AN: Let me know what you think, and enjoy!

Chapter Eleven

Season 2, Episode 11

Frenzy

They left immediately. The moment the sun had set, Eric made the arrangements, and checked them out of the hotel. They didn't speak to one another as they packed, as they rode to the airport, or on the plane. In fact, they barely looked at one another. Eric was fine with the silence, and Maria seemed to be the same.

Periodically, he would steal glances of her on the jet. Each time, she was staring into nothing with her hand clasped firmly on the cross around her neck. It caused him to narrow his eyes skeptically. He still didn't understand why Godric gifted it to her, or why he insinuated it was hers to begin with. Godric had owned that piece of jewelry for decades, much longer than she'd been alive. Maria held no claim over it.

He pushed the thought from his mind at first, but each time he looked to her on their way home and found Maria holding it, or simply saw it lying against her chest, a pang of jealousy swept through him. It was childish and he was well aware of the fact, but the truth was, Eric felt the necklace should belong to him, Godric's child. Not Maria.

His emotions finally got the better of him by the time they made it to his house. Maria had gone to her room to unpack and he attempted to do the same, but found it difficult to walk past her bedroom. Instead, he lingered in the doorway watching her. Each time she leaned forward and the cross swung under its own weight, his jealousy sparked with life. Eventually, it became too much for him and he reacted. If he wasn't so worn and distraught over Godric's passing, he likely wouldn't have reacted as erratically as he had, but that wasn't the case.

Eric charged into the bedroom on his toes, making nearly no noise as he glided to her side. He wrapped his pale hand around the cross with every intention of yanking it from her neck, but Maria caught him. She held his wrist so tightly, Eric was certain he felt the tiny bones shift and crack beneath her small hand.

Maria stared up at him through her lashes. Her eyes shined with that vicious green fire once again. Even so close, Eric swore they pulsated like the element, but he wasn't going to back down.

"That doesn't belong to you." He told her in a dangerously tight voice.

"Yes, it does." She hissed through her teeth.

"It's mine." He jerked, but she refused to give him enough leeway to accomplish anything.

"It belonged to my father."

Eric saw red. Godric was his father, not hers. How dare she take something that clearly belonged to Eric.

The altercation that transpired was violent and primal. Maria went after him with a blind fury that surprised Eric. This battle lacked the playful undertones that their previous fight held. Then, both of them knew it wasn't real. The fight in Dallas was simply to satiate his desire to hunt, but that was no longer the case. Maria was frantic and determined, but that didn't stop him from trying to get the necklace from her.

Maria was quick and agile. Eric would never admit that her anger gave him more trouble than he would have thought. Thankfully, his blood had left her system, otherwise he might have been unable to fight her at all, but he was still older, still stronger. It took a few minutes, but eventually he was able to snatch the necklace from her neck, snapping the chain in the process. Everything suddenly came to a halt.

Her eyes were wide, her brows furrowed, and her lips parted as she panted for breath. She looked genuinely upset.

"Give it back." She told him in a voice laced with a level of desperation that not only surprised him, but twisted his gut. He didn't like it. It was rather disgusting, really.

"This belongs to me." He told her as he held up the prize. His jaw was tight as he said, "Godric was my Maker, not yours."

"It wasn't his in the first place!" She said hatefully. "That cross has been in my family for generations. It belonged to my father, so give it back!"

Her voice cracked when it hit the shrill tone, and it caused him to cringe, but her statement wasn't lost on him. Eric had been at Godric's side when he took the necklace. It was impossible that it belonged to Maria's father.

"How old are you?"

She flinched and her face twisted with confusion. He was sure that she was temporarily disarmed by the sharp divergence in the conversation.

"What?"

"How old are you?" He asked with a much sterner tone.

She shifted uncomfortably, but did her best to maintain a strong, angry glower. "What does it matter?"

