"I have dropped her off all safe and sound," Pam told him when she arrived at Fangtasia. She yawned. "Dawn is approaching. Are you planning to sleep here?"
Eric folded his arms and leaned forward on his desk. "I should have listened to you before now," he mused. She turned to him, confused, and he continued, "When you said I should tell Sookie more about our politics. She could suffer for her ignorance, and I cannot let that happen."
"I am right occasionally."
He smiled. "Occasionally." He closed his laptop and stood, stretching his arms toward the ceiling, and that made him think of holding Sookie earlier at his house… the gleeful expression on her face. "As much as I hate to add to her worries, she is my wife now, and it is necessary for her to know certain things."
Pam sat on the couch and pulled off her high heels, then leaned back and dangled the shoes by their straps from one finger. "What is the expression the Southern people use? Preaching to the choir."
The following evening was slow and dull; Eric sent Heidi to examine Sookie's property just after sundown, and then he busied himself in his office until Fangtasia closed for the night. When Heidi returned, she reported that she had smelled fairies, but she had nothing more specific. Though Eric knew that Sookie would be sound asleep, he could not resist going to her house instead of his own. The desire to be near her was too great, especially because he sensed that something was worrying her.
The sublime scent of fairy met him as soon as he stepped onto her porch and grew even stronger when he entered the house. He also smelled a human man. Curious, he opened Sookie's bedroom door slightly and peered in, but her room was empty save for her. Behind another bedroom door, he was surprised to see a little boy sprawled under the covers. Now quite bemused, he proceeded upstairs, where the fairy scent was even stronger. A quick and silent glimpse behind yet another door revealed the source: a dark-haired, very handsome fairy asleep in the bed. Whatever human man had been in the house, he was now gone. Eric closed the door and went back downstairs, shaking his head. Sookie, at least, had had an interesting day.
He longed to join her in the bed and mold his body against her warmth, but he thought better of waking her at this hour – especially with a fairy in the house. He went to the kitchen and tore a sheet from the magnetic notepad that hung on Sookie's refrigerator, then took a pen from the cup near the telephone.
My lover, he wrote, I came in too close to dawn to wake you, though I was tempted. Your house is full of strange men. A fairy upstairs and a little child downstairs – He paused and smiled, continuing, but as long as there's not one in my lady's chamber, I can stand it. I need to talk to you when I rise. He signed the note and left it by her coffee maker.
That done, he made for the "hidey-hole," which was in the room where the child slept. The door creaked when Eric pushed it fully open, and the boy stirred and woke, squinting as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Eric smiled at Sookie's small guest and disappeared into the closet to enter the space beneath it.
He opened his eyes while the sun was still low in the sky; though he couldn't see it, his body was attuned to it through centuries of marking its rising and setting. He could both hear and feel Sookie moving about the house. With great impatience, he waited for the earth to yawn and roll over slowly, blocking Bon Temps from the sun until morning. The lazy planet took its time, as if it knew he was waiting and just didn't care. When he finally flung back the trapdoor, he leapt out and made quick strides to the kitchen, where he found Sookie waiting, smiling.
He lifted her up onto her kitchen counter, stepped into the sweet cradle of her legs, and kissed her until her body was soft and limp against his – all but her legs, which were locked around him like a vise. She made a little sound of protest when he ended the kiss. As much as he would have enjoyed making love to her right then and there, they had to talk first.
Sookie reached to one side and popped open the microwave door to reveal a freshly warmed bottle of TrueBlood. He grimaced, but he took the bottle and shut the microwave. Sookie loosened her legs so that he could step back and drink. He downed it quickly – nothing to savor there – and set the bottle aside. He rested his hands on her legs, ordering himself to be good until they had finished their discussion.
"Who is the child?" he began.
"Hadley's son."
He raised an eyebrow. He had known Hadley only as the vampire queen's lover. "She was married to a breather?"
"Yes," she nodded, "before she met Sophie-Anne. A very nice guy named Remy Savoy."
"Is that him I smell?" he asked, referring to the scent of the human male, now almost undetectable. "Along with a big scent of fairy?"
She confirmed that this Remy Savoy was the man who had come into the house. She didn't answer his second question about the fairy.
"And?" he prompted.
Sookie's expression turned slightly sheepish. "I meant to tell you this the other night. My cousin Claude…?" When he nodded to confirm that he remembered Claude, she continued, "He asked if he could stay here for a while because he's lonely in his house with both his sisters dead."
Eric fought back an amused smile at the idea of a fairy being lonely. Whatever this Claude's reason for being here, it was not loneliness. "You are letting a man live with you," he said slowly, acclimating himself to the idea.
