Hi! As soon as I was back from my trip (and way before I unpacked) I ran to my computer to see your feedback on last chapter! And I must thank all of you who are reading, "favoriting" (is this a word?) and putting my story in your alerts! But there's a special thanks to my lovely reviewers! Thank you!

Now, welcome to the longest chapter of this story so far! I hope you'll enjoy it (and that you don't mind longer chapters)! Cheers from Portugal, Célia

Eric "Blood On Blood"

The last four weeks with Sookie had been great. Well, except Wednesdays. But even when Sookie's husband was there, having dinner with her and their daughter, I liked to be close by and hear how different Sookie was and sounded with him. It was evident that these dinners were for the child's benefit and nothing more. And if she needed her father and wanted to be with him, then so be it. Who was I to talk about what a kid from a divorced couple needed? Back when I had children, there was no divorce. And, now that I think about it, there were no fathers around either.

The children were mostly at the care of women, who were mainly concerned with them and also with looking after the home and making and washing clothing. The only time I had spent with my children was on those few long winter evenings when we enjoyed board games with pieces made of bone or glass. But those were really rare nights. And it had nothing to do with today's child care. So, what did I knew about it? Absolutely nothing.

And that's why, when I discovered that the bear was to have dinner there once a week, I just shut up after I said that I didn't want to meet him – I'd just stay outside the house until he'd be gone.

And so, as usual, on my fifth Wednesday night in Tennessee, I left the hotel after drinking from a little too-fat girl (I had drunk from Sookie five times during this past month but only when she asked me to do it) and drove to Sookie's. As soon as I got there, though, I could tell something was wrong and I immediately smelled John and Brad's bodies in the trunk of their own SUV. The whole area around the car reeked of fairy and I immediately ran to the door, kicked it down and entered the living room to find an appalling sight.

Closest to me was David, who was hypnotized or something because he was just standing there, not moving. Two fairies were grabbing Elizabeth's arms in the opposite part of the living room. Sookie was on her knees between them all asking, no, she was begging them to leave her daughter alone. And three more fairies were standing there just holding their weapons.

The fairies' smell and Sookie's tears transformed me into a crazy motherfucker warrior and I just saw my enemies and could only think about defeating them. And so I started fighting the three closest fairies. Then, as soon as I started grabbing, biting and trying to tear those fucking fairies apart, the other two left Elizabeth so they could fight me as well. Sookie immediately ran to the child and hugged her. Then she left towards the stairs with Elizabeth in her arms. Sookie was screaming something at me, but I couldn't understand what it was because I was fighting (unarmed) five strong (and armed) fairies.

As soon as I could, I took a sword from one of the Fae and I suddenly felt much better. I was a fucking machine with a sword (even when I was alive, I had always been) and I managed to kill two of the fairies somewhat easily. Their blood ran into the carpet and I almost got high just by smelling it. Meanwhile, the three other fairies were still attacking me, but I was ready for them. Or so I thought. Because when I fatally wounded the third one, the two others managed to hurt me gravely too.

So… I had killed three of the five fairies, but by then I was losing too much blood and for a while I just tried to defend and protect myself, while I thought that perhaps I wouldn't be able to kill the last remaining fairies. One of them was freakishly tall (even taller than me) and the other was a fat motherfucker. And they were both much better warriors than the other three had been. And they were still without major wounds. Whereas I was bleeding severely.

Fuck. To die in the hands of a couple of fairies was not what I had in mind. But I was really feeling my strength leaving my body through my bleeding wounds. And when I thought that I wouldn't even be able to defend myself (let alone attack them), Sookie came to my rescue. Sookie, a human, came to my rescue. And how did she do it? Well, she had gone upstairs with the kid, but then she had come back again to fight the fairies. Yes, she had come back again to fight the fairies (even though I'm sure she knew that I wouldn't want her to – I'd much rather that she'd run away as far as she could, obviously). And as soon as she arrived downstairs after dropping her child in her bedroom or somewhere else upstairs, she then immediately started using some sort of water pistol and the fairies' skin started burning.

