From Chapter 14

We've had people keeping an eye on Steve Newlin since the bombing in Dallas so we would know when he began to make his next move. Isabel told me recently that he had been making inquiries as to rental property here in Shreveport. As it turns out, he arrived in town earlier today." As he continued, he shifted his gaze to take in both Ana and myself. "For the time being, I'm going to have to ask that the two of you stay inside this house unless accompanied by Eric or myself."

"Oh, no. That's terrible timing! I've got my interview for the instructor position tomorrow." I could hear the deep disappointment in Ana's voice.

"I'm sorry, my love, I truly am. But, there are no bodyguards available who would recognize any fellowship personnel, so, we have to be overly cautious."

"Wait! What about my brother Jason? He'd recognize anyone from the fellowship, and I already know that he's got tomorrow off of work. Maybe he could come with us to the audition?" I don't think that Eric and Godric were very supportive of this idea, however, they could see how important this interview was to Ana, and so Eric told me to make the call. I spoke to Jason, and told him the whole situation. He agreed to go with us to the audition, and we arranged to meet him just off of the property an hour before the interview.

Chapter 15

GPOV

After saying goodnight to Sookie, I carried my beloved into my room, laid her down on the bed, and slowly began undressing her. With every inch of her skin I exposed, I wanted to take her all the more. But, I knew that these past few days have been very exhausting for her, not only physically, but emotionally as well. Her interview tomorrow was very important to her, and I knew she would need to be well rested so she could be in top form. I knew that if I left her naked in my bed, I wouldn't be able to resist making love to her, so I grabbed a t-shirt from my closet and slipped it over her sleeping body, crawled into the bed next to her, and pulled her in close.

I was not overly thrilled at the prospect of her out and about in the city tomorrow knowing that Newlin is here. Yes, I will admit that I have faith in Jason Stackhouse' ability to defend her. I have seen how protective he is of his sister, and Sookie has assured me that he would be just as protective of my Lilliana. That being said, I did not like how he was trying to flirt with her when she met him at Merlotte's. I trust her and know that she would not betray me; however, I would not want her to be in an awkward situation with the man who is acting as her protector.

I heard Eric pull his car into the garage and enter his room. Not long afterwards I heard the distinct sounds of pure pleasure coming from Sookie's lips. I smiled to myself, knowing that my child has found someone who will love him as I love my Ana. Well, that is assuming she stops letting herself get in her own way.

About 30 minutes before sunrise, I heard the door to Eric and Sookie's room open and close, and heard Eric say my name. I softly disentangled myself from Lilliana's body and joined him in the living room.

"I received a rather disturbing phone call shortly after you left Fangtasia tonight. The Tribunal has received information that a handful of Vampires in Louisiana and Mississippi have been privately funding Fellowship of the Sun splinter groups, and giving them information on how to best take out certain vampires. They are unsure if our Queen here or the King of Mississippi are involved at all."

"Hmmm. Russell Edgington is King of Mississippi. I do not think he would be part of something like that. He's too confident in his position; he wouldn't resort to using humans in that way. However, Sophie-Ann is another matter all together. She's gotten more and more ruthless over the past 3 centuries."

"Yes, well, word is the Magister is keen on 'cleaning-house,' so to speak. He's given his enforcers permission to kill any suspects who attempt to resist his summons. And, they believe that whoever is doing this was behind the bombing in Dallas."

"All the more reason to believe Newlin isn't in Shreveport on a lark. He's come for something specific. I don't know what it is, but I will not allow Lilliana and Sookie to be in harms way. After this day is over, I will arrange for around the clock bodyguards. I don't care if I have to hire weres to keep track of them during the day, until Newlin is dead, he won't stop hunting them, or us. Let's just hope that Jason Stackhouse can keep them safe until sunset."

