A/N: Okay so honestly, I'm getting into a Eeyore state of mind. My fandom is dying, and it's hard to keep good spirits. I know I'm supposed to wait until 6/18 to post but truthfully that's my ex-husband's bday, and I want to help ignite this fandom back to life.

Thanks to Mrskroy, rachel olsen-williams and every single reader. Chapter name is an apropos song title and its artist.

xXxXxXxXx Present Day xXxXxXxXx

I had unknowingly and unwittingly made many mistakes with my new child, even before she became one of my blood. I had failed to protect her, to shield her from dangers I had no idea she faced; I had let her suffer in silence. She had always seemed so happy, so vivacious that I had ignored the warning signs, her odd mannerisms, her strange disquietudes... I now understood her carefree and light-hearted nature was actually a stoic-like affectation she donned to hide her pain.

She had pulled the veritable wool over my eyes, as she would have said – and to some degree, I had allowed it.

Because I had not looked beyond the surface, I had made critical choices based on what turned out to be very limited information. Those choices had led to monumental mistakes, and those mistakes had cost her everything. I had cost her everything. Whether or not she ever deigned to pardon me my trespasses was not the heaviest weight resting on my mind. Because even if I managed by some twist of fate to earn her mercies, I was not sure I would ever find it within me to forgive myself.

oOoOoOoOo Flashback oOoOoOoOo

After the sun set, I sped through Dallas to pick up Sookie a block from her house for our weekly run. I was prepared to run alongside her in silence, but as she slipped in my vehicle's bucket seat, she let me know she would rather walk. That was fine by me; I loved the chance to engage her in conversation, a pastime often impeded by running. Sookie peered wistfully out the window as I whipped in and out of traffic to reach our destination. After parking, we jogged lightly towards the Village Running Trail, hooking onto the path almost immediately. As we fell into a comfortable stride, Sookie shared some news with me that I found rather startling.

It seemed that despite my two thousand years, I still could fall prey to surprise.

"You are taking a trip to New Orleans… by yourself?"

Despite my efforts, I could not mask the incredulity I felt at Sookie's assertion that she had been gifted a trip to New Orleans as part of a celebratory ritual denoting her completion of high school. I could not understand it; she had not yet graduated.

"It's a trial run," She finger-quoted, "before I go to Europe this summer!"

"Europe?"

"Oh yes! Geez, I got so excited talking about New Orleans I almost forgot! Ezra, my parents are going to let me backpack across Europe – by myself! Can you believe it?!"

No, I very much could not believe it.

I had been led to believe that humans of this day and age were inclined to coddle their young, and to stifle their progression from adolescence into adulthood. Letting Sookie roam around alone, halfway across the world no less, flew in the face of that assumption. Although she was unawares, I knew Sookie's human caretakers were not her blood family, but surely they still cared for her welfare.

They had seemed like nice people.

While I had not officially met them, or been properly introduced, I had trailed both her mother and father to a high-end Dallas restaurant in Victory Park soon after meeting Sookie. In all honestly, I was snooping; I wanted to see if one or both of them was also Fae. But they were not fairies, not even partially. They were just a couple of run-of-the-mill humans raising an extraordinary fairy hybrid, who more than likely was being hidden away in the Human Realm.

I wished I knew why.

"Ezra?"

Sookie called out, stopping to peer back at me with a look of concern; I had fallen behind.

I had been nervous when she said she would be only hours away in New Orleans – less if I flew, but it carried great risk – the thought of her on the other side of an ocean terrified me. The New World, the United States in particular, had a significantly smaller vampire population compared to the Old World. Sookie had rarely run into vampires in Texas because there were not many to bump into, but overseas my kind would be practically everywhere. And many of them would be old like me, more predisposed to correctly identify Sookie's scent as Fae, if they caught a whiff. Luckily her sweet smell only became noticeable when she bled or sweated, but since back-packing sounded fairly strenuous, I worried she would most likely smell like a sugary vampire treat all the time.

Vampires did not dream, but I knew inherently that these fears were the things nightmares were made from.

I closed the space between us, but we did not resume our walk; my head was swimming with anxieties.

"I would like to go to Europe with you, when you go."