Eric held the necklace up again to help make his point. "I was with Godric when he plucked this from a dead man's neck a century ago." He took a step towards her. "Who are you?"

All color fled her cheeks. Maria was suddenly shades lighter than her already fair complexion –almost sickly pale. She'd begun to tremble and her eyes welled with tears as she stared up at him.

"Oh my God," Her voice quivered like the rest of her. "You were there, too?"

She hesitated for only a breath before she launched herself at him again. Eric had been unprepared for it and was taken violently to the ground. Maria pinned him to the hardwood. Her lips were curled back revealing an impressive set of canine teeth. They were pointed and sharp, not as large as a vampire's fangs, but more so than a human's, and they could do damage. He was surprised to see them. They should have been visible with something as simple as a smile. But, it wasn't as though she smiled around him, anyway.

"You couldn't leave my family what little dignity they had, could you?" She growled so hatefully that Eric felt in within his chest. "They'd been massacred, thrown into a pit, and you still picked their bodies clean. I could have forgiven him finding it somehow through the years, but that wasn't what happened, was it? You're nothing but a disgusting fucking parasite. You and your Maker."

And with that, she snatched the necklace from his hand and raced from the house. Eric heard the front door slam shut, narrating her escape.

He was left lying on the floor staring at his ceiling as he thought over what'd just happened. Soon, his mind drifted back to the night Godric took the cross.

The coppery scent of blood filled the air. It drew the monsters, guided them easily through the blackness.

Eric and Godric stumbled across an odd scene. Men in soldiers' uniforms, drunk and shaken, were unloading bodies from the back of a small work truck. They were careless with them, grabbing any limb they could and simply pulling them out of the back of the truck. The soldiers would let them fall unceremoniously to the ground, and then proceed to drag them to a small, makeshift grave dug nearby.

Each of the bodies unloaded were littered with wounds, whether they were gunshot or stab wounds, neither vampire could say, but there was blood. The bodies swam in it.

The scent of it put both Eric and Godric on edge. It fueled their desire to feed, so they did, happily. They slaughtered the soldiers with ease and drank to their hearts' content. But, when the killing had ended, Eric still heard the sound of a faint heartbeat. He searched for the source and near the grave, he found it. Godric had been leaning over a young woman with dark hair speaking to her.

He joined his Maker's side and looked down at the creature with a supreme level of uncaring. As far as he was concerned, it was nothing more than another human. If he offered any pity for her at all it was because she hadn't died immediately along with the others. But he didn't truly care.

Godric touched the young woman's face tenderly, almost kindly. Eric heard her heart beat faster than before and wondered only briefly if Godric had given her his blood. His Maker stood and stepped back from the young woman. At some point, he remembered Godric looking over one of the bodies that had yet to be thrown into the pit. It was an older gentleman with a cross hanging from his neck. Apparently, Godric found it beautiful, and snatched it away. They left shortly after.

He could only put Maria's face to the dark-haired girl from the grave, but the truth of the matter was he hadn't clearly seen her. Blood was smeared across her skin and her hair shielded the majority of her face from view. He wouldn't have been able to separate her from any of the thousands of dark-haired women he'd seen in his lifetime, but that was far from the issue that caused him pause.

The event in question was one of historical significance. They had stumbled across the mass burial of Ivan Kharitonov, Alexei Trupp, Anna Demidova, Eugene Botkin, along with all seven members of the Russian royal family, the Romanovs.

If Maria was to be believed, she was the only surviving Romanov, not her sister Anastasia like the world had initially assumed. And, to make the situation even more unbelievable, that meant Maria was over a century old.

Season 3

Sookie stood only feet away in the sweetest spring dress. The pale blue fabric played beautifully with her sunny hair and her sapphire eyes.

Today her hair was up, twists of curls and tendrils coiled together. Her eyes were wide as she looked at him while her hands toyed with the fabric that splayed from her hips. She tilted her head to the side innocently. She was the embodiment of light and the sun, the human version of everything he wasn't.

