This is the last one before the final chapter. The final chapter should be posted in an hour or so from now.
Charlaine Harris owns the characters and whatnot.
Snoogans!
"Drink Sookie." I heard Pam say.
"I don't want to turn." I said.
"I will make sure you don't, but if you don't drink, you will die." she said, and shoved her wrist to my mouth. I took a little before her wound closed, and she opened it again for me. I drank a little more, and I didn't feel like I was going to pass out anymore. She sat me down on the ground, and I laid all the way down. I looked to my left and saw Victors body starting to ash away. There was a tree branch sticking out of his back. I looked the other way, and Pam was trying to figure out how to free Eric. She left for a moment, and then came back with a piece of metal, and I'm not sure where she got it from, but she used it to smash the lock, and Eric pulled the chains from his neck.
He came over to me and picked me up, and I winced at the pain in my chest when he did.
"She'll live." Pam told Eric.
"Thank you." he told Pam.
"She saved my life twice. I owed her." she said a little smug. I giggled, and then instantly regretted it.
"What about the other vampires." I asked, realizing Victor had brought five others with him.
"They are dead." Pam said. Eric smiled at her. "We need to get her to Ludwig, or a hospital."
"Call Ludwig, have her meet us at the bar." Eric said to her. "Sookie…" he said to me, and I put my face to his chest as he started walking back towards the road.
I passed out from the pain before we got to the bar, but I woke up when Ludwig was bandaging up my ribcage. I let out a little scream from the pain, and then felt a bit better once it was secure around me.
"Give her some of your blood, it'll help. I'll leave my bill." Dr. Ludwig said, and then she left. I was in Eric's office, on the couch. I reached up to touch my face, but Eric took my hand to stop me.
"Don't, there's stitches." he said, and I lowered my hand back down.
"Are you alright?" I said, and could see the burn marks around his neck healing.
"I will be fine. And so will you in a week or so." he said, and then bit his wrist, and I drank a little more.
"Your car's wrecked." I said.
Eric gave me a little of a puzzled look, and then smiled. "It's replaceable."
"You're going to be married soon. You should replace it with something sensible; like a mini-van." I said, and Eric laughed.
Pam came into the office then, and I looked up and smiled at her. "Thanks Pam." I said.
She winked at me, and then looked at Eric. "My car is outside. Here are the keys." she said to him, and tossed them to him, then left. Eric lifted me off the couch, and then we headed out to the car. Pam locked up the bar, and then followed us to her car.
"I'll be at Sookies." he said to Pam, and sat me in the car, and buckled me in, and shut the door.
They stood outside and talked for a moment, and then Pam came around to my door and opened it up. She kissed me on the cheek. "Good night Sookie. Feel well soon." she said, and I thanked her again before she shut the door and Eric got in the car.
"Have you told Felipe yet?" I asked.
"I'm going to call him once I get you into bed." Eric said as we pulled out of the parking lot and headed back to my place. "You were very brave tonight Sookie. I'm proud of you." he said, keeping his eyes on the road.
"Thanks. Are you sure you're alright?" I asked.
Eric looked over at me and smiled. "I'm fine. Pam gave me some of her blood. It's helping."
We were silent for a while. Eric was driving more cautious that I had ever seen him drive before. "As soon as I'm better, I want to bond, and I want to pledge." I said.
"Are you sure?" he asked. I shook my head yes.
"Do you want to?"
"Yes." he said, and smiled at me.
Once we were back at my house, Eric carried me inside, and then laid in bed next to me, and started making calls. He called Felipe first to tell him about what happened, and then he called Quinn to tell him his services were no longer needed. After he was done, I begged him to let me take a bath or a shower or something, because I felt disgusting. He finally gave in, and helped me into the bathroom, and out of my clothes and the bandage Ludwig had wrapped around me ribcage, and into the shower.
Eric gently washed me, and let me hang on to him to support myself, although he really was doing most of the supporting. While he was helping me rinse off I started to cry, and he held me for a while under the hot water while I let the events of the evening go through my tears.