The words passed my lips before I could chew on them. I regretted speaking so foolishly, but I refused to retract them. Of course, I would have to devise some sort of excuse to explain my inability to walk in the sun, but perhaps I could claim I had some sort of allergy or intolerance. I made a mental note to ask Sabine to research if such a malady existed. It would be useful to know such a thing.

"Ummm… I'm not exactly sure how that would work out …"

She responded hesitantly, shuffling her foot on the concrete. I jumped in to offer reasons why my presence could be beneficial, instead of disruptive.

"I am from Europe," It was true, albeit from a country that no longer existed in its original form, "I can help you to blend in, that way you will not be treated badly like so many other American tourists," Also true, "and there is strength in numbers. We could keep each other safe," which was my impetus for wanting to go at all, "But I would not crowd you, I promise. I will even find my own lodgings, and simply ask to occupy your nights, if that would be preferable to you."

I swore I saw Sookie roll her eyes slightly before she smiled broadly, excitement overtaking her expression. She clapped her hands together, and responded with an undeniable mirth in her tone.

"Sure, Ezra! That'd be great! OMG, we're gonna have so much fun!"

I nodded my head in agreement, grinning from ear to ear… until I remembered that I had forgotten about New Orleans. My smile faltered a bit as I steered our conversation back to the excursion she would head out for the very next week.

"So you will be in New Orleans for this break your school gives for spring?"

She most definitely had rolled her eyes at me that time.

"Spring break, Ezra. Yep, I'll fly out Sunday night, and back that Friday morning. I'll be there almost the whole week."

"If you would like, I can…"

I stopped myself before offering to tag along, realizing that while I could easily explain a trip overseas to visit my homeland, the King would not be as accepting of an impromptu outing to New Orleans. The Queen of Louisiana lived in New Orleans, and my last minute request to go there would likely be interpreted as a defection. My King was shrewd in his dealings, but also a little paranoid.

'No, I will send Eric to watch over her,' I decided before finishing the sentence I had started.

Eric owed fealty to the Louisiana Queen; surely he could come up with some sort of excuse to find himself in her court for what would amount to a paltry number of nights compared to eternity. If he did not agree to protect his future sister forthright, I had designs to force him to.

"… go with you to purchase a map. I am sure we can find a bookstore still open at this hour."

She beamed at me, "Definitely!"

Minutes later, we were back in my car; on our way to grab her a map.

After dropping Sookie off near her home, map in hand, I reignited my car's engine and tore back into the night. I had many things left to do before the sun took me into my day death.

I had cleared a permanent spot in my schedule to run with my future child, but it merely shuffled the Area Business around. My second, Isabel, shouldered what workload she could, but some Area conflicts simply required the attentions of the Sheriff. I could not wait for the day I could step down, concentrate on being the maker of a fledgling vampire once again.

Sookie.

I had not made another child since Eric, for well over a thousand years, and I wondered if Sookie's first years as vampire would resemble his. Would the teaching methods I had used to curtail Eric's wild behaviors serve to be just as effective with Sookie? Both were willful, but not quite the same… I shrugged off the concern; worrying about the far future served no purpose. My energies were best spent focused on the here and now, the problems I was currently faced with – like how to keep Sookie safe while she was hundreds of miles away in New Orleans.

I powered down my vehicle, and headed into the house, not pausing until I reached my office. Sweeping into my chair, I tapped at the small tie within my mind, wishing to some degree it was stronger. But it was not, and in its current form it only told me one thing – that Sookie was alive and likely well. I smiled to myself. That humming flicker of warmth in the back of my mind was enough to assuage my many anxieties. Although I had not reveled in stealing a modicum of Sookie's privacy without her consent, I told myself a couple of drops of my blood would only give me access to her location and her most extreme emotions.

Anything below that register simply would not, for lack of a better word, register within me.

I steepled my hands, elbows set on my mahogany desk, as I remembered how our small tie had come into existence. It was not a feeling of power that swelled within me as I replayed the memory in my mind, but one of contentment and relief.

