Author's note: If you found the idea of Eric loving Sookie's daughter yucky, you will not be happy about this chapter either. However, I hope I have made my own position clear: when adults consent to participate in whatever, it's none of my business; when an adult uses power over another adult—or anyone—to do whatever (even if it is considered "custom"), I'm not down with that. Neither is Eric.

Rio sat up and studied Eric's face. "Yes," she whispered. "My grandfather ordered me made, to become queen to the fairies."

Eric could almost not believe what he was hearing; a mystery that had puzzled him for decades was resolving right in front of him. He spoke as if talking to himself, "Your mother suspected it. She thought the fae man who was your father must have magicked her into having sex—she told me she didn't want to have sex with him, but she did anyway. I was very sad and angry to hear that."

Rio said bluntly, "When a fairy wants sex, there is no stopping him. Or her."

Eric looked at her appraisingly, "I have noticed that," and he smiled at her.

Then he mused, "Niall knew your mother was his granddaughter, possessing some of his own power, even if she never developed it. So he had your father—a full fairy—impregnate your mother, so he could steal you and make you Fairest?"

"Yes, his plan was… " Rio said, then blurted, "What did you say?"

"Niall commanded your father… " Eric started, but Rio waved an impatient hand. "Did you say he stole me? From my mother?"

"Well, yes… "Eric hesitated, sensing anger brewing just under her surface. It was frightening and exhilarating, like seeing a tornado spinning in the distance.

"So she did not give me up?"

"No!" Eric spat at the very idea. "I think your mother wanted you very much. She was devastated at losing you. I believe her sadness over you formed a large part of her decision to become vampire."

Rio was quiet for a long moment. Then she asked, "How old was I?"

Eric silently cursed Niall—I will find him and I will kill him—before saying, "You had not yet been born."

Rio's blinding light leaked out from around her eyes, which glowed like molten copper. The light bulb in the corner lamp popped and shattered, and the room was plunged in darkness. Eric could still see the strangled expression on her face and when she spoke, her words sounded choked, "He took me from my mother before I was born." She repeated the words, sounding stunned and amazed, and not in a good way.

"I HATE HIM!" Rio shrieked, and Eric clapped his hands to his ears in alarm. He had heard of banshees, but had never thought they existed until he heard her scream. "I… WANT… HIM… DEAD!" The house itself groaned at the sound.

It was all Eric could do to bring himself to take her in his arms; he was not at all sure it was safe. But as soon as he touched her, she relaxed. He held her and crooned to her, low in his chest. He had no sense of time passing, but she finally lifted her face to him. He gently took her bottom lip between his, released it, then her top lip the same. Her head fell back into his hands as if she had no strength to hold it up any longer. He brushed his lips softly across her freckles, silently counting each one. He nipped the end of her nose, and she almost smiled at that.

Eric let her head loll to one side, cradling it in his large hands, and kissed her jawline up to her ear and down, then tipped her head to repeat his kissing on her other side, trailing his lips down her neck to her collarbone, licking the hollow at the base of her throat, feeling a little pulse ticking there. Rio inhaled despite herself. She pressed her hand against his chest. "Northman… I can't… right now I don't…" then he shushed her: "Fairest, you don't need to move. Let me take care of you." She made a tiny nod against him.

He lifted up her hand to his mouth and kissed each fingertip, then repeated that with her other hand. He eased her back on the couch and kneeled beside it to ever so carefully remove her boots. He lifted up each foot in turn to kiss every toe tip and the soles of both feet. Then as softly as a moth lighting on a night-blooming cerious, he kissed up each leg to her skirt, covering each thigh with kisses just below her hem. By the time he had lavished kisses on her knees and their light spatter of freckles, her breath was catching in her throat.

Eric moved back to her hands, taking one in his own and turning it palm up. He covered it with kisses and tiny licks, and her fingers curled to touch his face. He kissed the inside of her wrist, and when she gave a tiny gasp, he sucked the tender skin into his mouth a bit, not breaking the skin. Rio mmmmm'd very quietly, and he kissed up her arm to the baby-bird softness of the inside of her elbow. He opened his lips against her warmth, sucking gently, and she jerked.

Eric leaned over her, and kissed her in the open neck of her shirt, picking up her many gold chains with his lips and moving them so he could get to her golden skin. He flicked his tongue along the fabric neckline, and slightly under. Rio moaned, lifting her chin up. He kissed and sucked her throat where it sloped up to her chin and she swallowed against his mouth.

Rio's hands lifted slowly to his head, pushing it down to her breast; he bit her nipple through the fabric, and she sighed. He nuzzled the underside of her breast, and her hands left his head to raise the hem of her skirt up to her waist.

Eric sealed his mouth on her flat belly, walking his lips around her navel, then dipping his tongue inside; Rio shivered, her exquisite skin goose-bumping, With dreamy slowness, she raised the leg closest to him and hooked it over his back, opening herself to him. He inhaled her hot sea smell and pursing his lips, puffed air over her wetness. She shivered again and moaned. He dipped between her legs, using his tongue with broad, relaxed licks to open her, before taking her nub between his lips. He tightened them around her, stroking her captured nub with his tongue. When it swelled in his mouth, he rumbled in his throat.

