Chapter 15: The Lovers

Nora was dreading tonight's Authority meeting. She squirmed on her seat, hoping it would be over soon before the topic of her traitorous brother and the bitch witch came up. Chancellor Kibwe was going on and on, ranting about how slowly the AVL was moving on getting the Vampire Rights Amended passed. Steve Newlin knew how to play dumb really well, and deflected all blame.

"I'm under a lot of pressure right now!" He squealed like a little pig. "Humans being back on the menu and all, they are hard-pressed on givin' us anything!"

Like it mattered. Vampires weren't created to abide by human rules, they were here to fucking rule the earth, one bite at the time. All men on the table, with the exception of Bill Compton, failed to see the big picture. It bored her to death. But at the same time, her plans didn't progress as fast as she wanted. She wanted the world to change faster. Vampires everywhere were ecstatic and instantly on board with ditching Tru Blood for the real thing. But not many seemed interested in the Goddess who gave them the right in the first place. Nora wanted to glance at Salome's face to try to read what she was thinking, but she was too scared to make eye contact.

Suddenly the conference room's door opened and in walked a tall man with bright white hair and a military suit. The room fell silent.

"General Cavanaugh," Salome greeted in her usual warm voice. She stood up to greet him, and so all the other Chancellors stood too. The men had a stern look on his face but shook her hand firmly. "What a surprise! So nice to see you again."

She motioned for the man to sit. All the Chancellors complied, but the General stood stiff.

"Cut the crap Chancellor," Woah. "Where's Roman?"

All the Chancellors quickly glanced at each other before, trying to hide their smirks. Salome however, looked very uncomfortable.

"Unfortunately the Guardian is unavailable right now," Bill explained, trying not to smile.

"And who the fuck are you?" The General asked drily.

"General, this is Chancellor Compton," Salome introduced him, ignoring the man's rudeness. "He's new."

The man frowned and carried on unceremoniously. "Well it's a shitstorm out there and Roman has been ducking my calls. Now I demand to know what's going on."

This man rubbed Nora in all the wrong ways. The blatant disrespect. "Well, you are not in the position to be making demands."

"Oh, I see," the General chuckled. "And who the fuck do you think I am, young lady?"

"General Cavanaugh, we deeply regret that Roman is not here, but is there anything we can do to help you?" Salome asked, insisting on the diplomatic approach.

The general opened his briefcase with a loud click and pulled out a stack of papers. He tossed it on the table, and the documents slid right down the middle.

"We know you bombed the Tru Blood factories,"

"That is absurd!" Whined Rosalyn. "Those factories were bombed by terrorists!"

"Don't bullshit a bullshitter, Rosalyn," the General quickly barked back. Rosalyn pursed her lips and glared at the General with a cold smoulder. "The U.S. government and the Authority have an arrangement, and the arrangement is called mainstreaming. If you don't fuck with us, we don't fuck with you. Now, I've been working with Roman to protect this Authority for 20 years, but this time you have gone too far. There are high-level talks on the Pentagon right now on how to eradicate all vampires from the face of the planet," A bluff, if I ever heard one, Nora thought. "So I need to speak with Roman."

The room fell silent again, and all Chancellors glanced at each other. This time, Nora looked at Salome, who looked like she was about to throw up.

"Roman is no longer with us," said Bill with a shy smirk. Salome's shoulders lightened with relief.

"How?" The General asked.

"He couldn't get with the program, so he had to go," Nora told him. This was it. This was the leap she was waiting for. Why worry so much about the slow social change? Just right in front of the lion, and roar at him yourself. Make the lion tremble. "This is a Sanguinist regime now. Lilith has guided us to our rightful place and there we should lead all vampire kind,"

The General looked confused, which delighted Nora very much. Ah, to see the fear in a human's eyes. Tremble little lion, tremble.

"I suggest being very careful with what words you choose next," Salome warned him.

He just shook his head in disappointment. "You psychotic bloodsuckers…. Roman was the only one keeping a lid on this, the only one keeping the world from sliding back into the dark ages -"

"Roman was an infidel," Kibwe snarled. "Who defied the word of Lilith."

"You strike me as a man of integrity General Cavanaugh," Bill said standing up. "Also a pragmatist. Now, this is the situation we find ourselves in: you can join us, or not. But I sincerely hope you choose the path forward. "

The General let out a big sigh. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a USB pen. "We have footage of Russell Edgington along with all of you, the Authority Chancellors, eviscerating 14 humans at a bachelorette party in a bar on Bourbon Street." Oh. Shit. "There are copies of this," he tossed the little USB on the table. "If anything happens to me, this will be released to the public."

No one spoke. The situation was getting dire, quickly. Russell Edgington was just the gift that kept on fucking giving.

"You assured the world, you assured the president that Russell Edgington was dead and you lied," Her heart sank. Of all the ways the topic of Eric could have come up, this was by far the worse way. "So if this video goes online it will go viral, and humans will rise up faster against you than you can say molotov cocktail. And I can assure you, that we will let them."

