I will dedicate

And sacrifice my everything for just a second's worth

Of how my story's ending

And I wish I could know if the directions that I take

And all the choices that I make won't end up all for nothing - Hoobastank

Eric POV

Two more shots ring out in quick succession. Three vampires start to fall to the ground but explode before they hit it as those in the room start to duck for cover. I quickly look up to where the shots came from and see the female shooter scurrying away, hoping she won't get caught. When I see Felicia run from the room, I do not the shooter has much of a chance this time. I would fly up after her myself if I did not have some things down here to deal with.

The Ancient Pythoness sealed Threadgill's fate, and who knows how many more, as she nodded to Sophie-Anne indicating that Threadgill will be held responsible for the bomb that went off. With Sophie-Anne seemingly having outsmarted Threadgill, there was a chance that we could get out of here without bloodshed. Though, that would have only delayed it, it was a delay that we could have used.

With that simple nod though, we will not be getting out of here without a fight. Threadgill would know the sentence would be death. By being held responsible for Jennifer Crater's little soda bomb, he is not only guilty of an unauthorized attempt of a fellow Monarch, but the attempted murder of his betrothed. With the ruling, he does not stand a chance of not being sentenced to death. Having nothing left to lose, he will attempt to fight his way out of here, as it is his only chance of getting out of here still undead instead of finally dead.

I draw my sword as the Ancient Pythoness nods her head in answer to Sophie-Anne's question, anticipating what is coming and trying to sense the direction it will be coming from first. I feel Pam pull Sookie back and sense Thalia moving with them. I turn to the stage just in time to see Threadgill trying to get away while swords are drawn and aim taken at Sophie-Anne's and Sigebert's head.

Unfortunately, some of my instincts on who to trust are being proven true at the moment.

As I get to the stage, my goal is to stop the sword that is being swung at Sophie-Anne's neck. Sigebert will be a loss for the state and for the battle tonight and I would actually miss the Saxon, but there is no way that I am allowing Bill Compton to be my King. And that is exactly what will happen if his sword manages to make it's way through the Queen's neck.

Because Threadgill will be dead before the night is over and he will have no claim to the state.

I stay low as I move in case another shot goes off. I make it to the stage and am surprised when my sword is not the first to stop Compton's, giving me time to change the direction of my swing and stop Elena's sword from completely detaching Sigebert's head from his shoulders. He had been more concerned with ensuring that Sophie-Anne's head stayed firmly attached to her shoulders than his own, so Elena's had hit her mark. Luckily my blade is able to stop hers before she completely decapitates him.

Seeing her weak grasp on her sword, I flick my wrist causing it to fly from her fingers and clatter to the ground several feet away.

It is Andre's sword that stops Bill's from slicing through Sophie-Anne's neck, which has me doubting my instincts for about a split second. However, in the next second when Andre has his sword at my throat, rather than Compton's, I know my first instinct was indeed correct.

The two new lovebirds take the opportunity to flee the stage and I can only hope that as with Threadgill, they are stopped until I am free to end them. As for now my focus is at the sword that is pointed at my neck. It is the sound of Sophie-Anne calling his name that takes his focus off of me. The pain in her voice can be felt but I am not relying on that to keep Andre in check. While his attention is elsewhere, I slice through his leg, detaching it causing him to fall. I am about to swing my sword down to end him but it is Sophie-Anne telling me not to that stops me.

"We need to know what he knows," she explains in a no nonsense voice. "He and all the other traitors," she adds, her voice breaking on her last word.

Great, a battle with rules on who I cannot kill. Fabulous.

I turn and spot Threadgill engaged with several of my vampires. I start to make my way over to him as he sends one of them to their final death. As I move towards him, one of the Ancient Pythoness' guards is suddenly at my side. "If you kill the King, it will not be held against you," he says before quickly exiting the room again.

Finally someone I can kill tonight. Though I would have killed him anyway and worried about the consequences later, that is good to know.

Jade Flower, his glorified guard dog, stops me when I am still feet from the vampire King. If she were on my team, her sword would be one that I admire. Since she is definitely not on my team, it is one that I have to watch carefully.

"You will die, Viking," she says, with too much confidence.

