would have meant that I would have had to stop kissing her. Not gonna happen! I deepened the kiss and pulled her closer to me, my body starting to take over. Sometime, a hour, a day a week later, she pulled back from me and placed her forehead against mine.
"Fuck, you know how to kiss." I giggled. Yes, I'd blame the fairy blood high later, but sure as shit, I giggled. "You need to drink now, Eric, so we can go."
"I don't want to do it this way. I want-" I stopped.
"You want what?" she asked breathlessly.
"I want you to feel again, too. I want to be inside you when I taste you again. I want to be one with you again?" I was asking, I was telling, I was taking a chance and baring soul to her again.
"Why now, Eric?" her tone was filled with anguish that my intoxicated brain could not understand.
"It's not NOW, it's what I've always wanted!" I told her. "Do you still not understand, Sookie?" She hesitated a moment, but only a moment. A moment that might have killed me in standard vampire time, but one I barely registered in intoxicated vampire time.
"I understand," she whispered, her gaze locking with mine. "Yes," she said, and before I could speak, she said, "But when we get to Fae. I want to take my time, now that I understand. Now that I know. Is that all right?"
"Yes!" She said yes. Wait, was that too easy? I captured her face, needing more than anything else to make sure she understood what I was asking and what she was agreeing to. "You mean that you will be mine at last?"
"Yes."
"YES!" I jumped about ten feet in the air and floated down to stand in front of her. She was laughing and I wished I could feel her joy. Soon, I told myself.
"Soon," she echoed, her word was her bond, she promised. "Yes, I am a woman of word, Eric. When we get to Fae and we talk to Niall and find out what has him so worried, I will be yours."
"Then what the hell are we waiting for?" I asked pulling her close to me and nuzzling her neck. She gasped, and I felt her hard nipples against my chest. I remembered her wings and her reaction when I had caressed her there before. I sat down on the ground and pulled her onto my lap, determined to make the most of this, even if we had to cut it much, much shorter than I would have liked. Her legs slid around my hips, placing her hot center, that her flimsy gown did nothing to shield me from, right where I needed her to be. She tilted her head, her long blonde hair sliding to the other side. My arms came around her, my long fingers finding the nubs below her shoulders, while I pressed her chest to mine and I kissed her neck softly.
The combination of sensations had her grinding in my lap, and for just a moment I looked at her, she was a goddess in the moonlight. It felt like my chest would burst I felt so much for her in that moment. Wanting her to feel it too, I massaged her wing nubs and returned to her neck while rocking my hips into hers. She moaned and tried to get closer to me, and I knew that for sure what I had not seen before. This woman loved me. This woman, Sookie Stackhouse, loved me. It was almost too much. When she pushed down on me, riding my erection through our clothes my fangs slipped into her neck just as I caressed her back and as the first taste of her in so very long met my taste buds she came in my arms, calling my name like she was worshiping me.
"I am!" she got out in between moans and pants that pushed me over the edge and I came with her pulling her down on me and I sucked deeply at her neck. For a moment I thought of the feeling I had had when we were flying and knew that this was just another way to fly with her. Another way to see the stars.
"I love so much, Eric," she whispered in my ear, granting my fondest wish of a lifetime. It had been a long time coming, but it was everything I ever thought it would be.
She was everything I ever thought she could be. She was mine! I sucked harder at her neck, growing hard again, and slipping further into blissful intoxication in her arms. She shivered and leaned into me sucking on my neck where it met my shoulder. I wanted so much to feel her bite and then the euphoric sensation that I got when I felt me traveling into all her secret places. She moaned softly and finally pulled back, placing her hand gently on the back of my head. I took her queue and pulled back, too, lingering over her wounds, licking them slowly and sensuously not wanting to let her go.
