AN: Sorry it's been so long. You guys are awesome. Let me know what you think, and please enjoy!

Chapter 14

Maria was surprised and slightly confused to see both Sookie and Bill brought through the front doors to the manor. The guards were less surprising.

Within second of arriving, Maria was privy to a shocking scene. Bill Compton had attempted to assassinate the king. Russell found it nothing but funny, revealing his age and just how incompetent Bill was for even attempting. Maria was genuinely stunned by the little man's age. She didn't realize there was a vampire alive so old. It was impressive and horrifying at the same time.

There was more shouting, both from Talbot and Sookie alike. Everyone was so emotional. Meanwhile, Maria couldn't care less. Truthfully, she couldn't make herself care. A simpering little girl crying over her undead boyfriend while shoving herself into their politics without having the slightest inkling as to the gravity of what it meant, meant nothing to her. Actually, perhaps that wasn't entirely true. At some point, Maria assumed it meant there'd be a mess to clean. It'd either be Bill's dead body, or Sookie's.

"Oh, do try." Lorena's voice quivered just as it had when she threatened Maria an hour prior. "I would just love to rip you open and wear your ribcage like a hat."

Maria couldn't help but laugh. She hadn't meant to, but the sound escaped regardless. She found the moment funny. Eric seemed to find it irritating and when he glanced at her, she stifled the giggle, biting down on her lips to pull her smile back, too.

"Tell me you were doing that just for the king's benefit." Sookie said in a relatively deadpan voice.

Eric guided her toward the library and subtly motioned for Maria to follow.

"I don't think anyone plays the king of Mississippi and gets away with it, and I have no intention of trying."

"Why are you even here?" She snapped. "I thought you had other things to deal with."

"Yeah, I do, and I need to think, so don't take this the wrong way, but shut up."

Sookie opened her mouth to speak again, ignoring his request entirely, but Eric was serious when he said he needed her to stop talking. He instantly clamped his hand around her mouth and sarcastically thanked her. Maria was glad for it. She found the blonde's voice grating.

Once in the library, Eric shoved Sookie just hard enough that she had no choice but to fall onto the small sofa. Unlike before, Maria didn't linger outside the room. Instead, she stepped just within the doorway and took to leaning against the paneled wall. She crossed her arms over her chest and got as comfortable as she could.

Silence stretched between them for only a moment. Eric barely had the chance to complete one full "lap" in his pacing before Sookie spoke again. Maria couldn't help but clench her jaw and roll her head from side to side. How could one person cause so much stress in another without intending to?

Talk, talk, talk. So much talking, and yet none of it had a point. It was as though Sookie was speaking simply because she couldn't just be quiet.

"Should I be worried?" Maria asked in her native tongue.

Her sudden speech caused Sookie to snap her mouth shut for the first time since she'd entered the room. Eric, at hearing her silence, let out an audible sigh of relief.

"Why would you be?" He asked in Russian.

"Because something's changed. You're… different."

When he turned to look at her, Eric's expression was twisted into something that told her she was being foolish, but she knew otherwise. The aura that surrounded Eric was much lighter earlier in the night. It wasn't until after the tour of the den with Talbot that things had changed.

"It's an animal thing." She told him with surprising ease. "We can tell when people are anxious."

Eric scowled and resumed pacing. "I'm not anxious."

Maria rolled her eyes. She wasn't criticizing him. It was just something she could sense.

"I'm trying to think," Eric continued, "Which is increasingly difficult with these constant interruptions."

He hissed the last bit as he cast an angry glower her way. Maria held up her hands in surrender. She knew when to stop pressing him. Clearly, something was weighing very heavily on him, and she didn't feel like being on the tail end of a tantrum. And if he was anything like her, a tantrum was exactly what waited for whoever poked at him.

Apparently, that was Sookie. Almost the same instant Maria stopped speaking, the blonde began to spout off, pressing Eric to explain to her why he was "suddenly acting like an asshole". It confused Maria, honestly. Did something happen between the two that would lead Sookie to think Eric Northman was anything else? Unless something happened when she was gone, Maria highly doubted it, but that didn't stop the blonde from acting that way.

Sookie mockingly said, "Sookie, I'm risking everything to tell you this. You mean so much to me. You make me feel almost human."

Maria's eyes went wide at the girl's declaration. It seemed something did happen while she was gone. Though, Eric didn't react like one who cared would have. He lashed out instead, something Maria expected.

"You mean nothing to me." He growled hatefully as he kept his face mere inches from hers. "I am very close to getting something I've wanted since I was human, so don't get in my way."

