A/N - AU/OOC - This story is the sequel to The Ties that Bind me, which I highly recommend reading before this one to be become familiar with the politics and characters. You can find the link in my profile. The SVM characters belong to Mrs. Harris, but original characters and storyline are my own. This story is rated M for acts of violence and potential lemons and contains a vampire Eric and vampire Sookie pairing.

We start with our new vampire King and Queen on the tail end of their honeymoon. They have had a bit of peace and a chance to enjoy themselves before returning to the world of Vampire politics, Human skulduggery, Fairy Alliances and the ever looming threat of the Culling.

Chapter 1 - Survival

Scene 1 - SPOV - Tested

The strong scent of cedar, bog and crushed heather filled the evening air. I stopped for a split second, lifting my head to catch the whiff of a tantalizing odor. When the aroma filled my nostrils I allowed a feral smile to cross my lips, I was close. A faint sound to the right had me on the move, flitting through the trees, my feet not touching the ground. I could feel extreme fatigue weighing down my limbs, the strain of using the bit of magic which kept me from leaving tracks. The hunger burned in my throat, a testament to the pace of my pursuers. I hadn't fed in three days. My body was covered with nicks and scratches from running through the forest and my clothing filthy and shredded, barely hanging from my frame. I had some nasty wounds which had not yet healed trickling precious blood down my side, blood that was marking the trail for those who wished to kill me.

There was a snap of brush from the left and I jumped in time to avoid the blow which would have broken my knee. I flipped up and over my assailant lashing out as I reversed with a free leg. When they hit the ground there was no more movement. I was tempted to stop and feed, I needed strength desperately but the sound of additional pursuers pushed me forward down the trail.

The forest I journeyed through was beautiful, primal, darkly shadowed with thick moss and deep piles of needles beneath ancient cedars. Occasionally I had broken out into areas obviously replanted by man and wished I had time to mourn the loss of its original glory. I had to stop as the exhaustion and pain threatened to overwhelm me. While I leaned against the broken hull of an ancient tree to try to stifle some of the bleeding I no longer had the ability to heal, the last few joyous weeks flashed through my mind.

We were on our honeymoon, our destination a gift from my husband's child. We traveled to the Sprey Valley of the Scottish Highlands where we were to love, laugh and play in solitude. Here the great pine forest of Rothniemurchus covered the whole floor of the Sprey Valley between the Cairngorms and Aviemore and stretched more brokenly beyond to Kingussie and Boat of Garten. Its dark depths beckoned and hinted at secluded hideaways. The forest was over twenty miles in length and up to seven miles in width, with large areas of the native wood to show what it used to be like centuries in the past. Our lodging was on the out skirts of a small village near the heart of the valley though I could not tell you what the village contained or its scenic evening views for my husband kept me lovingly entertained from the moment we rose.

The treasured moments of love and peace and ease of mind did not last as external forces made themselves known despite our friends and families attempt to provide us with privacy. Time for me and my husband had become an increasingly precious commodity one to be horded second by second. He brought me to these woods to escape the mounting pressure to return home. I will not forget the sough of the wind in the dark leaves of the pines as he showed me the ancient paths. No one who had wandered amid the noble trees could feel anything but a sense of elation in such a majestic setting. The forest was full of hidden lochs, of noisy mountain torrents and of quiet glades where we would pass like phantoms among the red trunks of the trees.

Such bliss cannot last and it caught us by surprise when the testing began. We had been warned, but did not expect it so soon. My husband was furious and his blood lust overwhelming. We fought side by side at first until my strength began to falter then he led them away from me so I could survive. Now we were both hunted, divided and vulnerable, easy prey for those wishing to end our existence.

I was snapped out of my exhausted trance and away from the ancient tree by the rustle of underbrush disturbed by something heavier than a breeze, such negligence would be the true death of me. I let the bit of magic keeping me afloat dissipate as I started running again, what use worrying about foot prints when the scent of my blood hung in the air. The one who had been tracking me for hours was close again. I had become familiar with their scent though I had yet to catch sight of them. It was not long before I heard two more assailants drop from the night behind me to join with their tracker. I pushed my body harder, faster as the tantalizing scent I was using to guide me grew stronger.

