I own nothing to do with True Blood. Bu I am finding it such a thrill messing around with Eric and Sookie. Thank you all so much, for everything! It shocks me so much! You all inspire me to write! Hopefully you'll enjoy this one and all its silliness, and just a prewarning, yes, Sookie can be quite immature hehe. But really, what can you expect for a girl her age? :P XXX

Chapter Seventeen

Things no longer seemed to be like we were heading on a path to nowhere, after that.

Eric dabbed off the blood trickling down his cheeks with the sleeves of his jacket, and then we started with a new sense of purpose. We were going to find this older vampire- Eric's Maker?- and then were going to fight. Fight against Russell Edgington, and all he stood for. Fight and fight hard, to the death.

I didn't know quite where we were heading to, because Eric liked keeping secrets, but we drove for very nearly over an hour. Everything was mostly comfortable, until a song on the radio tore me out of my calm in a major way, distracting me.

Making Love Out Of Nothing by Air Supply came on the radio, and I was becoming near to breaking point of laughing. Sometimes, I laughed for no reason. Other times, it was just because I was either nervous, or flustered by something.

This time, I suppose it was partly both reasons. It was more than just a little awkward, listening to 80's poppy music about making love in a car with a vampire I kinda had feelings for. Or at least... crushed on, a margin of a percent. Which did not feel all that great to acknowledge.

Boy, was I such a silly girl. My cheeks felt as if they were alight and being licked by flames, all because of the lyrics to the cheesy song that was playing in his car.

"What are you doing, Sookie?" His voice was hilariously suspicious.

Man, was he insightful. It was more than just a little creepy.

"Nothing," I laughed to myself, chagrin. "I'm not doing anything, Eric." Obviously!

Luckily, I had myself another easy distraction than the words that were being crooned out by the singer on the radio, about making love out of nothing at all, and all the ways he knew how to touch her, and when to hold her close and let her lose.

A flash of red and blue lights flickered behind us. Oh, crap. The police. Not what we needed now, not when we were so desperate to find the solution to destroying Russell Edgington. I was thrown into an obvious state of panic, while Eric looked about as calm as an emotionless statue, when he pulled over dutifully.

"Don't say anything, Sookie," he muttered hastily, like he was fearing a blowout was to come. "Leave it all to me. I'll handle it."

I couldn't say I understood why, but then I think I about realized hardly a second later, when the officer came a'knockin' on Eric's side of the window. It was unusual for a vampire and human to be seen together publicly, especially as a mixture of races, in a car close together, way after dark. I knew the officer would have gotten suspicious first chance he saw us; He'd probably assume we were getting down and dirty with some fangbanging activity, which was just all kinds of gross to assume.

I was all for staying quiet and obeying Eric, but the instance he pressed the button and the automatic window flew down, my decision had shot into flames at the sight of the officer. I couldn't well and truly see him, until he took off his cap a moment later; revealing close-cropped, mousy brown hair, and dark brown eyes on a tanned face.

I recognized the young, fresh-faced officer automatically at once. He was new to the police force. He graduated from my school over roughly a year ago. Him and Jason had gotten along real well.

"How we doing tonight, folks?"

Eric turned in his seat towards the officer, mouth open and ready to answer. Luckily, he had his fangs hidden, so it wasn't real obvious he was a vamp unless you knew so, like I did. Unable to restrain myself, I cut him off before he could even get a word out.

"Hey there, Bobby!"

Eric shot me an odd look, his fair eyebrows raised comically halfway to his hairline. I simply shrugged at him, feeling foolishly excited, whenever I got the chance to meet a person from school again.

"Oh, hell now." Bobby's face broke into a wide grin, when he recognized my voice through the window. "If it isn't Sookie Stackhouse, Jason's lil sis! Man, it's been ages. How you doin', girl?"

"Real good." I smiled and beamed up at him. "Jason's real good, too. He... he's now quarterback to the Bon Temp's football team. Isn't that grea-?"

