Hope all is well and you enjoy the weekend.

Chapter Eleven – A Wolf at the Door

"…I keep the wolf from the door

But he calls me up

Calls me on the phone

Tells me all the ways that he's gonna mess me up…"

– Radiohead

They had fallen into a comfortable routine for those few days. It felt to Ada as though they were living in a world of their own, no one to answer to or explain to. Nights of accidently falling asleep next to one another, of talking, of joking and sniping had become normal. In such a short time Ada had revealed more of herself to Eric than she would have ever done to anyone else.

"I love these." He stated one night sitting crossed legged on her bed, watching and more often disrupting her futile attempts to read.

She exhaled a frustrated breath. Ada had tried to get him to go out for a run or watch TV but for the past hour he had refused and finally succeeded in keeping her from her philosophy readings. She shut her book, she had added boxers to her over-sized t-shirt for sleeping so now as she turned to sit cross-legged to face him on the bed it could be considered appropriate. "Love what?"

"These…" he took her arm in his cool hand, and tugged gently on the light hairs there.

"Oh…" Ada blushed, snatching her arm back self-consciously rubbing the thin body hair. "Why? They're so… ugly, just there to keep me warm…"

Eric smiled, "Perhaps that why I love them, you are kept warm by them… and they are so human. Pam did not have any, but you do… you change and exist and need to be warm and protected…"

"Again with the protection thing… Eric I don't need…"

"Yes, yes I know little one." He reached out once more, the pad of his thumb running icy circle over her forearm, "but you do need some shielding…"

"My mother was beautiful, a little bit crazy and a little bit shrill but definitely beautiful…" Ada had responded, when Eric had asked. After nights of questions there was nowhere to go but deeper. "She had all of these tattoos… one for me and my brother over her heart..." Ada pointed to her own chest, "bats around her thigh..." she traced the skin around her leg, "feathers across her side and a part of her ribs, a series of swirls like the sea up her calf..." Ada reached up as she thoughtfully drew the last one over her skin, "and for my father, a sun..." she mapped out an intricately patterned circle over the skin of her shoulder, smiling as she recalled the lines, "the beams ran down to her elbow and back and up her…" Ada stopped her index finger already halfway up her neck. She swallowed, dropping her hands into her lap daring herself to look up at him. As she expected his eyes were darkened, his mouth slightly slack but his had managed to keep his fangs retracted.

"Why the sun?" He was quick to snap out of his stupor, she raised a questioning brow at him, "for your father, why a sun?"

'Because that's likely what he smelt like.' She couldn't help Niall dashing through her mind for a moment, before she answered, "M-my father was plain by outward comparison… but from the inside he lit everyone up." Ada lips tugged up in a fond recognition of that truth. 'He really did.'

"Do you know?" Eric blue eyes turned up to the ceiling as though he was trying to see through it, before his gaze fell back to the girl in front of him, "that is what you smel…"

His statement was cut off by the sound of Ada's phone ringing. She was glad that it had, she did not need any definite confirmation of Niall's tales. "Wonder who it is so late?" She muttered curiously. There was no caller id. Ada could tell Eric was curious as well.

'Maybe it's Laura calling from the horse place… maybe she's in trouble. Maybe it's Hal in trouble!' Without a second thought she lifted the cell phone to her.

"Hello?" She asked, trying not to imagine the worst possible scenario.

"Do you remember the conversation we last had?" A cold voice spoke over the line. "I believe it went something like 'yadda-yadda-threat- yadda- yadda Do. Not. Fucking. Hide. Him. From. Me.'"

"Pam I-" Ada started defending herself, but the phone was swiped out of her hands before she could blink.

Eric was speaking calmly into the receiver in that other language, though she could not understand him she could tell by his tone and expression he was not impressed with what his vampire child had said to her.

Soon enough he was holding the phone back out to her, "She would like to speak to you…"

Ada reluctantly took the phone. "Yes?"

"I suppose I should apologize. Even though past few days have literally been a rotting, living hell and having no idea where my maker was, while being watched like a goddam hawk unable to do anything was utter torture… I suppose should say thank you. I would do it in person, but it took me long enough to get to a secure line and glamour your neighbor, so by phone it is…" The insincerity dripping off her words was barely concealed.

"You glamoured my neighbor?"

"Oh, don't worry that little human was so out of it before it hardly made a difference, I'm sure… I'd be more worried about myself I were you…" Pam spoke, falsely saccharine and quick to add, "I mean what with a hunted, powerful vampire living in her home."

Ada's green eyes darted to Eric's huge form, "Did you find anything on that front?"

"I found something, it didn't go… exactly as expected, but I'm working on it…"

"What does that mean?"

"It means I'm working on it. Just keep doing what you're doing and I'll have my maker back and out of your magic hair as soon I can."

"I-" Ada choked a little, seeing the pained look that crossed Eric's boyish features and feeling that pain hit her surprisingly hard as well.

"Wonderful. I'll be in touch…" Pam hung up.

