First and foremost, I'd like to thank everyone for their reviews, both positive and negative. If you have something to say to me that you don't think I'll appreciate, please go ahead and review. I like my readers to tell me where they think I am going wrong and I try to respond to everybody who reviews. Thank you.
I've made the decision to bring in a book character who we will never see on True Blood, even though this is a True Blood story. Please don't be angry with me. The character has a use that will be revealed later.
True Blood is the property of Alan Ball, HBO, and others whose names I don't know. Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Mysteries are the property of Charlaine Harris. I own nothing. No copyright infringement is intended.
Inside, Eric was crowing with triumphant joy. When he had come here just one day ago he had been unsure of his future with Sookie. He had been ready to use force to gain her cooperation because he had no intention of taking 'no' for an answer. Not only had she agreed to be his, but she had surrendered her will to him. He still wasn't sure if she knew what she had done. He took her hands. "Sookie, I must ask you." He looked down, then back up, straight into her eyes. He couldn't keep his fangs from coming down, and they did with that soft 'snick' sound they always made. Sookie smiled lovingly at them. "Are you sure that you realize what has just happened?"
"Eric, are you gonna start acting like the rest of the fools in this town thinking I'm slow or stupid?" she retorted. "Of course I know what just happened!"
"Indulge me then, please," he insisted. "Tell me, in your own words, what you just did."
She sighed, but then again she supposed it was hard for Eric to believe that she'd just given control of her life to him. She'd never given him anything but grief in the past. "Maybe you're the one being slow here," she snapped. "But all right. Godric came. He said we were in danger. Russell has escaped. You need to protect us. I gave you control over me. You now say what goes. My body is yours. My heart is yours. All of me is yours. I do what you say."
Eric was impressed. She had in fact understood the agreement they made and had done it of her own free will. "This makes me happier than I have ever been in my entire existence!" he said fervently. "But I must ask, why have you changed so drastically?"
"I haven't changed Eric," she said with surprise. "I still plan to give you my opinions, talk to you about everything. You're not a dictator, Eric. You're a reasonable man. I know you'll take my feelings into account but in the end all the decisions are yours. Why is this such a problem for you?"
"He put his arms around her and held her close. "Yes, you know I will always consider your opinions when the situation warrants. I value your mind. This is not a problem for me. I hope that it will not be a problem for you."
"Listen Eric, I'm not going to embarrass you in front of your Vampires. I know to keep my mouth shut and do what you say." She said in exasperation.
Eric was finally satisfied with her commitment to what she had promised. He hoped that she wouldn't want to change her mind later because he would not allow it. What they had done in front of Godric was as good as signing a contract. Exchanging blood over a pledge in front of a witness was binding. "We must do as Godric says," he told her. "We must go before the authority and pledge with the knife. That way no one can dispute my claim to you and they will prosecute if someone kidnaps or harms you in any way."
"How romantic," she said sarcastically. She had dreamed of her wedding since she was a little girl. Now she was going to stand before some faceless "Authority" and drink blood from a cup. But she had committed herself to a Vampire. This was what Vampires did.
Eric sensed the sadness she was feeling. "What is wrong?"
"I don't want to talk about it," she told him.
"Sookie," he got that warning tone in his voice again that said she'd better spill the beans or else. "Tell me." It was an order.
She sighed heavily and couldn't stop a tear from rolling down her cheek. "Really Eric, it's stupid. Can we just forget it?"
"If it makes you cry it is not stupid!" he insisted. "Do you want me to punish you?"
"For what?" she exclaimed indignantly.
"I ordered you to tell me and you have refused."
"Why are you making such a big deal out of it?"
"I will count to three. By the time I reach three, you had better be talking or I will make you regret it!" he commanded her. "One." She looked at him stubbornly. "Two." She said nothing. He got up and went to her closet and started hunting for anything he could use to bind her. Scarves, belts, stockings, etc. He had a simple punishment in mind, one she would hate. He hit pay dirt. She had a hanger with at least a dozen multi-colored scarves hanging from it. He pulled out the hanger and made a show of looking at each scarf, testing its length and its strength. When he was finished looking at all of them, he would say "Three."
Sookie realized that he was dead serious. There were only two scarves left on the hanger. He had them arranged in three piles but she couldn't tell what each pile meant. "All right! All right!" she cried out, her voice hoarse. "I'll tell you!" He pulled the last scarf off of the hanger and wrapped it around his hand, then, grabbing two of the three piles, he walked toward her. "It's just that…"
Eric stopped in the middle of the room, still holding the scarves. "Go on," he said in a gentle voice that belied the firm insistence he'd used a moment ago.
She sighed and hid her head in her hands, embarrassed. "I've dreamed of my wedding since I was a little girl," she told him. "And I've only just now realized that I'll never have it."
"Why won't you have it?" Eric asked, not understanding. He put the scarves back on the dresser where he'd piled them before and walked over to sit beside her, putting his arm around her.
"Because we're doing this pledging thing and that means marriage to you!" she said in a high pitched voice, trying hard but not succeeding at controlling her emotions. Eric could feel the roller-coaster going on inside of her.
He finally understood. "You want to be married in a human ceremony?" He tilted his head to the side. He had never even considered it.
She sat still, saying nothing. Her silence gave him all the information he needed.
Eric had seen many romantic movies no thanks to Pam, who loved them. He knew the human custom of proposal and suddenly realized that this was what Sookie needed. She couldn't feel truly wed to him without the customs that humans practiced around the marriage rite. He thought about it for a minute and hoped that what he was about to do was correct. He didn't want to look foolish. As Sookie sat there silently, refusing to look at him, Eric lifted himself off the bed and got down on one knee on the floor. He took her hand gently.
She looked up. "What on earth are you doing Eric?" she asked quietly. He couldn't be! Could he?
He kissed her hand and reached out to brush away the fresh tear that was rolling down her cheek. "Sookie," he said, trying to be smooth and debonair the way the actors portrayed it. "I love you. I have no ring to give you but I will remedy that. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife with a human ceremony?"