"Why do you always look at me like that?" She asked softly.

"Like what?" Eric asked as he rose slowly to his feet.

"Like I some kinda treat, or somethin'." The soft giggle at the end of her sentence sent chills down his back.

Eric offered a crooked smirk as he descended his dais. "Because you are."

His long legs carried him the short distance until he stood over her, but as he stared down at her, he felt the air beside him shift. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a shadow approach.

"Then what am I?" Maria asked as she slinked into view, gliding effortlessly behind Sookie until she stood just beside the blond.

Eric's gaze raked over the young woman he hadn't seen in weeks. Her eyes were fixed solely to him. Maria seemed to be the antithesis of the little waitress as she stood before him in nothing but black.

The deep, fathomless color exaggerated her fair skin and made it nearly glow in Fangtasia's dim light. Her outfit wasn't dissimilar to what she'd worn the first night she was with him: a pair of shorts nearly invisible beneath the hem of her baggy, off-the-shoulder top, and heels that made her inches taller. Her nearly-black hair was down, cascading to her waist in long waves, and when she too tilted her head to the side, it swept across her slender neck, revealing it to him completely. More than once he'd bitten into it and found himself wanting to again.

"I don't know." He replied as he met her emerald eyes.

Maria gave him a sarcastic look that told him he wasn't being completely honest. "Sure you do." She said as she stepped toward him. Maria reached out with her gloveless hand and touched his bare arm with her slender fingers. "You know exactly what I am."

She began to walk around him, letting her pointed fingernails trail along his body as she did.

"A pain in my ass," He said. Eric tried to keep his gaze to her, but she disappeared briefly behind him before –thankfully- reappearing. He had been honestly worried she'd vanish. "I know that much."

"Oh," she cooed sweetly. "That can't be all."

"Frustrating," he said. Eric kept his gaze to hers as she continued to circle him. "Aggravating. Murder-inducing."

Her eyes sparkled and her full lips curled into a wide smile as she stepped behind Sookie. "Would you rather I be like her?"

"Hey!" Sookie snapped in her meek, child-like voice. She turned her sapphire orbs back to Eric. "I'm sweet," Sookie stepped forward and gently rested her hands on his chest. She stared up at him through her lashes, "And caring."

"You are that, yes." Eric nodded.

He was drawn to her, unable to look away from the young woman in front of him until he felt Maria's sweltering touch on the back of his shoulder. She appeared in his line of sight a moment later, still circling him like a cat would its prey.

"A doormat." Maria said flatly.

"I'm not a doormat." Sookie whined in a voice that would send any man to her rescue. Eric hated that he felt compelled, as well. "You're just a bully."

"I'm a fighter." Maria brandished another sultry, intriguing smile when she looked up at him. "That's what you like, isn't it, Viking? A woman that doesn't need to be rescued."

"But I'm delicate, and soft." Sookie said softly. Her hands glided up his chest until they curled around his shoulders. "That's what you really want."

Sookie pressed her body to his. She snaked her hands up the back of his head and pulled him down to her level. Eric was amazed he complied and as his eyes drifted shut, just when his lips brushed against her, he felt a hand cradle his jaw. The strength of it guided him away, forcing him to turn to his right. Maria held him and his focus.

"You don't want the waitress." She whispered tenderly. "You just want her blood."

Out of the corner of his eye, Eric saw the blonde young woman step back until she was out of sight completely. When she was gone, he gave his full, undivided attention to Maria.

He moved toward her and she met him in stride, removing all distance between them. He reached out and felt her overly-warm body beneath his hands.

"I'm the one you want." Maria whispered as her face drew nearer to his. "Isn't that right?"

His forehead gently fell against hers and his eyes drifted shut. Eric felt her lips brush over his, the heat of her breath when she spoke.

"I don't know."

