Chapter Ten
"Sookie, I know you can look after yourself and all, but, just be careful, okay?" Amelia had real concern in her voice.
I couldn't read her thoughts over the phone, but they'd been clear enough last time I saw her.
"I'm safe with Eric. I can't even count how many times he's saved my life," I said. I didn't want to talk about the blood swapping. We'd been through that already.
"I know that. It's just, if you decide to live with him, you know, for good, just be careful you don't lose yourself. People who live with vampires, they get addicted, you know."
I understood what Amelia was saying. I remembered poor, pathetic Hugo from Dallas. He'd gotten addicted to sex with his vampire squeeze, Isabel, and it had ruined his whole life. He'd lost his job and his family because was sleeping during the days so he could spend more time with her at night. Eventually he just couldn't handle it anymore and it ended badly for both of them.
I knew if I was going to get addicted to sex with anyone, it would definitely be with Eric. But I still had pretty good perspective on my life and I didn't see that changing.
"I haven't quit my life for him, Amelia. I've still got my friends and my job. Besides, Eric's so busy being King, I couldn't spend the whole night with him even if I was awake for it."
Actually, that was a bit of a sore spot. I'd thought that when I went to bunk with Eric for a few nights, that it would mean we could spend a lot more time together, preferably naked. As it was, we got in a few hours after he woke up, but by 11pm he was already over at Fangtasia dealing with vampire stuff. I didn't think Amelia would be too sympathetic if I started complaining about that, so I decided to turn the subject back to her.
"Anyway, how are things with Sheriff Pam?" Amelia and Pam had rekindled their fling now that they were both living in New Orleans.
"Loads of fun, but nothing serious. The coven doesn't exactly approve of dating vampires, so I have to keep kinda quiet about it," she said. Witches were all about nature and herbs and organic vegetables, so it made sense they weren't big fans of vamps.
"That's too bad."
"Actually, it makes it pretty exciting." Amelia loved to push limits.
We chatted for a little longer, but it was getting late for both of us. Plus I didn't want to burn through all my cell phone minutes this early in the month.
I was sitting out on my porch enjoying the summer heat with a glass of ice tea. I'd spent two nights living at Eric's without coming back to Bon Temps once, and I was still processing how I felt about the experience.
On the plus side was getting to be there when Eric woke up every evening, and he'd thanked me thoroughly each time. It was nice, too, not having to drive back and forth. I thought we got a lot more "quality time" than we would have otherwise, but it still wasn't as much as I'd hoped for.
On the down side, his house just didn't have the homey feel of Gran's. It's big and nice, but very Eric and not at all Sookie. He offered to let me move things in and around as I wanted, with the exception of his home office. He also jokingly excluded my afghan, at least I think he was joking. Maybe that would be a good thing to bring over next time.
Last night before he left for Fangtasia, I was standing with both feel on the move-in side. Today, being back home (and calling it home just emphasized this), I was back to sitting on the fence with my feet dangling on the stay-home side.
I headed in to work just before at 6pm, making sure I was at least 5 minutes early so Sam wouldn't complain. Once again, Kennedy was behind the bar while poor Sam was behind his desk. I gave him a sympathetic smile when I popped in, but he seemed to be in just about the same mood as before.
I felt a jolt when Eric woke up. He was very anxious about something. Not surprisingly, I was asleep when he got in last night, but for some reason he hadn't woken me up like he usually did. Now I was guessing he didn't want me to worry about whatever had him worried. Not likely given our bond, but I supposed I appreciated the thought.
I got my second jolt around 8pm when Rasul came in. I knew he was something like Eric's lieutenant, so it was odd that he was at Merlotte's instead of Fangtasia. I was sure this couldn't be good, but he just took a seat at the bar and waited for me to come over to him.
"What's up, Rasul?" I asked.
"Eric wants you to come over after work. He has some things he needs to discuss with you."
"Okay. Why didn't he just call me, then?"
"He wants me to escort you. You know, just in case."