I had been grateful when Sookie ordered a coffee drink from the small café at the bookstore in Lincoln Center. It gave me an easy vehicle in which I could provide my future child with less than a thimble-full of my liquid life-force. She slurped down her machi-something with gusto, not noticing the addition, and I had even attempted to gulp down a foamy drink of my own, much to my own chagrin. The taste was vile, embittered by espresso and tempered by human sugar. My subsequent coughing and upturned scowl had caused Sookie to erupt into a sea of unstifled giggles. I did not understand the joke, but she assured me she would explain it at a later date…

"Ahem…"

My assistant Sabine cleared her throat, not because she needed to, but to attract my attentions. She stood in the doorjamb to my office, seeking my approval to enter. In her hands, she carried a thin stack of paperwork and folders, no doubt associated with tonight's calendar, with the cases I was scheduled to preside over.

"Report out," I said, shaking off my thoughts of Sookie and donning the affectation of a strong, emotionless vampire Sheriff – an act I had played at for far too long.

"Master Godric, Isabel has covered everything within her purview," She walked over to my desk and set down the night's itinerary, as she always did, "but these she could not take."

I pulled the papers before me closer, flipping through them at vampire speed to skim over their contents. Expectedly, most of them involved property disputes and nest quarrels. But I stilled as one folder in particular captured my attention, and I held it up in my hand.

"Isabel?"

I asked, and Sabine responded wordlessly with a small nod and a large smile.

It seemed my second had located the rogue vampire who had eluded her pursuant efforts for days. The vampire in question had maimed several humans, threatening to expose our existence. We could not afford for our hunts to attract the attentions of the human authorities. I had charged Isabel with finding the perpetrator among us, knowing her success in locating the assailant would reach the King's ears. Isabel's career trajectory would be secured once she claimed her victory – and she had. The miscreant had been apprehended. She was silvered in my nest's underground dungeon, awaiting her pre-trial judgment.

I made a mental note to congratulate Isabel on her conquest, but before I sought her out, I needed to make a call.

"Has the Vampire Sheriff of Louisiana's Area Five been in contact yet this evening?"

"Yes, he has requested his call be returned at Isabel's earliest convenience."

My child had been subversively expressing his displeasure at being regulated into Isabel's schedule for years, since Sookie had come into my undead life. While I considered his behavior subtly petulant, I appreciated the emotions behind his unspoken tantrums. Although he could perhaps not admit it out loud, he would much rather be afforded the opportunity to speak more regularly with me than anyone else, and I liked it. It seemed, much like my son, I was not without my vanities. Tonight I would break with routine and call my son, to discuss his Area's business, but, among other things, to also discuss Sookie's upcoming trip to New Orleans – and the role I expected him to take when it came to her safety.

I imagined he would balk at her name, as he had many times before.

"Let Isabel know I will call the Sheriff of Area Five myself. She can use that free time in her schedule to play with the prisoner if she would like."

My meaning was not lost on Sabine, who donned a look of sheer envy before her placid countenance returned. She nodded, and then spun on her heel to exit, turning as I called out after her.

"Oh, and Sabine?"

She quirked an eyebrow, begging my question.

"Research human maladies related to sun exposure and report back. I will be traveling across Europe for the summer, and I would like to craft a plausible excuse for why I am only able to be out at night."

"Yes, Master Godric."

She agreed, speculation rife in her tone, and then with a whoosh she was gone.

oOoOoOoOooOoOoOoOo

"Godric?"

King Jameson asked me, from his position behind my desk.

I stood behind the Queen Anne chair across from him, appearing deferential and awed – an act I suffered with purpose. It would be unwise to give my King any cause to doubt my loyalties.

"Yes, Aaron?"

"There's a task I need you to handle in Louisiana. Your second's prisoner? The Queen there's very interested in her, and wants us to hand her over right away then. She's been all high and mighty, refusing to join me in contracted bliss. But I don't need to tell you this gives us a bargaining chip, and you and me, we're going to use it."

It was a surprising and lucky twist of fate. Sookie had been in New Orleans for almost two days by herself, and despite our small blood tie alerting me to her wellbeing, I had still been climbing the walls with worry. Eric was in place, guarding her from potential vampire attacks, and reporting back to me, but I could not cast-off my unease.

I had an unshakeable, sinking pit in my stomach, as Sookie would have said.

"If that is what you want, I will go."

Of course, I would travel to New Orleans on my King's behalf, in spite of the fact he had engaged me to be little more than a glorified errand boy. It served my own purposes as much as my King's. The trip would afford me the opportunity to allay my fears, see for myself that Sookie was as safe and protected as Eric purported her to be.

