A/N: Howdy! I am back again with another chapter! And YnB Chapter 27 will be up tomorrow (also known as When Godric Met Sookie)! And Chapter 10 is started! It's a big deal. For me, at least. Believe me. Writing has been HARD!

Thanks to Houndlover for the middle of the night pep talks and hand-holding, and ilovemysteries for another warpspeed turnaround.

Chapter 9

After the donors left, Eric held Sookie back when she tried to follow them. He led her over to the bed, the only piece of furniture in the room, and sat down with her standing in front of him.

"Sookie, the different supernatural species generally either keep to their own kind, or have sex with humans."

She crossed her arms. "That 'generally' is doing a lot of heavy lifting. My wolves are my family. They're my best friends and my fuck buddies, too. That's not because of what they are or despite what they are. It's because of who they are. I don't give a fuck that they're Weres. And they don't give a fuck that I'm a telepath. Or even a vampire."

"Are you absolutely sure about that?"

"Yes, actually, I am. At first, I wasn't. There was a block there. But I am absolutely positive now. I saw it in their heads. The part that made me other to them just went away. It happened with Teddy too, as a matter of fact."

Very strange. If it was some kind of gift, he had never heard of anything like it.

"You are very on edge. Your anger is making it worse. Vampires require the release of sex. Newborns especially. You haven't had sex since you rose Vampire. You should pick another donor - a human - and fuck and feed."

"The reason I'm so on edge is because I'm really fucking pissed off at you. I'm not going to have sex with you standing there watching me."

"You are young and require supervision, especially your first time." He grinned and waggled his eyebrows at her. "We can have a threesome, if you would prefer."

She walked up to him and stood between his legs. She licked her lips, leaned forward, and whispered in his ear, "I would fuck a million Weres before I would even think about fucking you. I would rather set myself on fire than have sex with you right now."

She pulled back and looked him in the eye before turning on her heel, leaving the room and slamming the door. He heard a muffled, "Which way to the salon, please?"

Had he really thought her timid?

He was back at her side in a flash.

"Be that as it may, Sookie, you will need to have sex very soon."

She stopped and turned to him.

"I know. You told me I could see my wolves before we go to Shreveport. I'm going to fuck Alcide and Jake and maybe Maria-Star."

And he felt her lust for them through the bond. Fuck!

"How could you want to fuck and feed from Weres more than humans? They smell and taste disgusting!"

"No, they don't. They just smell and taste different. Wilder." And by the dreamy look on her face, and her desire in the bond, he could tell that she meant it. "Hadley smells better, but…"

"Hadley smells like a poor imitation of you."

Her stomach did that stupid flip flopping thing again, and her thoughts went straight to sitting between his legs with his fangs in her throat. Why did he have to make her feel this way? Especially now! She turned and started walking quickly away from him again.

Eric realized that, other than Sookie's blood, he hadn't fed in days. And he hadn't fucked in over a week. And what he really wanted was more of her. In every way.

He caught up to her again and grabbed her arm and turned her to face him.

"Hadley does smell good, and if you need to get close to her, you might lose control. You should have sex, Sookie."

She wished he would stop talking about it. She hadn't even really wanted to have sex until he started bringing it up all the goddamn time. He was looming over her, so big and intimidating, and she wanted to push him away and slap his face and tell him to go to hell and have him push her up against a wall and bite her and fuck her senseless. Instead, she yanked her arm out of his hand. "She's my cousin. It's not like I'm going to rape my cousin."

He took a step toward her and she took a step back. "She's the Queen's favourite pet. Any step out of line could be taken the wrong way."

She took another step back and was against the wall. Shit. "You said that they would make allowances because I'm so young."

He closed the distance and leaned in to whisper in her ear. "Unless they are looking for an excuse to get to me."

She looked up at him and their eyes locked. She wanted him so bad but, at the same time, she was so angry at him that she could throw up. If that was even possible.

He felt her indecision. And her want. Her need. It was as strong as his own. He leaned forward slowly, his eyes still locked on hers, and their lips were almost touching when she whispered, "You said that you wouldn't touch me against my will."

He froze. Anger and guilt quickly replaced lust. She looked away and he stepped back. She took a deep breath and walked around him and into the salon. He had no choice but to follow behind her.

Sophie-Anne waved at the couch and Sookie sat down next to Hadley after doing another awkward curtsy. Eric sat beside her. He couldn't decide whether he was angrier at Sookie or himself, but he needed to let all of that go and be on high alert. Pissed at her or not, he wanted to herd her into a corner and stand guard over top of her.

Sookie looked around the room. The Queen and Andre were sitting in big fancy chairs. The two big guys were behind them. There were a couple of other vampires on the other couch. One was kind of handsome, but also kind of old. And so old fashioned! The other one was...

"Sookie, this is Bill Compton and Bubba." Sophie-Anne made sure to emphasize Bubba's name. Sookie got the idea she shouldn't use his real one.