"Oh," she cooed. His senses were overrun when he felt her tenderly nip his bottom lip. "That's a lie." She repeated the action and pressed her body firmly against him. Eric reached for her and held her in place. "You know you do. Say it."

"No,"

She gripped his hair and jerked it hard, forcing him to hiss and shocks of pleasure to spread through his body.

"Say it."

Eric didn't reply. Instead, he kissed her. Maria moaned softly into his lips as she returned the sentiment. Eric was immediately overrun. He pawed at her, threaded his fingers through her hair and held her close. He held her tighter than a human could withstand, but she said nothing. Instead, she met his fervor.

When they did finally break apart, Maria took his bottom lip between her teeth causing him to growl.

"Say it." She repeated in a more demanding tone.

"Yes," Eric said without hesitation. In that moment, he'd comply with any of her demands, just to kiss her again.

"You want more?"

He opened his mouth to speak, but her voice sounded wrong, wrong enough it made him pause. As Eric drew back, he opened his eyes and stared down at her unsurely.

"What?"

And when she spoke again, it wasn't Maria he heard. "You want more?"

Eric was suddenly shoved almost violently into reality. Yvetta was slithering up and down the length of the pole in panties and fishnets. Any other night, it'd have been more than enough to keep him marginally entertained, but not tonight.

"That'll be all." He told her.

With an unsure scowl, Yvetta climbed down from the platform and scampered off.

Eric remained seated on his throne. His mind was torn again, but this time with added entanglements. Sookie forcing her way into his mind wasn't entirely shocking. She'd only just stormed into Fangtasia the night before demanding to know more about werewolves. And Maria had been in his thoughts as well, ever since she'd disappeared. But, the fact that he'd been fantasizing over the pair disarmed him. He didn't fantasize about anyone.

He held an image of the two young women in his mind and couldn't help but compare them. They were vastly different, both in temperament and appearance. Sookie was a tanned, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Barbie with a southern drawl, and a level of perceived innocence that wasn't entirely common in modern times. She was talkative and bubbly, but also overly pushy and swore she knew what was right. Sookie was both enticing and perhaps the most aggravating human Eric had come into contact with.

Maria, on the other hand, was something else. Dark hair with fair skin and nearly glowing eyes, she held herself with a level of confidence most people didn't. She knew when to speak and when to remain quiet so that she could observe the world around her, and was brave –whether it was a good idea or not. She was precise and lethal when it was required, but the one thing he'd always respected was Maria was honorable. She wasn't shy about her feelings towards him, but that didn't stop her from keeping her word.

Eric hadn't seen or spoken to Maria in nearly two weeks. Periodically, he'd swear he caught a whiff of her in his house, a fresh scent that stood out beyond the residual smell that had been partially engrained in his furniture since she'd taken up residence within his walls, but he never saw her. He never heard her, either. She was like a ghost.

More than once he considered hunting her down and bringing her back, but the desire never seemed high enough to make him act. No matter how far she ran, she'd never truly be rid of him. Surely, Maria had to know that, so there was little to no reason to look for her unless he absolutely wanted to.

Still, he knew she'd return of her own volition. Eric felt he could confidently say that her word meant enough that at some point she'd return to him and Fangtasia, to her duty, simply because she'd made a bargain. At least, he hoped she would.

The list of things Eric Northman would never fully admit to himself was longer than even he knew. It ranged from the mundane, to the deeply personal, but it was a long list to be sure. Maria had managed to gain a spot on it more than once, and her absence was another such addition. Since she left, he found his house disturbingly quiet and work more boring than normal. Even Yvetta barely held his attention. If Eric thought he was capable of the emotion, he might say he actually missed Maria. As it was, he was more certain that he simply noticed her absence, nothing more.

Then again, he had day dreamed about her.

Eric had many things vying for his attention, things that made him feel disturbingly human, and none of them were appreciated. It felt as though Godric's death had ripped open that part of him, forcing him to feel things he otherwise would have gladly ignored. As a result, his obsession with Sookie was morphing into something else, along with his "relationship" with Maria. He appreciated none of it, and would have preferred it all vanished.