"I am not so sure," I say as her sword comes down. I easily deflect it and after that we start dancing around each other, each looking for openings. But we are both experienced fighters and that opening is hard to come by. She almost has one, when I have to duck to avoid a flying vampire, well a vampire that was thrown across the room. I have one and my weapon is almost through her arm and she has to actually fall to avoid getting it cut off.

I swing my arm down to end her but she jumps back up before I connect. I sense a vampire sneaking up behind me just before Jade Flower's face gives it away. When I sense the approaching vampire is close enough, I sweep out my leg, causing Jade Flower to fall as I simultaneously throw back one of my elbows and the guy who was sneaking up behind me has now joined her on the floor.

With one swoop of my sword, both of them will never be getting off the floor again, unless it is in a mop and bucket. I allow myself a second to watch their bodies fade away before setting my sights on Threadgill. With Jade Flower's death, he has murder written across his face. That does not matter to me however, because I know for a fact the look on my face matches his.

But as I start to head over to him, one of his vampires gets in my way again, swinging a mace. I see Russell managing to detain Threadgill but hope the King does not do in the defunct one.

I want that pleasure.

Sookie POV

When the old vampire nods, the room explodes into chaos. At least that's what it looks like to my human eyes. Weapons are drawn and swinging. Vampires are exploding and being thrown across the room. They can all seem to focus however, so I doubt that it is chaos to them.

It looks like they are viewing it as a damn party.

I follow Eric's gaze up to the stage where Sophie-Anne had outsmarted Threadgill a few second ago. The stage has gotten a bit more crowded in those last few seconds and swords are drawn. That's Eric's cue to start making his way up to the stage and it's Pam's to try and get me out of the middle of all of the action.

Pam and I are supposed to stay relatively out of the main foray. Eric told Pam it's because she is the only one he trusts with my life, but I know that he is worried about her too. Yes, my vampire friend has seemed fine after she woke up this evening, but I know he is still concerned about the fact that she was unconscious in the first place.

We manage to get to the side of the room relatively safely. I did have to duck under a swinging arm and Pam did have to sidestep a swinging sword but we arrive in one piece. Thalia and Wybert are soon at our side. She props the injured vampire up against the wall so he can still use his good arm. Luckily, it's his dominant arm and he's still good with a sword, which seems to be the vampire weapon of choice, as they all seem to be wielding them. Pam even hands me one and though Eric has been practicing with me, it's still not my preferred weapon. With the shooter still unknown however, it's not the best time to be seen with a gun.

For a bit, our little group is pretty much ignored. Thalia journeys out into the battle but stays close. I can tell that Pam is itching to, but she is not willing to leave me. Thalia glances at her and must take pity on her because she 'lets' one slip past allowing Pam to run her sword through him. I even get in a bit of a whack in on him, but it's more like swing a baseball bat than handling a sword. It has Wybert laughing, which earns him a glare from me. But of course that has him only laughing harder.

I manage to catch a glimpse of Eric as he is fighting Jade Flower. There is not one bit of me that is not nervous for him but it is also amazing to see him fight. His body moves fluidly as he moves around Jade Flower, searching for a point of attack. The confidence that he had when I met him, the confidence that has been slowly coming back to him in the last few weeks, is back tonight. It's a look I want to see more often on him.

Just maybe not in the midst of a swordfight.

Suddenly, there are more vampires around us than there had been seconds before. Pam gets her wish to fight as two rush past Thalia leaving her to deal with two all her own. Wybert is struggling against one vampire, as he can't use his other arm for leverage.

Wybert's weapon gets knocked out of his hand but he manages to push the attacking vampire down to give him a second to come up with another plan. He can't reach down to grab his sword and it's too far to get and get it back to him with my human speed. I turn my back to Wybert and know he sees my reasoning when he mumbles out, "Clever."

I can feel the miniature stake slide out of my hair just as the attacking vampire is standing back up. He isn't up for long though as Wybert plunges the stake into his chest. I step back, hoping to avoid the explosion of blood. Wybert then tries to stick the bloody stake back into my hair. "Keep it," I tell him, while handing him back his sword.