Her mouth hung open for a few seconds and she closed it. She opened it again to speak, but instead more tears came pouring out.
"Sookie?" he asked, concerned. "What is wrong? Did I not do it correctly?"
"Do you mean it Eric?" she asked him from behind her tears. "Do you really mean it?"
In answer he put her hand on his heart, and put his hand on hers. "Feel me, Sookie."
It only took her a second to read his sincerity. She threw her arms around him. "Oh Eric!" she cried, hugging him tightly like she never wanted to let go.
"Does that mean yes?" he wanted to know.
"Yes! Oh yes, it means yes! Yes, yes, yes, Eric! I love you so much!" She turned her face to him and he captured her mouth in a passionate kiss. The kiss went on and on and on, and when they broke apart, the smile on Sookie's face was all the reward Eric needed. He remembered when she had worn the ring Bill had given her, and how it had infuriated him so much that he had ridiculed Sookie cruelly.
"I am sorry, Love," he confessed.
"What about?" she asked him, her head on his shoulder.
"I made fun of you and your wish to have a wedding. Do you remember?"
It took her a few seconds to recall that night on the porch when Eric had in-fact made fun of her wish to marry Bill. That was right before the wolves had come for the first time. "I remember," she said quietly. "Why did you do that?"
"I was so angry that you were going to marry Bill! I could not stand it!" he admitted. "When you were bonded to me."
"But that's all over, Eric," she told him lovingly. "There is no more Bill. It's you and me now, and nobody else."
"I know! I know!" He held her tightly and went to lay her back on the bed.
"Um, Eric?" she said.
"Yes, Sookie?" he was kissing her neck, biting her ears the way he liked to do.
She put her hands on his chest and exerted a little pressure. "I'm…" She was embarrassed to say it.
"You are?" the tone of her voice got his attention. She sounded unhappy again.
"I'm.. Well.." She paused but she knew she had to tell him. "We've been in here having sex all night, and I love it, and I love you…."
"But?" he asked.
"I hurt, Eric," she finally said. "I'm sore everywhere, inside and out. I'm sorry Eric! We can still do it if you want!"
He had lost count of how many times they'd made love tonight, not to mention the time when they had blacked out and he'd remained inside and on top of her. Sookie was not yet used to this! It would take time for her to have the stamina that he had. He immediately felt remorse but he also had a point to make.
"You know that I can still take you, whether you hurt or not?" The decision to stop or not was his and he wanted her to understand that. "Your body is mine and I can enjoy it however I please." He was deliberately being calloused.
"Yes, Eric," was her only answer.
That was exactly what he wanted to hear, but he had a confession to make. "Sometimes I can be sadistic." He looked at her seriously, his fangs on full display.
To his surprise, she smiled. "I know. When you were cursed…"
"I still have many questions about what I smell in this house!" he interrupted her.
She blushed again. He knew that he would never tire of seeing her blush. Someday he would turn her, and he would miss her blushes after that. "Sometimes you would hurt me, like when you put those bite marks on my thigh. You enjoyed it. And…"
Eric was intrigued and more than a little aroused. "And?"
Her blush deepened. "So did I." she said quietly, looking at the ground.
Eric growled. "I must have you Sookie, now!" He reached across to the dresser and grabbed two scarves. He used them to tie her wrists to the headboard at Vampire speed. She didn't know what hit her! He ripped the nightgown down the front and was all of a sudden pounding into her for all he was worth.
She was sore inside, her muscles were sore, she was tired. But the way he was fucking her was so delicious! He hit her sweet spot every time he pushed in and it wasn't long before she climaxed, hard and deep. "Oh, Eric!" she cried out. She grabbed the scarves and pulled at them, testing his work. There was no way for her to escape the bindings. She felt helpless and vulnerable, and this so turned her on!
Eric grabbed her ankles and threw them over his shoulders, stretching her wide for his pleasure. This way he could go deeper inside. "Ohhhhh, Sookie!" he shouted, and out came the Viking cry. He came hard, growling and shouting out, pounding hard, and deep, easily bumping her cervix a few times. Then he released her legs and his thrusts became gentle. Sookie climaxed one more time, deep inside, and she shivered with pleasure, smiling at her fierce Vampire. He kissed her, hard, then pulled out of her. Moving swiftly downward, he bit into the thigh that was unmarked. He bit hard, and deep, causing her pain just like he had before. She knew he was marking her as his.
Eric loved her blood right after she climaxed. He felt the endorphins throughout her body and that added to his own. She said she enjoyed pain, and he would give it to her. He pushed his fangs in harder, knowing it would cause her to bruise. He pulled hard on the wound he was causing and in his excitement took more than he'd intended to. He sealed the bite to stop the bleeding and then crawled back up her body. He kissed her tenderly and she looked at him with adoration. He untied the ties from the headboard but left the scarves around her wrists. He didn't have anything else in mind but he wanted to keep her in a state of wondering, anticipation, waiting for him to tie her down again. He sat back against the headboard and pulled her into his arms.
"Sookie, I must heal you," he told her gently. She nodded, wincing a little as she made herself comfortable against his chest. "You must take a lot, Love," he said. She nodded again. He bit into his wrist and made a deep gash, one he knew would stay open for a longer time than usual. He pressed it to her mouth and moaned as she licked and sucked. At first she was tentative, weak, but as her strength returned her hands came up to hold his arm tightly as she drank. She made little sounds of pleasure as she did. The deep bite he'd just made into her thigh would heal, but he knew he could make another one, any time. Right now it wasn't about his need for dominance. If he didn't take care of her he had no right to dominate her.
Sookie knew she was addicted to Eric's blood. He had a sweet taste that was unique to him, but must somehow be mixed with her because he drank from her so much. Surrounded by his arms and legs, leaning against his chest, she was fully encapsulated in his scent, his essence, his aura. She couldn't get enough of him. When the gash finally closed she'd taken a lot from him. "Eric, are you all right?" she needed to know. "Did I take too much from you?"
