Well, howdy! Sorry about the absence; life's crazy and so am I. :P But I got mad at angsting over my current lack of angst to write (oh, she's comin'), so I spite-wrote most of three chapters yesterday. Sooooo, that means a three-post week! BAS today, BSC, tomorrow… And SE the day after that!
But now I'm staring at three blank pages. So if I can't churn anything out next week, gimme a gimme?
Chapter 7
The hot water felt so good on her back, but Eric's tongue between her legs felt so much better. He sat on the bottom of the tub and she stood in front of him with her feet spread a little ways apart. She had her hands tangled in his hair and he was doing incredible things to her with his mouth. She wasn't sure if her legs were going to keep on supporting her if he didn't stop soon.
They did, and he grinned up at her after she came all over his face. She smiled dreamily back. She didn't think that she was ever going to get tired of this, and hoped that she wouldn't have to, even if she was conflicted about keeping him secret. But the inner conflict was much quieter than it had been the night before, which was quieter than the night before that. She was pretty sure that it wouldn't be sticking around for long.
He stood up and grabbed the soap and lathered up her breasts. He spent a long time just making sure that they were scrupulously clean, and then did a very thorough job of washing the rest of her. He used a lot of pressure and, although she was still a little sore, her muscles were mostly loose and relaxed when he was done.
She returned the favour, rubbing her soapy hands all over his upper arms and shoulders and chest and back and ass. She washed his abdomen and under his arms and then ran her hands down his sides as she sank to her knees. She pretended that it was to make sure that he was squeaky clean all over, and she washed his legs and then his feet for the second time since she'd found him running down Hummingbird Road two nights before.
She soaped up her hands again and ran them back up his thighs. She made sure to clean all of the nooks and crannies between his legs, and he spread them to give her lots of room to work with. Finally, she wrapped her hand around his very hard cock and stroked. She bit her lip and looked up at him. He smiled back down. She knew that he wanted her, but there was just as much softness in his eyes and his smile as there was heat.
"Kiss me, Sookie."
She did, kissing the tip of his cock and then sucking it into her mouth. She was tentative at first, but soon she was really getting into it. She had never felt as sexy as she did right then, on her knees in front of him with him looking at her just like that. His eyes were almost closed and his mouth was relaxed and she could see his fangs peeking through. And the thought of them buried in her neck or thigh or shoulder while they were making love made her feel even hotter. She was cupping his balls and she slid her tongue inside his foreskin, swirling it around the head as she held him steady. She slid the foreskin back, exposing his glans, and sucked gently before flicking her tongue on the underside, just in behind.
He was huge, and she knew that there was no way that she was going to come even close to taking him all, so she used her hand, stroking him as she sucked and licked and bobbed her head and made good use of her tongue until he called her name and shot wave after wave of cum into her mouth. She had a momentary twinge of a memory, but then it was gone. Eric felt it, too, and filed the thought away for later.
They quickly dried each other off and couldn't keep their lips to themselves on the way to the bed. She pulled him down on top of her and they kissed for a long time. Eventually, he rolled onto his back and she straddled him and slowly sank down on his cock. He laced his fingers through hers and they made love slowly, holding hands and looking into each other's eyes until hers closed in pleasure when she started to cum. He sat up and kissed her neck and bit her and she came again, right on the heels of the last one. He came, too, and was lost for a time in the smell and taste and feel of her.
When they were both spent, they lay in each other's arms. When Sookie got her breath back, she snuggled in a little closer. He stroked her hair and then kissed the top of her head.
"You are very tired. In pain. Why?"
She sighed. "My old boss, Sam, sold the bar where I work. He's real sweet, and was great to work for, but the new boss… He's from here in Bon Temps and I am not his favourite person. The feeling is mutual. Sam put in the contract that Andy couldn't fire any of the employees for six months, but there wasn't anything in there about trying to make them quit. He ran me ragged, making me haul beer and ice and stock shelves and kept me off the floor so I couldn't make any tips. And he only scheduled me for three days this week."
Eric's eyebrows drew together. "You should not have to work."
