Chapter 3:

A tapping at the window stirred Sookie from a restless sleep. Vision fogged by dreams, she looked up from her pillow to see a very large, very blond and very beautiful vampire perching precariously upon her window sill. Blinking several times did not clear this strange image from her eyes; it was no mirage.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded, fumbling with the window, finally throwing it open to the hot summer air.

He flashed a melting smile; it was a bright and beautiful thing. A smile that seemed just for her.

Just for her, he would hold nothing back, it seemed to whisper, and more and more she was wanting everything that curl of lips promised.

"I came for you, of course. May I enter?"

Sookie bit her lip nervously. He acted with the manners of a gentleman, and there was the illusion that she retained control of the situation. But always with this ancient vampire, she couldn't help but feel like she was merely a chess piece upon his board without even knowing it.

That at any moment she could lose everything to him.

That she might even do it with a smile.

But he was helping her find her brother, who had gone missing almost two months ago. The Bontemps police department had proved inadequate in their efforts, fantastically incompetent, and disinterested besides. She'd gone to the vampire Sheriff on a desperate lark-he'd seemed to like her, on her first and only visit to Fangtasia-and she had no one else to turn to.

"You can come in."

The vampire swung long legs over the threshold, and sat in the window, framed in a halo of moonlight. Something ancient and primal glinted in his eyes, and Sookie's heart skipped a beat. Surely with one look, he knew everything about her, inside and out?

"My Gran's asleep down the hall," Sookie whispered.

"And she will stay that way," Eric assured her, holding out a hand. Sookie paused, eyeing the huge paw, and she suddenly found it hard to breath. Every fiber in her being burned to take that hand. They'd been dancing around each other for some time now. But for every two steps forward the vampire took, Sookie only retreated one in her attraction.

He was bound to catch her eventually.

Finally, she slid her small hand into his, and his grasp completely engulfed it. She marveled at the strength within, the length of his fingers wrapped about hers. She hardly noticed when he pulled her gently forward, until she stood between the cradle of his legs. Even sitting, he practically towered over her.

"My beautiful little Sookie," he sighed, gently caressing the side of her face. This vampire who had lived a millennium, who must have beheld everything under the sun at one time or another with those ancient blue eyes, regarded her as though she were something rare and new to him. Sookie's heart swelled to bursting as he explored her features, tracing her eyebrows, the line of her nose, the round of her cheeks and the swell of her lower lip with a feather light touch.

Eric cradled her head between his two large hands, held her as though she were a precious antique. The last of her kind, fragile and delicate. The brush of lips came soft as silk, gentle as spring. Slowly he explored her mouth, with only the lightest hint of tongue parting her lips. Sookie quivered in the madness of it all; she'd never wanted anything so completely. Sensing her need, Eric pulled back, a slow smile playing over his well formed lips.

He was perfection, formed in the image of the Gods. Sookie couldn't fathom what he was doing here, in her room.

As though to answer, Eric's hands trailed down her body, resting upon her waist. His thumbs traced patterns across her skin that inspired an almost infuriating weakness in her knees, and Sookie's hands fisted upon his chest in frustration. The tension coiled within her, taut as a spring, even as she didn't exactly know what it was she wanted from him. She'd never come so close to anyone before, their thoughts always ruined it. But Eric's mind was blessedly quiet before her. His intentions for her burned in his eyes, but not as a running dialogue from his mind to hers.

Eric sensed her weakness, and happily wrapped his strong arms about her, pulling her closer still. No more space separated them as he held her, and Sookie knew a certain unidentifiable relief for it. "I've never done this before," she admitted as the vampire kissed her ear, her neck, pulling a shudder from her body as though she were a musical instrument he'd always known how to play.

Blond eyebrows shot sky high at the admission, and Sookie felt certain he would bolt now. Would want nothing to do with a virgin.

But his smile was the sun after a long and fearsome storm. He was her warmth and life, as he said, "Then I am honored to be your first, Sookie Stackhouse. The men in this town are obviously fools."

She certainly couldn't argue with that.

The vampire gathered her in his arms, carrying her to the bed as a bride. He lay her down gently, taking only a moment to remove his shirt, before crawling over her with all the terrible beauty of a great cat on the hunt. She watched the muscles play beneath his pale skin, fascinated by the unearthly perfection of him. "Can happiness like this ever last?" she asked, trailing fingertips down the expanse of his torso, over the curves of his biceps.

Eric settled down atop her, their curves and hollows matching like a puzzle carved long ago by fate. He smoothed the hair away from her face, tilting his head thoughtfully.

"No, lover, not at all," he finally answered. Fangs fell with the sound of a bared switchblade, and Sookie screamed as he fell upon her, savaging her neck.

Sookie awoke with tears filling her eyes. Always, the same dream of Eric haunted her. A near faithful replay in her mind up until the end, of the way he'd taken her so gently, became her first lover with the assurance of someone who knew he'd always belonged in her bed.

By her side.

Before all hell broke loose, and she found the monster beneath the façade of a man.

Reality slowly returned to Sookie, as sleep and the emotional pain of the dream lifting like a fog. She realized she lay in an unfamiliar bed, clad in a nightgown that did not belong to her.

But what alarmed her most was the weight of a muscular arm wrapped about her waist, holding her flush against a long body she knew all too well. Once, being spooned by Eric filled her with the utmost sense of safety and contentment, but now she only saw red.

She threw off his arm, rolling away from the vampire's grasp.

Even in her fury, she knew he let her go.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

Eric sighed, his expression suggesting boredom as he rolled on his back, propping his head up with one arm. She tried like hell to ignore the glory of the view, and the way just the sight of him tugged upon strings tied between her libido and her heart. "Pity. You're so sweet, while you're sleeping."

Sookie's eyes darted about the room, taking in her surroundings. She realized it was Eric's room, his personal living quarters.

Only the bed had changed, and she had an inkling of why. She'd been the only human he ever allowed in his lair. His daytime resting place. She wondered if he couldn't stand to sleep in it anymore, after she'd left, and the sentiment almost touched her.

Almost.

But she couldn't think about that. She knew, if this was Eric's bedroom, that they were deep underground, beneath the house he kept in the woods north of Shreveport.

It wouldn't be an easy escape.

A/N: A huge huge HUGE thank you to everyone who reviewed, you motivate me and make my day!