Hi Everyone!

I'm back! Again. I know I promised more updates after Easter... but guess what? My boyfriend proposed! (Squeeeeeee!) So now the date has been set and I have a plan and a schedule, I hope I'll be able to fit in some more writing in the middle of this madness. I love doing this too much to stop and don't worry; I have the whole plot in my head already. So it's just a matter of fingers on keyboard ;-)

"Fuck Oberon!" Eric cried from my old bedroom.

This had been his catch phrase for whenever he encountered any obstacles of being human.

Eric had turned my old bedroom into a makeshift gym as soon as the doctors gave him the green light to work out. He's been at it like an animal ever since. If possible, Eric had toned and buffed his body up in even better shape than it was previously. We were back at my house for less than a week and Eric had been testing my catalog of my Gran's recipes when he found out he had joined the battle of the bulge.

It all happened when I caught him looking at himself in the bathroom mirror like a thirteen year old girl. He was totally unsurprised when he saw me in his reflection and unabashedly asked, "Lover? Do you think I'm inflating?" as he ran his fingers across his less defined abs. Hmmm… I'm so glad Oberon took care of himself.

As my line of sight couldn't help finding its way down that fine body, I found out that as much as Oberon looked like and was about the same height as Eric, there were subtle are differences. While Eric had a buff and strong upper body as many a Viking should have been, especially since Eric was part of a clan that were actually farmers as well as raiders; it would've involved a lot of upper body work and strength. Oberon's body was different. Broad shoulders set off by well squared pecs, in combination with his waistline, formed the perfect triangle. He had the proportions of an athletic swimmer who had the luxury of working out. It added muscle tone to the otherwise smooth V shape that a swimmer's body would have.

My eyes traveled further down to the knot of the towel around his waist and I noticed that Oberon had some ink on the inside of his forearm, two down from the elbow and a larger one on his back. I remembered Chow and Godfrey had tattoos but they were done before they were turned. My eyes followed the line of the towel and I couldn't help trying to analyze the outline of what lies beneath it. I'd be damned if I wasn't curious about Oberon's equipment compared to Eric's. I knew chances of Oberon being as well endowed as Eric were slim however...

"Lover..."

"Ahem." Right. His abs. "Well that's just you not working out and -"

Suddenly Eric dropped the towel and I couldn't help trying to take a peek. In two swift motions Eric pulled me toward him. He was all hard and ready as he pressed on my back as he leaned against me and the doorframe. Wedging me with my face against the wooden frame and he leaned his whole body on my back. I moved my legs further apart so he could press himself as much against my back as possible.

"How about we take this body for test drive?" He murmured in my ear.

I swallowed the lump in my throat as I stared at our reflections in the mirror. I was just wearing my usual shorts and tank top at home looking turned on as hell with a naked Eric pressing me against the bathroom doorframe. I blushed because I've never seen myself like that; hooded eyes, half opened lips and turned towards Eric like I wanted to eat him. The expression was all lustful and I blushed a deep shade of crimson at my own reflection in the mirror.

"You are beautiful lover. I love it when you look at me like that. Don't you get turned on when you see that I want you with every inch of my existence?" Eric said in my ear as he pulled down my shorts and let them drop to the floor.

He was licking me at my favorite spot behind my ear. My body reacted to what it wanted and my back arched to position myself for him. I let out a moan as my body yearned for him, wanting him to take over. My face was still flushed, but for a different reason now. Through the embarrassment I also found what we were doing to be somewhat erotic and the horny part of me liked it. A lot.

I was wet between my legs, I wanted him so much. Eric obviously felt the same, as he forewent his usual teasing and foreplay and pushed himself into me. Oberon's equipment felt – different. I didn't even know how to compare. From what I saw he had his own kind of gracious plenty but the dimensions were different, he made different parts if me squirm as Eric pumped into me, while there were certain sensations I had when I made love with Eric that I wasn't feeling. Perhaps it was the position we were in?

Maybe it was coincidence or he sensed that my mind was wandering; Eric started pumping harder and faster making me moan with anticipation of my own climax… so close. As his last few strokes brought my release, Eric bit down on my shoulder and I screamed out of pain of a different sort.

While vampire punctures draw blood they release neurotoxins that instead of being toxic like most venomous bites, the vampires' neurotoxins can even make the experience enjoyable and euphoric. Hence the popularity of vamp bars and the fangbangers. Eric was biting me out of habit, with his normal blunt human teeth – with no neurotoxin or coagulant. And it hurt like a son-of-a-bitch.

You would think that pain would distract you from sex but it had the opposite effect, screaming out actually brought me closer to the edge and Eric even more enthused. Eric lifted my leg as the rhythm of his strokes began to falter and with the last few strokes he brought me with him as we shuddered and collapsed in a heap by the bathroom entrance. Everything was a blur – in a good sort of way.

I awoke in my bed with an odd sensation on my left hand, like someone tugging on my fingers. When my eyes focused I saw that it was Eric slipping our engagement ring back on my finger.

"Are you being sneaky?" I asked as I tried to pull my hand away. Eric tightened his grip and managed to slip the ring back on my finger.

