It was awkward. And gratifying.

Though, Alia told herself that Eric visited her or called everyday because he felt responsible (indeed, the accident had happened when she was working for him) or because she was an asset and he wanted to verify her proper recovering.

It was almost a week she was back home. Diantha mentioned that Eric had watched over her for three nights after the attempt, giving her blood and assistance. Alia was unconscious all that time, she did not even remember to have drank his blood. But it was normal. The way fairy healed themselves was different from vampires: they slept during the most delicate part of the healing, their mind needing that hiatus to focus on repairing tissues and restore function and harmony to the entire body. Physical closeness was another key part of the healing. Closeness of family, of friends, of lovers. Diantha told her that Eric had been at her bedside the all time, but did not specify if he was just sitting near or on the bed with her. Alia did not ask for details. She feared to know.

Now she felt incredibly well, better than ever indeed. Her body had regained its vigour and more, without showing scars or impaired functionality in any sense. Probably, Eric's blood had done its magic and the effect was greater because she was fae now. Whatever. And they were even. He had caused the accident and he had healed her.

The accident.

It had been a deliberate attempt to her life. How stupid of her: a telepath hired to discover secret plots, useful commercial information, hostile attitudes who could not even protect herself. She had been so engrossed in her cogitation that she had not paid attention to the surroundings.

Now that she thought about it without being clouded by pain or emotion she reminded the maid, her wild eyed demeanour, her mechanic movements, her stare into the void. A sort of glamour. Deep but clumsy, as it was too evident. She had to question the woman and see if she could find anything. And then she realised suddenly that she had not seen the woman before, she was not among the humans she had read the first day in Cat Island. Or after. Somehow she had avoided detection.

A gentle knock at the French window of her bedroom made her turn toward the terrace, and she saw him. A sudden cramp in her chest or stomach, she could not tell, clouded her sight. His middle length hair ruffled by the evening breeze, his sportswear hugging his long body, he waited to be ushered inside with a distant smile. It reminded Alia of the many times he had come to her house in Bon Temps to spend the night with her.

"I didn't expect you," Alia said opening the door.

"Yesterday night you told me you felt very good," Eric said coming inside, "and I wanted to see it myself, and to explain everything to you."

Alia nodded and blushed. "Diantha told me."

"And I wanted to tell you myself," he stated searching her eyes for anger or annoyance. He found an unusual shyness complemented with the reddening of her face and neck.

"Thank you." It was a whisper but Alia knew he had heard it perfectly.

"Why? You know I'd do anything for you." The words were out of his mouth before he could check and edit them, but he felt the truth in them. It was like always with her, he could not help it.

"…anything?"

It was a moment and Eric noticed a shift in her attitude, his blood in her told him the placid docility was retreating and something else was surging in its place.

"Anything?" Alia repeated with an ominous tone.

Eric knew better than replying to the rhetoric question and the nuances implied, but he could not really place the source nor the end of them.

"You'd do anything for me, eh?" Now her voice was high pitched and definitely angry. "Anything but staying with me! Anything but keeping your promises. Anything!"

Eric was overwhelmed by her resentment. The force of her words pushing on him as a solid wall. And then Alia lost control of her mind and body, completely.

"You left me, Eric. You left me and went to Oklahoma. You told me she wouldn't have won, but you cut me out from your life with a single sentence: this is yours no more. Do you remember? Sure you remember, your fucking perfect memory will have put it in a dumpster at the bottom of your head. You rejected me, threw me away as a useless rag-doll. This is yours no more. Why did you give me your blood now? Why?"

Eric stood frozen in the middle of the room.

"Why? Oh, yes. The fucking contract. Not because Freyda was rich and powerful, or annoyingly beautiful. No, a fucking contract signed by a dead vampire. So strong to force you to dump me, your stubborn and whiny human wife. Maybe you could have kept me as a whore, remember? But, at the end, it was better to disappear and leave me back, someone else would have picked up the pieces, eh? Yes, you even asked Sam to stay away from me, knowing perfectly he would have done exactly the contrary. But who cared? You had your fucking long life ahead of you to find other humans to please you, why stick with the ageing boring human?"

