Sorry this took a while! RL has been a little busy recently.

I didn't get as much feedback last chapter…I hope you're not losing interest? I know it's a slow-burner, but I'm planning this to be quite lengthy; I don't want to rush.

Anyway, here is Chapter Eleven. Enjoy. :)

If their silence hadn't been interrupted by the loud and intrusive ringing of Eric's cell phone, the two would have stayed like that all night. As it were, however, his phone did ring and they were interrupted.

"What?" Eric's voice was supposed to have bite to it, but his thoughts were somewhere else, lost in the nostalgia of his memories, and the word came out weary.

Thankfully, it was only Pam, who had seen him at his highest and his lowest and didn't care either way. "We have a problem."

Eric sighed, rubbing a hand down his face slowly and exhaling a deep breath that he didn't need. "What?"

He didn't need any more drama that night. He just wanted to get away from the woman who was making him relive the insurmountable pain he'd felt on that rooftop and the excruciating agony of being forced to leave. He couldn't think about it again - it was too much. After reassessing the situation, he realized that Pam's distraction really couldn't have come at a better time. He needed to leave. But then, he reminded himself, he needed to protect this woman. Where he went, she went. Whatever had gone on, however, did mean that they could stop sitting in the loudest silence he'd ever heard.

"I've just crashed a party. The place reeks of V. I can smell about twenty different vampires yet there are only humans present."

Eric stood up, gesturing for Sarah to do the same without even looking at her. "I'll find you," he told his child before hanging up.

"We're leaving," he threw behind his shoulder at her, marching towards the door with the confident swagger he always seemed to possess.

"Where are we going?" Sarah asked, grabbing her shoes and sliding them on as she walked, a task that was harder than it looked.

"Shreveport."

"I thought you weren't working tonight?" She asked, befuddled. Her mind was still where it was a year ago: in Dallas. She couldn't think straight currently; her mind was too busy remembering moments of bliss she shared with Godric.

"Something has come up."

Sarah noticed that Eric's answers were short and clipped, indicating that he wasn't any more in the mood than she was to deal with whatever had happened. Clearly, he was in the same state of mind that she was.

Sarah didn't ask or say anything else until they got to Shreveport and neither did Eric. Both of them were at the point where small talk needn't be made and they were both too preoccupied to bother. They were both at a loss for words.

When they exited the car at a house in the inner city and heard the thumping bass from inside, they both decided to leave whatever emotions they were dealing with inside Eric's Corvette. They both needed to be on top of their game.

Sarah, however, was far too exhausted to be up to the standard of her usual witty and tough self. She had told herself that she would be in bed by midnight at the latest, and would sleep for at least seven hours. Instead, the clock from the inside of the car told her that it was gone 1AM and Sarah was stuck in Shreveport with the Vampire Sheriff at what looked to be a regular house party.

"Stay close," Eric murmured, breaking the silence that they had. "I don't want to turn around and not see you there."

"Got it," Sarah replied, trying to brighten up the morose atmosphere that had taken over them.

When Eric didn't seem to respond in any way to her remark, she mumbled under her breath, "Unless some guy offers to get me a drink. I'll be off like a flash."

Eric, although hearing her remark, ignored her presence and strode up to the front door which opened to reveal Pam in slim-leg black pants and a pink frilly blouse. She was nearly as tall as her Maker in the heels she wore, but Sarah was more focused on the business-like look on her face which told Sarah not to make any of the sarcastic remarks that sprung to her head. She had a feeling that neither Pam nor Eric would appreciate them.

"Where is it being kept?" Eric asked, although Sarah had no idea what they were talking about.

"In the basement. The users are down there too." Pam then shouted someone over by the name of Dirk whose eyes glazed over as he saw that it was Pam who shouted him.

"Be a doll and invite my friend in," she purred with a hint of irritation.

Dirk, who was evidently drunk and stoned, grinned lazily. "Sure, dude. Come on in."

Eric wasted no time - besides the eye roll at being called "dude" - in walking into the house and down the stairs to the basement.

Sarah, for a lack of anything better to do, followed him like a lost puppy. The house definitely belonged to a man, she surmised. It had a masculine feel to it, from the neutral colors to the large TV on the den's wall with all gadgets, like X-Box's, attached underneath. Also, the place was crawling with drunken men and women dressed in barely there outfits. Only a man, Sarah thought.

The basement was just that - a basement. A washing-machine was situated in the corner of the room but was not on, and two couches were shoved beside a cheap coffee table that was covered in powder, pills, mirrors and red vials that Sarah could easily recognize - V.

"Is that-" She started, looking imploringly at Eric. It would make sense, she thought. He'd left the house at the drop of a hat after Pam's phone call. It would be important. Dealing V was a very large crime in the vampire world, so of course Eric - being the Sheriff - would be present.