But when I next laid eyes on her, it turned out she was neither of those two things.

At night's break, I took to the skies, flying towards Louisiana at a blurring speed indiscernible to the human eye. While the flight normally took an hour or more, I made it in under twenty minutes, motivated to complete my King's task and locate Sookie post-haste. Never had I been so glad to be trivialized, to be a messenger.

But my task had taken too long, in the scheme of things.

My blood in Sookie had started screaming her fear minutes after I walked into the Louisiana court. Once dismissed, I practically flew out the door, slowing to a human speed as I realized my folly. I honed in on our tie, following it through the city streets. I knew I was almost upon her when the blood went silent, her extreme emotions stilled – scaring the ever-undead moonlights out of me.

My worst fears were confirmed as I launched myself down the nearest alley.

Sookie was in Eric's arms, her head resting against his chest and his wrist at her mouth, blood dribbling down her chin. The sweet perfume of her own blood assaulted my nostrils, and I felt sick, consumed by concern and anger. What the fuck had happened and what the fuck did my son think he was doing? Vampire blood was not a cure-all; it would not heal the gravest of wounds, which meant he was attempting to turn her…

I was in front of him in seconds with my fangs down and my fury uncaged, my beast rejoicing at its freedom.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?"

I roared, caring not whether or not there were humans within an audible distance that could hear me. I very much wished Sookie would wake, startled by all the noise, to admonish me for being loud and discourteous. But instead, she continued to sleep; her breath hitched and uneven.

Eric's gaze snapped to mine as he carefully wiped away the remnants of his blood from Sookie's lips and face with the hem of his shirt. The look behind his eyes was unreadable, distant.

"She begged, pleaded with me not to take her to the hospital," he snarled, "She beseeched me…"

I could not help but remember how Sookie had acted the first night we met, refusing my entreaties that she visit a doctor to attend to the injury to her ankle…

"Even IF that is true," I interrupted him, growling through gritted teeth, "She is seventeen. Still a child! Much too young to become one of us! She deserves more time – to live, to breathe, to walk in the sun!"

I ignored my own hypocrisy. By the time I was Sookie's age I had already been turned. I had never regretted my new state of being. I had relished joining my fellow night stalkers, shuffling off my mortal coil. I had taken to vampirism like a fish takes to water, Sookie would have said.

He opened his mouth in protest, but I cut him off sharply.

"There is NOTHING to discuss!" I growled, undeniable fire burning behind my eyes, "As your maker, I command you to be silent on this matter! We are taking her to a doctor– NOW!"

I punctuated my words by dropping my saliva-covered fangs and snarling at my child in a feral display of fury, and power. I was angry that he had waited as long as he had; I refused to tarry a moment more.

After offering a small nod, Eric zipped away, with Sookie cradled in his arms and me hot on his heels. More familiar with the terrain than myself, I allowed him to take the lead. We stole through the underground paths frequented often by vampires, and sometimes by the humans without homes. As we neared the closest hospital, our blurring speeds slowed to almost a human-like clip.

Almost…

I was quite frantic, and out of sorts, visibly shaken.

Eric and I ran side by side through the automatic sliding glass doors, screaming for a doctor. It felt appropriate given Sookie's current state – still unconscious and lightly bleeding in Eric's arms.

A red-headed and busty nurse rushed to Eric's side, her gaze lingering on his chiseled form longer than it did on Sookie's wounds. I tamped down my surprise that she was interested in him at all – his clothes were stained with blood – Sookie's blood. While I usually found it entertaining when a human female practically threw herself at my son, tonight's display was unpalatable to me – disgusting. A young woman was dying, for the gods' sakes!

I hated her instantly.

The nurse – Kim, her nametag stated in a boring and mundane script – called out for an orderly's help, and a short thin, scruffy man rushed through swinging doors. He wheeled out a stretcher to whisk Sookie away, but, to my chagrin, was met with much resistance. The orderly practically had to tear Sookie out of Eric's arms, and I suspected my child's motivation for feeding his blood to his future sister was borne from something greater than her supposedly impassioned plea that he not bring her here.

Presently, I could not say how that made me feel.

