Author's Note : This will probably be the last update for the week, but I promise more as soon as possible. I'll be spending the holiday with my in-laws that only have one phone line and dial-up internet, but I'll have my laptop with me and should have lots of time to write. Next earliest update will be Sunday so I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, no matter what you're celebrating.

Last Chapter : Sookie's RnR started with a back rub and ended with a bit of goofiness as her, Eric, and Bill had some water splashing contests in the excessively large tub found in Felipe de Castro's guest rooms.

This Chapter : Rested and relaxed, Sookie has a chance to reflect with Eric. (Pun intended.)

When I woke up it was dark but someone had thoughtfully left a light glowing on the other side of the room. I was in the bed, wrapped in the softest sheets I had ever slept in, and had a pillow tucked under my head. It was a big bed but as I blinked my eyes open I realized that I was the only one in it.

A few more blinks and I was much more awake. Last night came rushing back in a flurry of remembrance and I blushed as I realized that I wasn't wearing any clothes, which meant someone or someone(s) had tucked me under the covers naked. Where were Bill and Eric, anyway? Was it still daylight out, or did I sleep through the whole day? It wouldn't surprise me if I had, I'd been that tired last night when I finally fell asleep.

I got my answer pretty quick when I stepped down to get out of bed, clutching the top-sheet around myself in an attempt at modesty. My feet almost landed almost on top of Bill. He was stretched out on his back, a pillow under his head, and his hands tucked between his head and the pillow like he was a kid laying on his back looking up at the stars. I guessed that he didn't toss and turn much when he slept since there was a sheet spread out across his stomach that looked like it hadn't moved since he pulled it up.

Scooting around him carefully as I tugged the rest of my impromptu wrap free of the bed, I found Eric on the floor on the other side. He was sprawled out on his stomach, limbs pointing randomly, except for the forearm he was using as a head rest. I wondered if he had something against pillows. And either he tossed and turned a lot or he'd done some fancy decorating before he drifted off because the towel he was using to cover himself was artfully draped 'just-so' to show off his trophy-worthy butt while still keeping the other bits of him hidden.

I couldn't help smiling as I trekked to the bathroom.

Biological needs taken care of, I started hunting around for a toothbrush since my mouth felt like something had crawled in it and died. Thankfully there was a small cabinet recessed in the mirror that could slide open and lo-and-behold I found a fresh toothbrush wrapped in plastic and as well as toothpaste. I still wasn't entirely awake yet so I wasn't thinking about anything in particular as I brushed and rinsed. There didn't seem to be any cups to use so I settled for cupping my hands under the water to get a few mouthfuls. When I raised my head to turn off the spigot I almost had a heart attack.

Eric was standing behind me smirking, off to the side just enough that my body wasn't blocking his reflection in the mirror and after my initial panic I couldn't help ogling. Vampires might not get 'morning wood' but they certainly got the moonlight-equivalent.

I swallowed hard and shut off the water. "Eric, what – " I had begun to turn around but he stepped close and pressed me into the counter, not breaking eye contact with me in the mirror.

"I never got a chance to properly accept your apology last night, lover." He leaned down to kiss me just below my ear and it sent shivers down my spine. I almost didn't want to give his intentions a second thought but one glaring reason to stop sprang to mind.

"Eric," I said firmly even as his lips continued a trail down to my shoulder and my body started shouting at me to not be stupid, "Bill –"

"Won't be awake for almost an hour," he said smoothly and it didn't even seem like he'd stopped kissing me. He picked up the arm he was working on in one hand and kissed down to my fingers, pausing to nibble on them lightly. His fangs were all the way out but he didn't even prick me, he was so used to them.

I watched as his other hand came up to start pulling at the sheet hiding my body from view. I wasn't sure that Eric was being completely truthful about how much time we had but I didn't think he would be that blatantly cruel to Bill either, after yesterday. Reason was starting to disappear quickly from my mind as the sheet fell to the floor.

Keeping my arm held away from me, Eric dropped to his knees as he ducked underneath it to plant a few kisses on the underside of my breast. I was able to watch him in the mirror as he continued kissing his way down my side, the sensitive skin that spread over my ribs tingling with anticipation as he descended. When he got to just above my hip his eyes flickered up to meet mine in the reflective surface as he nipped lightly. I gasped, "Eric!"

A smile played across his lips as he stood and spun me to face him all in one motion. He pressed heavily into my hip as he leaned down to kiss me. My arms wrapped themselves around his head to draw him farther in as his hands settled down on my bottom. He lifted me effortlessly onto the counter and then dragged his fingers over from my back to my front where I was already wet with wanting. When he found my nub I jerked in response and pressed into him.

