Ch. 14
Sitting on my couch, like he owned the place, was Eric.
"Eric, why are you here?" The question came out harsher than I intended.
"Northman," Loki hissed.
"Loki," Eric said, his fangs snapping down. "Wait, are you wearing my clothes?"
Crap. They knew each other; this couldn't end well.
"This is the Eric you have been mooning about? You would rather fornicate with this monstrosity than be my wife?" I could see Loki getting more and more agitated.
"His wife?" Eric demanded as he sprang to his feet with inhuman speed.
I stood between them, arms out, trying to diffuse the situation. "Yeah, well, Loki tried to force me to marry him, but I convinced him to go to the fairy realm and find his birth mother instead." Okay, even to my ears that sounded a little lame.
"Sookie, this is the monster that I told you about. I came upon him and his maker terrorizing a village. He plucked a child from a mother's arms and feasted on it in front of her dying eyes." Loki looked at me earnestly.
"Eric!" I looked over at him.
"I was young, newly turned. I was desperately hungry." The words rang false.
"You and your maker had already killed half the village. You were doing it for fun. Shall I show her what you did? I could, you know."
Loki's magic began to swirl around the room and all of a sudden I saw a shadowy illusion. I saw Eric, drenched in blood, holding a small child. I could hear a mother screaming.
Eric looked away and, in that moment, I felt my world shift. I knew that Eric had once been an unrepentant killer, but for the first time, I felt it in my heart.
"Go, Eric. Just go."
"Sookie, listen to me . . . "
"I rescind your invitation."
And the unseen force that governs all vampires forced him, clawing and screaming out of my house. I could hear him ranting and raving outside for a minute and then, silence.
I broke down. I just dissolved into tears. Loki hugged me as we sat on the couch. I felt my body shake in sorrow. I ended up with my head in his lap as he smoothed my hair and murmured while my chest heaved in sobs.
I had truly loved Eric, but I knew now that I was denying a part of what he really was. He wasn't just a cold, calculated killer who did it only when necessary. He enjoyed it.