I thought maybe I would have time to think about the possibilities of Eric and me but actually it was less than twenty-four hours. I was at Merlotte's the next night, admittedly daydreaming, when three unfamiliar vampires walked in. Now these guys look tacky, was the first thing I thought. The second thing as the big bald one with the bad tattoo scanned me, or at least my boobs, was that I was glad I was behind the bar and by the phone. I picked it up and dialed home.

"Stackhouse residence."

"Hey Gran, could you call Eric and let him know that we've just got some unfamiliar visitors in the bar tonight."

"Vampires?"

"Yep."

"Are you alright, Sookie?"

"Just fine."

"I'll call him now.

"Thanks, Gran."

At the end of my brief conversation I was being studied by not just the bald vampire but the female with the greenish glow to her dark skin.

"Look at this little rose just sitting in a pile of filth." She sashayed up to the bar and leaned over to sniff me. "You are exquisite."

Sookie? Is she kidding me? Arlene thought with an edge of jealousy. Some people sure could take vanity to a new level.

"I belong to Eric Northman," I said on impulse, remembering what he said about not being able to touch me without his permission. That sounded pretty good considering how she was looking at me.

Sam hissed at my side and gripped a pint glass tight enough that I thought it might break in his hand. Huh. My announcement made his mind green with jealousy and red with anger.

Over the vampire's shoulder I could see the last of the trio, greasy haired and with a sleazy opening in his shiny shirt, narrow his eyes and a feral grin grew over his face.

"You heard her, Diane," he said. "She belongs to the Sheriff."

All three of them laughed and I wondered why Eric had never mentioned that some vampires don't really seem to care about the rules. It would have been good to know before announcing myself as claimed.

"Unless you're planning on purchasing a drink and taking a seat, we don't really welcome loiterin' in here," Sam growled at the vampires across the bar.

The bar was silent but I caught a few mental snickers. There was plenty of loitering that took place in Merlotte's, just not by vampires. The last vampire to spend more than a few minutes here had turned to ash in the parking lot. I thought maybe Sam should put that as a warning on the door.

"How much for her?" Diane purred while staring into my cleavage.

"You're not my type," I said.

"You smell like mine," she answered.

"I am Eric's." So I guess I had made my decision then.

"I am Eric's," she mimicked in a rude interpretation of my voice. "He sure will be disappointed not to see you again."

"I doubt that will be a problem," I said. "He knows you're here. He's been called."

She hissed and snarled at me but leaned away from the bar.

"You don't play nice," the big bald one said to me in a plodding tone.

"I sure don't." It was true, Gran had probably called Eric by now. I wasn't sure this really meant he'd be coming to check in on me, but it seemed to have an effect on this lot.

"I suppose we will have to entertain ourselves elsewhere," the greasy one sighed with a pout, which definitely did not suit him. I also didn't really believe him. They gave a few more patrons smiles that were somewhere between threatening and inviting, and then they drifted out the door. My brain followed their empty spots. They didn't go far.

"Sookie, I need to see you in my office," Sam announced, but he had me by the arm and he was pulling me along behind him. That was a thing lately, and I didn't like it.

Shoulda said something. Protect her myself. Smells so damn good. He was thinking all that and it was starting to really get on my nerves that people were always thinking about how I smelled. I wondered if I should shower a little less or a little more.

Sam tried to pull me close in his office but I scooted to the side and sat down in a chair across from his desk. I wanted this to feel professional even if I was pretty sure it wasn't gonna be.

"Sookie how the hell did you get yourself mixed up with vampires? What are you doing with the Sherrif? He's more dangerous than anyone in the area."

I opened my mouth to tell him to say that to my Gran but then I thought about what it might mean to Eric if it got around that he hung out with a little old lady and discussed history.

"Well," I said, playing dumb instead, "he sure is handsome."

"He'll kill you!" Sam shouted. "What are you thinking? I thought you were smarter than that." In his head he was thinking, She's dumber than I thought. It was similar, but not the same.

"I don't think he will, and really Sam, this ain't none of your business."

"Sookie, think about this, think about what happened to Maudette and Dawn."

"That wasn't a vampire, Sam and you know it," I snapped. "If it was it wouldn't be my brother under suspicion for it!"

"Is that what this is about? Are you trying to pin the murders on Northman?"

"What?! Lord, Sam. Now that would be stupid."

"It's all stupid, Sookie! I don't see any which way of this that ain't stupid."

"Sam you are my boss, not my boyfriend. Frankly I don't see how any of this is your business." It wasn't quite fair of me to say that because we were at least friends. And I sort of knew Sam was interested in me, but I'd always been glad he hadn't acted on it. It didn't sit right with me that he was making a fuss about my personal life now of all times.