I smelled lemon juice and I immediately understood why the fairies' faces showed pain. Sookie was shooting them with the ultimate weapon – citrines. Their skin started burning and melting whenever the lemon juice touched them just as if they had been in contact with acid.

And that was all the distraction I needed. Because when they both moved towards Sookie to take the water pistols off her hands, they made the huge mistake of turning their backs to me. Stupid fairies. They'd probably thought that I was already way too hurt to fight them because I really was bleeding severely. But bleeding severely or not, I still had enough strength in me. Hell, I didn't get to be more than 1000-years old without some fucking seriously strong will-power. And when they turned their backs to me so they could take the lemon-guns from Sookie, I was finally able to kill the two fucking fairies.

I cut the tallest's throat with his own sword and I then I grabbed the fat one's hair and shoulder and I sank my fangs in his neck tearing it. I drank all his blood (something I hadn't had time to do with the other fairies, while fighting them) and I immediately felt better. Ohhh, blood… Ohh, sweet fairy blood. And I got high in that same second.

First there had been the heat of the battle; then there was the fact that Sookie had almost been taken from me again; and finally the fairies' smell and blood. All that combined was too much. Way too much for me. So I immediately dropped the drained fairy corpse, ran to Sookie and grabbed her with all I had. Bloodlust. Bloodlust indeed. I enfolded her in my arms, I took hold of her body and I kissed her lips like crazy. And when I looked at her, what I saw was what a dying hungry man sees when he is given some bread. I pushed her against a wall and I was less than one second away from tearing her clothes apart and have my way with her, right there, in her own living room in the middle of five starting-to-decay fairy corpses when I heard Elizabeth's voice calling for her mother from upstairs.

I snapped (slightly) from my bloodlust and I dropped Sookie to the floor while I said to her: "Go to your daughter. I'll deal with all this and meet you upstairs when I can." She nodded and did as I told her. Sookie's mouth and her face around it were bloody after my kiss, and I almost lost it again. But I could hear that her kid was still crying for her mother and I managed to let Sookie go upstairs.

I then took a few unnecessary breathes and sat on her couch for a few minutes, trying to calm down, so I could properly think what to do next, because my bloodlust was still very high. Fuck. Just the sight of Sookie covered with all that fairy blood… I just wanted to drink her and fuck her until dawn. But now was not obviously the time, so I kept taking my needless breathes and tried to calm down.

But thankfully, the fairies' corpses kept decomposing and their smells stopped being so alluring. And ten or fifteen minutes later, they were actually stinking. I then went to the kitchen and washed my face and my hands. The cold water felt good and it helped me to get my mind together again. I took my phone from my pocket. Two missing phone calls from Pam. She had obviously felt my panic, my anger and my bloodlust. I'd have to call her back soon, but it wasn't that important yet. I tried to send her some "I'm okay" feelings and then went back to the living room.

David was still standing exactly in the same place, and with this eyes still focused on the wall. Was he in shock, as humans sometimes are? Or was this the product of Fae magic? But neither Sookie nor her kid had been immobilized this way… Were they immune to Fae's magic just as Sookie was resistant to vampire glamour? I'd attempt to figure that out later, but not yet. Now, there was a mess to deal with. I left the house and went to the front door. I looked around and there were no noisy neighbors. Good. No one had heard the fight or the screams.

I went back inside again and then I grabbed David and glamoured him. I told him to go home, stay there the whole day tomorrow and just come back to Sookie's after a phone call from us. I looked around me and saw all the blood stains and the vanishing fairy corpses. I knew that I should call Mercedes Smith, the local vampire sheriff. But we hadn't exactly gotten along well when I visited her last month to say that I'd be staying for a while. She had insisted to know why and for how long I'd be in Tennessee and when I didn't answer her… Well, let's just say that it was a tense evening. A very tense evening.

