A/N: I'm sorry that this is so late. :/ Life has been busy and stuff. I will hopefully have an SE chapter up later this week, but I have only written two words so far, so we'll see. :P

Chapter 12

Eric had parked in the garage this time, and she followed him through the kitchen to the Corvette. He thought about opening the passenger door for her, but he would end up cornering her between the car and the wall. He let her get in on her own. Next time, he would park on the street again.

She sat stiffly in the seat. When he slid in behind the wheel, she closed her eyes and gripped the arm rest until it started to creak. She let go and bunched her shirt up in her fists instead.

Eric had thought that she would be much more at ease than this. They'd made so much progress! She'd seemed almost comfortable with him the past couple of nights. He hoped that this wouldn't cause her to backslide and lose trust in him. "I won't hurt you, Sookie."

She didn't answer, and squeezed out a bloody tear. Intellectually, she knew that he wouldn't. If he'd wanted to, he could have hurt her a million times over. But she couldn't help it. In fact, she was wrestling with her instincts, and mostly winning. She was still in the car. She wasn't fighting him or hissing at him or trying to bite him. She wasn't even frozen in fear, just in a battle of wills against herself. She wasn't completely in control, but she wasn't nearly out of it, either.

Eric didn't try to speak to her any longer, and turned on the radio with the volume down low. He had a cabin way back in the woods not too far from Shreveport, and he headed in that direction as quickly as he could. He didn't even know if she would be up to doing anything after all of this. Especially since they would be alone and in the middle of nowhere.

She didn't relax for the whole drive. The anxiety he felt through their weak blood tie was affecting him, so he closed it. He needed to relax if he expected her to. She didn't need his stress feeding into hers.

When they turned onto the dirt road leading up to the cabin, she pulled up her knees and wrapped her arms around them, curling herself into a ball. She tucked her head down. She was losing her grip on her control. He sped up, cringing whenever the Corvette bottomed out on the ruts and potholes.

He pulled into the clearing and stopped close to the door. She was out of the car and thirty feet away before he could shift into neutral. He left her to calm down, unlocked the cabin door, and went inside.

It was well-maintained, but shabby. It had come furnished with castoffs from the old owner, and Eric hadn't really seen any need to replace it. He'd stayed in a lot worse over the past thousand years. He had installed shutters on the bedroom window, after painting it black on the inside and out, and that was all he'd bothered to change. Of course, Pam avoided it at all costs.

He lit a fire in the fireplace, just because he could, and sat down on the couch. He wanted to give her time to calm down, and he hoped that she would then come to him. He didn't want to have to chase her down and get her even more upset. He also didn't want to lose any more ground with her.

Sookie leaned against a tree at the edge of the clearing. She was taking deep, slow breaths and she didn't really know whether it was the breathing itself that calmed her, or if it was some combination of habit and nostalgia that did. But she was an expert at coping mechanisms, even if they had rarely done much more than take the edge off. And eventually, they hadn't worked at all.

She was finally starting to get hold of herself. She closed her eyes and cast her telepathy out in every direction. Taking stock of the world around her. Checking for anything alive (or undead) nearby. She ignored the vague and indistinct hums of the animal brains — something her mind did automatically unless she chose to listen — and detected nobody other than the void of Eric's mind in the cabin.

She went back to the animals, trying to guess what each one was based solely on their brain signatures. A swooping bat. An owl in a tree. The tiny brains of the rodents scurrying along the forest floor. The quiet static of birds and animals asleep for the night. A handful of larger animals in a group that she thought were likely deer. She couldn't see through their eyes or really process their thoughts, which were amorphous and indistinct. Just feelings and sensations and whatever it was that made each one an individual.

It was a gift she had risen with and, at first, it had really helped her grapple with her anxiety. She had used their minds to ground herself. But it was more than that. It was something that she had done when she was alone to make herself feel better. To think about something other than her own problems. And to not feel like she was so alone. They'd been the only real company she'd had. But, as the torture had gotten worse, she'd lost her will. Eventually, she'd done nothing but lie in the cubby, only moving when her mother or maker made her. She hadn't been able to send her mind away any more. Not even when the pain had become more than she could take. She'd been stuck with it, alone inside her head. Not strong enough to escape, even mentally.

It had been so long since she'd listened to them. She hadn't even thought of her animal friends in years. But now she could hear them again and she was able to get herself centred, pull herself together, and get herself back under control.