I followed closely behind the hospital personnel pushing Sookie towards the back, matching them stride for stride. But, I was hindered from passing through the swinging door that led to the hospital's seemingly impenetrable bowels – a forearm placed against my chest – and my vision clouded red. I wanted to go with Sookie; I needed to go with Sookie. As I raised my gaze, I discerned that my blocker was none other than a previously unobserved security guard who had, much to his own misfortune, stepped into my path.

"Family only," He explained gruffly, tapping his other hand's bulbous fingers against a sign that relayed the same.

My beast roared inside me, demanding the pathetic human pay for his infractions against me and mine with his life. I had every intent to tear both arms from his body before I ripped the flesh from his neck with my teeth, and drank deeply from his vein. I was seconds away from launching myself at him, threatening the exposure of my entire race.

Sound judgment be damned.

Eric appeared at my side before my murderous thoughts could overwhelm my sensibilities, placing a hand comfortingly on my shoulder. It was an unexpected, and well-timed gesture on my son's part. I had practically forgotten he was there with me. Calm cascaded through our bond, and I could tell he had sent it to me with great effort – because calm was the polar opposite of the prickly emotions coursing throughout him. I submitted to the drug-like emotion that flooded our maker-child bond, the serenity. I closed my mouth and retracted my fangs, which had sprung out in anger at the guard's terse statement.

Perhaps I had already betrayed our true nature.

Immediately, Eric captured the large, overly-muscled man's eyes, glamouring him to believe a lie that was only half-untrue, "We are family; she is our… sister. You are incredibly sorry you sought to deny us access to her. You will not remember trying to stop us."

"Incredibly sorry…" He parroted back.

I smiled broadly as the brutish man stepped aside, granting us entry.

As I closed the small space between myself and her gurney, I spied her stilled form, relieved to once again have eyes on my friend. I knew inherently it was silly, thinking that as long as I could see her she would be okay, but it was how I felt nonetheless. My hand flew to my face as I realized bloody tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, threatening to fall. I pressed my sleeves against them, willing and wiping my emotions away.

She needed my strength, and I needed to not fall apart – for her.

They wheeled her through another set of doors into a room indicated by a sign to be for surgery, and I understood I could not follow her inside – I did not try.

Catching me by surprise, a large hand landed on my shoulder, and I whipped around at an inhuman speed to find Eric standing behind me. His expression begged a question, but I shook my head lightly – words escaped me at the moment.

I was so consumed by anxiety, I had not even felt my own child come up behind me. But evidently I was not the only one out of sorts. I gaped for a minute in disbelief as Eric sighed unnecessarily. The vampire standing beside me seemed so unlike my warrior son – almost human, but not quite. There was a faraway look in his eyes; his normally placid countenance painted with an uneasy scowl. Of course – the blood. He could feel her; he understood the extent of her turmoil. I hated he had a closeness to Sookie that I did not have, even though it was clearly affecting him. I was being irrational, and unreasonable – bordering on petty.

I just desperately needed for her to be okay.

"Family can watch from over there..."

I heard from behind me, spotting the familiar red-headed nurse gesturing to indicate a side room we could occupy.

Kim shepherded us in the direction of a surgical viewing room with one hand while the other was placed unceremoniously on my son's bicep. She squeezed it lightly, and her actions did not escape my notice – or his. She pushed her breasts out, brushing them up against him, and Eric grinned before winking at her. Kim shuddered in response, her eyelashes fluttering with anticipation, and Eric's hunger trembled across our maker-child bond. I held back my amazement as I realized that he had held it at bay until now. Most vampires would have succumbed to a bloodlust-like frenzy at the mere scent of Sookie's blood – and he was covered in it – but not Eric.

No, my son had been much more controlled, deliberate. He had tried to turn her, only stopping because I had interfered…

I had never been so proud, or disappointed, in him.

I battled the similar feelings as I watched him paw playfully at Kim, who I hated more by the second. He was toying with her, using her own feelings of lust against her to gain what he wanted – her blood and her body. He was succumbing to his nature, seeking to satiate his primal urges to feed and fuck. He had been denying himself, caging his beast like a vampire twice his age – like me – and I could not fault him for being unable to hold out any longer. But I guess I had expected him to try – knowing inherently I was being the epitome of unfair – because it was not just any old human nobody fighting for her life in a room not twelve feet from us…

…it was Sookie.