And so, instead of calling her, I picked my phone again and called a vampire that I had met in France right before Louis XVI had been decapitated. I hadn't talked to him in almost a decade, but I knew he was still a sheriff in Tennessee too. And even though Cleveland (or even Bradley County) was not Savage's area, he was glad to help me and he said he would call the proper people and send someone as soon as possible to deal with all that chaos. I also asked him to send four strong weres to the house in the morning, so they could be Sookie's bodyguards. And again, Edmond answered me that he would take care of it and he didn't ask for anything in return. Instead, the just said "Congo, 1931". He was referring to the time when I had fought alongside him against a coven of vampires that was trying to get Edmond's land and his money. I acknowledged him that this debt was paid off and I ended the phone call.

Slowly, I then went upstairs and I immediately could hear Sookie trying to calm Elizabeth in the kid's bedroom. I really wanted to glamour the youngster and make her forget everything but I wasn't sure if Sookie would allow me. Or if the kid, being Sookie's progeny, could be glamoured, for that matter. And besides, my clothes were drenched in blood. So instead of going there, I just went to Sookie's bathroom and took a shower. I put a towel around my lower body and another in my hair and I walked to Sookie's bedroom. I managed to find a jumpsuit (a too small jumpsuit) that smelled like bear and I dressed.

I then went to the child's bedroom. She was still pretty nervous. Sookie had brought her upstairs again as soon as the two fairies released her but the girl had been grabbed, she had seen her mother begging desperately and she had also watched the beginning of my fight with the fairies. No wonder the kid was still panicky.

And then an awful thought crossed my mind when I wondered if she was scared of me as well. But as soon as I got in her room, she left her bed, ran towards me and hugged my waist crying and thanking me for helping her and her mom. I picked her up and brought her back to her bed. Sookie's eyes were full of water. She was moments away from crying.

"Can I glamour her?" I whispered. Sookie nodded and I proceeded to make Elizabeth forget that night and substitute it by a nice dinner with her dad and then bed time. Thankfully, she was easily glamoured and she was asleep almost instantly.

Sookie thanked me and we hugged for a while, both of us sitting on Elizabeth's bed.

"Brad and John?" she asked whispering.

"They were already dead when I arrived here."

"Oh Jesus," she whispered again. I could smell her tears and I felt her grabbing my upper body with much more strength than before.

I let her cry for them for a while before I said: "They died heroes Sookie. They died in service for a cause and their pack will take care of their families."

"But they were so young… And Brad just had a baby."

I tried to comfort her, and I answered: "And the baby will be well taken care of. Like I said, the pack will attend to their families and I'll help as well. And they died for a good reason, it was an honorable death. We should all be so lucky as to die in such a praiseworthy way."

I knew that these kinds of thoughts were incomprehensible to Sookie. As an American woman born in the late 20th century, she didn't consider a respectable death such an important concept. But I knew that the families and the pack would take pride knowing that both weres had died in such a way. And I meant what I had said: I'd make sure that they families would be, at least financially, compensated for it.

But even without agreeing with me, Sookie didn't answer and instead just cried while she hugged me. Almost half an hour later, I felt her finally calming down and I whispered: "Someone will be downstairs cleaning everything tonight. I won't leave until the morning. David is already at his place."

She nodded and I kissed her forehead before I added: "You'll have four new bodyguards tomorrow morning to stay with you during the day. I'll be here as soon as it's dark. Now you should sleep. Try to rest. We will talk tomorrow." She nodded again and then laid down in her daughter's bed, hugging the child.

I spent the rest of the night on the phone with Edmond, making sure that their security for the following days was what I wanted and also supervising the cleaning crew. Edmond would also take care of the two weres' bodies and talk with their families and pack about a financial atonement. I left just a few moments before the sun was up.