The phone started ringing but Sam reached forward and pulled my shirt collar to the side, making me hiss and revealing Longshadow's bite.

"Damn it, Sookie! Look at what he did to you."

"That wasn't Eric. It was another vampire and he's dead now. Permanently. Thanks to Eric, who has never tried to bite me."

That stunned Sam good. Seemed like he couldn't quite fathom a vampire killing another vampire over some dumb blonde waitress. Especially one who wasn't feeding and fucking him. I could probably start a club for people who couldn't fathom that. I would join, maybe Pam too. Before he could say anything, Arlene opened the office door.

"Could I get a little help out here, Sam? Sookie, there's a man on the phone for ya."

Sam and I glared at each other for a few moments.

"May I use the office phone alone, Sam?"

He stormed out after Arlene and I picked up the receiver.

"Hello?"

"You need a cell phone."

All of the sudden I was smiling. Eric's words were terse and irritated but it was like I was giddy to hear him anyways. Maybe before I wasn't so sure he would really care if more vampires were after me or not.

"I'll take that into consideration," I said lightly.

"So will I. Are the vampires gone?"

"No. I can not hear them outside the bar somewhere. Didn't catch all their names but the woman was Diane. She didn't seem to care that I said I was yours."

There was a long silent pause. "You said that?" Even Eric couldn't keep the small note of pleasure out of his voice.

"Sure did. I hope you ain't changin' your mind."

He chuckled. "Not yet. I'll keep you updated. When does your shift end?"

"Last call's at two."

"Fangtasia closes later. I may not be able to… Sookie don't walk out of that bar until I or Pam arrive."

"Not a problem. Despite common belief I am not that stupid." I tried to keep the bitterness from my argument with Sam out of my voice but I could almost hear Eric struggle with whether or not to question me on my remark in the silence.

"I will send someone to watch your home and Adele," he said finally.

"Thanks. That would make me feel better."

"It seems we have much to discuss. I will see you tonight, even if I cannot get away before you leave Merlotte's."

"Alright." I thought about saying that I would rather it was him who came here. I didn't really know Pam and I wasn't sure how she felt about me, although from what I got from Eric about vampires I knew that as his child she would do as much to protect me as he would. Anyways I didn't want to seem clingy. "Thank you, Eric. I…" I didn't feel worth the effort. I didn't understand what he saw in me. I wondered if he was doing it more for Gran than for me. "I appreciate it," I said instead.

"Sookie…" Eric paused. Our conversations sure were loaded. "I will see you tonight. We will talk."

"Sounds good," I said, trying to sound bright when I felt strangely maudlin all of a sudden.

It was quiet after that and it took me a moment to realize he'd already hung up.

Pam arrived in a baby pink suit set at Merlotte's shortly before last call. She ordered a Tru Blood that she barely touched and she sat at the bar without talking to anyone. She and Sam side-eyed each other with distaste a whole lot, but aside from that I could feel her eyes on me pretty much the whole time. She didn't speak to me until we were closed and I was walking towards the door with her at my side.

"You are a very efficient waitress," she said. "You hear the customer's needs before they are spoken?"

I looked around, startled by her frankness, but there was no one around to hear her. "Yeah. I guess so."

"You should quit here. Come to work at Fangtasia. We have health care and there is no grease smell."

I laughed as we stepped outside. "Yeah but I think I fit in better here."

"You don't," she said making me stop short. She looked at me with a blank, honest expression. "You would not fit in at Fangtasia, it's true, but I will at least grant you that you are too good for this dump."

There was a lot that wasn't said in that. Mostly that I got the impression she wasn't so sure I was good enough for Eric. Part of me wanted to defend Merlotte's, my people, my town. The other part of me recognized that this was her way of paying a small compliment.

"Well," I said. "I don't know." She shrugged so I changed the subject. "The vampires?"

"Left as I arrived," she answered. "They were waiting by your car. They're gone yes?"

I took a moment to try and reach around me. I couldn't find any other blank spots aside from Pam.

"Seems like it."

"Good." I wasn't sure if she meant it like 'Good job, you're right' or 'Good that they left.' "I will follow you home. Eric has asked that you leave your bedroom window open so he may speak with you tonight." The way she said 'speak' made it clear that she thought he was joking about that and that she assumed I would be feeding or fucking him. The 'finally' was implied in that too.

