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A Sookie/Eric/Godric fic.

Chapter Twenty-Eight.

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Disclaimer: See Ch. 1.

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A/N: Thanks for all the amazing reviews, you guys are wonderful! You just keep feeding my muse, and she loves it!

Sorry for the wait on this one. I was a tad distracted by Charlaine Harris's "Harper Connelly" series.

Well, I might go past even thirty chapters with this one ... I have a new twist that I want to include in the story after the Russell bit is dealt with, but I haven't decided if I want to put that in the sequel or not. We'll see how it goes.

You guys will find out soon enough who the wolf is, but I will say this: Alcide is not making an appearance ... yet. At this point, Eric's had no reason to call him, because he was with Sookie the entire time.

I hope you guys like this one, I know I'll love writing it.

As always, please read and review, I live for feedback!

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"Nice ... wolfy," Hadley spoke, huddling close to my hand and gripping my arm tightly.

I stood my ground, dropping the raspberry that had been on its way to my mouth. I watched with wide eyes as the wolf inched closer, sniffing us each in turn; me first, then Hadley. Then the wolf stopped, turned back to me, and sniffed again. I was contemplating making a run for the house when all of a sudden, the wolf changed.

Where there was once a beautiful - if not menacing-looking - white wolf, there was now a tall, naked, red-head.

Hadley shrieked in surprise, ogling the woman before us.

I tried not to let my eyes wander, staring purposefully into her face. "Can we, um ... help you?"

The woman stepped awkwardly closer, sniffing the air around me again. With a shaky grin, she finally spoke, "You two fangbangers smell like V. But you," she added to me, "smell like the vamp we had tied up out in the shed." Her eyes were sparkling with desire. "Mmm ... he tasted good. Where's he at now?"

I clenched my jaw tightly, realizing that she was a V-addict. A V-addict who'd likely been one of the wolves who'd bitten Godric, getting high off of his two-thousand-year old blood. "That ain't none of your damn business," I replied hotly, glaring back at her.

Her eyes narrowed, and she stepped even closer to me. "You gettin' lippy with me, fangbanger?" Her eyes traveled over my body unabashed. "What, you think 'cause you're stayin' in the big house, that you're better than me? You're nothin' but trash wrapped in pretty-blonde packaging. Now, where's my V at?"

I'd probably regret it later, but she pissed me off so much that I just snapped. Shaking Hadley off my arm, I balled my hand into a fist and plunged it as hard as I could into her face. I heard a satisfying crunch, and when she looked back at me, her nose was bleeding.

"You fucking bitch!" she shrieked, moving to lunge at me.

I was shocked when Hadley jumped in front of me. "You touch my cousin and the Queen will have your head!"

The red-head hesitated briefly, glaring at me behind Hadley. "I'm not scared of your Queen."

"You should be," Hadley warned. "She just married your boss. How do you think he'll react when he finds out you lost it on his guests?"

The woman paused at that, appearing to give serious thought to what Hadley was suggesting. Her eyes burned a hole into mine for a long moment, and then she cocked her head to the side. I was inside her mind in less than a heartbeat. 'So maybe the King doesn't find out I 'lost it' on his precious fucking guests. Maybe they took off in the middle of the day, and managed to sneak past us. At most, we'll get a few lashings, and he'll hold back the V for a week. ... I can take it. It'd be worth it to wipe the smug looks off their faces. Fuck it.'

I had two choices in front of me. One: take the chance that between Hadley and me, we could overpower her. Or two: end this before it even started. With my surprisingly brave cousin still standing in front of me, likely to get the first and fatal blow, I quickly chose option two.

"No you fucking don't," I gritted out hotly, using as much physical strength as I could muster to shove Hadley away from me. I barely registered her stumble, focused solely on the naked redhead in front of me.

The junkie's eyes followed the movement, and realized quickly that I wasn't going to go down without a fight. With an evil smirk on her face, she lunged at me.

My hands erupted in a golden beam of light almost immediately. Calling upon my power was quickly becoming second-nature to me, and in this moment, I was grateful for it. Her arms were longer than mine, and she managed to get a purchase on my shoulders, digging her nails hard into the skin - hard enough to draw blood, I noticed. She probably meant to throw me to the ground, but by the then, my hands had made contact with her. I shot as powerful of a burst as I could manage into her body, and she flew backwards fifteen, maybe twenty feet.