"-Northman," Eric interrupted me, sounding so sour and angry. "It's Sookie Northman, actually. Hate to cut this reunion short, but we've actually got somewhere we need to be."

Oops. I was bursting with so much excitement into running into Bobby again, that I almost forgot. Of course we had places we needed to be. We had to find this older vampire, the one Eric got so painfully emotional about. Earth to Sookie.

"Oh, of course, sir." Bobby sounded a little put-out. "I understand. I'll make this quick for you, then." He bent down towards Eric's window, and I heard the click of a small flashlight go off. "I'm just doin' my nightly run patrolling the roads. I'll make this inspection quick."

Eric gave a curt nod, and then Bobby lifted his flashlight and shone it around the car. Everywhere; In my face, in Eric's, then into the backseat of his Corvette curiously. Like a fly zooming back to the source of a ghastly smell, he shone the flashlight directly into Eric's ashen face again, and held it there for an excruciatingly long minute. I swear I could almost hear Bobby's brain ticking away. I held my breath, when he voiced his suspicion next.

"Somethin' 'bout you screams fanger to me. No offense."

"That is because I am vampire, and proudly." Eric gave the man a smile, showing nothing but his pearly whites.

"Then what are your intentions, with young Sookie over here?" He jerked his head over at me, his voice all uneven with the intensity of his suspicion. It was a natural thing; All us high school kids would stick together. Since he used to be a close friend of Jason, I guess he instinctively took it to himself to protect me. Not that Eric was the one I needed protection from. Then, he directed his flashlight over to me again. Boy, was that trail of light blinding against my eyes. I could only just imagine how worse it was for Eric, being a vampire and all. "Please coöperate, and show me your neck, Sookie."

"Uh, sure." I exchanged an uncertain look with Eric. "Whatever you say, Bobby. I don't mind."

"Officer, I can assure you." Eric's voice was somewhat panicked, as he leaned up to look at Bobby. I knew he was just dying to start driving again so that we could get closer to our destination before sunrise. He was growing even more impatient as the seconds ticked on. "You don't need to worry about-"

"Quiet, fang man!" Bobby said, not out of disrespect, but out of mere pleading. "This is a general rule I have to take, a neccessary precaution. I know I probably won't find anythin' anyhow. But just show me, otherwise I'm arresting the pair of you for indecent activity on a public road, even though I hate to do it to an old pal's sister!"

"Of course." I gathered all my hair in my hands, and pulled it to the back of my head, in a quick faux ponytail. "See, no bites?"

"Huh. You don't even look a day over sixteen. Last time I saw you in high school, you were only just startin' your first year."

I smiled up at him sweetly. "I'm fifteen now, actually."

"And you?" He asked nervously, and I knew he was hinting to Eric. Satisfied that I had no marks on my neck whatsoever, Bobby turned the flashlight on Eric again, dazzling him like a deer in headlights.

Eric squinted up at him, blinking heavily over the intense beam of light that scanned in over his forehead and eyes.

"A thousand," Eric answered, so calmly and casually that it threw me all over again.

It was still such a hard thing to acknowledge, just how old Eric had been on the face of the earth for. I could tell it was no different for Bobby; He looked astonished, before managing to recollect himself a moment later to swallow that startling piece of information down.

"And has he been feeding off you? Has he been manipulating you? The old Sookie I knew back in high school would never ever do such a thing, as associate openly with fangers!" His voice was high-pitched in accusation for Eric. Unwarranted, at best.

"Oh, no. You don't need to be concerned about any of that." Since I felt in such good spirits over meeting Bobby again, I just couldn't help myself. I was in too much of a good, and playful mood, that it was dangerous. "He's just my old, faithful lover."

Playing it up, I cupped the side of Eric's cold cheek with my hand. His eyes flickered closed briefly, before opening again to refocus on Bobby, over my caressing. He gulped loudly, the Adam's apple on his throat bobbing up and down, and I swear he was more than just a little nervous at my words. I had to restrain myself from laughing then, because it was just too much fun playin' 'round on the both of them. I held full control of the situation, I could predict whether it went right or not with my words and actions, and it felt so good.

