Author's Note: All characters are the creation of Ms. Harris and Mr. Ball. The dialog lifted from "Plaisir D'Amour" was written by Mr. Buckner. All the rest of the bits are me. This is the shortest chapter to date, but the next one will be huge, so... well... It's a trade-off. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 14 – Night 13

When it was finally time to rise, I did not feel rested. I wished, as I've so often wished, that I was able to be dead until nightfall, as most vampires are. Lorena used to marvel at the vividness of my dreams, just as Caroline did when I was human, but more often than not, they filled my heart with longings for things I could never have, desires of a life that was no longer mine, or a horrible replay of memories I wished I could forget. That day, I'd dreamt of Sookie, of all the things that could've gone so horribly wrong at Fangtasia. First, it was simply not getting to Longshadow in time, and he was able to rip out her throat before I staked him, his blood mixing with hers on the floor. I felt her heart pulse beneath my fingers as I pressed as hard as I dared on her fragile neck to stop the bleeding, watching as the life drained out of her faster than my blood could heal her, until her heart was as silent and dead as mine. In another, once Longshadow opened her artery, Pam and Eric went into a blood-lust driven frenzy, and she was torn to pieces. Again, I was helpless to stop them and had to watch as Pam ripped off her head and sucked the blood from her gaping neck. Finally, just before I woke, it was Eric, whose powerful blood was the only thing that could save her, pushing me aside and turning her, and then she was vampire and forever Eric's, not mine.

I gulped my cold TruBlood before sinking into the couch. The worst of it was that Sookie had lost faith in me. She hadn't said it, of course. It was possible that she hadn't even thought it, not in an articulated sense. But she felt it, and when she felt it, my blood felt it too. I'd tried to protect her from what I was, from the political maneuverings, from all the dangers that she didn't even know existed. I wanted to even protect her from me. In the end, I'd failed her, and she would see how weak I really was. Yes, I was nearly 200 years old and could snap a full-grown tree in half. To her, that seemed impossibly old and strong. But in the vampire-world, my world, I was so young. I was living without a nest, and the one powerful ally I'd always counted on was the one who'd set me up.

I shook my head, pushing thoughts of Eric deep inside me, where he wouldn't be able to feel them if he was paying attention. I couldn't think of Eric. For my safety and hers, I couldn't let him know how hurt I was. His betrayal, more than anything else, shocked me. I expected treachery from vampires. The Queen and Andre had sent me on this impossible mission in the first place. But not Eric. Eric was different, and I simply could not imagine a world where he was capable of such devious calculation, where he'd risk my life to gain a human asset.

I closed my eyes and swallowed several times, burying my nose into the cushion and delighting in the sweet scent of Sookie's blood and arousal. Her smell was everywhere in the house, but especially here, where she'd laid naked in front of the fire and given herself to me. If I lived a thousand years, I would never forget when she gently pulled me back to her, how her hot tongue felt as she first licked one of my fangs...

I couldn't sit here and stew all evening until Sookie got home from work. I didn't want to go to Merlotte's and hover. I couldn't concentrate on my work, and I couldn't focus enough to read, so I decided to set up my Wii, which had been sitting in boxes since I met Sookie. I took a few practice swings before starting a new game. I was doing well, had just hit a hole in one, when the doorbell rang. I shut off the machine, and it rang again before I could answer.

I knew before looking that it was Eric. I know he could hear me, and I just couldn't bring myself to care about that as I sighed when I saw him through the window. My shoulders slumped in defeat, and I took a deep breath before opening the door.

"Eric, Pam," I politely said, nodding at them in turn. I stood back so they could file into my house.

"Bill, Chow. Chow, Bill," Eric said in a bored way.

"Nice to meet you," the unknown vampire said to me. I nodded.

"Chow is Longshadow's replacement," Pam added, and I briefly closed my eyes.

"Oh," I simply said as I closed the door and yet another piece of evidence fell into place. Eric didn't do anything without careful consideration, and he already had a new partner. He may not have known for sure how Longshadow would die, but he knew he would be finally dead. "I take it by your being here there was no way around it, then?"

Eric and Pam looked around, as if my house was infinitely curious, Eric acting like he hadn't been in it last night. "I can't really say," he finally said, not meeting my eyes. "I didn't exactly look into." Pam quietly laughed.

"Tell me," I said to her. "Do you enjoy it? Living half-way up his backside the way you do?"

