A/N: After staring at three or four paragraphs for months on end, sometimes adding a few words or maybe even a sentence and a half or so and sometimes writing something, hating it, and then scowling and deleting everything as theatrically as possible, finally FINALLY the damn dam broke free and I was able to tack 3000 more words or so onto the end of this last night. Thank fuck. I have two looong scenes already written that I will have to stitch in where they belong, and I have pretty much every damn thing plotted out. Which, as a general rule, I don't really do. Hopefully I can keep up the momentum.

BAS 17 is almost half finished, too. This is all kind of when pinkie got her groove back or something. Except probably not. Sorry. Insomnia is back and I'm semi-incoherent.

Chapter 28

When Sookie rose the next evening, Eric was already alive for the night. He was sitting on the edge of the bed with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. Worried, she touched his back and he jumped. She thought that he must have been very deep into his thoughts to have not noticed her before then.

He turned and smiled at her, but she was frowning at him. He leaned over and kissed her gently. "I'm fine, Sookie. It is just being back here. I have been thinking about Pam often."

Her eyes softened and she wrapped her arms around him. Pam's final death had only been a few weeks back and it was still very fresh. He held her tight and buried his nose in her hair and inhaled. She caught a hint of guilt from him before he closed the bond and she pulled away and looked in his eyes.

"I know you loved her, Eric. I don't want you to ever feel like you have to hide that from me."

His eyes were so soft and a little sad. He leaned forward and kissed her gently and she kissed him back, lightly touching his cheek with her fingers. She pulled away and looked at him for a few seconds.

"Will you please make love to me?"

He smiled and kissed her again. She wanted him — always — but this time it was for him. And it worked. Soon he was putting all of himself into loving her and she was doing the same thing back. When they finished, they got in the shower and did it again.

It was the night of the shorter, less formal get-together at Sophie-Anne's compound. They had to be there at ten o'clock so they needed to leave by nine fifteen. Eric would take her to meet her wolves at midnight before going back inside the palace.

He was looking at himself in the mirror, adjusting his tie. He was so beautiful that it almost made her ache. She looked down at what she was wearing and was suddenly convinced that her sexy/flirty/slutty little black dress was all wrong. She'd done a good job of keeping herself distracted so far, but it was almost time to leave and she was getting more and more positive that she was going to completely embarrass him and herself. She grew up poor in an abusive home and then dropped out of school at fifteen to run away and live on the streets. She had only been a vampire for a couple of months and hadn't really interacted much with any other ones except Eric. She had no real idea of how she was supposed to behave in any formal situation, let alone knowing how to navigate vampire diplomacy.

He felt her turmoil and turned around, his face soft but serious. He wrapped his hands gently around her upper arms and looked hard into her eyes. "Sookie, just be yourself. You will do fine. I will be right there with you, but it doesn't matter. Everyone will be charmed by you. They always are."

He leaned forward and kissed her forehead and then looked into her eyes again, smiling. She smiled and nodded back.

He looked down, finally really seeing her for the first time. After a long, slow gaze, he kissed her hard again and she could feel his fangs against her tongue and his cock hard against her abdomen.

"You look perfectly delicious, Sookie."

She smiled and reached up, adjusting his already straight tie until it was straight again and smoothing a non-existent piece of hair back from his face. "There. Now you're perfectly delicious, too. Just like always. I love you, Eric."

He kissed her again, gently this time. "And I love you. And I would dearly love another taste but, unfortunately, it is time to leave. Are you ready to go?"

She shrugged and then nodded. "Yeah. I guess so."

She was still anxious, but she felt a lot better. Even more when he took the Cadillac and held her hand the whole way there. Touching him always helped to calm her down when she was freaking out inside.

They left the car with a valet and she took his arm. They were met out front by the guards. It was Rasul and Melanie, just like last time, and Sookie smiled at them.

"Well, hey! I remember you."

They both smiled back. Rasul was showing a fair bit of fang.

"Hello, pretty lady."

Sookie beamed at him. Eric narrowed his eyes a bit in warning.

"Rasul. Melanie."

Melanie smirked a little at his tone and then turned to Sookie. "You look a lot more at ease than the last time I saw you."

"Oh, I'm still really nervous, but it's nice to see a couple of friendly faces."

Rasul winked at her. "You will charm the fangs off of everyone, I'm sure."