"You don't expect me to propose again do you?" Eric chuckled. I noticed his smile was a little wider than normal, as if to make room for fangs that don't exist anymore and wondered if he knew he still had such a habit.

"No… I guess not."

"Then why haven't you been wearing the ring? You didn't expect me to honor the engagement?"

In honest truth, I hadn't been wearing the ring because we knew nothing about Oberon. What if he already had a family? What if he had a wife waiting for him at home somewhere? Even though the hospital staff said they couldn't contact anyone listed as an emergency contact on his insurance card and Oberon's cell phone had not rung once with anyone worried about where he'd been for the last month or two. But the possibility still lurked in the corners of my mind and I told Eric so.

"Hmm…" Eric turned on his back as he scratched his stubbly chin. "How about we get Crutcher to do a background check on Oberon and if it comes back clean then we'll go ahead with our plans."

Mr. Crutcher was the lawyer Mr. Cataliades recommended to us in our court case with Felipe de Castro over Eric's assets. Short and plump for a man at the height of 5'6", he had a friendly face, with chocolate brown hair and matching freckles. His cornflower blue eyes smiled with mischief, Crutcher looked like everyone's favorite drinking buddy. That is, until he smiled at you, which he rarely did. He'd often just grimace rather than bare his pearly whites. Once he did smile at a joke Eric made and revealed set of small sharp pointy teeth. He must've had at least three times the normal teeth of humans, all of them like sharp little tacks. My gut told me that his bite could be lethal. Crutcher definitely had an ethereal feel to him, and his brain patterns were a mixture of things I couldn't even start to identify. All I knew was that he was barely human and according to Eric a damn good lawyer.

Eric and Crutcher started conversations over the phone with Eric prodding him in the right direction. Crutcher was wary at first since this person who claimed to be my latest beau took such an interest in my finances. But given how adept Eric was at helping Crutcher finding which tax and accounting loopholes were used to funnel money into Eric's offshore accounts, proving the funds actually belonged to Eric and now me, Crutcher assumed Oberon was either a tax lawyer or a forensic accountant of some sort and left it at that. Since then, Crutcher had been on Felipe's case like a hound and the rumor coming from Mr. C's camp was that they were trying to persuade Felipe to drop the case or risk paying a huge amount of legal fees for nothing. Things were certainly looking good for us.

Eric had been using Hadley's computer to trade stocks online with the cash he'd left me. Crutcher had advised that we pay ten percent of the inheritance tax the state of Louisiana had slapped me with. Since Eric and I weren't married I was in the highest tax bracket even when he had a will. However, Crutcher was contesting to the courts that given that Eric was already dead this was simply a transfer of assets. The appeal actually had the senators in a frenzy up at city hall, even though vamps had been legal citizens for five years and had been able to marry humans for two, federal and state tax laws just hadn't had time to catch up. Crutcher thought there was a good chance we'd be able to get some of it back before they wrote new laws to change it.

None of this bothered me the way it had Eric. He was absolutely on a bend when he found out about the estate tax and would've broken the kitchen table if he wasn't human when Mr. Crutcher explained to him about the court case with Felipe de Castro. Though we had more money than I'd ever dream of being able to spend in a lifetime, it must have been frustrating for Eric to see his assets dwindle to less than a tenth of what they were because of the avarice of a king to whom he owed fealty.

However, Peter Crutcher was the kind of lawyer you would be scared to have against you. He was cool, calm and logical with a savage ruthlessness that only came to the surface when necessary. That was apparent when Eric told Mr. Crutcher that the paper trail for one of the offshore accounts ended in Somalia. It was possible that company certificates were held in one of the Somali banks. However, the area where the branch was located was one of the most precarious areas currently under sharia law and even Eric himself claimed that it may be a waste to time to try to obtain papers in such a dangerous country when it would've been blown to smithereens five times over by now. Crutcher turned up with papers in two days. When asked how he did it, he just smiled. I shuddered when, under closer inspection, there was a fine spray of what looked like dried blood on the corner of first page. It frightened me to think what mix of supernatural beings made up the man that was our lawyer. I was just glad he was on our side.

So did I trust Crutcher to do a thorough of background check for Oberon? You bet.

"Okay." I yawned as I stretched out on the bed. If nothing came back about Oberon, I'd marry Eric. We didn't want another estate tax or any other debacle to happen because we weren't married. Oh yeah, and because he came back from the dead for me, that too.

"Oh no, lover. I'm not letting you go back to sleep that easily. I have to keep exercising to stop myself from inflating." Eric said softly as he started kissing down my neck, he was ready as he pressed himself against my thigh and again I couldn't help noticing he felt different. It was like making love with a new person for the first time.

"Lover, you're blushing!" Eric chuckled. "You are many things, but prude isn't one of them. May I ask what had brought on this sudden sense of modesty?" His tongue slid down my breast, caught my nipple in his mouth and started nibbling. Cheat.

"You… just feel… different." I just want him to get on with it. Right now.

"Good different or bad different?" He said as our eyes met while his teeth and tongue alternated on my breast.

