A/N: Hello my lovelies, are you ready for some more? I hope so there is a lot going on this chapter. Thank you to everyone for the amazing reviews and to all of you who have alerted or added this to your favorites know that I treasure them just as much!

I would also like to apologize for how long it took to update but after the last chapter I received some very negative private messages that attacked everything about this story as well as my other stories. It was discouraging but I have brushed it off and will continue my stories and my updates will be more often once again. To those three she demons who filled my inbox with hate my suggestion to you is if you don't like my work don't read it.

I own nothing; I just like playing with the toys of others!

SPOV

Eric and I were tangled together both of us still panting as we came back down from the overwhelming bliss we'd just given each other. I was surprised at my brazen teasing of him, I never thought I had that in me but damn the results were amazing. He warned me that I was playing a dangerous game but if that danger was of being thoroughly ravished then danger was my new middle name! I wonder what else could be considered vampire foreplay. They seem kind of cat like perhaps he'd like to chase me?

I put those thoughts aside for later consideration and instead thought about the experience we had just shared. The passion between us was beautiful and primal; I never ever dreamed that sex could be so transcendent. Gods know that I had seen enough in people's thoughts to know this was not the norm.

I also would never have thought that I would ever ingest the blood of another while being intimate but I found that I liked it. Everything felt different once I'd taken his blood and he mine. It felt like we merged into a single person, the connection between us expanded and contracted consuming us.

He had asked me to be with him always and nothing had ever sounded more appealing in my life. I told him I was his always and I meant it. I found the more time I spent with him the less desire I had to return to my life in Sweden, as much as I loved it nothing there held a candle to Eric.

I looked up at him from my place at his side his eyes were closed, his fangs were still down and resting on his lower lip and he was absently tracing patterns along my spine. I loved that he didn't hide what he was from me; honestly I'd be hard pressed to name a single thing I didn't like about him.

I love his fangs, the way he looks with blood on his lips, the way his eyes burn with desire. I love the way he smiles, the way he touches me, makes love to me and that he cuddles. I love our conversation, the playful banter and that I don't have to hide any of myself from him. Oh gods! I'm in love with him!

I need to talk to him, I have to know what it was exactly he wants from me. I needed to know if the things he said while we were making love were his true desires or if it just came out in the heat of passion. He doesn't seem the type to say things on a whim but I need to know what we are doing here.

I pushed myself up off his chest and sat on my knees next to him having decided that I needed answers now seemed good a time as any. He opened his eyes and rolled onto his side propping his head on his hand "Something on your mind lover?' he asked.

I was about to launch into my Q&A session when suddenly his eyes landed on something behind me and widened, I twisted around to see what had grabbed his attention so suddenly to find him staring at my ancient necklace. I scooped it out of its velvet nest and lovingly ran my thumb over it "Beautiful isn't it" I said adoringly. When I turned back to face him he looked like he'd seen a ghost. "Tell me how you came to have that Sookie. Where did you find it?" He asked bewildered.

"My friend Niklas asked me to join him on a survey; he's going to be an archeologist. Anyway He found some old books that lead him to believe there was once a Viking settlement not far from Hällestrand so we spent two weeks tromping around the woods but found nothing. We were on our way back to the town when about a mile out I walked over the remains of what was once some kind of dwelling and fell into a hole that we assume was once a cellar through the rotted remains of the floor that had been covered over by dirt and debris. I was crawling around in the dark trying to feel for a way out to climb out I found an indention in the wall , when I pulled myself up into the space planning to use it as a foothold so I could reach Niklas's hand the niche crumbled. Niklas held a flashlight down into the space to help me look for another way out when the light from his flashlight glinted off of something. I stretched myself further into the space when the wall crumbled and felt the cool metal on my fingertips after a few tires I managed to grab it." I explained.

Eric was sitting there with his mouth slightly open and a look of utter disbelief on his face so I just continued my explanation "As soon as I touched it I felt attached to it, it was special I just knew it. I wrapped it up and as soon as I returned home I had it cleaned and stung on a leather cord before I took it to about fifteen different historians to see if they could tell me anything about it. I was told things like this were a nearly unheard of find, the symbols on the front are most likely a clan or family crest but they had no explanation for the marks on the back."

