Chapter 6

"Du er min…min…min…" Sookie didn't know what the words meant, but she sure liked the way they sounded as Eric growled them with each strong thrust. He had tossed her on to the desk and thrown her skirt up the moment she'd walked into his office at Fangtasia. There was a certain desperate quality to the encounter that made it extra exciting.

"Oh, my…oh, my…oh, my…" Her voice rose with her excitement. She was right there. She turned her head to the side, exposing her neck for the grand finale. Eric threw his head back with a feral growl and bared his fangs. He made a move to go in for the bite and then hesitated. Sookie felt his entire body shudder with the effort it took to hold himself back. Panting, she looked up at him. "Eric?"

"Lover..." With vampiric speed, his mouth was on hers with a hard, deep, demanding kiss.

Sookie was expecting a bite, and the kiss took her by surprise. Sensing her confusion through their bond, Eric reached down between their bodies, and every thought left her head except the way he made her feel at that moment.

Right there…right there…right there… Sookie held on for dear life. "Eric!"

Eric threw back his head and roared an affirmation in old Swedish. He shuddered and then collapsed on top of her – cool, heavy, and comforting. Sookie wrapped her arms around his neck and held him close as she caught her breath and waited for her heart to slow. As her senses returned to her, she wondered why he didn't bite. "That was…different," she breathed into his ear.

"You didn't enjoy yourself, lover?" Eric asked the question with a cocky half-smile, knowing full well that she had.

"Of course I enjoyed myself," Sookie answered, blushing. "I'm just worried that you didn't. I thought you needed to bite to…you know."

"I prefer to, but I don't have to." He toyed with a lock of her hair and then leaned in for a gentle kiss. "I always enjoy myself when I'm with you."

"You're sweet," said Sookie, returning his kiss. She propped herself up to a sitting position and wrapped her legs around his thighs. "I'm concerned about you. You look worried and pale. Well, paler than usual."

"Don't worry about me. I just have a lot on my mind."

"The Godric situation?"

"Yes." Eric kissed the top of her head and then reached down and hiked up his trousers that were pooled around his ankles. "You should go do whatever it is that women do after great sex. We have company coming soon."

Sookie rolled her eyes, hopped off the desk, grabbed her panties off the floor, and went into Eric's private bathroom. It was actually more like her private bathroom since she was the only one who ever used it. "Who's coming?" she called through the partially opened door.

"My war council. You're a member, by the way. My right-hand telepath." He went into the small refrigerator he kept in his office and opened a cold bottle of pop for Sookie, and microwaved a bottle of True Blood for himself. He took one sip, grimaced, and tossed it in the trash. There was no getting around it; he was going to have to feed on real blood, and soon.

"Thank you, darlin'," said Sookie as she came out of the bathroom, fresh as a daisy. She took a long sip from the bottle of pop. "You know I'll do whatever I can to help. Who else is on your council?"

"The usual suspects: you, Pam, Hope, Bill. I asked Sam Merlotte, but I didn't make it a command. I don't know if he'll come. I even said 'please'."

"I do hope that wasn't too painful for you." Sookie's eyes gleamed, mischievously.

"I survived. Barely." He took a brief time out from his dramatic suffering to swat Sookie's behind. "Do you think he'll come? A true shifter could be a great asset."

"I think he'll come because you asked him instead of commanding him," Sookie said, matter-of-factly. "Oh, and by the way, you do know that that commanding stuff only works on vampires, right?"

"That's what you think."

Sookie considered that he probably had a point there. She dropped into the sofa and took another long sip from her pop. "So, Hope's coming."

"Yeah, she's our daywalker." And I have to eat. A tingle went through his body signaling that another person with his blood was approaching. He took Sookie by the hand and led her to the door. "I believe our guests have arrived."

"Our guests don't look happy," Sookie observed, shining a strained smile at Hope and Bill from across the crowded club. Why were Bill and Hope arriving together? Intellectually, she knew it shouldn't matter to her, but she had to admit that it did. Eric covered the distance between him and the other couple in three long strides. As usual, the crowd parted like the Red Sea to let him pass.

"Bill! Hope!" Eric grinned broadly. "Why the sour faces? I hope my last minute invitation didn't interrupt anything."

"You know it did," Hope snarled.

Bill looked from Hope to Eric, and back to Hope again. "Pardon me? How would he know that?"

Hope waved off the question as if she were shooing flies. "He made me drink his blood. It's a long story."

"You have a lot of stories, it seems," said Bill, frowning.

Hope heaved a frustrated sigh. "Please don't be like that."

Eric laughed. "I enjoy a good lover's quarrel as much as the next vampire, but I need to speak to Hope alone for a moment. Excuse us, please." He planted a deep kiss on Sookie (mostly for Bill's benefit), and then steered Hope toward his office."

Sookie watched them cross the room and then turned to Bill. "Lover's quarrel?"

"No, we're not lovers. Eric saw to that. But even if he hadn't, I don't love her and she doesn't love me. You're the only woman I love."

"Bill, please, don't." Her feelings for Bill had thawed quite a bit after the Fae war, but she had moved on, and wished he would too.

"You can't be happy about Eric making her drink his blood," said Bill. "What's that all about?"

Just as she opened her mouth to tell him, there was a tremendous crash in Eric's office. Bill was there in a millisecond, with Sookie trailing behind.

Hearing the sounds of a struggle, Bill tried to open the door but it was locked. He lowered his shoulder and tried to force the door in and found that it was built with vampires in mind. "Sookie, get Pam. She'll have a key. Hurry."

"I'm already here," Pam fairly purred. She casually searched her handbag for the key, seemingly oblivious to the crashes and thuds on the other side of the door.

"If you go any slower, she'll be dead," Bill said through gritted teeth.

"Oh, dear, wouldn't that be tragic?" Pam shot Bill a look that made it clear that Hope's death would not be a tragedy at all – at least not to Pam. Bill's eyes narrowed dangerously, and Pam decided that the situation wasn't worth ruining her new silk blouse over. She pulled the key out of her purse. "Found it!"

Bill snatched the key and opened the door. He found Hope on one side of the room bleeding from the neck and cradling a bleeding arm. Even with her injured arm, she was poised to attack. Eric was on the other side of the room, nursing broken ribs and a broken nose. Again. He glared at Hope. "Godric commanded you to feed from me and to allow me to feed from you."

Hope drew herself up to her full height and glared right back. "First, Godric did no such thing, and second, that commanding stuff only works with vampires."

Eric turned to Sookie in utter disbelief. "When I go to ground, do you all meet for lunch and compare notes?"

Sookie could only stand there, blinking like an owl. She didn't know whether to laugh at the absurdity of the situation or scream at the thought of Eric sharing blood with anyone except her.

Eric stalked across the room and took Godric's letter from his desk drawer. He held it out to Hope. "Read it."

Hope sat on the sofa and took the pages out of the envelope with shaking hands and began to read. She barely noticed when Bill sat down beside and began to clean her wounds with a handkerchief moistened with his saliva. "It will stop the bleeding," he explained.

"I know." She passed the pages to Bill as she finished them and he read too.

Hope finished reading and looked at the people assembled in the room. "This is bad. This is really bad."

Bill handed the final page of the letter back to Hope and asked, "Who are the Slaugh?"

"Do you remember what Finlo rose as on his first night?"

"Yes."

"Well, there's an army of them coming to Bon Temps."

Hope glanced down at the letter and then gave Bill a questioning look. In answer, he nodded his head reluctantly. She took a deep breath, stood tall, and held her arm out to Eric.

"Eat."