A/N: Well, howdy! Yes, this took too long, and I'm very sorry. I do have a CTD chapter betaed and ready to go that I plan to release on Sunday! And 19 has been started. Only the lemony part so far, but still. :P

Chapter 18

His dayman had tried to burn him in his rest. Him and his new child. Nobody could have known that she would save them. Was it jealousy? Had Bobby Burnham held some ridiculous misguided notion that Eric would someday make him his?

Eric's fangs snicked down and his eyes were flat and cold. The whole world seemed to shift and Sookie was back in the hotel after she'd risen vampire. Her stomach dropped and she took three big steps back and tripped over her own feet. In her mind, she was falling from the penthouse window after the monster with fangs and glowing red eyes had terrified her so much that she'd chosen falling to her death over facing him. Before she'd known that she was a monster, too. Before she'd fallen in love with him.

Her fear hit him like a punch to the stomach. So much had happened in such a short time - it had only been three nights since they'd done the exchange with the knife and then made love for the first time, and only seven since she'd risen vampire - and now he was afraid that they had lost much of the ground that they'd gained.

Bobby nearly forgotten, Eric knelt down in the hall next to her. He didn't know whether or not to touch her. "Sookie. It's alright. Please."

She hesitated for a second and then threw herself into his arms. She clung to him and sobbed into his chest, and he kissed the top of her head and stroked her hair and wondered how in the hell this had become his life. For better or for worse. And they'd already had plenty of both. Eric scooped her up and carried her to the living room. He sat down in the oversized chair that Pam had bought just for him, and he held his new child.

Eventually, she stopped crying. She took a shaky breath and blew it out.

"I got blood all over your shirt again."

He chuckled and kissed the top of her head. "I still don't give a fuck about my shirt." He tilted her chin up with his knuckle and licked the blood off of her cheeks before he kissed her gently. "Better?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry. I got scared and just kind of panicked again."

"I know." Now that she had herself mostly back under control, he was very anxious to hear more about Bobby. But he needed to stay patient. She had been through so much, and his first instinct was to protect her. Even from her own state of mind, and even though he was dying to know what had happened and why. He wondered if this, his protectiveness, was triggered by yet another one of her gifts. Or was it just his feelings for her, which were growing both more and less complicated?

She took another shaky breath, put her head on Eric's shoulder, and started to talk.

"I was keeping a close eye on Bobby's thoughts because of what a dick he was last time." She sounded almost apologetic. He squeezed her a little bit tighter and she continued. "His brain sort of glitched when you told him he'd have to meet with the insurance agent and maybe talk to the police. Kind of like he was trying to make a connection, but he just couldn't get there. Like there's a word stuck on the tip of your tongue, but only for a split second and then you forget all about it.

She snuggled in a little closer. "It made me kind of suspicious so, when he was on his way out, I glamoured him to think about the house being burned. He played the whole thing back in his head, but it was like he was unconscious and sleepwalking through it. There was no emotional connection to what he'd done at all. When I glamoured him to show me why he did it, it was gone. A hole where the memory should have been. It was just like Hadley all over again."

"But he remembers doing it?"

Sookie sighed. "Yes and no? The memory is in his brain. I could make him pull it up no problem. But without me there to make him, I'm pretty sure he'll never think about it again. And it wasn't like he did it because he wanted to. He was a puppet. He has no idea that he was responsible for the fire and, really, he wasn't. Hell, he didn't even notice having the memory when I made him have it."

"How did he set the fire?"

"He needed lots of time to get away. He was long gone before I woke up. He used his key to get inside. He put a newspaper sort of half under the couch and put an open bottle of Jack Daniels next to it. He tipped it over so it spilled all over the newspaper and floor, and a little even splashed up on the bottom of the couch. He lit the edge of the paper, and whoomp. It went up like a tinderbox. As soon as the couch caught fire, he took off. "

"And he was definitely glamoured to do it?"

Sookie nodded.

"And you don't know why or by whom?"