"Yes," she beamed. "It's nice. You should try it."

I bit back a growl, as threatening Pam only put me in a worse situation. "I'm going to have to stop by the bar where Sookie works first," I told Eric. He glared at me but didn't answer. "She needs to know I'll be gone," I defiantly added. "Don't forget how this started: she came to Fangtasia to help you."

"Fine," Eric said in a calm, bored voice. "Go to the bar."

"Might be smart to check out the competition," Pam said as she toed a small hole in my rug.

"Yes indeed," Eric said.

"What's your game?" Chow abruptly asked.

"Excuse me?" I said as I walked to stand before him, sizing him up.

"You were playing Wii," Chow clarified. "What's your game?"

"Golf," I answered, tossing the controller.

"What's your best score on Pebble Beach?"

"Seven under," I said.

He quickly smiled. "Mine's eleven under."

I rolled my eyes and looked to Eric. "I liked Longshadow better," I said.

Eric smiled and Pam let out a chuckle. "Much too late for that," Eric said. "Let's go."

I grabbed my jacket from the closet in the hall and locked the door behind me. "I'll meet you at Merlotte's," I said to Eric on the porch.

He shook his head. "I think not. Pam'll drive." He nodded to a tan Lexus LX, a vehicle far less conspicuous than any of Eric's. "Get in."

"You think I'll run?" I asked. "You think I would abandon her to save myself?"

He stared down at me. "No," he finally said. "I trust you."

"Then why do I have to ride with you?"

"Humor me," he said. He got into the front passenger seat, and Pam and Chow were already in, which left me in the seat behind Pam. I briefly felt badly for Chow, who was smashed behind Eric's seat, which was pushed all the way back. Pam had the Dixie Chicks playing, and she quietly hummed along as we drove the short distance to Merlotte's.

"Park in the back," I said, and Pam didn't respond, but she pulled around to the back of the building, near Sam's home. I listened carefully, and I heard Sookie speaking to people and the general dim of voices and eating and drinking. "I don't suppose you'll wait for me here?" I asked Eric.

He shifted to face me. "Certainly not. We're all going."

"I don't think that's necessary," I said.

"I do."

"You just don't want me to speak privately to Sookie."

Eric rolled his eyes. "What you say to your human is not my concern."

I sighed before opening the door and walking swiftly towards the front entrance, Eric, Pam, and Chow following like bodyguards. Sookie was looking down at her order pad when we walked in.

"Bill?" she said when she looked up. I immediately felt her confusion and dread when she saw Eric and Pam. "What's going on?"

This place is even more depressing than I thought it'd be," Eric said to Pam, who quietly laughed. In that moment, I hated that she found such amusement in everything around her.

"What are they doing here?" she asked.

"Just give me a minute," I pled. "And then we'll talk. Where's Sam?"

"I don't know," she said. "Why?"

"He," Tara stuttered behind the bar. "He's in his office."

"Try to behave yourself," I said to Eric.

"Don't I always?"

I sighed as Chow stepped behind me, obviously intent on shadowing me, and knocked on Sam's closed door.

"Yeah?" he called.

"It's Bill Compton," I said. "I need a minute of your time, if that's alright."

There was a pause before he finally said, "It's open." I walked in, Chow on my heels. Even this embarrassment would have an audience. "Who's this?" Sam asked.

"His name is Chow," I said, knowing that neither would appreciate an introduction anyway.

"Does he need to be in my office too?"

"Yes," Chow quickly replied.

"I have very little time," I said to Sam before he could ask questions. "So I'll be brief." I sighed. "I've been called away, and I need you to watch over Sookie, protect her, while I'm gone."

Sam snorted and shook his head. "Well, that's just priceless," he said.

"Don't expect her to be too keen on the idea," I said, ignoring his comment. "Sookies hates feeling like she doesn't have her independence."

Sam narrowed his eyes at me and a low rumble escaped from the back of his throat. "I'm really starting to get fed up with you telling me who Sookie is."

"I know," I said, perfectly aware what I was doing, as bold and childish as Sam putting his arm around her in front of me. She reduced me to acting like a boy courting for favor. "And I also know how you feel about her, and I don't like it." We both glared at each other for a moment, and I inwardly sighed because once again I was failing to protect Sookie. Once again, I was putting my trust into a damn shifter who was able to be for her what I could never be: almost human. "But I'm asking you because you're the only one I can ask," I continued. "You're the only person I know of who can protect her in my absence." I didn't add that she needed protection because of me, and Sam was gracious enough to not mention it. "Will you do it?"