Eric raised an eyebrow and the guards parted to let them past.

The closer they got to the ballroom, the more nervous she became. When they were just outside the door, she stopped and looked up at him. He smiled back down at her. She loosened her grip on his elbow and he took her hand and squeezed it gently.

"Do not worry. You will be perfect."

He leaned down and kissed her softly and then moved a little to whisper in her ear. It was barely a breath.

"You will listen?"

She pulled back and nodded. She was going to keep her shields down in case someone thought about Pam.

He opened the door and they walked inside with his hand resting on the small of her back. There were maybe thirty vampires and a handful of humans standing in groups of three or four or five. The queen held Andre's arm and was greeting her guests, flanked by her Saxon bodyguards, Wybert and Sigebert. They were both her children and were brothers twice over, by birth and by blood.

A waiter carried a tray of champagne flutes filled with blood and Eric waved him down and took two. She accepted the glass that he passed to her, but she was a little too nervous to drink. She leaned into him a little bit closer and he took her free hand and kissed it. She smiled up at him and he kissed it again. She closed her eyes and breathed out a lot of her tension.

"Sookie!"

Hadley ran over and wrapped her arms right around her cousin. She would have knocked human Sookie over, but as Vampire, she hadn't even spilled a drop of blood. Sookie smiled and hugged her back, one armed.

"Hey, Had! It's great to see you."

Hadley still smelled good, but Sookie wasn't even remotely tempted this time. She smiled and held her a little tighter, but Eric stiffened.

Sookie grabbed Hadley's hand and pulled her away. "Let's go catch up."

Sookie led Hadley to the nearest corner and set her glass down on a table. Sookie could still feel the jolt of his rage in her chest. She didn't think that she needed to worry about him losing control and getting them all killed, but getting Hadley away from him seemed like the best course of action, just in case.

Hadley was oblivious and chatted away to Sookie about her life as the queen's favourite pet. Sookie watched him across the room. He was speaking to a group of vampires and looked as at ease as someone prepared for a fight could, but she could feel his growing anger and suspicion. She could see in the way that he was carrying himself that he was feeling surprised and concerned by his unexpected reaction to seeing Hadley. This whole trip was bringing back memories that she thought he maybe wasn't ready to deal with yet. At least not while trying to navigate the muddy waters of a week-long vampire symposium hosted by his child's likely murderer-by-proxy, the queen he'd sworn fealty to. She wished that her touch could calm him the way that he calmed her. As soon as she could ditch Hadley, she would try. At least to make herself feel better.

She wondered if she could send him some of her strength through the bond the way that he did for her. She tried, somehow finding her own place of calm and sharing it with him. She saw his eyes widen for a fraction of a second and he glanced at her, flashing her that sexy half grin.

She listened to Hadley with her ears and her mind, but she really needed to get inside her head. Hadley wasn't zoned out, lost in her own thoughts the way she'd been the last time Sookie had glamoured her. Hadley was nearly effervescent. Someone in a room full of vampires would notice if she glamoured Hadley now. Sookie slowly shifted and shuffled and moved them around until Hadley had her back to most of the room. Sookie knew that she had to be quick.

Why did you stake Pam?

Nothing.

Who told you to stake Pam?

Nothing.

Is the one who told you here tonight?

A brief look of confusion.

Why did you stake Pam?

All she got was the same slightly accented English as last time, saying, "Sophie-Anne says hi."

She blew out a shaky breath and then let go of Hadley's mind seconds before the queen called out to her.

"Hadley!"

Hadley turned, staring at her mistress with a combination of lust, love and wonder. She almost skipped to Sophie-Anne's side and the queen stroked her hair. Eric broke away from the vampires he was talking to and joined Sookie a moment before the queen did.

Sookie bobbed a quick curtsey. "Your Majesty."

Eric nodded deeply, his ire locked down tight. "Sophie-Anne. As always, it is a pleasure to see you and your children. Where is Waldo tonight?"

She grinned a little. "Waldo has been a very bad boy again and is spending a little bit of time in the dungeon."

Eric pasted a convincing smile on his face. "Oh? What did he do this time?"

She sighed. "Jealous again. I doted too much in the early years, I'm afraid."

Eric raised an eyebrow, inviting her to continue. Sookie was impressed with how naturally amused he came across, no matter how much churning she felt through the bond.