I winked suggestively up at Bobby. "Hell, sometimes, Bobby... Eric nails me so hard...I can't even think straight!"

Eric let rip a nervous sounding chuckle, one that bubbled up inside the back of his throat.

"Oh, Sookie. I can nail you anywhere." That took my breath away. My Lord. Was he flirting with me?

My question was answered, though, when he next shot me such a hard look of warning. One that ought to have detered me and told me to quit my foolin' around once and for all. Too bad for him, it didn't.

Being a devious teenager was just too much of a thrill to experience right about now. It felt so amazing to be able to let loose and have a bit of fun, just for once. Especially after my journey so far had been nothin' but one shocking revelation and glimpse of danger, to the next.

It worked effectively. Bobby gulped loudly. "He- he what?" My plan backfired on me a second later, and I felt so ill and overcome with guilt. "It clearly states in the law book of Louisiana that it is considered a felony and sexual assault to have intercourse with an underage girl, Mister. Being as old as you apparently are, you ought to know better."

"Believe me, I'm well aware of the code of law in the state of Louisiana." Eric's voice was tight, and nervous. He ducked his head out-of-the-way in sheer frustration, when I went to teasingly stroke his chin with my fingers. "I know it by heart, in fact."

"Well, what can I say?" I giggled, feeling light as air. "I guess I'm just so irresistable to him, that he forgoes every law Louisiana ever made."

Oops. Clearly Bobby was takin' my word for it in the literal sense.

"All right, fanger." Bobby's voice was high on excited determination. "That being said, out of the car." Eric hesitated for a moment, with not really wanting to. Bobby raised his voice, "Now!"

"Fuck," Eric spat out, short of a breathy whisper. He raised a hand to rub at his creased forehead with his fingers, then darted me a look of strong disapproval. "Good going, Sookie."

I smiled over at him innocently.

Something that happened to me a while back instantly came to mind; In high school when I started, this girl was known to bully me. She would often make fun of the fact I liked to sit quiet and read, and not socialize and talk. Clearly, I grew out of that shy, untalkative stage, where now it was often hard for me to stop shooting my mouth off. But back then, her bullying rattled me something shocking. Tara, being the coolest person she was, cornered the girl in the restrooms, shoved her up against the wall forcefully, and cussed her heart out at her. The girl never made fun of me ever again after that.

I could remember Tara's words, clear as day.

So, in the wise words of my bestie Tara Thornton: How about a taste of your own medicine, bitch?

Because this was Eric's little slice of medicine for lying to me the way he had, and conning me into undergoing this knife-pledge drama.

"I'm real sorry, but I just couldn't resist. Besides, with this cheesy song playin', it totally called for it."

"Thank you for wasting valuable time," he shot back angrily. Then moved to open the door of his car reluctantly.

I made an inappropriate farting noise. Then, laughed to myself. "Oh, go dig a hole, Eric!"

"I already have," he spat out, hardly missing a beat, "and your Grandmother is in it."

Well, that truly killed off my playful mood. I slumped my head back against the seat, resigned. It stabbed at me, his cutting remark, and he sure as hell had to know it.

Without another mean word at me, he climbed out of the car and followed as Bobby directed him towards the hood of his car.

I kept a close eye on the pair, morbidly curious with how Bobby's mouth opened and closed like a fish outta water. The anger radiating from him at Eric was almost palpable, even by where I sat in the car, staring. I found myself holding my breath, when Eric stepped a little too close for comfort, embracing Bobby on the shoulders with his big hands. A weird eye-lock thing was goin' on, and Eric was saying something to Bobby that I couldn't catch. And then, funnily enough, in a trance-like state, Bobby had turned into a quivering mess and, like a mechanical soldier, he started marching past Eric's car towards his patrol car. I kept my eyes on him through the rearview mirror, when he climbed in, started the car, and then speed off like a man fleeing for his life. I think I gathered as much, when I heard Eric slip into the car again, mumbling curse words 'neath his breath.