Looking back to Pam and Thalia, they look to both have their situations under control. Pam has managed to kill one of her attackers and though Thalia is still fighting with two, she looks to be having fun. She's in her element but I can't help but be worried for her too. I know she's counting on me to be able to repeat that particular phrase to her, but I am hoping that she is able to say it back to me as well.

Thalia sidesteps another vampire who continues to run at Wybert. That allows me to see a second vampire trying to sneak up to Eric as he is still fighting with Jade Flower. I have just a second to worry about how bad this could turn out to be before Eric has both of them on the ground and is slicing through both of their necks.

I don't even have a second to be happy before I see Elena heading straight for my little group and me. I take a step back, hoping to delay her attack but she hits me across the face, causing me to fly into the wall a few feet away. I brace myself sure that she will be pouncing on me but am surprised when seconds pass with nothing more happening to me.

I carefully peak through my eyes to see her starting to approach Pam who is now fighting two others on her own. I am up on my feet making my way over to her, hoping the sounds of the battle around us will block out my steps. As I get closer to her I pull out the remaining stake from my hair, hoping I get to use it.

Eric POV

As I hear the vampire I just beheaded explode as it hits the ground, I find myself looking at the part of the room where Sookie, Pam, and Wybert have holed up. It does not surprise me at all as I see Thalia over there as well. She would do anything to protect Pam and Sookie and I cannot be more grateful to her for that.

Thalia is currently in a bit of a pickle taking on two vampires but it is nothing she cannot handle. Pam and Wybert are working on a few themselves. I let out a growl as I see Elena make her way up to Sookie and slap her away, before moving on to trying to fight Pam.

But that has always been Elena's downfall – not knowing where the threat lies. She has dismissed Sookie as a meaningless human and that will be her downfall as Sookie gets up and takes one of the stakes out of her hair.

Great thinking on Pam's part.

And though Sookie deserves the kill, I want to get in on some of the fun. I grab onto the arm of a vampire that flies past me, successfully ripping it off. I am looking for something else I can use when I vampire's head appears at my feet.

That will work.

I line up the arm with the head, knowing I will only get a few seconds before it explodes. "Fore," I yell out hitting the head with the arm. It sails through the air and lands right on target, Elena's head. She turns to see where it came from just in time to see me waving goodbye to her as Sookie plunges the stake into Elena's heart and Louisiana is suddenly down a Sheriff.

I don't think anyone will mind her loss though.

I gaze at Sookie from across the room and want nothing more than to go to her and sweep her up into my arms. To feel her wrapped around me and to have her whisper those three words that I have started to enjoy hearing, into my ear. I will make sure that happens, but I want to be able to enjoy it when it does not looking over her shoulder and my shoulder worrying of an attack that might come.

So I need to end this as soon as possible. And to do that, I need to kill Threadgill.

I nod to Sookie as Pam comes and stands by her side. I look around the room once to see that Sophie-Anne is holding her own with the help of Sigbert. It does appear that we have the numbers, but that could change in the blink of an eye.

I spot Threadgill across the room close to an exit and am standing in front of him before I can blink. Russell who had been detaining him from leaving backs off and allows me to take over, but does not go too far. I know he wants to see this bastard dead as well.

As he sees me approach, he gets an evil glint in his eyes and I know I am not going to like what this bastard is about to say. "You know, I have a lot of plans there for the telepath," he arrogantly announces.

Great. Granted Sookie's ability may not be the world's most closely guarded secret, but I was hoping no more vampires would find out, at least until we were out of here. One can only hope that the enraging battle will be enough to keep them from hearing Threadgill's words.

"You lost everything just to get your hands on her," I ask, not meaning to demean anything about Sookie. I just find it hard to believe he would risk everything for her, even with her abilities.

"I wouldn't say it was just her," he replies. "I do believe she would be a good way to get her family involved in some ventures of mine," he says with a smile.

My blood runs cold at those words. There is no way that he could be talking about Hadley or Jason here, which would mean that he knows that Sookie is part fairy. Not only that, but it sounds like he is aware that she is part of the royal line. That is supposed to be a secret that very few are aware of. My eyes start to dash around the room and land on Compton, while never once letting Threadgill leave my gaze completely.

