Chapter 14

Bloody Truth

Sookie clutched onto Eric's wrist which was poised over his chest with the familiar ceremonial knife.

"Yes. Do it!" she hissed.

"What are the magic words?"

"Please. Pretty please?" Eric shook his head. "With a cherry on top?" He chuckled as she grinned upwards at him.

"Speaking of cherries, lover…your cherry…should have been mine!" The way he said it made her shiver from head to toe. "There. Now I have given you a clue." Eric winked at her with a mischievous grin.

"That wasn't a clue! I'm not in the mood for riddles, Eric."

"Very well. If you are not in the mood then we shall play this game some other time." Eric removed himself from her grip and shoved the knife's blade underneath his belt. Sookie whimpered at his actions.

"Alright…alright…magic words, magic words." She stuck the tip of her tongue out while she thought hard for a second. "How about Open Sesame?" she giggled at her own joke which had gone straight over Eric's head. He just creased his eyebrows and shook his head. "No cigar, huh?" she shook along with him. "Are they…please may have your blood, Sheriff?" he blinked at her without changing his expression "Please may I have your blood, oh great Viking?" her beaming smile didn't penetrate the glaring vampire. "Please may I have your blood, sex god?" Sookie wiggled her eyebrows at him mimicking the expression he would often give her. Eric inhaled and exhaled loudly as he shifted his weight from one long leg to the other. His hand lifted to his hip and he tapped each finger down onto the knife with a look of boredom.

Oh you're gonna play hardball, huh? Well two can play at that game, buster!

Sookie stepped in closer to him and hooked her arm around his waist. "Baaaaaby…" she dragged the word out sensually and started drawing circles with her finger on his hard back muscles. "I'll give ya some-uh mine, if ya gimme some-uh yours." She tilted her head to the side in the customary gesture of offer. Eric leaned down and took in a lengthy inhale up along her throat. She could feel the goose bumps forming and had to grip harder onto him as she started to dissolve. His lips hovered just over her ear barely brushing against the wispy hairs tucked behind it.

"I will not…give in…" those two words drove into her ear with a heat that made her skull feel squishy "…to temptation, lover. I want the words…now!"

Sookie bit down on her lower lip and placed her now clammy palm onto his chiseled bare chest "I wanna taste you, baby. I need it." Her voice went up a few octaves. The upper hand, as always, was now his. She would beg if she had to.

"Eric, I'll do anything…just please let me drink from you. I'll give you anything you w…"

The words he wants…of course!

"Eric…I will yield to y.." before she could finish, her mouth was crushed under his and his hands were everywhere. She hadn't realized until then how much she had missed those hands. Exploring each curve as if it was un-chartered territory…new and exciting. His caresses and wet probing tongue may have been distracting but her original need came rumbling to the surface again and she pushed his face away from her.

"My reward?" she was panting with arousal but her eyes only spoke of another hunger. "I gave you your words…you promised!" she grabbed for the knife still hanging off his belt.

"So I did." He allowed her to snatch up the knife and then placed his arm out, palm up. He opened and closed his fist a few times to make the veins stand out for her. Sookie's mouth began to water and her belly tingled with anticipation.

"Now Sookie." She laid the knife's edge against his pale flesh and sliced across it. It opened easily and the viscous crimson seeped upwards in a smooth rounded bead. Just looking at it excited her…but tasting it was going to be bliss. She lifted his wrist to her mouth, already open and salivating. But when the cool skin reached her lips that was all she tasted…skin. Her tongue lapped against it again but that heavenly taste she expected did not fill her mouth. She pulled his wrist away and could see the cut had already closed. Without pausing to question him she sliced at the wrist again, harder and deeper this time. The cut healed again before she could latched on to it.

"Eric?"

Eric shrugged blankly at her. The nonchalant reaction unleashed something in Sookie and without even pondering the violent act first, she slashed at his chest right below the nipple where she had fed from on the night of their bonding. He didn't even flinch at her attack and just as before, the blood pushed to the surface and then quickly pulled back down below the healing skin.

"Why?" she spoke directly to the closing wound on Eric's chest then peered up into his crystal blue eyes. The beautifully angled lines of his face began to blur as the tears filled her vision. She dropped the knife and let her arms and neck sag.

He's always going to treat me this way. Giving me 'things' but denying me what I want most. His blood, his time, his…

Sookie coughed and sputtered to clear her lumpy throat. She had been crying for real.