Alia's yells pierced his ears, as the objects she was throwing at him. It was not the negligible impact of a lamp, a vase, a glass or whatever she found around her, it was the feeling attached to the action. It was forceful of a strength gathered in years of pain and Eric felt the full blow of it.

"You went ahead to your fucking life in Oklahoma and didn't care about my desperation, my pitiful depression, my lonely life without anything to live for. Oh, yes, you told me that this is what has to be done, how stupid of me to believe that you would have fought for me, for us. There was never us, just your fucking contract. I was in pain, you left me with nothing, but that was what it had to be done, right? It was in the best interest of who? Ah, yes, you left me with a watchdog, and she really helped me, but that was an unexpected by-product, right?"

Alia was crying now and her red eyes did not leave Eric's face for a second.

"Emptiness, Eric, that's what you left me with, plenty of nothing and fucking hollow words. You may not be my wife in name, but you are in my heart. So touching! But where was your heart when I wanted to die, why didn't I feel it anywhere near me? Oh, you also told me not to pay attention to what happened, right? It really helped! You kicked me out of your life but I had to ignore it, uh? Everything was for the best, you went to Oklahoma and nothing else mattered… You destroyed my life, but it was for the best, uh? You should have killed me straightforwardly, it would have been more honest and better, really. Much better than the slow death you left me with…"

Alia crouched down on the floor and her slim frame quivered under bouts of different feelings. Despair, resentment, betrayal, emptiness. All rolled one upon the other and over Eric like a toxic black tide.

Eric kneeled down and reached out. "Sookie…"

Alia lifted the head, her face hard. "Don't touch me, don't dare."

And then Eric smelled her scent. It was not the sweet intoxicating bouquet she had exuded a few days earlier. It was the strong, pungent perfume of a fairy ready to fight, the aroma that pervaded the battlefields and drove vampires mad and incoherent with blood lust.

Eric recoiled and called all his strength to get out of the room closing the French window behind him. He breathed deeply in the black night and looked for his tablet, fumbling to find the number he needed.

Alia opened her eyes and a black warmness enveloped her.

Where. What. How. Not exactly questions but more than ideas. A form of curiosity. Then everything came back to her and she remembered. An invisible hand clenched her guts as to extract all the juice and she felt ashamed.

"I can't wait around for you, fae!"

Alia turned and a known face peeped into a cone of light at her side. A time battered expression of concern and amusement.

"So, you're a full fae, now. Odd… you've always been… an interesting creature." Amy Ludwig narrowed her little eyes and hovered over Alia. "How's your head now?"

Alia raised on her elbows and winced. "It feels like a ball of lead… spinning on several axes at the same time."

Ludwig's laugh was scratchy. "Good. Too much tension. Too much strength. Too much other things. Now, rest."

"… Eric?" Alia whispered blushing.

"Your vampire is out there, as hopeful as a whore in a church."

"He's not my vampire," said Alia, her voice thin.

"Mmm, then how is it that your blood has more of his dna than his own?" The diminutive creature rummaged in a doctor's bag as if fishing for something.

"I've been injured a few days ago and he… he… gave me—"

"Mmm, that old bastard doesn't give his blood lightly. You said injured? I didn't see any… evidence."

"I healed."

"And he, the not-your-vampire, pays me handsomely for my time," the doctor chuckled showing crooked yellow teeth.

"What… what happened?" Alia finally asked.

"I already told you. Too much tension all at once. Your little heart skipped a few beats and you fainted. Your scent had a spike, dangerous with a vampire around, you should pay more attention. Northman is old, that's why he could resist."

