I want to thank you all so much. Hoping you enjoy this one ;)

Chapter Twelve

I had thought Gran was over exaggerating about the bite on my neck. I thought since it didn't feel all that painful, it couldn't have looked that bad, right? As it turned out, I was wrong.

I was staring at it in the bathroom mirror, feeling a curious mixture of both disgust and intrigue, while Gran was going crazy searching for the antiseptic spray she had in the bathroom cabinet for wounds. It was red and splotchy, with two little puncture wounds very nearly two inches apart. Dried blood was matted in a smeared line towards my collarbone. It looked as though a mosquito had bitten me; A huge, huge mosquito, mind you.

I hadn't even known Eric had bitten me that badly. Sure, I felt him bite me, but I just assumed it was some kind of kinky thing. Maybe men liked biting women in the heat of the moment? Or maybe it was something far more sinister? I didn't know what to call it. Love bite? Hickey? It looked more like a love bite than a hickey.

While I had my suspicions that there was something strange going on with Eric, not once did I think he would turn out that strange.

Gran was getting frustrated because she couldn't find any antiseptic. She called Jason up, since he didn't have work on a Sunday and she assumed he might have known where the antiseptic was. Much to my embarrassment, he goggled my neck and whistled through his teeth at me.

"What, Jason?" I asked, annoyed. I was definitely not in the mood for some immature, brotherly teasing right now.

"Damn Sookie," he commented, sounding as though he was trying very hard not to laugh at me. "You hooked up with a guy at Church, enough that he'd give you a love bite?"

Gran was standing around, and I didn't want her hearing any part of it.

"Jason," I warned, in the flattest voice I could muster. "Stop it."

Still he refused to let it go. "Who was the guy?"

"It wasn't a guy, Jason. I got bitten." It was a feeble attempt at lying, and Jason saw straight through it, unfortunately. "There must've been a mosquito in Church. That, or a huge-ass wasp." I felt red as a Satsuma.

He snorted at me, full of disbelief. "Yeah, right," he muttered wryly. "A guy totally sucked your neck, sis. I've never seen no mosquito bites or wasp bites looking like that before..."

Gran was disinterested in our conversation, fortunately. "Jason, have you seen the antiseptic?"

"Think I left it in the kitchen. Sorry, Gran."

She huffed underneath her breath, not happy. "Then next time put it back where you got it from, all right?" She stormed out of the room, and we both stared after her in bewilderment. Gran usually wasn't in such a foul mood. Soon as Gran was out of the bathroom, Jason took the moment to pounce. I knew he would.

"Seriously, Sook. What happened? I know it weren't no insect bite that did that to you."

"All right, you got me," I confessed miserably. "Some guy just bit me."

"Some guy?" Jason was appalled. "What, you didn't know the guy who did it?"

"Of course, I do," I hissed, irritated. "He was that same guy that came around the house that time! What, you think I'd just let anybody bite me, Jason? Get real!"

"He must be a fucking vampire, sis."

Now I was struggling to keep a straight face at that. "Jason, be serious," I laughed nervously. "Vampire's don't exist. You know that!"

"Well, looks like a fucking vampire bite to me," he insisted. "If they weren't make believe anyway..."

Annoying me and hurting me in equal measure, Jason touched the two little puncture wounds with his forefinger. It stung real badly.

"Jason!" I screeched. "Don't! That hurts, you know?"

"Fangs," he said underneath his breath idiotically. He poked me again with his finger, so I swatted him away.

"Jason, vampire's don't exist! You're kind of scaring me right now!"

"Well, either that or he claimed you. Some guy's do that, sis."

"Claim me?" That was almost as ridiculous as him saying Eric was a vampire.

"Yeah, like they're marking their territory. One of the boys' at work did that one time to his girlfriend. He gave her a hickey, just so that people would know she was his. Every time they saw the hickey on her neck they knew she was off-limits."

"Well, that guy at your work sounds like a possessive weirdo then, Jason," I said. "I could never stand being with a guy who attempts to mark me as his property."

"Looks like you just have," Jason pointed out, startling me. Was that what this was all about? Marking your territory? It didn't seem so to me. Eric didn't seem like the type. Plus, doing that is just weird.

Gran entered the bathroom again, and our conversation was immediately dropped. When she applied the antiseptic on Eric's bite, it stung so bad I was whimpering something shocking the entire way through.

At work, a scarf was my new addition to my work uniform.

I couldn't stand the thought of someone commenting on it, so I wore a trusty, old scarf that belonged to my Grandmother all day. It got unbearably hot at times, especially when I had to go near the kitchen. But it was a small price to pay instead of having people gossiping about it and giving me strife. Since Jason already knew about the bite, he laughed to himself when he saw me wearing it. Arlene and Tara just commented on how pretty the colour was- they didn't assume I was hiding anything at all.