She could do this. It was just Eric. She liked him. He had been kind to her. He had given her his blood to help her get well. He'd even given up his home — temporarily, at least — to make sure that she was comfortable. He had rescued her. Saved her. Had made her feel a little bit good about herself for the first time in her whole life, pretty much. She took one last deep breath and went inside.

Eric smiled when the door opened. It hadn't taken her more than ten minutes to calm down and come inside on her own. His back was to her, and he sat quietly and watched the fire, waiting for her to make the next move. She stood just inside the door for a moment, but then walked over and sat down on the old rocking chair catty corner to him. It wasn't next to him on the couch, but he would take it.

She took a deep breath and blew it out. "I'm sorry about all of that."

He smiled softly at her. "Actually, I am very impressed. You are controlling yourself remarkably well, Sookie. You should be proud of yourself."

She shrugged one shoulder, but smiled shyly back at him. "Thanks. The fire is nice."

He nodded. "It has only been in the last hundred years or so that fire wasn't a part of everyday life. Even for a vampire."

"I just can't even imagine how much you've seen. How much the world has changed."

He stretched his legs out in front of him and crossed his ankles. "It has changed more since the turn of the twentieth century or so than in the nine hundred years before, combined."

"What time did you like best?"

He thought for a moment, drumming his fingers on the arm of the couch. "Likely now, especially after the Great Revelation. We no longer have to skulk and hide. And I enjoy that almost anything I could possibly want is available just about whenever I want it. For the right price, of course."

He paused for a moment. "I do hold some fondness for the simplicity of my own time, even if life was very hard. But that's mostly just nostalgia and sentimentality."

Eric stared into the fire for a minute or two, quietly lost in his own thoughts. Sookie took the opportunity to study him. She watched the twin reflections of the fire flickering in his eyes, and she thought that he was the most beautiful thing that she'd ever seen. She closed her own eyes and took a breath, even though she didn't need to breathe. She glanced over at him again, and he seemed to have come back from wherever it was that his mind had wandered off to. She ignored the butterflies in her stomach. "I guess I'm ready to do it whenever you are."

He turned his head and caught her eye and smiled at her in amusement. He raised an eyebrow. "Promise? How about right now?"

It took her a second to realize what she'd said, and she wished for a moment that the floor would open up and swallow her whole. But Eric just was teasing. And not in a mean way, but in a flirty one. She was almost positive. Sookie was surprised at how easy it was to talk herself down. She rolled her eyes, and then smiled at him. "You wish."

Eric had been scared that they'd lost progress on the drive up to the cabin, but she was as relaxed as he'd ever seen her. She was even flirting back. Gods, she was compelling. He was drawn to her like the proverbial moth to a flame. More than that, he was a stone's throw from infatuation. But he was sure that it was only the thrill of the hunt. "I certainly do."

She froze for just a moment, and then bit her bottom lip, both in nervousness and anticipation. But the nerves were winning by a mile. His instincts told him to back off just a bit. But not too much. She wasn't ready yet, but she would be. She just needed a bit more time.

He smiled at her. "Well, we already know that you're fast enough to run from the car to the treeline in less than a second, and strong enough to almost leave permanent finger-sized dents in my Corvette's armrest."

He was smirking at her and had a twinkle in his eye, but she cringed anyway. "Sorry?"

He laughed. "It's fine, Sookie. Come. Let's go outside where there's some room to work with."

She followed him out to the edge of the clearing. Eric leaned against a tree and she stood facing him. It was the same one she'd leaned on.

"The cleared area is close to a circle. I would like for you to run the circumference. It isn't far. Maybe 150 metres. A little less than 500 feet.

She blew out a big breath and skirted the treeline, running as hard as she could. She was back in front of him in about a second and a half.

She smiled up at him, her eyes sparkling with excitement. With her hair up in a ponytail, she looked so fresh and innocent and beautiful. The wholesome All-American girl next door. Even as a vampire.

He pushed the ache in his chest away, and smiled back. "Very good, Sookie. Now, seven laps is a kilometre, give or take."

He timed her with his watch and then pulled out his Blackberry. Frowning in concentration, he pushed buttons for what felt to Sookie like a couple of minutes, at least. He checked it one last time and nodded.

"Just shy of ten seconds. That's about 225 miles per hour. Very fast for a vampire your age!"

She wanted to just run. As fast as she could go and as far away as she could get. She felt like she could do it forever. And, if it weren't for the sun and the need to feed now and then, she likely could. Her muscles would never get tired, and she couldn't get winded if she didn't have to breathe.

"Sookie, you need to be very careful when running in the forest. Every branch is a potential stake. Your reflexes are much faster than your legs, of course, but you need to be mindful."