There was silence that held between Ada and Eric's unbroken stare. 'This is not the real him…' Ada felt the bubble they had built around themselves thinning. 'He's someone else in his real life...'

The next day Ada woke up to the sound of knocking on her door. Her fingers had found their way to the metal against Eric's chest in the night once again.

"Ada..." she heard Laura's voice through the door. It was Wednesday morning and her friend had decide to show up without warning.

"Mumm… I'm hungry…" Ada heard Ash through the door, that kick started her into action.

"I'll be a minute." She called, wiping the sleep dust out of her eyes, she tied her hair into a ponytail and pulled on some jeans and a baggy sweater, grabbed her bag and rushed out of the door almost bumping into the mother-daughter pair. "Let's go to breakfast." She smiled brightly at Laura, who looked baffled by her friend's sudden wakefulness. If it had not been for Ash's whining for food, Ada knew she would have been in trouble.

"So how were the horses Ash?"

"Ooo! Auntie Ada they were the best… mine was Ono and he was small but so good."

"I bet." She smiled down at the excited girl, as they walked down the hall. "I mean you guys are back a day late aren't you though?" She looked up, addressing Laura now.

"What could I do?" Laura shrugged "Lil' girl beggin' tah stay 'n' all…"

Seated next to Ada, Ash was shoveling pancakes into her face at what must have been a world record rate.

"What did you do? Starve her?" She asked her friend across the table.

"Nah, her dad is just a bit stingy with the food choices…"

"And so you spoil her?"

"Just for her birthday," Laura glanced at her daughter, who could not be less interested in their conversation. She looked over at the brown toast which was all Ada could seem to stomach for the time being next, "That seems familiar…"

Ada nodded at her barely touched breakfast. "Yeah…"

"For me it was well into the fourth month, and all I wanted was grilled cheese and anchovies sandwiches…"

"Ew!" Ada's face contorted in disgust, she pushed her plate further away, losing any semblance of an appetite.

Laura chuckled, "The heart wants what it wants," she offered with a shrug "…speakin' of which, you decided what you're gonna do 'bout the…" her eyes pointed towards Ada's midriff for a spilt second, before rising again.

Ada patted her slightly bloated but almost flat belly. "I tried to… you know…" she attempted to convey what she meant with Ash sitting right beside her. Laura caught on and nodded, as Ada continued "… but I just couldn't…"

Laura's expression was completely sympathetic, "How far?"

"About 7 weeks…"

"Jesus…" Laura mumbled, Ada could see her trying to do the math in her head.

"I know. Apparently I spent too much time wishfully thinking, before taking the test…"

"Did you get your first picture with it yet?"

Ada shook her head, "Nope. Next Tuesday."

"I'll go with you." Laura stated immediately, but then her face fell. "I have my dad's wedding in Colorado next week… Shit!"

"Mum!" Ash exclaimed, through a mouthful of pancakes and syrup.

"Sorry baby." Laura winced at her daughter, Ada had to grin at the girl and her apologetic mother. Ada wetted a napkin in her glass of water and wiped the syrup off the girl's face.

"Aunty Adley!" Ash shoved her hands away, "I can do it myself!"

"Oh? Is that so?" Ada asked, surreptitiously dipping her finger into the extra syrup on Ash plate, while the girl was distractedly proclaiming her grown-up state.

"Yeah!"

"Well make sure you get here," she wiped the syrup on the girls nose, "and here and here..." she swiped her cheeks "... and here." Ada swiped Ash's chin, before the girl had realized Ada grabbed the plate and bottle of syrup away before she could retaliate.

"Hey! No fair!" Ash pouted.

"That's what you get for being too grown up for me, monkey…" Ada teased, chuckling with Laura as Ash wiped her face with a damp napkin.

Ada looked back up at Laura, quickly trying to reassure her concerned friend. "I'll be fine by myself, I promise… I'll call if it has like seven heads or something…" she smiled.

"Fine… but I don't like you being alone."

'I'm not...'

The next days had passed in relative normativity. Nearing the end of two weeks of knowing him, Ada was getting the swing of balancing life on a tightrope with Eric. Laura had noticed some sort of change in Ada but had chalked it up to the pregnancy and Eric continued to be a secret. So far the only people who knew that the vampire was in her home were Pam and Niall.

This fact was made abundantly apparently one lazy Sunday afternoon. Ada was coming back from the grocery store on the bus, when the feeling she had when Niall had been watching her crept up on her again. She looked around but saw nothing out of the ordinary. 'No creepy smiles… good sign, right?' Still she walked briskly back to home, the dark was inching into the sky. 'Of course the street is completely empty, how else would your stalkers have a shot Ada?' She was a block away from her apartment, when she knew she had been right to question herself.

There was a flash of light behind her, "Ada."

"No." She kept walking.

"Ada, please!" The clear female voice called.