That seemed reasonable enough, with an unknown someone trying to kill me. Still, my spider sense was a little tingly, or maybe it was my Eric sense.
Rasul didn't seem too concerned and that eased some of my tension. After several boring hours of hanging out, Rasul started getting flirty with a tall red-head named Casey Ward. She was very in to vampires and I could tell Rasul wanted to be very in to Casey, or her neck at least.
"Sookie," Rasul came up to me about an hour before closing, "do you mind if I, um, take a walk with Casey while you finish up your shift?" I noticed his fangs were out a little as he asked. Who was I to ruin his fun?
"Sure, Rasul. I'm done at 11pm. I can just meet you at my house, if you want."
"No, I'll be back." He had a wicked glint in his eye. I hoped Casey really knew what she was in for, but listening to her for a moment told me she did. I waved back to them as they left.
I was fifteen minutes late finishing up my closing work, but Rasul still hadn't returned with or without Casey. I thought about waiting around for him, but figured I would probably be fine making my own way to Shreveport tonight, and I sure as heck wasn't going to ask Sam to stay late and wait with me.
Eric's Lexus (still not sure if I wanted it to be mine yet) was parked in the nearest spot under the brightest light. As soon as I was out of the door, I pushed the button on the remote to unlock the doors and turn on the lights.
"Mrs. Northman." An accented voice called from behind the car causing me to fumbled the keys. The same keys with the really handy "panic" button.
"Actually, it's Miss Stackhouse." If he was going to kill me, he'd better at least get my name right.
"If that were the case," Amar said as he walked around to stand between me and the car, "then I wouldn't need to be here, would I?"
How the heck should I know why he felt compelled to be here? What I did know was that the longer I kept him talking, the better chance Eric would hear my internal panic button.
"Why are you here? Amar, isn't it?" I asked a little tartly. This didn't seem to be a time to feign politeness.
"Hasn't your husband told you?" He was looking smug and superior in a way that only a vampire can. And maybe Claude too. "I'm here to ensure that he doesn't tamper with the evidence before the hearing."
I figured that I must be the evidence and that Amar was here to do some tampering of his own. I braced myself for what was coming. I knew I wouldn't last long in a fight with a vampire, at least not without something made of silver, but maybe I could fight hard enough to wipe that smirk off his smug face.
Just as he made a move for me, Rasul came darting in from the woods headed straight for us. The vampires catapulted across the parking lot in a whirl of snarls and blood. After a moment's hesitation, I snatched my keys up from the ground and ran to the car.
I fumbled the key in the ignition, then panicked. I couldn't leave Rasul behind to fight Amar alone, but I didn't have a lot of weapons at my disposal. I figured I had the car, but with the way they were intertwined, I couldn't be sure of helping the right vampire. Plus, and it made me feel awful to think it, I really didn't want another car on my conscience.
Letting logic and self-preservation decide for me for once, I high tailed it out of the parking lot. Without even thinking about it, I headed straight for my house, speed limit be damned. I didn't calm down until I ran through the back door into the living room. I felt terrible about Rasul, but kept telling myself there was nothing I could have done for him that wouldn't have ended up with me dead and him still in the same fight.
My brain started working again and I dashed over to the phone to call Eric. As soon as I picked it up, there was a loud rap on the door.
"It's Rasul."
I knew his voice, but I looked out the peep hole to be sure. I opened the door and stood back, just in case.
"Sookie!" He sounded relieved. "I'm so sorry–"
His apology was cut off when his body went flying off my porch into the yard. Eric stood in the doorway, looking me over, before he followed Rasul to the lawn.
Rasul scrambled to his feet only to drop immediately to one knee when Eric came pressing down on him. They were too far away for me to hear, and I wasn't about to leave the house to follow. After a few tense minutes when it looked like Rasul might have another fight to survive this evening, Eric turned and came into the house. I saw Rasul leaving as Eric closed the door.
"We're going back to Shreveport." Eric wasn't asking, and it was clear he wasn't in a mood to be argued with. Well, too bad.
