Chapter 12
When Godric got home barely before dawn, Eric was waiting for him in bed.
"Someone got lucky tonight," Eric said as he inhaled deeply through his nose.
Godric paid him no attention as he undressed. His thoughts were still on all Sookie had told him. A plan was forming in his mind, but he still hadn't worked out all the details.
"Was your little virgin telepath not up to par?" Eric asked with a devilish smirk. "You should have let me break her in for you."
Godric pounced, as anger swept through him in a white-hot flare at the thought of anyone, even his own child, laying a hand on his Sookie. He bared his fangs as he pressed Eric down against he mattress, his hand curled around Eric's throat. "Do not speak of her that way!"
"Forgive me, master," Eric whispered, his whole body stiffening as he realized he'd genuinely upset his maker.
Shaking his head, Godric came back to himself as the anger slowly seeped away. "No, Eric. I should be asking for your forgiveness. I am angry, but not at you."
Godric pushed himself off Eric and slipped under the sheets beside him.
Eric stared at him with a calculating gaze. "Would this have something to do with one Bartlett Hale?"
"He's a funny uncle," Godric said absently.
"He's a what?"
Godric smiled, inexplicitly pleased Eric didn't know what that word meant, either. "He molested Sookie when she was a child."
"Did he now," Eric said, his fangs clicking out. "So this will be his last night on this green earth?"
"No," Godric said, much to Eric's obvious surprise. "Sookie does not want to see him dead."
"Hmm." Eric sounded nothing if not disappointed.
"But I have a plan," Godric said with a promising smile. "We will visit him tomorrow at first dark."
"Good." Eric shifted a little closer, and when Godric looked at him he noticed Eric's pleading eyes.
"You may snuggle if you like," Godric said with a chuckle, and at once he had a Viking wrapped around him.
"So how was she really?" Eric asked, his nose buried against Godric's throat.
"Magnificent," Godric said in all honesty. Eric purred in response. Godric grinned and patted his child's head as he waited for the sun to pull them under.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
They stood side by side in front of a debilitated house in a seedy part of Shreveport.
"We could just push him down the stairs," Eric said hopefully. "Make it look like an accident. Sookie would never have to know."
"Tempting," Godric said with a little sigh. "But Sookie is too perceptive. She would know. And I do not want to upset her."
Eric muttered something unintelligible.
"What?" Godric checked the contents of the plastic bag he was carrying. Bobby had picked up all the items he needed. Good.
"I said, Pam has a word for your condition," Eric said with a wide grin. "It's called pussy-whipped."
Godric released a bark of laughter. "Pussy-whipped? Is that truly a word?"
"According to Pam."
"You'd think that with Pam's preferences, she'd be the one who is pussy-whipped," Godric said thoughtfully, and Eric snorted with laughter for a moment before he screwed his face up in a more serious expression.
"Shall we?" Eric gestured towards the house.
"We shall," Godric replied with a wicked little smile.
It took considerable time for the door to open after Godric rang the doorbell. But the moment he laid eyes on Bartlett Hale, he understood why. Bartlett was a decrepit old man in a wheelchair. Godric was almost disappointed. He'd have preferred to see someone who wasn't already at death's door. That would have made his punishment that much more satisfying.
Godric easily caught Bartlett's gaze with his own. "Invite us in."
"Please come in, gentlemen," Bartlett said in a dazed voice as he pushed his wheelchair out of the way. Once the front door closed behind them, Eric and Godric set to work.
Eric, as agreed upon earlier, went through Bartlett's possessions. Godric wanted to know everything there was to know about this miserable little man. And Godric pushed his influence into Bartlett's mind over and over again as he questioned him about all the children he'd molested.
Sometime during the previous night, as he flew home, he realized that Bartlett, like most of his kind of molester, wouldn't have stopped after Adele kicked him out of her life. He'd just have found a new victim. And that's how Godric planned to punish him, without dragging his Sookie into the mix.
Bartlett confessed to touching Sookie, her aunt Linda, and Sookie's cousin Hadley, the one who'd ratted Sookie out to Sophie-Anne.
"After Adele stopped inviting me, I volunteered at the library," Bartlett rattled on in a wheezy voice. "I touched three girls there. One of them, Eva Thompson, she was real eager. She had such a tight little pussy."
Godric slapped him across his face. Hard. "I do not need any details." In fact, he didn't need to know more at all. He already had the information he needed.
