Chapter 38

"Jason," I said quietly, in an attempt to calm him. If Eric decided to rip Jason to pieces now, I didn't have the energy to divert his attentions like I had done last time. "Let's talk."

"Outside," Eric added with a growl.

Jason looked between Eric and me and nodded. Sam and Lafayette were right on our heels as we walked out the bar. We didn't stop until we were at the end of the parking lot where no one could overhear us.

"What the fuck did Compton do to my sister?" Jason asked once we stood in a small circle.

"She hasn't shown up for work in days," Sam said as he crossed his arms. "That's not like her."

I blinked. They didn't know Sookie had been turned yet. I shared a glance with Eric, but he looked completely unconcerned. In fact, he looked as though he didn't care whether these humans ever learned what happened to Sookie or not. It was up to me to do the explaining, apparently.

"I know she's hiding out with Compton," Jason said. "And Tara has invited this Maryann woman to live with her in Sookie's house. And nobody explains a damned thing to me."

"Something happened to Sookie," I said carefully.

"Is she okay?" Jason asked at once. "What the fuck happened? Tell me!"

Lafayette put his hand on Jason's shoulder. "If you shut your blabbermouth, Jase, I'm sure the baby vampire here will do some explaining."

I looked at Lafayette. His little light had come on in my mind the moment I'd stepped in Fangtasia. I knew he was apprehensive of the situation, scared of us and very worried for Sookie.

"Yes, I will explain," I said, and added quickly. "But you must promise to let me finish and not fly off the handle until I'm done."

Jason looked like he wanted to protest, but Lafayette squeezed his shoulder. Sam stared at me with narrowed eyes but gave a small nod anyway.

"Bill's maker, a vampire named Lorena, came to town to visit Bill. Sookie wasn't happy about this, because Bill and Lorena had been lovers for many decades. We warned Sookie to stay away from Lorena, but Sookie didn't listen and confronted Lorena anyway, tried to stake her, in fact. Lorena...she returned the favour. And then she turned Sookie." I bit my lip and waited for the shit to hit the fan.

"What?" Jason said, his mouth hanging open. "WHAT?"

"Sookie's a vampire?" Sam asked, and for a moment he looked like he might burst into tears.

"Ah, shit," Lafayette said, and then wrapped his arm around Jason's chest to hold him back when it looked like Jason might try to take a swing at Eric and me. "Man, you don't wanna piss off these vampires, trust me."

"But..." Jason hung his head and his legs gave out. Lafayette lowered him to the ground.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, because I really was. Eric still looked like he couldn't care less, though, but I ignored him.

"Fuck you!" Jason yelled from his spot on the concrete, his eyes blurred with tears.

"How do we get her back?" Sam asked with a certain hint of determination in his voice.

"You don't," I said quickly. "Sookie belongs to Lorena now, and Lorena is...well, she's nuts. You wouldn't stand a chance."

"She's my sister!" Jason struggled back up to his feet, though Lafayette kept a hand wrapped around his upper-arm, to keep him from going after us. "I ain't just giving up on her!"

"Then Lorena will kill you," Eric said, having finally decided to join the conversation. "

"I'll stake that bitch!" Jason snarled.

"Just like your sister tried to do, and look what happened to her," Eric said matter-of-factly, and Jason lunged at him but Lafayette was stronger and held him back. Eric merely grinned in response, though his fangs were showing.

"Look," I said, holding up both hands to ward off further aggression. "Your best bet is to find a way to talk to Bill."

"Why the hell would we wanna talk to that bastard?" Jason demanded. "He's the one who dragged my sister into all this shit."

"Yes, but he's also strong enough to hold off Lorena, at least for a while, and he's also really unhappy with what happened to Sookie. He's your best shot to fix this situation if you really want to give it a try."

Sam nodded. He seemed to accept this solution a lot better than Jason did, but then again, Sam was a shifter, so he was far more knowledgeable about supernatural affairs. Jason was just human, and not a very bright human at that.

"Also, you might want to stay away from Maryann," I added, hoping to do them all a favour. "She's a maenad and wants to do this whole sacrifice a person thing before she'll move on."