She hit the ground hard, sideways, and didn't move for a moment. For a fleeting moment I thought she was unconscious, but then she rolled over onto her stomach. Not unconscious ... just stunned.

I spared a glance for Hadley, who was sprawled on the ground beside me, staring at me in wonder. Though she'd obviously known about my bloodlines, she hadn't comprehended the extent of my abilities. "Talk later," I muttered, turning my attention back to our attacker.

She was back on her feet now, and glaring daggers at me. After a second, she shifted back into a wolf, and began barreling her way towards me.

I was struck with a sudden burst of fear, not knowing what would happen to me if I got bitten a wolf. Eric and I hadn't discussed that ... I was so ignorant of so many parts of the supernatural world.

She wasn't slowing down any, so I lifted my hands once more, channeling my energy into 'shooting waves'. At least, that's what I saw them as. If my hands were guns, I was locked and loaded. I fired a few bursts of golden light out of my hands, but she was fast, and a quick study. She dodged the first two, and was only clipped by the third. When she was less than three feet away from me and ready to pounce, I dropped to my knees and brought my hands close together, angling it so that both bursts of light met in the middle.

She was struck mid-leap, and I barely had time to duck before she sailed over my head.

I spun immediately, rolling onto my belly. My eyes sought her out quickly, finding her wolf body lying limply on the ground. Her beautiful, white fur was such a stark contrast against the deep green grass, she wasn't hard to spot.

Her body shuddered, and she whimpered a little, and then she was suddenly a girl again. She tried weakly to get up, and I stretched out my hand, sending a lower-energy blast at her. She fell back to the ground immediately.

I stood from the ground, feeling Hadley rise beside me as well.

"We need to get out of here before more of them come," Hadley told me.

I knew she was right. I turned to leave with her, but the other woman began speaking.

"I'm gonna kill you, bitch!" she spat venomously; such fire in her voice, even while her body was so depleted of strength.

I turned to see her quivering on the ground, her eyes torn between pain and hatred. "Can't you just let it go?" I knew this was bad. If we just left, there would be nothing stopping her from going to Russell and telling him exactly what I did. If she did that, there was no way in hell he'd believe I was a simple telepath. We'd all be screwed. With a heavy heart, I looked down at my hand. I had the power within me to stop all this. She was a threat to me, to Godric, and to Eric. She'd tried to attack Hadley and me. She'd tortured Godric, and was still jonesing for his blood, even now. She said herself that she still wanted to kill me.

Put yourself in my shoes ... what would you do?

"Sookie, we need to go," Hadley urged, staring around us worriedly.

I cast my mental net out, searching for 'brainwaves' nearby. There were some, but I could tell from their distance that they weren't approaching us, or close enough to witness what I was about to do. "We're okay for now," I said to Hadley, and then stepped towards the woman.

"What are you doing?" Hadley whispered in a hurry.

"This will only take a minute," I told my cousin, looking back at her. "You can go inside if you want."

Hadley held my gaze for a long time, and then she shook her head. "No ... I'll stay. I don't want you to be out here alone."

I thanked her silently for that, turning my attention back to the naked woman on the grass. I drew as close as I was comfortable with, stopping a couple feet away. If she tried to reach for me, I was confident that I could stop her. I sighed, meeting her angry eyes. "What's your name?"

"Fuck you," she replied, apparently having enough strength left to spit at me.

It didn't travel far from her position ... some of it might have gotten on my shoe.

"I'm Sookie," I told her, my voice calm and quiet. "You hurt a really good friend of mine. You tried to hurt me and my cousin. I'm not okay with that."

She glared at me, and then started laughing. It was a soft, snickering chuckle, perhaps quieted by the fact that her head was drooping into the grass. "Poor baby," she replied after a moment.

I clenched my fists together with a sigh. "What made you this way? Was it the blood? Or were you broken before that?"

Her eyes clouded over for a moment, and she looked lost. She looked like she was remembering something. Looking into her mind, I saw flashes of a large man. They were laughing together, and then sleeping together. They looked happy. They a new face entered her mind - a different man ... everything went downhill from there. I saw the new man give her first taste of vampire blood, and after that, she was hooked. There was no going back to her old life.