Eric suddenly shot to his feet with every intention of leaving the grounds. He needed a break, something to help clear his mind, but he was denied the chance. No sooner than his foot landed on the main floor did the door to Fangtasia open. He knew it'd been locked because they were closed, so whoever opened it was an employee. Eric felt a rush of agitation swell within him. He was ready to berate Ginger because he wasn't in the mood for her, except it wasn't the peroxide-blonde who stepped through. It was Maria.

A strange twinge of emotion bubbled inside him at the sight of her, something akin to happiness. He didn't like it, or the distant look in her eye when she met his stare. But she didn't stop. She didn't approach him, or even pause. Instead, she swept through the club and into the back without so much as a single word spoken.

With his eyes narrowed curiously, Eric followed behind her.

Maria was sitting in his office, seemingly waiting for him. Her scent hit him strongly the moment he closed the office door behind him. It was familiar and stirred a number of things inside him –multiple types of hunger.

"Where have you been?" he asked as he rounded his desk and took a seat.

Her neon eyes landed on him and remained fixed. She was sitting across from him in one of the chairs with her legs crossed, her hands resting in her lap, and the cross sitting just between her breasts. She wore it openly and proudly. He assumed it was partially as a silent "fuck you" to him given it was the main reason for her disappearance.

Maria didn't reply. Instead, she stared back at him silently.

"Then why come back?" He asked with a note of irritation he knew she'd hear.

"Because eventually you'd look for me."

He didn't react even though he was surprised to hear her answer him.

"You seem certain."

"You seem greedy."

He smirked. She wasn't wrong. He might not have known when, but at some point, Eric knew he would have hunted her down for no other reason than he felt she still owed him. At least, that's what he would tell himself.

"You hate me, don't you?"

"Yes,"

Eric flinched, but did his best to keep her from seeing it. If he was being honest with himself, Eric hadn't expected her to agree with him. Whether due to his ego or not, he thought she'd have begun to come around. Even Sookie looked at him differently after Dallas and drinking his blood. Maria was either much better at hiding her attraction to him, or she truly hated the vampire.

"Perhaps we should change that." He finally said.

"Why?" Maria remained cold and distant. "You don't need me to like you."

"You seem to forget I've saved your life, more than once."

"And nearly cost me it just as many times." She countered easily. "You don't like me, either. We had a moment in Dallas. It was nice. You were… normal, but that's not who you are."

Eric tensed his jaw, but as before, remained stoically silent. She wasn't wrong. He considered the time they spent in Dallas pleasant, too. Despite everything they'd been through, the barbs and insults shot at one another, she comforted him, and she was good at it. While he laid there with his long arms wrapped completely around her body, he felt as calm and at ease as he could given the situation. For those few hours, she was his anchor, something he greatly appreciated, but would never utter aloud. He was appreciative enough that he never made the comment that he'd rested his head on her breasts the entire time, more or less burying it within them. Surely, that was enough to show her he was grateful.

Maria continued to speak, pulling him out of his thoughts of Dallas and back into the moment.

"But I work for you, and will continue to do so for little more than three and a half years, and if I ever find Steven and kill him, it'll be six months longer, but that's the extent of our relationship. We don't have to like one another to fulfill our bargain."

She was clinical and succinct in the way she spoke. He could respect that, but he didn't like it. He didn't like that he seemed to have absolutely no sway over her. Even if she hid it well he didn't like it. Eric wanted to actually see his effect on her.

"Alright," He said with a sigh. Eric interlocked his fingers and rested his hands in his lap as he leaned back in his seat. "Then I want you to answer my questions, all of them, honestly."

He saw her hesitation, but Maria eventually nodded. "If I get to do the same with you."