Sam looked at me with wide eyes. "And do you happen to know how to get rid of a maenad? Permanently?"

"They are very hard to kill," Eric said and shrugged. "The best you can do is stay out of her way and wait for her to have made her sacrifice. She will leave then."

"Yeah," Sam said with a pinched expression on his face. "Problem is, I think I may be that sacrifice."

"That sucks," I said sincerely. "Maryann is immortal and has these near divine powers or something." I frowned and tried to remember everything Godric had told us about maenads in the car. "The only time she'll be mortal again and thus can be killed, is when her god comes for a visit, but the problem is, he never does. So unless you can send Bacchus an engraved invitation to join the party you're shit out of luck."

Sam frowned and looked down at his shoes. His best bet was probably to just get the heck out of town, at least for a while, but I had a feeling he wasn't going to do that, not when Sookie might need his help. Oh well. That was his problem. Eric and I had enough problems of our own.

"Thanks," Sam whispered, surprising both me and Eric by offering us his gratitude. Sam looked at Lafayette and Jason and gave them a nod. I guess they'd gotten what they came for. Jason glared at us, his cheeks wet with tears, but I couldn't really blame him for that. He'd just learned his sister had been killed and turned. It wasn't surprising in the least he wasn't feeling all that happy about vampires in general. Lafayette led him away towards Sam's car.

"Come," Eric said, grabbing my hand. "You need your rest."

I wanted to protest, but honestly, I was tired. I just didn't like being so weak. Ever since I'd been turned, I'd felt so incredibly strong, like nothing could ever harm me. Boy, had I been proven wrong on that one. So I let Eric pull me along to his Corvette.

Once we pulled out of the parking lot I turned to look at Eric. "Do you think they'll stand a chance against Lorena?"

"If they can get Bill's help, then maybe," Eric said, staring straight ahead.

I bit my lip. "And if they do manage to kill Lorena, are you going to punish them?" I thought that would be totally unfair, but hey, I was no vampire Sheriff.

"As long as they don't come into my bar to boast about it, I might be able to let is slide," Eric said smoothly, and then grinned at me.

"You want her gone, too?" I asked, pleasantly surprised.

Eric nodded. "I never wanted Lorena to take up permanent residence in my area. She was welcome to come for a visit, to teach that child of hers some manners, but no more than that. She's far too unstable. She'll only cause trouble."

"So it would be very convenient for you if those guys took care of her," I said, once again marvelling at Eric's sneakiness.

Chuckling, Eric placed his hand on my thigh and squeezed gently. "Exactly."

I shook my head in vague amusement. Eric and his underhandedness. He was the one who'd invited Lorena to come for a visit, but now that Lorena was causing trouble, he was happy to let some humans take care of the problem instead of getting his own hands dirty. Ah well. Perhaps this was how one survived for so long.

"What would happen to Sookie if Lorena was killed?" I asked after a while.

"Bill would be allowed to take care of her," Eric said.

"Because they are related, kind of?"

Eric nodded. "But if Bill refused to take Sookie under his wing, someone else could claim her for themselves. Someone powerful. In this case, it would probably be the Queen herself. "

"That makes sense," I said, and thought about that some more. I'd never realized before that there might be genuine vampire orphans out there; young vampires whose makers met their final deaths somehow. I hoped for Sookie's sake Bill survived. I was no Bill fan, especially not after he'd tried to stake Eric, but I knew Sookie would probably be a lot better off in his care than in the Queen's. Then again, Bill had betrayed Sookie in a way, since he'd been working for the Queen all along. There was a chance Sookie wouldn't even want to be in his care.

I briefly closed my eyes and thanked whatever deities were out there listening that my life was not quite as complicated as Sookie's. Yes, Eric wasn't perfect. Far from it. He made mistakes, some of which had terrible consequences. But he cared for me. And he wanted what was best for me. He'd proven that over the last few days.

I placed my hand over Eric's, which was still resting on my thigh, and I stroked his fingers with my own. Eric gave me a surprised smile, and seemed quite pleased with this small turn of events for the rest of the way home; he didn't stop smiling.