I pulled back out of her mind, looking down at her pitifully. "I'm sorry for what happened to you."

"You don't know shit about me, bitch!" she spat, the fighter in her rising again.

"I know more than you think." I unclenched my hands, slowly bringing them up in front of me. I thought back to Eric and Godric, dead to the world in our room, and how everything could be ruined if this woman shot her mouth off to Russell. I felt her pain and agony, coupled with her body's intense cravings for more "V", and closed my eyes briefly. "I'm sorry," I told her again, before lighting up my hands.

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"What the fuck are you doing to me?" she gritted out, trying to press herself far away from my outstretched hands.

"It'll all be over soon," I promised her, pressing my right palm down on her nearest shoulder.

She flinched away from my touch, but her body was weakened from my attacks.

With a little effort, I turned her over onto her back, pushing my light into her body. She trembled and shook, desperate to get away, but my grip was unrelenting. She was trapped. I placed my left hand high on her chest, just over where her heart would be. "Just let go," I whispered to her, and released a flash of energy into her body.

She arched off of the ground, her eyes opening wide, her mouth caught open in a silent scream. A tear leaked out of her eyes, and then she slowly settled back onto the ground. Her eyes met mine as the light continued to flow into her body. There was a mix of confusion, fear, and wonder in her eyes. I wished that I could explain, but instead I kept pouring my light into her.

I kept this up for nearly a minute, until I watched the hatred and wrath fade out of her eyes. The fight had gone out of her, and she just lay on the grass, helpless beneath me. Her face - which once might have been quite beautiful - was stained with her tears. I held on for a moment longer, just to be sure, and then I retracted my soft, green light from her naked body.

She lay still in the grass, staring up at the fluffy-cloud-filled blue sky above. Her chest heaved up and down, her hands squeezing into the grass below her.

I sat back on my knees, my hands twitching a little. It was a gamble, but I couldn't bring myself to kill her.

"Sookie," Hadley spoke from behind me, her voice soft, yet full of warning.

"I know," I told her. I knew it was stupid, I knew there was a chance I might regret it, but I just couldn't do it. I turned my attention back to the woman on the ground. "What's your name?"

She blinked, and when she looked at me, it was as though she was seeing me for the first time. "D-Debbie Pelt."

I smiled as softly as I could manage. "Debbie ... how are you feeling?"

She shuddered a deep inhale of breath, looking at me with broken eyes. "Why didn't you just kill me?"

I frowned sadly back at her. "I couldn't ... I'm not a killer."

She looked sideways, more tears spilling from her eyes. "I would'a done worse to you."

"I know." I did know that. Still ... couldn't do it. We were silent together for a moment, and then I spoke again. "You need to leave."

Debbie met my eyes again sharply, flooded with a different kind of fear. "This is all I have ... without it ..."

"You could go back to that guy," I told her, recalling the one she'd been thinking of before. "I'm sure he'd be happy to have you back."

She shook her head, pushing herself off of the ground. She huddled her knees around her chest. "No ... it's too late to go back."

I looked around us, knowing that we wouldn't be able to stay here for long without being detected. I leaned closer to Debbie, drawing her attention back to me. "Do you want to hooked on vampire blood?"

With her lips pursed together, she shook her head.

I felt a rush of relief at the knowledge that my light had healed all of her body, including her craving for that 'drug'. "Then you need to get as far away from here as you can. If you have a different life somewhere, go back to it. Fix it. Make it work."

She seemed to consider that for a long time, and then finally nodded. "What about you?" she asked.

I blinked in surprise. "Me?"

"Russell's a maniac. He's power-hungry and he's conniving. You-all need to get out of here, too," she told me.

I shook my head. "Me and my ... guys, we still have work to do here. With any luck, Russell won't be a problem for anyone much longer." I could tell she was worried about Russell tracking her down if she left, and tried to assure her with my words.

"You'll get yourselves killed," she insisted.

I raised one of my hands, igniting it with a hot, golden light.

Debbie leaned back in shock, remember what that light had felt like.

"I think I'll be okay," I assured her.