Sookie was shocked by his outburst, as was Maria. Though, Maria was more surprised by the content of what he'd said.

Eric slowly rose and stood at his full height again, snapping his fangs back into place.

"I fucking hate you Eric Northman." Sookie spat angrily. "And I will pay you back for this."

He shifted enough to stare at her over his broad shoulder. Maria saw him arch a single brow, but she couldn't discern the meaning behind it. She couldn't tell if he was irritated that she thought it mattered to him, or saddened.

Edgington entered the room buckling his slacks as he did. He dismissed Eric a moment later and as Northman left, he motioned for Maria to follow him. She complied, of course. They separated themselves from the multiple things happening on the King's property, not stopping until they were sequestered in a room alone. As before, Maria took her spot against a wall and watched as Eric, once more, resumed his pacing. It was such a curious behavior for the ordinarily stoic man. It was a nervous tick, really, and alluded to something much deeper being wrong.

She let him pace, let him walk a divot into the carpet if he chose, for a good few minutes. Maria struggled with whether or not she should press him. Something was most certainly on his mind, and Maria feared it might affect her own life, so perhaps tempting the bear might not be such a terrible idea.

When she opened her mouth to speak, she wasn't given the chance. Talbot swept into the room with a fanciful gesture and beckoned Eric to his side. He wanted to play a game, apparently, and to placate both the King and his husband, Eric complied without the slightest hesitation.

Maria followed once more, but was so glad she didn't linger. Edgington interrupted the pairs' game less than ten minutes into it and asked for Eric to join him for an errand. When he leapt at the chance for it, he did so just a bit faster than he had when Talbot asked to play his game, and Maria thought Talbot noticed. The hissy-fit he threw showed as much.

"Go to the room." Eric said in English.

Fortunately, Maria remembered their guise and acted accordingly. She pulled her brows together and tilted her head to the side. Her "confusion" seemed to snap Eric back into the moment and he repeated his request in Russian. Maria immediately complied as she was meant to.

As she returned to their room upstairs, Maria cast her eyes back down to the main floor. Eric and Russell were heading for the door, but the Viking glanced in her direction and she could have sworn, at least for a millisecond, that he was offering his silent gratitude before he left. Maria gave him a soft nod, as though it meant anything, and continued upstairs.

On her way to her room, she thought about the strangeness of the moment. It wasn't that she was playing the slave. In reality, she was simply acting more the part than she already was. What kept returning, however, was what could have possibly shifted Northman's focus like it had. They'd gone to the King because the Magister had Pam. Ever since arriving, Eric was nervous and his thoughts were divided. She could tell even if he thought she couldn't. But, this had rattled him. Whatever happened the few minutes she wasn't at his side, when she couldn't see what he saw, left him genuinely disturbed and that worried her.

Eric sat alongside the King giving no indication as to how chaotic his mind had become. He couldn't stop seeing his father dying in his arms, his mother bleeding and already dead on the floor with his baby sister almost shredded a foot away. And that black figure, that cloaked man who commanded the werewolves, was the King of Mississippi.

While his fires for revenge had never died completely through the years, they had grown softer –more than a smolder, but less than a blaze. Confronted with new information and the proof along with it turned it into nothing short of pure Hellfire. Sitting so close to Russell Edgington genuinely made Eric question whether or not the fires would consume him from the inside out.

"Lorena thinks you killed one of my werewolves." Edgington said.

"I killed a werewolf." Eric corrected him. "But I had no idea it belonged to you."

"To save Sookie?"

"To save myself." His voice was stern. "I'd gone to her home to inquire about Bill Compton when a it attacked me."

"Only a very young or very foolish vampire can be killed by a werewolf." Russell kept his tone light, but probing. "And you are neither."

Eric let some of his internal anger shine through. "Only a very foolish vampire would allow a werewolf who attacked it to live. They are primitive, base creatures and I will freely admit that I despise them."

"And yet," He almost chimed the words happily. "You employ one yourself."

A twinge hit Eric. He knew what he was going to have to do and the millisecond of remorse hit him strong, but it didn't stay his comments.

"I do not employ her." He said angrily. "She was sold to me."

"Oh?"

"Her parents owed me a great sum of money and offered me their child as payment."

"And you accepted."

Eric shrugged a single shoulder as nonchalantly as he could. "I took her more to hurt them than out of need, but given her age at the time, I have since turned her into a useful tool." A sinister grin twisted his lips. "She's been conditioned to think only of pleasing me."