SPOV

It was 1:15pm and we were running late. Ana and I were supposed to meet Jason at the front gate to Godric's property at 1pm, to be on time for her 2pm interview/audition. But, when you keep vampire's hours, getting up is sometimes very difficult.

As we ran to the end of the drive and approached Jason's truck, he shouter, "Jesus, Sook, what the hell? You're never late."

Ana look at him guiltily and said, "Oh, it's my fault Jason. I couldn't decide what to wear. Don't blame Sookie, please."

He just smiled at her and said, "Oh, that's alright pretty lady. I'll let you make it up to me by sitting next to me in the truck on the ride there." He even winked as he held her hand to help her into the truck.

I gave him a dirty look, and leaning in whispered, "Snap out of it loverboy, she's Godric's."

Between Jason's tendency to drive too fast, and the perfect directions Pam had written out for us last night, we made it to the dance school with ten minutes to spare. Jason and I walked into the building with Ana, and sat down in a couple of chairs just outside of the main studio. The doors to the studio had windows in them, so we knew that we could keep an eye on Ana while she was in her interview. When a short, very round, very old man stuck his head out and said, "Miss De la Vega, we're ready for you, now," Ana stood, leaned down and gave Jason and me both a brief kiss on the cheek, winked, and followed the man into the room.

At first, everything seemed to be going well. There were 3 people sitting at a long rectangular table, and they each had a form and were asking Ana questions. I couldn't hear what was being said, but, they smiled at most of her answers. They must've told her to go ahead with her performance piece, because I saw her put her ipod onto a speaker dock, and begin her music. Not 30 seconds into her dancing, though, one of the interviewers put her hand in the air and stood up. Ana's head snapped up and she looked confused, but she quickly went and hit the stop button on her music. The woman spoke for a few moments, and I could see by the expression on Ana's face that whatever was being said did not bode well. I turned and grabbed Jason by the arm and said, "Let's go," just as Ana burst out of the room, tears streaming down her cheeks.

We followed her outside, and she quickly opened the passenger door to Jason's truck, threw her bag inside, and then turned and grabbed me in a tight hug, laying her head on my shoulder as sobs wracked her body. I just held her and let her cry, because I wasn't sure what else to do. Jason came to stand next to us, and put his hand on her back and lightly stroked her spine, trying to be supportive.

After several minutes of this, she finally leaned her head up, wiped the tears from her eyes and said, "That terrible woman said that she didn't care if I was the most sought-after dance instructor in the country, she wouldn't let a vampire-loving whore work in her studio." I could see that she was trying very hard to keep the tears from spilling again.

"Well then that's just her loss," Jason said rather authoritative. "If she can't see past that, then she doesn't deserve to have someone with your amount of talent on her staff." Wow, my brother actually made a great point. Mark this day on the calendar!

"You know what I think we need?" I asked while looking down into her eyes. "Ice cream. Let's go hit the Dairy Queen." She giggled, and we piled back into the truck and headed to catch a Blizzard.

After we'd taken our time enjoying our ice cream, we figured we should start heading back to the house, because Godric and Eric would want us back before they rose. Godric's home is in a pretty secluded area, and most of the other homes in that area come with several acres of open land. That's why it didn't seem so weird to me when Jason had to slow down and come to a stop because there were 2 men on horseback crossing the small road. As we silently waited for them to cross, I had an eerie feeling creep up on me, and I immediately knew something was wrong. But, before I could do anything about it, both of the truck doors were pulled open, and I had barely registered the sound of Ana screaming before everything went black.

EPOV

The moment my eyes opened from my daytime rest, I knew something was very, very wrong. I threw on a pair of jeans, plain t-shirt and combat boots and quickly made my way into the living room, to find Godric, phone to his ear, pacing.

"As far as I can tell through the bond I share with Sookie, they're very frightened, but relatively unharmed. We have to find them now," I told him, and knew he shared my sense of urgency.

He opened his mouth to reply, but then stopped short. I knew that he'd heard what I heard. There was someone outside.

