Dark Desire – Chapter 25
The night after Katy recovered her memories and her blood bond, Eric immediately contacted the Magister upon awakening. A new date for the vampire wedding and turning ceremonies was set. Although Katy and Eric preferred a simple ceremony this time with only a few invited guests, the Magister insisted that it be larger even than the human wedding reception held at La Maisson's on New Years night. He proclaimed that since Eric was a king, the vampire wedding rites had to held with all the pomp and circumstance due a reigning monarch. The Magister also insisted that the ritual turning of King's Eric's human consort be witnessed by as many vampires as possible. It was Eric and Katy's duty, he said.
"Since human's celebrate Valentine's Day as a day for lovers, I am sure that Lady Kathryn will appreciate the date I have chosen," the ancient gray vampire sneered with unveiled scorn. The Magister had a rather morbid sense of humor: he set the date for midnight on February 14th. The ritual turning ceremony would start no later than 12:45am on the morning of February 15th.
Once that was settled, the two prepared to go downstairs and meet the staff and guests together. At the bedroom door, Eric turned to Katy and asked, "Are you ready?"
Katy was a nervous and anxious; she was concerned that she would not remember everyone and end up hurting someone's feelings. Nonetheless, she smiled up at him and told him, "Yes. Let's go."
Eric placed Katy's slender hand on his arm, covered it with his big one, and the two of them walked down the long upstairs hallway to the grand staircase. As she walked, a warm sense of familiarity began to lessen Katy's anxiety. She was startled at how much she had come to think of this old mansion as home. Despite the gauche gold and red carpeting and drapes and the overly ornate white and gold French Provincial furniture she hated, Katy knew that she had never been happier than with Eric in this house.
A cheer erupted from below as Katy and Eric appeared at the head of the grand staircase. Moments before, Eric had alerted Daniel Brady that Katy's memories had returned, and she was ready to take her place as his official wife and consort.. Every every vamp guard and vamp employee who worked in or around the palace was standing at attention in two long lines facing each other in the foyer below.
Connie Madrid, the palace's human Chatelaine; Jillian Brown, Marcy Goodwin and her husband, Robert, Eric's three human telepaths were standing there also. Katy had no idea how they knew she would be downstairs this night. At the end of the line, Judith Vardamon stood along side Daniel.
It reminded Katy of soldiers undergoing military inspection. "Welcome back, Lady Kathryn," they said in unison. As she passed them by, the human's reached out to touch Katy's hand or arm and welcome her back. The vampires stood stoically, but Katy saw welcome in their eyes, too. Katy greeted everyone in turn by name and thanked them for being there.
When Katy got to Judith, her closest friend, the little vamp could not contain herself. She gave a joyful screech and hugged Katy so hard, Katy thought her ribs would crack. Judith was tiny, but there was no doubt she had vampire strength. Katy tapped Judith on the arm, and she dropped her arms immediately.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just so glad to see you again!" Tears of blood coated Judith's face. Her unabashed joy at seeing Katy looking so well, touched the human woman's heart to the quick. Daniel bent down and her on the cheek. Within minutes, Eric, Katy, Daniel and Judith were talking as if nothing ever happened. They proceeded to Eric's office.
While Eric and Daniel talked official matters, Judith filled Katy in on all the palace gossip and told her some new jokes she had learned. Katy laughed so hard, she thought her sides would split. She felt happy; it had been a long time since she felt like laughing. Feeling Eric's eyes on her, Katy turned and gave him a brilliant smile. He had been broadcasting his worry and uneasiness to her since they left their bedroom.
"I am all right," she mouthed to him. She could feel relief flowing through his body as he relaxed. An hour later, Eric took the four of the to Reggie's Cafe to celebrate.
The next day, Katy came down early, around nine o'clock in the morning. She went immediately to the kitchen and had coffee with Connie Madrid; the two of them had a long comfortable chat. Later she spent an hour with Jillian Brown and Marcy and Robert Goodwin in their offices upstairs. About 11:30 Katy and Marcy Goodwin went downstairs. Katy wanted to greet the human doctor she had hired in December to take her place in the staff infirmary after her turning. Dr. Hammond had been there only a few days, he started on January 15th as scheduled.
The clinic had quite a few patients scheduled for that day. The human staff had begun to bring their children and spouses in for treatment. Katy rolled up her sleeves and worked right along side Dr. Hammond and Marcy. When she went upstairs to be on hand when Eric woke up for the night, Katy felt tired, but happy.