I stopped in my tracks when I broached the edge of the clearing. I had thought to find shelter and safety and instead found another battle. Eric was in full motion, his body covered with wounds, blood flowing down his face and over his chest from bared fangs. There were three bodies sprawled dead in the grass but nine more assassins surrounded the Viking. I leapt to assist him, forgetting about the three at my back. I was allowed two steps before I was brought down from behind to land face first in the bloody dirt. I kicked and scrambled. I tore my way back up right, my eyes gone blue and my mouth filled with the enemy's blood. I whirled when I heard my name screamed, a desperate plea for forgiveness, to see my mate fall beneath our enemies, his head flying to flake to ash at my feet.

I howled, a primal sound of rage and pain, new lines of power ripping across my frame as hidden reservoirs of magic were drawn upon. Our enemies surround me, laughing and jeering, teasing me as a cat does the mouse. My body shifted to face them, fangs and serrated teeth bared to meet their attacks. I snarled at my tormentors urging them closer, urging them to take the kill. They tired of their games and a signal unseen begins the end. I roared in victory when they leapt as one. My body dissipating into the wicked wind a hurricane of hate and revenge. My last conscious sight the spray of their arterial blood through the air.

"Well that was unexpected," a faint voice reverberated, "was anyone injured?"

"There are a few minor cuts; the wards absorbed most of it. I seriously doubt they would have held if she hadn't been so exhausted," another voice spoke with a tinge of awe.

"This exercise was meant to test, not break her. What did you do to cause such a reaction," a third voice, female, demanded with a snarl.

I was pulled from the blackness by the force of their bickering, my body throbbing with pain. There is a heavy weariness in my limbs and excruciating agony pulses from where my heart once beat.

"There is something wrong, her wounds have healed yet I have never felt such pain," the voice is beloved, a piece of my imagination that should not be.

I have not the strength to lift my eyelids, but my lips part on a whisper, "Eric."

Large cool hands lift me into an embrace, "I am here my littli stríðsmaður." There is a brush of familiar lips over my face, "I will not let you go, tell me what is hurting you."

I struggled to open my eyes as I reached for his touch. Through bleary vision his face wavered into view, his eyes filled with concern. My hand weakly cupped his cheek and he turned to place a kiss in my palm. It was then I realized I still felt the bond between us, open now and throbbing with his love and a faint taste of fury.

I watched him, still not understanding this vision compared to the previous reality. "I saw you die Eric, they killed you in front of me. I felt the bond break." My voice trailed off while blood tears flowed.

"Shh lover, I am here now. This is the reality," I heard him whisper as I gave up the fight and fell back into the darkness to recuperate.

Scene 2 - EPOV - Drained

I looked at the woman in my arms, my lover, and my wife and wondered how she yet existed in this realm. Her body appeared withered and drawn, almost translucent as if her very essence had fed the destruction she had just wrought. The pain which she had shared with me through the bond seemed to have disappeared with the assurance I was real and not some fantasy brought on by exhaustion or perhaps another source.

I glared at the twins huddled in conversation on the other side of the devastation.

"Pam," I growled and my child was at my side immediately. I carefully handed her Sookie. "Take her back to camp, make sure she feeds well. There is a flask in my bag, give her a few drops. It will help heal the new magic paths." I ran my hand down the new curves and whorls joining those of old shadowing just beneath Sookie's skin. The physical proof her past would never be forgotten.

"Yes Master. I will leave the Royal Guard with you." Pam kissed Sookie gently on the forehead and for a moment concern darkened her normally expressionless gaze as her fingers brushed against Sookie's cheek. "What will you do with those two?" She asked as she nodded toward the two fairies I was keeping an eye on.

"I will have answers to my questions."

"I wish I could remain to observe your technique." She flashed a fang filled smile over her shoulder as she slipped out of the clearing.