"I told you what I think about that. I don't want to be a kept woman. And I like to work, at least when I'm treated well for it. I'll start looking for something else soon, and I'll just make do in the meantime."
They were quiet for a time and Sookie almost fell asleep pressed up against him. His skin was the same temperature as hers, where they were touching, and she felt good and safe in his arms. He kissed the side of her head.
"The pictures on the walls. They are of your family?"
She sighed again. "Yeah, but I don't really have any family left, to speak of. My parents died in a flood when I was seven. My brother and I lived with my grandparents after that. My grandfather died when I was in high school, and Gran died this past June. My aunt Linda died of cancer a few years back and my cousin Hadley ran away and nobody's seen her in a really long time. That's pretty much it."
"And your brother?"
She looked away, and he felt her anger along with some sadness and love and regret. But the anger was strongest.
"We don't speak to each other."
"May I ask why?"
It took her a long time to say anything. He felt something wet and warm on his chest and realized that she was crying. She took a deep breath and it hitched a little.
"There was a serial killer in Bon Temps last year. Jason had been with all three of the dead girls, right before they were killed. They had also all been with vampires, but they weren't drained or anything. They just all had bite marks."
She reached up and touched the ones on her own neck, but she smiled a bit as she did it.
"A vampire showed up at the bar where I work, right in the middle of all of that, and then disappeared. Jason was there that night, too, but I'm sure that the vampire was killed by drainers. I heard them thinking about it a few days later at work. After the last girl, Danielle, was killed, Jason got arrested and was denied bail. The killings stopped, and everyone was sure that Jason was guilty, except for me and Gran and his best friend Hoyt."
She sniffed and then rubbed her eyes with the heel of her hand and then tried to dry off his chest. "Sorry, I got you all wet."
He smiled softly. "I do not mind. Please. I would like to hear the rest."
Her breath hitched again before she continued. "Jason wanted me to go to Fangtasia to see if I could clear his name that way. I… I didn't. I meant to, and I would have, but I was able to read the killer's mind and pointed the police in the right direction before I got a chance. Kind of, anyway. I was sort of seeing my boss Sam at the time, and he was finally going to go with me, after trying to talk me out of it for at least a couple of weeks. Maybe I should have gone sooner by myself but I knew that Sam would have felt like he had no choice but to follow me and I didn't want to put him in that position. And I was scared. Two of the dead girls were my coworkers, and I'd heard them talking about going to Fangtasia not long before they died."
She looked down, hiding her face from him again. For some reason, she felt terribly guilty. He pulled her a little tighter and she went on.
"My new boss, Andy, he was the cop I talked to. I told him that I saw Maudette Pickens's crucifix hanging in plain sight from Rene — that's the killer's — rear view mirror, and that I'd seen her wearing it at the Grabbit Kwik a couple of days before she died. It was mostly true, but, really, it just looked like pretty much any other crucifix. The only way I knew that it was Maudette's was because I was talking to him while he was in his pickup truck in the bar parking lot and I saw what he did to her in his head when it caught the sunlight. Andy thought that I was lying to protect my brother, or had maybe even planted the evidence, but they were able to use the necklace to get a warrant to search his house. The proof was overwhelming. He kept trophies."
She played with the hair below Eric's belly button. She was still crying a little and he stroked her hair and then moved his hand lower, rubbing circles on her back.
"Your brother. You saved him."
She snorted, angry again.
"The day I found out who the killer was, before I'd had a chance to tell anyone but the police, Jason called Gran from jail. He was pissed off at me and yelling at her for not making me go to Fangtasia. By myself, if I had to. Even if I did, I don't think it would have helped; everyone there was either alive or undead, and anyone who'd had a close call would have gone to the cops. And I really doubt that I would've seen Rene there. Even if I did, I saw him all the time at Merlotte's. If he was going to think about it, I'm pretty sure he would have done it at the bar where Dawn and Danielle used to work. But none of that mattered to Jason. I got home from the police station just as Gran collapsed on the floor. I hung up on him and called 911. He had no idea what was going on and I guess he flipped out and punched a guard. Got thrown in solitary. They did come and tell him that she was gone, eventually. And he was out a couple of days later, when they arrested Rene and confirmed that Jason wasn't involved. Just in time for Gran's funeral. He slapped me across the face in the cemetery. Blamed me for everything, including her death, in front of God and everybody. The whole town, pretty much."
