Chapter 37

"No," I said quickly, and then had to clear my throat. "Eric didn't do anything. There were - " I couldn't continue. I didn't know how to explain what had happened, because every time I searched for words to use all I got were memories.

"What happened?" Godric asked, and he no longer sounded angry or concerned, but downright frustrated. "Turid, put Eric on the phone."

I glanced at Eric, but he quickly shook his head 'no'. I sighed. "Look, I went to buy a new camera and some people took me."

"What people?"

"Drainers," I whispered.

There was a long silence. "How badly were you hurt?"

I had to think about that. "It hurt a lot at the time. But I'm okay now. The doctor said I'll be up on my feet in a few days."

"A few days," Godric said, and now he sounded hollow, as though every emotion had fled him. "How long did it take Eric to find you if it will take you a few days to recover?"

I bit my lip. "A little while."

"Put Eric on the phone, now!" Godric snarled, and I shrank back from my own phone. I couldn't recall Godric ever snarling at me before.

Eric snatched the phone from my hands, inhaled a deep, unnecessary breath, and held it to his ear. "Master."

Oh boy. From what I'd gathered from their relationship, Eric only ever called Godric 'master' if he knew he was in deep shit.

At once Godric started growling in Old Norse, and Eric listened to it for a few moments before he jumped off the bed and yelled back at Godric in Old Norse. And this went on and on.

I clapped my hands over my ears and lay down. I didn't want to listen to them fighting, even if I couldn't understand a word they were saying. But sadly, my vampire hearing was so good my hands didn't offer much protection from their verbal onslaught. I pulled my pillow over my head and squeezed my eyes shut, and desperately tried not to hear my two lovers trying to rip each other to shreds over the phone.

Finally there was a crash and then silence.

The bed dipped and Eric placed a hand on my shoulder. "I'll buy you a new phone."

I pushed the pillow off my head and looked up. My phone lay in pieces on the carpet. Apparently Eric had smashed it against the wall. I didn't have the energy to get upset about it, though. I looked at Eric. "So?"

"So?" Eric repeated, as though he didn't have a clue what I could be questioning him about.

"What did he say?" I said a bit more forceful.

Eric's face grew blank. "He threatened he will take you away from me if I cut off our bond one more time."

"Oh." I swallowed. "Can he do that?"

"Yes and no," Eric said, not very helpfully. I glared at him, and Eric sighed. "No, he has no right to take you away from me, because you are my child. But yes, because he is my maker, and he could command me to release you. I would have to obey him. But I would not let you go without a fight. I would take it up with the appropriate authorities if he tried something like that."

I closed my eyes. I understood why Godric was mad at Eric - heck, I was mad at Eric for the same reasons - but I didn't want Godric to force me away from my maker. No matter I was mad at Eric, or had actually threatened to leave him myself, I still needed him. He was my maker, and ours was a connection that even Godric couldn't replace, even though I loved Godric with all my heart.

I reached out a hand and found Eric's chest. At once Eric wrapped his arms around me and pulled me closer. "I don't want him to do that," I said, pressing my face against Eric's shoulder.

"Me neither," Eric said, rubbing his cheek across my hair. "You tell him that. He might listen to you."

"I will," I said. Memories were propping up again, and I tried to think of something else to say. "What does that mean, actually? Releasing a child?"

"The maker controls the bond with the child," Eric said, and he sounded just as relieved as I felt to talk about something else. "And thus the maker has the power to loosen the bond permanently. It means the child no longer has to follow the maker's commands."

"Is it like when you cut off our bond?" I asked hesitantly.

"No," Eric said at once. "When I cut off our bond, I just...stuff a cork in it. When you release a child, you run a knife through it."

"That makes sense," I said and I had to actually smile at the image of the cork that Eric was painting. "So Godric has never released you?"

"No."

"Why not?"

Eric looked down at me, and he seemed puzzled for a moment. "It's just never come up."

"So you don't mind?" I asked, trying to make sense of this weird relationship between Eric and Godric.