Katy was grateful at how fast her life returned to a normal routine. During the ensuing weeks, she leased a large space in a small strip mall not too far from the palace. With help from both the human and vamp staff, all the medical equipment was moved from the infirmary to the larger facilities. Katy ordered even more expensive and more sophisticated equipment as well. The Northman Medical Clinic would be relatively small, but it would be well equipped and well staffed; it had to be to begin servicing human employees of Eric's many other business. Within two weeks, Katy and, Dr. Hammond hired a third human doctor two more nurses and a receptionist for the front desk.
Katy had every intention of working at the Northman Medical Clinic too. She hired another doctor, a receptionist and a nurse to work the night shift. All of them were supes of some kind. After the weres came out a couple of years before, they had trouble finding a human doctor to treat them, so the same government that was adamant that a vampire should not be allowed to treat humans, had no problem with a vampire treating supernatural patients. Large donations made by Eric to the American Medical Association and to the human governor of Louisiana greased the way for Katy to become the first vampire doctor to be licensed as a "supe doctor" in the United States.
Although Eric had spoke before their human weddings on what to expect during the vampire ceremony and the subsequent turning, he was determined that Katy not suffer any unpleasant surprises or regrets over her choice to become a vampire. He went over everything once more. He even asked Judith to help him fill in anything he hadn't told Katy. Both Eric and Judith spoke plainly; they didn't sugarcoat anything. The only concern Katy expressed to either was her fear of not being able to control the bloodlust she knew every vampire endured during their first year.
"Don't let me become a monster," she begged Eric. "Don't let me hurt or kill a human, even if I am starving."
"Never, lover. I will teach you. I promise," he assured her.
Finally Valentines Day came. Despite the cool, but dry February weather, the ceremony was held outside under a waterproof canvas tent covered by blood red silk. The tent was large enough to accommodate over six hundred vampire guests.
Sookie Compton was the only human allowed to attend, and she was allowed to stay for the vampire wedding only. She had to leave the palace grounds immediately afterward. Eric paid to have Bill and Sookie put up at the best vampire hotels in New Orleans, and he arranged for his limo to take her to the hotel after the wedding ceremony.
The huge wedding tent was strung with softly glowing golden lights. It was furnished with rows upon rows of elegantly cushioned chairs separated by a blood red carpet extending from the front of the tent to the altar in the center. The guest list for this wedding included every vampire king and queen in the country and several foreign ones too. Every vampire of any significant import vied for an engraved invitation to the Vampire Wedding of King Eric Northman and his human wife, Kathryn Dumont Northman; many vampires were disappointed not to get one.
The Northman wedding was not the biggest or most elaborate vampire wedding by any means. But a royal wedding, followed by the voluntary ritual turning of an already blood bonded human, was considered one of the most important vampire social events of the century. News of Katy's brutal assault and subsequent amnesia occurring from that attack on the night of her human wedding had spread far and wide throughout the vampire community. The story of how Eric had defied the Magister and refused to turn her until she had recovered all of her memories had taken on an almost legendary quality. Katy had become an object of curiosity, and vamps of all strike wanted to meet her.
Once the music signaling the start of the ceremony began, Eric led Katy down the aisle to the center of the tent where six foot by four foot rectangular marble altar stood on a three tiered dais. The marble was covered with a black and gold altar cloth. Symbols which Katy could not understand were painted in gold and black on all sides of the altar. There were unusual carving as well on the front of the altar.
Two heavy ornate gold candelabra, studded with the largest rubies Katy had ever seen, held seven tall black candles each. In the middle of the altar, a small golden casket sat on a red velvet cushion. In front of the altar, the Magister stood dressed in a black ceremonial robe with his cowl covering his face. The smell of the burning candles slightly nauseated Katy; she later learned that the candles were made mostly with human blood.
Eric was dressed in a black Italian suit and black shirt and tie. Katy was dressed in a simple but elegant black off the shoulder gown with her hair pinned up tightly off her neck and held in place by onyx and diamond hair pins. Katy's graceful neck and beautiful shoulders were bare to make the later turning easier.
Eric's throat tightened visibly; he was nervous, but he couldn't be prouder of his Katy. She stood at his side, tall and beautiful and unafraid. She radiated her love for him, just as she radiated her fearlessness. Her fair skin and perfect complexion shone with an unearthly glow; Eric thought he had never seen any woman, human or vampire, look more beautiful than Katy did tonight.
