I was quiet the whole way to Monaco. I knew that Sookie didn't know what to make of my silence, but I had so much to consider that I couldn't make chit chat. Bobby held up my end of the conversation, and I would give him a bonus for doing so. As we pulled up to the dock, I showed Sookie which yacht was Marco's. The Glamourous Life had been a gift to Marco from a French heiress named Natalie Du Maupassant. He'd turned her in the sixteenth century. They rekindled their romance briefly in the eighties and they lived together as a couple for six years before her sister, Juliette, had her killed in a fit of jealousy over Marco. To say that he was furious was an understatement. Juliette having been banished from all polite vampire society at Marco's request, now made her living as a vampire whore; selling herself to wealthy tourists. She was disgusting and I hoped that we wouldn't run into her, as Monte Carlo was her beat, so to speak.

We pulled up to the dock and I felt around in my breast pocket of the pair of sunglasses that Bobby had given me on the plane. After a slight delay at the airport, it became apparent that we would be arriving just as the sun was rising. Bobby was kind enough to donate his sunglasses to me, as I've never had need of a pair. I put them on and marveled at how humans could tolerate seeing the world in these shades of greenish greys.

The captain approached me and shook my hand, introducing me to his crew. I dismissed them immediately. Being born of a sea culture, I knew my way around a yacht or two.

I felt panic rising in Sookie as she noted that the sun was cresting the horizon. We went below decks and she disappeared into the restroom to clean up before retiring for the day. She would do her best to keep to my schedule for the week, but I didn't think it was necessary. I smiled at the thought that she would try.

I undressed and stepped into the shower with her. I kissed her and reminded her of our first shower together at her place in Bon Temps. She blushed furiously and I laughed. She'd been so adorable, so tentative. I was an unknown quantity to her then. She'd cared for me, leaving me warmed blood before she went to work, brushing my hair as we watched television. In some ways, it was the most honest that we'd been with each other; stripped of my wealth and status, and she stripped of the walls she surrounded herself with.

I reveled in the simple pleasure of holding her hand as we sat face to face on the couch with her legs across my lap. I would rub her feet when she came home from Merlotte's and she would tell me about her day.

The evening that I arose to find that I didn't remember how I'd gotten to her house, but that I was dressed in a Bon Temps sweatshirt and cheap jeans, I had a minute's thought of pretending that my memory hadn't returned. Over the course of that evening, I caught her reaching up to touch me. I wished in my heart that she would have. I couldn't remember being hers at the time, but I'd wanted it. I'd wanted her from the moment I'd laid eyes on her, in an overwhelming surge of curiosity and desire. I could no more control my feelings for her than I could hold back the sun. How heartbreaking for her to be so near to me, to have me all to herself then to have me torn from her so cruelly by a witch's curse.

She stepped out of the shower and began brushing her teeth. I scrubbed shampoo through my hair promising myself that I would never let us be separated again.

I watched her pull a nightgown over her head. I would destroy them all until she slept naked, as I wanted her to.

"I swear you wear those to frustrate me."

"I do not. I get chilly in bed, it's not like you're putting out any heat." She hit my backside and I laughed at her. She had a point, I think that I actually emanated cold rather than heat, but because I couldn't tell, I had to rely on others to tell me of their comfort or discomfort.

"That's a pretty gown, did you get that in Paris?"

"I did, I bought it yesterday. To replace the one you tore up at the hotel. You've destroyed the last three."

"Are you going to take the hint and sleep naked?"

"Fine, but turn up the heat so I can sleep, I'm exhausted. I just want to sleep and sleep and sleep."

"You got pretty drunk last night. I'm kind of surprised you didn't pass out. Except that alcohol is probably going to be harder for you to metabolize with all the blood you've had."

"You know that you're cute when you floss?"

"I thought you said I do everything cute. You taking it back already? That's lame."

"I'm not. Come on to bed, Eric. Seriously, the sun is up up, not just sort of up.

"I've got some time yet."

"So, Mare told you?"

"You thought I wouldn't figure out that I was waking up earlier and not quite able to sleep when I did go to bed? I'm pretty excited to get to Havenwood and have a quick sunrise romp with you."

"If you come to bed, we can do that now before I fall asleep. I'm not kidding, I'm going to fall asleep on you and you'll be frustrated." She didn't understand, I wasn't rejecting sex with her, I wanted that too, but I hadn't seen the sun in over a millennium.

I looked over at her and her eyes were closed. She was curled down into the sheets as a small child. I leaned over and kissed her forehead. She smelled sweet and clean with that hint of tangerine cake batter that I'd come to think of as her fairy scent.

I went up the steps tentatively; hoping that Mare was not wrong. If she was, I'd begin to burn, and if I wasn't careful, Sookie would awake to find a pile of ash in my robe.