We exited the house and ran towards the main gate, to find Jason Stackhouse, bound and gagged, trying desperately to free himself from the ropes that were knotted around his wrists and ankles. I pulled the makeshift gag that was over his mouth, and he said, "It's Newlin. His men ambushed us and took the girls. They hit me over the head with something, I think it was the butt of a gun, but I'm not sure. It knocked me out pretty good, and when I finally came to, I had been tied up, the girls were missing, and there was a note taped to my shirt."

I picked the note up off of the ground where it had fallen, unfolded it and read.

Abandoned gas station on Highway 171 50 miles outside of Stonewall. Anyone but the two vampires shows and the girls die.

I called Pam and told her to come and take care of Stackhouse, and Godric and I took to the air. If any harm has been done to either Sookie or Ana, the humans will be lucky to die with all their insides still on the inside.

LPOV

I slowly felt myself waking up with the mother of all headaches. I opened my eyes slightly and started to take in my surroundings. I was lying on the floor in a small room which I'd never seen before. It looked sort of like an office. I slowly sat up and discovered that my hands were tied, but not my feet. Sookie was slumped up against a wall a few feet from me, still unconscious. I crawled over to her, and tried to wake her up. After a couple of moans and grimaces, her eyes popped open.

"Where are we?" She asked.

"I have no clue. I just woke up myself. Do you see Jason anywhere?" I was slowly beginning to panic.

"He's not here. I'm picking up 2 human minds on the other side of the door, and I can tell neither one is Jason." She closed her eyes and listened for another moment, "Damnit. One of them is Steve Newlin."

They must've heard us talking, because a minute later the door opened, and a man I'd recognized from TV as Newlin himself stepped into the room. "Well, it's a pleasure to see you again Miss Stackhouse. Tell me, who's your friend?"

"Leave her out of this, Newlin. You came here for me. Godric and Eric will come to save me, and you'll have your 'big chance' to kill them." Hmm, as if he had any chance of doing any harm to the two vampires. Besides, he'd already tried more than once and hadn't met with any success.

"Oh, no no no. I think she'll be staying with us. She's a pretty little thing. I'm sure one of the vampires has fornicated with her, she's bound to be good for something."

It was then that the other man leaned slightly into the room and said, "Steve, they're here." I knew he was right. I could feel in my heart that Godric was near, and if he was, so was Eric.

"Mr. Newlin, I believe you have something that belongs to me," I heard Godric say. I was never more relieved to hear him refer to me as his property.

"So it would seem. I'll make you a deal. I'll agree to let the two women live, and you two bloodsuckers will agree to die."

I knew there was really no chance that these two insignificant men could defeat my vampires, but, just the thought of both Godric and Eric dying made my head spin.

"And what guarantee do we have that you'll release the women once we've fulfilled out part of the bargain?" I'm sure that to Steve Newlin this may have sounded like he'd won, but I could tell by the tone of Eric's voice that he was stalling.

"Oh, I'll let you watch them leave. They can drive off in your car, and then I can stake you where you stand."

"Yes, well," Godric began, "therein lays the problem. We didn't actually bring a car. Not everyone has to rely on human modes of transportation." I could hear the smile in his voice, and damnit if I wasn't proud of him for that comment. "Show me the women. This discussion will go no further until I know they're unharmed."

Steve must've given some sort of signal, because the other man came into the room, grabbed Sookie and I by the arms, and pulled us out into the open area where the three others stood. I felt my heart leap with joy when my eyes connected with Godric's.

"Now here's how this is gonna go, Vampire. You and blondie over there will wrap these silver nets around yourselves, I'll let you watch the women leave, and then we'll finish up," he said while tossing an unopened box to Godric.

"Sookie, Lilliana, are you hurt?" I could see how hard it was for Eric not to walk over and wrap Sookie in his arms as he asked this.