He had glamoured Bobby, and that was real cool, I guess. But really, anything coming from Eric, I could appreciate.

Neither one of us so much as spoke a single word, when Eric started the car again and pulled back onto the slither of road.

For some reason, I felt mind-numbing anger, like fire could have erupted from my nostrils at any minute. I looked over at Eric, was who was driving in dead-silence. He looked like he was brooding, and brooding hard. His lips were tight, his jaw twitching, like he was mashing his teeth together. A deep, guttural growl rose from his throat, and I knew then that he was the reason I was feeling such staggering anger coursing within me. I didn't know why it was, but I think we both shared the same emotion, which was crazy and a whole hell of a lot to take in. Maybe that's what a... vampire-human pledge thingy did? Connected the two in more ways than one?

I felt it before, so excruciatingly, when Eric pulled to the side of the road and started sobbing over something I could not quite understand, or grasp any sense of. Maybe that was why? Maybe we were linked now? He had told me this wed thing between us, was a permanent and unbreakable thing. If so, what if I felt like this forever? Angry and sad for basically no reason, because it was the way Eric's temperament was at that time, without any hope of putting a lid on it at all?

I shuddered. That was just too creepy to even consider, let alone think.

"God, Eric," I groaned a second later at the top of my lungs, unable to take it any longer. I almost felt like hitting something, because the rage I felt coursing throughout my entire system, was so strong. "Will you stop projecting your anger onto me? Please, it's killing me here!" Relieving me in more ways than one, the anger stiffening my muscles gradually reduced into a calm. What a load off my shoulders. "Will it always be like this? How come... I feel all these things so suddenly?"

"Yes, it will always remain to be like this. You hurt, I hurt. You bleed, I bleed. The entire point of using the sacrificial knife, was so that we are bonded."

"What the hell?" I eyed him exhaustedly. "I thought, we were already bonded by that one time you took my blood, and I took yours? I thought you said so!"

"This is stronger than any blood exchange, Sookie."

"No shit." I scoffed loudly. "You know, this is another annoyin' thing you've dragged down onto me. Now I feel... everything, without really even wanting to, and for hardly no other reason, but the fact you're feelin' it!"

"Believe me, the feelings mutual, Sookie." He sighed heavily through his nostrils. "I've already started to feel certain things I've not felt since I were human. The rejection and the... upset."

Oh my Lord. He actually felt that? Well, how friggen... great. Now it was like my emotions I was feeling were a big, open map for him to easily read. That most likely meant he felt the sadness I felt over his words about his intentions for me being nothing more than out of protecting me, and not romantic ones outta liking me. I felt my cheeks redden at the unsettling fact.

"Including your embarrassment," he added quietly hardly a beat later. I turned my head to look at him, my mouth gaping wide open and shut repetitively like a fish. There was a tiny, knowing smile on his lips that didn't settle so well with me.

"Well, that's mighty great," I muttered underneath my breath icily.

"Like I said, the feelings mutual. Literally."

"You know, I'm tired and I don't wanna talk to you anymore," I said stiffly, really just for the habit of getting the last word in.

"Likewise."

I made a rude noise, then decided to try to catch up on some shut-eye. Which was hard in his car, with the seat feeling all sturdy and rock-solid the way it did. I think I managed though, because I felt myself drifting in and out of restless sleep, until I found myself someplace else.

I opened my eyes, and I wasn't even in Eric's car anymore. What the fudge?

I was surrounded by a never-ending desert. The sand felt blistering hot against my feet. It occurred to me a moment later, that I wasn't wearing any shoes. I felt humid air smack across my skin, and I felt... bare all over. I discovered I was wearing a thin, extra-short, white dress next. It hardly went up to my thighs, which was just crazy, because since when would I wear somethin' so damn right revealing? That was so unlike me.

