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Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Southern Vampire Mysteries universe.

A/N: With this chapter, we return to Eric's POV. I haven't written a chapter from his viewpoint in awhile and, in all honesty, I like them better. This one is taken from Living Dead in Dallas, after the maenad's attack.

Theme 17: Blood

POV: Eric

Rating: T

First Taste

From my office, I could hear a pounding on the back door before Pam answered it with an irritated, "What?" her voice change completely as she continued, "Oh, Bill. What's happened? Oh, yum, she's bleeding."

I was so distracted by the last sentence; I almost missed Compton's reply, "Get Eric."

"He's been waiting in here," Pam told him, unnecessarily, because he had already pushed passed her and charged into my office with Sookie slung over his shoulder. I was sorry to see that she did not look well at all.

"This is on your account," Compton snarled at me, shaking Sookie in the process and making her moan in pain. I could have killed him at that moment. I was about to ponder why this would be when Sookie started muttering under her breath.

"What, my darling?" asked Compton.

Her, now very clear, response was, "Go to hell."

Under other circumstances, I might have laughed, seeing Compton put in his place by this wisp of a human girl. Right now, though, it seemed that seeing to Sookie was probably more important, "We must lay her on her stomach on the couch. Here, let me…" I grabbed Sookie's legs and between the two of us, Compton and I managed to arrange her carefully on my new leather couch. Then I turned away from Sookie for a moment, "Pam, call the doctor."

I crouched down next to the couch so that I could look Sookie in the face as I asked her, "What has happened to you?"

Even in her obviously weakened state, she managed to glare at me, "I am a message to you. This woman in the woods made Bill's car stop, and maybe even made us argue, and then she came up to me with this hog."

"A pig?" That caught me by surprise. Why would someone have attacked Sookie with a hog?

Still glaring, she continued, "Oink, oink. Razorback. Wild pig. And she said she wanted to send you a message, and I turned in time to keep her from getting my face, but she got my back, and then she left."

I sucked in an unnecessary breath as I heard Compton's shocked voice say, "Your face. She would have gotten your face." Then he turned to me, "Eric, her cuts are not so deep. What's wrong with her?"

I had been wondering the same thing. I had some idea, but I was hoping I was wrong. If I was right, it wouldn't be my fault, in the strictest of senses, that this had happened, but it would be close enough and I found myself not wanting to be to blame for Sookie's injuries. I turned back to face her and asked as gently as I could, "Sookie, what did this woman look like?"

"She looked nuts, I'll tell you how she looked," Sookie answered, her eyes darting from my face to my hair as it pooled next to hers on the couch, "And she called you Eric Northman."

I thought for a moment before replying, "That's the last name I use for human dealings. By looking nuts, you mean she looked…how?"

"Her clothes were all ragged and she had blood around her mouth and in her teeth, like she'd just eaten something raw. She was carrying this kind of wand thing, with something on the end of it. Her hair was long and tangled…look, speaking of hair, my hair is getting stuck to my back," her voice was getting continually weaker and the last part came out as a gasp.

I looked down at the bloody mess that was her back, and thought I could almost feel the pain myself, "Yes, I see." I carefully reached down and began to pull her hair away from her wounds, trying hard not to cause her any more pain.

Pam re-entered my office, then, with Dr. Ludwig, close behind her. Sookie carefully scrutinized the doctor before, questioning, "What kind of doctor are you?"

"The healing kind," replied Dr. Ludwig, "You have been poisoned."

If my heart had still been beating, I think it would have stopped at those words. True, I had expected as much, but I wasn't truly prepared to hear it spoken out loud. I tried to tell myself, it was just because I hadn't yet won Sookie's attention, as I would have liked, but part of me did wonder if I was being honest with myself.

Sookie, however, merely muttered, "So that's why I keep thinking I'm going to die."

"You will, quite soon." Usually I appreciated Dr. Ludwig's frankness, but right now, I could do with a little sugar coating. I was sure Sookie could, as well.

But, Sookie surprised me again, "Thanks a lot, Doc. What can you do about that?"