He parted my lips with his tongue as his fingers entered me. I moaned helplessly as my body starting moving in response. Our tongues settled into the same rhythm as his fingers and it felt exquisitely like I was being claimed both above and below, although there was certainly more to come.

Eric broke our kiss so he could lick the particularly sensitive spot on my neck. His tongue trailed up to my ear where he whispered, "Watch me," and then began kissing his way down my front. At my breasts he stopped. He looked up to see if my eyes were on him – they were – as his tongue flicked out to rub across one nipple, then the other. I shuddered and my movements on his fingers started becoming desperate as he bent forward to suck one nipple into his mouth, using his tongue to press it roughly against his fangs. It hurt, a little, but it was an exciting kind of pain. He switched breasts again after a moment and repeated the process. My hands were now resting on his shoulders as I used him for leverage to move myself. His fingers had found a magic rhythm that wasn't quite enough to send me over the edge but enough to keep my pleasure building. I was still watching him as he trailed down even further, pausing to lick my navel with an incredibly seductive look on his face and I almost wanted to hit him but he quickly got back to business.

Head level with my grinding pelvis, he dipped forward to place one slow lick across my nub. I moaned and stopped moving, mostly, content to let him set the pace. His fingers didn't stop as he drew a second lick across me, and then a third, before he finally settled himself into a rhythm of licks and strokes that was starting to make stars dance around the edges of my vision. I was still watching him. "Oh, Eric, that feels…" The stars began shimmering. He replaced his tongue with his thumb as he turned to nuzzle my thigh. I knew what was coming (besides me!) and somehow the blood in my body rose to a shrieking pitch in anticipation. His eyes locked with mine as he bit.

I made a noise that was purely animal as my climax flooded through me. The stars shined brilliantly as I felt him draw blood and my mind didn't even register when he switched to licking the wound with his coagulant laden saliva.

His face was in front of mine quite suddenly as he caught me in a piercing, blue gaze. Eyes locked on mine, he reached down to rub himself across my opening and my breathing picked up again. He entered me in one swift stroke and I saw as his eyes glassed over in pleasure. One of his hands drifted down to rest on my lower back to hold me close to the edge of the counter as he pulled out almost completely and then lunged back in. I moaned and couldn't help it as my eyes rolled back. He'd grinded into me at the end of his thrust which almost sent me over again since my nub was still extremely sensitive. I felt his other hand grip behind my neck as he held me still for a long, passionate kiss timed perfectly with another slow withdraw from my body and a quick plunge back in. I rested one hand on his arm and used the other to reach between us and pinch one of his nipples. Eric jerked and moaned my name, "Oh, Sookie…" which sent a whole new wave of pleasure through me. He seemed to forget about taking things slow as the hand at my back pressed more firmly against me while he started pounding.

Soon enough I was whimpering, moving myself against him with abandon as he drove me to another orgasm. My head fell back and I shouted at the ceiling as it ripped through me, but Eric wasn't done. Not slowing his thrusts, he fucked me through my climax and right past the afterglow, growling deep in his chest. The pleasure was so intense I was gasping for air as I felt a third climax building, if the slight increase in pleasure it would be could even be called a climax. "Oh, fuck, Eric, oh!" I couldn't help the words spilling out of me as he made me lose my mind.

Mine! I heard him shout in his thoughts as his mouth opened to yell words in another language. The bond opened between us and the rush of emotions that came with his release washed over me, sending me over an edge I hadn't even realized was there. Our climax – because that's really what it was – was so intense that we both collapsed, him on top of me as he caught himself with his hands on the counter and me backwards into the mirror. I had no idea how long we stayed like that but slowly, oh so slowly, my brain started to switch back on.

He raised his head from where it had been lying on my chest and when our eyes met I could hear him perfectly. She is so beautiful, so dangerous to me. The things she does to me… I felt myself blush as his thoughts drifted into a replay of recent events only to be startled right back into reality. She's blushing like she can hear me.

Normally I'm pretty good at keeping my face blank when I need to but I couldn't help the slight widening of my eyes as his thoughts steadily drifted down the path of suspicion. He frowned and said aloud, "Sookie, can you hear me?"

I panicked. My heart started pounding and I started babbling, "Yes, I'm so sorry, it's why I hate drinking vampire blood 'cause this seems to happen when I do and I've never told anyone because I was so afraid one of you would kill me because vampire thoughts are so private and I just –" My stream of words was stopped by his gentle fingers pressed against my lips.