When I opened the cabin door, sunlight beamed in over me. I took a deep breath and burst into tears. I said a prayer thanking Odin in my native tongue. I looked at my hands, which were shaking. If someone had seen me, they would have been frightened by how I crawled up from below decks, shaking and afraid.

I reached out for the railing to steady myself. My god, I'd forgotten how blue the sea was, I'd never known how far I could see in the daylight. I watched seagulls dive into the water and scoop gleaming, silver fish into the warming air. I heard the early morning traffic begin on the mountainside in Cap D'Ail. I could smell guavas, as a woman on a bicycle basket filled with fruit rode by the pier. She nearly wrecked when she realized that she was witnessing a vampire during the day. She would tell her friends, and no one would believe her.

I wiped the blood from my face and turned towards the sun again. I let it warm my face. I took my robe off and looked down at my pale, ashen body. This is how I appeared to Sookie; fish belly white, and cold as marble. I stood on the rail and plunged into the water. I heard it rush against my ears. I'd never been in the water during the day. I looked around at the sharp rocks that jutted out from the shore. I watched the grasses swaying back and forth dancing with the tide. I felt a fish brush past my leg and I reached out to him as he slipped away. I slipped away. And I shot out of the water like a dolphin. I was giddy, and laughed to myself that I could still fly underwater, slowly, but capably. I landed on the deck, shaking the water from my hair. I felt hopeful for the first time in many, many years. I closed my eyes to pray.

"Odin, maker of the world and all creatures that are in it. If it is in your heart to allow me to create a child with the woman that I love, let it be so. I vow to you on this day that I will be a good husband and father. I will have faith in my mother's blood. I will have faith, that I am not so damned. Odin, be praised." I opened my eyes as the ship gently rocked beneath me. I stared down into the water at the shells. I felt a shiver go down my spine suddenly, and I realized that I should go inside. I'd been given an extraordinary gift and I would not squander it.

I reluctantly closed the door and sat on the stairs for a moment, knowing that from now on, my life would be radically different.

Sookie and I spent the week fishing, swimming and making love. When we'd first come to France, I'd struggled with having someone in my bed. I'd grown so accustomed to sleeping alone that it took a while for me to adjust to having her there when I rolled over. Now, I couldn't imagine her not being with me. Her soft snoring soothed me. And sometimes, when I awoke before she, I would lie next to her and stare, wondering how I'd found someone to love me who only wanted love from me, not my money, not life, not death.

She and I sat on the couch overlooking the Mediterranean one evening with her legs across my lap as she had when we were at her home in Bon Temps. She told me about the night that her parents drowned and how frightened she'd been that she would grow up alone. I understood her fear. Loneliness can create an unshakeable insanity. It either drives you to hold on to every relationship for dear life, or shun them altogether. Without saying it, she'd expressed that she'd been desperately lonely throughout her life. And I thought that maybe it drew her to me since I appeared to have mastered the art of not needing anyone. She'd been wrong.

I listened quietly as she talked. She could seem so strong to me most of the time, but I often forgot that she spent most of her life shielding herself from memories of abuse, just as I had. She got choked up as she talked about her grandmother and what she remembered about her parents. I never wanted her to feel alone again. She went to the bathroom to wash her face and I heard her blowing her nose. I called Yuri and asked him to cut a dozen Havenwood roses and overnight them to us. I would pay whatever the cost to get them here before she awoke the next day.

When she saw the roses on her pillow, she jumped into my arms. I knew that she would love them and what they said about us. After she'd eaten her dinner, I put music on and we laughed together as she explored the music on my iPod. When my phone rang, I thought nothing of it, Pam had been begging us to return so that she could return to Minnesota to check on her previous nest. She'd left some business unattended when I'd contacted her about opening Fangtasia. The truth is, I'd missed her friendship and knew that the bar was enough of a lure to drag her down to Louisiana. She'd run off to Minnesota in an attempt to put some distance between us after what Marco had done to her in Kirschgasse.

When I saw that it was Yuri on the line, I assumed that he was checking to see if Sookie's roses had arrived in time. I was completely unprepared for what he told me. Jason had been shot while riding Arkady. It did not appear that he would survive the wound.

Sookie's phone rang and I felt her heart jump. She sensed that something wasn't right and she darted off to answer it. I'd wanted to break the news to her gently but I couldn't think of words that would soften the blow. I went into our bedroom just as she was answering it. I stepped to her side in time to catch her as she fainted.

I went into automatic pilot. I put Sookie on the bed. It was better that she not have to be awake for any of the preparations for us to return home.

I called Bobby and had him arrange for us to return to Bon Temps as soon as was possible. I called a car service to pick us up at the yacht. I also called Mare and asked that

she meet us at Havenwood in case I needed her.

Bobby met us at the airport. Sookie awoke a few times, but was near catatonic. I didn't try to make her lucid by giving her blood. She stared out into space and I knew that she wouldn't remember anything about the last few hours.

I carried Sookie onto the plane and held her tightly. When she awoke screaming, I comforted her.