The vampire guests noted the elegant and beautiful couple with obvious approval. Eric and Katy paid paid no mind to the soft oohing and aahing of their guests as they strode down the aisle and ascended the dais. They had eyes only for each other. Magister.
At the stroke of midnight, the Magister pushed his cowl back and began the wedding ritual. Without a hitch, Katy and Eric repeated the words that bound them together for eternity. Although the usual vamp wedding vows called for the couple to be bound only for "one hundred years," Katy and Eric insisted that the words be changed to "forever." The Magister, who was greedily contemplating the donation of five million dollars, readily agreed.
The hall was silent as the Magister turned, opened the casket, took out a ceremonial knife and passed it to Eric. Eric slit his wrist with it and passed it to Katy who did the same. They joined their wrists together as the Magister pronounced them bonded as husband and wife. The guests erupted in cheers.
As required Eric and Katy were escorted to a small tent along side the larger wedding tent to officially consummate their vampire marriage. The vamps needed their proof that the wedding was indeed a true one, not merely a convenient lie. Despite the small tent's canvas and silk walls there was no real privacy, but the neither Eric or Katy cared. Their lovemaking was intentionally short and fulfilling, but loud. The vamps in the wedding tent stamped, howled and snarled in approval as they both smelled and heard the the bride and groom come to orgasm.
Thirty minutes later, Katy and Eric stood in front of the Magister again. Eric bared his fangs, stepped up to Katy and enfolded her in his arms. Katy wrapped her arms around Eric, leaned back slightly and arched her graceful neck sideways allowing him complete access. Eric sank his fangs in deeply, but gently; he was determined not to cause Katy even a moment of pain. Eric began to take her unique spicy sweet blood. It filled his mouth; he began to suck a little harder, but then he lightened up once more.
It took a major effort on his part, but Eric controlled everything like a maestro playing a violin He ensured that his bite caused Katy absolutely no pain, only pleasure. Katy orgasmed once more and began to moan as her blood rushed to meet Eric's lips. Eric growled deep in his chest; he moaned with his own orgasm.
The scent of sex and blood was strong in the air as Eric sucked at the wounds his fangs made in Katy's neck. The vamp guests could not contain their growing arousal. They stamped, howled, snarled and growled in a sexual frenzy of their own. Some of them began to have sex with each other. Others were so aroused, they called out unspeakable words. Still others urged Eric to go faster, bite harder, drink deeper, but he paid them no mind. He continued his slow steady, gentle, but deliberate pull at his love's delicate throat.
It seemed to take an eternity, but Katy eventually felt herself begin to drift in a semi-conscious state. She wasn't afraid, but she was surprised that she didn't feel cold; a warm blackness surround her. After a while, she felt no more.
Eric knew the second that Katy was on the edge of death. He moved his mouth from Katy's neck and ripped open his wrist with his fangs and sank to the floor with her on his lap. With one finger he opened Katy's mouth and began to drip his blood into it. For a few terrifying seconds, nothing happened.
A hush fell over the crowd. A great cheer rose up when Katy's hands reached up and clamped onto Eric's wrist. With her luscious lips, she formed a seal around the wound in his wrist and began to suck in big, gulping gasps. Since their very first blood exchange, Katy had loved the taste of Eric's rich vampire blood as much as her loved hers. She drank and drank; she felt insatiable. The wounds on her neck healed.
Eric quivered in relief, then orgasmed hard again. The vamp audience around them howled, growled and clapped their approval. Finally knowing it was time, Eric said, "Stop Katy! It's done." She did, and he drew his wrist away. Katy watched fascinated, as always, as Eric's vampire blood healed his wound quickly. Soon there was no evidence of a wound at all.
Eric held Katy against him as he stood up. "It's done!" he said again to the Magister and the crowd. The Magister looked at Katy and nodded.
Eric turned to Judith. "Give the Magister and Miss Flanagan their checks; they earned them," he said. His voice was heavy laden with sarcasm.
Turning back to the Magister, Eric said, "If you will excuse me, I must take care of my wife; my child." He picked Katy up in his strong arms and carried her out the back of the tent and disappeared into the night. For three days and nights, he slept with her in the earth in a remote spot on the grounds of the palace. He had spent weeks searching for exactly the right spot. Only Pam and Daniel knew where it was.
