Chapter 28
Sometimes You Can't Go Home
I sat in Sam's truck, waiting for the questions, maybe even a tirade. I never really could tell what I would get from him. He surprised me by not saying anything until we pulled up in front of my house.
He turned sideways to face me and I winced at the hurt I read on his face.
"Sookie, why did you have that rude vampire woman call and quit for you?"
"Sam, please believe me when I tell you that I had no idea that she had called. I had no intention of quitting. I can't explain what this all was, really other than stupidity. But I'm back now..." I trailed off, my voice daring to be hopeful that I might still have a job AND a friend.
"But you up and disappear, Jason has to come in and tell me that you've gone on vacation with some new vampire. Your brother is so high on this new guy of yours that I seriously started to think he wanted to poke him in the ass himself."
I guess my glamour had worked a little too well. I was able to stifle my ill-timed laugh pretty well, but not well enough.
"I really can't find the humor in this, Sookie. It's not funny. Do you have any idea how worried I was? I was sure that you were off somewhere being turned." His face was mad now. Damn, just what I needed, another male to be pissed at me. He grabbed my shoulders and actually shook me!
The waterworks started again, I didn't want to hear what a dumb ass I was from Sam. I had reached my limit.
"Awww, cher, I'm sorry. Please don't cry. I don't want to make things worse for you, I just care about you so much, that's all."
He pulled me across the seat, close to him. He smelled so wonderful, like the outdoors, sunshine, leaves and earth. I nuzzled my face into his neck and caught a whiff of something else. something that smelled strange.
I leaped away from him, pressing my back into the passenger door, my eyes wide.
"What are you?" I practically hissed.
"What in the world are you talking about, Sookie?"
"Your smell. There's something, unnatural. What are you?" I felt a strange tension, almost like I needed to defend myself.
"It's me, Sam. Your boss, your friend. Remember me?"
"I know who you are, Sam. I'm not a damn idiot. I want to know WHAT you are, because I can smell you and I know you aren't human."
He stared at me, his mouth open in amazement or horror, I don't know which. I did catch one fleeting thought from his mind before I jumped out of his truck and raced to my front door, still clutching that god forsaken pie.
How in the fuck does she know that?
I stood on my front porch and watched Sam back down my rutted driveway. I didn't know what to make of what had just happened. I was losing my grip on reality.
I lifted up the pot of now brown and crispy geraniums and got the spare key to unlock the door. I opened the huge oak slab and breathed in the smell of home deeply. It still smelled faintly of Gran and her lavender perfume. I was bone tired, the sun would be up in a short time and I desperately needed a shower and sleep.
I lifted my foot to step into my sanctuary but my leg felt like it was bouncing off of rubber. I tried again and had the same result. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get across the thresh hold of the doorway. I felt the tears coming again as I realized that it was all Eric's fault. Somehow, the blood bond, the fact that I had so much of his blood in me was locking me out of my own house. It had seemed smart when I revoked his invitation to enter my home as soon as I stepped out of the secret entrance at his house. Now I was screwed. I slumped to the porch and cried like a baby. I was too tired to try anything else. My car keys were inside the house, I hadn't needed them when I had left here what seemed like a million years ago with Eric. I couldn't keep my eyes open. I felt the first warmth from the sun as it peeked above the tool shed. My skin was so warm, maybe too warm. I felt uncomfortably warm, almost hot now. I couldn't move or scream as the heat began to become more intense. My eyes refused to open and I was on the verge of complete insanity when I felt a heavy piece of cloth cover me. The burning stopped and I slipped into a dark, dreamless sleep.
When I woke up, the room I was in looked vaguely familiar but I couldn't be sure where I was.
I sat up and looked around a bit closer. I was in my old room at Jason's house. The house I l had ived in until I was nine years old, before my parents died. How in the hell had I gotten here?
I heard the door creak open and saw Jason stick his head in.
"Mornin' Sook! How's the sunburn?"
"What? Jason, how did I get here?"
"Yeah, he said you'd be confused with the sun poisoning and all."
"Who did?"
"Eric of course." Jason's face took on a dreamy look as he said the name.
"What else did Eric tell you?"
"That you had sun poisoning and that I should keep you out of the sun for at least a week until you had time to heal from the infusion." What the hell was Jason talking about?
"He said to tell you that he was sorry that your time in paradise had to end the way it did but to let you know that anytime you wanted to go , he'd take you back. Paradise, huh? Is that somewhere in Florida? Did you have fun before you got burnt?" He looked like an eager little puppy waiting for a table scrap.
"Yeah, Jase, it was great. But all good things must end, right?"
"Well, I did what he said and covered all the windows with foil. He told me that should keep the light out enough for you cause of, you know, your condition. I just wanna know, why was you on the front porch, covered in that blanket when I got there, and why didn't you just go in your own house?"
Direct questions that I didn't have the energy to answer. Evasive actions were necessary.
"Aren't you gonna be late for work?"
Jason glanced at his watch and jumped.
"Mother fucker! Catfish is gonna fuckin' fire me! Love ya sis, there's pizza and buffalo wings in the fridge. I gotta run!" And he did, literally.
"Bye, Jase." I said to an already empty house.
I flopped back onto the smelly sheets when I heard the engine of Jason's truck roar to life. He threw gravel against the side of the house as he took off.
So, Eric had called Jason to come and get me. He had given Jason instructions, in code basically, on how for me to stay safe. He seemed to think that the effects of his blood would wear off enough in a week for me to be able to go back out into the sun. But who had covered me with the blanket if Jason hadn't? I shivered when I remembered the frying sensation I'd felt when the sun had touched my skin. I couldn't go into my own house because I wasn't the same person I was when I left, I had too much Eric in me. I felt a pang of regret in my heart and in my center when I thought about him. Hopefully as the blood bond wore off, so would some of this attraction to him.
I curled into a ball and felt the tears coming again. I knew I would never be the same Sookie I was before. How could I go back to being alone when I had known such an incredible love. How could I have been so stupid to think that I could hold on to something like that?
I was drifting off to sleep again when I heard Eric's voice faintly in my mind.
Min Alskarinna, come home to me.
Fuck you, Eric Northman. You want me back? You better fight for me. I'll never make it easy for you again.
