Eric's Demons
Chapter Twenty-one
Cooped up in the big house day and night, Sookie needed to get out. She had grown fond of Olaf, even though she knew he was humoring her, and had little or no interest in her conversation. Every now and again she would ask him about Eric's past. Each time she did he met her question with loyal but futile silence as she merely red the answer from his surface thoughts.
Then came a night when her heroic viking lover chose to stay with her instead. Sookie knew exactly what he would spend the night doing if the others were away. Part of her was excited and aroused at the very thought of his touch, but she had things she needed to do, and this was her best chance. Besides she still hurt from yesterday, her battered body could do with a rest from her prolific vampire lover.
At first he had put up a fight, had argued that he should come along for her safety, but they both knew that she could handle anything she might meet at the mall as well as he could. She never told him that she would also be embarrassed to buy some of the things she needed if he was there with her.
The mall was busy. Shiny clean and well lit the local businesses had learned to accommodate the shoppers who couldn't visit during the day. Wandering around the store for a while she could forget the battle at the steel mill, the power she had wielded against the Nephilim. For a while she could be Sookie, who needed her nails and hair done, and who longed for new underwear and razors.
It was late when she decided she'd had enough. Tucking into a large milkshake she had hailed a cab to go back to the house that the Magister had been good enough to lend them. She hadn't seen him since the battle, but knew that Eric and Ulrich had.
Eric, even his name made her smile. She loved him now as he did her, but she just wished she could persuade him that every night did not be the night. Only so many nights of earth shattering, mind blowing sex were possible before everything started to hurt. Every night she promised herself she would tell him she needed to rest, then every night he would look at her with those smoldering intense eyes. What was a girl to do?
There was a car outside the house, the back seat full of suitcases. Ever the knight in shining armor Eric rushed down the steps to meet her and to help her inside with her bags. He was behaving odd, even for a bloodsucker. Normally attentive to her every word he was barely listening, and seemed distracted by something. When she finally confronted him he denied everything, but she read from his mind that he didn't want her near the basement.
Once he knew she had seen through his evasion he caved in, told her about the man in the basement. She was livid, he couldn't just go around kidnapping people and turning them into vampires, she'd only been gone a few hours. What else had he been up to?
The front door opened, and in rushed Ulrich and Olaf. They were soaked in blood, and looked awkward to find her confronting Eric. She paused only for breath before starting on him again.
Outside Pam could hear every word. Sookie was really lashing into Eric, something about a body in the basement. She could smell fresh blood inside too. Her sharp knock on the front door ended the arguing inside.
"Come in," Sookie called.
"I can't," Pam answered.
"Be welcome, and all that," Eric told her.
"Still can't," she told them.
Eric stropped to the front door, pulled it open to berate Pam for interrupting his row with Sookie. What he saw stopped him dead in his tracks.
Two of the most beautiful me he had ever seen held Pam by the arms. The Nephilim were back.