Another nightmare. That's two in one night!

She let the lingering atmosphere of the interrupted dream take hold and she sobbed into her floral comforter. The fabric soaked up her tears but couldn't absorb the pain building again in her chest. She wished for cool hands now. Cool hands that would explore her body the way he did in the dream.

After the way I treated him tonight, though…it'll probably be months before I see him again.

As if in response to her thoughts - a firm, ice cold hand cupped her cheek and a thumb rubbed at her tears. She wrapped her two little hands around the wrist and placed kisses all over the smooth skin.

"Mmmm, baby." She didn't need to lift herself up too far to find his lips and continued her kisses there. She could hear him take in a sharp almost shocked breath and then a contented sigh as her tongue parted his lips. He laced his fingers through her hair and pulled their faces closer together as his tongue began to synchronize with hers. As she pulled away for air, the grogginess began to clear but only slightly.

Her voice came out in a sleepy whimper "Baby please…don't say no this time." She pecked her way down his jaw with more kisses. Each one getting closer to the artery in his throat, each one more searing hot than the last. When she reached the crook of his neck she laved the spot with her tongue and whispered, "Please."

Her teeth were grazing his skin when she heard him ask "Sookie, what are you doin'?" the throat pulled away and hard hands pushed on her shoulders to interrupt her worshipping.

"I would think it would be quite obvious to you, Compton." A frosty and detached voice pierced through the darkness.

"Eric?" Sookie looked up into the barely visible eyes hanging over hers. The lamp on her bedside table flicked on revealing Bill's troubled face. She tried to shake away the confusion but a layer of drowsiness still clung to her senses. "What are you doin' here?"

"SAVE IT!"

Sookie's eyes popped open wider in recognition of that wrathful voice. She looked over to see Eric in her doorway with a knife in his fisted hand. His arms were stiff and jutted back while his chest puffed forward with palpable aggression. The rage in his eyes only faltered slightly when he refocused his glare from Bill to Sookie now sitting up but still tucked beneath her blankets.

"Eric! I thought…but you…" her consciousness was almost fully back now and the reality of what just occurred began to sink in. "No Eric! I didn't…" but Eric's booming voice toppled her feeble one.

"Compton! You may be needing this!" Sookie's human eyes couldn't follow fast enough to see Eric's arm fling back and then forward, hurling the knife directly into Bill's right shoulder. Bill staggered over and grunted with pain but quickly plucked the knife out. By the time they both looked again to the door, Eric had vanished.

When Sookie made it to the front door to fling it open she could see the taillights and hear the screeching tires of the red Corvette as it tore down the gravel drive onto Hummingbird Lane.

"Bill get your ass…" she spun around to Bill already standing in front of her. "Tell me what the hell just happened? Why was I kissing you?" Bill didn't seem to know what to say as his eyes were now towards the wooden floor. "Why were you even in my bedroom?"

"I could hear your cries while you slept and wanted to check on you."

"Did you know I thought you were Eric?"

"I thought…I guess…I wasn't sure, Sookie."

"You weren't sure? Don't you think you oughta have asked me first if you weren't sure!?"

Feeling the harshness of her reprimand his eyes closed and his head tilted to a diagonal. "Yes I should have."

"Damn right!" yelling at his face, now closed down with shame. She marched over to the couch and flopped down on the edge. After a few deep breaths that were meant to be calming but which barely made a dent on the chaos swirling around her head, she spoke again. "I think you need to leave, Bill."

After a long pause Bill gently yet firmly said "No."

"No?"

Before she could rescind his invitation Bill spoke quickly. "I need to apologize for my behavior, Sookie and…"

"Well you've done that now so…"

"..and I need to understand."

"Understand what?"

"This." Bill held up the knife he had been gripping in this palm. It had streaks of Bill's blood clinging to it now. The blood glinted under the overhead lights.

No. Not the blood I want.

"Did Eric ask you to renew your blood bond to him?"

"What? No?" Sookie shook her head and looked up at him questioningly.

"Sookie, are you aware of the significance of this knife?"

Sookie knew it from the first night of their bonding; from the time Eric tricked her with it in front of Victor to lay some mysterious vampire claim over her (the term 'cloak and dagger' seemed to fit perfectly here); and she knew it from the dream she had, only minutes before, awoken from.