But I held my tongue as I swept past them, leaving them both where they stood, giving Eric my tacit approval to do whatever he wanted with the pathetic human. Our relationship had long moved past the time when I dictated his every action to help him learn self-preservation. I headed into the room Kim had indicated would allow me to view Sookie's surgery. Standing behind a glass wall, I watched as a flock of humans dressed in navy scrubs stripped Sookie's blood-soaked clothes from her body, cutting them off of her piece by piece. I could not see her, just their ministrations, but my eyes did not blink or flit away from the scene before me. Shortly after, the scruffy orderly entered the room to inform me that Sookie was bleeding internally, that the knife had nicked her intestines. He adamantly asserted that the doctors believed it was a repairable injury – she would recover. While I wanted to find comfort in his words, I could not.

I knew I would not find relief until I was sure she was okay.

At some point, Eric rejoined me, redressed somehow in blood-free garb, to stand vigil at my side. I could not say when he returned to me; I had lost all sense of time. I stared intently – my gaze never wavering – and watched as they stitched up my friend, mended her internal traumas. It could have easily been several hours later when they turned around to give me the thumbs up sign – a gesture Sookie had previously informed me was a positive thing. Finally, the weight over my undead heart lifted.

No, my future child would not die today – someday, but not today.

I did not leave Sookie's side willingly. The burgeoning sun, and my rational child, had demanded I seek shelter for my day death. I was powerless to deny them.

"We must go."

Eric beseeched me, placing his hand on my shoulder to rouse me from my downtime, a sort of trance-like state I had donned. I lightly squeezed Sookie's hand in mine, which registered no response, but it was okay – the steady beep-beep of her heart monitor told me she was alright. Despite the boost Eric's blood would have given the reparative cells of her body and the doctors' ministrations, she had been gravely injured and her body had been through hell. She would need sleep now more than ever.

I laid Sookie's hand down by her side, and rose from my chair. I peered down at my friend, smiling; she looked so peaceful, so serene. I smoothed her hair, brushing the strands of her blonde air behind her ear, and pressed a chaste kiss to her forehead.

"I will come back tomorrow at night's break."

I whispered lowly to Sookie, knowing it was unlikely she would hear me, but wanting to offer comforting words all the same.

I silently motioned for Eric to follow me out of the room, and I headed towards the door, not waiting for him to lockstep. Eric lingered for a minute before exiting. His placid countenance belied none of his emotions as he softy shut the door to Sookie's recovery room behind him. But our maker-child bond was tepid and bizarre, almost eerily calm.

Was my child okay? Had something harmed him while I had been focused on Sookie?

Feeling my concern, Eric offered, switching to his native Swedish to hide the contents of our conversation, "The blood tie is strange, Fader. It is as if I am sharing her physical ailments. I imagine now, most of what I am feeling is a result of the morphine drip the doctors have her on."

"So then her pain…"

I asked, also in Swedish; my question unfinished but obvious.

"Was excruciating… I could not shut her out. It became much easier once I had fed, but… is this what sharing blood supposed to be like?"

I left his question hanging in the air, unable to answer it for him.

Like my son, I had only ever fed a human a substantial amount of my blood with intents to make them my child – and not one of them had been a fairy. Vampires and fairies were natural enemies, for reasons that could be easily ascertained. But I was certain that her pain should not have manifested almost corporeally within him; that was simply not how our blood worked. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that I was missing a critical piece of information – that something else must have occurred between them – but I could not bring myself to entertain the thought. Instead, I wracked myself with guilt for diminishing the extent of my child's earlier anguish. I had understood he was distraught, but I had not realized his sufferings went beyond the metaphysical, that his efforts to distract himself were out necessity, and not simply desire.

That would not do; that would not do at all.

We continued to walk down the hallway and out of the hospital, towards the tunnels from which we had come. They would provide some modicum of privacy as we found shelter for the day. While I did not want to infringe on my child, I would not have time to return to Dallas before daybreak. Even if there had been time, I would not leave New Orleans, not without Sookie. She needed a real travel companion; her trial run had proven that to me beyond a shadow of a doubt.

I made a mental note to call my King before sunrise, to report to my King how his message had been received and to provide an excuse for why my return had been delayed.