Eric pulled me a little closer. "Not until today."

I didn't know how to respond to that, so I just closed my eyes and inhaled Eric's scent and after a while I zoned out.

Eric woke me sometime later and offered me another two glasses of blood to drink. I finished them quickly and then snuggled with Eric for a bit until I zoned out again. I didn't even notice it when dawn came.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Eric was waiting for me to wake up the next night. He immediately offered me two glasses of blood to drink and after I finished them, he lifted me out of bed and helped me into the bath. He'd already filled it with warm water.

It was strange seeing Eric in this mother hen role. Strange, but pleasant. Eric got in behind me, and washed my hair with soothing strokes of his fingers. I leaned into his touches and enjoyed the contact. Eric never took his touches further than that, as he'd promised the previous night.

After some nagging on my part, Eric let me wash his hair, and as always I enjoyed these moments of simple intimacy. We stayed in the tub for a while longer after we were both washed.

On some level, I was incredibly grateful for the care Eric was giving me, for the obvious concern he had for me, but on some other level I couldn't stop blaming him just a little bit.

If he hadn't cut off our bond, this wouldn't have happened.

And if I hadn't threatened to leave him, he wouldn't have cut off our bond.

I bit my lip the moment I realized that. But it was the truth, wasn't it? I had betrayed Eric by threatening to leave him, and Eric had betrayed me right back by cutting off our bond.

We'd both royally fucked up.

I turned a little in Eric's embrace so I could look at him. "I'm sorry I threatened to leave you. I didn't mean it. Not really. I don't want to leave you."

Eric looked at me with a calm gaze and then he smiled. "Apology accepted. Now will you accept my apology in return? That I truly regret cutting off our bond?"

"All right. Apology accepted." It was the right thing to do, no matter what had happened. It wouldn't fix everything straight away, but at least it put us on the right track to true forgiveness.

"We were both angry, and we both did things we shouldn't have," Eric reasoned, and then he frowned. "Though I still do not understand why you suddenly threatened to leave me."

I had to bite back a giggle for a moment. Eric really looked nonplussed. But how to explain this without it resulting in another breakdown? Should we just ignore what happened, pretend I never admitted my feelings and Eric completely blew me off? No, no matter how much this scared me, I knew we had to talk about this, and Eric was making an effort to do so, in his own bizarre way.

"Eric," I said softly. "What upset me so much is that I told you I love you and you just ignored my feelings. That hurt, and I reacted badly to that."

"Hm." Eric tilted his head to give me a better look. "So you love me," he said, and he sounded like he didn't quite believe it. "But why?"

I snorted with laughter. I couldn't help it. Partly because Eric could be as clueless as Godric at times, and partly because some tension between us, that had been there ever since my confession, just vanished in a wave of relief. "I don't know," I said, pushing against him a little bit. "I just do."

"You just do," Eric said, and grinned. "And here I thought it was because I have the most amazing tongue in the universe. Your words, not mine."

I buried my face against his shoulder, giggling madly. "I was intoxicated! I cannot be held responsible for anything I said at that time."

"Right," Eric said, and nipped at my earlobe. "So I should not have ignored your feelings," he said, and it sounded like he had trouble finding the right words to say. "I should have said it pleases me that you love me?"

I pulled back in surprise. "Does it?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yes, it does," Eric said, his expression now merely curious. "Does that please you?"

"Yeah," I said, smiling my most goofy smile. "See how easy that was," I said, because I couldn't resist. "None of that 'it doesn't matter' bullshit, just simply accepting it graciously."

Eric snorted. "I will keep that in mind from now on."

"Okay. And then I won't pack my bags anymore just because you're being insensitive."

Eric sighed but didn't comment. When I looked up at him he looked back at me with a quirked eyebrow, as though he wasn't sure this entire conversation had been necessary in the first place. But I didn't mind. At least he was trying, and that meant something. No, that meant a lot.

"Thank you," I whispered, snuggling closer to him.

"For what?"

"For making an effort." I gave him a soft kiss.

