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Chapter Sixteen

"Why did you do it, Eric?" I screamed, once we hit the highway.

I was still in such a foul mood over the whole "Mrs. Northman" thing, it was hard to keep my voice light. Not to mention, I just felt so disgusted in myself by my little puking incident all over him. Sure, vomiting was somethin' you could not control easily. But it would have been preferable if I could have. All I had to do, was glance over into the backseat of his Corvette and eye those vomit-covered trousers he had folded into a neatly accusing pile, and it would leave me guilty all over again.

"Didn't you even think to take into consideration, even for one damn minute, how I'd feel about it? You... you tricked me, so now... I'm a fifteen-year-old bride! If you haven't noticed, being married at such a young age is... weird. Not to mention downright illegal in the state of Louisiana!"

"By your world's regulations, perhaps. To our world, it is much different." I didn't really wanna listen, but I had no choice. Eric's voice wasn't one you could ignore easily, I was figuring. "When I was a young human man, it was not unusual to wed a much younger woman, like yourself. No one would even bother to think twice."

I considered his words in silence for several seconds. Then, I turned a smidgen in my seat to face him more directly. Which was hard, when the damn seatbelt was wrung so tightly around my chest, squashing the life outta my breasts uncomfortably. "Well, if you haven't noticed... we're in my world," I muttered, feeling much happier by the second. "And this whole 'Mrs. Northman'" - I did air-quotes with my fingers, where he shot me a searing look at- "thing you have goin' on, it's invalid."

"Your world has been overrun by vampires for over thirty decades, Sookie." He was gloating, if the tone that took over his voice was anything to go by. Arrogant ass. "We are the authority, and your kind will always remain to be our subordinates."

Now that ticked me off something lethal. How could a person be so high-handed? If I could have, I would have reached over in my seat and slapped him one. Luckily for him, my sense of self-preservation kept me in place from doing anything irresponsible right then. Eric was driving along the highway, and I certainly didn't want to cause a crash had I taken the impromptu moment to knock some sense into him.

"So?" I shrugged, eyeing him with aversion. "That still doesn't mean anythin'. I am not your lover, and I sure as hell am not your wife. Comprende?"

He didn't glance over at me, but I could tell as much into his shadowy expression of how much my words had teed him off. "This is a serious matter, one that cannot be repudiated, Sookie," he said, and I got such a feeling that he was about to lecture me on the physics of vampire livelihood. Turned out, I was right. "The knife you saw that spilled our blood, is a ritual knife, handed down from many generations. It's been used often in momentous ceremonies, including that of a pledge shared between vampire and its human counterpart."

"And what... is a pledge?" I asked in a choked voice.

"Simply put, we are permanently wed and we will remain wed until either I meet the true death, or you perish. Until then, the pledge remains immutable and unbroken." There was no compromise in his quietly uttered words, no easy solution offered as to fix anything at all. "And... considering how pertinacious you are, and how fucking brilliant I am... I would say, either one of us passing would be highly unlikely to happen anytime soon."

"But you still didn't exactly answer my question." I scrutinized him with a more profound level of suspicion. "Why'd you do it?"

"Perhaps you are hard of hearing, and need me to spell it out to you, Sookie. As I clearly stated in front of the Minister, it was another necessary protection detail, and one that I am already regretting, due to your outright discord in front of the Minister. To be wed to a human underneath the sacrificial knife, it means we claim ownership over said human, thereby it is considered a rightful punishment of the true death if anyone dares to violate it, whether it be by fucking the claimed human, or attempting to slaughter them."

It wasn't exactly the answer I was aiming for. I was more eager to know what intentions he had for me as "Mrs. Northman", than anything. And, more importantly... what such a position entailed. I decided we could get to that part later, though. We had all the time in the world, really. I glanced down at the illuminated clock lit on the dashboard of his Corvette. Well, maybe not all the time in the world, but seven hours 'till sunrise, more correctly. Still, it was more than time enough. "How... exactly is this meant to help my cause?"

"Because, figuratively speaking... if something backfires and you do end up getting killed, I have the justification I need to seek vengeance on those responsible and execute them lawfully by sentencing them to meet their true death." This was something well thought-out, I could just tell. The confidence in his voice was unmistakable, if yet, a little catching. "And, since we are now officially documented in the registry as wedded thanks to the Minister, and you are my human, I am therefore protected by the Vampire Legal Authority. They would hardly find it questionable if I did decide to take out anyone who intends to harm you."