It was pretty much an ordinary start to the night and uneventful, until two people came in just after dark. They looked like newlyweds, because they had that happy sex glow about them. At least, they looked like they had only just came from their own wedding, considering how overdressed they were for Merlotte's. The man was wearing a spick-and-span black tuxedo, the woman was wearing a pretty little black halter neck dress. They were hanging off each other like a bad smell; The man's arm draped around her neck, and her beaming around the room like she'd won a real catch with this one.

Unfortunately they sat in my partition, which meant I had to deal with them.

Just as I was gathering my notepad and pencil to go over to them, they laughed loudly and he leaned over in the booth to full-on start kissing her. It was sweet, I guess, if you weren't sickened by that type of thing. But when I saw his tongue slip into her mouth, and the moans she was making, it was very nearly enough to make me gag.

I cleared my throat anxiously to get their attention. And get their attention, it certainly did. They sprang apart, and the woman beamed up at me with white, glistening Hollywood teeth.

"Hey there. Is there something I can get you both tonight?"

I saw the woman look me up and down critically with her dark eyes. It was a rather condescending, mean look. One that made me feel a bit insecure.

"Hmmm, I don't know," she said, her voice as seductive and dark as a cat purring. "What do you think, William?"

The guy gave me a good looking-over as well, raising his eyebrows. Something about either one of them gave me the jeepers. His look wasn't as condescending and mean-spirited as hers, at least. It still made me feel incredibly nervous, though.

"Uh, is there anything at all?" I repeated, trying to keep my voice as calm and collected as I possibly could.

I hardly noticed the woman lean over towards me, until I felt her fingers playing with my scarf. "That's a lovely scarf you've got there, darling," she said, fiddling with it with a set of glistening deep red painted fingernails.

"Uh, thanks. It belongs to my Grandmother. She let me borrow it."

"Why, isn't that sweet, William?" I could hear the sarcasm in her tone of voice. "Her Grandmother let her borrow it. How lovely it is."

By accident, I believe, she yanked down my scarf. I knew she had seen the bite, because the funniest look flitted across her face, and the guy- William?- he made a startled noise. She turned to look at him, he peered back at her deeply, and it seemed to me they were communicating something along with that look. Something creepy.

"Oh, my apologies, little girl," the woman said, oddly enough sounding sincere. She helped fix my scarf back up so that it was covering the bite. "You best keep that covered now, won't you?" she said after a moment, a threat evident in her tone of voice.

"Well, that is what I'm intending to do," I told her, setting it straight.

"Well, good. You best do that now." Again, she was talking in a dangerously low, menacingly sweet voice. What was that all about?

Slicing through her harsh look, the man bent over to whisper something into her ear. I couldn't hear what he said, but along with his words, she relaxed into a smile.

"Oh, yes, darling. Brilliant idea." She fixed her eyes on me again. "We'll be like two normal lovers, and we'll have two glasses of red wine, thank you."

I was eager to get away, but I didn't want to seem rude. So I lingered a fraction longer, keeping the smile on my face. "Sure, coming right up."

I got back over to the bar, fixing up their glasses of red wine. As I turned back, they were at it with their passionate kissing again. But this time, another person sat across from them in the seat. I recognized even the back of that person's head. It was Eric. I wasn't sure how he got here so fast, but somehow he had managed it. It was almost as though he had appeared magically out of nowhere. When I started back on my way over with their glasses carefully, I couldn't help but notice he was watching them going at it with an air of disgust similar to how I was feeling over their display of affection. I had to purse my lips together to stop myself from smiling.

I went to great efforts in ignoring him as I placed their red wines on the table. I wondered then how Eric knew such crass people. Then again, Eric was pretty crass himself. I was doing an excellent job of ignoring him, until he called me back in an almost stern voice that I couldn't ignore.

"Sookie?"

I closed my eyes and bit down on the tip of my tongue, before I turned back to him. I was wearing the fakest grin imaginable. "Oh, yes Eric?"

Turning his attention away from the two, he looked at me. He was smiling, although no emotion hit his eyes along with it. "Are you available after work?"

The two stopped dramatically with their kissing to watch our interaction, like we were a new form of entertainment, I noticed.

I felt my cheeks redden, knowing the newlywed pair were still assessing us. "Uh, yes. I have no plans. Why is that?" I asked, suspicion coating my voice. I sure hoped he didn't want to bite me again, or do something weird to me.

"I wish to see you, that's all."

"All right. I guess that's fine by me."

I regretted saying that, when his eyes took in the scarf I was wearing. No doubt, he knew exactly why I was wearing it. He looked amused by it, very much so. I fought the urge to say something rude about him marking me with a love bite, and off I went.