His arms tightened around her. "No, you did not. I would not have allowed that. How do you feel now?" His voice was gentle as he rubbed his cheek in her hair.
"Better, thanks," she told him. But she was still tired and he sensed it.
"Why don't we go and bathe, and then I will put you to bed."
"Put me to bed?" she exclaimed. "What about you? Aren't you sleeping with me?"
"I do not know, Sookie," he told her truthfully. He was seriously considering going down to his chamber so he wouldn't attack her the next night.
"Let me set something straight, Eric," she said firmly, knowing he was worried about his bloodlust. "Not sleeping with me won't change anything. When you wake, if I'm in the house, you'll find me and do the same thing!"
"What do you mean?" he needed to know.
"I mean that you will smell me and you will come to wherever I am with your bloodlust. So you might as well stay here. And I don't want to be without you. Please don't leave me!" she pleaded with him.
"That reminds me!" he exclaimed. "Sookie, you will stay in this bed until I return!"
"I need to…." She looked toward the bathroom.
"Go then," he said, and when she got up, he followed her.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"You go nowhere without me," he stated simply.
"Eric, I'm not comfortable with you watching me pee!"
"Get over it!" he ordered her. "I will run a bath for us while you tend to yourself."
"Come on, Eric!" she pleaded.
"Are you going to defy me?" he asked, his eyebrows going upward.
She knew she was defeated. "I really don't understand this," she told him.
"I know," he told her mysteriously, but he didn't explain. In truth, he was testing her pledge. He would make a few outrageous demands of her and see how she reacted to them. This one was small, but they would get larger. She had begrudgingly agreed to his demand and he was satisfied. "How do you like your new bathroom?" He wanted to know.
He had remodeled it during the time she had been gone. There was limited space so he hadn't been able to be as extravagant as he'd wanted. The tub and shower had to be together, but he'd put in a Jacuzzi tub that would easily hold four people. It was surrounded by clear glass and he'd put in nine shower heads. One was a rain shower that came straight down from the ceiling, and each side had three stationary heads plus one on a hose. There was an assortment of attachments for each hose, but he would show those to her later. She was too tired for play.
"I forgot to thank you!" she told him excitedly, turning to throw her arms around him. "I love you so much Eric! I know you probably did this for you and Pam but it's so great! It's perfect!"
He hugged her back and then she started squirming. He laughed and let go of her, and she ran to the water closet in the back of the bathroom and started to close the door. "Sookie!" he warned her. At her look of curiosity, he shook his head. He would never allow her to close a door to him without his permission and she would begin learning that right now. Her shoulders slumped but she kept the door open and sat down, extremely embarrassed. She wouldn't look at him and she was blushing again. "There is no reason to be embarrassed, Sookie," he told her gently. "Nothing about your body sickens me. I want you to be as natural as possible." She still wouldn't look at him. He shook his head and turned to run the bath. "What temperature do you like the water?" Instead of a pair of knobs, there was a digital readout for the temperature.
"A hundred and one," she told him. He adjusted the temperature to 102 and started the water running. He knew that water up to 105 degrees was safe for a healthy human and would soothe aching muscles and work to heal inner trauma. He hadn't meant to hurt Sookie. He'd been so happy and excited at her acceptance of him that he wanted to touch her and be inside of her as much as possible. His body told him he still had a few hours before the sun came up. Right now he wanted to bring comfort to his future wife.
Wife! What a difference 24 hours had made in both of their lives. They had gone from two single, lonely, unhappy people to a loving couple. And she had agreed to pledge with the knife! The human ceremony was strange to him; he was doing it to make her happy, but the pledging to him was sacred. He had never met anyone before he'd wanted to bond to, let alone pledge. When you pledged, there was no divorce, ever. Even if you couldn't stand the other person and you separated, you were still pledged to them and could not ever pledge to another. Vampires tended to avoid pledging unless they had been together for a century or two and knew they would never part. Only after the other person died could you pledge to another. A lot of Vampire murders had been committed for that reason.
When the tub was nearly full, Sookie came behind him and wrapped her arms around him. She held the remnants of her nightgown in her hand. "Did you have to destroy this one?" she asked petulantly. "It was one of my favorites!"
"I will make it up to you," he promised, taking it out of her hand and putting it on the countertop. He turned, lifted her, and deposited her in the tub. "You will stay here until I return," he said firmly. She was leaning back against one of the pillows he'd stuck to the side and nodded contentedly. Eric smiled and went back to the bedroom for the remote control. He needed to go downstairs and get into the luggage he'd brought into the house before he had awakened Sookie. As he punched in the code and the doors blocking off both flights of stairs began to open, he went back into the bathroom. "Sookie, how far does the range of your telepathy extend?" he asked her.
"Here," she answered, "I can sense minds just past the edges of my property lines on all sides. Why do you ask?"
"I need you to scan the surrounding area. You can sense a Vampire, can you not?"
"Yeah, it's like there's a hole there, a void. It's weird!" she told him. She closed her eyes and lowered all of her shields while Eric waited. "There are a couple of guys over by Bill's property but they're familiar. His security." Then she turned her attention to the other side of the property, the part covered in woods. "Eric!" she cried in alarm. "There's a Vampire out there! You're not going outside are you?" She was nearly panicked.
"No, Sookie," he leaned against the sink. "Can you tell if you know this Vampire?"
"It's not familiar. I can't tell if it's a man or a woman. But it isn't Russell, if that's what you're asking me." She was relieved that it wasn't Russell.
Eric had no doubt that he could easily dispatch any Vampire lurking around Sookie's property but he decided not to alarm her. Later, after she went to sleep, he would sneak up on the intruder if he was still there. "Where is the Vampire now, Sookie?" he asked casually.