Pam's pastel blue mini-van followed me all the way home and waited in the drive for me to walk inside the house. Eric had given her very polite instructions. I stepped into Gran's room briefly where she'd fallen asleep with a book in her lap and the light on. I kissed her on the cheek and let her know I was safe before heading to my room and straight into the shower. I couldn't stop thinking about the way everyone was always talking about my scent, or Pam's reference of the bar smelling like grease, and I suppose I was feeling a little self conscious about what Eric would smell on me.

When I got out I wrapped a towel around myself and realized that there was an empty space waiting inside my bedroom. I peeked around the door and discovered a smiling Eric, shirtless and under my covers. My eyes widened and so did his smile.

"I have good timing," he congratulated himself.

"My clothes are out there."

"You don't need them."

I swallowed. "Eric… I don't know if I'm-"

He sat up and my sheets fell back to reveal bare hipbones and the most beautiful curve of a bottom against my mattress. He was naked.

"We won't have sex tonight," he said simply. "There is not enough time."

Considering it was only just after three and I knew the sun definitely wasn't going to be up in the next half hour, this didn't really match what I'd learned about sex from most minds.

His smile grew, "When we have sex, Sookie, it will be a night long event and it will not be within in hearing range of your grandmother. We would wake her with our pleasure." I swallowed again. He patted the bed. "Come out. We will talk and touch."

I took a deep breath and squeezed the towel tighter around me before opening the door and walking out to perch myself delicately on the side of the bed. Eric laughed quietly before vampire speeding me under the covers and against his side. The towel fluttered to the floor at the side of my bed. My resulting squeak of shock was muffled carefully by his mouth, which set itself to the task of distracting me into relaxation. He was very good.

I could feel him laying stiff over my hip as he pulled slowly away from my eager lips. One arm propped him up on his side while the other hand ran less than politely down my side, turning my waist and hips into unexpected erogenous zones.

"That didn't sound like talking to me," I said, my voice lower and more uneven than I expected. I pulled the sheet up to cover our chests.

Eric grinned and tugged the fabric down just an inch. "No, but I guessed that you had never been naked in bed with a man before."

"You guessed right."

"It is important for us to be comfortable with each other. I am comfortable with you, Sookie. Are you comfortable with me?"

I resisted the urge to say that I thought he was probably comfortable with most naked women. "I'm getting there," I admitted.

He leaned down and kissed me long and soft again. I was definitely sitting somewhere between comfortable and pleasantly uncomfortable the longer he did that.

He pulled away again. "I admit I am disappointed."

I paled and retreated and Eric blinked hard. Maybe that was the vampire equivalent of smacking his forehead.

"No," he said quickly, his hands scooping under my back to pull me closer. "You misunderstand. You do not disappoint me, Sookie. You delight me. But I am frustrated that it was the rogue vampires who first heard you declare yourself mine, and not me. As I am frustrated that it was Longshadow who tasted you first, and not me."

Oh. I relaxed, and my breasts brushed his chest, making parts of me hungry for more touching. "Yeah, I wasn't too pleased about any of that either."

Eric's forehead knotted slightly. "I need to ask. I would understand if you said that you were mine to protect yourself tonight. But I need to know if you meant all parts of it. Everything we talked about last night."

I respected him enough to really think it over, and it surprised me to see that he seemed a little nervous or impatient as he waited. "I knew last night that I would agree to be yours, Eric, but I probably would have taken more time to think if they hadn't come in tonight."

"I will be possessive," he warned.

"So will I." This made him grin. "I'm serious. I've never done this before and you've done this I don't know how many times and thinking about that makes me feel… I don't like it."

Eric kissed me deeply and for such a long time that I thought maybe he'd changed his mind about what was happening between us tonight. Frankly, when he kissed me I didn't really care whether or not we were going to stop.

"I have bedded many women, yes," Eric said after pulling away and I winced. "But I have never declared a woman mine."

Oh. Oh. I was smiling, probably really big, and Eric laughed lightly.

"I'm your first." I giggled and Eric stifled his own laugh against my neck, making me shiver and lift my hips against his. He groaned and I sighed, moving my hands restlessly over his back. Did we have to only touch tonight?

"There is something I would like to do," Eric said against my neck.

"Me too," I moaned, pushing my chest against his.

Something in his chest rumbled deeply and he lifted his head to meet my hungry eyes.

"Not tonight, Sookie, there is not enough time for that tonight. But this will be close. However there are consequences you may not like."

My eyes grew big and I stopped rubbing myself against him. "Tell me."

"I want you to take my blood."

"Take?"