The vampire cut off her question that she already knew the answer to with a curt, "Gentlemen."

Every person in the room froze at the sound of a new voice as though it was instinctual that they knew danger was near. Their heads swiveled round to face Sarah and Eric and their eyes held fear upon seeing Eric.

"Do you all understand that dealing and drinking Vampire Blood is illegal?" His voice was impassive and calm, yet it was deadly. She decided that he must've learned the trick from Godric who had also mastered the art of not raising your voice in order to instill more fear into a person.

A man wearing a cap rose, clearly feeling brave, and nodded. "Yeah, we do. What the hell are you gonna do about-"

He was cut off when Eric flew across the room to pin the man against the wall that had previously been several feet behind him. The others in the room stood up upon seeing it, all letting out exclamations of horror. One man even tried to escape up the stairs past Sarah, who simply shook her head in response and threw her arm out to stop him. Eric would not be pleased if she let one of them go.

Clearly, she must've been feeling courageous because even after he threatened her she did not move her arm.

"Bitch, move," he growled at her, stepping even closer to her. She could smell his breath as it washed across her face – the mix of blood and beer was quite repulsive. It made her cringe back in disgust, but something pressing into her stomach stopped her. Looking down, she saw a small army knife poised to stick into her. She glanced back up at the person who was planning on killing her to get away from Eric and noticed the look of anger on his face. His eyes gave him away, though – they held the panic and the fear, and Sarah felt no anxiety about staring hard at him and saying, "Give that to me and sit back down with your friends."

As she had expected, he immediately handed the knife over to her, his eyes unfocused, before heading back over to the couch where his other friends sat looking like they'd give their right arm to be anywhere but in that basement.

Thankfully, none of them had noticed their interaction as they'd been far more occupied with watching Eric almost strangle the life out of their daring friend as though the man weighed nothing more than a feather. As Sarah looked up, however, she noticed Eric watching her with a hungry look, as though he coveted her ability to do that. Sure, she thought, he could do it now… but she was human. He saw her as being underneath him.

Once everyone – apart from the man Eric had strangled who lay in a heap on the floor gasping for breath (not unlike her when she first met Eric) – was sat on or around the sofas in the middle of the room, Eric turned business like.

"Now that's settled," he spoke loudly, waving a dismissive hand at the man who was groaning behind him, "we can focus on the matter at hand. The V."

Silence followed for all of two seconds before chaos broke out across the room. All the men started shouting, trying to defend their actions as though it would help. Both Eric and Sarah regarded them silently as they hollered out excuses, both with a raised eyebrow and their arms behind their backs.

Sarah observed the crowd before her and her eyes widened when she saw a familiar face – Jason Stackhouse. He was looking at her pleadingly, trying to get her to stop him from getting into trouble. She shrugged helplessly at him, not knowing what she could do and his eyes only pleaded more in response.

She hated the feeling that flooded through her body – the feeling of being able to do nothing. She couldn't even speak up for fear of angering Eric. She usually could speak up in a court of law and make some sort of objection, but not this time. This time, nobody cared what she had to say.

Eric continued to speak as Sarah and Jason had a silent conversation. Sarah vaguely made out that he was just teasing them for the time being, fully intending to drag the dealers and the users back to Fangtasia before the night was through. Sarah could only imagine what he would do to them.

As he spoke with the authority that only Eric Northman could possess, Sarah tried to think of how she could get Jason out of this situation. She wasn't exactly well versed in the ways in which one could distract a vampire long enough for one person to escape his notice, so she had to work with what she did know.

Just as Eric said Pam's name to call her down to help, it hit her: Sookie. Eric wouldn't want to jeopardize his future relationship (platonic or otherwise) with Sookie by torturing her brother. It wouldn't bode well if he wanted to sleep with Sarah's new housemate.

Moving too quickly for Sarah to see, Eric and Pam went around to each individual in the room, knocking them out cold before moving onto their next victim. Thankfully, Sarah moved quickly too, keeping her eyes fixed on Jason. So when Eric approached him, fangs bared, Sarah let out a firm, "No," to stop him. He whirled on her out of animalistic instinct, but she was so used to fangs that they didn't scare her anymore. So she simply looked at him, to Jason, and back again.

"That's Sookie's brother," she told him quietly, not wanting the cowering Jason to hear. "I don't know if you've met him before, but she wouldn't want you to torture her brother like the rest of these."

Eric's face returned to its usual indifferent mask as he moved only his eyes to look at Jason. Recognition flickered in his light blue eyes before they once again turned onto her.

"What would you have me do? I must do something." His voice was also quiet, thankfully, and Sarah tried to shoot him a grateful look before speaking.

"I'm not sure…" She looked around in thought, noticing that Pam was dragging the bodies with one hand to the corner of the room while she spoke to someone on the cell with her other. The vials of V were smashed from the ruckus, blood oozing out onto the table and the floor.

