Sookie

When I awoke, the first thing I noticed was how sharp my senses were. I could hear everything. The hum of electricity in the room, a couple talking from what must quite some distance away, the sound of the wind blowing around the building. My sense of smell was overloaded by bed linen, detergents and other cleaning agents, and the smell of a few different varieties of flowers in the room. When I dared to open my eyes everything was so much more vivid. There seemed to be colours I didn't know existed, and I could see the individual fibres of the ceiling tiles above. I moved slightly, marvelling at the feel of the soft cotton sheets beneath me in contrast to the silk nightdress I appeared to be wearing.

My head shot up at breakneck speed when I heard footsteps coming across the room. I saw Eric walking towards me. I could feel and see his trepidation, but the sheer sight of him filled me with joy. Somehow he was even more beautiful than he had been with my human eyes. I gasped as my eyes met his, and then gently laughed at myself for the fact that I was still trying to breath. I held my breath, and once realising that I didn't need to breath, tried to do without it. It was trickier than I thought it would be, but I figured I would need time to get used to it.

Eric had stopped at the foot of the bed, his eyes intent upon me. He was carrying what appeared to be a glass of blood, and when the smell of the warm blood reached me I felt my fangs slip down. I screeched slightly and covered my mouth with my hand before running a finger along my new fangs. Eric laughed gently and closed the distance between us.

"My love, how do you feel? I have brought you some blood. You must be starving."

As I thought about it I realised that I was incredibly hungry and I took the glass from him and downed the drink in one go. It was warm, rich and sweet with an irony taste to it. I was very glad that I had gotten used to Eric's blood as this may have freaked me out slightly, but it somehow felt very right. I handed the glass back to Eric.

"More, my love?" I nodded and he disappeared to heat me some more. He returned with another glass of blood and two bottles of True Blood.

As I took the glass from him I asked, "This isn't True Blood then?" I downed the glass, my hunger satiated slightly, but still in need of more.

"No, that was donor blood from a blood bank. It seemed de Castro had glamoured someone who worked at the hospital to deliver human blood in bags."

My emotions spiked at the thought of de Castro, and Eric placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

"Sookie, he's dead. Though I killed him in far too easy a manner. For what he did to you he should have been slowly tortured and fed to piranhas. Here, drink this."

Relief washed over me knowing Eric had killed de Castro. He had murdered me after all. That was an odd thought, and this was going to take some getting used to. I took the bottle of blood from Eric's hand, sniffed at it and immediately gave it back.

"Eric, that stuff smells disgusting, how the hell do you drink that stuff?"

He laughed. "It takes some getting used to. Why do you think I always preferred to feed on you. Try a few different flavours, you will find one you prefer." He handed me the other bottle he was holding, which was flavoured B+. It struck me as odd that synthetic blood would come in different flavours and I wondered whether there was any correlation between real blood. I sniffed at this bottle, which smelt much better than the previous one. I drank it down in one go but I could not stop myself from screwing my face up when I had finished the drink. Another thought had come to me, however.

"Eric, does this mean now that my blood would not sustain you?"

He looked thoughtfully at me and let out an unnecessary sigh. "I'm afraid my love, it will. But that doesn't mean we can't still exchange blood for our own fun." He raised an eyebrow at me and I felt a surge of lust coming from him. I was glad I still felt so closely tied to him, and there seemed to be an even stronger link between us now. I imagined this was because he was my maker.

I wanted to see if our telepathy would still work, so projected into his mind, "I'm still kind of hungry, can I have another blood?"

He smiled kindly at me and I heard him open the fridge and heat up two more bloods for me, and one more for himself. He handed me the drinks, both also B+ and after drinking them both down I felt much more satisfied.

"You will not always be this hungry, I can now quite easily go days without drinking."

"Yeah, maybe, but you have a thousand years on me!" I sat up and pulled him to me. His skin was so smooth, and with my heightened senses he was so much more more beautiful, more perfect. As I stroked his face I could feel the lust growing between us. "Eric, I want you." I pulled off my nightdress and ripped at the t-shirt he was wearing, surprised by my own strength when it fell to pieces in my hands.

"I guess its my turn to need my clothes replacing," he said with a smirk. He shed the rest of the clothes he was wearing and pulled me to him, our bodies touching as much as possible. His touch was incredible and sent fireworks throughout my whole body. Everything felt more real, every sense was heightened to the nth degree. And he was no longer the cool vampire of my human life. Now I was vampire he felt normal temperature, it was heavenly.