"How did Pam know where to find us?" I asked once we were settled back in my bed. Eric had wrapped the bandage back around my ribs and then into a nightshirt.
"I called for her." he said.
It took me a moment to realize that he didn't mean he called her with his cell. "Why didn't you do that before?" I asked.
"Before?"
"When Victor took you from the cabin. Why didn't you do that before? Or did you?"
"I didn't. Victor was keeping me alive at least until he got you. I figured you weren't going to run like I asked you to, so I decided that having her there to watch you was better than having her risk herself in trying to get to me."
"But she could have set you free."
"You saw the crypt Sookie. She would have never have been able to sneak in there undetected. Even if she brought others with her, it would have been difficult. I didn't want to call her to her death. She's my child."
"Why did you call her tonight then?"
"She wasn't supposed to come alone. She knew we were coming to the bar. When I called for her, I expected her to bring assistance. The odds were in her favor tonight however. We were out in the open, Victor was preoccupied, and I could tell she could easily take the vampires he brought with him. Thankfully for us and for Pam, Victor was very preoccupied. She was able to take him by surprise. But Pam is a good fighter, I didn't doubt tonight that she would be victorious."
"So if we're married, and Pam's your child, does that make me her step mom?" I asked, trying to change the subject. I was tired of talking about tonight. I had brought it up, but I decided it was enough.
Eric laughed hard. I don't think I had ever seen him laugh that hard before. "I'll let you tell her that. She'll love it." he said, and gently hugged me to him, and kissed my forehead.
"Eric?"
"Yes my love?"
"Tell me about bonding." I asked.
"You should sleep. I can tell you tomorrow night." he said.
"I'm not tired. Tell me, please?"
He sat up in bed a little, and I rested my head on his stomach. "Well, the name describes it best. We would be bonded. Together. Like being one, but separate. I would feel what you are feeling, and vice versa. But your feelings would still be your own and my feelings would still be my own."
"Would it affect how I feel? Like influence my feelings?"
"Not exactly. If I could tell that you were sad for example, I could, how can I put this, 'send you' I think would describe it best, I could send to you love or comfort to try to help you fell better. You would still have your own feeling of sadness, but you would feel my comfort for you."
"Like if I needed a hug, and you hugged me, and it made me feel better. But you would do that through the bond?"
Eric smiled. "Yes, like that."
"You did that before didn't you." I said.
"A few times, yes. When you saw me at the bar once, you were upset, and I tried to make you feel better. When you had been taken by the those fucking fairies, I tried to help you be strong and brave."
"I didn't realize that was how it worked. I thought it was fake, what I was feeling. Like I was just feeling what you wanted me to feel. Like the bond was forcing me to feel connected to you in a way. But maybe that was me being a little stubborn about it too."
"Yes, but if you don't understand how it works, or what you are feeling coming through, it would also be confusing. It will take a little getting used to, to be able to sort your feelings out clearly from mine. But you can practice this in the beginning so that when our bond becomes stronger, you will be more adept at using the bond."
"Using it how?"
"It's not just me who can project my feelings or an emotion on to you, like I said before. It works both ways."
"Oh, so like, if I want to jump you, I could tell you without having to say it out loud?"
Eric laughed. "Yes. Exactly, I would feel that you wanted to 'jump me', but you could also push that through the bond, so that I felt it stronger."
"Nice." I said, and made a mental note to try that when it was an inopportune moment for him.
"Do you have any questions?" he asked.
"I don't think so. Tell me about pledging now."
"That is more of a ritual. Similar to a marriage among humans. It would simply mean that we are married. You would belong to me, and I would belong to you, like a husband and wife belong to each other. But since this is a vampire custom, it's a bit stricter than a marriage is now. No one would be able to touch you, and no one would be able to touch me. If they did, harming one of us, or making an unwelcome advance, they could be punished by us."
"Got it."
"No further questions?"
"Not that I can think of now."
"Good. Then it's time for you to sleep. I will see you tomorrow night." he said, and lowered back down in bed next to me, kissed me on my forehead, and sleep found me shortly after.