"You don't have to let me go. We are going together, remember?" she whispered to me and I growled deep in my chest. Damned right, we are going together! I am not losing you again! She smiled as she looked up into my eyes. The world shimmered before me now, the fairy blood making the world glow. Sober I had perfect vision, intoxicated on Sookie the world looked just as sharp but now it had a cast of beauty that I had never noticed before. The dew drops on the grass around us seemed to glow in the moonlight. The moon itself seemed to pulse with magic. It was absolutely amazing that she could show me a world I had seen every night for a thousand years and make it seem entirely new!
"Ready?" she asked me sounding breathless. I nodded and saw her light grow brighter. I held on for the ride.
I don't know what I was expecting, but when I looked around for the first time and saw that we had appeared in a beautiful garden that had the same glow as the world we had left behind I took a deep breath and thought Godric would have loved this place. It was midday here and it rushed to me that once again my love had given me the sun. The breath I took brought a scent to me that I could only be described as heaven. This time my mind went to Nora, and her comment in Sookie's living room, "You smell like something once dreamed of." She would have loved it here, too. There was a spike in my heart at their loss from my life, but right behind that I had to wonder if I would be here now if they had not perished. I had strategized long enough to know that it was often not the event itself but rather the ones that led up to it that created possibilities and opportunities.
"Eric?" She was still in my lap, her body wrapped around mine, and from the concern on her face, she could tell I was sad. I remembered from my human days that being drunk could lead to near mad joy or soul tearing despair. I wanted more of the former. There had been too much of the latter for both Sookie and myself. Rather than open up old wounds for us I leaned down and kissed her, this time with the tenderness that I felt in my heart. I was slowly learning to open up to her. Slowly learning to jump and believe that she would catch me.
She did not disappoint me. She kept me right there, safe in her arms while I showed her my soul. Who knew I could love her more? Finally, I ended the kiss and slowly stood, pulling her with me. I was swaying on my feet and put my arm around her shoulder to steady myself. I took a longer look around and saw in the distance a huge white palace next to a river. "Is that where we are going?"
"Yes, that is Niall's palace."
"And you have been here for three years?" I looked down at her, wondering what she had done here all this time.
"Training. Endless days and nights of training." She made it sound dreary, but the smile that was playing hide and seek on her face didn't quite sell it. I raised an eyebrow. "Well, there was the occasional party or two as well?"
"Party?" She nodded enthusiastically.
"Yes, fairies love to dance and eat and celebrate the joy of life! I had no idea what it was to give yourself over to that so completely." A shadow crossed her face.
"What is it, Sookie?"
"They always tried to get me to join in, but I wasn't able to let go."
"Let go of what?" Her eyes came up to mine and I could see that she was fighting not to cry.
"You. I missed you, so much, and I was so angry and hurt that I couldn't let it go." Before I could speak and satisfy my instinct to comfort her she went on, "But the anger was masking the truth. Somehow, though I didn't think you had ever cared, and we had only been close when the witch took your memory, I knew that what was missing for me was you, and the fact that I couldn't figure how to love or not love you. I was stuck in limbo."
"Until now?" I asked hopefully, my fucking heart on my sleeve again.
"Until now." My eyebrow went back down and I started to think that it might be all right to leave that little broken fucker right out there on my sleeve, all the better for her to love it and kiss it better.
"Come on," she said, Niall will be waiting." Before we could take a step he cleared his throat behind us again, and we turned to once again face the fairy prince.
"Welcome," he said, nodding to me slightly. Still leaning on Sookie I returned the acknowledgement best I could. "I have brought you here because you are being hunted in the human realm. Both of you." He waved his hand and between us a window opened up showing first a human male I didn't recognize. He was dressed in military garb and I felt my insides shift. No run in I had had with the military had ever ended well. The image changed and I realized he was at the vampire camp that Burrell had run. I watched as he and a bunch of soldiers packed everything up and cleaned out the entire place. Fucking Compton had just left that shit there? Had he been too busy writing his fucking memoirs to realize how dangerous it would be for humans to find that information? Fucking Compton had been dead for three years and he could still harsh my buzz. Yes, you were still an asshole, Bill.