"You're welcome," Eric said, and automatically slipped his hand down my side and cupped my butt. But the second he did it, his body tensed and he quickly withdrew his hand. "I did not mean to - "

"It's okay," I assured him. "I'm not made of glass. I just need a bit of time to make sense of all that's happened. Then we'll go back to the hanky panky, I promise."

"Good," Eric said, and gave me a tight little hug. "I can't wait."

I laughed at the eagerness in Eric's voice, and Eric grinned in response. Yeah, some trust had been broken between us, but at that moment at least it looked like we'd be able to fix it in time. And that was the biggest relief of all.

We'd be all right, eventually.

We snuggled for a while longer until finally Eric helped me out of the bath. He dried me off with a big fluffy towel and I let him, waiting patiently for him to finish. I did notice I stood quite steady on my own two legs now, much more so that I had done the day before.

"Look," I said, because I thought this was something Eric should know, too. "I can stand up on my own now. So when will you let me out of bed?"

Eric gave me a dubious look as he turned the towel over and dried himself off. "When you're not this tired anymore."

"I'm not tired," I protested quickly, though I was a little bit tired, but honestly, what did that matter?

"I can feel you through our bond, my dearest child," Eric said, leaning closer so he could look me in the eye. "And you are still tired. So you're going back to bed. We'll see how you feel tomorrow."

"Fine," I said, and I didn't protest when Eric scooped me up in his arms and returned me to bed. Eric stayed with me until I zoned out again, which didn't take very long. Perhaps I was still more tired that I thought I was.

When I came to again some time later, I noticed someone lying beside me but at once I knew it wasn't Eric. The scent was all wrong; it was way too feminine.

"You silly little witch," Pam said beside my ear. "Getting yourself drained like that."

Pam was lying beside me on the bed, her arm draped across my waist. I looked at her in surprise.

"Hey, Pam," I said. "Where's Eric?"

"Aww, missing your master already?" Pam teased with a wicked smile. "You do always follow him around like a little puppy. It's so cute."

I glared at her and tried to get up, but Pam pushed me back down at once.

"No, you are to stay in bed. I have my orders." Pam sat up herself and looked down at me. "Eric had some business to take care off. He should return in an hour or two."

"And now you're my babysitter?" I asked with a grin.

"I'm here to make sure you don't run off and straight into the arms of more drainers," Pam said, and slid off the bed. I stared after her as she disappeared into Eric's office. I heard some rustling of plastic and then the beeping of the microwave. A minute later Pam returned holding a large glass of blood.

"Here," Pam said as she handed me the glass. She let me sit up now, at least. "So you won't starve under my watch."

"Ah, Pam, I didn't know you cared," I teased, and took a large gulp from my glass.

Pam shrugged as she sat down on the edge of the bed. "It upsets my maker when you are hurt, and I do not like to see him upset."

Well, at least she was honest. As I drank my blood I realized this was the first time Pam and I had been alone in a room together. Also, we'd never said this much to each other before. I was curious about her, and I imagined she was curious about me, too.

"Were you very surprised, when Eric brought me home?" I asked as I finished my glass.

Pam let out a bark of laughter. "Very. I had not expected him to make another child so soon."

"Well," I said with a smile. "It wasn't exactly a planned event."

"Yes, Eric told me what happened," Pam said and gave me an intense look. "But you really are his type, so I imagine it wasn't that big of a hardship for him to turn you."

I frowned. "His type?"

"Powerful. Beautiful. Submissive," Pam said impassively. "And far too much trouble."

I huffed in response, and Pam offered me a dazzling smile.

"Well, at least you got his mind off that telepath," Pam said after a moment. "I imagine she'd have been even more trouble, stubborn little human that she is."

"Was," I corrected her softly. "She isn't human anymore."

"No, now she's Lorena's child," Pam said, and giggled as though she'd never heard anything funnier in her long life. "That poor little lamb."

"Yeah," I agreed quietly. I'd been so concerned with myself for the last few days I hadn't thought about Sookie at all. But now that Pam had brought her up, I couldn't stop wondering how she was doing.

