AN: Thank you to those of you kind enough to leave me a review, glad you are enjoying it! xx ps. Happy Birthday Laura - here's a chapter.

warnings: sappiness and smut.

Old Norse:

Sváss – beloved
ástir – love
dýrr – dear
Heimskr - foolish

Eric led us to a mansion in the Garden Quarter, flying down to settle in it's courtyard as if he owned the place. Which he he apparently did.

Pam seemed right at home and started ordering Tara and I around as soon as her feet touched the ground. It was clearly one of her maker's many safe houses - we found it fully stocked and ready with everything a vampire might need. By the time we had Eric in what Pam told us was his sleeping chamber, (no great shock there, the only other light-tight bedroom we'd passed had been covered in Pam's particular style of overkill pink.), whatever crazy berserker Viking buzz he'd been on was well and truly over. He was shaking like newborn kitten and I'm pretty sure once he collapsed on that bed there was no way he would've been able to get out of it again under his own steam.

Four hours remained until dawn. We each gave him some of our blood, even Tara freely offered. Eric refused Pam's wrist though, pointedly indicating her missing arm.

My maker's injury made me feel sick and uneasy everytime I caught sight of it. Pam was totally blasé about it though, so I tried not to let my concern show, figuring my pity would probably just piss her off. Pam was not the sharing caring type. I knew regrowing limbs was supposedly excruciating for vampires, but I was just grateful that it was even possible. I couldn't bear the thought of my maker being maimed for eternity. I doubted it would improve her sunny disposition any.

We took turns fetching Eric warmed blood from the fridge full downstairs. He drank and drank and drank.

Despite his frankly terrible condition, we were in good spirits. After what we'd seen him pull off, it didn't seem possible he might actually die. None of us were really worried about that anymore, but we still hovered, wanting to get him comfortable as possible so he could rest. By the time he'd glutted himself on blood, only an hour remained until dawn. He was lying still on the bloody sheets and it was painful just to look at him. I asked Pam about the stakes, they were silver after all, burning him even as he healed.

For once she seemed indecisive. 'I'm not sure.' she said. 'Obviously they need to come out, but he'll probably lose a lot of that blood we just gave him. I'd normally ask him about this sort of thing. He's more experienced in this sort of area.'

'Why don't we then?' I was actually real eager to hear Eric's voice. All that yelling didn't count.

Pam tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. 'Because Bill cut out his tongue of course. Why do you think he's been playing charades with us all night?'

I gasped. My anger at bill returned full force. 'Argh! I wish Bill was alive just so I could kill him again.'

'Amen sister.' Pam agreed mildly.

I sighed and returned to Eric's bedside. He was in 'downtime'. I figured he wouldn't mind nodding or shaking his head if I woke him to ask about the stakes. They had to be excruciating. I knelt beside the bed and called his name. 'Eric.' I also gently prodded at our bond.

Instantly his eyes snapped open and focused on me. If I'd still been alive I would have blushed at the intensity of that look. 'Um, we were wondering if we should leave those stakes in or pull em out tonight?' He blinked. I realised I hadn't posed it as a yes or no question. 'Um, so nod if we need to take them out?'

Eric remained motionless. 'Okay then we'll leave them in. Tara's just getting more blood if you wanna wait a second before you go back to sleep?'

He gave an infinitesimal nod.

I could sense Pam hovering nearby. I wanted to tell him all those things I'd realised when I'd felt him 'die', but I wasn't sure how to begin and if he'd even want to hear and I sure as heck didn't want Pam or Tara listening in.

I settled on reaching for him in the bond again. 'I'm so glad you're alive Eric.' I was crying. Godammit. I wiped at my eyes and smiled at him. I could hear Tara using the microwave downstairs, she's be up with more blood any minute. I made to stand.

Eric's arm shot out and wrapped around my wrist. I frowned, 'Do you need more of my blood?' I'd already given him quite a bit, but I'd happily let him drain me more or less dry. He shook his head ever so slightly. I felt him pulling at me through the bond. He was looking at me like he was trying to communicate with his eyes. I reached out and tried to read him. I could make out some of his thoughts, but they were in an ancient sounding tongue I'd never heard before.

I tilted my head. 'You don't think in Swedish.' I paused. 'Which makes sense now I think about it, it's not like Sweden existed a thousand years ago is it?' I smiled. 'I'm glad you don't think in English. It's bad enough picking up on the occasional thought from Pam and Tara.'