His mouth met mine, and although I struggled a little getting used to kissing around my fangs it didn't take too long to get the gist of it. Our tongues were battling for dominance and I deliberately pricked mine of my fang to release a little blood into my mouth. Eric let out a guttural groan as he tasted my blood and he bit his own tongue, our bloods mingling in our mouths as we kissed. It tasted different to when we had shared blood in the goblet when we bonded, but as I was now vampire I assumed that was the reason. Either way, tasting our combined bloods had left us both very turned on, and when Eric's hand snaked down my body I opened my legs to allow him access to me.

His touch almost made me orgasm immediately, and I could not keep control of myself as I bucked on the bed underneath him. I could tell that Eric had to use quite a bit of force to keep me down, but he never broke our kiss as his hand explored my folds. This was one time I wanted to skip the foreplay, I needed him in me right away.

"ERIC, please, make love to me. I need to feel you in me."

He did just that, and he slammed into me with a force that may have broken my pelvis as a human, but was incredible now. The sensation of him inside me was like nothing I had ever known before. If I though sex with Eric had been the best I'd ever known as a human, then now as a vampire I was about to experience a whole new world of pleasure. I suddenly understood why vampires wanted sex so much. If it felt as good as this, why would you not? It did not take long for either of us to reach our climax, and I came with an intensity that may well have left me unconscious before.

Eric rolled of me on to his side facing me, and I moved to him and wrapped my arm around him. "I love you, Eric. Thank you for turning me."

The relief that flooded over Eric could not be missed. He leaned his head against mine, but I could see a rim of pink around his eyes. "You cannot know how good it is to hear you say that. I didn't know whether you'd remember asking me to turn you. These last two days have been torture for me. I knew that you were certainly not dead as rigor mortis had not set in, but I was unable to tell whether your turning would be successful. Though now I can quite rightly say that you are magnificent."

We lay in each others arms just holding each other. I thought back to the events leading to my human death. I didn't know what I would have done had I not known that Eric was coming to get me. I knew for sure that de Castro would have raped me at the very least. I would have been his slave, and god knows what he would have done to Eric. I remembered feeling quite happy in the knowledge that if the King had killed Eric I would not have survived. I would not want to have survived.

"Eric, where are we?"

"We're still in Vegas, I was unwilling to move you until I knew you were okay. We are scheduled to leave tomorrow night at first dark."

"So, we're going back home. To Louisiana? What about Nevada?"

"I am not King of Nevada. I did not want it. But you are now looking at King of Louisiana and Arkansas!"

Wow. "So, does that make me a queen?" I always knew that I would not have been able to be Queen as a human, but could a day old vampire be a queen? This would really take some getting used to. He nodded and pretended to bow deeply to me. I smacked him on the arm with more force than I intended as it almost threw him across the bed. "Shit, sorry. I guess I need to get used to this whole vampire strength thing." He was laughing at me even harder and pulled me back into his arms, nibbling on my neck.

"Okay, so if you're not King of Nevada, who is? And how did you escape from de Castro, he seemed convinced that you would not be rescuing me."

He sat up on the bed and faced me, his beautiful blue eyes searching my own. "Nevada now has a Queen. She is called Mariana Serafim and she is also the Queen of California. She has been wanting to take Nevada for many centuries, but somehow de Castro held onto the state. I have known since de Castro killed Sophie-Anne that it was likely I may need to fight de Castro over this, but I was biding my time. I had no intention of getting either you or I in trouble. It seems the former King had other plans though. De Castro was not especially liked among the other monarchs and had refused Mariana's offer of marriage to join the states together. I have therefore been making alliances with other vampires, and I promised Mariana that if I did kill de Castro and she helped then she could take Nevada. I had no interest in Nevada. I have everything I want in Louisiana." He smiled at me and leant in for a gentle kiss.

"As for how I escaped, Mariana had planted a vampire within de Castro's retinue a few years ago, and as I'd asked Bill to falsify his record on de Castro's copy of the database he never knew who the vampire really was. He is called Gunnar and he is a former lover of Mariana's. Victor had personally asked Gunnar to deal with me on my arrival, but rather than the torture Madden had planned, Gunnar made sure I was unchained and free from silver."