Him and his fucking computer program.

He must see where I focus on though because he says, "Yes. He is just filled with fun, useful information, isn't he? And what he couldn't tell well, it's been beneficial to have someone so close to Sophie-Anne." Then, he strikes.

I dodge his attack and counter with one of my own but he rolls to avoid it and comes up swinging. I move to block and manage to sweep his feet from under him. All the while as I am striking and dodging, I am thinking about Compton and this betrayal. He not only betrayed his state, his queen, but he betrayed Sookie to yet another monarch. I wish I could say that I was surprised but I am not at this point. He has proven time and time again that he was never worthy of any of Sookie's affection.

I manage to land an elbow to Threadgill's face as he is turning in an attempt to disarm me. In response he manages to knock me down, flat on my back. He brings down his sword once but I roll out of the way. I am not quite fast enough as he manages to land his strike on my shoulder, cutting me pretty well. I can hear Sookie from across the room react. I risk a glance over to her to make sure that she is not running out to me. Luckily, Pam has a firm grasp on her arm.

He lifts up his sword and moves to bring it down again while saying, "Imagine what I will do with your little telepath when I get my hands on her. I want you to think about what I could do to her, as I am slicing through you. I want you to know that I was going to take it easy on her. I want you to know that everything I do to her, every cry that comes out of her mouth, will be because of you. For Jade Flower," he says before kicking my arm and bringing up his sword again to try and strike me again.

I am determined not to allow his words to come to fruition. Though he will most likely not make it through the night, I will be the one to see him dead just so I can be sure that he never lays a hand on Sookie.

As he swings down, instead of trying to block the strike, I grab onto his arm and work with his momentum, pulling him down to the floor, while rolling out of the way to avoid his weapon. I jump up, using his head as leverage and just as he is about to get up, he finds my sword at his throat.

"You will not touch her," I say before shoving my sword through his throat. I move it a little to the right before sweeping it through to the left.

Then Peter Threadgill is no more.

I look around the room and see that with Threadgill's demise, the few of his people still undead, drop to their knees in surrender. The doors again burst open and the guards come back and take them into custody. Of course they come now that all the fun is over with. The vampires in question will have the opportunity to pledge fealty, once it is determined who they should pay it to.

I find Bill who the guards are ignoring, perhaps thinking that he is not a traitor. I start to make my way over to him with what is probably a murderous glint in my eye. As he sees me getting closer, he hands himself over to one of the guards.

To quote Sookie, 'scaredy-cat.' With me he will not be shown mercy. But I suppose with him in custody, there is always hope that I get some alone time with him.

I walk over to Sookie, who launches herself into my arms. "You okay," she whispers against my ear.

"Now I am," I tell her.

"You got cut."

"It is already healed," I reassure her. "You okay?" I don't scent her blood, which is nothing short of a miracle in a room with fighting and injured vampires. She nods against my head before pulling back and staring into my eyes before bringing her lips to mine. I bring my hand to the back of her head and push her even closer to me as I realize just how worried I was that I would lose her, lose her to Sophie-Anne, to Threadgill, lose her completely.

If I had it my way, she would never leave my arms again.

Pam's voice cuts through as she says, "If that's what we get for winning, sign me up."

I let Sookie down, but keep her in my arms. "You didn't kill a King for me. Sorry Pam."

"Well, if that's all it will take," she says jokingly, looking around the room. Her attention falls to where Sophie-Anne is with her three children. Suddenly, the atmosphere is a lot tenser.

I walk over to where Sophie-Anne is sitting, cradling Andre's head in her lap. He is bound in silver, which she lightly brushes as she smoothes his hair over his head. There is no reaction from her as she comes into contact with the silver, her grief winning in that battle. I can smell her tears in the air from across the room and there is despair in their scent. As much as I have been worried about Sophie-Anne's motives over these last few weeks, tonight I was reminded just how she became queen.

But now she has to deal with the ultimate betrayal as a vampire. There is only one person a vampire can trust other than himself and I have long since discovered that person is not your maker. It is your child and I am living proof of that. Even after what my maker has done to me he has never once had to question my loyalty. Pam had never once given me a reason to doubt her. The bond between child and maker is a strong one and when cultivated, it is almost unbreakable.