"Just… different!" I uttered as wrapped my legs around his torso.

"Then we should get you well acquainted with this new body of mine and overcome this meekness of yours."

"Oh yes." I replied. And we did. All day, into the evening and until the next morning.

I left Eric in his makeshift gym swearing profanities at himself when I headed out to work. I still worked two morning shifts a week – for my sanity and for Sam. I also liked having my own money to spend.

When I got back from work that afternoon Eric had received a courier from Mr. Crutcher's office. When I walked out of my shower and into the kitchen I was greeted by a very solemn Eric. He gave me nod and indicated I should take the seat opposite him. Who died? Or perhaps worse, who's married with children?

"Lover, I have some good news and bad news, which do you want to hear first?"

"Good."

I didn't understand why anybody would like to hear the bad news first, if it was really bad news then it would dampen the good news to follow and if it wasn't so bad the good news would still be good news. So why not hear the good news first?

"Good news, Oberon is not married."

"That's a relief. I hear a 'but' coming."

I was expecting a 'but' along the lines of that he had a string of lovers and twelve children out of wedlock.

"The 'but' is this," Eric said as he pushed the manila envelope over to me.

The mug shot jumped from the page catching my attention and nothing else. The picture was in color, and the man in the picture was almost unrecognizable.

The look was one of absolute contempt while he stared into the camera. The sides of his head were shaved with a short Mohawk in the middle. The picture of his side profile showed an elaborate tribal tattoo design that ran along his scalp. Oberon looked like he'd had a bad day and was just pissed at everybody. Underneath the mug shot began the list of convictions that filled the page, starting with small things like shoplifting and vandalism when he was young, escalating to breaking and entering and check fraud with a number of traffic violations and DUIs scattered throughout the history. At the bottom of the page was the whopper, aggravated robbery of the second degree, earning him a five year sentence which somehow he was on parole for after only serving two of the five.

"Oh my God! What if you missed reporting to your parole officer? What if you were supposed to stay within a certain state and you've violated some term or another of your parole? Can they throw you back in jail?"

I felt an onset of panic on my shoulders and my insides scrambling. I didn't know whether I wanted to cry or scream. I couldn't lose him to something as trivial as this! Not after what we'd been through. I somehow managed not to lose my nerve, but I broke out in a cold sweat and rubbed my palms on my thighs.

"Crutcher was looking into it before he sent this information to us and he said he'll try to sort it out with the parole officer. According to him, it really depends if Oberon had a good relationship with him or her and whether he's been abiding by the conditions of his parole. Anyhow, I don't know how well they're going to react to this whole amnesia story. It's a good enough story to spin to hospital staff, but I just don't trust how the human authorities will react to this."

It was funny how he still didn't consider himself a human.

"Well," Eric continued as he pushed himself from the kitchen table, "wedding plans should be put on hold. You don't want to be mixed in any sort of possible criminal connections amongst a big estate law suit on your hands. It would just complicate matters further. You don't know what sort of people Oberon was in involved with while he was in the slammer."

Eric shook his head as he smirked either to himself or his clever use of slang in reference to Oberon's incarceration. Either way, I couldn't help feeling a certain level of defeat from him. Our blood bond was still alive and his dejection was seeping into me like a leaking pipe. Eric had barely had time to adjust to not having money, power and supernatural abilities; he was now facing the possibility that he may even lose his basic freedom as well. Re-incarnation as a human seemed to have more cons than pros at the moment.

I knew what Eric had said about holding our wedding plans made perfect logical sense. Coming from the soul of a thousand year old survivalist almost guaranteed that it was the right thing to do, but my heart ached at the thought of not progressing into the next stage in our relationship. We'd been through so much together and our status was so unofficial. To the law we had no status. If they threw Oberon back in jail for violating conditions of his parole, would they even let someone of no relation on his visitor's list? Would I able to act on his behalf for anything if I wasn't his wife? My head knew one thing but my heart wanted another. Screw being pragmatic.

I grabbed Eric's arm. "Wait. Let's just do it."

"Do what, Lover?"

"Let's drive to Texarkana and just get married. If they throw you back in jail I want to be able to come for conjugal visits." I smiled playfully at him hoping to lift his spirits a little.

"This is no laughing matter Lover, as my wife it may be hard to hide the fact that we have money. We don't know what kind of attention that may attract. What if some scoundrel comes and tries extort you with something from Oberon's sordid past or kidnap you for ransom? The situation is too precarious without knowing more."

"To hell with being careful Eric! If the police come knocking on our door tonight I want to know that I'd be able to act on your behalf for everything. That aside, we're due. It's time to move this relationship to the next level. You want it and I want it, so let's just do it. If anything big and bad does happen, we'll be able to console ourselves in the fact that we did it for love. That's good enough for me."

Eric sighed and sat back down by the table. Trapped inside a human body stripped of his power and money, I'd never seen the high handed master of all schemes, Eric, look as helpless as he did right now.

Just when I thought he was going to come up with a perfectly practical objection, he said, "Maybe a road trip to Texarkana is just what we need."