I gasped at the thought of what they did to him. I was torn between asking him what they did and not wanting to know for fear of getting too upset. However Eric distracted me from my thoughts and continued.

"After we were taken Pam raised herself an army of vampires and weres, and Amelia, and after meeting Stan Davis at the airport they flew to Nevada and took shelter over night. Pam contacted Gunnar when they arrived, and it was him who called the Californian Queen. Anyway, I could tell from your emotions when you were taken to de Castro as we could not risk attacking until that point. Gunnar and I battled up from the dungeons, killing Madden on our way and came to get you. We were met first by the Californian vampires first and then Pam arrived. There was a massive battle, but Gunnar and I left to come and get you. Sookie I am sorry I did not get to you earlier. Will you ever be able to forgive me? Please don't hate me, I don't think I could handle that."

Eric's eyes were intent on mine, and I could feel his guilt and sorrow through our now strengthened bond. He felt heartbroken that he had not got to me, and I imagined what he must have gone though when he was telling me that he could not just heal me, that I was too badly injured. I let out a sob feeling his pain, it was so intense, so heartfelt. The love from him was so strong, more than I had ever felt from him before.

I placed my hands on either side of his face and kissed him gently on the lips. "Eric, I love you. I could not hate you for this. When de Castro stabbed me and you told me I could not be saved, I only thought of you. I could not face you ending your life for me. I wanted more time with you, I had only just married you and my life with you had been taken from me. It was a simple decision for me. You are all that matters, you are my everything, my all. There is nothing to forgive. This is my choice, Eric. I need you."

We kissed each other passionately, and with the advantage of not needing to breath our kiss went on and on until we heard a knock at the door. I was quite content to ignore it and carry on kissing my husband, but it was Eric who broke off our kiss. "Sookie, that's Pam. She's been almost as worried about you as I've been. She is excited at having a sister!"

I smiled at the thought of Pam being my sister. It seemed like a rather odd situation though being that I was also Eric's wife. I hoped that she would not resent my relationship with Eric. Eric was up getting dressed and passed me some underwear and a red cashmere dress, black tights and black knee-high boots. Once dressed Eric answered the door and allowed Pam into the room. She also looked even more beautiful than ever, and after regarding me to make sure all was safe she flew towards me and wrapped her arms around me.

"Sookie, I'm so pleased that you're now vampire. Eric has been a mess these last two days waiting for you to rise. I'm happy for you both. You will make an excellent vampire." She smiled at her maker who gave her a light hearted growl. "There are many people keen to know that you are well. Amelia in particular has already phoned me twice tonight. You should call her." She handed me a piece of paper with Amelia's New Orleans number on it.

"Thank you Pam, its great to see you as well. And I look forward to being your sister." I hugged her again, and arm in arm we turned to Eric. "So Master, what is next?"

"Sookie, you are my wife. I assure you that you do not need to call me Master. And to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure I would be able to compel you in the way I can Pam."

"Of course, Master." I smirked at him. He raised an eyebrow at me, and I could feel a pressure at my mind urging me to sit on the floor. As I was aware he was doing it I was able to ignore him, to not give in. I was not sure that if I did not know he was trying to compel me to do something that I would not know it to be a compulsion of my own. Before I knew it Pam had sat down on the floor and was looking up at me. Eric was smiling.

"It seems, my love, that you are quite able to ignore my compulsion. Niall told us that this would happen. You remain my bonded and wife, you are my equal even though you are over a thousand years younger than I." He took me into his arms and I savoured the closeness to him. I was also feeling hungry again. "Lover, I can feel your hunger. Do you wish to have another True Blood or would you like to try a donor?"

The thought of actually drinking from a human was a little odd, particularly as it was strange to think of myself as anything other than human. I nodded shyly to the second option.

"It's okay Sookie. I will not let you hurt anyone, I will show you what to do. You will not hurt them, I promise."

Pam had left the room and came back in with a brunette woman of about my age. She had bite marks on her neck already, so I assumed she was a seasoned professional at this. I could smell and hear her blood and it was quite intoxicating. I could not keep my eyes of her. I could still hear her thoughts, and she was thinking about how well she was being paid to do this. I was quite pleased to hear that she found Pam and I very attractive; she did not take any notice whatsoever of Eric.