Sam looked away. "Of course I will," he said without hesitation, as I knew he would. "But I'm doing it for her, not for you." He walked past me and stared at the shelves of extra liquor in his office.

"Thank you," I simply said, the words sounding hallow and inadequate. I turned, and Chow opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.

I'd heard gasps and a little shriek while I was talking with Sam, and I rolled my eyes as I saw Eric commanding the attention of everyone in the room. He was leaned over the table, his face inches away from one of the rednecks who brought garlic to the Decedents of the Glorious Dead meeting.

"I take it you business here is done," he said to me.

"I came to talk to Sookie," I said.

Eric looked at her over my shoulder. "I'll give you three minutes," he said, still looking at her. "I have a Tribunal to get to."

I walked to Sookie, who was leaning against the bar.

"What?" she asked.

"Come with me," I said, steering her out of the bar and into the parking lot. Pam and Chow followed, and I ignored Eric, who was obviously threatening the humans. "I've very little time, but I wanted to tell you that I have to leave tonight, and I don't know when I'll be back," I said to Sookie when we were outside.

"You can't leave," she said.

"I have no choice. I have to go."

"Why?"

It was all I could do to not shake her. "Because I killed a vampire," I said. I watched as Eric, Pam, and Chow closed in, once more ensuring that a private moment was anything but private.

"I know that," Sookie said. "I was there, remember? He was going to kill me. You were defending me."

I glanced over to the three vampires hovering, trying to think of a way of explaining to Sookie without giving away secrets that would get me into more trouble. "If one of you killed another one of you defending once of us, you don't think there would be a trial?" I asked as I silently pushed at our bond so she would understand the danger we were in and accept my leaving without a scene.

"I'll come with you then," she said.

"No!" I snapped. I knew she meant well, but she couldn't be anywhere near the Magister. Not my Sookie, who was entirely too innocent of my world and too precious an asset to risk.

"I can, and I'm going to," she insisted. "I want to testify for you."

I grabbed her shoulders and lightly shook her. "Dammit, Sookie," I said. "You can't. You can't come, and you can't testify. You will not be welcome there." A human, even a human claimed by a vampire, would be drained dry so they couldn't reveal the inner-workings of the vampire power-structure. The Magister had not been for our announcement, and he had no desire to mainstream.

She leaned back from me, and I felt her accusation in our bond and saw it in her eyes: I'd failed her. "You lied to me," she said. "You said that everything was going to be okay, but it's not, is it?"

"I honestly don't know," I quietly answered, wishing more than anything that I could tell her something real, something true, something she could count on.

"Tick tock, Bill," Eric said.

"Bill," Sookie pled.

I put my hands on her shoulders and squeezed. "Just look after yourself, alright?" I begged. "I've asked Sam to watch over you." I wanted to weep that the most concrete thing I could give her was a shifter bodyguard who'd just assume I was finally dead so he could claim her.

"I wish you hadn't done that," she replied.

"Be smart, Sookie, and let him," I said. "There's still somebody out there who wants to kill you."

Sookie swallowed back tears and nodded. "Fine," she said. "I will."

"Thank you," I said, my words to her as insignificant as the same ones I'd uttered to Sam.

"And time," Eric said.

I wanted to tell her that I loved her. I wanted to tell her that I faced any danger willingly, that whatever punishment the Magister dispensed was a fair trade for her life. I wanted to tell her everything: why I was sent there and what she made me feel and how there was a part of me that she touched that I thought had died along with my human life. She was a miracle, this woman who stood before me, and she was my path to redemption, to the life I wanted to live. I wanted it to be with her, and for her, and because of her. I wanted to wake every night for the rest of my immortal life with her in my arms.

But I didn't speak those things, not with Eric coolly observing. I didn't speak at all. I crushed her to me and kissed her. Sookie's tears, warm and fragrant against my cheeks, freely fell as she kissed me back. I kissed her as if I might never kiss her again, which only I knew was a possibility. I kissed her to tell her all the things I didn't know how to say out loud, and I prayed to God, if there was a God and if that God was still mine, that she would understand.