Eric scooped me up in his arms after I'd gotten myself out of the car. There was no need for him to carry me anymore, but I didn't comment. I figured he just enjoyed doing it. Eric put me back on my feet inside the bedroom and slowly took off my clothes. Once I stood naked, Eric stepped up behind me and started rubbing my shoulders.

"Ooh," I moaned, because damn, that felt good.

"You like this?" Eric asked eagerly, his hands putting a little bit more pressure on my shoulder blades.

"Oh yeah," I said, my body going limp under his caresses. At once, Eric manoeuvred me onto the bed so I was lying facedown on the sheets.

"Wait there," he said, and the bed dipped as he got up. I heard rustling of clothes as Eric undressed, and then a swish as Eric used vampire speed to retrieve something from the bathroom. The bed dipped again and Eric kneeled down beside me. I looked up and noticed a bottle of aromatic oil in his hands.

He was giving me a massage?

I pressed a little closer to the sheets in sheer satisfaction, and moaned again when Eric poured a little bit of oil onto my back. He placed the bottle on the nightstand and set to work.

His hands were divine. I knew I'd said his tongue was the best in the universe, but my goodness, his hands were a close second. Eric gently massaged my shoulders, and then my spine, and finally my lower back, and by that time I was sure I'd melted into the mattress.

But he didn't stop there. He rubbed the oil across my buttocks, but he never dipped lower towards my sex, though at this point I probably wouldn't have minded if he did. Next were my thighs, and then my calves, and finally my feet.

No one had ever given me a foot rub before, but at once I understood the appeal of it. Eric slowly stroked his hands across my feet, and somehow these touches relaxed me even more, if that was at all possible.

Once Eric massaged his way back up my body, I let out a deep sigh. "If this whole vampire Sheriff thing doesn't work out for you, I'll hire you as my personal masseur," I mumbled, and Eric rumbled with laughter in response.

"Turn around," Eric said softly, and he didn't have to tell me twice. I flipped myself over onto my back, and Eric set to work on my shoulders after adding a bit more oil to his hands. But when he was ready to massage more of my front, he gave me a questioning look first. He was asking permission to touch my breasts.

I gave him a quick nod, and Eric answered it with a huge grin, his fangs showing. Oh yeah, he was in the mood, the same mood I was slowly but surely was getting into as well.

Eric spent a long time massaging my breasts; cupping them gently, rubbing his palms across my nipples, and then pinching them with the tips of his fingers. And my body responded quite favourably to these touches, all thoughts of drainers and unwelcome fingers gone at last.

This was Eric, my maker, and my blood called to him, as did my body. No matter what those drainers had done to me, I knew my maker would never hurt me like that.

"Eric," I moaned, arching my back up a little so he would put more pressure on my breasts. "Will you lick me?"

Eric sat between my legs at once, and lowered his face towards my sex. "Look at me, lover," he whispered, and I looked down at him with wide eyes. Eric had never called me that before, but it sounded like the best thing he could have said to me. I gave him a lazy smile as he spread my folds and licked across my clit.

"Oh, yeah," I groaned, pushing myself against his face. Eric licked again, a little harder this time, and I bucked my hips in response, because I wanted more, so much more.

It didn't take long before I was floating close to my climax, and I hardly even noticed it when Eric slipped two fingers inside me. He slid them in and out, and licked my clit a little faster, and I exploded into pleasure, crying out his name as I came.

When I blinked my eyes open, Eric was hovering over me, his erection pressing gently against my folds. "Lover?" he asked, with raised eyebrows.

By way of answer, I wrapped my legs around his hips, and Eric pushed into me at once. Our bodies joined intimately, and I knew without a doubt this could never be wrong, this could never be uncomfortable. Eric pressed his face against my throat, thrusting inside me slowly but surely. Eric wanted to take his time, apparently, but I didn't mind one bit. I wrapped my arms around his back, and arched up against him, meeting every one of his thrusts with one of my own.

I vaguely wondered if we were making love, instead of the fucking we'd always done before. Was there really a difference at all?

"I have missed you, lover," Eric breathed into my ear.

Perhaps there was a difference after all. Eric never said things like this to me, especially not during sex.