Ada squeezed her green eyes shut before turning to face the stranger in the disappearing daylight. This stranger was just as lovely as Niall, she was stunning and kind looking, but the fact she must have been related to Niall's world made Ada instinctively want nothing to do with her. "What do you want?"

"I am Claudia, your fae godmother."

'Like Cinderella?' Ada cocked her head to the side, "Seriously?"

"Yes, I am here to take you for safe keeping…" Claudia expectantly held out her hand.

"No." Ada stepped back, "I told him and I'm telling you now, I don't want anything to do with you all."

"I afraid it's for your own good. You don't really have a choice…" something about Claudia's loveliness melted away, something that Niall's had not done. The threatening glint in Claudia's eye had nothing to do with the sun's disappearance but was Ada's 'godmother' all on her own.

"I said no!"

"I say ye… wh- ahhh!"

Ada barely had a chance to catch up. 'Is that…?'

"Eric?" Ada had dropped her grocery bags and lifted her hands up to her mouth. "Eric!" Ada stared stunned, rooted to the spot, as Eric was hungrily draining the fae, who was helplessly trying to beam weak spurts of light out of her hands to stop the ravenous vampire. "Eric! Stop it!" Ada feet finally listened to her and took a step towards the pair on the ground. She stopped though when she saw what was happening to Claudia's feet and hands, her fingers were lengthening, turning into twig like appendages. 'What…' then without warning the fairy burst into sparkly dust in Eric's arms '...the hell?'

Eric's head was drooped down staring at his empty arms, as though he was sorry she was gone. 'So much for being Cinderella…' Ada remarked to herself, gaping at what she saw.

"Eric! What are you doing? Anyone could see! I…" The sound of Eric's satiated hum and the sight of him still kneeling over the pile of fairy dust and licking blood off of his fingers into his red smeared mouth, caused Ada to panic. "Eric?"

"I'm sorry," he grinned up at her lazily. Something was not right, he looked up at her dazed and swaying a bit, for once Ada couldn't convince herself not to be scared.

"Eric…" she stepped towards him, filled with worry, as his face and body went rigid and he collapsed forward. "Eric!"

"Whoa!" He mumbled, just as Ada touched his shoulder. Eric started to unclench is body and stand up. He swayed, prompting Ada to try to help him up, though he could have crushed her she still tried pulling one of his arms over her shoulders to brace his weight.

He grumbled, Ada felt his nose push against the side of head. "Mmm…"

"Eric, I'm so sorry you're not feeling well but I need your help to move…" she tried, though he wouldn't budge.

"Mmmm..." Ada felt the sound rumble from his chest down her body, he raised his hand to cradle her head pressing her hair against his nose, "Felt good…" his head dropped down his lips brushed below her ear, she was frozen "…want more, little one…" there was a click "... want you…"

"No! Eric please!" She felt the points of his fangs. "NO! Don't hurt me! Don't hurt me!" Ada was practically whimpering as she frantically tried to move out of his hold.

The points pulled back. "I would never harm you," as he spoke, his lips caressed the skin at her throat, right where Ada could feel her pulse thundering. She was torn, wanting to get away from him, but feeling for some reason as though she was betraying him by wanting to move away. Not that she could, he still wouldn't let her go, and that was not helping the fear Ada felt for her blood. 'Why just blood? Why am I not fearing for my life?'

He grumbled, as Ada felt his tongue lap at her skin she decided fearing for her blood was enough. "Eric let me go…" She spoke sternly.

Slowly his grip loosened, and she jumped away as fast as she could. When she caught her breath and collected herself, she saw Eric staring at her, staggering in the moonlight and grinning goofily as though he were… "Drunk?" She muttered under breath in disbelief as she took in the sight before her. "No way…"

"Hey!" He sped to be millimetres away from her face, "Catch me!" He sped away into the distance, going to at least four different spots all over the place, with time to wash his mouth and be back towering over Ada again before she could call for him.

"Eric, I think you're…" she took a gulp, it was difficult to breathe let alone think with his nose so close to hers and his eyes burrowing into her own "… in your state you shouldn't be out, let's go back…"

"Nooo!" He whined, "I wanna stay out!" He smiled, giddy as a schoolboy. "I wanna see the sun!" He ran off again.

"Eric!"

He zoomed back, wrapping his arms around her waist he lifted her off of the ground, though she tried pulling back again. "You can't! Please just come back inside and I'll…"

His lips were on her, it didn't take much for his tongue find its way into her mouth, she had gasped in surprise and unwittingly allowed him access. She pushed against him, once again torn. Her body and brain were trying to shove him away but her tongue was not getting with the program. Eric tugged her head towards his, burying one of his hands in her hair, his lips were soft but demanding, he kissed her as though he were a starving man. The way he pulled at her lips, sucked on her tongue made her bones melt, while her stomach churned and dripped down to her toes. Her arms and her neck were all that were left to struggle against the searing electricity between them.

"No…" breathed his lips meshed against her mouth, and in a wisp of wind he was gone.

Let me know what you think :) Excited for the next episode!