"Now you must rest," Pam said, and snatched the empty glass out of my hands. She placed it on my nightstand, and then stretched out beside me, again wrapping an arm around my waist.

It was strangely comfortable, to lie so close to Pam, my nose lying only half an inch from her throat. Was this because we shared a maker? We were sisters, at least in blood. I closed my eyes and thought about it until I zoned out once again.

The next time I came to Eric was sitting beside me on the bed, fully dressed, and looking down at me with a big grin. "I've brought you some presents. Pam has assured me this is the proper thing to do when someone is recovering from an illness."

I giggled at Eric's strange enthusiasm and sat up. Eric immediately handed me a box wrapped in red paper.

"Thank you," I said, and carefully unwrapped my present. It was a new cell phone, and it was a much fancier model than my old one.

"Do you like it?" Eric asked expectantly.

"Yes," I said, as I pulled open the box and took out my new phone. It was red, and I smiled up at Eric.

"It is a much better one than your old one, which was far too simple," Eric stated, and I knew he meant well so I took no offence at his words. It really was a nice phone, and I leaned over to kiss Eric on his lips.

"Thank you," I whispered sincerely.

"I get kisses for this?" Eric asked, perking up. "I must bring you presents more often."

I giggled madly, and then slapped him against his shoulder. "Like you don't get enough kisses already."

"There is always room for more," Eric said, and handed me my next present after I tucked my phone back into its box.

I tore off the paper and was surprised to see a whole stack of DVDs, eight or so in total. I blinked as I looked at the titles. A Nightmare on Elm Street. Evil Dead. The Thing. Aliens (that one made me smile). Dawn of the Dead. Halloween. Scream. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

"Wow," I said, staring in utter astonishment at the DVDs in my hand. "You're really trying to cheer me up, aren't you?"

"Yes," Eric said, beaming. He'd completely missed the sarcasm in my voice. "You obviously like watching movies, so I thought I'd get you some more movies we can watch together."

I bit my lip so I wouldn't break down laughing. I liked horror movies well enough and had seen all of the DVDs at least once already. But it just amused me to no end that Eric figured giving me horror movies after I'd been captured and tortured was a good idea. Well, at least he was trying.

"Was there a sale on horror movies?" I asked innocently.

"Yes," Eric said, obviously surprised I'd guessed that. "They were four for twenty dollars. I can get more if you want, but these sounded like the most interesting ones."

"These are great," I said, and leaned over to give him another kiss, much to Eric's satisfaction. "Thank you."

"Which one would you like to watch?" Eric asked, eagerly looking at the DVDs in my hand.

I sorted through them again and finally held up 'The Thing'. "This one. I haven't seen it in ages, and it's pretty good."

Eric nodded, snatched the DVD from my hand, and jumped off the bed. "Wait here." And with that he disappeared from the bedroom, only to return a few minute later. He scooped me up and carried me to the living room. He'd build us a little nest on the couch with some pillows and blankets, and on the coffee table stood a glass of human blood and a bottle of AB-negative waiting for me.

And at that moment I wondered why I'd ever thought he was an insensitive prick. Clueless occasionally, yes, but I couldn't think of him as insensitive anymore, not now he was obviously trying so hard to make me happy.

We settled on the couch together, Eric pulling me close, and he pushed a button on the remote control to start the movie. We watched it in silence for the most part, and it was as good as I remembered it to be. Eric enjoyed it a lot, too, and got very enthusiastic every time the thing showed itself in all its gory glory.

And I was surprised that seeing all the blood and gore didn't affect me one bit. I'd been worried that maybe after my traumatic encounter with those drainers it might upset me, but it didn't. Then again, seeing an alien harass a couple of researchers in Antarctica didn't have much in common with being tied to a table with silver and having your blood drained.

"Did you enjoy it?" Eric asked me once the credits rolled across the screen.

"Yep," I said, and turned my head to give him a kiss. "It's still a very good movie."