It was Eric's turn to hesitate. He didn't know if he wanted to expose himself in such a way. If he agreed, it gave Maria permission to ask him any number of things. While he knew he could lie, Eric didn't know if he wanted to, and that bothered him. He was nervous that he may offer the truth. But as he sat there staring at her, he did something that surprised himself, and agreed. He gave Maria an acquiescing nod, and she returned the action.

"Who are you, really?" He asked.

"Maria Romanova." She told him plainly.

"How is that possible?"

Her brows furrowed slightly. "I don't understand."

"How are you still alive?" He didn't bother hiding his mocking tone. "Weres and shifters still live a normal lifespan. If you're really a Romanov, you're over a hundred years old."

"I'm not a shifter or a were." She said with the same level of sarcasm. "Thropes have a longer life."

"You're immortal."

"No," She said with a grimace. "Of course not. Nothing is. Thropes just age slowly."

"How long will you live?"

"I don't know."

Eric arched a skeptical brow. He knew she had to be lying. Her lifespan had to be something she was aware of. Maria noticed his disbelief.

"I don't." She asserted. "It's genetic, but it doesn't happen with every birth. Thropes are rare, even in a family. My father and I were the first in generations and, honestly, my family had a habit of being assassinated. It's a little hard to pinpoint longevity like that."

"Hm," he muttered.

"My turn." Maria said. A small wave of apprehension trickled down Eric's spine, but he remained stoic. "Why do you keep me around?"

He grinned briefly. As far as questions went, it was fairly tame. "I find you interesting."

"I'm not interesting."

"I think you are."

"You need to get out more."

His smile widened just a bit at her response. Maybe he did miss her after all. "And, you're delicious."

Eric mused to himself when he noticed that she seemed to accept his second answer more than the first. He did find her interesting, though. That was why he kept her out of the box she'd arrived in. If it were just for blood, she'd be locked and chained up somewhere, but she wasn't. That right there should have proved to her that he was being honest.

"Is there anything else?" He asked after a moment or two of silence.

"No," Maria replied as she shook her head.

Eric cocked a single brow curiously. "You don't want to know anything else?"

"Nothing else is important."

He nodded to himself. In many ways, she wasn't wrong. But he was still surprised she didn't want to know anything personal. Most would have taken the chance to probe as deeply as possible, but she didn't.

Eric thought she missed an opportunity. That wasn't to say he'd necessarily answer, but she could ask.

"Anything else you want to ask me?"

He weighed his options briefly and decided rather quickly that he simply didn't want to know more about Maria. He felt he knew what was important. Anything else he could Google.

Eric shook his head and spoke, "See if Pam has something for you to do."

Maria nodded. She pushed herself up and approached the door to the office, but paused. Eric narrowed his eyes curiously.

"I do want something, though." Maria said as she turned partially to face him. "I want to move out."

Eric's brows twitched together as he fought the scowl that wanted to form. He didn't like her request, at all. It actually made him angry, which surprised him. He wasn't annoyed or even slightly agitated. He was genuinely and truly angry.

"No,"

Maria frowned. "Why?"

"Because I want to keep an eye on you."

Her frown took on an aspect of disbelief. "You already do." She snapped. "I'll buy some shitty little house nearby or something, give you the keys and address, but let me live on my own."

"No,"

He could see her frustration beginning to bubble within and her brief struggle over whether or not she wanted to let it out. Recent events and the overly familiar way they dealt with one another meant Maria was just as likely to viciously spout her rage as she was to keep it bottled within.

Or leave again.

A strange jolt of fear gripped his chest briefly at the concept. He didn't want her to disappear a second time, to the point he earnestly considered threatening her with the box again. It'd been a long while since he'd had to.

Maria ground her teeth, breathed heavily through her nose, and clenched her glove-covered hands repeatedly, but after a moment, she let loose a long, slow sigh. When she turned her gaze back to him, she'd calmed as much as he assumed she was capable at the moment.

Without a word, she left his office to see what Pam had for her to do. Eric lingered.