So, I hope you remember where we left off,… tee hee, I'm so evil some days. Bring on a little 'antici - pation'. (With all thanks to Rocky Horror)

I don't own these characters but thank the stars everyday that CH created them so I can take them out to play.

Part 8

I couldn't answer her right away; mostly because I was stunned by the question. I was also a little stunned by the implications it offered me. Or perhaps I should best say what I believed she was about to offer me.

"A couple of nights ago, but at my age I don't have to eat as often as the younger Vampires. I am not hungry if you are concerned."

"No, not concerned." She reached her hands back and began to twirl her long blond hair into a knot of sorts, tucking it over her right shoulder. She'd worn it long that night, I liked the look of it much more than the ponytail I was used to seeing her in. "I wonder, you said that they taste of my skin brought back something to you?"

"Yes?" If I'd had a heartbeat it would have been speeding up just then.

"What if you tasted my blood Eric, do you think it might bring back something else?" She pulled at the collar of the shirt dress Pam had lent her, exposing the skin at her neck for me.

"You don't have to do this Sookie." I was saying the words, but even as I did, I rose from my sitting position on her bed and took a step towards her. She kept her eyes locked on me and her lips parted in a soft semblance of desperation.

"Please Eric. It might give us something, if you remember." She pleaded with me, not that she really needed to. I didn't think I could have refused her then. I wanted her so badly, and I wanted to remember.

I reached out my left hand, and laid it on her shoulder as I crossed to stand behind her. With my right hand I stroked her neck, leaning it away from the offered vein, and turned her chin just a bit, to expose her flesh to my mouth. I brought my face to her, inhaling deeply of her scent again, hearing her heart beat begin to flutter. I whispered to her.

"I won't hurt you Sookie." And I brushed my lips across her warm skin, my own fingers trembling as I did so.

"I know Eric." She whispered back.

My left hand snaked down her arm and curled across her abdomen, pulling her body into mine as I stood. My fangs dropped with a gentle 'snick', and with my mouth open I kissed her neck. I felt her hold her breath and so I carefully, and slowly breached the skin with my teeth. I held her firmly against my chest so that she would not start at the bite. I did not wish to tear her flesh; I derived no pleasure from causing lovers pain. She cried out very softly at the sting, but quickly enough I had pulled my teeth back and there was no further pain.

The blood welled into my mouth from the beating of her heart. I did not draw on the wound to pull the blood to myself, not wishing to leave her with an ugly bruise. I swallowed the first pulse, feeling the warmth spread from my mouth, down my throat, seeming then to radiate out to all points of my body. I closed my eyes and coaxed at the bite with my tongue, eliciting a beautiful moan from Sookie, and the release of the tense muscles under her skin, allowing her to melt into my arms. I moved my right hand to better support her and continued to tease at her with my tongue, letting the blood take me where it would.

It was like holding a tiny bird in my arms, heart fluttering in terror, or perhaps acquiescence, her breath at first stuttered, leveling out to one long breath after another. Her arms wrapped themselves around mine, and again, my whole body felt her warmth. I took more generous mouthfuls, feeling my mind begin to open to me, feeling the familiarity grow until I knew without hesitation that I had taken her blood like this before, blood freely offered to me out of nothing more than the pursuit of intimacy.

The small punctures began to clot, as I wasn't putting any pressure on them to force them open, and I released my hold on her by carefully kissing them and then straightening up and stepping back from the solid embrace I had been holding her in. She let her head fall forward and her hair cascaded around her shoulders again. She turned back to face me, very slowly. A worry rushed through me that my actions might have frightened her, until she looked up at me and smiled softly.

"Thank you." I said to her, still quietly, not wanting to disrupt the comfortable peace that had settled over us both.

"Anything?"

"I have held you that way before." I was certain of it then, even if the full force of the memory still remained tantalizingly just outside of my mind's ability to grasp it. "We have shared that type of intimacy before Sookie. It felt so good to have you in my arms that way."

She blushed. "But you said we had never been lovers Eric?" She couldn't look at me when she said it.

"I said that we had been friends Sookie, and that is the truth. Before now I could not say honestly to you that we had been anything more. But the holes in my memory do not change that fact that I have wished it to be so, many, many times." Perhaps it was more than I should have said, but I needed to say it.

"And now Eric?"

I reached out for her again, cupping her face and guiding her towards me.

"And now I wish only that you could remember what we shared, that you could feel some of what I am feeling right now, to know, to have that starting place to rebuild from."

"Eric?" I hovered very close to her, and tilted her chin upwards to me.

"Taste me." I whispered. And then I pressed my mouth over hers and parted her lips, grinding against her carefully.

It was she who pressed the tip of her tongue against mine, at first shyly, but only for that moment, and then, with arms wrapped around my back, she pushed herself against me, and let her tongue dance with mine for a blissful forever. I heard her heartbeat begin to race again, and I felt the desperation in her kiss, even as she pulled away.

"I have kissed you like that before." She said, as soon as she had caught her breath. It was my turn to smile because I felt it as well.

"Why don't you pack up the rest of that suitcase?" I asked, "We have only a few hours to get back home."

"Can't we stay here?"

"I cannot protect you here Sookie. Once the daylight comes I will have to go to ground and then you will be alone. At my home, at least, I know that I can defend you against anyone stupid enough to try to come after you, no matter the hour."

She sighed, and looked around at her bedroom again, I don't know what she was thinking of then, I only know that I wanted to stay there, I really did, because I wanted to lay her down on the bed and undo the tied on her dress, and make love to her, because I knew we had done just that, in that bed before. I can't explain exactly how I'd made that leap, from her blood, to her lips, to her body, but I had. And I wanted her to know it too. But there wasn't time, it wasn't safe, and there was still so much to do back in Shreveport, and New Orleans to see about restoring her memory and discovering why it had been taken in the first place. For the second time in as many days I cursed the daylight, or rather, the fact that my nature denied it to me.

I hated to see her nod with the understanding of my request, but I knew it had to be that way, and I also knew that one kiss, as wonderful and tempting as it was, might not lead her to the same feelings as I was having, or at least not as quickly. She packed the bag and I checked over all the doors and windows one more time, to assure myself that there were no other piles of ash, or bundles of herbs that might cause us further grief.

Even with nothing more than the awakening of something in both our minds, it gave us comfort, and the ride back to Shreveport passed quickly, if not quietly. Of course it could have been that I drove like a demon, if you'll pardon the expression.