A/N: I'm back. I'm sorry that life has interfeared with vampires. It's a sad thing. Ms. Harris still owns all. -Krys.
Chapter 11:
Sookie wakes from her lackadaisical mood to a knock on the door. She finds the round little man that informed her of her cousin's true death. She is sorry to tell him of his messenger's demise.
"Mr. Cataliades, before you tell me why you are here, I need to tell you that your messenger was not able to deliver the message. Eric found her last night in the woods after sensing something out there.
He said that she was beheaded, and had been since Wednesday, I had no idea that she was out there before that. He burned her and gathered her ashes for you."
The man lowers his head. "Please tell him thank you, for me. I will tell her sister and my brother. She would have not gone peaceably. Hadley's will stated that you should inherit all her worldly goods. Her apartment needs to be cleaned out. Can you leave today?"
"Yes, I'll inform my boss that I am going to be gone, so he can't schedule me for then." Sookie makes the call to Sam, who wishes her well after grumbling and then she calls Eric's cell. He'll get the message when he checks it.
Next she calls Bill. He might be up, it's cloudy. Selah answers and gives Sookie a rash of shit about calling her man and all. Finally, Bill comes on the line. "You said you wanted to go to New Orleans, when I do. We leave in a few minutes."
"You didn't get any notice of leaving before this?"
"No Bill, Eric found the body of one of the Queen's messengers, last night. So until about twenty minutes ago, no."
"I'll be there." Sookie hangs up. How could he hide being such a jerk for so long from her.
Bill shows for the ride. Sookie falls asleep once they were on the road. She wakes as they are entering the city proper.
"Do you want help with cleaning out her apartment?" Bill asks. Sookie didn't need to read his mind to tell that, he was looking for any way to get back into her good graces and hopefully bed.
"No, I imagine that I'll have help in a bit. Have a good night Bill." Sookie was anxious to get away for a reason.
Eric wakes at sunset and immediately checks his phone. There was a message from Sookie. He was right, she was heading to the Big Easy. He calls Pam from the road, he'll be in tomorrow night for the receipts. He pulls up to the apartment house a few minutes after Bill leaves. He could feel that Sookie was nervous about something.
"Hi, miss me?" Eric kisses his wife's ear and escorts her into the apartment.
"So what do you say, we get hopping on sorting through all this stuff?" Eric claps his hands together.
"OK, you seem way too excited about this for some reason." Sookie looks up at her husband and waits for the other shoe to drop.
"Hadley was the Queen's favorite "pet", for lack of a better term. I just never thought I would be here." Eric admits. Sookie looks around the apartment. There was something about this place that was not sitting well.
"Eric, something's wrong here. I can't move anything. There is blood on the towels in the hamper, but they have no smell. It's like everything has been preserved. Do you know what I mean?"
"Yeah, how about we go to bed, you must be tired, and figure out what's going on tomorrow. I will go to ground at sunrise. That way, I won't be far.
They lay in bed, talking about Sookie's day and laughing about how Noir and Night need to update their wardrobe. Before long, Eric is holding a sleeping Sookie in his embrace and stroking her arm. He sniffs her skin and smells the sun. A little before dawn, he gets up and lets himself out of the apartment. He digs down into the earth in the courtyard for the day.
Sookie wakes to someone tickling her feet. She shrieks, "Who are you and why are you here?"
"Amelia, I own the building. Who are you?" the odd woman replies like she always walks into her tenet's apartments, uninvited.
"Sookie, Hadley's cousin. She left me the contents of her apartment. I am going to pack it all up and take it back to my house up north."
"I should take the stasis spell off the place then, I guess. I abhor taking care of plants, and so on."
"Yes, please take it off. My husband will be by tonight to help me." Sookie checks her watch; she has eight more hours until Eric wakes up.
"What does your husband do?" Amelia strives for conversation.
"He's a sheriff and part owner of a bar in Shreveport." Sookie was not completely stupid, she was proud to be married to Eric, but not everyone would understand them.
"Wow, he has his hands full." Amelia's eyes pop.
Over the next few hours, the two girls talk. Sookie waters the plants and washes the bloody clothes and towels from the hamper. She is going through Hadley's closet when a knock sounds on the door. Amelia goes to open it.
She gets the door open, when Sookie screams. The tall, blonde man rushes through the door and speeds to the bedroom. He pulls a young vampire off of Sookie.
"Oh, thank God! Eric, who is he?" Sookie asks him. He looks at the man and shrugs. "I have no idea. I have never seen him before. Ma'am, do you know him?" He turns to Amelia.
"He must be a friend of Hadley's. She was turned into a vampire, I hear. Now, who are you?" She points at him.
"That's my husband, Eric Northman." Sookie answers as Eric takes out his phone and dials a number.
"YOU ARE MARRIED TO A VAMPIRE? DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT THEY CAN DO? LOOK AT HIM." Amelia points to the guy that just took a chunk out of Sookie's arm.
"The Queen's men are on the way for him. It seems like he was stuck here, he should have been able to get out before this." Eric ignores the verbal jab that the odd lady made towards his kind. Sookie knows that he would never hurt her.
"There was a stasis spell on the apartment." Sookie tells Eric as he looks the wound over. "I think we should take you to the ER. That way this gets treated. I would offer you some of my blood, Min kärlek, but your friend here is about two steps away from staking first and asking questions later."
"Sookie, you need to meet someone else. Someone alive; you are beautiful. You could have anyone. I am sure we could find some spell to take the glamour and thrall out of you." Amelia tells her, when Eric goes to get his car.
"Amelia, we just met this morning. Thank you for your concern, but do not attempt to tell me what to do, especially about my love life. I know what he is and I know you don't approve, but I don't care. Leave it alone.
As for your assumption, I am a telepath. I cannot read vampire minds, but they also cannot glamour me. Believe me, many have tried. I am most likely the only human that they cannot hold in thrall. I have seen that and I am nothing like that. Nor, do I want to end my marriage." Sookie sternly warns.
Amelia scoffs and walks back downstairs. She was just trying to help the girl. She hears Eric walk back into the hallway and opens the door. "Is it true that you did not glamour her to marry you?"
"I know of no vampire that she has come in contact with that has been able to do that. The first night I met her, I tried and she didn't even twitch. She is immune to all of my kind's tricks. We have blood bonded and married to keep her from the Queen's grasp. It is just a plus to me that I have been in love with her for years. We are devoted to each other and I will do anything to protect her. We are also very leery of witches, I was cursed by one and Sookie saved me. She has an almost hatred of them now, worse than me."
Amelia closes her door. She is still not convinced that Sookie and Eric should be together, but if she was not glamoured or in thrall then she could not do anything. If Sookie wants to be with the vampire, than she will be with the vampire.