As I stared into her eyes I found myself willing her to sit down next to me, which she did instantly. She sat close to me and bared her neck to me. The sound of her blood pulsing around her body was mesmerising, and I wanted nothing more than to bite her. Although Eric and Pam were still in the room, my sole focus was her. I leaned in to her neck and smelt her blood. I licked her neck, then in the bite marks that were already over her pulsating artery I sunk my fangs into her, drawing the blood from her deeply.

It was one of the best tastes I'd ever tasted, second only to Eric's blood. I knew I thought this just because she was my first, but she truly did taste divine. The blood was rich and nourishing, sweet and warm. I could feel a dribble down my cheek as I was certainly not as neat as Pam or Eric could be, but I was proud of myself that I was able to do this by myself. I took two more draws from her pulsating artery and then drew back. Some sixth sense had told me that I'd had enough. And although I could probably still drink more, I was fairly sure that this woman could provide me with no more without risk to her.

She got up and nodded to Eric, Pam and I before leaving the room. I looked to Eric and Pam who were both bursting with pride.

"Sookie, you're fantastic!" Pam got up to hug me, and I could feel Eric's love and pride. "How did you find that? There's nothing quite like drinking it fresh from the source."

"It was odd, I almost instinctively knew what to do, and I somehow knew when to stop. Is that right?"

"Sookie, that was perfect. You will be a natural vampire. There are some that do not take to it easily, but it seems unlikely you will have that problem. Come let us head upstairs, the Queen is keen to meet you."

Eric took my arm and we left the room. I was apprehensive about meeting other vampires than Eric and Pam, but also quite excited to get on with my new existence. As we exited the room I took in the vampire guards that were guarding the door to our suite, and they both bowed their heads respectively, referring to Eric and I as King and Queen. Now that really was odd. Eric took my hand and led us upstairs and into the foyer I had previously been in with de Castro. My anxiety built further when we headed towards the elevator that led to de Castro's former office, and I stopped dead in my tracks.

"No, Eric, I can't go up there. There's probably still a blood stain on the floor. Its where I died. I can't do it. Eric, please." I was begging him, I did not want to go up there. He stood in front of me and lifted my head up to his. I could feel a bloody tear run down my face. He wiped it from my face and licked it off his thumb.

"Sookie, it's okay, I promise. The room is completely different. The Queen has completely refurbished the place since taking over de Castro's kingdom. I assure you you have nothing to be concerned about. I promise it will all be okay."

I could feel Eric's sincerity yet he was not forcing me to do this. I shut my eyes to compose myself, took an unnecessary breath and started walking towards the elevator with Eric's hand in my own. I was almost trembling with fear yet having Eric by my side allowed me to walk into that office. As we approached the office the doors were opened by the vampire guard and we were ushered into the room. It was completely different, the formerly red and gold had been replaced by a rich cream carpet, with walls of a soft coffee colour, the room accented by pale pink fabrics. It was much more feminine than previous.

As we walked in the Queen got up from behind her desk and walked towards Eric, Pam and I. She was shorter than me and looked of Spanish or Portuguese decent. She was dressed simply in a black pant suit that complemented her dark good looks, her hair glossy around her shoulders. Eric introduced me to her.

"Sookie, it is nice to meet you. I'm truly sorry for what the King did to you, but it is good to see you as vampire. I hope that it will suit you well."

"Thank you, your majesty." I bowed slightly as I said so, but she let out a heart laugh.

"Sookie, my dear, you do not need to bow to me. You are royalty too. Eric, you have a good one here, she really is very sweet."

Eric smirked at me and gave me a wink. "I said the same to her when we first met. She told me she wasn't really." He turned to me and kissed me softly on my head. It was strange to think back to those first days all those years ago when we met in Fangtasia. I had been instantly captivated by him, but I was loyal to Bill and told Eric I was his, even though I wasn't really.

We were interrupted by another vampire walking into the room. He was as tall and broad as Eric, and had a slightly darker shade of blonde hair but his eyes were a much lighter, ice blue with a dark blue line on the outside edge to distinguish his iris from the whites of his eyes. He was beautiful in a different way to Eric, but equally as handsome. His eyes were also upon mine and I could not pull mine away, even with Eric stood next to me.

It was Eric who pulled me out of my trance when he stepped forward to shake the stranger by the hand and pull him into a half hug as they both slapped each other on the back. This was the friendliest I had ever seen Eric with another vampire, and I wondered who it was that could get this kind of reaction out of my Viking. Eric turned back to me, love in his eyes.