"He could repay you in some other way? Make him earn his punishment?" She suggested, not really knowing what else she could offer to him that would leave Jason unscathed.

Eric looked at her with a strange expression that she couldn't place. "You don't want me to not punish him at all?"

Sarah couldn't help it – she scoffed. "No. I'm not stupid."

When Eric only raised an eyebrow as if to say, "Aren't you?" she continued. "I've dealt with users before with Godric. He kept me in the loop. You have to do something otherwise they get away with it. I know how they get their supply and it's disgusting. Of course you have to do something. Just…" she paused, thinking over her next words and how selfish they sounded. "Not Jason. I know it's wrong and self-righteous of me to only ask for him but—"

"Never put yourself down; it only gives others the encouragement to do so. If you want something, chase it. Don't be distracted."

Her mouth closed with a snap. He'd never offered her advice or guidance before; they were on new territory. And then she realized something.

"Did Godric tell you that?" Her voice was not even the smallest whisper, but she knew he'd hear.

He nodded once, before murmuring, "Before he changed his mind."

They were both edging towards the uncomfortable silence once again where their thoughts buried them and if it continued to happen, Sarah knew that it would never get easier to move on. They needed to stop.

"Does this mean you're not going to torture him?"

To her great relief, Eric shook his head. "As always, you make a valid point. But he will owe me fealty." He said the last part at a normal volume so that Jason – who had been watching their exchange with great curiosity – could hear him.

Jason nodded quickly, his face letting Sarah know that he understood that he had just gotten lucky. Very lucky.

Pam interrupted the trio in the corner with an abrupt, and obviously fake, cough. "The van's is here. Help me drag them upstairs without too many people noticing." She turned to Sarah with a sly grin on her face. "If Sarah wanted to help, she could always go upstairs and… what's the phrase?... 'bump and grind' on the dance floor so everyone's distracted." Her grin only got wider at Sarah's astonished look.

Sarah looked to Eric to see if he could give any sign that she was joking but only saw him trying to suppress a smile at his child.

When he noticed her looking at him, he shrugged. "It would be entertaining to watch."

They were teasing. This time, she couldn't help the small grin that took over her face and she did playfully shove his arm, even though it did nothing but make the sound of skin hitting leather. Thankfully, he didn't look surprised or angered by the action, so Sarah just dismissed it as something she'd have done with anyone. Besides, she reasoned, she'd be staying with him for some time. The sooner they got more comfortable, the sooner the awkwardness would disappear.

"Can't I help in some other way?"

That was how Sarah ended up flirting shamelessly with Dirk, the house owner, who she managed to persuade to move everyone outside. After all, it was "a really beautiful night that had to be appreciated." She was sure that Dirk had thought she was a hippie or something of the kind from the way she spoke with such rapture about the night air, but she knew that he thought he was getting lucky. It was astonishing what a man would do and say if the prospect of being laid was in his grasp.

After Eric gave her a hand gesture to hurry up, she managed to talk her way out of Dirk's grasp on her arm as he tried to stop her from leaving and hurried over to the large van that was to transport the users to Fangtasia.

Pam was stood with the keys in one hand, being tossed to and fro by her slight fingers, and with Jason in the other, looking somewhere between scared and confused.

"Pam will take Jason back to Fangtasia so we can talk. You will come with me." Eric spoke from the shadows behind the van as he slammed the door shut, before strolling round to the front next to his Corvette.

Sarah nodded, running her hands through her hair in a stressful manner. "Men," she muttered distastefully as a shudder ran through her. Eric only laughed before opening her door for her.

The ride to Fangtasia was quiet, but only because Sarah fell quickly asleep, lulled gently by the car's motions and the soft hum of the motor. She had always been soothed by cars since she was a small girl, a trick that her nanny had put to use a great deal. She remembered that Angela would always huff impatiently when she simply wouldn't nap at the set times Celia told her to but then ask the elder woman if she could take Sarah on a drive. Sarah would always protest, she remembered, since she knew that driving was the one thing to ensure her nap. She hated having to concede to her parents. It was because of this that almost as soon as Eric turned on the engine and her head hit the soft leather of the headrest, her eyes shut of their own accord.

They reopened after Eric gently nudged her with his elbow. She opened her eyes groggily, looking around in confusion.

"Why am I in your car?" She brought her hand to her hair, flattening it down in fear of looking like Rebecca.

"You fell asleep," he told her quietly, the peace of the car too quiet to break with harsh words.

"Clearly," she retorted with a hint of sarcasm, unbuckling her seatbelt. Her tone was lost, however, in the drowsiness of her voice and the way her eyes shut again once the belt had flown back behind her.

"Come, we have business."