I could tell he was burning to ask me questions. I could guess what - when he'd last seen me I'd been alive after all. Now I was Pam's child.

Tara appeared with a tray stacked with warmed bags of blood. 'Ding Ding! Room service for the crazy motherfucking Viking!'

Pam followed her in and we perched around Eric as he drained the bags of donor blood.

'I wonder what Bill tasted like.' Tara mused. 'I didn't actually get my fangs into him.'

I scoffed dismissively. Three pairs of eyes turned towards me with vampire speed.

Pam smirked 'Well luckily we have an expert with us.'

I rolled my eyes. 'Not really since Bill drank Lilith's blood so he probably tasted real different when Eric drained him.'

Pam nodded. 'True, however I find myself curious. What did Billy taste like before his brush with greatness?'

I scrunched up my nose. 'Compared to you and Eric, about as appetising as a trueblood versus one of my cousins.' I was being honest. I'd had Pam, Eric and Bill's blood as a human and there was no comparison.

'Unsurprising, I can't imagine any child of Lorena's tasting pleasant.' She paused, 'Although I'm not certain I like you comparing my maker and I to fairies.'

Tara took that opportunity as ask 'Sook who the heck is Finly Brigant? The vamps were freaking out when you was talking about them.'

'Fintan.'' I corrected her. 'He was my biological granddaddy.'

'And he was a faerie, for reals?' Tara asked sceptically.

I nodded. 'Mhmm. For reals.'

Eric finished his last bag of blood. I could feel his curiosity and his exhaustion through our bond. I looked down at him. We hadn't tried to clean his skin. He was already dead so infection wasn't a problem, and the thought of touching him just seemed too excruciating. Like more torture. Despite the dried blood and scabs, I could see that his skin was already starting to grow back. I was glad. The sooner my Viking had skin again, the sooner I could touch him. I cringed inwardly at the sappy thought. I was glad I couldn't blush anymore.

Tara voiced my own fears. 'Should we stay with Eric today Pam?'

Pam raised an eyebrow.

I added my own voice. 'It does seem a bit off to just leave him here all alone.'

Pam met her maker's gaze. 'Well master? It appears my progeny want a sleep over with their granddaddy.'

I snorted and Tara glared at the back of Pam's head.

I could feel Eric's slight amusement under his pain and exhaustion.

Pam sighed and looked from Tara to me and back again. 'Fine. You may rest here. You will ensure that you are not touching any part of Eric's body before you die for the day however. He's busy growing back his skin.' Tara and I both nodded.

Pam stood. 'Come. We'll feed before we rest.'

Tara and I needed no further encouragement. I drank five bags of the delicious donor blood and Tara drank three. I think she'd sneaked a couple when she was fixing Eric's earlier. I was surprised when Pam drank eight. She usually drank far less than me. Sensing my confusion she indicated her missing arm. 'I have a little healing of my own to do Sookie.'

I felt like an idiot. 'Oh. Of course you do. Sorry.'

Tara snorted at my stupidity.

When we returned to Eric's room he was already dead for the day. His bed was huge. Pam took one side to herself since she didn't trust Tara and I not to bump her arm, and we slept on the other side. Eric lay motionless in the middle. I spent my last few minutes before dawn staring at his face. Blood and all.

Eric did not leave his bed for eight days.

Pam was in a foul mood as she balanced regrowing her arm with trying to sort out the mess that Bill had left of Louisiana. It seemed that the remaining sheriffs were all eager as anything to make it official that Eric was the king but Pam refused to accept the position on her maker's behalf. Eric had never wanted to be king and she sure as hell didn't want to answer for it if he woke up one.

She kept our location a secret but conducted business on her phone and started putting Eric's business ventures back into order. Or tried to. The human's were still freaking the fuck out.

Tara and I split our time between playing nursemaid to Eric and lackey to Pam. It got old pretty quick, but since we were both unexpectedly alive, we were taking it pretty well.

We all slept beside Eric for the first week but by then Pam and Tara were eager for privacy and I was left baby-sitting him. Not that I minded of course. Eric seemed pleased at my continued presence at his side at least. His skin was back and we'd been able to get him into the shower the day before. He seemed delighted at being clean again. He still wasn't speaking so I assumed he was still regrowing his tongue in much the same way Pam was regrowing her arm, but he looked more or less like Eric again.