She wondered how that would work with her command not to hurt herself. Could she just run and run and run and not be mindful? She tucked the idea away for later in case she needed it. But she really didn't right then. It was strange to not want to be finally dead. "Ok. I'll be careful."

"Good. Next, we are going to test your strength." He pushed himself off of the tree, turned around, and pulled it out of the ground. A surprised bird took off and burst through the leaves and into the night. "It takes somewhere near fifteen thousand pounds of force to uproot a mature tree like this."

He tossed it aside like it weighed nothing and brushed off his hands. "Now you."

She walked up to a pine tree and blew out a big breath. Could she really do this? Was she really strong after all? She closed her eyes, bent her knees, wrapped her arms around the trunk, and pulled.

It took almost no effort. How had she not felt this potential until she'd had a chance to use it? The force needed to uproot a whole pine tree shouldn't feel just like picking up a bag of flour, but it did.

It defied physics. A girl weighing a hundred and twenty-five pounds just couldn't pull a whole tree out of the ground like it was nothing. It was impossible. The only thing left was magic. Nothing else made sense. Sookie threw the tree down next to the one Eric had pulled up and smiled up at him again.

"Very good. Now there's a red oak just over here. They are excellent for climbing." The tree was massive — close to a hundred feet tall with a trunk three feet across. Eric smiled at her. "Come on. Up you go."

She looked up and immediately knew the route that she needed to take. She saw it all in her head, and there might as well have been a neon sign pointing the way. It was like the course was highlighted, but without anything there that you could really put your finger on.

She scurried up the long trunk like a squirrel, using the cracks in the craggy bark as handholds. Once she reached the branches, she jumped from limb to limb until she was perched near the top, straddling a fork in the tree. It took almost no time at all.

Sookie laughed and looked down at Eric. He looked small, and she could tell how far away he was, but his features weren't any harder to see than if he were sitting right in front of her, straddling the same branch. Even in the dark. Although she supposed that creatures of the night would never have survived without excellent night vision.

"Hello down there!"

He laughed back up at her. "Now you have to climb back down."

Part of her wanted to jump. To feel alive. And to see if she could fly, too. She didn't really care if she hurt herself. At this point, she certainly wasn't afraid of a little pain. She grabbed the branch she was sitting on and swung down, hanging from the limb. She closed her eyes and just enjoyed the feeling of the rough and scratchy bark on her hands, how good stretching her muscles felt, and the excitement of knowing that she was so far up. She swung just a bit and landed in a crouch a dozen feet down on a branch that was below her. She kept going, gracefully jumping or swinging from branch to branch, never once opening her eyes.

Near the bottom, she walked out onto a bough that was nearly horizontal. She was maybe fifteen feet up, and there were no branches below her. She didn't know how to fly, but she thought that maybe she could just do it instinctively, too. She took a deep breath and jumped.

Eric was impressed that she didn't balk at the challenge. She took the fastest route rather than the easiest in both directions, and did it with confidence and grace. And he was even more impressed that she'd hovered for just a moment before falling to the ground. Many who had the gift didn't have it manifest until much later than ten years old. He thought that it was very likely that she would fly, too.

He knew that Pam would be livid.

Sookie managed to stick a graceful landing, but she was disappointed that she hadn't been able to fly. She'd gotten the idea that it was a rare gift, though, so she wasn't really surprised. And she already had the big upgrades to her telepathy and glamour, as well as her weird blood and ability to heal so quickly, so she doubted that she had any more gifts just waiting to show up.

She brushed her hands off on her pants. She couldn't stop smiling. She was so grateful for all of the things and opportunities that she had been given since she'd been rescued. But, somehow, tonight topped them all. It had done more to make her feel like she was strong enough to move on from this than anything else had. And it was the first time that being a vampire hadn't felt like a curse. An eternal life stretching before her full of torture and humiliation and loneliness and servitude.

She'd landed a few inches away from him, and didn't seem to be anxious to move away. Her excitement was contagious, and he couldn't stop smiling, either. He wanted so much to lean over and kiss her.

She was so thankful. More than that, she was happy. Her eyes welled up a little, even. He was smiling down at her, and she almost wished that she could hug him. Hell, part of her even wanted him a little. Impossible or not. It scared her to death, but it excited her, too. She knew that she would never be able to have him, of course. Hell, she didn't know if she would ever even be able to touch him. But she could maybe dip her toe in the water, at least. Eventually. She smiled even wider. "What's next?"