My mood suddenly changed and shifted, like the wind. I found myself feeling all sullen, and upset for some reason. My eyes even swelled up with tears, which was just downright crazy.

"Well, that's a little disappointing," I tried to make it sound more like a light-headed joke, only I failed something miserably. I was more than positive he was bound to catch it. "Here I was, naïvely thinkin' you might have just did it, because... deep down inside, you actually sported some serious feelings for me." I smiled over at him anxiously.

"There are many concepts I don't quite understand." His voice was as low and subdued as a tired sigh. "Sentimental feelings, are one of those."

Little did he know, when he was belittling his feelings like that, he was also belittling me. I hadn't any inclination into why, but I found myself reacting strongly to his words, almost as if he had said a personal blow directed to me.

"Bullcrap. You're a sentient being, like everybody else." I twisted in the seat, fiercely argumentative for some reason beyond me. "That's the biggest lie, if I ever heard one! What about that woman, who co-owns your bar with you? Pam? Are you gonna deny you nurse some pretty strong feelings for her? I mean, I mightn't know much... but I sure as hell can see she's mighty special to you! One night... I..." I faltered for a bit, hesitant, because I didn't know whether it would be a touchy thing for him, or not. "I heard you talkin' to... to Mr. Compton a while back. You were sayin' something about progeny?"

"Now you're speaking of things you cannot possibly ever understand. You lack the mental capacity."

"Just admit it! While you may be a hard-ass vampire, somewhere deep inside of you, lurking beneath all that exterior, is a human just like the rest of us. A man who loves, and cares."

"Now you're speaking of things I don't even have the mental capacity to understand."

"So, you did it just to protect me," I clarified, sounding extra sorrowful for some reason. "That's it? Nothin' else at all?"

"Yes. That is all." His words held no inflections, no sense of hidden encouragement in them that I was kinda hoping for.

I couldn't understand why I was feelin' this way; So disappointed, and deflated. 'Course it was beyond ridiculous to even assume someone like him might've liked me. We were from two completely different worlds, not to mention walks of life. He was older than me, way older, hell older than a grandpa, and that fact alone ought to have discouraged me. And yet, it didn't. Not even a bit. But really, what did I expect?

What?

That Eric was secretly my own personal prince charming in fanged-form, coming along to sweep me off my feet and make everythin' right as rain in the world again? It was pretty retarded to even get such a hopeful thought.

Everything was pretty much shot to ashes right about then.

Maybe I had just wrongfully assumed all along that he had a hidden motive for helping me. Especially in the ways he came into my life so suddenly, without any logical ounce of explanation whatsoever. He just literally exploded into my world, and I had no choice but to take everything as it come as quickly as I could. Especially when he was being real quick to save my ass from this Russell Edgington, and Mr. Compton, and practically anyone else who held some type of malicious intention for me and my blood.

I guess that little girl in me believed his reasons in assisting me, were of the gallant and romantic persuasion. Clearly, I was wrong. Super wrong. And perhaps, maybe I knew that all along after all, but I'd just tricked myself into believing something else... hopin' for something else? Somethin' good to come outta all of this? What Eric could even possibly offer me that would be considered good, was a mystery within itself. Sometimes my brain confused even me at times.

I found myself eager to divert the conversation then, into more neutral territory. It was better than dwelling over the rejection anyhow. "How many people are on my side?"

"There is myself, of course. Pamela. Then, there is Alcide, who as packmaster to his wolves, can bid his men to aid us. Last I was aware of... there were over eight men in his pack. But over the years, they've assuredly expanded their numbers. Even then, we'll be outnumbered, but it isn't the size that counts most, Sookie, it's the quality."

"What?" Well, this topic was certainly doing wonders in distracting me from my downtrodden mood.

"Vampires are most strongest at their ripening. Given that Russell Edgington is over three thousand years old, it might be wise to consider that as an advantageous figure on their side. But there is one, much older than even Russell Edgington. If we could track him down, he might give us the support we need."

I sat straighter in the seat then, holding my breath. "Well, then. What are we waitin' for?"