"Sookie, my love, I would like to introduce you to Gunnar. He is my brother."

What the...? Brother? I was quite sure he didn't mean biological brother but that they shared the same maker. I was staring at them both, my mouth wide open. Eric smiled a genuine smile, slapped Gunnar on the back and brought him closer to me.

"Gunnar is my younger brother, Appius made him around fifty years after me. We are both Viking warriors. He has lived in Mariana's court for many years and helped me rescue you. I owe him a lot for the service he has done."

"Brother, I would gladly do whatever it takes to rescue such a beautiful woman. I can understand why you were so anxious to rescue her, she is quite breathtaking." He turned to face me, and he gave a strange half smile. "I am pleased that you decided to become vampire. I had a bonded once who chose not to be turned, and she was taken from me. I would not have wanted to see Eric go through the same."

His eyes were intent on mine, his accent slightly thicker than Eric's. As he told me about his lost bonded I felt like my heart would break. Was I really that close to doing that to Eric? He has shown emotion in his eyes when he told me that, but as he regained his composure the moment was lost. Eric felt my emotions spike as Gunnar spoke to me, and moved to place a reassuring arm around my shoulder. Just his touch was enough to comfort me, and he pushed love through the bond. I smiled up at Eric and leaned my head against his arm.

We all said our goodbyes to the Queen as we were leaving at first dark the following night, thanking her for her help and hospitality, and the four of us headed back down to our room. I walked arm in arm with Pam while Eric and Gunnar walked behind us. I felt strangely at ease, much more natural than I ever assumed I would be. We reached our suite and sat down in the living area. I heated us all a True Blood and handed them around.

After accepting his drink, Gunnar turned to my husband. "Eric, if its okay I would like to accept your offer."

Eric smiled, and I looked from Eric to Gunnar and back again, was anyone going to explain?

"Sookie, as King I have numerous positions to fill within my Kingdom. I will leave many the same as under de Castro, but some need to change. Pam will be one of my lieutenants, and I had offered Gunnar to be my other. It seems that he has just accepted. I have offered New Orleans to Rasul, who has been very loyal to me since de Castro's take over of the state which he was accepted, and Bill will become investigator for the state."

Wow, he really sounded very organised. I wondered what my role would be within his organisation, or whether I was just the trophy wife. Of course, as I was still telepathic I was quite certain they would want to use my skills at times, and I wondered if over the years my telepathy would extend to vampires as well. Eric had told me that it took a few hundred years before he could fly, so I pondered on whether I would gain any talents like that. I was quiet in thought before I noticed that all three vampires were staring at me.

"What?"

"Sookie, you were quite lost in thought, is all okay? Your emotions were all over of the place."

I didn't really want to have this conversation with Pam and Gunnar present, but I had no choice as I knew Eric would not let it go. "I was just wondering what my role would be."

He raised an eyebrow "I wouldn't have thought you would want a role. You've always been so independent and not wanted to be involved in vampire politics. And you a vampire of only a few days old, most politicians are much older. I would not want to drag you into that world. But if you want a role I can certainly find a use for your skills." He winked at me, and I smiled back, but I wasn't completely happy with his response. "Sook, we spoke before you were turned about opening a new venture, that can still go ahead. Just because you are now vampire does not mean that things have to change on that front. I want you to have a life and friends as you did before."

I had certainly liked the idea of opening a wine bar or restaurant before, although I had a suspicion it wouldn't be as easy as Eric anticipated, even with the King's help.

I sat quietly as Gunnar and Eric caught up, I laughed at the stories that they told of each other. I was happy to see Eric so happy, and had a feeling he would be well suited to his position as King. After a little while I began to feel a strange pull on me, and after looking at the clock I realised it must be the approaching sun. As I was a very young vampire I needed more sleep than the older ones, so when I felt I could be awake no longer I bid goodnight to Pam, Eric and Gunnar, giving Eric a gentle kiss on the lips as I passed.

I slipped into the bedroom and changed back into my silk nightdress and crawled into bed. I'd had an interesting first night as an immortal, and I looked forward to many more. Just before sleep took me Eric got into bed next to me and wrapped his arms around me. I felt safe and loved against his chest and I dropped back into death as the sun rose.