"We're fine," Sookie calmly answered. "It seems we were both hit over the head with a blunt object, but other than a small bump and a headache, we haven't been harmed."

"Chains, now," shouted Newlin. He sure was impatient about this. I watched as Godric and Eric opened the box, pulled the silver chains out, and, as best as they could handle them while they're hands were being burnt, throw the chains over the top of themselves. I saw a quick nudge of Eric's head, and I looked at him, and he signaled to me that the toe of his boot was underneath Godric's net, so if he jerked his foot, Godric would be freed immediately. I nodded, knowing what he would want me to do.

"Now, let the women leave. They shouldn't have to see this," Godric said through clenched teeth. It hurt my heart to see him in such pain. Newlin turned to signal to the other man to let us go, making the most deadly of mistakes. Never turn your attention away from a pair of hostile vampires. Just as Newlin looked away, Eric flipped the net off of Godric with his foot, who in turned pulled Eric free, and the two vampires struck. Godric flew past Sookie and me, knocking the man standing next to us into a metal counter of some sort. The vacant expression in his open eyes confirmed, he was dead. Eric stood over Newlin, fangs barred.

"Godric?" And at that moment, I knew. Eric was asking permission to bite Newlin and drain him dry.

"Enjoy yourself. We will be outside," came Godric's reply as he put one arm around me and one around Sookie to lead us out the front door. I'm sure Sookie must've heard something in Newlin's mind that the rest of us didn't understand, because before I knew what was happening, she ducked under Godric's shoulder, picked up the gun the other human had dropped, turned, and fired. The bullet went straight through Steve Newlin's neck, just as he was lifting a stake behind Eric's back. We were all so stunned, that we weren't sure how to react. Instead, the four of us simply stood there, and watched Steve Newlin choke to death on his own blood.

I must have blacked out again, because the next thing I registered was Godric setting me down on his bed while he ran the tub full of hot water. He came back to me, undressed me, carried me into the bathroom and set me in the tub, then stripped off his own clothes and joined me. We just sat in silence for a long while. I was completely content to have him simply hold me. I felt safe and loved. When the water began to cool, Godric took a rag and washed the blood splatters from my skin; stood and dried the both of us off, and carried me back to the bed.

He lay on his back with me curled into his side, resting my head on his shoulder. I lazily traced circles over the muscles of his stomach.

"Godric?"

"Yes beloved?"

"Will you do me a favor?"

"Of course my darling. Anything. You have only to ask."

I leaned up and looked deep into his eyes. "Make me forget today ever happened?"

And with that, he pulled me on top of him and began slowly placing kisses on my neck. I moved my legs to each side of his hips and straddled him as he sat up. I closed my eyes and simply enjoyed the sensation of his mouth on my breasts. I slowly moved my hands up to ball in his hair, and he growled and before I knew what was happening, I was flat on my back with him on top of me.

He let his hand wander the length of my torso, put his hand behind my knee, and pulled it up and hitched it over his knee. He continued kissing me hungrily as he reached down and pushed a finger inside to judge my readiness. I groaned with pleasure and felt him smile into my lips. "Why Ana, if I didn't know better, I'd think you desire me."

"Hmmm, I wonder what gave you that impression," I said as I moved by hands to his butt and dug my fingernails in, urging him to penetrate me. He laughed softly, and gave in to my request. It was only been two days since we'd made love, but I was still overwhelmed by how wonderful it felt to have him inside me. He moved slowly at first, savoring the intimacy of our joining. He began to kiss me, adding more and more passion to the kiss every second. As the kiss became more passionate, the speed of his thrusts increased.

"Say it, Ana. Tell me you love me," he said through clenched teeth.

"I love you Godric." I saw him lift his lips slightly over his fangs, and I bent my head to the side, offering my neck. He reached down and rolled his thumb over my pleasure center, and just when I thought the feeling couldn't get any better, he bit, and ripples of pleasure took over all my senses.

