*Happy Halloween! In honor of my favorite day of the year, and the fact that I just had a birthday two days ago. [Hello 25, I'm not sure if it's nice to meet you just yet.] I bring you an update!*

**I got insanely carried away with this one. It's almost three times as long as what I usually write, and I really really hope you enjoy it. I'm excited to hear your feedback.**

*I obviously don't own the dialogue from the show that I added toward the end.*

*Comic Con. More fun than I could have imagined. The kid in me was over the moon meeting Jeff Kinney [Author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid] I bought more things than I needed to at the Obscura booth [Oddities was my favorite show when I had cable] The Walking Dead panel was a pain in the ass to get into, but it was worth walking the city at six in the morning. I met Ralph Macchio! The Karate Kid himself. What a nice dude. I dressed up as Jeff the Killer and took pictures with people. That was crazy. All in all, a fantastic trip,*

They managed three steps inside before Pam was instantly too close for Ms. 'Doom and Glooms' liking.

"Drinks are on the house, as always. Enjoy ladies. You, come with me." Pam grabbed Lux by the arm and started leading her through the crowd. Lux rolled her eyes and cursed Tessa and Frankie to hell.

"What the hell does he want now?"

How did he even know they were there?

"Couldn't tell you."

The crazy tourists and dog collared sluts blended in with the floor. Lux hardly noticed them anymore; it's not like they ever did anything exciting.

"One of these days you're going to send one of your cronies to fetch me, and I'm going to knock their fangs out." Lux plopped into her usual chair with a sigh.

Eric openly laughed at that; a deep chuckle that did strange things to her stomach. She had never heard a sound so appealing in her entire life; it gave her the chills. Thank God she was sitting down because she was sure her legs were jello.

Well gee, this is fantastic.

"You silly humans."

He stared her down the way he always did, the usual smirk in place. Without her usual liquid courage, Lux felt a little too exposed. A little too shy. A little too nervous. Far too attracted to Eric for her liking.

Wait, what?

Lux groaned and buried her head in her hands. The loud music from the band playing across the room did nothing to drown out her thoughts. This was soooo not the right time for that. It was bad enough that she might have thought less than appropriate things about him in the privacy of her own bedroom. The tips of her ears started to heat up, and she could only imagine how comically red they were getting.

"Something wrong?"

Not trusting her voice even a little, Lux just shook her head. What she wouldn't give for a drink. Is this the start of a drinking problem? Fantastic, he's going to turn her into an alcoholic. Maybe Tessa was right; she should see a doctor.

Pam appeared at Eric's side, mumbled a few words and was off again. Thanks to her average hearing, and her incapability to read lips, Lux had no idea what she said. Eric appeared to have heard her loud and clear, though.
He stood up and held out his hand.

"Come."

Against her better judgment, Lux grabbed his hand and stood up, letting him lead her…somewhere. Luckily a waitress passed by with a tray of drinks, and Lux swiped a pretty looking pink drink in a martini glass.

"Stealing drinks from my customers?"

"Like you give a shit."

Turned out it was a watermelon martini, something Lux had never had, but found absolutely delicious.

"Where are we going?" The drink was gone in less than a minute, and Lux already felt more like her old self.

[I really do make her drink a lot. I want her life, dammit.]

"My office. I have a few things to go over."

"Why do I have to be here?"

Eric opened the door to a room Lux had never noticed and motioned her inside, stepping in after her and closing the door. The bass thumped the walls, but other than that the room was rather quiet.

"Why not?"

Lux set her glass down on his desk and leaned against it, folding her arms across her chest.

"Could you just stop staring at me, just once. It's really unnerving."

"Is it?" Eric was standing in front of her in half a second, his hands on either side of her body, resting on top of the desk. "My apologies."

The room was suddenly a billion degrees too hot, which was strange. It's not like cold dead creatures gave off body heat.

But they can apparently send your heart into your throat, your stomach into your knees and your breath everywhere but your lungs.