Russell let out a loud, boisterous laugh that hurt Eric's ears to hear, but he played his part and chuckled as well. The truth of the matter was his words tasted foul to him and the disgust radiating in his chest when he spoke about Maria so cruelly was surprisingly real.

The pair continued to talk as they drove to Queen Sophie-Anne's palace and Eric continued to ingratiate himself to the monarch while he thought feverishly on how to destroy him.

Night on the Sun

Season 3, Episode 8

When Eric arrived back at the King's palace with Sophie-Anne and her menagerie, as well as with a clearer head now that Pam was safe, he found a palace in chaos. It seemed a lot had happened while he was away, and Sookie's escape was amongst it. While he was glad she'd made it away from the King, he knew he'd have to portray otherwise.

"Your Majesty," He addressed the monarch when he spotted Maria lingering in the shadows. "If you'll excuse me."

Russell noted the man's diverted attention and saw the young woman looking properly ashamed with her head hung low. Eric approached her and noted the way she shrank. She truly did know how to play the part.

"You let the girl escape?" He said with barely-hidden rage. It was foolish to assume the King wouldn't be able to understand them, so Eric was sure to be as authentic as possible.

"She had help. Another girl hit me and-"

"Silence," He hissed the word. "You'll pay for this, for losing the King's property."

And then she looked up at him with the perfect expression of fear. "No, please, I didn't mean to."

Eric knew what he had to do and hoped she would continue to keep the rouse going. A slight wink was the only warning he gave Maria before he raised his hand and brought it against her face.

Two things happened that moment. Just before he would have hit her, Eric drew back. He made contact, yes, but he held back greatly and only struck Maria with enough force to make the sound. Secondly, she flew. He wasn't certain how she did it, though assumed she pushed off the same moment he made contact with her. Whatever tactic she used, Maria sailed through the air and landed hard a few yards from him. She crumpled to the tiled floor, clutching her face while she hid behind a curtain of black hair. He could hear her whimpers.

Eric wouldn't have bothered at all if he didn't think the King was watching every move he made. If he was as loyal to the monarch as he claimed, Eric knew Edgington might have expected Maria to intervene with the escape, even though Eric knew otherwise. If that was the case, Russell probably expected Maria to be punished, too. Eric would much rather be the one doing it than the King.

Edgington was chuckling and grinning when Eric approached him again.

"You Majesty, clearly, my wolf needs to relearn a few of her lessons. Is there anywhere I may take her?"

"Hm," He sighed while he thought. "Will there be blood?"

"Oh, I can assure you, Your Majesty, she will bleed."

He grinned again and nodded. "I'll have the guards take her to one of the rooms in the basement. You'll have your privacy there and we won't have to worry about making a mess."

"Thank you," Eric offered him a bow.

Russell snapped his fingers and motioned to his men who mobilized on Maria immediately. Eric watched as she begged and cried out in Russian while they took her away. He was in awe of her, honestly, and wasn't above admitting it to himself this time. Every iota of her performance ever since they'd set foot under the King's roof was masterful. She was perfect.

As he returned to the moment at hand and waited to be dismissed to tend to Maria, Eric realized that she was always perfect. She always played her part to the best of her abilities. Yes, the attitude she gave was undeniable, but Eric liked attitude. That was why he and Pam were so well complimented to one another.

Maria never disappointed him, not really at least, and perhaps that meant she should be rewarded? Yes. She deserved something, and the only thing he could think to give her was the ability to cook in his home. She'd only ever asked for two things –the ability to cook, or to move out, and he wasn't going to let her leave. But, cooking, that he could permit. He'd even let her make the foods humans themselves admitted stank, like fish, or broccoli.

Roughly twenty minutes after sending Maria to the bowels of the mansion, Eric finally sought her out. The trek was easy to make, and it was even simpler to find her. While the basement of the mansion was convoluted with matching hallways and steel doors, the two guards standing on either side of one door told him all he needed to know. When he reached them, he dismissed the two and waited until they left to enter.

The inside of the room caused Eric to raise a brow. It looked like a morgue. The walls and floor were all sealed concrete (easy to hose down) and there was a drain in the middle of the floor. Above the drain was an autopsy table, complete with its own drainage, and Maria. She was chained to it, all four points manacled to the four corners of the table.

To the left of her sat a metallic, rolling table. On top was a tray with all manner of horrifying instruments of torture, her gloves and jewelry, and the keys to her cuffs. He grinned a little. It appeared the King was well-versed as were his guards.