"I always mask my scent," countered Alia, "I don't know how—"

"Too much pressure in your little head," another eerie giggle, "you freaked out and forgot to hold off your smell."

Alia nodded and took the vial with a few pills the doctor was handing her.

"Put under your tongue if the tension comes back," Ludwig finished packing her tools. "I've already given you one, I don't think you need more. Just in case. May I let him in?"

"Uh?"

"The not-your-vampire," Ludwig nodded toward the door. "He's quite a pain in the back, and an unsettled vampire is not someone I'd like to stay around."

Alia panicked. "What am I supposed—"

"I'm not a couple counsellor, fae," the doctor turned and walked to the door.

The tall figure of the vampire towered over the doctor. "Thank you, Ludwig. Send your invoice to my secretary."

Then they were alone. Again.

He strode across the room and crouched at her side.

She sat leaning against the headboard of her large bed. It felt awkward to have him in her bedroom, and the shame for what had transpired before gripped her throat.

"Sorry," she whispered, more a breath than an articulated sound. "I shouldn't have lashed out at you."

He shrugged. "How are you now?" His voice was measured.

"Fine. I'm sorry. Really," Alia started weeping silently. "It's the past, it shouldn't bother any more. I feel ashamed and promise it won't happen again."

Eric wiped her cheeks. "It's my past, too. And neither I feel well about it."

Alia kept weeping, calmly. "Sorry. This weeping is nothing, just… I can't stop it, but it's all right."

"Would you listen?"

She watched Eric's face and nodded, not understanding what he meant.

"All I told you then it's true. I told you that not matter what happened in public you shouldn't have doubted my love for you and my determination to protect your welfare as much as I was able in those circumstances. And I did it as much as I could. You don't imagine the pain I feel knowing now that that much was not enough for you. You were always in my heart, Sookie. As much as I knew my love was not reciprocated in the same way, I loved you and did my best to—"

"But I loved you!" Alia interjected. "Why do you think I don't? Even after I broke the bond I told you that I loved you."

"Yes. Exactly. You doubted what you felt for me, the bond breaking was just another tangible way to show your… reluctance to yield your heart to me. I—"

"No, Eric. I loved you, and after the bond… I would have wanted it back, but with all that... you never told me what was happening and you were so distant…"

Eric silenced her with a finger on her mouth. "Hush! Just hear me out, will you?" He sat on the bed, and carried on. "Perhaps, it was my fault. You had no experience in romantic relationships, and neither did I. Probably I was too enthusiast and overwhelmed you. I didn't want to aggravate our… marriage with the turmoils that ravaged the vampire society at that time, but I… behaved wrongly. I see it now. But it was never that I didn't want to share with you my life, I just wanted to protect you from the wildest aspects of it. As for the marriage… it was stupid of me not to ask you properly and explain to you the rationale behind it. It was not a political choice. Never. But you Sookie, you certainly didn't help either."

He inhaled deeply. "We were together and you didn't want to come to live with me. My house, your house was not a problem… We were not teenagers, I needed you in my life… to wake up with you, to share a house with you, everyday facts, not only spare time. My mistake was to… impose a marriage to you, but it was a move to protect you…"

"But I never asked to… break our marriage. I've been harsh some times but never—"

"Hush! You broke the bond, our sacred bond!, without even warn me! You cut yourself out of my life abruptly… I… I…"

"I'm sorry," Alia whispered.

"… but I love you and thought you were young, undisciplined, immature and would have understood once… once we had the chance to be together. But you never gave me that chance. Never. Really. You forgave any twisted, evil behaviour from Compton, but never accepted or forgave my… mistakes. It was taxing, Sookie."

Alia's silent weeping subsided, giving tears the time to dry on her face.

"Then, the takeover… Victor… Ocella… Freyda… all became too complicated, and things got out of my, our hands… Truly, Sookie, the contract was very… important for vampires… strong… and it was arrogant of me thinking to be able to round it without…"

Eric ran a hand through his hair. He took a glance around the room and found so little of Sookie in it. Furnishings were minimal and rather unfeminine. Only a dress -an iridescent one made of a fine, light fabric- dangling from a hanger over the cabinet's door betrayed her presence.

