Layla pulled her car in the driveway of the Bon Temps home. For the past three months she and Alcide had been splitting their time between Mississippi and Louisiana. She hadn't seen much of Eric Northman at all. In fact, life had become almost normal.
Christmas had come and gone already and she'd spent it with Alcide and his family. A mysterious present had shown up on her front door when she'd come to Bon Temps. A long necklace, made of white gold with a chocolate diamond pendant. It was too beautiful to throw away, so she tucked it in the very bottom of her jewelry box and didn't look at it again. Alcide had gotten her a bracelet which she wore constantly. The diamonds looked pretty against her tan skin.
Alcide was hung in Mississippi with work so Layla would be spending some time alone in Bon Temps. The house still wasn't decorated and honestly, she really wanted to move out. She wasn't making much money, not that she didn't have plenty leftover from the check Eric had given her for the Dallas job, but still. Jason had asked her to set up a website to help find Sookie, and she had done so freely. Jason could barely afford his own place, let alone pay Layla. In fact he was selling Sookie's house. The beautiful house set back in the woods.
Layla stopped by the house just about every time she was in Bon Temps. It was always a quick stop, always on her way to the graveyard. She didn't know why but she felt peaceful there. Lately she'd gotten more into meditation and self-improvement. It was a big jump away from who she'd been when she'd arrived in Bon Temps.
Now, with her nails done and a fresh blowout she stepped out of her car and went inside only to become seriously pissed off. The place was ransacked. After a cursory look around she saw clearly that nothing was stolen. It almost looked like someone had a tantrum too large to be contained in a house. Her finger was on the button to dial the police and get Jason down here to figure it out when she spotted something that sent her off the deep end.
In the corner of her bedroom there was a pile of stringy, disgusting, dead vampire.
XXxxXXxxXXxxXX
Layla had considered calling Alcide, but he's seemed so stressed out with work lately she didn't want to bother. Instead she drove straight to Fangtasia. Concern gnawed at her. It couldn't be Eric, right? Eric wasn't allowed inside her house. Then again, no Vampires were allowed inside. None that she'd invited anyway. So how the hell did Vampire guts get inside her house?
As she pulled up she briefly considered what she was wearing. A denim skirt, a blood red camisole and a denim jacket. Before her transformation, she never really had to worry about fitting in at Fangtasia, but now she stuck out like a sore thumb. She fluffed up her hair that was bouncy and blown straight and got out of the car. Pam raised an eyebrow when she saw her.
"Hey stranger." she said. Layla gave a small nod.
"Where is he?" she asked.
"Where else?" Pam said, nodding towards the throne where Eric sat, watching her intently. Layla was thankful for the height her platform wedges gave her. She may not be in her black boots, but sometimes just being n heels at all helped boost her confidence.
"Well, look who it is." Eric said. "Where's your pet?"
"If by pet you mean my boyfriend," Layla replied testily. "He's in Jackson."
"Ah." Eric said with a smile. "Feeling lonely?"
"Hardly." she snapped. "Can we talk privately?"
Eric sighed but descended his throne, placing his hand on the small of her back and guiding her towards his office. As Layla stepped inside Eric closed and locked the door to assure their privacy. Layla turned and opened her mouth to speak when Eric swooped down, capturing his mouth with hers.
His hand fisted in her hair, pressing her back against the desk, knocking anything in his way onto the floor. Layla was helpless against him for a moment, too stunned to respond. Finally she regained her composure and began to push him away. When Eric pulled back they were both breathing heavily.
"What?" he asked.
"What are you doing?" Layla asked, scrambling to get away from him. "I said TALK privately. That wasn't code for take me back to your office and ravage me."
Eric looked genuinely surprised. "You actually want to talk?"
Layla nodded. "Yeah. If I wanted to have sex with you I wouldn't have bothered wearing underwear."
Eric shrugged and then lifted her skirt up, revealing the black, lacy panties she was wearing.
"Hey!" she snapped, shoving her skirt back down.
"Just checking." Eric said. "What do you want to talk about?"
"The dead Vampire in my house." she said rudely. Eric was fully alert now and all playfulness was gone.
"Who did you invite in?" he asked, looking furious.
"No one!" Layla said defensively.
"Did Alcide invite anyone in?" Eric pressed, looking downright murderous.