-x-

The next night as soon as I woke up I drove to Sookie's. Her new bodyguards were there and I was happy to see that they looked as strong and bodily capable as I had wanted them to be. We talked for a few minutes and then I entered the house. Both Sookie and Elizabeth were watching TV.

"Mommy didn't let me go to school. She's odd today." The child said as soon as I got in. The room smelled strongly of bleach and other cleaning chemicals and there was a couple of new rugs and furniture. But, other than that, everything was just the same. Nobody could tell what had happened there on the previous night.

"She is?" I asked Elizabeth.

"She's boring too," she answered me.

"Enough with that Elizabeth. Now, don't you have drawings to show to Eric? Go and get them so he can see it." Sookie said and the kid started getting up from the couch. You could tell in Sookie's face that she hadn't slept a second the night before.

As soon as Elizabeth left the room, Sookie whispered to me: "Thank you for everything you did yesterday. If you hadn't been here… Oh my God. I don't even know what would have happened. Thank you so much Eric. Thank you. And for the cleaning too, obviously."

She was almost crying again so I quickly dismissed her thanks and I answered her instead: "We have to talk to Niall."

Sookie cleaned her face with her hands even though her tears hadn't left her eyes yet. She then took a deep breath and said: "I've called his number many times in the last few weeks. I was trying to know more about all of this fairy business, but he never answered it. Instead, this other guy just says that the prince isn't taking any calls. From anyone."

"I'll call him. He'll talk to me," she nodded and I added, "Sookie, we really have to speak with him."

"I know."

"Tonight."

She nodded again and then said "As soon as Lizzie's asleep." And so we watched Elizabeth play and draw for another hour or so before she went to bed. Then, I grabbed my cell and called Niall. Some other Fairy answered his phone and said that the Prince wasn't taking phone calls from anyone, just like Sookie had said. I then obviously threatened him, but to no avail. The best I got from him was that he'd pass any message that I wanted.

"Tell him that Eric Northman has here five dead full fairies. And ask him how many more do I have to kill for Niall to call me back." Forty minutes later, Niall did call me back. I told him that Sookie had been attacked by fairies but was unharmed. He wanted more details, but I told him nothing else, of course. He answered that he would pop in soon. And then Sookie and I just stayed here, on her couch, hugging in silence.

Two hours later, Niall showed up and we told him everything. Sookie's great grandfather looked sick (apparently, and even though he was recovering, his lemon poisoning had indeed been serious). And he also looked really tired and old. And when we were done telling him about the previous night he looked even sicker, more tired and older. But he kept his "fairy prince" façade and still appeared as conceited and arrogant as ever.

He then told us about his temporary convalescence and the dispute that it had brought between his oldest half-fairy daughter and his second child – the full-fairy oldest son that was the tallest of yesterday's fairies. But Niall had only thought that it was just a silly disagreement between brother and sister. Hah. Silly disagreement. That had to be the understatement of the year.

And apparently, Niall was still having a hard time believing that his son, Tinocrell, had actually attacked Sookie. But eventually he said that it made sense. "A twisted kind of sense" were his words. But then he added: "He has always been aggressive, but deep down, he has… he had a good soul," Niall said.

Well, fuck that. Aggressive or not, good soul or not, the fairy had attacked Sookie and had been killed for it. And I wasn't sorry. I just hoped that that would be the end of everything and that Niall wouldn't expect my death because I had killed his son. And then, for some moments, I wondered if Niall was silently mourning his son's death or giving thanks that Sookie was alive.

I was interrupted from my thoughts by Sookie's voice: "You have to close the portals."

"But child you must understand that…"

"No Niall. It is you who must understand. Those who wanted to close the passage six years ago were right, though for the wrong reason. It isn't the Fae who need to be protected from the human world and the mixture of human blood. It's the humans who have to be protected from you. I need to be protected. My daughter needs to be protected. Please Niall, close the portals."

Niall tried to summon up a protest but he just couldn't make the words come out of his mouth. He knew Sookie was right.