"And somehow those events led to these." The scene shifted again, and I saw Felipe DeCastro, King of Nevada and his sycophant lackey Victor Madden sitting down and talking with the military man. "The human's name is Randolph Clinton, General Randolph Clinton, to be precise." My skin crawled as I watched DeCastro and Madden work with Clinton and his men to continue the insidious work that had begun in Louisiana. How the fuck had this gone on and I missed it? "I assume you know the vampires?" I nodded, thinking the information to Sookie so that she would be able to keep up as we moved forward. Even with my lovely foggy brain I saw the need now for haste.
"And that in turn," Niall continued, "Has led to this." Now I could see a beautiful Japanese woman who was talking to DeCastro and Madden. "She was the lover of the former president of the Yokonomo Corporation." He stopped there but I didn't. I killed him, I thought to Sookie. He was the one in Fangtasia when you followed me back to ask for my help with Bill. She nodded perhaps remembering the morning I had pretended to glamour her. Recalling the dreamy expression on her face as I told her to stop begging me to fuck her. As if, but she had surprised me that morning. It was the first time she had done the smart thing and listened to her brain rather than her heart.
"I was scared for you," she whispered to me, keeping her eyes on the magic window that was showing us why we needed to hide in another realm for safety. I pulled her closer to my side, glad that she couldn't feel how scared I was for us both in that moment. Niall closed the window and stood before us, he looked concerned as well.
"I have spies in place, working to determine how much they know about Sookie and the Fae. This alliance is disturbing and I don't know yet what they plan for her or us. Unfortunately, I already know they plan to assassinate you, Viking." I thought a moment and then some dots came together for me.
"The military have access to all the information that was left behind," that I left behind, I cursed myself for not burning that fucking place to the ground. It was then that I felt Sookie squeeze me tighter. I kept forgetting when I went off on my own internal diatribes that they had an audience now. Perhaps, this would have worked out much better if she had always been able to hear when I was bullshitting. Tabling that for later, I turned back to Niall, "And it stands to reason that they must have discovered the existence of Sookie and the Fae from what was left there." Niall was nodding, he had already ascertained as much.
"Yes, this vampire DeCastro has a bone to pick with you, and he thinks the most direct path to you is through my granddaughter." I growled then, I would rip out his fucking spine before he laid a hand on her! "Yes, I believe you would have, if you had known, but I couldn't take the chance that you would come for her in time. So, I brought her here."
"Why the illusion?" Seeing her with someone else, pregnant with his child, cutting me out of her life entirely had been devastating.
"I had to know if you were serious." Despite the pain, I had to appreciate the logic and thought that had gone into his plan. If indeed she was my beloved, nothing would have kept me from her side, except her of course, and even that hadn't always worked. I had worked to stay in her life harder than I had ever worked at anything even when she shoving against me with all her might. She pulled me closer to her body, offering comfort and reassurance. It felt really fucking good, and I was struck by the delicious difference between being pushed and being pulled.
"I understand." There was nothing else to say about that. Niall looked at me long and hard and then smiled again, looking more like a benevolent grandfather here in the day than he did a madman in the moonlight.
"You are safe here for now, after all, who would look for a vampire in Fae?" There was the madman again. I still felt like I knew him from somewhere. It was niggling at the back of mind but I couldn't quite place it. "But we must make sure that none know who and what you are except for Sookie." He waved his hands and I felt my flesh tingle. I looked down and saw my black jeans and leather replaced with something much more…relaxed. I was wearing a blue shirt that shimmered in the light reflecting all the colors of the sky, and dark blue trousers. I glanced at Sookie and saw that she had changed to sky colors as well and was now wearing a frilly gray dress. She looked incredible. Sky Fae, I thought, and she and Niall smiled at me, looking for the first time remarkably like family to my old eyes.
"Much better!" Niall said, clapping excitedly, applauding his handiwork. I felt my buzz come back a little, his joy somehow telegraphing to me, perhaps from his blood that currently ran through my veins. He winked at me, Sookie missing the byplay as she twirled in her new dress. She took my breath away again. "Now you're dressed for a party!"