The three of them sat there in that booth all night. The couple wasn't kissing anymore, so at least that's something. But I did notice they called someone over to the table, and the woman's laughter rang high as he did all these crazy things, like a performer. He flapped his arms around like a chicken, he did an imitation of Michael Jackson dancing. I thought Eric was the only one who did not look amused. He wasn't laughing at all, unlike the other two, whose laughter sounded drunk and cruel. How strange.

They cleared out only as Sam told them the bar was closing for the night. Even Sam took immediate hostility to the pair. I hadn't even seen him go off like that before, but he looked very frustrated. Arlene, Tara and I helped Sam clean up the bar for closing. When I got into the staff room fifteen minutes later, I realized I was far too tired to have to deal with Eric. I considered sneaking out the back entrance and leaving on him, but then it felt sort of mean to do so. Putting myself in his shoes, I wouldn't have very much liked it if somebody did that to me.

He was standing around outside near his car when I got out. Almost as if he had sensed my presence, he turned around immediately to look at me. There was something funny in that look for me, one I didn't much like.

"Oh, you're still here," I said, pretending to be surprised. "I thought you would have left already, sorry. I just got stuck helping Sam clean up."

"Oh, it doesn't matter how long you had taken. I still would have waited hours."

I paused with my walking at that remark, feeling my face glow with heat. It was rather sweet of him, but odd at the same time. He must have been truly desperate to see me then.

"Is there something that you really needed to talk to me about?" I asked, a bit spooked.

"You could say that, yes." It was obvious he wasn't going to give me anymore than that. He opened his car door for me, and I slid in, feeling panicked. What did he want to talk about? I wondered, as he closed the door and went over to the other side to climb in. Why couldn't he just tell me already and get it over with? Unless... he didn't want to say it in public?

I scrutinized him surreptitiously while he drove. Well, as surreptitiously as I felt I could without him noticing. He was wearing jeans and a dark jumper tonight, which was folded neatly at the elbows. His mouth was pressed into a thin line as he stared ahead at the road. I thought he looked aggravated for some reason.

"Were those two people your friends tonight?" I asked, hoping for some conversation. He threw a quick glance my way and scoffed.

"I would hardly call them my friends. They're not even close to that."

"Well, you looked pretty cosy with them?"

He ignored that. Instead, he reached over and slipped the scarf off my neck, searching the bite. I wondered if he was just looking to see how bad it was.

I stared down at my hands, folding them in my lap.

"How did you go with that nose bleed? It's stopped now obviously..."

"Yes. It stopped right after you left. I guess you helped me a lot more than you thought you would be capable of."

"Yeah, I guess so..." There was another dreadful moment of silence. He was taking me to his apartment. "So, what did you need to see me for?" I asked, hoping to keep the conversational ball rolling in the court. "Anything in particular?"

"I think it would be best if we talked about it indoors and with a little privacy." It didn't do any good in easing my nerves; The way he said it made me feel as though something bad was impending. Maybe he noticed how panicked I looked, because he added, quite gently, "It isn't anything all that concerning. Nothing major. I've just received some very unpleasant news."

Some very unpleasant news? Then how can it not be anything major or concerning?

I was thinking about it all the way to his apartment. Once we got inside, I was pleased to notice that there wasn't any funny sounds coming from in his roomie's room again. She must have been out and about for the night.

"Can I get you a drink?" he asked.

"No, thanks. I'm all good." I still had this gut feeling that something terrible was lurking. In order to ease my nerves a notch, I distracted myself in untying my hair from its ponytail. Eric was watching me as I brushed out my long hair over my shoulders with an unfathomable expression on his face.

"Can I get you anything at all then?" he asked, irritation in his voice.

"Uh, no thanks. I don't need anything."

"Can I take your bag then?" I hadn't even realized I still had it slung over my waist, but I was perfectly fine holding it, so I shook my head.

With a heavy sigh, I heard him sit down on his couch. I could feel his eyes on me as I looked around his living room, and when I finally turned to look at him, they were still on me. He had an ankle resting on his knee, and he kept wiggling his shoe around, like he was nervous. It meant the pair of us were nervous then by the looks of it.

"All right," I sighed, losing my already thin patience. "Want to tell me why you brought me here already? What's the unpleasant news?"

He stood from the couch and disappeared for a moment. When he returned, he was holding what looked like a letter. "Time's running out," he said, laying a strange document out on the couch. "Apparently you need a Visa to reside in this country. The only way I can do so is if I have a wife."

Ah, so here it was...

"It wasn't like this when I first arrived here, but in order to stay here, I need to be legally bound. They're threatening to send me back to Sweden."

"And you're wanting me to be your wife so that you can stay here?" I asked, surprised. I certainly wasn't expecting that. "Why can't you just ask someone else, someone who's probably willing?" Arlene instantly came to mind.

He sighed loudly again, and shrugged. "You're my only choice."

"Well, how long d'you have?"

"Three days, and that's before the monumental change begins with the prohibition."

"Three days?!" Well, damn.