"They are battles." Eric said his voice distant. "What?" I said not understanding. "The marks on the back there is one for each battle won. Forty seven of them are there not?" Eric answered. "Yea that's right. How do you…Oh my gods! It's yours isn't it?" I said astonished. "Yes, it was." He said reverently.

What are the odds that I would find an ancient relic and then later find its owner alive? I could hear Amelia's words of insistence that Eric and I meeting was fate ringing in my head. I had never believed in such things but I couldn't ignore the fact that I felt an inexplicable connection to it and to him.

I couldn't ignore the fact that I slept with it clutched in my hand every night enjoying the safe and comfortable feeling it gave me. Nor could I ignore the fact that given where and how I had found it sure seemed serendipitous. Tens of thousands of people traversed that forest over the last thousand years and I by happenstance come across it.

I looked at the necklace that had been my anchor and then at Eric and I knew I had to give it back. If I lost my Gran's locket and later met the person who found it I sure hoped that they would return it to me. I cleared my throat to dislodge the lump that had formed at the idea of being without it but I had made my decision. I held it out to him "Ta den. Det är ditt."(Take it. It is yours.) I said quietly with a heavy sadness in my heart.

EPOV

I could not believe my eyes when I turned to face my Sookie and seen her most treasure possession sitting on her bedside table. The necklace I had been wondered about was mine; I'd lost it shortly after I'd been turned while my maker and I were escaping a burning shack. How it had survived the centuries I couldn't fathom but there it was in near pristine condition nested in a velvet jewelry case.

I stared in disbelief, still shocked that she was in possession of something I had valued greatly and hadn't seen in nearly a millennia. She gently removed it from its case and caressed it with the pad of her thumb an adoring look in her eyes "Beautiful isn't it." She said with affection, it was obvious how deeply she treasured it.

I asked her to tell me how she came to have it and where she'd found it. I listed with rapt attention as she detailed with perfect accuracy the last place I remembered having it. My maker and I had been sheltering for the day about a mile outside the village in the root cellar under the shack of a woman who'd be cast out of the village under suspicion of being a witch of. We had been there for nearly six months while I was adjusting to my new existence without any problems.

Then bodies started turning up drained of blood and utterly savaged, terrified the village council decided it was the witch calling forth demons in the night to get revenge for being cast out. In truth the woman was no witch and the demons were a nest of vampires that were passing through. After a week of killings the villagers came one night just before sunset to purge the evil from their midst and set fire to the shack.

When we rose that night the shack was engulfed in flames and fire was raining down into our shelter, we dug a tunnel through the earth to escape the blaze and had barely escaped with our lives. Once we were a safe distance into the woods I noticed that my necklace was no longer around my neck. Over the next few nights I made many trips to the burnt out remains of the shack searching for it but never found it. Since it held such value to me and was one of the few things I still possessed from my human life the loss of it pained me.

As I listened to her explain how she had felt attached to it the moment she touched it, I had that tight feeling in my chest again. Knowing she had turned down countless offers to sell it because it was worth more to her than the huge amounts of money she had been offered left me in awe. Her connection to it ran as deeply as mine had though our reasons differed.

She'd taken such pains to have it cleaned and restored and judging by the makings in the leather cord she held it often and I was extraordinarily touched. She told me how she had tried relentlessly to find out more about it but the historians couldn't offer anything more than the fact that it was a rarity and that the markings were a crest of some sort. The historians she consulted were correct about its rarity and there was a very good reason why.

When a warrior's life ended it was placed in his hand and burnt along with him so that his kin would be able to find him in the afterlife and the heat from the fire reduced it to nothing more than nondescript pieces of metal. They were also correct about the meaning of the design and symbols on the front as it was my families crest and the unexplained markings on the back were a record of victories in battle.

"They are battles" I told her absently my mind was consumed with the fact that she had found it and then later found me. "What?" She said not understanding. "The marks on the back, there is one for each battle won. Forty seven of them are there not?" I answered her revealing that my knowledge of her most treasured possession went much deeper than it simply being from my time as a human.