"No," I said as firmly as I could given how shaken I still was. "Not until you tell me what's going on."
I could feel his anger, but also his concern.
"I will tell you on the way." His patience was wearing thin.
I grabbed my purse, handing him the keys, and we headed to the Lexus. Eric had obviously flown here.
"Tell me." I said after I'd put on my seatbelt. You can never be too safe in a car, you know.
The drive from Bon Temps to Shreveport took about 45 minutes on a good day. Eric made it in half that. Along the way he'd given me a crash course in Vampire Monarchs 101. Most of it Mr. Cataliades had already told me, like the part about not being ruled by anyone else, but I didn't let any of that on. Talking was calming Eric as much as anything, and I thought it was important to get him calm. I didn't interrupt him, and he didn't pause to take questions.
There was another car in Eric's driveway when we pulled in. He didn't comment on it, but pulled into the garage beside his Corvette. He opened the kitchen door for me but didn't follow me in.
"I will be back soon," he said. He shut the door as he left.
I stood in his kitchen fuming, trying to decide if I should drive myself back to Bon Temps or stay and wreck his house. I knew not all of my frustration should be aimed at Eric and that not all of it was mine. After I'd calmed down a little, I felt another vampire brain near by. What now?
"Has he told you?" Pam asked.
I followed her voice into the living room where she sat on the love seat perusing a magazine. I went and stood in front of the couch across from her. I didn't feel much like sitting.
"Shouldn't you be in New Orleans?" I asked her more tartly than she deserved. Pam was tough, she could handle some undeserved anger from me.
"Yes." She didn't elaborate.
"He said there was a challenge to his right to rule."
"Did he tell you why?" she asked.
The 'why' didn't seem as relevant as the 'who' or 'how', but since Eric hadn't gotten to either of those points yet either, I simply shook my head and looked at Pam for an explanation.
"Of course he wouldn't," she said. "The Queen of Michigan, Diana, feels that Eric fell short of an agreement they had."
This was definitely an 'Oh shit' moment. I sat down. I knew what deal Eric had made with her, and I knew he wasn't the one who broke it. I was. Eric had negotiated for Rasul's release by promising to torture Victor the way he'd tortured Joshua, the Queen's boyfriend. But I'd staked Victor, and now the Queen apparently thought he hadn't suffered enough. I had no idea how to react to this news.
Pam was staring at me intently. "I thought as much," she said almost to herself. Then she continued talking to me, "Eric tried to negotiate a settlement with her, but the negotiations became . . . tense."
"Why, what did she want?" I asked.
"Eric offered money, as is custom, but Diana said it wasn't enough. She wanted one of Eric's human lovers to die." In response to my horrified expression, Pam added, "Nothing slow or painful. Diana just wanted Eric to feel the same loss she did." Pam said it as if this were a normal thing to negotiate. With another jolt of horror, I realized that it was. Vampire politics.
Pam went on, "She sent a messenger to Eric with her terms. As a concession and to foster future good relations, she stated that she would allow Eric to choose who among his lovers would die."
"How did Eric take it?" I asked, though I had a guess.
"He killed the messenger." Pam watched my expression like it was good TV. "It sent the right message," she said with a shrug in her voice.
"So now the Queen of Michigan is trying to kill me?" At least that was one mystery solved.
"No." Pam's answer shocked me again. "Eric thought she might, but he underestimated her. Diana sent her lieutenant to Eric to say that she would accept his offer plus ten percent."
Something wasn't making sense to me.
"So, then, Eric paid her off and everything's fine?" I knew it wasn't, but I couldn't figure what I was missing.
"Eric paid her, yes, but now Diana has petitioned the board of Amun for the right to take Louisiana. She claims it has no monarch since Eric is unfit to be King." Pam's voice was full of loathing.
"That doesn't make any sense. Eric and Mr. Cataliades both told me you can be King as long as you don't have a maker and you don't have another King or Queen above you. Ocella is dead and Louisiana isn't lumped in with Nevada any more. So what's the problem?"