"He's out in the woods!" she told him. "Near the grandfather tree, just out beyond the shed." The grandfather tree was the thickest tree she had ever seen. When she was little, she had decided that this tree was older than all the trees around it. She had been learning in school how trees drop seeds that take root and grow if there is space and sunlight. She just knew that the trees had all come from seeds that this tree put down, or the ones after, so she named it the grandfather tree. She had shown the tree to Eric one night when he had mysteriously appeared on her doorstep, while Bill was gone. They'd walked out onto the property and Eric had been uncharacteristically nice that night. She'd enjoyed his company and had longed for it on nights afterward. "Don't you go out there Eric! Please?" She knew she couldn't order him not to go.
"I will not put myself in danger," he promised her sincerely. He was not afraid of whoever was out there. He would be in no danger.
Sookie was satisfied with his answer, convinced that he wouldn't go looking for trouble. Eric chuckled darkly to himself anticipating what he would do to the Vampire lurking around the property. But for now he busied himself going downstairs and bringing up the suitcases he had packed for an extended stay here. At Vampire speed he made quick work of hanging his shirts in the closet next to Sookie's things and adding his rainbow of silk boxer shorts to her underwear drawer. The sight of their intimate things sitting side by side in the same drawer moved him greatly. He had waited too long to be with her this way. He would never let her leave his side; never release her from the vow she had made tonight to him, and never release her from the knife pledge. Finally he removed a box from the bottom of his suitcase. It was square and white, obviously a garment of some kind lay inside. He hoped it would please her the way it pleased him.
"Eric?" she called from the bathroom. "Baby what's wrong?" He chuckled. He knew she called him "baby" as a term of endearment but he was no baby! He had shown her that over and over tonight and he would continue to do so.
He vamped back into the bathroom, climbing into the tub just as she was about to shampoo her hair. "No, let me," he insisted, taking the bottle from her. He poured some into his hand and began to lather up her scalp. At the same time, she got busy taking down the braid that was in his hair. As she grabbed the handheld shower jet, Eric turned on the water so he could rinse her hair as she wet his. She lathered his hair while he wrung the water out of hers and applied conditioner. By that time she was rinsing out his hair. He combed hers out and then she applied conditioner to his, and he turned around so she could comb his out as well. Sookie didn't use bar soap; she always used body wash, and had several bath poufs hanging in the shower. They both stood up, Eric handed one to her, he took the other, and they started soaping each others' bodies. They each turned around so the other could do their backs, and Sookie had to fight off a fit of shyness and embarrassment both to wash Eric's ass and to let him wash hers.
Pretty soon they were clean in most places and Eric put down his bath pouf, pouring some of the soap into his hands with a wicked glint in his eyes. Sookie immediately got the hint and stuck her hand out for some of the soap. "We have to make sure my dirty girl is clean all over," Eric whispered to her as he rubbed his hands together for lather, then gently nudged her thighs apart so he could soap her up good.
"Speak for yourself, my dirty Vampire," she shot back at him, squeezing his balls with a soapy hand causing him to growl threateningly at her and show her his fangs.
He reached around and swatted her ass twice with his soapy hands and then went back to the buidness of soaping her up. But Sookie was already working on making it up to him. The combination of the slippery soap and her soft hands was bliss for Eric, and he his head back and let out a breathy "aaaaaahhhhhhhh" as she carefully rolled each of his balls in a separate hand at the same time, now and then pushing a finger or two back along his "seam" to his tight hole, threatening but never pushing a finger in. As she pleasured him this way, he was busy working his thumbs nimbly through her folds, his fingers tracing every nook and cranny of her most private area but studiously avoiding the one spot she wanted him to touch most. He traced his fingers around and around the opening of her channel but never put them in because of the soap on his hands. Then one hand strayed behind her and he attacked her from both sides, massaging and exploring the area around her back entrance. Then he finally touched her clit, what she had been waiting for, and she fell against him, the pleasure was so strong. By this time she had worked his shaft up and down, over and over with her slick hands, her fingers tracing under and around the sensitive groove around the head and the place where the foreskin meets the opening. She'd washed and washed his head with her thumbs, making sure no spot went without attention. Eric was at the limit of his endurance. The time for massage and cleaning was over.
He picked her up off of her feet and then levitated them until he was sitting in the cooling water with her in his arms. He hit the drain and turned on all of the shower heads. He quickly rinsed the soap off of both of them and then turned her over onto her knees, glad that he'd remembered to put in the cushy bath mat as he'd started running the water. He was in no mood for romance any more and he thrust into her, all the way to the hilt in one shot. Sookie gasped and arched her back for him, giving him the best access to go as deep as he could. She held on to the ample ledge around the tub for dear life as he pounded her unmercifully, taking her hard and fast but not quite at Vampire speed. Water splashed everywhere, up and over the glass doors enclosing the tub, which were starting to steam up because of the hot water pouring from the shower heads. Sookie started to feel the inner stirrings of something delicious and so did Eric; he spanked her once and ordered "Not until I say, my darling!"
She was quite overcome with what he was doing to her but she managed to breathe out "Ye- yes E- Eric!"
He began to tease her nub with skillful fingers, bringing her right to the edge in no time and holding her there. The bond told each of them that the other was also coming close, and finally Eric began to come, hard. As the first burst of seed filled his Sookie he cried out "Oohhh! Sookie, now!" and he put pressure on her clit. That was all it took for her to join him, and they bucked and rolled their hips together in ecstasy, Eric breaking out in his Viking victory cry again, until they were both spent. Eric pulled out of her quickly and turned her to face him, planting a solid kiss on her lips before he went for her throat. She easily laid her head aside to give him what he needed, and after he'd grabbed on and held her still to his satisfaction, he slurped and growled happily as he took her blood for the ump-teenth time that night. She stood calmly in his unyielding embrace, resting her hands on his chest and playing with his nipples which enhanced the pleasure for him. He loved the taste of her blood after sex and would not deny himself, not when she was soft and willing as she was now. But he only took a little, conscious of how many times he had fed that night and not wanting to cause her to be anemic. He sealed the wounds and then cut his tongue to let his blood heal them. Then he grabbed the bottle of soap again, squeezed some onto his hands, quickly washed himself off and then put his arms around her waist, kissing her deeply while his hands went to work gently cleaning her again.