I walked around the clearing noticing the twisted and broken trunks of trees and shrubbery strewn about. One would think a tornado had struck and danced for a few moments before disappearing once again into the heavens. One would not be far off in their observations if they understood the power inherit in the vampire known as Sookie Northman. We had been extremely lucky the Fae wards had absorbed and contained the destruction; else the flying splinters and debris may have ended a vampire or two instead of just the constructs.

The fairy twins, Neave and Lochlan watched me as I strode toward them, not a hint of fear did I find in their eyes. I had each of their throats in a hand as I shoved them up against the only ancient pine undamaged. Lochlan reached toward his belt but stopped at a hiss from his sister.

"You will tell me what you did to my wife for her to react in such a way." Our alliance precluded me from actual physical harm and I had to drop the two of them before my fury had me doing more than lifting them off their feet.

Neave spoke her gaze steady upon mine. "She had to be tested."

I snarled my fingers clenching with the need to punish. "Tested but not pushed to annihilation. Now answer me."

"We needed to know what she would do if faced with her greatest fear," Lochlan explained as he took out a small dagger and worried at a splinter in his palm.

"You mind raped her?" Fuck the alliance, Niall could always find another assassin. I had Lochlan's dagger out of his hand in mine in a breath, teasing at the edge of one of his crystalline eyes. "I agreed to the ambush and the constructs and am appreciative of the wards which kept all of us from the final death in the last encounter. But no one plays head games with my lover."

Neave bared silver tipped teeth in warning and explained as her twin took care not to tempt me. "She should have been defending against such an assault. She was not; else we would not have been able to slip through. She had no more magic; she should not have been able to work such destruction. We thought to draw only her physical response."

I slammed the dagger into the bark behind Lochlan's head and turned away. "From Sookie's words I conclude you used a construct to show her my death while hiding the true battle from her?"

"Yes"

"She said she felt the bond break."

"Your death was in all ways real to her."

"What did you wish to prove with this exercise," I demanded.

"Whether she would or could survive the culling."

I whirled on them, "This was not a hunt."

"No," Neave agreed. "This was just a taste of the future. But in that future we proved this evening our Queen will suicide upon your death or the appearance there of. She has become too emotional where you are concerned."

"Your Majesty, if the Queen were to fall in front of you we know you would methodically kill those who dared harm her if there was a chance at winning. But if you were faced with overwhelming numbers, as Sookie was, you would then go on the defensive and look for a way to escape the situation so you could return and pick them off one by one," Lochlan stated firmly. "You would have your vengeance without the cost of your survival. You would not have gone berserker as she did."

"I have a millennium of battle experience behind such tactics," I stated flatly recognizing his analysis to be correct. I was Sookie's greatest weakness in battle just as she was mine. The difference was our level of control over the inevitable blood lust and emotional upheaval.

I ran my hand through my ratted hair as I turned back to them. "She still has so much to learn."

For the first time a hint of emotion filled Neave's eyes as she placed a hand on my shoulder. "Eric, her first reaction to the possible end of your existence cannot be to meet the sun or any other type of suicidal impulses. This is no time for her to become human. She must be rational and coldly calculating at all times."

I shrugged off the fairies hand, only Claudine was allowed of their kind to touch me in such a way. Neave accepted my rejection to her physical intrusion without a word. The alliance between us was still too young and untested for me to trust any Fae but Niall and his family that close.

"Was Niall aware of what you intended to do?"

Lochlan shook his head, "No, the decision to test her mentally as well as the agreed upon physicality was our own. We believed her susceptibility to illusion and mental persuasion to be a potential avenue of exploitation after the summit display. We were correct."

"In that case ..." My right hook caught the smug assassin unawares and he broke through a moss covered rock across the clearing with a very satisfactory crunch. I flashed a bit of fang at his sprawled form, "I feel no compunction for punishing you just as Niall would."

His eyes glowed with suppressed fury as Lochlan struggled to his feet. His sister was at his side immediately whispering in his ear urgently.