"Drink." He watched me as I grimaced. "If you have my blood, I will know if you are afraid or hurt. Other vampires will smell me in you and know that you are mine. You will be stronger, sharper, more alert. Also, it will heal that scar," he said with a frown at Longshadow's bite.

"But?" I asked, since none of those things sounded like 'consequences.'

"You may feel differently about me, more beholden, more… lustful. You may have dreams of us together. It may affect your judgment towards me."

I bit my lip before speaking. I didn't like the 'beholden' part, or even the idea of it affecting my judgment. "Will it wear off?"

"Eventually."

"Years eventually or months eventually?"

"Months probably," he said. "I have not done this in a very, very long time. The less you take, the sooner it will wear off."

"So if I take some, and I'm not myself, do you promise not to give me more until it's worn off?"

"I will give you my blood if you are injured and need it to heal," Eric said sternly.

"Eric."

He studied my face. "Yes. If it affects you too much I will not give you more unless it is life or death."

It was a similar stipulation to the one I had about him taking other people's blood, so it seemed fair.

"Alright," I said, trying to ignore the fact that I had just agreed to drink someone else's blood.

"It does not bother you that it could affect your decision on whether or not you will have sex with me?" he asked, mildly surprised.

I laughed. "Eric, I already want to have sex with you." He beamed, and it was definitely a little over confident but I let it slide because, well, looking at him he had reason to be. "We'll just have to make sure that we've both got a night off soon."

He laughed. "I look forward to clearing my schedule. One night may have been a conservative estimate. Can you clear a week?"

Since I couldn't really fathom the reality of having sex with Eric at all, let alone for seven consecutive nights, I left that question alone.

"How do we do this?"

Eric lowered his head to suck lightly on my earlobe before whispering into my ear. "I will bite my wrist and you will drink."

To avoid the ick factor I kept talking. "I think you should drink from me too."

Eric froze for a moment before lifting his head, his face still. "Why?"

I wanted to give him a long, practical list, like the one he had given me but I really only had one reason. "I want you to," I murmured. "I'd rather your dead bartender wasn't the only vampire to have bit me."

Eric watched me as if he was waiting for me to say 'Just kidding!' I didn't. I leaned up, dipping my fingers into his long hair and kissed him until he turned heavy and urgent against me.

"I would like that too," Eric hummed against my lips. He leaned back and lifted his wrist to his mouth. I heard a crunching, tearing sound and then his bloody skin was before my gawking mouth. A drop of blood hit my tongue and it was strangely thick and sweet. "Drink, Sookie."

I pulled my hand from his hair and held his wrist to my mouth. I let my tongue sneak out and wipe against the bite and Eric's hips rolled against me as he moaned quietly. I closed my eyes and swallowed and Eric nuzzled against my collarbone, licking and kissing and groaning. My legs spread and his hips fell between mine, his penis resting against the slick lips of my pussy. I thought maybe we were going to ignore our pledge of waiting for a full night when Eric's hips rolled again, but he never moved to press inside me, only rubbed gently and rhythmically. I groaned and then sucked at Eric's wrist.

The bite was closing, I could feel it shrinking under my tongue. Eric's mouth was over one of my breasts, licking and grazing with his fangs but not biting, while his hand played with the other. I thought maybe he had changed his mind about biting me and I didn't like that one bit, so I opened my mouth and clenched my teeth over his wrist. He groaned against my breast, his hips picking up the pace while mine rutted back eagerly. My teeth tore his skin and Eric's chest roared against mine. His fangs sunk into my breast and I came with a long, satisfied whimper. Eric spilled against my sheets, his free hand lifting my back up in an arch towards his mouth. I released his wrist and wrapped my hands into his hair to hold him against me.

I felt powerful, I could see the stars shining, individually, out my window. I could hear Gran breathing quietly in sleep up the stairs. I could feel Eric and I trembling against one another. That was the headiest feeling, the knowledge that I had reduced a thousand year old vampire to animal trembles of satisfaction. I was impressed with myself. Eric soothed my breast with his tongue before sliding up to gaze at me. His expression was soft, stunned, and a little amused. Despite all of the confidence I felt, I still had to ask.

"Was that okay?"

Eric's mouth dove down to devour mine. I could taste my own blood, bitter compared to his. His hands rubbed at my sides, over my hips, squeezing and brushing and claiming.

"You are the best surprise I have ever had," Eric said. "You are mine."

"Yes," I said, making him kiss me insistently again. And I thought, You're mine too, for now.

AN: Hello lovelies! Thank you again for the incredible response. I'm going ahead and posting this a bit early because I am bored on the Megabus. As always, pretty please, leave a review. I own nothing but the pleasure I receive from hearing from all of you!