The other couch was kind of like a sideburn convention. Sookie was more than a little star struck. "Bubba" was southern royalty. Even if he was dead. Or undead, as the case may be.

"It is such a pleasure to meet you both."

Bill said, "The pleasure is all mine."

Bubba said, "Thank you. Thank you very much."

Sookie had to swallow to keep from laughing out loud, but she kept herself under control.

Bill was staring at her, and it was really starting to make her uncomfortable. Unconsciously, she moved a little closer to Eric.

Sophie-Anne said, "Eric, tell me what you know about Pam's final death."

"I know very little. We met up on Sunday night. Sookie and I hit it off, and we went to my safehouse. Pam was going back to Shreveport. I was under the impression she was leaving immediately, but it was some time later that I felt her final death.

"I tried to track down her final movements by phone, but I couldn't leave Sookie. I found Pam's remains back in the hotel room after Sookie rose on Wednesday night. There was a stake, but I couldn't identify a scent. There was no video footage to see. I glamoured the front desk staff and the valet, and nobody remembers seeing anything out of the ordinary."

Sookie listened in hard to Hadley's brain, but she just wasn't really connecting to what Eric was saying. Hadley just wasn't a very empathetic person, and if something didn't really affect her, she just didn't seem to care that much. And Hadley didn't care much at all about Pam being finally dead. Sookie caught her eyes and sent Had her thoughts.

Think about staking Pam.

And Sookie saw the whole thing from Hadley's perspective: finding Pam's car in the lot, going inside, taking the elevator up to the penthouse after putting the keycard in the slot, knocking on the door and calling out, "Room service!", staking Pam, moving the do not disturb sign, and then leaving. There was no doubt that she had done it. Sookie felt a tear well up in her eye and she forced it back.

But the memory had no emotional connection to it at all. Had hadn't done it for greed or power or jealousy or anger or revenge or anything! Ambiguous was too strong a word for how she felt. It was the weirdest thing Sookie had ever seen. It was almost like Hadley wasn't even aware that she had been the one to do it. She caught Hadley's eyes again and sent her another thought.

Think about why you staked Pam.

There was just a big hole there. Hadley had been glamoured to forget. The only thing Sookie could get was a woman's voice saying, "Sophie-Anne says hi." It wasn't Hadley's voice; it had a bit of an accent, but not a Louisiana one. It could have been Sophie-Anne's, but Sookie wasn't sure. It didn't really sound the same.

Eric watched Sophie-Anne and Andre for any reaction or change in expression. They gave nothing away. They seemed too guarded.

Sophie-Anne turned to Sookie.

"And tell me how you became Eric Northman's newest child."

Sookie looked up at Eric and quickly looked away. He pushed calm at her. Why hadn't Sophie-Anne just asked him?

"I met Pam at a rave. We went back to Eric's hotel suite. Eric and I met and it was kind of intense? He asked me to be his child, and explained what it all meant, and I agreed."

Sophie-Anne looked at Bill and laughed.

"I had plans to send Bill Compton to Bon Temps to procure you as the royal telepath once you graduated high school and came of age. Instead, you've saved us all the trouble. If I have use of your gift, I will just contact Eric."

Sookie could feel that Eric didn't like that very much, but he didn't reply. Bill didn't look thrilled about the whole thing, either.

Eric said, "Your Highness, we are heading back to Shreveport on Saturday, unless there's something you need from me first."

"No, Eric. That's fine. We may be stopping by sometime soon. I know Hadley would love to have a chance to catch up a little more with her cousin."

Eric and Sophie-Anne discussed a little bit of Vampire business and Sookie tried to keep herself together. She knew it would be rude to talk to Hadley while the Queen was speaking, so she just kept her mouth shut. Hadley was the only human in the room, and her brain had gone back to really explicit thoughts about the Queen, so Sookie pulled up her shields and just kind of spaced out. When Eric said something about leaving, she came back to herself. She felt a little better. Refreshed.

They stood up, and she did that awkward curtsy again. She felt a cold chill up her spine, and Andre's gaze on her breasts and Bill Compton's on her behind. She barely held in a shudder.

"It was very nice to meet y'all."

She wanted Eric to take her hand, but she also didn't. And he didn't. She tried not to be disappointed. She walked with him out to the front of the palace. He chatted with Rasul while waiting for the valet to return with his Corvette, and she tried not to fidget from foot to foot. Finally, the car arrived and they got in.

He pulled over a couple of blocks away and swept the car for bugs. It was clean. Before getting back on the road, he turned to Sookie.

"What did you find out?"

"Hadley did it, but not because she wanted to."

"Glamoured?"

"Yeah."

His expression hardened. "By whom?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Everything is gone. It's just a big empty space. Except for one sentence - 'Sophie-Anne says hi'. Hadley said it to Pam before she staked her. But someone told her to. I don't know who. A woman. I guess it could be Sophie-Anne. She had a bit of an accent. I only heard the voice."

"You did very well. I am very proud of you."

She felt the warmth swell up in her chest. Damn him.