She only groaned in response, trying to keep her eyes closed, but before long a warm breeze hit her, and a chilled hand closed around her wrist as Eric pulled her from the car as gently as his patience would allow. She let him tug her out of the car and she vaguely heard the sound of it being locked from behind her as she leaned on Eric as he guided her to the front entrance. She also heard the few gasps of delight around her as Eric came into view of the few men and women smoking outside which meant that she also heard the catty comments about her being with him. She decided that she really didn't care – she was too tired. She wanted to sleep.

Eric deposited her at the bar, ordering her a small Coke in the hope that it would perk her up slightly.

Sarah watched Eric walk away from her and the bar once he had been sure that she wouldn't fall off the stool. Her Coke arrived – ice cold – not long after, and she had sipped graciously at it. She was thirsty and the caffeine did help a little to wake her up (it was nothing like a cup of coffee, but she had to work with what she had). She stayed quiet amongst the clubbers, not wanting to draw attention to her in any way. She doubted that she'd be able to hold a conversation any way with her tiredness.

Her plans to stay unspotted didn't exactly work out. A young looking vampire with a very good bone structure strolled cockily up to her, expecting her to fawn over him.

"Good evening," he said to her, an undercurrent of a French accent present in his voice.

"Evening," she replied shortly, her voice still thick with sleep.

"I noticed that you were sat by yourself with a non-alcoholic drink. Usually, the women who sit alone and want leaving alone are the ones drinking the heavy stuff. There's nothing heavy in your Coke. Apart from sugar, of course."

She didn't want him there. She wished that he'd leave her alone. She even considered asking the bartender to pour some rum into her drink so that he would take the hint that she did indeed want leaving alone.

"I'm not much of a drinker," she eventually told him wearily, not wanting to offend him. After all, he'd approached her out of all the other women in the room – she should have been flattered.

He laughed a little, sitting down as though they were now friends. She needed to put an end to this.

"Look, I'm sure you're great but I'm really not looking for anything right now – I don't want sex with you, I don't want a friendship from you, and I don't want to be a donor to you. I appreciate you talking to me, but I'm really not in the mood to talk. Thank you, though, for singling me out."

She then turned to face the bar, not even glancing at him again as he bit out a reply that she assumed was an attempt to save his dignity. She just sipped her Coke and stared at the granite bar and the red beer mats that were scattered across it.

She was so focused on not looking up that she didn't notice the pair of eyes on her. Eric watched in fascination as he saw Sarah reject the vampire – Louis McGreen was his name – with a class that only a few women, including vampires, possessed. She managed to be firm yet empathetic which was something even Eric couldn't do. He was only firm, never being subdued by his emotions. He didn't give sympathy or empathy and he certainly wasn't kind to strangers. He showed no mercy when it came to choosing women. He was selective, and if a woman wasn't good enough – didn't have the right blood type, being too boring, being too short, too tall, too bitter to taste, too sweet – he didn't exactly let them down easily. Women were there for his pleasure to do with as he pleased.

Except for, it seemed, three women – Pam, his progeny, Sookie, the one who baffled him beyond comfort, and now it seemed another woman had wormed her way into his life in a non-sexual way: Sarah, the mystery who understood.

At first, he would openly and happily admit that he despised the woman. She angered him by claiming to know Godric as he did, by dredging up memories of the past that he wanted to bury and burn within him… she managed to make him feel by being his only living connection to Godric. He had never been susceptible to a human before. The fact that she could control his mind was just another reason for him to hate her – he was vulnerable. Weak before her.

After spending a few days with – only a few days – he had come to see that she was really a lot like Sookie in a lot of ways. She was strong, independent and interesting to converse with. She was tough. But she was also experienced. She knew the vampire world and she didn't expect him to be somebody else like Sookie did. He couldn't be what Sookie wanted out of a man. She wanted more…and he wasn't prepared to give it. Sarah, on the other hand, didn't want more. In fact, she wanted less. She wanted to forget her past, even though the very fact that she was in Shreveport reminded her of it.

Watching her sleep had been fascinating. One moment she was fully conscious and making her usual remarks at him, and the next her breathing had evened out and her face had turned soft and unguarded. He watched her eyes flicker as she dreamt and listened to the way her breathing would speed up every now and then before slowing down again after. It had been a few years since he'd watched a human dream… he had forgotten how enchanting it was. Seeing her so vulnerable had also been an added bonus – it proved to him that she was, indeed, a human and not something that would wait until the opportune moment and then stake him. It proved that she was not always strong which was a boost for his ego. He never had weak moments.

As he watched her brush off a young vampire who many women would beg to sleep with, he decided that she wasn't as annoying and as incompetent as he had originally thought. He could even grow to like her; after all, the amount of qualities that she shared with Pam was uncanny. He could see her as more than a 'thing' that needed to be dealt with for Godric's sake. Maybe.

That wasn't too sappy or anything was it? I do worry a ridiculous amount when I write Eric not being mean. Just sayin'.