Katy was already asleep as Eric covered them both with earth. She slept without waking for three nights. On the fourth night, well after midnight, Katy woke up. She didn't know where she was; felt alone and lost. Katy felt the heaviness of the earth on her face and her body. It sent her into a state of abject terror; she panicked; her mind was heavy and thick.
It took several long agonizing seconds for her to remember where she was and why. Even though logic told her she didn't need to breathe, she felt like she was suffocating. She began to claw at the earth above her trying to get out.
A warm hand touched her arm, and she instantly began to calm. Eric was in her mind, talking softly to her without speaking. For the first time ever, Katy could read Eric's mind, and he could read hers. She was startled by this. She didn't expect this either.
"Its our blood bond. When I turned you, it got even stronger. I have been listening to your dreams for three nights now. I have never read another vampire's mind before, so I know it must be the effect of our blood bond on our maker/child bond." Eric spoke aloud this time. He seemed extremely excited by this fact. His voice held both wonder and awe.
Katy reached out to him with both her body and her mind. He was right there beside her; he was inside her head as strongly as before only this time there were words to explain the emotions and feelings. Katy noted that when she touched Eric, his body no longer felt cool to her; he felt as warm as any human male now. She wondered how that was possible.
As he read her mind, Eric silently answered. "Your body is vampire now; your body temperature is the same as mine. Vampires do not feel cold to one another." Katy was delighted; that was something that neither Eric or Judith had bothered to mention before.
Together they clawed their way up out of the ground. Eric stood for a few moments holding her close to him. Hand in hand, they silently began to walk toward the palace. Katy felt strong, but she felt peaceful now. The night seemed more alive to her than she ever remembered. She never realized before how much she loved the night.
She was perfectly calm until she was about one hundred feet from the garage in back of the house. Two limos had pulled up to the back door. Four vamps of obvious importance disembarked and headed toward the back door. With the vamps, were six humans, four women and two males.
The smell of human blood hit her with the fury of a hurricane; it blindsided her. Katy began to shake uncontrollably as bloodlust hit her for the very first time. Eric embraced her tightly and kept walking her toward the mansion, but she strained hard against his arms. She was much stronger than when she was human, but she would never be stronger than Eric.
She snarled and growled in fury when he did not release her. She wanted at the humans; she wanted to drink their blood. She wanted to rip their throats out and paint her face with their blood. Katy was instantly horrified by those thoughts and the intensity of the burning hunger within her.
"I am so hungry, Eric. All I can think of is their hot wonderful blood. It smells so good, and I want it so bad." She tried to get away from Eric again, but his arms clamped even more tightly around her.
Katy suddenly stopped struggling to get free. "Oh, God, Eric. Judith and Sookie were right. I am a monster," she told him. She wanted to vomit in disgust.
"No, lover. What you feel is normal. We all go through it. You will learn to control it soon. I will help you. I promise," he told her.
Through their combined blood bond and maker/child bond, Eric felt every terrible emotion; every pang of bloodlust. He felt her horror of what she now was and her fear of what she may become. He clearly heard what she was thinking. Right now she was terrified. With these horrible urges roiling through her, she didn't trust herself to be around humans at all.
Eric sighed resolutely. He had been afraid this would happen, and he had made contingency plans. Instead of entering the palace, Eric guided her to a waiting limo, pushed her inside and sat down beside her. The limo doors automatically locked. He warmed up three warm bottles of True Blood in the microwave in the front of the passenger cabin and handed them to her. Katy drank them down gagging as she did so. The limo started to move up the interstate towards Shreveport.
The fancy vampire resort in the Caribbean where he had hoped to take her for their two week honeymoon was heavily staffed with humans. It was was out of the question; they could not go there with Katy in the state she was in. He told the vamp limo driver to take them to his house in Shreveport.
It was along ride, so he closed the screen between the driver and the passenger cabins. He laid Katy out on the long, comfortable leather seat, and made love to her for the duration of the trip. Their lovemaking was wild; he did not have to hold back now, and she gave back in kind. They were ferocious and primitive. They were two animals mating in a storm of passion and lust.
They bit, clawed and scratched each other; told each other how much they loved each other and then clawed and scratched some more. Every wound healed completely within seconds. Katy was delighted with that. Despite its ferocity, their intense lovemaking calmed her far better than the True Blood he fed her.
Eric and Katy lived in his Shreveport home for four weeks. He tended to her like a mother bird tending her chick. He fed her True Blood, and when that seemed to sicken her, be used the bags of blood he had brought with him in the trunk of the limo and stored in a freezer.