I would have thought that would describe the bond between Sophie-Anne and Andre and up until a few weeks ago, it was. I cannot even imagine the pain that she is going through with the betrayal alone, let alone what will have to be done for it.

I stop when I get in front of her and she never once looks up at me. I feel Pam come up behind me with Sookie and they each take one of my hands in their own. Pam leans into my shoulder and I know what she is thinking because I am thinking the same thing.

The pain that Sophie-Anne is currently feeling, I would not wish that on anyone.

"You must have many questions," she asks, finally acknowledging my presence.

"You knew," I say to her. She was not at all surprised when Andre started attacking those from his own state. Though I imagine he sees it as he remained loyal to his maker, fighting those in her retinue is not the best way to show your faithfulness.

"A mother always knows." So she suspected that Andre was up to something all along. Looking back, I can see it. There were the looks that she gave him when he tried to get his blood into Sookie. How easy it was to get her to agree to send Andre away when Sookie had to go to her compound without me. The worried looks on Sigebert's and Wybert's faces when Andre was left alone with the Queen. She had known, maybe know all along.

"Does a mother always know why," Sookie asks from my side.

I squeeze her hand trying to make sure she understands we need to tread lightly here. Sophie-Anne is dangerous enough with no outside influences. Having to deal with her child's betrayal and the consequences of it could make for a very grumpy Queen.

And grumpy queens are never fun to deal with.

Sophie-Anne though pays no attention to Sookie's words, however. She and Andre continue to look into each other's eyes and this is not the first time I have thought that Sophie-Anne has the ability to talk with her children telepathically. It is only when she quietly says, "I imagine it has something to do with you," does she acknowledge Sookie's words.

Andre speaks for the first time, spitting blood at Sookie's feet. "You," he bites out at her. "You were making my Queen weak. The decisions she was making in order to keep you happy, to keep both of you happy," he pauses and looks over at me. "They were making her look weak."

"And getting betrayed by her own child makes her the poster child for strength," I say not understanding his logic.

"I needed to do something," he nearly screams out. "I needed to be strong for her when she couldn't."

"So you went to the enemy," I bite out, incredulously. I was taught by my human father to be loyal. That lesson was confirmed to me when my maker showed me what happens when you are not loyal. Betraying your monarch and state is bad enough. Betraying your maker is the ultimate betrayal.

"I did what I needed to do for my queen, for my maker." He looks back to Sophie-Anne, who has been crying silent tears throughout his entire explanation. "Everything I did was for you. Threadgill believed I was acting on your behalf. He believed that I was taking a strong hand for you, on your word."

"He was using you," I tell him quietly. I can see in his eyes that he is starting to put everything together, that he was no more than a pawn in Threadgill's game himself. "You were his way to keep up to date with what was happening in the state, especially close to Sophie-Anne. One of them at least," I add thinking of Compton. "And I have no doubt that you have acted out on a few of his suggestions, however unintentional your actions were."

"I never betrayed you," he insists to Sophie-Anne but the fight is gone from his voice.

"You betrayed your state and in turn yes you betrayed me. You allowed your beliefs about how I should handle Ms. Stackhouse turn you against me instead of trusting my instincts. You have spent centuries with me but that was not enough for you to place your trust in me." Sophie-Anne lets out one lone sob, before she is able to collect herself. Pam laces her arm through mine as we watch the scene unfold between the two.

"I was not enough for you. I must not have taught you enough. And for that I apologize," she says and I can hear the truth in her words. She is accepting all of the blame here, thinking that there is a way she could have been a better maker. "And I am sorry for what my poor leadership and teaching has led us too. I am sorry for what it cost us and for now what must be done."

As Sophie-Anne stands up and grasps a sword, Andre stays quiet, which bothers me. If he had any loyalty left for his maker he would be shouldering the blame. It is his decisions that led us here. It is his inability to have faith in his maker that is causing this outcome. I move to take the sword out of her hand and say, "I will do it," trying to keep her from feeling any more pain. I may have had contingency plans in place, but I was willing to let Sophie-Anne sink or swim before I acted on them. I had more faith in her than her child.