"Very well," he said after a while. He then rose, he bent and kissed Sookie's cheek. There was power in his touch; Sookie felt it and even I felt it. "The passages will be closed by the end of next week."

"I am glad for that," she answered.

"And Sookie… you know that I am very proud of you and that I love you very much, don't you child?"

"Yes. And I love you too, and I am also very proud of belonging to your family. But I have my own family now. And I must protect my daughter. I hope you understand it."

"I do," he moved even closer to her, "and I am sorry that you had to suffer at the hands of our kind once more."

"So am I," she answered. His hand caressed her face once more, he kissed her cheek again and then he popped out.

Sookie moved towards me on the couch in silence and we hugged again for a while. As a vampire, I had always felt comfortable with the silence. When you live forever, there's no problem wasting a few moments doing nothing and being silent. And I guessed that Sookie finally felt the same, because we just stayed there, hugging and looking at each other.

Sometime later though, she broke the silence when she started crying once more. I had to do something and so I said to her: "I will stay here in Tennessee as long as you need me."

"No. You don't have to. There's no need. And you won't stay here."

I couldn't understand. And I couldn't believe it either. After the last few weeks and after the previous night's attack, I didn't think she would leave me again. But apparently she would. I remembered Ocella's words: "You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself. The bond is closed already. Why the hell are you still thinking about a fucking meal?" Yes, why indeed. Why the hell was I always making the same mistake? I never behaved like this in any other situation. I always pondered every aspect of everything. Except whenever Sookie was concerned. And, apparently, I had been caught in her web again. She had used me for protection, but now she was leaving me again. Suddenly I heard in my head her words from a decade before: "I need space from you." Fuck! Again?

I was feeling awful when I asked: "You don't want me here?"

"I want you. But not here. We are coming back to Louisiana." She was? There I was thinking that I was being dumped again, when she was actually saying that she was coming home with me. I hugged her even more closely.

"Are you serious? You will?" She nodded to me and I felt amazing. "There's Lizzie's school, her friends. And there's also the restaurant, my job. And David." "And what about your job and your kid's school?"

"I can get another job. And Liz can definitively move to another school and meet new colleagues."

"And your husband?"

"My soon to be ex-husband," she answered me, "is a dick. His girlfriend is dating another man and he decided that he wanted to come back home and for us to be a couple again. And he was very strong and full of himself then when it was just the two of us. But when it did matter, he froze. I don't care about him anymore."

"Very strong and full of himself…" Could it be that…? If that fucker had done it… "The bruises on your arms?" I asked, "Did the fairies do it?" Sookie hadn't had those bruises the night before. But she had now. I was almost praying to the Gods that the fairies had been the ones responsible for it. They were already dead through my hands. But if it had been that bear…

"It doesn't matter anymore. I'm leaving with you."

Oh damn the bear… had the fucker really harmed her? "Was it the bear Sookie? Did he hurt you?"

"Eric, listen to me: it doesn't matter. I'm leaving with you and I don't care about him anymore. I know he's Lizzie's dad and I'll allow him to be with her whenever they want. But that's it. I have to think about me too and about what I want. And I want to be with you. I've always wanted to be with you. I love you."

Okay. That shut me up. And after that I didn't want to talk about her fucking ex-husband anymore.

"I love you." It was the second time she was saying that she loved me. And now we weren't talking on the phone, but rather in person. And I was sure that I felt the same. But I still couldn't answer that I loved her back. I couldn't speak the words. I was confident that I would soon, but not yet. I was still somewhat afraid that she would change her mind yet again and I would be left suffering. Just like Sookie herself was so fond of, I remembered an old saying: "once bitten, twice shy."

So I still couldn't say the words back to her. But this was just our start. There would be much more time in our future and I would be able to tell her what I already felt. Yes, I would get there sooner or later, so I smiled and hugged her again.

"And I couldn't be happier about it." I answered and I then realized that she had stopped crying.