"It was very funny," Eric said with a happy smile. I shook my head in amusement, and let Eric carry me back to bed. He made me drink another glass of blood, and then snuggled with me until I zoned out for the rest of the night.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The next night was spent in a similar fashion as the previous one, except Eric didn't leave me to Pam's care for a few hours but stayed with me the whole time.

He gave me a bath, made sure I drank my blood, and when it was time to watch another movie, he held up 'Aliens' and looked at me with his best puppy dog eyes.

"All right," I said and giggled while Eric grinned in triumph and got the DVD player going. But just at that moment, a phone rang, and it took me a few seconds to realize it was my new phone.

Eric had programmed it for me while I'd zoned out the previous night. He'd added all relevant phone numbers to my contact list, downloaded a few funny ring tones, including Star Wars' Imperial March, which made me giggle madly, and he'd installed a close-up picture of himself grinning with his fangs out as my background.

"I'll get it," Eric said, and zipped to the bedroom with vampire speed to retrieve my new phone.

I checked the display before I answered. Godric, which wasn't a surprise.

"Hi," I said nervously. I hadn't talked to him since he'd had his fight with Eric.

"How are you feeling?" Godric asked. What? No 'my dear heart'? Was he angry at me, too?

"Much better," I said, and then added pointedly. "Eric's taking really good care of me."

"Good," Godric said. He didn't sound angry, but with him you never could tell. "I'm glad to hear that."

I sighed. "Look, we both fucked up, and we've both realized that. I don't want you to try to take me away from him, okay?"

Godric laughed. "So you have talked about it? About everything?"

"Yeah," I said hesitantly. "We talked and we're good."

"Then you have nothing to worry about."

I blinked. Was this one of Godric's little schemes again? Push Eric to the point he felt he had to talk to me about everything? Ugh. Godric could be so sneaky sometimes.

I shared a dubious look with Eric just as Godric asked, "When do you expect to be up and running again?"

"Soon enough," I said, ignoring Eric's glare. "I really am recovering well."

"And will you start training with silver now?"

"Yes," I said at once. "I want to learn to teleport even when I'm touching silver."

"That is a very good idea," Godric said and he started sounding like himself again. We talked for a few more minutes and I told Godric about the movies Eric had gotten for me, which made him laugh, and when we said our goodbyes I was feeling much better about my other boyfriend again.

"Meddling little prick," Eric muttered as I placed my phone on the coffee table. I snorted with laughter, but Eric ignored me and started the movie. It turned out to be an even bigger hit than The Thing with Eric, and I enjoyed it a lot, too.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The next night, right after my bath, Eric's phone rang.

"Yes," Eric said as he held it to his ear.

"There are some humans here to see you," Pam said on the other end. "You and your little witch."

"What do they want?" Eric asked, while I looked up at him in surprise.

"They want to talk to you both about the telepath."

Eric blinked. "We'll be there in half an hour." And with that he shut his phone and looked at me. "Are you feeling well enough to go to Fangtasia for a short while?"

"Yes," I said with an eager nod. As much as I enjoyed Eric's care and fussing, going out for a bit sounded really good.

"Then we'll go and see what that's all about," Eric said. He got dressed in black jeans and a blank tank top, and then helped me in a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt. We took the Corvette and were at Fangtasia in no time. Eric let me walk inside the bar on my own, much to my relief, but he did hold my hand tightly.

I scanned the crowd and wondered who wanted to talk to us about Sookie. But I didn't have to wonder for very long, because there, in a corner booth, sat Sam, Lafayette and Jason. And they got to their feet at once when they spotted Eric and me.

Jason rushed up to us, getting right in our faces, which made Eric tense up and me squeeze his hand in response.

"What have you done with her?" Jason demanded. "What have you fucking vampires done to my sister?"

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A/N: The Sookie mess hasn't been dealt with completely, as it turns out. We'll see how that goes soon. Probably tomorrow, but it might be the day after that. I'll do my best to write it as quickly as I can. Thanks so much for reading, everyone! And let me know what you think. Your reviews keep me writing!