She gasped and he pulled away from the kiss to look inquiringly at her. "Sensitive," she whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him back to her mouth to finish the kiss. Eric growled again, loving how she responded to his touch, knowing without a doubt that he was the only one who had affected her this way. The bond told him that by the feelings coming from her. He used the handheld to give their hair and their genitals a final rinse, then opened the door and reached across for the two fluffy towels he had left on the countertop. They stepped out onto the bath rug and dried each other's bodies, kissing and making out as they did.
"Sookie!" Eric finally growled. "If we do much more of this I will end up taking you again!" They both looked down at his very stiff cock and Sookie playfully tried to grab it. He grabbed her hands and took both wrists in one hand, holding them above her head while he walked her backward toward the bedroom, playfully pinching her nipples as she shrieked at him to stop. He stared at her hungrily, his fangs fully on display, but he knew he had to somehow get her to sleep so he could go out and assault the Vampire lurking on her property before it was too close to sunrise. But before that, he had a surprise for her. There, on the bed where he'd left it, was the package.
"Eric? What's this?" she asked, picking it up and staring at him with surprise.
"Something I brought for you," he replied, smiling back and pulling her to sit on the bed with him. "Go on, open it!" he encouraged.
She threw her arms around him and kissed him with a huge smile. "Oh, thank you, Eric!"
"Perhaps you should wait to see if you like it before thanking me?" he suggested, hugging her close and putting the box back in her hands.
Smiling in delight and moving her gaze back and forth between the package and Eric, she pulled the gauzy bow away from the box, which allowed the ribbon to fall away so that she could open the lid. Whatever was inside was covered in tissue paper, which she began to carefully pull away.
"Sookie, I am getting grey hair here!" Eric exclaimed teasingly.
She swatted at him with her hands. "Smart-ass!" she called him lovingly. Finally it was free of the paper, and she held it up to examine it. It was a piece of lingerie, but not the kind that she would have expected Eric to give her. It was a golden ivory colored silk, and it had a halter top that fastened at the neck with a snap. It had an empire waist made of ruched fabric encrusted with hundreds if not thousands of tiny beads which changed from a golden ivory to a fiery orange-red according to the way the light hit them. The beads were also sewn along the edges of the top, which was also edged with beautiful ivory lace. The bottom portion of it was made of alternating panels of the lace and the silk, while the bottom was edged with the beads and the lace. It would come to mid-hip. Also inside the box was a pair of beautiful thong panties made of the same lace, silk, and beads, and to complete the ensemble there was a robe made of the same silk, edged with the same lace and beadwork, with the beads forming spirals and stars along the robe's lapels, the scalloped edges of the three-quarter bell sleeves, and the lace-edged bottom, which would fall just a few inches longer than the top. The beads were not hard and rough, but instead were made of a soft, shiny material that Sookie could not identify. They weren't sequins either. She decided not to ask Eric what the beads were made of because she didn't want to seem picky about his gift. "This is beautiful Eric!" she said in awe. "I love it, and I love you! Thank you!" She turned to him and hugged him tightly, not wanting to let go.
He held her like that for a few moments but then curiosity got the best of him. "Sookie, Lover, since you are already undressed, may I see you in it?"
She blushed again and cast her eyes down. "Of course, Eric," she said with a soft smile. It was that same smile that he now knew was reserved only for him. He was proud to own that smile, being the possessive Vampire that he was. Suddenly shy, she slipped the top over her head and pulled up the thong panties, a bit surprised that they fit her perfectly. How did this Eric know her size? She bit her lip and tilted her head curiously, looking at him.
"What is that look for?" he wanted to know, smiling back at her.
"How did you know my size?" she asked him.
It was his turn to look down for a second. "I cheated," he finally admitted. "I sneaked in here and took some of your things while you were gone. I had a tailor look at them and take measurements. I had that custom-made for you." He smiled again, hoping this news wouldn't anger her.
"While I was…?"
"During the year that you were missing," he explained. "I told you the truth Sookie; I never gave up on you. I had this made before you returned."
"Oh," she said quietly, still for a moment. Then she took his hand in both of hers. "I don't know what to say, Eric. You cared about me even then didn't you?"
"Sookie, you have represented the sun to me for a very long time," he told her somberly, taking both of her hands and kissing them. "The beads remind me of the sunset. There are other supernaturals in this world that you have not met yet, Love, and the beads came from one of them. But come on, I want to see you!" he said suddenly, breaking the quiet mood. He set her on her feet and made a twirling motion with his finger. She turned red but she spun around for him, and around and around again. The "skirt" part of the negligee flared out and away from her body, exposing her belly and those delicious panties. Eric had to tear his eyes away to keep from tackling her to the bed.
"You," she came back to him and straddled his hips, "are the most wonderful, perfect, amazing, Vampire-man alive! How did I ever turn you away? What was I, crazy?" she kissed him, rubbing her silk-enclosed crotch against his nakedness. He was hard again immediately and he tried to will it to go down.
"I wondered that myself," he laughed. "How did you ever dismiss my perfection?" He raised his hand to his hair and began patting it into place, his nose in the air.
She punched his shoulder, but then rubbed it and kissed him again. "Arrogant, conceited…" she couldn't get any more words out because he was kissing her again. He flipped them around and they landed on the bed, him on top pinning her hands at the sides of her head.
"Woman, you will be the death of me!" he said, then he deepened the kiss. As if on cue, her stomach rumbled. He raised his head.
"Ignore it Eric!" she said, trying to pull him back down to kiss her.