Rio opened her eyes to his sound and saw that somehow, while she'd been following the path of his mouth, he'd slipped out of his jeans. She reached for his hardness, encircling him, gripping him tightly and he rumbled again. "I want you inside of me," she whispered, and Eric lifted his head. He kissed her mouth softly, barely making contact and eased his tongue between her lips; she parted them and equally softly sucked his tongue in. He returned the favor and her tongue explored inside his upper lip, licking his fangs, which were fully out for her.

"Please," Rio whispered against his lips. Eric lifted up slowly and with great care, like she was fragile and would break if he went too fast, moved between her legs, holding himself up off her on extended arms. She tipped her hips, sliding her opening along the length of him before tilting just enough to start him in. With carefully controlled slowness, he eased into her until he filled her up, then stopped and lowered his body on hers.

Rio sighed her happiness and without moving anywhere else, began rocking her hips just a bit; Eric matched her rhythm, barely moving with her. For long minutes, they were lost in each other's lulling, when Rio began a low keening in her throat. Her muscles inside her tightened and tightened until Eric wasn't sure he could move, but she suddenly dug her fingers hard in his rump, bucking under him with a strength that startled him. He shoved his hand under her ass, lifting her onto him with force.

Rio cried, "Northman!" and he could feel her pulses beginning, but he wasn't quite there with her and he ground his pelvic bone into her nub over and over, prolonging her climax until she was sobbing and gulping and shuddering. Her noises took him over the edge and he shot into her, collapsing.

Instantly, Eric lifted up on his elbows, covering her face and ears and neck with hard, insistent kisses, and Rio cried out, "Do it! I want you to!"

Without stopping to think, Eric opened his mouth on the top of her shoulder and bit. Her blood leapt into his mouth like it wanted to be in him—it was not a flow, but a spout—nor did he have to draw on the wound, only swallow. Her blood was liquid fire, white hot, ice red, pure undiluted love. He felt it rushing through him, heating his skin until he thought he might vaporize. There were birds flying in his veins, spiders spinning their silk around his heart, and the roots of strange plants spreading under his skin. He could see through his closed eyelids into the depths of her body, where waves of her blood broke and shattered on her blinding white bones. She was clouds scudding across the ocean, fog shrouding a mountain top, leaves bursting from twigs in spring, a mother deer dropping her wet newborn on meadow grass, a snake walking its jaws over a mouse. He felt light as a snowflake, heavy as metal, warm and chilled, as large as the universe and as tiny as insignificance. He lifted his mouth from her and laughter gushed out in an unstoppable flood. He laughed until he was drained and then ever so quietly, he began to cry.

Eric cried for his father who had taught him and his mother who had loved him, for his maker who had turned him, and his bonded who rebuffed him—he cried as though he'd never stop, and Rio held him to her, rocking him in her arms and crooning a tuneless song.

Eric had no idea how long he laid there—time had lost all meaning—but he slowly returned to himself, beside her on the big couch, his head on her shoulder, their legs entwined, her hand stroking his hair.

Without moving, Eric said softly, "Stay with me, Fairest. I will protect you. No harm can ever come to you if you are with me."

"Northman," Rio sighed, "I wish so much that were true. I want nothing more than to be with you. You complete me."

"Then you will be with me." It was a statement. How like Eric.

"I can't, Northman. We have been through all this. You have, quite literally, turned me on. Our pleasure in each other is like a beacon; Niall will follow it to me. This is as certain as the tides."

Eric clutched her to him, burying his head in her. "No," he mumbled his desperation against her skin, "let him make himself another queen."

"He can't. His life is drawing to a close. He doesn't have time. Only I will do for the Prince of the Fae."

"I'll talk to him. I am a great negotiator. I am the best. I will convince him…" Rio shushed him with her fingertips; they were so warm against his cool mouth.

"There is no convincing Niall, Northman," she said, with sadness. "There is more to tell.

"Niall wishes the new kingdom of fae to be his."

"His? He wants to rule?" Eric was troubled; something didn't quite jibe.

"He wants more power than even that," Rio said. "He wants to be father."

Eric mouthed her words. This made no sense. What was he missing?

"Father?" He said aloud. Then it made perfect sense.

Eric sprang to his feet. He was shaking with rage. His voice quaked out of him in anger and disbelief. "He wants to fuck you?"

"No!" Rio shouted, then amended more quietly, "Yes. But he would not see it as fucking. Nor would the fae see it that way. It would be more like his, oh… his job."

Eric sputtered, "His job? To impregnate his granddaughter? Over and over until he used you up?!"

"Yes," Rio answered him, "although he wouldn't quite put it that way."

"There is no other way to put it," Eric hissed.

Rio stood up. She wandered around the room. "I must not be explaining very well; I know it's hard for you to understand. It is his destiny. And it is mine." She hesitated. "I don't want it. But it is mine."

Eric deflated like a pricked party balloon, and he sank onto the arm of the chair. "You are right, Rio, I don't understand. I don't agree. I don't accept. And I won't allow it."

For once, Rio did not try to argue. But her face was infinitely sad. "Find Al for me, Northman," she said as she opened the door, "don't fail me." Then she motioned with her head that he should go.