I heard the door open, and someone walked out, and I didn't stop kissing her.

"If I had any feelings," Pam quietly said. "I'd have the chills right about now."

"Not me," Eric quickly replied. "Bill," he sharply said. I rested my hand on Sookie's neck, her life pulsing strongly against my fingertips. I leaned in for another kiss, but Eric interrupted. "Now," he demanded. I ran my nose along hers before walking away. I led the group towards Pam's car, not looking behind me, and I was the first one to get in. When Pam drove past the front of the building on the way to the road, Tara was holding Sookie in the parking lot still, and Sam had come out, and I'd never felt so far away.

"It's cozy," Pam said to Eric. "It's warmer than Fangtasia, if you know what I mean. I really like all the animals on the walls. Would it be in poor taste to stuff humans for Fangtasia?"

"Yes," Eric said.

"But they stuff the food they eat and prop it up on the walls. Why can't we? It'd be fun."

"Humans would not find that fun," Eric said. "They would find it…" He paused. "What's the word I'm looking for, Bill?"

"Macabre," I said.

"Yes," Eric said. He turned to Pam. "They would find preserved human bodies on the walls macabre."

She rolled her eyes. "Humans… I think it would be fun. If we ever have a bar just for vampires, I want to do it." Eric smiled, and Pam turned up the music, and we raced into the night.

We drove north, across the state line into Arkansas, and got off the interstate in Texarkana, pulling into a small roadside motel with a flickering "No Vacancy" sign. Weres were standing guard, as well as vampires, when we walked into the lobby to check in. The clerk was obviously glamoured, and we were given keys to a suite on the second floor.

Chow settled into the sofa and clicked on the television, and Pam rolled her eyes at him. "What a bore! I'm going hunting," she said to Eric in Swedish. He nodded his approval, and she walked out. Eric wandered towards the bathroom, and soon the sound of running water came from the closed door. Chow sighed as if greatly pained and turned up the volume on the show, a Discovery Channel program about sharks.

When I walked into the bathroom, shutting the door behind me, Eric was already under the spray. He popped his head around the glass door and grinned at me.

"You joining me?" he asked.

I walked over and whispered, hoping the sound of the water would prevent our conversation from being overheard. "I am not." He stuck his head back under the water. "What are we doing here?" I asked.

"As I told you last night, as luck should have it, the Magister is passing through. In fact, he's in one of the other suites. I don't know why he couldn't choose a nicer place, but it makes no difference to me. The whole motel is vampires awaiting his judgement tomorrow night."

"It's luck, is it?"

Eric shrugged. "I didn't say it was good luck for you, only luck."

"Why are you doing this?" I asked.

"We need to be here at first dark," he said.

"Let's just go home. Please do not bring him into this."

"It's too late for that, Bill," Eric said. "I told you how to get out of it, and you refused. I've already reported Longshadow's staking. If we didn't have legitimate business, we would not be allowed to stay here. We're expected at first dark tomorrow."

I slapped the glass door of the shower, causing it to rattle. "Damn you, Eric."

"Breaking the shower will not change the course of events," Eric calmly replied.

"You're saying that nothing can now."

Eric shook his head. "Nothing can. I could not help you if I wanted to."

"And you don't want to?"

Eric leaned over me, water dripping from his hair onto my shirt. "I've told you, Bill: there is survival, and there is death. I always choose survival."

"Sookie is not a threat to you. I am not a threat to you…"

"Yes, but it's obviously more than just you happening upon a human telepath. Please don't insult my intelligence."

"Eric," I sighed.

"I asked you to confide in me."

"There's nothing to confide," I said. "And if there were, I couldn't. You should know that."

"You're still a terrible liar," Eric said. "It's one of the things I've always loved about you."

"How can you profess to love me when you've brought me here?" I whispered. "You know what he's capable of. You know what the sentence is."

"Love has nothing to do with this," Eric said. He refused to meet my gaze.

"You set me up."

"So you've claimed," Eric said. "But whether or not I did has nothing to do with your current predicament. You killed a vampire, Bill."

"You were the only one in that room who could've stopped him without killing him," I said. "You left me no choice."

"No," he said. "You are the one who left me with no choice." He shook his hair and smiled at me. "Now, if you're not going to join me, I suggest you spend the rest of the evening relaxing. Tomorrow could be… trying…"

"Fuck you," I said before shutting the bathroom door behind me.