"May I rest with you, my son?"

"My home is always welcome to you, Fader. So you know, Pam will be with us also."

We descended into the underground, and I stopped Eric once I confirmed we were alone, grabbing him by the arm to impede his hasty stroll.

I growled, "You brought Pam with you to New Orleans… to watch after Sookie?"

The disappointment, and irritation, of my tenor rang through the hallway as I switched from Swedish back to English. I liked Pam; I had no issue with my son's child per se. But I wanted to hide my future child as much as possible from the vampire community, limit the number of those who knew of her existence.

"No, Fader," Eric did not drop his native dialect, something he often did when he feared my wrath, "I called Pam during… Addy's… surgery. The nurse said the hospital needed information – her age, her parents' contact information, address, among other things. Things I did not know, and did not want to disturb you with. I was… indisposed, from the pain and…" He trailed off – we both knew what else he had captured his attentions – before continuing, "Pam is a strong second, and quite adept at sleuthing out information. She found all of the details they required, took care of all of the paperwork."

My anger dispelled instantly. Eric had acted smartly, and with my interests in mind. I would not have dragged myself away from Sookie for anything in that moment. If I had to attend to such trivialities, it would have thrown me into a tailspin, threatened the tenuous hold I had on my emotions. I had already almost lost my composure once that night.

He had made me proud, and this time with no hint of disappointment.

I released Eric's arm from my grip, nodding my thanks and appreciation.

He finally switched back to English, to crush any lingering concerns I had to dust, "I have commanded Pam not to relay any of the specifics she secured, anything she has learned, or to even speak of… Addy… to anyone."

I could plainly see my son was taking great pains not to call her Sookie. Perhaps he was finally warming to her, and perhaps not just because he was in her blood.

"It is not your fault," I said softly, speaking to my son in a voice I had never used with him, "what happened to Sookie, I mean. It is not your fault, and I do not blame you."

He nodded his acceptance, and I turned to vamp away, beat the sun to his safe house.

We reached our destination minutes before sunrise, and locked ourselves into separate light-tight spaces without sharing another word. I shared quick words with my King about Sophie Anne, the Louisiana Queen. When I hung up, my mind flooded with the insecurities I had been holding at bay.

Had I made a mistake?

Surely, Sookie would agree that saving her humanity had been a more important endeavor than entertaining her inane fears regarding a building and its occupants. Many humans were touted to be scared of 'the doctor.' I shrugged Eric's assertion that she had begged him not to take her, to turn her instead – it must have been the blood loss. She was not in her right mind in that moment, not herself.

I succumbed to my day death, sure that I had, in fact, made the right choice.

The walls were shaking violently as I woke that night, my consciousness returning on a dime. Instantly, my senses tingled, and I jumped to my feet, on high alert. An undeniable roar pervaded the house, echoing from the floors to the rafters. I imagined at its decibel it could be heard from the street.

Eric.

I was on my feet immediately, tearing the door off its hinges, and tossing it aside like it was paper. My fangs snicked down as I readied to strike at whatever was attacking my child, causing him such agony and turmoil. He had to have been woken from his own day death, which held the implication his anguish was life-threatening. Otherwise, his age only allowed him to rise an hour or so before the sun at most, which was less than my age afforded me.

I was going to rip the intruder limb from limb, inviting my bloodlust to overtake me as I stalked through the shadowed space. Never had I been so grateful my son had invested in human's tinting technologies, which had given him access to prototypes that effectively shut out the sun. Without his philanthropy, I risked losing him, unable to leave my room. Before my beast consumed me, I made small blessings to my gods, thanking them for the boon.

I quickly flew to the source of the noise, and punched my hands through the door, splinters flying through the air as I wildly gestured my hand to bat them away. A few penetrated my skin, but not my heart, so I paid them no mind. I blurred into the room – my hands curled into claws – eager to save my son and destroy the encroacher.

But Eric was alone, bloody tears streaming down his face in tracks. He clutched at his head, still screaming as if he was being attacked by an invisible force. As I gazed upon him, I sobered instantly.

'What is happening?' I thought, my face betraying my confusion.

"Addy..." He sputtered out through gritted teeth, trying to bite back his pain, "She... is... in... trouble."

Little did I know, truer words had never been spoken.