"Your threats are empty General," Nora replied loudly.

"Are you really that stupid?" He retorted. Did this human have a death wish? "We are prepared. You don't think we've been planning for this? We have weapons against vampires you have never heard of! We have built underground silver-lined prisons, there are more R&D facilities out here than I can count. The U.S government has never spared a dime when it comes to hunting supernaturals. Have you heard of witches? No? You are welcome."

Well, actually...

"We own the day, and you lot don't stand a fucking chance," The General continued with fervour. "Now, there's only one person standing between your annihilation as a species and survival - and you're looking at him. So I suggest being very careful with the words you say next."

Silence fell on the room again. Nora looked right at Salome, but she didn't move. She just looked down at her own hands. Do something. Say something.

"Yeah," The General said, closing his briefcase. "That's what I thought."

The tall man then marched to the front doors. Nora heard quick steps and saw a blur past her shoulder. Bill Compton had intercepted the General by the door.

"Oh, God!" The General gasped, startled at seeing Bill's fangs so close.

"God is a vampire," Bill said, as he broke the General's neck.


Eric looked at his bloody hand, admiring the crimson viscous remains of Russell's heart in his palm.

"Tell me what?" She asked again.

When his eyes met hers, she felt a shiver in her spine. "How did you do that?" He asked.

They stood there in silence. An ocean of secrets between them. Pam rushed to her maker and stared at the puddle on the floor. She spat on it.

"Good fuckin' riddance."

"Go back inside Pam and heal Sookie, I have to speak with Raven."

Pam's face went instantly sour with disappointment. Raven could tell Pam was getting tired of Eric ditching her for Raven, but for whatever reason, the tall blonde didn't protest. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched her coven drag Sookie inside. She glanced at them, but she knew they knew what to do. Jesus nodded, affirming they had it under control.

"That won't be necessary. Jesus brews a potent healing potion. It will be ready before she wakes up from the sleeping spell I put her under,"

A moment later, they were alone in the field. A cold breeze made waves on the grass. The dirt had already absorbed half of the remains of Russell Edgington. When immortals died, it was not glamorous at all.

"This necklace," Eric began.

"Has a necromancer soul gem in it," Raven confessed. "I believed I used most of it. Not sure how much power is left,"

"And you had this power this entire time?" He confronted her.

"No," she felt her face get hot. "I created this amulet when I killed Marnie. I didn't send her and Antonia to purgatory. I don't even know if it's possible. And if it is, I don't know how to do it. But I knew I couldn't let their souls roam around freely. There isn't a shortage of people with a grudge against vampires who are dumb enough to listen to them. So I trapped their souls," Eric didn't say anything, his eyes just studied her close. "I wasn't even sure it would work, to be honest. I believe humans call it a Hail Mary,"

"You lied to me?" He interrupted, frowning, his blues eyes making her whole body flush with heat. The words cut her like a knife. She cared that it hurt him. But it also angered her - he wasn't so straightforward with her either. "You stood in your kitchen and straight-up lied to my face?"

"Yes, and you? Have you lied to me, Eric?" Suddenly he couldn't look at her anymore. "What was Russell talking about?" This time she got closer to him, chasing his gaze, her chest pressing against his. "Tell me!"

"It doesn't matter, it's in the past," he muttered.

Then she knew it did matter. Eric was not one to spare feelings, so whatever he wasn't telling her must be earth-fucking-shattering.

"Oh, but I think it does!" More silence. They were so close, but so far away from each other. "When we were at your apartment you told me you weren't going to repeat Bill's mistake with Sookie, and that you were going to tell me the truth,"

"So it's just you who holds the monopoly on lying then?"

"I lied, but for a damn good reason."

"Enlighten me, witch."

Raven took a big breath and two steps back. It was time to say some very uncomfortable and repressed things out loud. "At first I was afraid you would hunt me," Eric didn't move, or even blink, so she continued. "That Bill would make you kill me because of it, or worse, make me control vampires for him,"

"I would never have told him, Raven!" Eric protested.

"I know that now," she smiled, touching his face, wiping some blood off his jaw. "But really, I was afraid you would run from me. If I told you I had this power you would run so fast the Earth would spin the other way. And I could go on, and spend the rest of my life trying to convince myself you mean nothing to me, but… I can't."