I then thought about all the problems we'd have to face. And I tried to remember what had ultimately broken us apart before, because I definitely didn't want that to happen again. But I just couldn't. I could only think about the woman in my arms right then and there and how she belonged there, in my arms. She was coming to Louisiana with me. She wanted to be with me. She loved me. Yes, I really couldn't be happier about it. I was almost exploding with all those happy and warm feelings inside of me. I was really feeling like a... I don't know... like a recently-graduated teenager or something... I mean, I was feeling like with his whole future ahead, instead of someone who had already lived for more than 1000 years.

"Eric?"

"Hum?"

"Will we live in your house?"

"Do you want to?"

"Do you?" She asked me back and then she kept saying, "I mean, it's your house and I understand that vampires don't like to share their res…"

"Very much so," I said interrupting her before she'd start telling me how I probably didn't want her there, "but what about you? Do you want to live in my house?"

She thought for a couple of seconds and then she answered: "It depends."

I'd move to Bon Temps if she wanted. Hell, I'd even move to Tennessee if she wanted. Pam could take care of the bars by herself and I didn't really care that much about my sheriff's position. I'd hate to have to bow to Mercedes Smith, but I'd do it. And besides, I had lived in so many places during my life that it just wasn't an issue for me. "On what?"

"Do you live in a cold castle or a mausoleum?"

I laughed and hugged her even closer to me. She was just teasing me. She'd live with me. And I really couldn't be happier about it. "No, I do not."

"And do you have black walls or do you keep your coffin in a dingy damp basement or bat cave or something like that?"

"Bat cave?" I kissed the top of her head. Her hair smelled fresh and clean. "I have a basement, yes, but it's just a regular bedroom. And I have a couple of coffins in an extra room. But I always sleep in a bed. Besides, all the rooms in my house are light-safe too. So sometimes, I even sleep upstairs."

"You didn't answer about the black walls… And is your house in an inaccessible mountain or in the middle of a forest or something?"

"Lover, I live in a suburbia neighborhood. The outside of my house is white and the inside walls are pastel colors. And if I remember correctly, you were the one who lived next to a graveyard for two decades before you ran away to Tennessee for another decade." I added laughing.

She laughed as well. But then, suddenly grave, she asked: "How old were you when you were turned?"

"I don't know. Late twenties, I guess."

"I'll be 37 in two months." She said and then she shrived.

Oh, no, no, no. I wouldn't let her create any more problems. And age was such a non-problem… She looked great no matter what her age. Actually, I thought that she only looked slightly older than before. And just maybe around her eyes. Her body sure didn't look older than before. We'd worry about it when she'd started to look like my mother or maybe my grandmother. Not before. And I didn't look twentyish myself. Back when I was alive, life was much harder and we grew old much quicker than nowadays. And I didn't really know how old I looked like, but I was definitively sure that I didn't look like those twenty something boys of these days.

Still hugging her, I replied: "You don't look a day older than 18."

So? Eric-like enough? And what did you think about Eric still not answering Sookie's "I love you"? And will they get along okay in Louisiana? How will David react to the news? Will Sookie still freak out about her age? And just a little detail: I'll bring back another past-character at the end of the next chapter. Who do you think it will be? Thank you for reading. And please review if you can. Célia

"Blood on Blood" is a song performed by American rock band Bon Jovi, from their massive-selling 1988 album New Jersey. Running six minutes, it is a song about everlasting friendship and loyalty, and seems to have been inspired by Jon Bon Jovi's childhood friendships, as he even mentions himself as one of the three friends in the song "Bobby's an uptown lawyer, Danny's a medicine man, and Me, I'm just the singer in a long-haired rock 'n' roll band", although in recent concert performances, Bon Jovi changes the lyrics to "Bobby's an uptown lawyer, Danny does the best that he can, and Me, I'm still the singer in a long-haired rock 'n' roll band"