She looked at me curiously "Yea that's right. How do you…how could you know that? She asked and I just looked at her pointedly. I could see the realization dawn in her eyes "Oh my gods! It's yours isn't it?" She exclaimed when it occurred to her that I knew more about it than I should. "Yes, it was." I answered her frankly while my mind screamed to me that this was to incredible to be a mere coincidence. Fate and destiny were never concepts I considered to be legitimate, perhaps I'd been remiss in dismissing such things. Now more than ever I felt that she was meant to be mine.

Sookie clearing her throat snapped me back into the moment, when I met her eyes she held it out to me "Ta den. Det är ditt."(Take it. It is yours.) She whispered, offering to return it even thought it pained her to do so, her sadness was palpable. "Nej, det är din nu Sookie, du var tänkt att ha det." (No. It is yours now Sookie, you were meant to have it.) I told her. "Är du säker?"(Are you sure?)She asked hesitantly.

"Jag är. Där jag tänkt att ha det skulle jag ha hittat den på en av de tjugo resor jag gjort det efter det."(I am. Where I meant to have it I would have found it on one of the twenty trips I made there looking for it.) She smiled radiantly at me and it warmed me to my core "Tack Eric. Jag kan inte säga hur mycket det här betyder för mig."(Thank you Eric. I cannot tell you how much this means to me.) She said with tears in her eyes.

She had no idea what it meant but I did and I liked the idea intensely. The warriors from my time each wore the crest of their family, for every battle they fought and won they etched a mark into the back. Everything you conquered you kept, material possessions as well as slaves. The more marks you bore the more wealth and honor you possessed the more desirable a mate you became. When a man found a woman he wished to marry he'd present the pendant to his intended in front of her family to show that he could protect and provide for her as well as pay her bride price.

Never before had I ever considered taking a mate but Sookie was my match in every way, she completed me. I could be myself with her and she accepted everything about me, nothing I did frightened her in the least. There wasn't a single thing about her that I didn't enjoy; I loved her spirit, the way she looked at me, held me, made love to me and challenged me. Her beauty, her smile, her scent and the unbelievable amount of things we shared in common.

I had never loved another as a human or a vampire, I was familiar with devotion and loyalty but what I felt for Sookie went above and beyond anything I had ever felt before. It was obvious to me now that all the strange feelings I'd been experiencing were love.

I had to tell her, she had to know how much she meant to me, how much I wanted her, she had to stay. I did not wish to spend another night without her by my side. I took her hand in mine and looked into her beautiful blue eyes and before I could utter a word her phone rang.

"I'll just be a minute" She said before grabbing the sheet from the bed and bounding into her living room to retrieve her phone and I found myself once again cursing modern technology. I wondered who would be calling her at four in the morning since most humans were long into their slumber by this hour.

I listened in as she answered her phone and heard a man's voice on the line speaking to her in Swedish calling her his sweet little Sookie. At the sound of his voice a delighted smile appeared on her face and joy danced in her eyes, I couldn't help the anger and jealousy that bloomed inside me. Jealousy? Another first for my ever growing list of things I had never experienced before I met Sookie.

I hated whoever it was she was speaking to that elicited such a reaction from her, I wanted that look to appear on her face only for me. I wonder if this is how she looks when she receives my texts. Does it please her that much to her from me? Oh gods help me first jealousy and now insecurity. I shoved those thoughts away disgusted with myself for think such foolishness.

Sookie is mine! Whoever it was would soon be meeting with an unfortunate accident; I began to plan his demise until I heard her say "God morgon pappa."(Good morning father.) My anger died and was quickly replaced with curiosity. I listened intently as they caught up, Sookie filled her father in on her week and he told her what had been going on there as well as passing on hellos from her mother, siblings and friends.

Sookie looked at me apologetically and mouth sorry to me as she rolled her eyes. I wondered if she would tell her father about me and what exactly she would say I was to her. I was yanked out of my thoughts when her father asked about the boy she was seeing and barely held back a chuckle at being called a boy and I had to bite my tongue to stop the laughter when Sookie blushed a bright shade of red and her eyes almost popped out in surprise.

"Come now Sookie out with it. I called Jason's since you were supposed to be at his home and he told me you were still in Shreveport and I quote visitin with yer new fella." Her father admonished and I was thankful for my enhanced hearing so that I could fully enjoy this conversation. She whispered damn you Jason under her breath which only amused me more. "Yes pappa I met someone his name is Eric and he is not a boy." She told him.