"No, I will not!" he said, suddenly ashamed. He got up and strode to where he had put his clothes in the dresser next to hers, pulled out and put on a pair of blue workout pants with a lighter blue stripe. "I have been selfishly keeping you up here, having sex and taking your blood, and you have had nothing to eat! I know better than this! Why did you not say something?"
"I wasn't thinking about it," she said, shrugging.
"Sookie do not shrug your shoulders at me!" he exclaimed, upset. "This is serious! We have to be mindful of your health if I am to feed from you every night!"
"You'll feed from me, every night?" she repeated. "Nobody else, just me?" That made her happier than she wanted to admit. She had been hoping, but Eric wasn't the kind of man from whom you demanded monogamy.
"Where is this coming from?" he demanded. "Of course I will feed from you, and only you. You may not feel it without having had your human ceremony, but you are my wife! I hold that sacred. I will not be unfaithful to you!"
"Do you really mean that Eric?" a single tear escaped her eye.
"Does this make you sad?" he asked, walking over and taking her in his arms, brushing the tear from her cheek and tasting it.
"It makes me VERY happy, Eric!" she said shyly, wrapping her arms around his waist and laying her head on his chest. "I didn't expect it, is all. You have been with so many…" she didn't know how to finish her sentence.
"And you thought that I would continue to see other women when I have you?" he asked incredulously. "Sookie, what kind of man do you believe I am?"
"A powerful, attractive man who can have any woman he wants," she admitted, unwilling to look him in the eye.
He used his finger under her chin to pull her head up so he could see her eyes. "I am with the woman I want," he said simply. "There is no other that could ever compare to you. When I met you I was lost. They all blended into one thing after that, and that one thing was 'not Sookie.' But, how many women do you think I…?"
"I don't know, Eric," she replied, embarrassed. "Hundreds, thousands? You could have three or four a night if you wanted!"
Eric threw back his head and out came a hearty laugh. "Three or four a night?"
"Is it more than that?" Her eyes grew wider, and she suddenly decided she didn't want to know. "It's all right, Eric. You don't have to tell me. It's none of my business anyway." She started to pull away from him but he held her close.
"Believe it or not Sookie," he told her, still smiling and shaking his head, "I am not this man, this Vampire, you believe me to be. I do admit that I had no shortage of women willing to let me have my way with them, but there is more to life than sex! Sookie, I have a business to run. Countless hours have I sat on that dreadful 'throne' at the behest of Pam, who thinks it is good for business. Do you have any idea how boring that is? Mindless sex with drunken, sweaty women, beautiful or not, lost its appeal for me centuries ago."
Sookie knew he was being truthful. "Really? What do you do with your time?"
"I probably enjoy the same things you do," he told her. "I see that you keep a lot of books around. I, too, enjoy reading, although I think I am much pickier than you are." He picked up her latest read from the nightstand to make a point. On the cover was a tall, muscular blond man who looked embarrassingly like Eric, holding a woman whose dress appeared about to fall off her top half. She snatched the book away from him and threw it down on the bed, blushing. "You forget where I come from, Sookie," he went on. "Technology never ceases to amaze me. The internet is fascinating to me! And, I am also a business owner. There are endless mundane chores to do when you run your own business. I like to keep things very close to me, especially after that incident with Longshadow! I have taken many more things upon myself to do as a result. I am hoping that I can bring you in to take some of them from me so that we will have more time to play!" He waggled his eyebrows at her. "I also have duties as Sheriff. I must collect tribute from my underlings and oversee justice among them. I have to account for my earnings not only to the American I.R.S. but also our 'noble' king and the Authority. I am expected to hold court a few times a month to deal with grievances. If they send a V.I.P. into my area I am expected to keep him entertained with whatever his favorite pastime may be. I have a great deal of money; I think you know that. I am constantly trying to find the best ways to invest it and keep it increasing. After all, if you never expect to die, you must always make sure that you will have an income and savings to fall back on."
Sookie was suddenly seeing Eric in a whole new light. She had never considered Eric to be stupid, but the thought of him reading a book or sitting down to write his own payroll checks was not something she'd ever pictured. She thought he paid people to do everything for him so that he would have time to feed and fuck. "Eric, I think I owe you an apology," she said, stroking his face. "Of course I will help you with whatever I can! But I'm just a waitress and…"
She jumped ten feet in the air when Eric's fist hit the wall, knocking pictures down and toppling a bedside lamp. "No!" he bellowed. "Sookie, you are no longer a waitress, and you were never 'just' anything. Every time I have heard you put yourself down like that I have wanted to stop you. Only now do I have the right. Do not ever demean yourself, especially not in front of me. You are beautiful, talented, smart, and accomplished! It is this shitty small town you live in that has you feeling like something is wrong with you. I WILL put a stop to it!"
Eric's facial expression was so grave that she was almost afraid of what he would do next. And, right on cue, her stomach grumbled again.
"Once again I am being selfish, keeping you from eating," he said. He had never reclosed the interior security doors and so he picked her up in his arms and whooshed them down the stairs to the kitchen. "I do not care what you make, but fix yourself something." That was an order. Sookie rolled her eyes and smiled at him, then went to the refrigerator to get out some leftover fried chicken from the day before Eric had shown up. She fixed a plate with the chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and stuck it in the microwave. Then she poured herself a tall glass of milk and started heating water for tea.
Eric was reminded again that he had so much more now than he had before. He knew that if he spoke of it to anyone they would quickly become tired of listening, but he couldn't stop thinking about it. Twenty-four hours ago he had been sitting in this very kitchen with Sookie, and again she had been making tea. But where she had been angrily throwing things around and fighting with him before, today she was wearing the beautiful lingerie he had had made for her and was humming as she made her tea. He zipped out into the living room and back to get his cell phone from the charger where he'd left it. He pulled it out and dialed, while Sookie turned and watched, a silent question in her eyes. He held up one finger as the party on the other end answered.