"There is only one problem."

"What? Look, Eric. If you think he'll be the key in solvin' all this and destroying Russell Edgington once and for all before he gets to my blood, then... what more reason do we need? Why wait around before it's too late?"

"Because..." He looked hesitant to speak then, let alone tell it straight to my face. "He is my maker, and I haven't heard from him in a little over twenty years. Let alone, if he still lives. It has been very long since I've felt him." All those words were cryptic to me, and all they did, was fly straight through my brain.

Still, I was not completely without sense to notice when such a ravaged look crossed over his face; It was... unnerving, truthfully. He looked as if he had well and truly zoned-off into another world, an ancient world he had once existed in many years ago, while he stared ahead at the road, blue eyes strained and blinking.

I didn't quite know what the heck was going on, but along with it, I felt this sudden heaviness pulling down on my heart, tugging it lower into the depths of my stomach to the point where it was vastly becoming excruciating. I could tell he was devastated by reflecting on whatever it was he was, and surprisingly, I could almost feel it myself right along with him.

He was clearly gettin' so emotional, and I could feel that way myself, staggeringly.

In a way to appease both myself, and Eric, I think, I lifted my hand towards him, then hesitated. I didn't know why I felt such raging compulsion to touch him then, but I... I just did. It was almost this strong, maternal sense within me that was just dying to be released from its shackles. My moment of tentative uncertainty was dead a moment later, when I clutched onto the shoulder that was closest to me 'cross the seat, tight as I could humanly muster.

I shrieked without really meaning to, when so suddenly, Eric swerved the car to the side of the road, and killed off the engine.

I didn't know how long we had sat there for, in nerve-wracking silence, until he covered his large hands over his eyes, and slumped his head forward into the steering wheel. It was so... depressing and unlike him, at all. Not that I knew him all that much, but still... I felt I knew him more than enough to judge the difference. I stared at the back of his head anxiously, for what seemed ages and ages, through the darkness. I was at a complete and utter friggen loss of what to do, or how to even respond. I wasn't sure whether I was meant to say somethin', or just sit still until he gathered himself enough to start driving again.

So, I just sat there, coiled up like a spring on a weighed-down mattress and still as a cockroach.

Agonized wailings came next, and it almost felt like the death of me to hear it erupt from his unEric-like mouth.

"Forlat mig," he wheezed out, somewhere deep into the steering wheel. "Broder."

My heart was well and truly crushed for him, right about then.

It was a good demonstration regardless; It showed that what I initially believed about him, was in fact correct. Mr. I'm Uncompetent Enough To Feel Anything Sentimental, in direct contrast did. Maybe not any sentimental feelings nursed for me, but for his Maker- it was another matter altogether. He was in fact human, just like the rest of us, whether he liked to feel it, or not. It had me mighty glad, yet upset all at once over how hurt he was.

"Eric," I whispered miserably, still at a complete, hopeless loss.

I wanted to comfort him, I just didn't know for the life of me how. I tried a few different words, hopin' they'd have a more favourable outcome in consoling him, but nothin' really did. No amount of "Hushes," or "It's okay, little darling," would seem to help a single damn bit. It was only when I reached down to unfasten the belt confining me to the seat and scooted over to put my hands on his back, did it hit me. It was bound to be a mighty ego-crushing one for me to have to say, but I would try it no less. If it so-happened to make Eric magically feel a bit better, then I would try.

For him, I would try within a heartbeat.

"Lover." It slipped out from my tongue painfully, and it sounded so friggen awkward and misplaced, I felt like I was dying internally inside over it. I'll be damned if Eric didn't notice it, either.

I could feel every muscle in his back turn rigid at the ill-fitting word underneath my caressing hands, and holy hell, I think it just might have worked. His sobs died down into an earth-splitting silence, and he gave but one loud wet sniffle, before he tilted his head over at me from its place against the steering wheel. He gave me a questioning look with red-rimmed eyes and, I think, he was majorly thrown into some sense of shock. Could vampires even go into shock? Hell, if I knew the answer to that.

The fangs popped out and, oddly enough, I couldn't help the indulgent smile that flitted across my face over it. I was wonderin' when I would get to see them again, and they couldn't have come sooner enough.