"Looks like Bartlett has a savings account," Eric said as he entered the living room, holding some papers.
Godric considered this. His first instinct was to have Bartlett donate the money to Sookie, as reparation for what he'd done to her. But knowing Sookie, she would never accept it. But there was someone else who could use the money, and who might accept it.
"You will donate every penny you own to your sister, Adele," Godric said as he gazed into Bartlett's watery blue eyes. "And you will phone the police, tell them to come over, and confess to all the children you have molested, except for your relatives. You will tell the police you are confessing because you can no longer live with the guilt."
Bartlett gave a slow nod, though his expression remained blank.
Godric looked at Eric and held up the plastic bag in his hands. "Now for the next step."
Eric followed him outside and Godric handed him an item from the bag before grabbing his own. He shook the canister of spray paint as per the instructions, briefly wondering why it made a strange rattling sound, and then they set to work.
It was the shame he'd felt from Sookie the previous night that had inspired this particular step of Godric's plan. He wanted Bartlett to feel shame just as much, or preferably even more so, as Sookie did. They covered every side of Bartlett's house with slogans that announced his true nature.
"I have never applied graffiti before," Eric said with an eager grin once they were halfway through. "I've had it removed from my businesses often enough, but this is new."
"There is a first time for everything," Godric said, putting some flair in the letters he was painting across Bartlett's bedroom window. He stepped back and admired the 'Here Lives A Child Molester' he'd sprayed in fluorescent orange.
"I still say we should just push him down the stairs," Eric said after they were done.
"That would probably be more satisfying," Godric said with a wistful sigh.
Eric nodded. "But then you wouldn't be getting laid again anytime soon."
"Exactly." Godric grinned up at Eric. "This way, I get to fuck my Sookie, and Bartlett gets to go to jail. Everybody wins."
Snickering, Eric clapped Godric on the shoulder. "Are you coming back to Fangtasia with me to feed?"
"No, I had a very satisfying meal last night, and I hope to get seconds later." Godric handed the bag of empty paint canisters to Eric, much to his dismay. "Throw these away somewhere. I'm going to get Sookie's car and drive it to Bon Temps."
Eric nodded and shot up into the air. Godric followed him a second later.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Sookie's new car was a smaller model BMW. It was dark green, nothing too flashy, but still luxurious. It most certainly was an improvement over what she'd had before. Godric drove it to Bon Temps with pleasure, really letting it go from time to time as he pressed the gas pedal down to see what it could do.
It handled like a dream, he was pleased to note. Though he hadn't expected anything less. He'd driven several models of BMWs himself and he'd never been disappointed with their potential.
He drove it very carefully over Sookie's driveway, parked it in front of the house, and then honked the horn twice, hoping Sookie would come outside to admire her new car.
But the door remained closed, and after a few minutes Godric got out of the car. He could feel Sookie buzzing with annoyance and even anger and some pain, and he wondered what was wrong with her as he knocked on the door.
Sookie answered it by yanking the door open, her expression resembling a thundercloud.
Godric blinked and smiled at her. "I brought over your new car."
"I can see that," Sookie snapped, barely glancing at the new car parked in front of the house. "But I'm not some dog that comes running when you tell it to heel."
"Of course not," Godric said carefully. He was beyond confused why Sookie seemed so angry with him. Last night, she'd accepted everything he'd told her about himself just fine, and she'd even shared her own painful past.
Had she changed her mind? Had she suddenly decided that she didn't want him in her life because of who and what he was? That thought made Godric's insides squirm in a very unpleasant way.
"Well, aren't you going to come in?" Sookie stepped away from the door in a huff. She was wearing blue jeans and a frumpy yellow sweater. Godric missed the sight of her tanned skin.
"Thank you." Godric took a few hesitant steps inside the house and closed the door quietly behind him. "Have I done something to anger you?"
Sookie seemed to consider this question with a frown. "Yes. You could have called. You know. After last night."
Godric remained quiet while he pondered this. He didn't understand why he should have called.
"Or left a note," Sookie continued, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. "Or sent some flowers. Or something."
"I was dead for most of the day," Godric finally said in his own defence. "I do not understand why I should have done any of those things."
Sookie sighed and sank down on the couch. Godric remained standing, not wanting to upset her more when he hadn't yet figured out why she was upset in the first place.
"I don't know how this is going to work," Sookie said with a sniffle. "You're just too different."