He taught her how to fly. He taught her how to move with vampire speed. He taught her how to speak to other vampires using only vampire telepathy. He taught her the ins and outs of vampire politics. He taught her how to hunt.
They hunted big game like deer and wild cats. They didn't drink the blood of these animals, the hunt was just practice to hone her skills. Once he was sure she knew what she was doing, they began to hunt each other. The hunt became a game.
Eric could feel how much Katy liked the hunt. She welcomed the stealth and the stalking. She reveled in the thrill of bringing down prey. They hunted every night. It wasn't long before Katy realized that Eric was using the thrill of hunt to distract her from the bloodlust that she woke up with every night. Just as he used the glorious sex that followed each hunt as a diversion too.
During those four weeks, Eric tried to each her how to use glamour on animals, but he wasn't very successful. Katy told him she didn't like it and refused to do it. During her third week in Shreveport, he made her practice on human subjects, but she got dizzy herself, so she stopped.
"I guess I am not a very good vampire; am I?" she asked him after the second attempt to glamour a human ended up with her almost as glamoured as her victim.
All during their stay in Shreveport, Eric kept in contact with Daniel and the others at the palace through teleconferencing. Judith and Daniel made several visits to see them. Eric was a good regent; his kingdom was set up to run like a well oiled machine even if he was not actually in New Orleans.
During the first few weeks, when Katy's bloodlust was the strongest, she raged at Eric; she pounded on his chest with her fists for turning her into the monster she thought she was. One minute she told him she just wanted to tear and rip apart human flesh; she wanted to suck and suck until the human was drained completely. The next minute, she was berating herself for her dark desires.
"Judith and Sookie were right. I should have never let myself be turned. I am a monster. I want you to kill me," She told him over and over. Eric winced inside each time he heard those words, but Katy didn't care. She knew Eric felt her horror through their bond; she didn't care about that either. She was sure she possessed by a demon, and she wanted to be free.
During those episodes, Eric held her close while her fists flailed at him until she calmed and then fed her blood from the store in the freezer. He warmed it up in the microwave, but sometimes, he barely had time to palpate it before she tore it out of his hands and sucked it down. While the bloodlust demon raged strongly inside her, Katy couldn't seem to drink enough blood to sooth the hunger that burned in her.
In the third week, Katy woke up one night and felt something was different. When he offered her a bag of blood, Katy said she wasn't all that hungry.
Eric looked at her hard; he was elated. She was telling the truth. Eric remembered the horror and hunger he had felt after his turning. Appius had encouraged him to kill, and he had done so. He remembered every single life he had taken during that awful time, and he regretted them all. He wanted things to be different for Katy.
After two weeks, although Katy began to establish control of her dark desires, she suffered her ups and downs like all baby vamps. There were nights when she thought she was in total control of the beast that raged within her, only to learn how foolish she was.
During this time together, Eric and Katy made some wonderful discoveries. Their blood bond was so much deeper now. They were closer and more attuned to each other then ever before; it was as if they physically carried the other around in their hearts and their minds. Being physically separated from each other gave them physical pain.
The love they felt for each other before seemed like that of mere adolescents, compared to what they felt for each other now. Their love was so much more mature; it was deeper, richer and much more complete. With that deeper love, they attained new heights of almost indescribable erotic pleasure as they made love It was this love that, more than anything, helped Katy survived the next trial she faced.
During the third week in Shreveport, at Eric's request, Pam sent a fangbanger over from Fangtasia. She was to be their meal for the night and the first time Katy would take blood from a living human. Katy watched in fascination as Eric's fangs sank in the drank from the woman's throat and he began to drink.
Katy's fangs fangs ran out as soon as the human walked into the house. She watched him suck at the woman's throat. The few drops of blood running down the woman's neck to her bosom bean to drive her crazy. She was mewling and growling in her need as Eric fed. She felt hungry, but she felt hot and sexually excited too. She wanted him to hurry up.
The moment Eric released the woman, Katy was on her in a flash. Her fangs were sunk deeply into the fangbanger's neck as she pulled hard against to fill her mouth with blood. It was a glorious almost blissful feeling combined with the pleasure of a hard sexual orgasm. The blood tasted so good, Katy bit deeper and began to snarl as she continued to suck hard. A tiny scream escaped the woman's mouth.
"As your maker, I order you to stop, Katy!" Eric's voice thundered through her. It was the first time Eric ever commanded her to do anything as her maker. The sound of his voice sounded so very weird and different. It seemed to vibrate through every cell in her body like the ringing of a large bell. Her body seemed to oscillate in response.