The queen continued, "I told him and the others that I would be turning Hadley immediately after the ball. It is to be held in her honour, my first female child."

Hadley gasped, her eyes shining with excitement. "Mistress!"

She squealed and wrapped her arms around the queen and was seconds from bursting into tears when she was gently pushed away. It was definitely not behaviour suited to the occasion. Sophie-Anne glanced at Andre and he nodded. He caught Hadley's eyes and removed the memory. It wasn't the first time.

Eric glanced at Sookie, wondering if this was Hadley's reward for killing his child. And, if so, was Sophie-Anne enjoying having him there to celebrate Pam's final death, whether he knew it or not?

He reached down and took Sookie's hand and she nearly melted against him. Her touch helped him relax a bit, too. She looked up at him, anxious and upset at the news about her cousin, and he squeezed her hand a little tighter. She was Vampire now. Eventually, she would understand.

Sophie-Anne said, "I have some vampires I'd like you to meet. Hadley, spend some more time catching up with your cousin."

Sookie's anxiety ratcheted up. Eric squeezed her hand again. He leaned down to kiss her and then murmured in her ear. "You will be fine. I will be close by. Nobody will hurt you here."

He pulled back to look at her and she nodded warily. Wybert stepped to the side and stayed several feet away from the girls. Eric hadn't been lying to Sookie about her safety — nobody would dare harm her there under these circumstances — but he felt much better about one of the Berts keeping an eye on her rather than Andre. Sophie-Anne took Eric's arm and led him to the nearest group.

Sookie let Hadley pull her to some seats nearby and she listened to her cousin talk about herself for several more minutes. She also dipped into the humans' minds, one by one, glamouring them quickly and digging for information. She found nothing.

After Hadley had run out of things to say, she looked at Sookie and grinned, a very familiar evil glint in her eye. She and Hadley had been close growing up. As close as they could have been, considering. They'd looked out for each other as much as they could and had gotten into enough mischief together that Sookie recognized the look immediately. Now it was time for Hadley to drag every piece of dirt she could from Sookie.

"So, is he as incredible in bed as I've heard? I've seen how big his cock is. Yum. I'd join you both for a threesome but Sophie-Anne would kill me."

Literally.

Sookie all but ignored the jolt of possessiveness; between Eric's feelings and the queen's, Hadley was definitely no threat to her. And she let her guard down a little and grinned back. She had missed this.

"Incredible doesn't even come close. It doesn't matter if he makes love to me for hours or pounds me into next week. It's all mind blowing."

"I've never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you. He is so fucking sexy and you're all his. Does he treat you alright?"

Sookie nodded and smiled. "He's been wonderful. So gentle and patient and kind, at least most of the time. I… I'm in love with him. A lot."

Hadley laughed. "Gentle and patient and kind are not words I've ever heard used to describe Eric Northman."

Sookie shrugged. It was true.

Hadley sighed. "Fuck, you're lucky, though. And not just because of your dead-sexy maker. I wish I could get Sophie-Anne to turn me."

Sookie bit her lip. Fortunately, Hadley didn't notice. She shook off her wistfulness and bounced to her feet. "I gotta pee, Sook! Be back in a few!"

Wybert followed close behind Hadley and Sookie shrank into her seat with no distractions or buffers. Eric was across the ballroom, still with the queen holding tight to the crook of his elbow. A few groups had joined together and there were more than a dozen vampires standing in a loose circle, talking. Still no humans in attendance were thinking anything incriminating. Sookie was about to glamour the wait staff when a vampire walked over and stopped a few feet away from her.

"It is lovely to see you again. Would it be alright if I sat with you for a time? I would very much like to get to know you a little bit better."

She looked up at him. She wanted to say no, but she didn't really feel like she could. She needed to be on her best behaviour.

"Um. Sure? I guess so. It's Bill, right?"

Bill's smile widened and his fangs had run out a little. She tried not to notice. She hated the way he was looking at her, staring at her breasts and legs and throat. He pinched the fronts of his pant legs and sat down beside her.

"Yes. And you are the lovely Miss Stackhouse. Hadley has told me that she lived in your grandmother's house, right across the cemetery from my ancestral home."

"Oh! Well isn't that something?"