Eric didn't move an inch, he just kept looking in her eyes with the same frown as before. But Raven had opened Pandora's box. There was no turning back now. "I don't know what it is about you. I should absolutely hate you, you know? I'm a witch, and you are a vampire. I should hate everything you stand for, your very presence, your cold touch on my skin should disgust me, but I… I crave it. I've craved you since the second I first saw you on my porch. And I've been fighting this thing, every time I see you. Or every time I catch myself wanting to see you. When you stopped coming I thought 'you know what, you'll forget about him in a year. It's fine'. Then I saw you inside Marnie's store and I packed everything so fucking fast, I just knew I had to come here. Which I should have never done in the first place! Any sane person would have picked a different coven. My father gave me a list of powerful covens in much nicer places, but I feel the… Thing. I feel it every time I see you, every time you walk into the same room. Since you walked into my life it's like destiny has chained me to you, and the chain gets shorter every day. I've let you into my house, into my bed, into my dreams, I shared my blood with you not once, but twice. And every time I lost you, it hurt... So fucking much. But even after that, I still feel the thing. I still crave you. I looked for you in my bed this morning, for Satan's sake," She took a deep breath, every part of her body burned hot. "So no, Eric, I couldn't just have told you I made necromancer amulet. If I told you and you left, I know this thing, this-"

"Pull," he told her with the same blank expression. "Like a magnet. If I lost you, the feeling would stop. And I don't want it to stop."

He felt it too.

The next moment, the world had stopped. His hands pulled her close, his lips were on hers. She felt this ethereal lightness in her heart as her body melted in his embrace. Raven could finally stop craving Eric and just have him. Raven could just give in the part of her that craves him. She kissed him back, and soon his tongue was in synchrony with hers. She felt a rush of air and suddenly the moonlight dimmed. He had picked her up and moved her into the forest, away from the view of the house. Her back was against a wide ancient tree with smooth bark. Her legs wrapped around his hips at once. She knew this dance. His right arm wrapped around her waist lifting her already short dress, his left trailed the back of her neck, holding her so still and so close.

She felt the pull calling to her on every part of her body. Like they were always meant to be one, and being apart was chaos. Deeply, with long and slow thrusts, he pressed himself hard against her hips, making her vision go white with pleasure. Her hands lied flat against his sculpted chest. Riding closer to climax, nothing had ever felt so right, or so good. She never wanted this to stop. Eric's nose brushed against her, and he didn't stop kissing her lips or her neck, not even for a second. Raven could just surrender, finally. She could just stop living in suffering, and just be in bliss instead. She had enough, dues were paid, sins were punished. She deserved to be happy for once. Eric quickly unbuckled his pants and slid himself right into her. She moaned loudly If she could live forever in this moment, she would.

A thought passed through her mind, that took over her very soul. It filled her with joy and hope. She knew what she was about to do was crazy, but it felt like the only right in her activated her Punctum ring and her index nail turned sharp and long.

"Eric Northman," she whispered in his ear. "I vow myself to you,"

She dragged the tip of her nail just below her left clavicle, marking an X that quickly bled down her breast.

"Raven Blackwood," he smiled, revealing his pointy fangs. "You want me to bite you?"

She laughed and told him. "Yes," she wasn't going to bleed in vain.

"Beg," he whispered dangerously in her ear, threatening to drown her in pleasure.

"Bite me, Eric," she asked a second time.

He then pulled her away from the three and laid her down on the soft grass. He proceeded to fuck her even deeper, making her body's pleasure rise like a tidal wave so big it was overwhelming.

"Bite me, Eric, bite -" just the thought of it didn't let her even finish the sentence.

The second she came, he sank his teeth on her neck and took in her blood in his mouth. He drank deeply while her body tightened around him. Soon he finished too, letting his body relax on top of hers. Her fingers gently ran up and down his bareback. She could feel soft scars on his skin she never had noticed before. Scars from a millennia ago, from when he was human. The moonlight peeked through the leaves above them, making a dancing show of lights down the meadow around them.

He raised his head, letting it rest on her perched elbow. They just lied there in silence for a moment, looking at each other. He gently moved some of her hair from her face and ran his fingers through her hair. It was the loveliest dream, but she had to wake up from it.

"Eric," she whispered. "What aren't you telling me?"

Eric rolled off of her, and sat up beside her, elbows resting on his knees. "Raven, you helped me avenge my family and I will always be grateful for it. And I'd love to tell you I've finally set the cosmic scales back, or that I got justice, found peace or closure or whatever it is I was supposed to find, but I didn't. I never will." He looked at her with pain in his eyes. "I'm glad Russell is dead because the son of a bitch just causes too much trouble. But it ends there, the pain we carry we carry it forever."

"What are you saying?"

"I was so focused seeking revenge that it almost killed me and everyone around me, Raven. And I don't think it was worth it. Things would have been so different if I had true deathed Russell the first time around. Or even better, not have tried at all. In another life, I would have had you on Halloween night, and every night since would have been just like this. The Authority would have never came -"

"I literally don't follow-"

"It wasn't Damien Williams who sentenced your family to death. It was Salome Agrippa."


A.N.: I loved writing this chapter so much! Creative juices are FLOWING lately if only I had the time to write and edit

Also, that scene with the General was just *chef's kiss* so fucking good I couldn't NOT include it.

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