I moved my gaze to the doctor as she spoke, "We don't have a lot of choices. You've been poisoned. Have you ever heard of Komodo dragons?"

Where was she going with this? If Sookie's life was in danger, she should be trying to save her, not going on about dragons. I noticed Sookie's attempt to shake her head.

"Their mouths are teeming with bacteria," the doctor continued, "Well, maenad wounds have the same toxic level. After a dragon has bitten you, the creature tracks you for hours, waiting for the bacteria to kill you. For maenads, the delayed death adds to the fun. For Komodo dragons, who knows?"

Who knows? Who cares? Hurry up and fix Sookie, already. Sookie, herself, seemed to agree with me. "What can you do?" she asks, through gritted teeth.

Dr. Ludwig seems strangely happy as she replies, "I can dose the exterior wounds. But your blood stream has been compromised, and your blood must be removed and replaced. That is a job for the vampires." She turned to face us; the vampires, "If only one of you takes the poisoned blood, that one will be pretty miserable. It's the element of magic that the maenad imparts. The Komodo dragon bite would be no problem for you guys."

I hated her right now. This was hardly the laughing matter she was making it out to be. She didn't understand that the girl on the couch was important to me. Important enough that I would gladly be the only one taking her poisoned blood. As it was, I planned on being the first.

Dr. Ludwig went on to explain that each of us would take turns removing some blood before Sookie would be given a transfusion. This roused Sookie a little bit, for she struggled to raise her head as she choked out, "Of human blood."

"If Eric can pull some strings and get the human blood, at least half the transfusion can be synthetic," continued the doctor, then she gazed directly at Sookie, "I'm Dr. Ludwig, by the way."

Sure, introduce yourself, after you've gone on about Komodo dragons and told the girl, she needs to have her blood sucked out by a group of vampires. Some supernatural beings really have no sense of common decency.

To calm myself, I jumped into the conversation, "I can get the blood, and we owe her the healing. What is your type, Sookie?"

"O positive."

"That shouldn't be a problem." I told her, glad to hear she had a common blood type, which also happened to be one of my favorites, "Can you take care of that, Pam?"

As Pam left to get the blood, the doctor began her treatment of the exterior wounds on Sookie's back. Sookie seemed to have a problem with the doctor's type of treatment and was putting up quite a struggle, for someone so weakened by the maenad's poison. Finally, to calm her down I reproached her, "She is the healer. You must accept her treatment."

Sookie pouted, but gave in and, in the process, more or less demanded an apology from me. I gave her a generic response and she told me she expected something more. With a smile, I gave in to her request, "Angelic Sookie, vision of love and beauty, I am prostrate that the evil wicked maenad violated your smooth and voluptuous body, in an attempt to deliver a message to me."

"That's more like it," she replied, her voice almost too low for my vampire hearing to pick up, "I take it the message means that she's going to war with you?"

"Not exactly," I replied, while taking her in. She looked terrible. Her skin was taking on an odd, yellowish green tinge that actually frightened me more than I cared to let on, "Pam?"

"It's on the way. This is bad."

Thank you for the understatement, Pam.

Compton sounded frantic as he commanded, "Start. She's changing color."

Sookie shrieked and Dr. Ludwig jumped up from her seat and moved to examine Sookie's eyes before stating, "Yes, if there's to be any hope."

I needed no more encouragement. Before the others could move, I was kneeling by Sookie again. Before I bent my head to bite, I winked. Her eyes closed and I lowered my fangs to her neck. If I had known what I had been missing, I would have stepped up my plan to take her from Bill a long time ago. Her blood, even spoiled with the maednad's poison, was the most divine blood I had ever tasted from a human. It reminded me of the attraction fairy's hold for vampires. I knew in that moment that I must someday have Sookie as my own. When I had drunk my share of her blood, the others almost had to pull me away, I was so reluctant to let go.

I have heard human's say that the first taste is with the eyes. While this was true, even with vampires, nothing could have prepared me for the taste of Sookie's blood. I have also heard that the first taste is the best. I did not know if this was true or not, but I knew that I was willing to put that theory to the test.

A/N: The next theme is "Rainbow."