I joined him just before dawn. It was much harder to restrain the urge to touch him now that he you know, looked like his gorgeous self again. We'd had to cut off his hair and the rapidly growing blonde locks he'd grown since then seemed to beg to be touched. I'd thought he was already dead for the day, but he turned to stare at me when I arranged myself beside him. As per Pam's instructions I made sure not to touch him.

He looked at me for a long time and it got harder and harder not to reach out and touch him. When he shifted his hand and curled his big fingers around mine I felt like I'd been electrocuted. He tilted his head towards mine. His lips parted and I saw him form my name silently. I heard it in his head. My name in Old Norse was still 'Sookie'.

'Eric.'

He pushed his face towards mine and brushed a kiss onto the top of my head.

I started crying. 'Wow. You know I think I cry more as a vampire than I did as a human. I knew I'd make a terrible one.'

His grip on my fingers tightened as he pulled back to regard me silently. Of its own accord my free hand rose to touch him. It stopped an inch from his face. 'Can I touch you?' I was worried his new skin would be too sensitive or sore or something, but he nodded. His skin was softer than I recalled. Cool like polished marble but so soft. I traced my fingertips along the lines of his face, brow, jaw, nose, mesmerised. That last night I'd seen him, when he'd held me and whispered those words in my ear at the Authority compound I'd wanted to touch him like this but hadn't allowed myself. My fingers traced his mouth. He let my thumb slip inside as I instinctually sort out the shape of his fangs. With a snick they lowered into place. I ran my thumb over the tip, intentionally letting it catch and break my skin. He moaned and sucked eagerly. My fangs descended with an audible click. The noise got his complete attention. Suddenly he was on top of me, braced on an arm beside my head. He was staring at my mouth avidly.

I realised he was curious about my fangs. I shyly parted my lips. Eric ran a finger along my bottom lip before tracing the line of my new fangs. As he did so a bolt of pleasure shot through me and my back arched off the bed as I gasped in surprise. Apparently fangs were an erogenous zone? I looked up at him wide eyed. 'I didn't know it felt like that!' I felt a bit embarrassed about more or less feeling him up a minute ago.

Eric smirked down at me then paid me back with more of my own medicine. He cut his finger on the tip of my fang. I groaned and found myself sucking on his finger like a common fangbanger. He tasted incredible. I told him so. Mumbled it around his finger.

'God Eric you taste so good.'

I could feel his desire and his hunger through our bond. We'd barely touched and my panties were soaked.

Wordlessly I tilted my head, offering him my neck. I'd given him my blood almost daily since we got him back, but always from my wrist since Pam and Tara had been in attendance and I'd been trying to keep things decent. He didn't need further invitation. He buried his face in my hair and bit deeply.

I moaned and pushed my hands into his hair pulling him closer. Of their own volition my legs wrapped themselves around his hips. Being bitten by Eric as a human had been something of a turn on, but as a vampire, with all my senses hyper aware and tuned into him, it was something else entirely. I could feel my blood, my strength, pouring out of me and into him. There was this weird, delicious echo of warmth and I could feel it spreading through his veins. I'd been cold ever since I woke up dead, but I felt warm, alive, and I wanted. The smell of my own blood and the scent of Eric's skin was a delicious torment.

His bare shoulder was right in front of me. The urge to bite him was almost unbearable. I could still taste him in my mouth and I wanted more, wanted to sink my teeth into that glorious skin and drink him in. I could barely think, barely speak. I hadn't been this hungry even when I'd first awoke. The only thing keeping me in check was my fear of hurting him

'Eric…' My voice was slurred like I was drunk. 'You need to stop otherwise I'm going to bite you…' I whined. He ignored me and continued pulling at the bite in my neck, each draught seeming to set off answering hot pulses of want between my thighs and in my fangs. I yanked at his hair and ground myself against him shamelessly.

'God Eric!'

It was sweet torture. I was barely a week old, how was I supposed to resist 1000 year old blood?! I'd had trouble resisting Eric as a human... I don't know how but somehow I found the strength to restrain myself. Finally he released me and pulled back. I was panting even though I had no need to breathe. He stared at me with an expression that made me want to spontaneously combust and licked my blood off his lips. I whimpered. I wanted to tear off my clothes, climb on top of him and fuck him and drain him dry. His mouth formed my name again. I focused in on his mind. I heard a thought, carefully and consciously in English. 'I want to feel you take my blood Sookie.'