Maria lifted her head just as he made it to the steel instruments. He picked up a particularly nasty-looking one. He wasn't certain what it was, or what it could be used for, but it was curved, had barbs of varying size along said curve, and looked like it could cause considerable damage. He held it aloft, just between his line of sight and Maria's, ensuring she could see it, too.

"The King is very accommodating." He teased.

Maria openly rolled her eyes and laid her head back on the cold steel beneath her. "Are you going to uncuff me, or not?"

"I don't know." He replied, smirking again when he saw her shoot him a dirty look. "I may just commit this site to memory, first."

"Ridiculous," She sighed under her breath.

Eric chuckled and set the gnarly tool back down before reaching for the keys. Her legs were closest to him, so he undid them first, then moved to her wrists. The first of them was undone easily enough, but not the second. For some reason, it was twisted around her hand and he couldn't quite figure out why until he realized how much bigger she was than the space allowed on the table. The guards likely had to compensate and tightened the chain the only way they knew how just so she'd fit.

Maria watched him as he reached forward to grab the chain from the center of her palm. It was a mistake.

"No, don't!"

But it was too late. For the briefest of moments, Eric's bare finger grazed the inside of her hand, and that was all it took. The scream that broke from Maria's lips was more horrifying than anything Eric had ever heard before and it sent him reeling back.

Maria's back arched as though she was being electrocuted. When it hit the table again, it couldn't take the force and the entire thing –Maria included- toppled to the floor with a thunderous clank. The echoes of her scream rang loudly in his ears and prickled his skin. It made his dead heart feel like it was thundering within his chest.

Maria lay on the floor, curled in on herself as best she could be with one arm still out to the side and connected to the table by a handcuff. She was shaking, almost violently, while a very-real whimper left her.

Eric didn't know how long had passed before either of them moved, but it was Maria who did so first. Slowly, she unfurled her body and did her best to sit up. She was slouched forward, tendrils of hair hung in her face, and she continued to shake. She gradually managed to lift her head just enough he could see her. A thin sheen of sweat covered her very-pink skin, tears streamed down her cheeks, and blood trickled from her nose. She was ghastly pale and looked close to death.

"So many memories…" She mumbled. Eric wondered if she was aware she'd spoken out loud. And then her face twisted in pain and sadness. She buried it in her freehand and shook her head. "Oh God, so much pain."

Eric continued to stare at her wide-eyed and motionless while she wept into her hand. He'd never seen her react that way before, nor had he ever seen her cry. It seemed wrong, like it was out of place.

"What just happened?" He finally managed to get the words out, to speak the only question coursing through his mind.

He heard Maria sniff before she lifted her head again. She ran the back of her hand across her lips and wiped away the blood, though only partially. Some of it smeared across her cheek.

"I can't touch people." She told him in a voice as broken as she looked. Eventually, she met his gaze. "When I do, I see everything." A spark of fear stabbed at him. "I feel… everything…"

"What does that mean?"

Her brows pulled together and he wondered if she was about to start crying again. Maria's head dipped. Eric almost didn't want her to answer because he was genuinely afraid of what she'd say. He felt like he already knew.

"Memories," She mumbled. "I see their whole life as plainly as I can remember my own. All of it." She shook her head slightly and said on a breath, "A thousand years…"

Eric was a swarm of emotion for those first few seconds, but one began to make its way to the forefront. Rage. It was bigger than rage, actually. What he felt could only be described as something similar to the hatred he felt for Russell, and at the moment, it was aimed solely at Maria.

"How dare you." He growled in an inhuman voice. It drew Maria's dwindling gaze. "What gives you the right?" She didn't speak. She didn't really look capable. Eric knew that if he didn't remove himself from the situation that moment that he would hurt her. Actually, he'd kill her, and he'd do so in the most brutal way he could think of –which wasn't insubstantial. "Get out of my sight." He threw the keys to her. "Go back to Shreveport, I don't care."

And with that, he left.

Eric barely made it to the stairs that led to the main floor before he had to stop. He was shaking violently. He felt betrayed, embarrassed, and worse yet, exposed. If Maria was to be believed, there wasn't a second of his life that she hadn't just witnessed, and he believed her. Whatever happened to her was too visceral, too real, to be faked.

He felt disgusting. In many ways, it was like Maria had sat down, cut open his body, and played with his insides. It was the same to him, the same invasiveness. There were things in his life he'd never told his friends, family, Godric, or even Pam –but Maria now knew it all.

As he stood there at the base of the stairs, struggling to regain control, Eric felt something trickle down his cheek. He wiped it away and saw the crimson left behind from the tear.