Those weren't the kind of words Godric wanted to hear from his Sookie, but he still didn't know what he had done wrong, and Sookie didn't seem willing to explain it to him.
"I will leave you," he said as a sort of peace-offering. He didn't know what else to do. He placed the keys to Sookie's new car on the table and zipped out the door. Outside, he took to the sky immediately and flew back to Shreveport at top speed.
He found Eric and Pam in the office at Fangtasia.
"I do not understand women," Godric said, throwing the door shut behind him with a bang. He let himself fall onto the couch and crossed his arms.
Eric leaned back in his chair behind his desk, looking like it took him a great deal of effort not to smile.
"There, there," Pam said, as she sat down beside Godric. "Tell your Auntie Pam what's wrong."
Godric gave Pam a look, but this didn't seem to faze her. She only offered him her sweetest smile in return.
"I do not know what's wrong," Godric said with a sigh. "Sookie was very angry with me for some reason. She said I should have done things. Called her. Sent flowers."
"Well, you did pop her cherry last night, didn't you?" Pam quirked an eyebrow at him in almost the exact way Eric always did.
"So?" Godric didn't see what that had to do with anything.
"Humans can be sensitive about such things," Pam said wisely. "Perhaps she was expecting to receive some token of your affections."
"I just brought her a BMW!" Godric said, exasperated.
Eric snorted with laughter for a second, but shut up the moment Godric glared at him.
"Hmm." Pam seemed to consider this. "That is peculiar." She got up from the couch and shrugged. "I don't think I can help you with this one."
Godric brooded for a good long while as Pam got back to work and Eric started typing away behind his computer. One of the waitresses brought him a TruBlood, but Godric took one sip and spat it out again almost immediately. How could he ever have stomached this swill?
A few tastes of Sookie's blood, and he was spoiled for anything but her unique flavour.
Eric was snickering quietly as Godric dumped the full bottle of synthetic blood in the garbage bin.
"Should I send her flowers?" Godric asked, after some more brooding.
"I have no idea," Eric said, not even looking up from the computer screen.
Godric wanted Sookie to be happy. He wanted to please her. But how could he do that if he didn't even know what made her unhappy in the first place. He'd been honest with Sookie when he told her he didn't know how to be a boyfriend by any human standards. Was Sookie expecting him to act in ways he was simply unaware of? If that were the case, she should just tell him what to do instead of trying to verbally bite his head of.
Pam returned to the office some time later. "There is someone here to see you." And as she stepped to the side, Godric saw Sookie standing there, clutching her purse. She'd changed into a blue dress.
"Could we maybe talk in private for a moment?" Sookie asked quietly as she shuffled inside the office.
Eric looked disappointed but got up from his desk anyway. He closed the door behind himself, after giving Pam a pointed look to back away.
Godric stared up at Sookie, who stood awkwardly in the middle of the office. She no longer felt like anger and annoyance, but she was humming with shame and guilt and a deep sense of sadness.
"You will have to tell me what I did wrong," Godric said as he narrowed his eyes at Sookie. "I consulted Pam and Eric, but they didn't understand your behaviour, either."
Sookie bit her lip for a moment. "You didn't do anything wrong."
"What?" Godric was so confused he wanted to start throwing things out of sheer frustration. Expensive, breakable things. Against stone walls.
"I was in a temper, and I was looking to pick a fight. And you were there." Sookie stared down at her shoes. "I am so sorry."
"Why were you in a temper?" Godric asked. He wanted to get to the bottom of this, because he couldn't stand having Sookie angry with him for any reason. Or for no reason at all.
Sookie heaved a deep sigh and shook her head. "This afternoon, Sam, Jason, Tara and Lafayette stopped by. They tried to have an intervention."
"An intervention for what?" Godric asked, nonplussed.
"To get me away from you, basically."
Godric growled and clenched his hands into fists. "Is that why you said you didn't know if this was going to work?"
"No!" Sookie took a step closer to him and looked at him with pleading eyes. "I told them to shut up, basically. And then Tara noticed the marks on my neck and she went nuts." Sookie touched the bite marks on her throat briefly. "And then Jason started threatening you, and Sam kept pointing out how you'd snapped another vampire in half and how dangerous you were."
Godric reached for Sookie's hand and pulled her closer, urging her to sit down beside him on the couch. Sookie sank down with a sigh.