You know the feeling when you have a bunch of people together and you need to count to make sure everyone's there, and you do it twice but keep coming up one short, and for the life of you, you can't figure out who you aren't counting? That was the feeling I was having just then.
"You." Pam said.
"Me?" Of course, I always forgot to count myself. Counting ranked right up there with math.
"Diana is claiming that Eric is ruled by his blood bond with you."
Suddenly being alone in Eric's house with Pam didn't feel like the safest place for me. I suppose that must have shown on my face, because Pam sat back a little and relaxed, as if to indicated that she wasn't about to jump me.
"You are my friend, Sookie," Pam said. "But if I have to choose, I choose Eric." Her voice didn't make it sound like she'd put much thought into that decision, not that I'd thought she would.
"Pam, this is ridiculous." I was finally getting over the shock enough to get defensive that all the blame for everything was falling on me. I stood up and paced the room. "Eric isn't ruled by me. I can't even get him to pick his damn towels up off the bathroom floor! I don't have any power over him."
"Don't you?" Eric asked. He had come back in. I was so consumed by the conversation with Pam that I'd barely felt him.
"Pam." Eric's voice was full of authority. Pam left without another word as if her invitation had been revoked. Maybe it had been.
"This isn't your fault," Eric said to me once Pam was gone. He was feeling my guilt through the bond.
"I know that," I snapped at him. I'd rather feel defensive than guilty right now.
"Sookie, you need to understand the seriousness of the situation. If the board rules against me, all of our lives with be forfeit."
I'd figured that much out on my own, but it was still frightening to hear Eric say it.
"So what's the plan?" I asked with pleading in my voice. Eric always had a plan. Usually a really good one, but I'd settle for just about anything at the moment.
I looked up at him, and suddenly I saw a terrifying 6'5" Viking vampire looking back down at me.
"Our bond has affected me more than I thought it would," Eric said. "Diana is right, and the board will side with her. For all of our sakes, we must sever the bond."
A wash of emotions came over me, and I couldn't tell which ones belonged to me and which to Eric. I had resented the bond I was forced into with him, hated it from the beginning. But it was part of me now, and he was part of me. I'd never told him, but I liked it now. I liked being connected to him in this way, and I didn't want to lose that.
Then I knew how he intended to remove the bond. Or rather, change it.
"Eric! No. You promised you would never do that to me." I wasn't in a panic yet because too many other emotions were in the way, but panic was coming for a visit and soon.
"Listen to me, lover." His voice was soft and pleading. "This is the only way. If I bring you over, then the blood bond we have will be gone. There will be no grounds left on which to challenge my position. As long as we are bonded like this, my position is compromised."
"I wish you'd never done it! I wish you'd never wanted to be King!" I wanted to blame anyone else for this, and Eric was the only other person I could see.
"I never wanted this." Now it was his turn to be defensive. "If I had not done it, Victor would be King. This was the only way to stop that from happening. This was the only way to protect you." I knew he was telling me the truth, but I didn't want to believe it.
"Then step down. Let someone else be the King. Let Pam or Bill or Sam or anyone. I don't care." I knew he couldn't do that. He'd explained it to me in the car. A King's reign is for life, or unlife, or whatever clever phrase they wanted to use to mean he was King until his final death.
"Eric, if you do this, I won't be me anymore." Panic was knocking at the front door.
"You will be changed, yes. But not completely. You will still have your same personality, but amplified in some ways and suppressed in others. You will still be Sookie."
"And you'll be able to force me to do whatever you want. You'll be my maker and have absolute power over me."
"I will never force you," he said simply.
"You're forcing me now!" Panic had settled in and was now unpacking. My knees were giving out. Eric caught me and set me on the couch.
"No," he said as he knelt in front of me. "I'm giving you a choice."
It took me a few seconds to hear him. "If I say no?" I asked.
After a long minute, Eric said, "Then we all die."
So that was my choice. I could either be dead or undead.