"Dr. Ludwig," Eric said in his most businesslike voice. "Yes, this is Eric Northman." Sookie could not hear the other end of the conversation. "Yes, I do have a good reason for calling you at this hour. And we do have a contract, do we not?" He winked and rolled his eyes at Sookie, who smiled. She had met the not-very-nice Dr. Ludwig once when she had almost been killed by a maenad trying to deliver a message to Eric. The doctor wasn't polite but was said to be able to heal anything. Sookie wondered why Eric was calling her. After listening to the good Doctor rant on the other end of the line for a moment, Eric got to the point. "I do have good news, yes," he said. "I am newly bonded. Yes, she is human. You have met her. Sookie Stackhouse. Yes, that is she." He hit the 'mute' button and said to Sookie, "The Doctor sends her regards." And Dr. Ludwig had. Apparently, Sookie had made quite an impression on her. Eric was glad to know that. "No, she is not trying to run away from me," Eric laughed as the Doctor continued to question him. "I simply need to know how best to keep her healthy. Yes, I feed from her multiple times daily. Yes, it goes both ways. Yes, I have a pen." He made writing motions at Sookie, who quickly got him the pad and paper she still kept next to the phone where her Gran had at and gossiped for hours while she was alive. Sookie rarely, if ever, used that phone, now that she had her cell phone. Eric wrote down a list of things in the most beautiful script Sookie had ever seen. This made her realize that she had never seen Eric's handwriting before. It was unique, and flowing. One more thing to love about him, she supposed. But when she tried to actually see what he was writing, he covered up the list with his big hand. Sookie waited until he got off the phone before she lit into him.
"Why won't you let me see what you wrote, Eric?" she demanded. "I mean it is about me, isn't it?" She noticed that he had turned the pad over so the bottom faced up and she tried to pull it out from under his hands. Of course she couldn't get it from him. Frustrated, she sat back and folded her arms with a huff. "Jerk!"
"I will share this with you, Sookie, in good time," he said, reaching for her. She nimbly scooted out of his way and headed for the microwave to retrieve what she had warmed up. But Eric had other ideas. Faster than lightning, he had jumped up, pursued her across the room, and now stood in her way, glaring angrily down at her. She tried to sidestep him but he hauled her up against him, his hands restraining her arms at her sides.
"What are you doing? Let me go!" she shrieked, struggling hard against his hold. She was no match for his strength.
"I am teaching you about our new relationship, and how you will interact with me in it!" he said firmly.
"Excuse me?" she snapped back at him. "Interact with you? Oh, this ought to be good!" She set her mouth defiantly, glaring at him.
"We have not gone over this before so I will excuse your behavior this time," he said. "But only this time." He paused to gauge her reaction, and her expression didn't change except for she narrowed her eyes at him. He sighed. "I expect you to listen as I only plan to say this once. You will not walk away from me like that under any circumstances, unless we are playing which we certainly are not now." She opened her mouth to protest but he silenced her with a look. "And when I reach for you, you will not, I repeat will not flee from me the way you just did. It would do you well to heed and understand this now."
"Well look at you, Mr. High-And-Mighty!" she scoffed at him. "Do not ever flee from me!" She imitated his voice. "Where do you get off talking to me like that?"
He let out a growl of frustration, backed her up, and pushed her into the nearest chair. In an instant he had pulled one up before her as close as he could, trapping her knees between the two chairs and firmly planting his feet on the floor on both sides of hers. He placed her hands palms-down on her thighs and covered them with his own, and leaned forward. She wasn't going anywhere until he let her. "Let me ask you," he demanded. "Did you not agree to be mine, by blood pledge before my maker?" She started to speak but he held up a finger to silence her. "Just nod, please." She stared daggers at him for a few seconds before nodding. "One thing you will learn about being my bonded, and pledged, is that I will expect you to obey me and show me respect at all times. Now you started this by calling me a jerk!"
"No," she disagreed. "You started it by refusing to let me see what you wrote about me!"
"And how do you know that when I reached for you it was not to show you?" he wanted to know.
She started to feel the inner stirrings of chagrin but decided to fight against it. "I didn't," she retorted angrily, looking away.
"That is not truly the point here in any case," he continued. "The point is, you gave yourself to me, heart, body, and free will. Those were your words! I did nothing to coerce you!" He paused to let that sink in. She still refused to look at him. "The fact of the matter is that I reached out for you and you denied me. It does not matter the reason I reached for you. You will not do that again. If you do I will make you regret it." He raised his eyebrows, then squeezed her cheeks lightly between the fingers of one hand to force her to look at him. "Am I clear?" She still continued to glare at him. He sighed. "Sookie, I am not doing this just to be an asshole. There may be a time when you are in danger and I reach for you. If your first instinct is to jump away from me, how can I protect you?"
"I did agree to be yours, Eric," she finally found her voice. "But not so that you could turn me into some kind of robotic doormat!"
"That is not what I want either, and you should know that!" he retorted angrily. "But whether I reach for you to hold you, pleasure you, or punish you, you must not run from me. I will not tolerate it. If I have to turn into a hard-ass to make my point, so be it!" He glared back at her just as stubbornly as she was glaring at him.
Sookie took a minute to think about it. She sensed his hurt through the bond and it made her feel bad. It didn't matter any more who had started what. She now understood what he was trying to say. "There's just one more point I need to make too, Eric," she said quietly. He looked up, his eyes wide and his expression open. "I'm never going to mindlessly do what you say. Yes, I've agreed to give myself to you. I imagine I'll have to learn some new things about what you expect. I'll try."
"Sookie, will you trust me to do right by you and give you what you need? That is all I ask," he said sincerely. "You are right. I will teach you things you may object to at first. There is a reason for each of them. All I ask is your trust. I will explain anything you ask of me. Deal?"
It went against everything her Gran ever taught her about being an independent woman to agree to Eric's demands. She had agreed before fully knowing what she was agreeing to. This was new to Eric too though; not just to her. She had known of his need to be dominant. He had only ever enforced it in the bedroom, but that wasn't the true Eric Northman. The true Eric sat before her silently imploring her to listen to him. She had no doubt that he would force the issue if he had to, and she would end up following his rules anyway. "This is not easy for me. You know that right?" she asked him.