The bloodlust was stronger than ever in her now, and Katy wanted desperately to drain the woman, but she could not. An unbearable, irresistible compulsion to obey Eric made her release the woman. She jumped back and stared at Eric with wide eyes, shivering as if she felt a sharp, icy cold wind against bare skin. She knew that was silly because vampires don't feel the cold, but she rubbed her arms anyway.
Katy stood as if in shock. In a moment, the bloodlust cleared, and she looked at her handiwork. The woman's throat was ripped and bleeding, and she was screaming in terror. The unceasing keening wail was like a buzz saw in Katy's ears. Her eyes filled with horror and revulsion as she backed farther away from the woman. "I'm sorry!
"I'm sorry!" she kept saying over and over to the woman, but the fangbanger just continued to scream. Katy felt a deep sense of horror and fear at what she had done. Just when she didn't think it could feel any worse, the fangbanger's mind exploded inside her head bringing with it all the woman's fear, pain and terror. Katy gasped and sunk to her knees, stunned.
In a flash, Eric was at the fangbanger's side, glamouring her hard to forget what just happened. Biting into his finger, he rubbed his blood over the woman's neck; and sent visions of an erotic dream to her. Katy watched as the wounds healed. She felt the woman's terror subside and be replaced with a dreamy state.
Eric opened a tote bag the woman had brought with her. Inside was two small bottles of Tropicana orange juice, and a bottle with some brownish gray capsules in it. The label on the bottle read "Desiccated Liver." Grabbing a handful of the capsules, Eric shoved them at the woman along with one of the bottles of orange juice. "Here, take these, drink the juice and go," he commanded.
By the time the fangbanger finished the juice, she was smiling. She was dreaming that she was having sex with one of the vampires at Fangtasia, and it was the best sex she ever had in her life. Katy felt the woman's emotions turn from fear to sexual arousal to elation. The woman was happier than she had been in a long, long time.
"What just happened?" Katy demanded as she watched the woman walk out the door.
"I used my power as your maker to stop you from killing that woman," Eric said shakily as he ran a big hand through his blonde hair. He expelled a deep breath.
'Duh! I guessed that. What I mean is: What happened afterward? I felt her terror and pain. I could feel everything she felt, even when she was daydreaming. It scared the living daylights out of me!"
"Every vampire has a special gift, Katy. I think we just found out what yours is," Eric told her with resignation and worry clear on his face.
Katy looked blankly at Eric. "I don't follow," she said.
"Apparently, you are an empath; a strong one too. Probably as strong as Judith. You were tapped into her emotions so deeply, I felt them through our bond too."
"I don't understand; I can't be a telepath. I am a null, remember. I don't send or receive psionic energies."
"Well, you do now, lover."
Katy grimaced when Eric said that. "I don't want to be an empath," she replied.
"Well, whether you want to, or not; you are one. I thought my head was going to explode! I understand now why you had so much trouble trying to use glamour. You're just like Judith, she can't glamour worth a damn, either. She always ends up feeling glamoured herself. Damned inconvenient, if you ask me."
"I am sorry, Eric."
"Well, just look at the bright side, lover; it's not all bad news. You don't have to worry about becoming a monster now. You will never be able to hurt a human without feeling their pain."
He laughed lightly, "Wouldn't you know, my beautiful vampire wife is a tame pussycat, just like Judith Vardamon. I know you kept saying you wanted to use bagged blood like Judith, but I never expected this." He shook his head as if a cosmic joke had been played on them both.
Katy read Eric's thoughts; he didn't think it was funny, or inconvenient: Eric was worried about a wife who couldn't feed or glamour humans with out feeling their pain. That could be a real problem in an emergency.
Katy didn't feel sorry for herself at all. A great weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She suddenly laughed out loud.
"You're right about that, Eric. I can't be a monster even if I wanted. When I felt her emotions, it was so strong, it made me feel sick knowing what I did. It completely drove away any urge to feed on her. But don't worry, my husband, I will learn to control this thing. If I am starving and there is no other choice, I'll feed on a human like a pro, so teach me how to feed without hurting my prey. Teach me to stop myself, before I kill."
Eric did just that during the rest of their stay in Shreveport. Katy learned her lessons willingly. By the time they returned to New Orleans, Katy felt confident and sure of herself. She felt totally in control.