My lover, he thought tenderly, even another part of his mind went off on a different tangent, She is right, this is dangerous. But it can be useful to. A third line of thoughts went, Doesn't she trust me? I'd never heard anything like it. It was almost as though Eric could section off his own mind into different parts and let his thoughts wander around completely independent of each other. No wonder I'd gotten dizzy from it last night.

Apparently I was gaping at him because his main line of thoughts settled into amusement. I closed my mouth quickly. "Eric, that's amazing."

He raised one blond eyebrow as he waited for my explanation.

"You can think a whole bunch of different things at the same time. I've never met anyone who could do that before." He grinned at me roguishly as he stood and helped me settle myself on my feet on the bathroom floor.

"It is my gift, lover," he said proudly before adding modestly, "Every vampire has one."

"I know that." I explained, "I think Bill's is a detailed memory or an extra good sense of smell but he's the only one besides that guy who helped me heal in Jackson and the, well, Sophie-Anne, that I've ever known specifically what their gift was."

"You mean the vampire with the extra healing chemicals?" Eric asked to clarify.

"Yeah, him. And I've never asked Bill if I was right about his," I added as an afterthought.

Now that we weren't touching I could only hear the main line of Eric's thoughts clearly enough to understand what they were. I knew what his next question would be but I waited for him to ask it out loud. "Can you hear Bill?"

"Yes."

"When?"

"Just since the ceremony, the stupid protected human thing." I remembered my thought last night that I had completely contradicted all my reasons not to drink from Eric by participating in that stupid ritual. "Eric, I…" I hesitated because I wasn't sure how he would react to what I wanted to say. "I just want to say that while I'm still trying to figure out what this whole blood bond means for me, I really should have thought about what I was saying to you before I opened my mouth yesterday. And since my biggest fear was hearing vampire thoughts, I feel really dumb right now that I made you think I hated you just because I was too scared to tell you the truth."

He stepped forward and placed a hooked finger under my chin, raising my eyes so I was looking into his. "You never have anything to fear from me, lover. I promise you that. I hope you realize that you can trust me with your worries, because it was…" he faltered and his eyes drifted away as he avoided mentioning his loss of control. "I don't think I would have reacted like that except I had just learned about Pam being hurt. But, I also don't want to have to worry about it happening again. I want you to turn to me when you are troubled because that is part of what the bond does. It allows me to comfort you when you have the need."

My eyes teared up and I nodded. Eric leaned forward and kissed me gently then suddenly looked alarmed as he quickly moved away from me, grabbing the sheet I'd be wearing earlier and wrapping it my body. It took me a second to follow his train of thought but I got there as he handed me the edges of the sheet. He'd heard Bill get up in the other room. Eric quickly grabbed a towel discarded from last night to wrap around himself and he hastily tucked it in.

Sure enough, the bathroom door opened to reveal Bill's customary glare. He had wrapped the sheet he'd been sleeping under around his waist which was good, but his eyes were shooting daggers at Eric as he caught wind of the recent and obvious scent of sex.

"Shouldn't you at least knock first?" I said in mock annoyance. I sort of felt bad that Bill had to be reminded of the perks Eric had been getting recently but at the same time it wasn't as though I was ashamed of it. In fact I was actually much happier right now that I had been in a good long while and although I was still uncertain what the future might bring I wasn't about to waste a lot of time worrying about it.

I guess some of that trickled over to Bill from our recent blood exchange and he seemed to relax though he kept looking at Eric enviously. Since it was getting slightly crowded in the smaller room with me, Bill, Eric, and their respective male pride and egos I decided to head back out into the main room. I gave Bill a quick kiss on the cheek as I walked by and felt a rush of surprise run through him and a glimmer of annoyance from Eric.

Hey, I was still my own woman.

"So what are we doing today? Err, tonight, since obviously you guys wouldn't be awake yet if it was still daytime." My stomach growled almost as loudly as it had last night and I decided that the first thing I wanted to do was eat.

However the first thing I needed to do was get dressed, but our clothes from yesterday were just as filthy as when we'd taken them off. I'd spotted them piled in one corner of the bathroom but only just now realized that our luggage was still at the hotel, not here at Felipe's compound.

Bill walked over to turn on the television as Eric headed for the phone sitting on the desk in the room. They'd apparently been thinking along the same lines I had as I listened to Eric request human food and a few bottles of TruBlood for him and Bill. He also asked about our luggage but I stopped paying attention to his conversation as Bill settled in on the news channel on the T.V.