"Your sister is free from my wrath only because I know her skill is in the illusion." I glided over to the two of them where they now crouched warily. "You on the other hand were the one to paw through my lovers mind. You touched her without my permission, by both our laws I could call for your head instead of just cracking it against a rock."

I summoned the vampires and other fairies who made up my Royal Guard to head back to camp. They had served as templates for the constructs, or doppelgangers' if you will which Sookie and I had physically battled. Just like the constructs Sookie had created the night she had killed Bill, these clones had fought and moved with the skill of their templates. They were a safety measure, along with the wards, to protect both fairies and vampire from the final death against Sookie's unpredictable magic's.

The real vampire and Fae had done the tracking, the constant skirmishing and persistent harassment. The constructs were used in the final encounter, which was supposed to be a test to see Sookie's capability against over whelming numbers when physically and magically exhausted. It was also a way for me to test her survival instincts in a natural environment. She was aware of the test from the beginning, had in fact agreed to it and offered some suggestions, like the wards. But obviously the twins spontaneous experimentation had caused something to seriously go wrong.

It did not take us long to arrive at our base camp at the edge of the forest. I left the others to go to Sookie while they began packing so we would arrive back to our lodging in the village before dawn.

I thought about my version of the final encounter. I had held my own against my antagonists. In fact I was having a howling bit of fun smashing through the constructs when Sookie broke into the clearing closely followed by Pam and the twins. There was to be a fourth vampire tracker, but I had heard he had been sloppy and Sookie had taken him down earlier. He would heal, but I bet he would spend several hours working on his hand to hand. Pam and Lochlan had taken turns being the harrier, constantly on Sookie's heels. Neave was to have joined in just before the clearing, taking a few extra moments to make sure the wards were up.

Sookie had done well over the last three days but the frantic fear I had seen enter her eyes when she moved into the clearing caught me by surprise, followed swiftly by confusion when I watched her ignore her own assailants and try to leap to my aid. She knew I can handle six on one easily her actions made no sense. Her pursuers had brought her down swiftly after her first step though she was up and turning on them immediately. Then she had screamed and all hell had broken loose.

My women were waiting for me in the tent when I walked in, trading insults with each other while Sookie sipped from a bag of donor blood.

I frowned, "Where are the humans?"

Sookie blushed, "I fed from all of them."

"You are still hungry?" I asked in surprise normally three humans would have a seriously injured vampire feeling spry. We had seven tagging along.

She shrugged, "I didn't want to risk draining them so I took some from all of them instead of weakening a couple. I had Pam pull me away when I started to get carried away."

"She looks much better," Pam stated in satisfaction.

I agreed but I could also feel Sookie's need for physical assurance that I was indeed not a figment of her imagination. The illusion of my death was still too raw. I slipped in behind her on the palette where she rested and held her close, her head tucked just under my chin.

"Sookie tell me what happened out there?" I asked her as I rubbed at the tension in her arms while easing her from me so I could see her face.

"I cannot tell you what day the illusion became the reality. All I know is for me the last three days you and I have been running for our lives from assassins sent here to kill us. Every step, every skirmish was life or death to me. It was no longer a war game. When I entered the clearing I saw you against nine enemies with three dead at your feet." I could hear the smile in her voice. "You were covered in blood but holding your own. Then something happened and I saw you falter. I forgot about the ones behind me, a deadly mistake I admit and tried to go to your assistance but they brought me down. Then I made it back to my feet and you screamed my name, but I was too late." Her voice shook and I could feel the fear and the fury clawing at her. I soothed her and waited for her to continue. "Your head turned to ash at my feet and I felt the bond break. I knew I was going to die as well." Her voice hardens, "They teased me, toyed with me like a rodent. I was exhausted physically and magically but somehow I tapped into more power and when they finally attacked I just let my instincts have control. I remember blood flowing and then the voices woke me."

Pam spoke up, "I think you used your own body as fuel for your magic Sookie." She explained to Sookie how withered she had looked when we found her.