"Believe me Sookie," he said, the ghost of a smile on his face. "I realized from the moment you said you were mine that we were not in for an easy ride. I love you. I love your fire and your mind and your tenacity. I do not seek to take those from you. But you did give yourself to me and I will not let you out of that. You are mine." His expression had turned serious, determined.
She knew he was telling the absolute truth. She would have to trust him. "I don't want to hurt you by bringing Bill into this…" she started to say but stopped when his fangs clicked solidly into place.
"But?" he said harshly.
"He hurt me. I trusted him. You know what he did. I know you're not him Eric. You are nothing like him!" she hated the storm clouds she saw forming over his expression. "It'll be hard, is all I'm saying. I never trusted anybody until I trusted him, and he betrayed me in the worst way. So I hope you'll help me. I need you to NOT be him. I need you to be you."
Initially angered by her mention of Compton, Eric now thought he understood what she was saying. He knew how badly she'd been hurt. It was his job to make sure she wasn't hurt ever again. He knew something he did someday would hurt her but he would do what he could to avoid it. "Sookie, you have my word," he said softly. "And I have to tell you something else. I overreacted when you turned from me just now. I realize that. I cannot promise that I will not do it again. You have run from me so many times. I cannot stand for you to run from me. Do you understand?" he held her hand and brought it up to touch his lips to her fingertips, then he held her hand against his face.
This was something easy for her to understand! She knew how many times she had insulted Eric, turned him down, turned away from him. She'd spent the last few weeks hiding from him! "Why didn't you just say that Eric?" she smiled. "Now I get it." She reached out to him with her other hand and he pulled her close. He kissed her then, a kiss full of tenderness and hope. Right in the middle of it, she yawned.
"I think it is time for you to sleep," he said. "But first you must eat! How does this contraption work?" He walked over to the microwave and peered at it. He knew how to heat up a TrueBlood but not a whole meal.
"Let me do it," she nudged him aside and set the timer again to heat up her chicken and potatoes. Soon they were warm and Eric had persuaded her to eat in bed. Up there they sat while she yawned between bites.
"Do you remember what you said about the white robe and my other self?" he brought up.
"I do," she told him.
"As much as I would prefer you to sleep in the nude," he waggled his eyebrows at this, "I think you should sleep in this, or at least the robe to put both of our scents on it. Then put the robe on when I wake tomorrow."
"Oh, no, Eric!" she exclaimed. "What if you tear it to shreds? It's too beautiful for that! I can calm your bloodlust!"
"I am not willing to take that chance!" he said adamantly. "When I wake I expect to see it on you! This is non-negotiable!"
Giving in to Eric was so unfamiliar to Sookie but she finally agreed. Then Eric stripped down to a new pair of boxers – a deep blood red tonight – and held her in his arms while she went to sleep.
Some time later, with just over three hours left until dawn, Eric slipped downstairs into his "hidey-hole" (as Sookie liked to call it), and donned all black clothing. He'd made sure to secure the doors isolating Sookie's floor of the house so she would be protected. He hadn't even told her that there was a secret entrance/exit passage out of this room and under the house. It emerged out in the woods in a decrepit-looking outbuilding long forgotten about. When he had found it he had known it was perfect. Eric had done all the work digging the tunnel, putting in all the hardware and other security to keep this passage safe and unknown to anyone other than himself. Not even Pam knew about it. He crept out of the house and through the dark until he reached the door. It was so well hidden that even if someone had been standing right next to it, they wouldn't have known they were in trouble until Eric was on them. That was how Eric wanted it. He picked up his sword which he'd commissioned from Mr. Cataliades's Daemon family. They had also sold him the beads, made of a mysterious Daemon-made material called absenthemum, for Sookie's nightgown. The sword was made from the darkest black metal – metal that would never dull. It would remain sharp throughout eternity. The black metal gave off no glare from the moon or stars.
Eric silently took to the air and went up high enough that he could not be detected by even a Vampire below him. He'd pulled a black ski-mask over his face to hide his blond hair and pale skin. All that was visible were his glittering eyes as he scanned for the intruder. And suddenly, there he was. He was well hidden, also dressed in black and hunkered down in a place concealed by fallen logs. The intruder was concentrating on something small that he held in his hands. Eric could hear what appeared to be the sounds of feeding. WTF?
Swooping down so that he could land silently behind the intruder, Eric crept stealthily up behind him, making no sound whatsoever. Soon he reached around and held his blade at the throat of the intruder. "Do not speak. You will drop whatever is in your hands and show them to me!" His words were so quiet that only another Vampire would ever be able to hear them. The intruder abruptly stopped what he was doing and slowly raised his hands, hands which Eric could see were covered in blood. "Now stand and face me!" Eric ordered, wanting to see the Vampire's face before he killed him.
The Vampire knew better than to try to contend with the deadly sound of Eric's voice and did what he was told. He slowly rolled up onto his knees, letting the remains of what he'd held in his hands drop to the ground. As he stood, Eric stared in disbelief at what had been dropped, never letting his guard down. The Vampire stood, hands at shoulder level, and as he turned Eric got a glimpse of thick, dark hair done in.. a pompadour style? Eric then glimpsed rhinestones on the collar of what turned out to be a one-piece jumpsuit. His eyes went from the dead cat on the ground to the man's now familiar face, also covered in blood from the remains of his meal. Eric stared in disbelief.
"Bubba?"
What did you think? Please, do me the honor of expressing your opinion...
I'd like to recommend to you a fantastic story with Eric and an Original Character. They are exploring a full, consensual, committed, 100% 24/7 Dominant/submissive relationship Eric-style (we will not go to that extent in this story). Find out how a big mouth can get you in a whole lotta trouble in DEADLY WORDS!
http : / / www . fanfiction . net /s/5436571/1/Deadly_Words