"I don't think so." Layla said honestly. "He wouldn't invite a Vampire inside my house." she said, more to herself than to Eric.
"Show me." Eric said. He grabbed her hand and began dragging her down the hall and out the backdoor of the club.
"My car's out front." Layla said as he wrapped his arms around her, as if to kiss her again.
"Too slow." he said, and with a small smirk added. "Hold on."
XXxxXXxxXXxxXXxxXX
Layla groaned as Eric set her down in her driveway. Layla raked both hands through her windblown hair and glared at Eric, who stood poised in her doorway.
"Invite me inside." he said gruffly. Layla rolled her eyes.
"Won't you make yourself at home, Mr. Northman?" she said with mock sweetness. Eric immediately went inside.
"Someone else has been here." Eric said, looking around.
"No shit." Layla said, righting one of her lamps and turning it on. "The puddle is in the bedroom. Down the-"
"I remember very well where your bedroom is, Layla." Eric said quietly as he walked down the hall. Layla followed him and stood in the doorway as he crouched over the pile of blood and guts.
"No vampires have gone missing lately, have they?" Layla asked.
"None that I've heard of." Eric told her. "Both Bill and I have been very cautious of any new Vampires ever since Miss Stackhouse disappeared."
Eric wrinkled his nose. "Your new perfume is horrible, by the way."
Layla frowned. "I'm not wearing perfume."
Eric looked up and frowned. "Can you not smell that? It smells like cheap perfume in here." he said as he sifted through the remains. Layla sniffed and she too could faintly smell cheap, drugstore perfume.
"Maybe it was the Vampire." Layla shrugged. Eric held up one of the shoes and poured out all the viscera left inside.
"It's possible, but I have a hard time believing a Vampire wore size 12 shoes as well as bad perfume." Eric said. "I guess Alcide has some explaining to do."
Layla sighed. "Okay, well can we just clean this up so I can go to sleep?"
Eric already had his phone pressed to his ear. "Pam, I need you to bring Layla's car to her house. Quick as you can." he said before quickly hanging up. "You're not staying here. Drive back to Jackson."
"Eric," Layla whined. "The puddle isn't going to hurt me and it's not like I'm defenseless. I've been driving all day."
"Well, you're not staying here. So you can either go back to Jackson or you can come to Fangtasia with me." Eric said, standing and walking towards the bathroom to wash his hands off. Layla sighed.
"Fine, I'll go back to Jackson, but when I fall asleep at the wheel and crash my car it's all your fault." Eric glared at her for a moment and then looked her up and down. He saw how tired she was. She must have been out in the sunshine all day, which took it's toll on her no matter how much she tried to hide it.
"So Sookie leaves and suddenly I have someone new to babysit." he said quietly, drying his hands on a towel. "I'll take you to Jackson myself. Let's wait outside. That perfume is giving me a headache."
XXxxXXxxXXxxXXxxXX
The pair had barely driven outside of Bon Temps before Layla fell asleep in the passenger seat. Eric leaned over and brushed the hair away from her face so he could see her face more clearly.
She was trying so hard to be someone she wasn't. He was glad she hadn't gone away completely. There was still that fire her loved so much simmering behind brown eyes. He had missed her attitude. She was smart and fearless and absolutely fascinating.
As Layla slept she dreamt again about her cottage in the woods, standing on the porch in a long nightgown. In her dream she looked down and realized her belly was swollen beneath her nightgown. She pressed her hands to her abdomen and felt something inside poke at her.
Layla woke with a start and Eric froze above her. She stared, looking frightened.
"What?" she asked. Eric had been poised to wake her up and now looked worried.
"We're here." he said, leaning back. Layla took a deep breath through her nose and climbed out of the car quickly, practically running towards the apartment. Eric got out of the car lazily.
"Not even a thank you for driving you across state lines?" he called. Layla didn't even turn around, just threw her hand up.
"Thanks, Eric!" she called, before ducking inside the building.
Layla climbed the stairs to her apartment and quickly unlocked the door and walked inside. The first thing she noticed was the smell of cheap perfume.
Alcide walked out of the bedroom.
"I thought you were in Bon Temps." he said quietly. Layla frowned.
"Something happened." Layla said. "Why are you whispering?"
"Alcide?" came a voice from the couch. Layla walked into the living room.
"Layla, I can explain." he said quickly. Layla stared dumbfounded as Debbie Pelt sat up on the couch