Sookie hadn't been to her grandparents' house in years. Her aunt Linda had inherited it after the flood and it wasn't too long after that that she'd reported Michelle for child abuse. Sookie had been forbidden to go there after that. She had snuck over a couple of times to visit and when she and Hadley had skipped school, but Hadley had run away when Sookie was still in the sixth grade and Hadley was in the eighth.

Bill looked down the front of Sookie's dress and his fangs ran out a little more.

"You know, I feel a real connection with you. I'm sure that part of it is because of where we come from but there must be more. Please. Tell me about yourself."

Sookie searched the room for Eric again. Sophie-Anne was still with the larger group but Eric was not. She found him in the far corner, having what looked like a very serious conversation with another vampire. She had her back to Sookie, so there wasn't a whole lot that she could see.

"Miss Stackhouse..?"

Sookie dragged her eyes back to Bill Compton. "Sorry. I was just looking for my master."

The broad hint didn't seem to have made any impression, even though she'd trotted out the one word that she didn't really say. She sighed. "There's not much to tell, really. I grew up in Bon Temps. I left as soon as I could get away, when I was fifteen, and moved here to New Orleans. Eric turned me a couple of months ago, on my seventeenth birthday, and we've been living in Bossier City pretty much ever since."

"And you are a telepath. And very beautiful."

Bill picked up her hand and kissed it. Sookie pulled it away as soon as he released it and wiped it surreptitiously on the skirt of her dress. She searched for Eric again.

"Miss Stackhouse… May I call you Sookie?"

Sookie glanced at him and shrugged. "Ok."

"Sookie, my dear, I could never come between a child and her maker, but —"

"And so it shall remain. Bill."

Eric glared at him from just a few feet away, his irises ringed in red.

"Eric. I was just speaking to your child. She is absolutely exquisite and a true Southern belle. I wanted to congratulate you again."

Eric cut him off again. "Thank you. She is mine and she will always be mine. Goodbye, Bill."

Bill turned to Sookie and opened his mouth. Eric glared at him and bared his fangs in a predatory grin.

"Goodbye Bill."

Having completely dismissed Bill Compton, Eric turned to Sookie and his expression softened.

"It is time for you to go to your wolves."

Sookie smiled happily and scrambled to her feet. For a moment, she seemed to radiate sunshine. Many in the room took notice and immediately wanted her.

Sookie took his arm and he led her to the queen to thank her for the evening and say goodbye. As they were leaving the ballroom, they passed a human who was looking hungrily at Eric. She glanced at Sookie.

Out with the old, in with the new.

Sookie frowned, turning her head to watch the human disappear out of sight. She found the human's brain, glamoured her, and shuffled through the human's memories. They were riddled with holes. She had been glamoured many many times. Sookie silently asked probing questions and searched on her own, but she couldn't find anything else that seemed relevant.

They walked out of the Palace entrance and onto the sidewalk. A Dixieland band played on the street corner and Sookie took a deep breath and smiled. Pretty much everything about that function had sucked, but it was so nice to be home in New Orleans.

Eric looked down at her. "Did you hear anything?"

She shrugged. "I don't think so? Someone thought out with the old, in with the new as we were leaving, after looking at me. She is definitely one of the queen's donors."

"Anything else?"

"There was a bunch of memory footage of the palace and the New Orleans vampires. Other than that, just a whole lot of the empty spaces that glamouring leaves behind."

He wasn't sure. It may just have been gossip about Pam's death, followed so closely by his new child's rising. It could also be something significant, but he had no idea how to tell. Being able to see and hear the memories, sort through them and silently ask questions gave Sookie a much more powerful and nuanced glamour than any vampire he'd ever heard of, so it was useless for him to try. He would only go in circles and erase even more of her memories. He was disappointed but he leaned down and kissed the top of her head, burying his nose in her hair.

"Sunshine!"

She was suddenly surrounded by her pack, and their greetings were as loud and exuberant as ever. Eric stepped to the side and waited patiently until they had all settled down. He pulled Sookie over for a kiss. She had meant to ask him about the woman he'd been talking to but she hadn't really had the chance. She would ask later.

She kissed him and said goodbye and they set out towards Bourbon Street, laughing and talking happily. Tray stayed behind for a moment. Somehow, in New Orleans, he had just become one of her wolves.

"I'll keep her safe."

Eric nodded. He trusted him to.

Eric watched Tray catch up with the rest before he turned to go back inside, setting his jaw.