"I tried to tell them how important you were to me, and about everything you've done for me and Gran. But they wouldn't hear any of it. So I told them to leave." Sookie stared down at her lap. "But then, after they left, I kept thinking about how different you really are. How we're never going to have breakfast together, and how we'll never have children, and how I'm gonna grow old and you're going to stay the same."
Wrapping an arm around Sookie's waist, Godric pulled her closer and brushed his lips across her hair.
"And then when you showed up, I was just so confused and angry at my friends and I said a whole bunch of stuff I shouldn't have said. I'm so sorry." Sookie looked at him with a watery smile.
"I accept your apologies," Godric said, feeling oddly relieved to know he hadn't done anything wrong, exactly. "And I am sorry for the way your friends and your brother treated you."
"They're just worried for me," Sookie said, cuddling a little closer to him. "But I wish they would listen to me instead of telling me what I should or shouldn't do."
"Hmm." Godric tipped Sookie's chin up and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. "So do you want me to send you flowers or not? And why do you want me to call you during the day?" He wanted to understand why those things mattered to his human.
Sookie giggled. "You don't have to do any of those things. Like I told you, I was just picking a fight. I'm not proud of it."
"Okay," Godric said, pleased to feel the sadness leaving Sookie. It was replaced by warmth and pleasure and just a hint of arousal. "You must tell me if I do anything wrong. I am not used to being anyone's boyfriend, so I might make mistakes."
"You're doing pretty good so far," Sookie assured him and then shook her head. "I'm not used to being a girlfriend either. And I've already messed it up."
"It doesn't matter," Godric said easily. "Though I wish you'd have just told me about what happened with your friends and brother."
"I know I should have said something earlier. But I didn't want you to think badly of them. Or me." Sookie's shoulders drooped and Godric pressed a kiss to her lips before kissing his way down to her throat. He gave the mark there a tiny lick, pleased to feel Sookie shiver in his arms.
"I would not think badly of you because your brother is unintelligent and your friends don't like associating with vampires."
"Okay." Sookie looked up at him with a hopeful smile. "So we're good now?"
"We're good." Godric ran his hand up Sookie's body and cupped her breast, squeezing softly. "We could be even better."
"Here?" Sookie asked with a nervous smile as she glanced around.
"Why not?" Godric went back to kissing Sookie's throat while he slid his other hand up her bare thigh under her dress.
"Eric won't mind?" Sookie moaned a little when Godric ran his fingers across her panties.
Eric would probably do a happy dance and move into his office permanently if his couch smelled like Sookie and sex. "No, he won't mind," Godric said with a quiet snicker and captured Sookie's mouth in a searing kiss. Sookie melted in his embrace and parted her legs involuntarily when Godric slipped his fingers inside her panties. He found her slightly wet and he teased her clit to help build her arousal.
"Godric," Sookie moaned. Her own hand stroked across his pants, putting just enough pressure on his erection, drawing a groan from him while he bucked his hips up.
He had to taste her. Right now.
"Don't move," Godric said as he knelt down on the floor in between Sookie's legs. He pulled off her panties in one swift motion and buried his face under her dress. Sookie leaned back against the couch as Godric set to work on her with his lips and tongue and fingers.
She tasted just so good as her juices coated his tongue and he lapped it all up as he brought her steadily to her climax. Sookie bucked against his face as her body shook with pleasure, and Godric sank his fangs inside her thigh and found his own kind of pleasure in the taste of her sweet, sweet blood as he drank several mouthfuls.
There was a knock on the door.
"Oh my God!" Sookie gasped, barely able to sit up straight after her orgasm. Godric pulled his head out from under her dress, noticed her panties lying on the floor and stuffed them in the pocket of his pants, and then he sat down on the couch, while Sookie straightened out her dress, her cheeks flaming red.
"Come in," Godric called, both annoyed and amused at being interrupted.
Eric stepped inside. His pupils dilated and his nostrils flared and he looked at Sookie with a very predatory gaze for a moment before he managed to control himself. "I'm so sorry for interrupting," Eric said, and he sounded like he might mean it.
Godric quirked an eyebrow at him, but he found the answer to his silent question following Eric into the office.
"This is Bruce," Eric said, gesturing at the human behind him who smelled unpleasantly of sweat. "He's our accountant."
"Hi," Sookie said with a little wave. She still looked slightly mortified, and Godric grabbed her hand in a comforting gesture.
Bruce didn't say anything. He barely looked at anyone.
Eric glanced between Bruce and Godric with a frown. "Bruce just told me sixty thousand dollars has gone missing from the bar."