"Believe me, he's not interested in me as a woman," she said quickly. "He is all about the guys."
Sookie he trusted completely; this Claude he most definitely did not. But Sookie seemed confident in her safety, so he would let the matter rest. "I know you are fully aware of how to take care of a fairy who gives you trouble," he said finally, smiling a little.
"Yes. And if it'll make you feel better, I'll keep a squirt gun loaded with lemon juice on my bedside table."
That would be a good thing for Sookie to do at all times, considering her history with the fairies. "That would make me feel better," he told her. "Is it this Claude that Heidi scented on your land?" He slid a hand down one of her arms. "I felt you were very worried, and that's one reason I came over last night."
She shook her head. "She says neither of the fairies she tracked was Claude, and that really worries me. But—"
"It worries me, too," he mused aloud, recalling Neave and Lochlan and thinking about all the others of their ilk. His eyes fell on the drained bottle, its sides streaked red with synthetic blood. "Sookie, there are things you should know."
She gave a grumbling "Oh," and he looked back up at her. What he saw on her face was a mixture of impatience and disappointment. Her negative attitude would not help matters. He motioned to the table, and she hopped off the counter and dropped herself heavily into the chair he pulled out for her. As he sat down across from her, he was about to reach for her hand, but she had crossed her arms in front of her on the table.
"You remember the summit at Rhodes?" he said, starting right in. "And how a strip of states from south to north were invited?" Her only answer was a nod. "Once we had ventured from one side of the New World to another, and the white breathing population migrated across, too – we were the first explorers – a large group of us met to divide things up for better governing of our own population."
"Were there any Native American vampires here when you came?" she asked. "Hey, were you on the Leif Erikson expedition?"
He smiled a little. So many humans, in their struggle for context, latched onto the only Viking name they knew. "No, not my generation," he said. "Oddly enough, there were very few Native American vampires, and the ones that were here were different in several ways." Many of the indigenous vampires, including Hot Rain, had been regarded as tribal elders; their existence was no secret to their human counterparts. And in Mexico, the vampire Quetzalcoatl had been worshiped as a god-like figure. The indigenous vampires had not taken kindly to the new vampires' emphasis on secrecy and detachment from humans. "At that first national meeting about three hundred years ago," he recalled, "there were many disagreements."
"No, really?" she smirked. Then, seeing his expression, she gave him a half-hearted signal to continue.
He explained how they had divided the new country into vertical strips rather than using the humans' regional divisions of North, South, and West. "So the easternmost division," he said, "which is mostly the coastal states, is called Moshup Clan, for the Native American mythical figure, and its symbol is a whale." Judging from the expression on her face, Sookie had clearly never heard of the benevolent giant. "Look it up on the internet," he said with a wave of his hand. There was too much to discuss already without getting sidetracked by the mythology of each region's namesake. "Our clan – the states that met in Rhodes compose this one – is Amun, a god from the Egyptian system, and our symbol is a feather because Amun wore a feathered headdress." He tapped his upper left chest. "Do you remember that we all wore feather pins there?" She shook her head, looking dazed. "Well, it was a busy summit," he said briskly. "To our west is Zeus, from the Roman system, and a thunderbolt is their symbol, of course." Sookie was an intelligent woman; she had known about maenads, after all. Her only answer to him was a flippant nod. "Sookie," he said slowly, trying to swallow his irritation by conceding to himself that all of this must sound very convoluted and silly to a human, "this is important." He reached out and touched her hand briefly. "As my wife, you must know this."
"Okay, go ahead," she said, looking somewhat chastened.
He told her about the fourth and final clan, Narayana. "Its symbol is an eye because Narayana created the sun and moon from his eyes."
Sookie looked thoughtful. "But there were some vampires at the summit in Rhodes – the Amun Clan summit – that should be in Zeus, right?"
So she had been listening, in spite of her attitude, and she actually cared. His heart felt lighter. "Yes, good!" he said. "There are visitors at the summits if they have some vested interest in a topic under discussion, or if they are engaged in a lawsuit against someone in that division, or if they're going to marry someone in the division whose time it is to have a summit."
When Sookie smiled at him, he realized that he himself had been grinning broadly. Thinking only of the burden he would be putting on her, he hadn't even realized how Sookie might welcome this deeper understanding of his world. She had always seemed to find comfort and confidence in knowledge, rather than fearing it as some humans did. He should have done this a long time ago. Preaching to the choir, he heard Pam saying in his head.
"I understand," she said. She was leaning forward now, engaged. "So how come Felipe conquered Louisiana, since we're Amun and he's… ah, is Nevada in Narayana or Zeus?"