"No," she says, grasping the sword tightly. Sigebert takes a hold of Andre's hand, the last touch he will have from his brother as Wybert puts his good arm around Sophie-Anne's shoulder. "I gave him this second life. If anyone is going to take it from him, it will be me."

I have never had more respect for Sophie-Anne than I do at this moment.

As she lifts the blade to prepare for the strike, I turn and walk away taking Pam and Sookie with me, leaving the little family in their last moments together. I can hear the sound of the blade as it slices through the air and can hear Sophie-Anne's unneeded breath hitch in her throat before I hear the unmistakable sound of vampire sludge hitting the floor.

Thalia comes up to us and we all stay quiet to take in what has happened tonight, take in the last few minutes. After a few minutes, I softly say, "Update," knowing that is what Thalia had been up to. I am the only Sheriff left here and I will make sure we do not lose any more tonight, make sure that Sophie-Anne does not lose anymore tonight.

Thalia begins to fill me in. There had been no attack in Louisiana tonight but we had found out that one was scheduled. Threadgill's plan was to win here to secure his ownership of the state before having his people move in and kill anyone who challenged him. Those still in Louisiana would have to be careful that no random groups broke off and attacked upon hearing they lost, but it did not look like that would be the case.

We had lost eight vampires, Clancy included. Though their loss will be felt, especially Clancy's, it could have been a lot worse. Threadgill apparently had not been much of an organizer. It worked in our favor tonight. Simply having his people attack was not effective against our organization. "Felicia is still unaccounted for though," Thalia adds. "No one has seen her since she ran from the room."

"There have not been any more shots though," I say, thinking out loud. I call two other vampires over and tell them to go and look for her, wanting to be sure that she is okay.

Before they can leave the room however, the doors suddenly open and the Ancient Pythoness and her guards again grace us with their presence. I pull Sookie closer to me, hoping she will realize the importance of this vampire in our world. I will have to explain it to her as soon as possible. I would have already if I had known she would be here. She does seem to catch on to the tension in the air and tucks herself in under my arm.

The guards separate, allowing the ancient vampire to come forward of her own accord. As she gets to the center of the room, she looks around and her blind, yet all seeing gaze lands on me. "Eric Northman," she calls out. I nod in response knowing that the blind vampire will not be able to see it but knowing she still will somehow know my acknowledgement. "Come forward, Eric Northman," she says.

I have some idea of why she is calling me forward. Before I move, I kiss Sookie softly on the head and take Pam's hand in my own squeezing it. If I am right with my thoughts about what she wants, the rest of the night can go by very easily. If I am wrong, well, it could make the last 30 minutes look like child's play.

I make it to the center of the room and stop a few respectable feet in front of the vampire. I drop down to my knees in front of her as she tells me, "You have made a complicated situation even more so."

There are a few responses on the edge of my tongue but I bite them back not being too confident in how this will end up going.

"You have killed a monarch," she starts off by saying.

"I was told there would be no consequences as the monarch was sentenced to death."

"Yes," she says and I can hear the smile in her voice. "You will face no consequences for ending Threadgill. But you do leave us with an interesting situation." She pauses before continuing. "You have killed a monarch," she repeats. "You therefore have a right to the throne," she adds this time, confirming where my thoughts are headed. "But Threadgill had just married a queen, your queen. Yet as with what has been found out after the marriage, it could be ruled fraudulent and revoked as if never happened. Nonetheless, Arkansas needs someone in charge. You have a decision to make Northman," she says dramatically.

"You need to decide if you are going to challenge Sophie-Anne's right to Arkansas through her marriage to Peter Threadgill."

Hello lovely readers. I am sorry for the wait on this. My computer battery failed, literally according to the Apple dude. And apparently I haven't mastered the simple task of staying tethered to the charging cord, which meant my computer was turning off a lot. But all should be well now, though the next chapter may not be posted until next weekend. Only 2-3 chapters left on this one.

As always thanks for reading. I do hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you don't know yet, the winners to the You Want Blood awards were posted so go check that out if you haven't already. Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to all those who put it together.