"You know, I've always wondered why my maker came into my life at that time. I… discovered it, in time…"

His words trailed off.

Alia bit her lower lip and interrupted the silence. "Why did he come?"

"Someone called him and proposed to… solve his problem with Alexei. That is finding them both a place to live notwithstanding the boy's wild habits."

Alia watched him with eyes wide open. Ocella had marked the beginning of the downward spiral that had precipitated all those events which led to their divorce. Hesitant, she asked, "Who?"

Eric's blank face in front of her was like a distorted mirror in which she saw his concealed tension.

"Compton," he said.

Her face showed incredulity and a mounting rage, and she knew then that she had always suspected that. It had just lingered at the edge of her awareness, too painful to acknowledge.

"Why?" she asked.

"To eliminate me and have the time to build his way back to you," Eric stated and watched her reaction closely. "To curry some favour with the new master."

Alia saw Eric straighten his back and brace himself. He expected a denial and a fierce defence of her first lover, she could read it in the hard lines of his countenance. That had been her habit.

"Peru," she muttered instead.

"What?"

"He went to Peru or around there, I don't remember. He was very excited by his findings and once he said that he had something up his sleeve… he was so cheerful. He said something about the fact that you were not a problem anymore." Alia covered the mouth with a hand and cursed. She did not know if it was rage, pain or remorse. Maybe all of them. Maybe just what remains after the last standing soldier defending a position collapses.

She continued, "Maybe he even betrayed Sophie-Anne. The takeover was so smooth, and he pledged too eagerly to that worm, and licked his ass at every turn."

Eric stared at her.

"I thought that either, afterward," he said.

"I hope he had a miserable life, the only one he deserved, and when I meet him again… he'll taste my sword." Alia uttered the words calmly.

Eric blinked. "I met him after I took the kingdom, and I saw to it that he had no other chances to waste space in this world."

"Did you kill him?"

"Karin," he answered.

"What a pity. It would have been only fair that it were me to dispatch him."

"Would you have killed him?" Eric asked after a while. "In cold blood?"

Alia's gaze was distant. "He played with my life, with your life, and that of those who suffered because of the events he caused. I would have gladly put an end to his useless life myself. Not in cold blood, though. In a very pissed off way."

Eric was silent. His face did not give away his thoughts but she could almost see them. More imagination than a real reading, maybe. Or just a wishful thinking.

"Very unSookie-like, I'd say," he said.

Alia locked her eyes on his. "One of my teacher told me once that Sookie… grew up and cracked open her cocoon becoming Alia, ready to morph again in whatever I wanted to be."

"Alia…"

She felt a shiver of pleasure as her new name rolled out of his tongue, lingering around him.

"…is a name potentially full of meanings. In old Latin it means other things. It may hints at different sides of your being, at the many layers you can discover in yourself, at—"

"—all the roads I have to walk to find a balance among my many natures, at all the obstacles I have to remove to be finally at peace," she continued wiping a cheek.

"Is that your plan?"

"I have no choice, do I? And I have the time now… and it's a good thing I have much 'cause I proved to be a slow learner." She attempted a smile but did not know if it showed up correctly.

Eric smiled too. "It's a wonderful plan, Alia."

"Hope to live up to it."

"You've always been strong and resilient. You'll succeed in whatever you try."

The fae nodded, and felt a weird dizziness. "Thank you."

The atmosphere had changed and Alia felt compelled to fill it with more neutral words.

"We have to talk about what happened back at Cat Island…"

Eric nodded.

"… but now I need to rest. Another moment?"

Eric took it for the dismissal it was and stood up. "Sure. Call me when you're ready." He stalled a few seconds, then added, "See you soon."