"Narayana," he replied. "He took Louisiana because he wasn't as frightened of Sophie-Anne as everyone else. He planned and executed quickly and with precision after the…" He paused. She wouldn't know the clan's Kshatriyas term. They had taken more than their name from Hinduism. "Governing… board… of Narayana Clan approved his plan." Close enough.
"He had to present a plan before he moved on us?" she asked. He liked that she said us.
"That's the way it's done. The kings and queens of Narayana wouldn't want their territory weakened if Felipe failed and Sophie-Anne managed to take Nevada, so he had to outline his plan."
Sookie frowned. "They didn't think we might want to say something about that plan?" Us. We. She was thinking like one of them… she was thinking like his wife.
"Not their concern," he said frankly. "If we're weak enough to be taken, then we are fair game. Sophie-Anne was a good leader and much respected. With her incapacitation, Felipe judged we were weak enough to attack. Stan's lieutenant in Texas has struggled these past few months since Stan was injured in Rhodes, and it's been hard for him to hold on to Texas."
"How would they know how hurt Sophie-Anne was, how hurt Stan is?" she asked.
"Spies. We all spy on each other."
"What if one of the rulers of Narayana had owed some favor to Sophie-Anne and decided to tip her off to the takeover?"
"I'm sure some of them considered it," he said, though he didn't add that it probably wouldn't have been to repay a favor – rather to have a queen in their debt. Unlike Sookie, most vampires were dark and self-serving at heart. Even himself. "But with Sophie-Anne so severely wounded," he continued, "I suppose they decided that the odds lay with Felipe."
"How do you trust anyone?" she asked, and it wasn't a rhetorical question.
"I don't. There are two exceptions: you and Pam."
He felt her pity before he saw it in her eyes. "Oh…" she murmured. "That's awful, Eric."
"Yes. It's not good." He wondered how long it would be before Sookie lost her ability to trust. In his world, it could not be long.
"Do you know who the spies in Area Five are?"
That required no thought. "Felicia, of course. She is weak, and it's not much of a secret that she must be in the pay of someone. Probably Stan in Texas or Freyda in Oklahoma."
"I don't know Freyda," Sookie said. "Is Texas in Zeus or Amun?"
He smiled broadly. He knew she was wondering why Stan would spy on him if Stan had been at the summit in Rhodes. "Zeus, but Stan had to be at the summit because he was proposing to go in with Mississippi on a resort development."
"He sure paid for that," she said grimly. "If they have spies, we have spies, too, right?"
Yes, my darling, we have spies. "Of course."
"Who? I'm not missing anyone…?"
"You met Rasul in New Orleans, I believe," he said. He knew that she had; Rasul had helped him rescue her from the Pelts.
She replied with a nod. "He survived the takeover."
"Yes, because he agreed to become a spy for Victor and therefore for Felipe. They sent him to Michigan."
"Michigan?" she repeated, looking baffled.
"There is a very large Arab enclave there, and Rasul fits in well," he explained. "He tells them he fled the takeover." He realized suddenly that not even Pam knew this. "You know, his life will be ended if you tell anyone this."
"Oh, duh," she said, rolling her eyes like a school child. He couldn't help smiling at the expression. "I'm not telling anyone any of this. For one thing, the fact that you-all named your little slices of America after gods is just…" She shook her head, returning his smile. "For another thing, I like Rasul. Why are you telling me all this all of a sudden?" she asked.
"I think you need to know what's going on around you, my lover." He admitted to her that Pam had wanted to tell her before, but that he had hesitated. "Pam reminded me that ignorance could get you killed," he said. He paused for a moment and took in her face. "I value you too much to let yours continue."
Her cheeks flushed, and she seemed lost for words. "Thanks. Um… okay… So the kings and queens of each state in a particular division get together to make decisions and bond… what, every two years?"
She sounded distracted, but her question was a good one. "Yes, unless there's some crisis that calls for an extra meeting," he said. "Each state is not a separate kingdom. For instance, there's a ruler of New York City and a ruler of the rest of the state. Florida is also divided."
"Why?" she asked, then answered her own question. "Oh, lots of tourists. Easy prey. High vampire population."
"California is in thirds," he said, listing the three kingdoms of that state. "On the other hand, North and South Dakota have become one kingdom since the population is so thin."
She nodded along. "How does the business of… well, of Amun, say… get conducted between those biennial meetings?" she asked.