"…still uncertain what links these crimes together, but most have common enough strands that many investigators are treating the assumption that these heinous acts are a direct result of vampire activity as a forgone conclusion. This reporter was fortunate enough to meet with one of the area's most respected and well known vampires just after dark this evening, and here's what he had to say." The picture switched to a recording of Felipe de Castro standing in opulent settings that I had to assume were in a casino somewhere in Vegas. His accent seemed less pronounced while talking to the media I noticed. "Yes, we are very concerned about these acts. Rest assured, if there is factual connection to any vampires, the AVL will be the first to help step in and help resolve the matter. I have made myself available to questions tonight and have encouraged my people to do the same, so that we may get back to business as usual as quickly as possible." Here, his lips kept moving but the reporter started doing voice over on top of him. "Clearly Mr. Castro is promising to do everything he can to be helpful to the humans investigating these crimes. And while that might satisfy some people, this reporter wonders if it's time for the vampires to step in and clean up their own mess." She continued talking but I was too busy trying to put together the implications in my head.

First was that Felipe was clearly trying to push buttons by saying that the AVL would help with the human investigations. After all, it was the AVL's sanction of the vampire hunters that had resulted in most of the things they were flashing by on the news. Second it seemed like the vampire hunters were either very good at concealing themselves, or they had some way of hiding in plain sight. There had certainly been enough lackeys to throw an entire camp-full up for slaughter.

There was suddenly a feeling of tension and excitement in the air from the two vampires in the room. Eric must have finished with his phone call and come over to watch the television with us because he was reacting right alongside Bill. My eyes darted between them as their fangs rang out and their eyes stared fixedly at the screen.

A caption stated 'Maive Shadows – Vampire Expert' underneath the image of a beautiful young woman. She was about my age, maybe a little younger, dressed in a crisp skirt-suit whose seams looked sharp enough to slice through paper. The off-white suit stood out next to her tan skin, and I decided that she must be Hispanic or Indian in decent. Her hair was tied back in a tight bun so it was impossible to tell if it was long, short, curly or straight, but I thought it might not be her natural color since it was flaming red. She was talking animatedly to a different reporter for the same news network we'd been watching since Bill stopped on the channel.

"Oh, yes, vampires are very dangerous. Not only to your life, but to your soul. They're just another form temptation to shake your faith in our Creator and their greatest desire is to convince you that you want to be one of them. Now, that isn't to say that *all* vampires are evil. On the other hand, I've met some vampires that are nicer than your average CEO. No, there are levels of corruption in all things, but the mere fact that vampires are so successful at seducing people into their way of life, their way of thinking, is a danger to everyone." Here she smiled brilliantly, revealing perfect white teeth and two innocent looking dimples. If Bill and Eric hadn't been staring at her like they'd enjoy nothing better than having a chance to rip her throat out along with a good dose of actual, well, not fear but definitely caution, I would have just assumed she was another religious zealot part of the FotS or something like it. "But what we really need to focus on is helping the people who have just started walking down that slippery path. The ones who are helping the vampires, bless them, in a misguided attempt to do what they think is right. Vampires don't need help, except maybe back into the grave, and if they have you convinced that they do it is just another way to corrupt the good-hearted. If you know anyone like this, please, do them and your conscience a favor. Pick up the phone and let us know. Your report will remain confidential and you could be saving someone's life." Voice over started again, even though the picture stayed with the young woman.

"So," I said when it became apparent that neither of them were going to speak, "that's the huntress? I thought her name was Maive Shadesinger, not Shadows?"

"Oh it is," said Eric, still staring at the screen. "But of course she can't give a name like that to the human media."

Silence stretched around us until the T.V. switched to a different image. Shaking themselves out of their preoccupation Bill and Eric turned to each other and had one of their silent conversations. "So what does this mean?" I asked, slightly miffed that I couldn't hear them clearly enough to understand their thoughts since they were flickering by so quickly.

Eric broke away first and turned to gaze to me. "It means," he said slowly, choosing his words, "that the Huntress has come out to play."

My annoyance at his less than direct answer would have to wait since there was a knock at the door that needed more immediate attention. Hopefully our food and clothing was here.

Disclaimer : Charlaine Harris retains sole rights to the SVM and its characters and I am in no way attempting to infringe on the world she has created. Her characters are being borrowed as creative inspirations, and are being portrayed here merely through my interpretation of their interactions. Cory and Xan are my own creation solely for use in this fanfic. Thanks for reading.