I felt all sweaty, and my skin felt all clammy, probably due to the humid weather and the blistering sunlight that covered over my skin. Where the heck was I, if I was not in Eric's car? It was so... peculiar. And, most unnerving of all, everything felt so real. The sensations of the sun, the... sand between my toes.

"Lover."

I was stunned witless by the sound of his voice. It sounded weird. Distant and echoed somehow.

"Eric?" I whispered breathlessly, looking around desperately. My eyes could not find him anywhere.

"Ahead of you."

My breath hitched in my throat, when so suddenly, he popped up right in front of me. I almost burst out laughin', because of the way he was dressed. I was used to Eric mostly wearing his black jeans, and this was... something completely else. In a great way, though. I think. He was in a stark-white button-up dress shirt, and as blinding white trousers. Hell, he was barefooted, too; His large feet sinking into the sand.

"Where the hell are we?" I asked anxiously. He was just standing there, staring at me, his blue eyes luminescent and lit with excitement.

"You know where we are." God, could he be anymore cryptic right now? "You know you like this, because this is what you desire."

What? A confused giggle got stuck in my throat.

He stepped closer and, my god, I wasn't even breathing. I completely forgot how to. His eyes were dancing with mirth, like all this was some private joke at my expense.

Without warning, he leaned down and planted a swift, but lingering kiss on my lips that thrilled me and rattled me to the core over the unexpectedness of such a thing. My entire belly clenched, and I was riddled with such aching then, with such... longing, that it was almost unbearable to contain.

"You know you want this," he whispered, our noses almost touching. "You know you want me to fuck you."

What? How could such a crude word my Gran used to warn me against, feel so... tempting and right, coming from Eric Northman's mouth and baritone voice?

"You know this is right." Catching me completely off-guard, he rubbed his nose against mine, a bit like one of those Eskimo kisses that were given in another country. "You know you want this." He leaned back to give me a wolfish smile. I winced and accidently whimpered, when his fangs were drawn. And, what the hell? They were extra long, like they went all the way down to the start of his indented chin. Since when? Everythin' about this was just screaming weird. "Fang boner," he added mischievously in an utterly unlike-Eric way, winking at me.

I gulped and then, so suddenly, my head was smacking into something and I was jolting back into reality. I gasped, and groaned, stirring wildly. I was greeted by the bumpy feeling of tyres rolling against asphalt, and the constant vibrating of a heavy car engine.

My eyes widened frantically, as I took in my surroundings. I could feel myself breathing heavily over everything. I was still in Eric's car, it was still moving, which meant... Oh, Jesus. I swallowed dryly, and mentally prepared myself in advance for what I knew was bound to come, the instance my eyes set on him from where he sat.

The radio was switched off, and he was driving in purely good, old silence. I swear he looked a bit flustered from where he sat, unless it was my paranoid mind playin' mean tricks on me.

Perhaps sensing I was awake, he turned and gave me what, ironically enough, resembled the same fangless, wolfish smile I had in my... my... dream?

"Pleasant dream, Sookie?

Oh, boy. Somebody please kill me! Russell Edgington, come! Put me out of my misery and embarrassment right this instance, I beg of you!

I cleared my throat awkwardly, and sat up more straighter in the seat. My face felt all flushed, and my hair was all over the place. "No... No, Eric." I sounded more guilty than I would have liked to have. I cleared my throat again, then worked at combing my fingers through my hair, trying to get the limp strands that were sticking to my face and cheeks away. "What... what makes you say that, now?" Damn it. Must I sound so defensive? What a major give-away, gosh!

"You were thrashing around in the seat like you were experiencing an epileptic seizure." He shrugged and judging by the way his illuminated face looked, whenever a car's headlights from the opposite side of the road came brushing past, I swear he looked amused and intrigued, all at once.