"Message boards, mostly," he replied, and he didn't miss the little smile on her face at the idea of vampires conducting business in online forums. "If we have to have a face-to-face, committees of sheriffs meet, depending on the situation. If I had an argument with the vampire of another sheriff, I'd call that sheriff, and if he wasn't ready to give me satisfaction, his lieutenant would meet with my lieutenant."
"And if that didn't work?" She raised an eyebrow.
"We'd kick the dispute up the ladder to the summit. In between meeting years, there's an informal gathering with no ceremony or celebration."
"Okey dokey. Well, that was real interesting."
"You don't sound interested," he observed. "You sound irritated."
She raised her hand and made a great show of examining her fingernails. "This isn't what I expected when I found out you were sleeping in the house."
"What did you expect?" he asked. He already knew the answer from the desire he felt in her blood.
"I expected you'd come over here because you couldn't wait an extra minute to have fabulous, mind-blowing sex with me."
That had been half the reason, yes. He kept his expression serious. "I've told you things for your own good… however, now that that's done, I am as ready as ever to have sex with you," he said in a business-like way. "And I can certainly make it mind-blowing."
She smiled and pulled her lower lip between her teeth. "Then cut to the chase, honey."
He was naked and baring his fangs at her in two seconds. "Do I actually get to chase you?"
Sookie bolted from her chair, and he gave her a few seconds' head start before he raced after her. She squealed and giggled like a little girl when he caught her, at least until the happy sounds faded into even happier moans as he pinned her to the wall with his entire body and covered her mouth with his. Not breaking their kiss, he lifted her up and carried her to the bedroom, where he made quick work of her clothes.
"Anything particular in mind?" he asked as he loomed over her, running his hands down her sides to hold onto her hips and pull her close. He kissed her mouth and worked his way down her throat, moving one arm to support her as he curved her backwards.
"Just keep headin' where you're headed."
With a smile, he lowered her to rest on the bed, and he joined her, resuming his lips' path down her body. He stopped at her belly button, ignored her sound of protest, and returned to her mouth. "Touch me where you want me to kiss you," he said.
Her breath caught in her throat, and he could feel her flesh rise into goosebumps where her skin touched his. "Can I touch you wherever I want?" He was too hazy with lust to do anything more than nod. She kissed him slowly, sliding her tongue between his fangs, pressing her palm against his chest. She lay back against the pillows and rolled his nipple between her fingers, her eyes on his.
He dipped his head to her breast and kissed the nipple as if it were her mouth, caressing it with his tongue, nipping it gently with his teeth before he pulled away. Sookie laid her fingertips on his lips, and he returned to her mouth. He kissed her until he felt her hand at his elbow. Smiling, he kissed it, and Sookie laughed. Then she trailed her fingers across her collarbone. She gave a happy sigh as he placed light kisses along the same path. Again she directed him to her mouth, and she kept him there for some time. He had no complaints.
"I have an idea," she said at length. "How about you kiss me wherever you want to kiss me?"
He pressed his lips to hers briefly. "I think you know exactly where I want to put my mouth next."
Sookie blushed, but her eyes were dark. "Then do it." He did. "Oh!" she gasped. "Yes… Oh, Eric…"
When she had reached the edge and fallen over it, crying out his name the whole way, he sat back and pulled her into his lap. She draped her arms over his shoulders and lowered herself onto him slightly.
"Sookie," he said, his voice little more than a rasp.
She kissed him as she took him the rest of the way in, then pulled back to look at him before she moved. "It means a lot that you trust me," she said.
"I wouldn't have bonded with you in Rhodes if I didn't. I wouldn't have married you."
She began to move at last, bracing herself on his shoulders as she rocked against him. "Eric," she said as she brushed her lips over his. "I love you."
His release flooded through him before his brain could realize what had happened. He looked at Sookie, dumbfounded. "That," he said, still reeling, "has never happened before. I am sorry."
But she was glowing. "Don't be. That was better than any orgasm would've been."
"I don't know if I should be relieved or insulted," he replied with a grin.
"If it wounds your pride that much, you can make it up to me later."
They stretched out in the bed, he propped on his elbow with one arm beneath her head, she flat on her back, nestled close to him. He rubbed her stomach absently as they lay in silence for a little while.
"You are quiet," he observed.
"So are you." She laid her hand over his. "I feel fat when you do that… see how it's like rubbing your hand over a little hill?"
He looked down at her stomach and laughed at her silliness. "Who wants a bag of bones? I don't want to hurt myself on the sharp edges of the woman I'm bedding." He resumed the movements of his hand.
"Did women…" Sookie began. Her cheeks flushed a little. "Were women curvier when you were human?"