"No. Not really. I just got a feeling of revulsion, I guess. And a thought. 'It looks like his skin is going to slide right off of his face.' But I didn't see the guy he was thinking about. And I'm not even sure if it was the one who glamoured him. It might have just triggered another memory. Reminded him of someone else, maybe."

Sookie looked up at Eric. "You aren't going to hurt him, right? Him or Hadley? It wasn't his fault."

Vampires, by nature, are twisty and deceptive and vengeful. He had been guilty of all of those as a human, but they had definitely amplified after he'd been turned. Even before his remaining humanity had bled away over the past thousand years. As far as he knew, it was always that way. Except for Sookie. She didn't have that inherent darkness. And, since she'd become his, even in such a short time, he was afraid that he had lost some of his darkness, too. He certainly had when it came to her.

"No. I won't harm him. But I will need to glamour him and let him go."

Sookie nodded. Bobby was a danger to them both now. "My telepathy has always been stronger when I'm touching someone. Maybe if I hold on to his hand and ask him some questions, I can find more information so we can figure out who it was first."

"That won't be necessary. From the description, I am almost certain that it was the queen's child, Waldo. He was punished by his maker, submerged in seawater for years. His skin still hasn't recovered."

It seemed like all roads led back to Sophie-Anne. Was that because she was guilty, or because someone was framing her?

"You like her, don't you?"

"The queen? Yes. She is very brave, and a good leader. I have always respected her. And I thought the feeling was mutual."

They sat together in the chair quietly for some time. Eric was lost in thought until the sun's pull dragged him out of his reverie. It would rise soon. Sookie had fallen asleep (which he still found perplexing and yet strangely endearing), and so he carried her to the master bedroom. He undressed them both, climbed into bed, and held her to him. He buried his nose in her hair, and her scent brought him comfort as he drifted into his rest.

When Sookie woke the next evening, Eric was spooned behind her, kissing her right behind her ear. He sucked her earlobe into his mouth and scraped it between his front teeth. He lightly ran his tongue along the shell of her ear and then darted his tongue inside. That always turned her on, but he was just so good at everything. Then again, almost everything about him turned her on.

He started kissing her neck and caressed her waist and hip and stomach with his hand. He slid it up to her chest and cupped her breast, gently stroking her nipple with his thumb. He was hard against her ass, and she pushed back against him. He slowly ran his hand down her side and then grabbed his cock. She was so wet, and he ran the head back and forth against her and then slid inside.

They moved slowly against each other, his hand lightly rubbing circles on her stomach. She hooked her knee over his leg behind her so he could go deeper, and he moved his hand down to her clit and used his fingers, circling with just the right amount of pressure. She reached her arm back around him and twined her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck. She turned her head and kissed him.

A few minutes later, she pulled her mouth away and untangled her fingers. She moved her hair away from her neck to give him better access and then threaded her fingers with his between her legs. She slowly glided their hands up her body to her mouth. He placed wet sucking kisses from her ear to her shoulder, and she sucked his fingers clean before she bit the inside of his wrist and he bit her neck.

Their pace was so slow and, despite the blood exchange, her orgasm seemed to gradually swell and then crest like a wave, crashing over her. It slowly receded the same way. He licked her wounds and then scattered tiny kisses on her neck and shoulder. She turned her head to kiss him again. "Mmmmm. Good morning."

He laughed and kissed her nose. "You mean good evening."

She giggled. "I don't care what time it is. That was really fucking good."

He certainly couldn't disagree. Really fucking good was an understatement. He kissed her again before she turned around in his arms and kissed him face to face.

She scooched down a little so she could lie in his arms with her head against his chest. She buried her nose in the sparse hair between his nipples. He smelled good. It made her feel safe and comfortable. He smelled like home. Not like any of her old homes. He was her home now.

She opened her mouth to tell him that she loved him, but then snapped it shut. She was mortified that she'd come so close to saying it, even though she'd always been very open about her feelings. Well, at least since she'd left Bon Temps. She'd told her wolves that she loved them a hundred times a day.

He sighed and then kissed the top of her head, squeezing her just a little bit tighter. "I know, Sookie. I love you, too."