Her exotic eyes widened, "That's not good."

I agreed, "No it is not. Neither is the self - annihilation you displayed," I said crisply.

She narrowed her eyes, "Explain."

"When you saw me fall your first thought should have been for survival with vengeance a consideration only if the opportunity had presented itself."

"They had me surrounded!"

"You let them toy with you instead of looking for an opportunity to escape!" I roared at her both of our tempers rising. "You let your enemies control the situation instead of taking the control away from them." I admonished in a softer tone.

"What else could I have done?" She demanded in frustration.

Pam responded quietly, "Picked out the weakest among them and attacked, attempted to break through the circle."

"But..." Sookie sputtered.

"But instead you waited for them to come to you," Pam pointed out.

I slowly tangled my fingers in Sookie's hair, gently rubbing her scalp to calm her as I asked, "Sookie did you want to die?"

Her eyes rimmed with tears she refused to allow to fall. "I felt you die Eric. All I could think of was destroying those who had taken you from me, and if I died doing so, then so be it."

I let my eyes harden and my words were harsh when I responded. "Sookie if the roles had been reversed and you were the one to fall. I would have secured my own survival first and then taken my revenge. You may have destroyed those who had done the actual killing at the cost of your own life, but they were only the pawns, the soldiers doing as they were commanded. What about those who had ordered our deaths would you let them live? In our scenario, Pam had fallen earlier, with your death there was no one left to seek vengeance." I shook her gently before I continued, "There would be no one left to protect Hunter, or have you forgotten about him?"

I felt her body stiffen with her refusal to accept my conclusion. I softly kissed her, "I need you to live even if I am the one to find the final death. Will you promise to do that for me, for our family?"

"You promise the same?" She asked quietly including Pam in the question for she was also part of our family.

"Yes," Pam assured her.

"I do," I said with smile, echoing my vows so recently given.

The tension which has grown between us was broken when Sookie laughed, "Quite a way to end our Honeymoon wouldn't you say?" She asked as she poked me.

"I think it was perfect," Pam said earnestly. "Two weeks of solid fucking followed by a week of battle followed by blood gorging should be part of every vampires honeymoon package."

Sookie groans, "Pam..."

"You're right," Pam snickered as she rose to her feet. "I need to leave so the two of you can get back to the fucking." She gave a jaunty wave and left me alone with my very tired wife.

"I want you to take a quantity of my blood so your recovery is swift," I said as I removed my shirt and guided Sookie to my neck. We both had been bouncing lust back and forth since Pam's words and I caught her by surprise by offering my blood this way. "Feed my wife," I gently urged her. "There will be time for other pleasures when you are strong again." I felt her reluctant acceptance and then the sweet sound of her fangs elongating to be followed by her bite.

I closed my eyes and enjoyed the sweet intimacy of her sharpened kiss. The swirl of my blood flowing through her, healing her, strengthening her and binding us ever tighter is its own kind of ecstasy. We were both rumbling our pleasure when she was satisfied, delicately sealing the tiny wounds she made in my neck before they healed. Such an elegant dainty savage creature was the little fairy vampire in my arms. Who was also quite ticklish when I tongued the pointed tip of one ear.

She slapped at me lightly in chastisement before snuggling sleepily into my arms and going into down time. I let her rest for a few hours before nudging her awake so we could return to the village. While I held her I made note to contact Niall about the twins little game. Prince or not, if he had any knowledge of their actions I would not be pleased. I did not have to have his people in my retinue to honor our alliance agreement.

Sookie and I would spend one more evening here in the Highlands before returning to Gudrun, our Palace in Shreveport, and the responsibilities facing us as King and Queen in the current political climate. We had trade agreements between our new allies to secure, a teenage telepathic son to guide and protect and a culling to prepare our people for. The last week had only been the beginning as we tested our strengths and weaknesses for we were bound and determined to survive the Elder driven holocaust to come.

A/N - Littli stríðsmaður - little warrior