"When I thought I had lost you...it was very unpleasant," Eric continued, licking my throat and thrusting a little harder inside me.

Was this Eric's way of confessing the feelings he didn't even know he had? Whatever it was, I liked it, and I smiled against his shoulder as I held him tightly, as tightly as I could.

"You are mine," Eric growled, and nipped at my throat. "Drink from me, lover."

I sank my fangs into his shoulder, and moaned as his sweet blood flowed across my tongue. Eric bit into my throat and sucked hard, and now he picked up speed, pounding inside me until I cried out as I came again. Eric groaned, and thrust a few times more, and then he tensed as he came inside me. He collapsed on top of me, his body trembling, and I stroked my hands down his back in a soothing way.

"Did I hurt you?" Eric asked softly, as he pulled his head back to look at me.

"No," I said at once. "This was perfect." I pressed me lips to his in a soft kiss, and Eric smiled against my mouth. "I really liked the massage," I said, hoping to convey my appreciation so he might do it again some day.

Eric chuckled and gently pulled out of me. He rolled onto his back and brought me with him so I was lying across his chest. "I enjoyed touching every inch of your body. I will do it again as often as you like."

I giggled. "Be careful with that promise, because I'd have you do it every day if it were up to me."

"Then I will do it every day, if that is what you want," Eric said, and I looked up at him in surprise. Eric didn't seem to be joking. I pushed myself up his body and gave him a long, deep kiss which Eric eagerly returned.

"So are we good now?" Eric asked with a certain amount of apprehension.

"Yeah," I said with a happy smile as I relaxed against his chest. "We're good."

I trailed my fingers down Eric's chest, and Eric stroked his hand down my back, and then I realized that maybe Eric and I were good now, but there was a third person involved as well.

"Eric," I said hesitantly as I glanced up at him. "How angry are you with Godric, really?"

Eric quirked an eyebrow in response.

"I mean, he's a part of this, too, and I need to know if the two of you will ever be able to be in the same room again without yelling at each other, or worse."

Eric started laughing and squeezed me close for a second. "Do you really believe my maker and I have never had disagreements before in our long lives?"

"Huh?"

"Oh, my beautiful child. When you and I have disagreements, don't we always make up eventually?" Eric asked reasonably.

"Oh. So you and Godric will be all right?"

Eric nodded. "We'll be fine. Of course, it would be nice if he stopped his meddling, but knowing my maker that's probably too much to ask for."

Giggling, I pressed my face against Eric's chest again. "He means well," I said, and giggled again.

"I'm sure he does," Eric said, just a bit sourly.

"And you did fuck up," I added with a grin.

"So did you," Eric said, with an even bigger grin.

"Yep. And now we're good."

"That we are," Eric said, and pressed a kiss to the top of my head.

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A/N: Just a short chapter this time, sorry. And I have more bad news, kind of. I just write too fast, as it turns out. We're only a chapter or so away from the end of season 2 in this story, and there are a lot of things of season 3 I want to use for the rest of this story. However, season 3 is still ongoing, as you all know, and I do not want to write myself into a corner, since I have no clue how certain things will play out in season 3. I have my suspicions about some things, but other things are still a complete mystery.

Yes, I know I could write my own version of season 3, and in some ways I will, but there are new characters I want to use for this story, such as Russell, Talbot, Alcide, and Franklin. They're all just too cool not to use, but until I know what happens with them on the show, I can't really start on my own version of season 3. And that's why I won't be updating this story as quickly anymore as I have been doing.

I am by no means abandoning it, don't worry! I love this story too much, and I'm looking forward to writing season 3 in this universe, but I need a bit more time to figure the plot out for the rest of the story. I hope you'll all understand, and please know that once TV season 3 is done, I'll probably be back with daily updates for this story!

I've started a new story, to keep my muse happy while I figure this one out. It's a Godric/OC romance called 'Supernatural Symphony'. It won't be as long as this fic, but I hope it will hold you all over until I can continue with this one. Thanks so much for reading, everyone! And be sure to let me know what you think. Your reviews are the best motivation to keep this story going!