I tried to work my very hardest into managing and repairing the situation. "That's because... it was, uh, a scary dream. Frightening, actually."

"Yes, I assumed so. Considering the way you were also moaning out my name, in an orgasm-like fashion."

Oh, hell to the no. "Was not." Still, it was too darn defensive. My voice was too clipped, and squeezed out through a set of clenched teeth through the sickening nerves I felt over the ordeal.

"I know what an orgasm sounds like, Sookie." His voice was too calm, too composed, like we were talking about no more than the weather, than... private things. It annoyed me in a whole new way.

I was out of my depths.

"Well, good for you." I laughed bitterly. "And, by the way, you are sorely mistaken!"

He changed the subject next, which I was ultra thankful for. "Daylight is coming up. Do you think you're competent enough to drive my car in a straight line in this direction, with no turns?"

It distracted me something wonderfully. And brought to light a new predicament. "I... I've never driven a car before!"

"Driving is like drawing. You keep the car between the sides of the lines, at all times."

Well, drawing was something I was always good at. Still, I had a bad feeling about it.

"I... I don't know, Eric. I might crash your car."

"Cars are disposable. I can always get a new one." He pulled over to the side of the road, and I was left a blubbering, hesitant mess.

"Eric, I'm not even old enough to get my damn license!" Someone had to be reasonable here. Clearly, he wasn't.

"Sookie, the daylight is coming up in barely an hour. Unless me scorching like meat on a barbeque appeals to you, I suggest you take shotgun and drive."

All right. So when he put it that way, it sure did seem better if I drived.

"Fine then," I hopped out of the car, and waited until he met me on the other side. "But I'm not entirely responsible if I do crash, since this whole thing's your stupid idea."

"I take full liability." I watched him, confused as hell, when he unlocked the bonnet of his car.

"Eric," I whispered, nervously, "What are you doing?"

"Taking shelter, lover."

Before I could even so much as get angry at his whole "Lover" antic, he climbed on into the small space that consisted of the bonnet, and slammed it shut on me, until I was left just staring blankly right at the red, glossy paint.

It took me a long moment to remember my job, when he never did resurface. All right, then. So Eric was sleeping out of the daylight, in the stuffy confines of the bonnet? I shrugged, and strolled over to the driver's side of the car. Suit yourself.

"All right," I whispered to myself, nervous, when I slid in. God, I didn't even know where to start. There was just too many buttons, and weird contraptions an unexperienced person like myself could not understand. I groped out the dangling set of car keys still slotted in the ignition, and cajoled myself into turning on the car, strung-out with nerves. "Now what?" I murmured to myself loudly, when the engine sprung to life. "How the hell am I supposed to drive this beast?"

"Pull the clutch into drive." I gasped, when Eric's muffled voice came somewhere... somewhere, behind me from inside the bonnet. Instantly, I was soothed. Suddenly, everything slowly fell into place, once I did what was directed.

Now I just had to figure out which pedal was the accelerator to start movin' this show on the road.

"Um, Eric?" I called loudly, hoping to God he'd hear me. "Which pedal?"

"You'll find out which one soon enough."

"All right. Thank you." And then, out of nowhere, I burst out hysterically into anxious laughter, my little nervous tic. God, never had anything seemed so challenging and nerve-wracking, as attempting to drive a car unassisted.

I think I got a good handle on it, when I managed to roll my way out onto the open road again. That's not to say, it wasn't a bumpy ride, full of swerves and jerks in order to keep the slowly moving car in between the lines of the road.

Just when I was starting to feel confident enough, this tingly feeling started building within. Now, I didn't know what the hell it was, or what it meant for that matter, but it was somehow... invigorating. Rising from my legs, to my crotch, and all over. It was unlike anythin' I had ever felt before, that's for sure. A bit like all my energy had replenished.

Hope you enjoyed this one and that it wasn't a major disappointment! Feel free to let me know, see you next (very soon) update :-) Love you all so much, thank you!