Eric seethed. He would kill her brother. Make sure that he could never hurt her again. She splayed her hand out on his chest.
"No. I feel you all tensed up, and you need to calm down. He's my brother and I love him, even if he is a stupid shit most of the time. We just don't see each other anymore. I ignore him if I see him on the street and he doesn't come into the bar when I'm working. Besides, I kind of blame him, too, for yelling at Gran and for being such a manwhore that he got accused in the first place. It wasn't really his fault that she died. If so, we're both to blame. And Jason knows that as well as I do."
"You were not to blame."
She shrugged. "I guess that depends. If the yelling killed her, he wouldn't have yelled if I'd gone to Fangtasia."
She snorted again, and there was even more than a hint of amusement this time. "He'll likely be glad that Andy cut my hours, even if Andy was the one who locked him up in the first place. Was gleeful when he thought Jason was the killer. Obviously I'm the real bad guy. The one who saved his ass and got the killer thrown in prison."
The tears were back, and she wiped at them angrily.
"And Andy is pissed at me, too, because my friend Lafayette died and people thought that Andy did it. And, of course, I was the one who found Lafayette's body in Andy's car in the Merlotte's parking lot. Andy wanted me to help find the killer again. I tried. I really did at first — for Lafayette, not Andy — but I was just done. Especially when I got an idea of who was involved, and where, and why. I was just such a mess after everything else that happened, and I wasn't about to go by myself to a sex party with a bunch of murderers to exonerate Andy Bellefleur. It didn't even matter. Andy went there instead and found them. A bunch of people I've known all my life, having an orgy at Jan Fowler's cabin on Mimosa Lake."
There was a long pause, and Eric thought she was done. He opened his mouth to speak, but she spoke first.
"I don't know what happened. Not really. I've only seen bits and pieces from Andy's head, and he was so drunk that I'm not even sure what's real and what isn't. Everyone died, including my friend Tara. I'm not sure what happened to them, but it was horrible. And then the cabin burned down, and their bodies all burned with it. I'm sure that Andy didn't do it, even though he was the only one there who survived. Well, except for a beautiful naked woman, covered in dirt and twigs, holding a magic wand with some kind of tuft on top. Oh, and the stray dog that I call Dean who sometimes hangs out by the dumpsters behind the bar. That's what Andy thinks he saw, anyway."
"The woman with the wand. It sounds like she might be a Maenad."
Sookie propped herself up on her elbow and looked at him, her tears forgotten. "Maenad… I thought that they were women driven mad by the god, Bacchus. What in the world was she doing out there in the woods?"
He shrugged. "You said that there was an orgy. Maenads are attracted to alcohol and sex and debauchery. I'm sure that she killed your friend and the others."
Sookie thought about that for a minute or two and then sighed. "I guess it doesn't really matter now, but Andy was eventually cleared. Lafayette's wallet and clothes and blood were found in one of the car trunks outside the lakehouse. It was too late; Andy had already tanked his career and drank himself into a drinking problem. That's why he bought the bar, with his grandmother's money. I'm pretty sure that he knows that I know that he was there, and that he had threatened them with his gun."
Eric thought for a moment. "I don't think a Maenad would have started the fire. I have no idea if I've met one myself, but I understand that they never clean up their messes. She would have seen no need to cover up her handiwork."
"Well, I did hear that it was definitely arson. If it wasn't Andy or the Maenad, then I don't know who could have set it."
He smiled. "Must have been the dog."
Finally, she smiled back. "Well, if Maenads and vampires are real, then why not a canine arsonist? Too bad he was a collie instead of a setter. A fire setter."
He laughed and leaned over and kissed her. He would have to tell her about shifters another night. She was very tired, and he wanted very much to make love to her again before she slept.
And he did.