"Is this better?" He cocked his head to the side.

Lux gulped, she was feeling every emotion all at once, and yet had no idea how to feel at all. Eric tilted her face up with his finger, and it was just so painfully obvious he was going to kiss her. Lux only felt slightly betrayed by her own body when her eyes shut of their own accord.

"Eric."

If looks could kill, Bill would be dead. Well, dead again. Eric dropped his hand back to the top of his desk with an audible smack. A loud smack. The kind that kinda sounded like it did some damage.

Well, it did. It was less of a smack, and more of a punch. He left a fist sized dent, crack, splinter…Lux wasn't entirely sure what to call it, but it wasn't pretty.

"Bill. What a fantastic surprise."

Bill. Sookie's Bill. Lux vaguely recognized him, having only seen him a couple of times from a distance. The redhead next to him had her stumped, though. She was in a blue dress that had definitely seen better days. Her paper white skin was streaked with dirt, and her hair was long and wild, frizzy and as dirty as the rest of her.

"Sorry to interrupt, I should have knocked first. My apologies."

"What do you want?" Eric was in no mood for this.

Lux stayed against the damaged desk, trying to stop her heart from racing. Her breathing was slowly [and I mean very slowly] returning to normal, and her knees finally stopped shaking.

"I can't do this." Bill motioned to the girl in the doorway, now whining about wanting to go to the bar, and be a dancer, and being hungry.

Eric chuckled.

"She's your punishment, not mine. What am I supposed to do with her?"

His punishment?

"She won't listen to me. It will take more time than I have to teach her obedience."

"I don't obey anybody, those days are over." The girl replied, glaring at the back of Bills head.

"You can't handle one little girl, Bill? Man up my friend, she's not even one night old." Eric clapped an irritated Bill on the shoulder.

"You're cute…can I sit in your lap?" The redhead asked, staring straight at Eric with a creepy smile on her face.

Lux rolled her eyes, a barely audible scoff escaped her lips. Of course she was in a room full of vampires; she might as well have just screamed 'hands off my man, bitch' at the top of her lungs.

"No."

"Why? Nobody lets me have any fun. Fuckers." She whined. God her voice was annoying.

"Sit down and shut up." Eric bellowed.

She slumped down into a chair with her arms crossed, pouting the entire time.

"As fun as this has been, I really should be getting back to my friends." Lux was fairly sure she could make it to their table before she collapsed.

"No. Stay. They'll be leaving any second, won't you, Bill?"

Eric wasn't about to let Lux leave his office. Not like this. He was finally making a smidgen of progress, and he'd be damned if he was going to throw that away.

Eric was a patient man with all the time in the world, but even his patience was starting to wear a little thin as far as this girl was concerned.

"Is she your girlfriend?" The redhead asked. Lux figured she couldn't be more than sixteen, seventeen tops.

"That is none of your concern."

"Can I eat her?"

Lux felt the blood drain from her face. It just figures, as soon as she start to feel almost like her usual safe, something like this has to happen.

Eat her?

"Absolutely not. Pam! Find her something to eat. Someone. I don't care. Just get her out of my office."

"Finally. I'm so hungry." It didn't take super human hearing to hear her complain her way out the door and down a small hallway.

"Just…please take her. I can't. Not now. I have certain things to attend to."

"Sookie Stackhouse?"

Lux' ears perked up at the mention of a familiar name.

"Yes. I would be in your debt. I would return the favor."

"Oh yes you will. You most definitely will."

Bill left the office quickly, shutting the door behind him, not waiting for Eric to change his mind.

"I really should get back to them, girls nights here never seem to include me these days. It might be nice if I spent time with them just once."

Half of her wanted to stay, half of her wanted to leave. The room was too hot and too cold and she was just so confused.

"Of course." Eric reluctantly opened the door to his office and watched her walk away. There was nothing he could say without sounding desperate, and desperate he was not.

On top of everything else, he now has Bills progeny to deal with. He saw her getting very annoying, very fast.

"Dammit."