"What about it?"

"I believe Eric may have intended to force you into an even stronger and more unbreakable bond tonight."

"What do you mean more unbreakable? I thought that this…was permanent anyway?" when she uttered the word 'this' she had pressed her right hand over her heart. The gesture didn't go unnoticed but Bill continued regardless.

"This knife is used in blood bonding because of the magic imbued into it. It acts as a conduit for two souls to intertwine and meld when blood is exchanged. Without it, a blood bond can still be achieved but when it is present and used on both human and vampire it seals a bond for…forever." Bill took two hesitant steps towards her. "But Sookie, if he has only used the knife once on himself then there may be a chance for this bond to be broken." Sookie's eyes bulged out of her head in Bill's direction. Mistaking her shock for encouragement he excitedly added. "I know of a Shaman in New Orleans who claims he can…"

"Are you outta your damn mind!?" Sookie silently pledged to repent for all the cursing at church next Sunday but she found it hard to hold back when such an abhorrent idea had been presented to her.

"Sookie! Would you not want to be freed from this burden?" he lifted the blood soaked knife towards her. "To have your independence returned to you?"

"Bill. I am going to do you a huge favor by forgetting I ever heard you say that. Eric is probably plotting out right this very moment how he's going to kill the both of us. I don't think we need to add insult to injury, don't you agree?" she lifted her eyebrows and waited for him to back down from this nonsense.

"Do you like being under his influence? To know that your own emotions and instincts are no longer fully your own?"

"It's true that I didn't ask for this connection between him and I but I'm trying to make the best of a very complicated situation. Neither of us wanted this to happen."

"Oh, are you so sure of that?" Bill lifted one eyebrow.

Hmph, doesn't look nearly as impressive as when Eric does that.

"You know that Eric was only trying to save me from being bonded to Andre. Would you have done the same, Bill?"

Bill flinched at the question and looked away from her but responded. "If I was forced to bond with a human then I would want it to be with you."

"Well at least now you won't have the burdened of being force into that!"

"Sookie, I did not mean it that way. I was only being truthful."

Screw being truthful just stop breaking my heart more than it already is.

The pain lacing through her features made Bill ache with remorse.

"It is not so easy for vampires to relinquish control over their own emotions. But I…"

"Then why would Eric do such a thing for me?" so sobbed. Her hands flailed wildly upwards and slapped back down onto her knees. "Why, Bill?" she should have been dried of tears after the last couple of days but the well poured forth once again and they streamed down leaving pink trails in their wake.

"Because…because he…"

He will never love her as much I do. Never.

Sookie rested her face in both palms. "Why can't I just have a normal boyfriend?" she spoke now to herself "I couldn't even enjoy my first kiss without the visual aide of the boy imagining my naked breasts. My first date was beyond a humiliating! And I gave my virginity to a…" she lifted her head, now acutely aware of her guest as well as the rudeness of what she was about to say. Iregardless of the intimate subject matter, Gran would have tanned her hide for that one. She shook her head and started mouthing an apology but couldn't vocalize it before Bill interrupted.

"You have every right to regret that of all things, darlin'. I was a monster for…"

"No Bill!" Sookie stood up and reached out to squeeze his upper arm. "I don't have regrets about that, honestly. I'M the monster for even suggesting that." She squeezed his arm again and he nodded to her with understanding. "I might not be a living breathing person anymore if I hadn't had you in my life. And for that same reason I cannot claim to regret my bond to Eric." The statement seemed to have almost come from outside herself. It held more than a kernel of truth that she had been avoiding.

Why would I fight against something that saved my life…that may still save my life?

All of Sookie's words along with the memory of her teeth that had nearly tore into his flesh gelled suddenly into the realization of a possibility that he had dreaded for months now.

No going back now. She is addicted already. Oh my sweetheart. I am so sorry I could not save you from this fate.

Bill closed his eyes and nodded with resigning surrender.

You are truly his now, my love.

He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and tried his best to push through strength and courage through the thin bond still faintly lingering between them. He could feel her expand every so slightly in response and he took one last smell of her golden hair.

I will no longer stand in your way…but neither will I ever leave you, Sookie. What is left of my heart will be your's eternally.

After giving her a chaste kiss on the top of her head Bill looked down into her lovely blue eyes. "The night is young…go to him."