EPOV

Shortly after Newlin drew his final breath, Ana passed out again, so Godric pulled her into his arms and said he was taking her home. Sookie went into the (amazingly enough) still functioning bathroom of the gas station and cleaned herself up while I disposed of the bodies. When I was finished, I found her staring into the night sky in front of the building. I could feel that she was still frightened by what had happened, so I didn't say a word as I pulled her into my arms and took off into the night air.

She buried her face in my chest as we flew, not wanting to look down. As soon as we were back on the ground in front of Godric's home, she pulled away from me. I knew she'd probably been upset by what had happened, but I'd hoped that it wouldn't harden her toward me. I let us into the house, engaged the security systems, and walked with her into the room we had been sharing. I went into the bathroom and started the shower, making sure she knew that I was trying to give her privacy to change. I cleaned all of the leftover blood and tissue off of my body, wrapped a towel around my waist, and opened the door from the bathroom back to the bedroom. She was already in the bed, and she turned to look at me as I stood in the doorway admiring her.

"Sookie," I said softly, for fear that anymore volume would make the meaning of my words less true, "thank you."

"For what?"

"You may very well have saved my life this night. If you hadn't shot Newlin, he may have been able to drive the stake straight into my heart."

"Eric, please. I can't talk about this now."

"Fine. I apologize. You must rest. I will sleep in Ana's room tonight."

I began to walk towards the hallway door, when she bolted up in bed and shouted, "NO!"

I slowly turned. "Did you need me here for some reason?" I didn't want to be here if she was regretting shooting him and saving my life.

"Yes, I do."

"And that would be…?"

"Eric, I'm asking you. Please?"

That's all she needed to say. I was on her in the blink of an eye. She wrapped her arms around my neck and held on tight as I kissed her. I felt a sweet sting as she dug her fingernails into my back in an effort to hold me closer. I deepened the kiss, and only finally released her mouth when I was sure she was close to passing out due to lack of oxygen. I shifted slightly and began nibbling and sucking at her beautiful breasts. Rolling one nipple between my tongue and teeth while doing the same to the other with finger and thumb. She was squirming and moaning underneath me, and I smiled as I continued to slowly torture her with pleasure. I slid further down her body and slowly slipped my finger inside her. "Oh, Sookie. You're so wet." I just knew I had to taste her again. I bent my head and slowly began to suck and nip at the hard nub. I felt her walls grip my finger tighter and knew she was already close to completion. I slipped a second finger inside of her and thrust harder and faster. Just as she was about to explode, she opened her eyes and I smiled at her as I buried my fangs in thigh and bit as she came.

I moved to cover her body with mine once again and placed slow kisses along her collarbone as her breathing slowly became normal once again. "Sookie, you are a vision when the throws of your climax," I told her.

She put her arms around my neck, looked me in the eyes and said, "Care to show me how you look when you get there?" I didn't need anymore prompting that that. I reached down to put myself at her entrance, and slowly pushed inside. Her hands gripped hard on my neck, and I knew that she was stretching to accommodate my size. I grinned a little as I thought that Compton couldn't have come close to satisfying her. Once I was completely inside of her, I held still until I felt her body relax and adjust to me. I began to kiss her, moving my tongue inside her mouth at the same time I thrust into her.

"Oh, God, Eric. Harder, please." I increased the speed and force of my movements, and felt her body begin to spasm around me. Much to my surprise, she pushed my head to the side, and bit hard into my neck, breaking the skin and drawing a small amount of blood. That's all it took to send me over the edge, and I thrust hard once more into her and yelled her name.

After savoring the feel of her body underneath mine for a few more moments, I rolled onto my back, and pulled her into my side, feeling her lay her head on my chest. "Now, that was definitely worth the wait," I said, and she giggled. I held her close, and as I felt myself being pulled into sleep, I heard her softly whisper, "felt myself being pulled into sleep, I heard her softly whisper, "You are mine."