Sookie flopped down onto the couch and cradled her head in her hands as her father asked as to the nature of our relationship and if she thought it wise to get involved with someone while on holiday before he expressed to her that he had always hoped she settle down with a Swedish boy and remain close to them.

I was very interested to hear her answer as to the nature of our relationship and whether she found it to be a wise decision but the part about her settling down with a boy back home had a growl rumbling in my throat. The thought of her with another caused my chest to constrict in an unpleasant way and had my feeling murderous.

Sookie must have noticed my curiosity because she caught and held my eyes as she answered her father "Wise or not it happened and I have no regrets in fact meeting him has been the best part of this whole trip. I don't know exactly what to call us but he is important to me, he gets me, we have a lot in common, he makes me smile and I enjoy being with him. You'll also be happy to know that he's Swedish."

I could feel that stupid grin on my face again, hearing her say those things about me with such feeling as she smiled at me with affection burning brightly in her eyes. Now that I am sure of her feelings for me I am more determined than ever to convince her to stay with me but I now fear that she may not.

I had not taken into consideration her family ties and after listening to their conversation hearing how much everyone there missed her and all the things she had going on perhaps she wouldn't want to give up the life she had to have only the nights with me. For the first time in my life I felt inadequate.

SPOV

I was not expecting a call from my father tonight he usually called me on me on Friday. I was also going to kill Jason for spilling my beans to him. I wasn't prepared to explain to my father what I had with Eric since I myself wasn't really sure what we were yet. The talk I planned on having with Eric got sidelined when he saw my…err his… maybe our necklace.

I was still reeling over that discovery even though I had never believed in predestination I felt that there had to be some sort of fate or destiny or meaning involved. Things like this just don't happen in real life it was just so crazy but I knew when I found that pendant that it was special. I feel that it lead me to find something even more precious its owner.

I was watching Eric after my declaration of how he made me feel and that wasn't even the half of it but I wasn't going to tell my father before I told Eric. He had the most adorably goofy happy smile on his face he looked excited and then a look of resolve settled on to his features.

I was in the process of ending the call with my father so I could get back to Eric and we could talk about us when suddenly his expression turned to one of sorrow his shoulders slumped down and he looked defeated. I was at a loss as to what had happened for him to suddenly react this way. "Pappa jag måste gå nu. Jag ringer dig senare idag. Älskar dig." (Father I have to go now. I will call you later today. Love you.) I said hurriedly and disconnected.

I tossed the phone on to the coffee table gathered my sheet around me and quickly return to his side. "Eric is everything alright?" I asked worried. He lent back against my headboard and stared at the ceiling a sigh escaped his lips "I am not sure Sookie." He answered. I crawled across the bed and into his lap cupped his cheeks in my hands and forced him to look at me "Eric what's wrong?" I demanded.

"Sookie do you believe we happened for a reason?" He asked sincerely. "Yes Eric I do." I answered him without any doubt and I smiled as it occurred to me that he had been thinking along the same lines I had been. "Sookie, I have never felt for another as I feel for you. I want you to be mine; I want you to stay here with me. The idea of spending even one night without you by my side causes me agony. I..I…I love you." He told me with such raw emotion in his voice I did not have any doubts he meant every word of what he'd said.

I crushed my lips to his and kissed him pouring everything I felt for him into that kiss and he immediately responded the passion between us left me feeling electrified. Everything faded away as we were quickly lost in each other and I no idea how I was going to say goodbye to him. How am I going to be able to walk away from him? For better or worse I love him and I knew I was going to have to make a decision and it was going to have to be now. He laid his soul bare for me and was waiting for my answer.

Could I give up my life In Sweden, leave my family and friends behind, leave my job, my schooling, and start over again here with him? I wanted to more than anything, I had no idea how we would do it but my answer was yes. Yes I could. Tears slid down my checks unchecked as happiness filled me up thinking about what our life together would be like.

"I can no longer imagine my life without you in it Eric. I never thought I would find what I have found with you, I've never felt this way about anyone either. I want to be yours; I want to stay here with you. I love you too Eric."