He gave her a wry smile. "We didn't always have choices about how fat we were. In bad years, we were all skin and bones. In good years, when we could eat, we did."
"Oh… sorry," she said.
She didn't have to apologize for her curiosity. He kissed her forehead. "This is a wonderful century to live in," he told her. "You can have food any time you want."
"If you have the money to pay for it," she said.
This he shrugged off. "Oh, you can steal it. The point is, the food is here to be had."
"Not in Africa." Her hand had moved up to his forearm, and her fingertips moved absently over his skin.
"I know people still starve in many parts of the world," he conceded. "But sooner or later, this prosperity will extend everywhere. It just got here first."
"You really think so?"
He had seen it happen. "Yes," he said. It struck him that Sookie would not live long enough to see this happen. This was a line of thought he did not want to pursue. He sat up suddenly. "Braid my hair for me, would you, Sookie?" he asked. Sookie had done that once or twice at his house, and it would be a welcome distraction.
He went to her vanity and sat on the round stool, hunching slightly so that he could see the top of his head in the small mirror. To his disappointment, Sookie would not be working naked; she had shrugged on a pretty silk robe – a gift from him, actually. She tied it loosely, so that the top fell low to reveal the delicious curves of her breasts. Perhaps the robe wasn't such a bad thing.
She brushed his hair back from his forehead, taking care with the tangles that had resulted from their love-making. She gathered all his hair in her hand and looked at him in the mirror. "Do you care if I use gel to make it neater?" she asked.
"Go ahead," he said.
He watched her in the mirror as she braided, her forehead crinkled with concentration, her fingers working quickly and neatly. He loved the slide of the silk robe over her breasts. When she was finished, she looked at him again and sighed.
"What is this sound coming from you?" He studied himself in the mirror, but nothing looked amiss. "Are you not happy with the result?"
She smiled. "I think you look great."
He reached up behind him to finger her hair, which was quite messy. And he had enjoyed getting it that way. "Now I'll do your hair," he said. He reached for the brush.
"No, thanks!" she said, her voice suddenly sharp as she recoiled from him. Her face had broken into that fake, nervous smile that he knew all too well.
He spun around on the stool. "What's making you so jumpy, Sookie?"
"Hey! What happened to Alaska and Hawaii?" Still the disturbing smile. She dropped the brush.
His eyes followed it as it hit the floor and wobbled back and forth, and he looked back up at her. "What?"
"What section are they in?" She pulled the robe more tightly around herself and crossed her arms. Her eyes looked distracted and almost wild. "They both in Nakamura?"
He frowned. "Narayana. No. Alaska is lumped in with the Canadians. They have their own system. Hawaii is autonomous." If there even were vampires left there, which he doubted.
"That's just not right," she said, shaking her head. "I guess Heidi reported back to you after she sniffed out my land? She told you about the body?"
Had she lost her mind? She was flitting from subject to subject like a hyperactive child, and her whole body seemed to vibrate with nervous energy. "We already talked about Debbie Pelt," he said slowly. "If you really want me to, I'll move her." She opened her mouth, then closed it again. "You're behaving very strangely, Sookie."
"Do you think Alcide could tell from the smell that the corpse was Debbie?"
"Not from the scene. A body is a body. It doesn't retain the distinctive scent that identified it as a particular person, especially after this long." He watched her curiously. "Are you so worried about what Alcide thinks?"
She laughed – an unpleasant, unfamiliar laugh. "Not as much as I used to be. Hey! I heard on the radio today that one of the senators from Oklahoma came out as a Were! He said he'd register with some government bureau the day they pried his fangs from his cold, dead corpse." She laughed again.
He replied with some nonsense about the government, Weres, and vampires. He tried to remember if Dr. Ludwig was available that week.
"You better get dressed," she told him.
He swung the stool around again and frowned into the mirror. "All right." Behind him, Sookie was rolling her hand, telling him to hurry.
It took him only a second to go to the kitchen, retrieve his clothes, and return with them to the bedroom. He feared what Sookie might do if she was alone even that long. He pulled on his pants and reached for his shirt only a moment before Sookie collapsed near the foot of her bed, her head in her hands.
Fuck. He knelt beside her and reached for her. "Can you tell me what's wrong?" Had she been poisoned? Had the fairy done it? Perhaps Hadley's man… what was his name?
"Someone's… coming," she managed to whisper. "I feel so strange. Someone's coming." Her eyes were wide now, her face manic. "Almost here… someone with your blood."
He felt it, then. Something – someone – he would have felt instantly if his blood and his mind weren't so full of Sookie. He jumped up and growled, for there, standing just outside Sookie's bedroom window, was his maker.