"Party? Now? What's the occasion?" He rolled his eyes and moved toward us.
"Life! And there is no better time to have a party, Viking, unless of course it is morning, evening or night. In Fae we celebrate life and joy whenever we can. Come now, celebrate with us!" Next thing I knew we were in the middle of party. The other fairies around us were dancing and laughing and again, I felt my buzz go up a notch. It did indeed seem that Fae blood could still celebrate even in my veins. I should have been thinking about a million things given what I had just learned, but for the moment we were safe, and I felt so unbelievably fucking good. I let it drift away and of their own accord my long limbs joined into the reverie around me. I danced! I danced with Niall and Sookie and in and out of circles of fairies who, too, looked to be high on joy and life. I saw the others hug Sookie and express their joy that finally she was able to join them.
I did that, I thought, and my joy grew and I danced and laughed that much harder. Finally, sometime later Niall pulled us to him in an embrace that reminded of my maker and kissed us both on cheek. "I have made a special place for you tonight, children. Enjoy the night! Enjoy each other!" I saw something pass between him and Sookie, then he popped away. Sookie and I fell into each other, laughing. Me because I was still stoned but not just on blood. I had breathed in life and it suited me. Sookie, I didn't know why Sookie looked so happy, but I hoped that it was me, at least a little.
The music shifted again and I heard a fairy exclaim loudly, "I LOVE ENRIQUE IGLESIAS! I didn't know who he was but the sexy fast paced Latin beat filled the air and Sookie started to move in time to the music. I stopped, star struck. There was no other word for it. She moved her body sensuously as Enrique sang the words of my heart. He must be a telepathic fairy, too, was my last coherent thought before her body and movements stripped my mind away.
You look at me
And girl you take me to another place
Got me feeling like I'm flying, like I'm outer space
Something 'bout your body says 'come and take me'
Got me begging, got me hoping that the night don't stop
(Bailando, bailando, bailando, bailando)
Tu cuerpo y el mio llenando el vacío
Subiendo y bajando (subiendo y bajando)
(Bailando, bailando, bailando, bailando)
Ese fuego por dentro me va enloqueciendo
Me va saturando
Girl I like the way you move
Come and show me what to do
People tell me that you want me
Girl you got nothing to lose
I can't wait no more
(ya no puedo mas)
I can't wait no more
(ya no puedo mas)
I wanna be contigo
And live contigo, and dance contigo
Wanna have contigo una noche loca
Ay besar tu boca
I wanna be contigo
And live contigo, and dance contigo
Para dar contigo una noche loca
Con tremenda loca
I look at you and it feels like paradise
When you got me spinning, got me crazy
Got me hypnotized
I need your love, I need you closer
Keep me begging, keep me hoping that the night don't stop
Sookie danced around me, twirling her skirt in her hands, stepping in perfect tune to music and I watched until she stepped up to me. "It's all about you," she said breathless, her eyes glowing. She pulled me to her and we started moving together to the music, back and forth, close and far and I was lost in her eyes giving myself over to the beat, to her, to the moment.
Fuck, and I had thought I was flying before! I made a note to find this Iglesias man and send him a new Corvette to show my thanks for the gift of his music. She laughed and pressed herself to my chest still shimmying against me, taking my thoughts away from Latin lovers and putting them all on my lover. I twirled her then, holding our hands up so she could spin for me and caught her with a searing kiss. She melted into me, rubbing her chest against mine and I heard her growl with desire. So fucking sexy! The song came to an end and she looked up at me with lightening in her eyes, "You ready to blow this pop stand?" Her words conjured a thousand images that blew through me starting a fire that only she could control.
"Fuck, yes!" she laughed again, her head falling back, braced by my arm around her, her long hair nearly dragging the ground as she lit up and took us away into the magical living realm of Fae.
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Special thanks to Enrique Iglesias - Bailando (Spanglish) Lyrics | MetroLyrics for giving our lovers a beat that started a fire that will burn for chapters to come across worlds. I added the video on my wordpress site, you can check it out there or on youtube. Thanks for reading!