She nodded. "I hope so. Look ... I'm real sorry about before."

I knew she meant it. "You wanna pay me back? Don't tell anyone about what I can do." I wiggled my fingers for emphasis.

"You got it," she told me hurriedly. After a moment, she stood slowly from the ground, her limbs a little shaky.

"Do you need some ... do you want me to bring you some clothes?" I asked her, noting that it might be a little odd for someone to see her running around naked.

Debbie shook her head. "I can move faster as a wolf." She looked behind us, up at the large house. I didn't have to read her mind to know that she was unsure about leaving.

"You don't need it," I told her, meaning the vampire blood. "It's out of your system, I promise. You can make a fresh start."

She looked at me for a long, long moment, silent and still. When she finally opened her mouth, I knew what she was going to say before she said it. "I don't how I can ever ..."

"Just do us both a favor, and stay away from vampires from now on," I told her.

Debbie nodded, looking around us one more time before shifting into her wolf form. She turned on all four paws, took a step away, and then paused.

"Just go," I told her.

And she did. She shot towards the tree line, running pell-mell across the lust grass.

We waited in silence until she was out of sight, and then we both heaved a sigh of relief.

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My stomach wasn't quite filled after our berry breakfast, but after everything that had happened outside, I wanted nothing more than to get back to my room and make sure Eric and Godric were okay. Hadley understood, wanting to be close to Sophie-Ann as well. After making sure that we weren't spotted or followed, we returned to the house, piling up the staircase together. I hugged my fill of her before turning towards my room, and Hadley did the same. We shared a brief moment of silence before the desire to get back to our significant others was too strong. I spared one more glance for her before entering my room, happy to have spent the time getting to know my cousin a little better. Doubly happy to have survived a wolf attack as I had.

It was nearly noon before I got myself cleaned up and ready to get back to bed. I'd folded my clothes and left them on the dresser to wear later, brushed my teeth and washed all the remnants of raspberries off of me before climbing back onto the large mattress, retaking my place between Eric and Godric.

They didn't move as I settled between them, completely oblivious to my renewed presence in the room.

I normally slept with my head on their arms, facing Eric, but for the first time I turned the other way. I pressed myself back into Eric and lifted his free arm so that he was essentially spooning me, but faced Godric. His eternally young face was peaceful and serene. I wondered if I was one of the few people who thought that a dead body could ever look peaceful and serene.

Slowly, I brought my hand up and stroked it over his face. It was cool to the touch, as usual, but that didn't bother me. At this point, it would probably feel strange to me to intimately touch somebody who was warm. I let my fingers glide through his short hair, down his neck, stopping briefly on his shoulder. His body didn't react at all to my touch, and a part of me wished that it did.

I flashed back to our little rendezvous in the shower, my body unconsciously heating up at the memory. It had been amazing. It hadn't really been about lust, or even really about the sex. It was so much more than that. When I realized Godric's intentions towards me, I thought that I'd feel dirty - or shameful at least - having sex with someone who wasn't Eric while Eric and I were still together. It hadn't felt dirty, and I certainly didn't feel shame. It had a been a beautiful, healing moment between the three of us. Godric was finally returned to us, and it had only been natural to seal that reunion with an act of love.

I didn't doubt that I loved my two vampires ... I just didn't know what kind of love I felt for both of them. With Eric, it was an intense, physical passion that melded with impossible trust and emotional security. I felt closer to him than I'd ever felt with anyone - human or otherwise. With Godric ... some times, I was just so in awe of him that I didn't know what to say. He was such a gentle soul, but he could fierce when he had to be. His relationship with Eric was something I might never fully understand. I trusted Godric with my life, and I was starting to trust him with my heart, as well. But, really ... it hadn't even been twenty-four hours since we'd had sex - all three of us. Until we had time to discuss it - away from all of the Mississippi drama - I didn't want to label it, or even think too heavily about it.

With that thought in mind, I pulled my hand away from Godric's shoulder, lightly resting it on their outstretched arms beneath my head. I closed my eyes then, willing sleep to come quickly.

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End of chapter twenty-eight.

Well, what did you guys think of that one? Like it, hate it?

Reviews are appreciated, flame if you must, but constructive criticism is much more useful.

Until next time ...!