I groaned in longing. 'Yes. God yes Eric.' I agreed. In an instant his teeth were back in my neck and he was drinking from me. I didn't hesitate this time, I kissed and licked the skin of his shoulder and sunk my fangs into him. The bond exploded as his blood filled my mouth. He tasted fucking incredible. His blood burned through my veins and I just melted. He growled, his teeth pulling at my throat deliciously, and ground his hips against me. I felt him hard and thick between my thighs and that was all it took. I was so out of it I came just at the rub of him through cotton.

He drew back and smirked at me. I stared up at him in a daze, almost glad he couldn't speak. I could imagine the smug crap he'd be spouting if he could.

I could feel the pull of dawn, the haze tugged at me. Eric shifted beside me, pulling me into his arms. I felt a moment's guilt that he was hard against my belly, then figured it was his own damn fault for teasing me. I wrapped my arms around him and held onto my Viking tightly as I died for the day.

In an instant I was completely awake and aware. Waking up wrapped in Eric's arms was heaven,but not exactly relaxing. I could still taste his blood in my mouth. It was as if someone had just pressed pause on me at dawn, I was feeling exactly the same things I'd been feeling before I'd passed out. I moaned and shifted restlessly against him.

Eric seemed to be feeling likewise frustrated because when my eyes opened he was already on top of me, pressing into me through our clothes and kissing my neck. I groaned and pulled at him. My hips were rocking against his and my fangs were aching to be buried in his flesh again. I wasn't sure which I wanted more, his blood or his body. Both. My eyes keep closing in pleasure and I had to force them open. I wanted to look at him, I loved that he was alive and whole again.

His hair had grown back more over the course of the day. I eagerly buried my hands in it. It was as long as it was the first time I met him, hanging down a little past his shoulders, that beautiful golden shade you only saw on Nordic types. He was so handsome. So perfect. My Eric. I twisted a thick lock of his hair around my fist and tugged so he'd lift his face to me.

He was giving me that look again. The one that seemed to bore straight through me and leave me a quivering mess. My 'morning' was already shaping up to be the best of my entire life and unlife combined and then he made it perfect.

'Sookie.' he said.

My dead heart seemed to beat for a second, just so it could stop again. His voice, his beautiful voice! He leant forward so his lips were almost brushing mine.

'…my Sookie.'

Yes yes a thousand yes's. His Sookie. I opened my mouth to speak, probably just his name, but before I could he pressed his lips to mine.

For a few seconds it was chaste and beautiful, the press of his cool lips on mine, and then he was kissing me properly, licking into my mouth in hot wet swipes that made my head spin. He hadn't kissed me so desperately since that night in his office so long ago.

I remembered his words. 'If I met the true death without even having kissed you, Sookie Stackhouse, that would be my biggest regret.'

I couldn't get close enough to him, couldn't kiss him hard enough. Within moments we were more or less devouring each other, our fangs scraping and scratching and adding blood to the kiss. Kissing as a vampire was different. I could actually taste Eric, not just his blood, but the actual taste of him. It was divine. It seemed my body had forgotten it didn't need air anymore cause I was breathless and panting. Each breath I took was heavy with his scent, mixing with the taste of him. It reminded me of the sea. He tasted like iron and smelt like salt and wind.

It was incredible how much more my heightened senses made me want him. I wanted to rub myself against him like a cat and lick every inch of him. I pulled my mouth from his to start doing just that, kissing and licking along the line of his collar bone. The faint, almost healed marks where I'd bitten him before I'd slept sent a curl of desire through me when I discovered them. I pressed my lips, the flat of my tongue against the little scars and hummed in delight. Eric moaned, his hold on me tightening. 'Sookie, sváss…' I didn't know what he was saying and I was certain if I reached into his mind I'd find him thinking in the same tongue, but I could tell it was an endearment of some kind and that was enough for me.

I let my fangs and teeth scrape against his skin. He groaned and ground his hips against mine. At the feel of him hard against me, the reminder of things other than blood, I got distracted from my ministration and my legs wrapped around him to bring him closer. 'Eric...' God I wanted him. I bucked my hips against him and suddenly he was growling and tearing at my sleeping clothes. He stripped us both with vamp speed and without any hesitation at all buried himself inside me.

I forgot all about blood and fangs at the feel of him. He felt the same as a remembered, filling me perfectly, impossibly full, but my body felt different around him. It was as if that most sensitive part of me suddenly had a few million extra nerve endings or something. It felt so good it was almost too much. I stared up at him wide eyed in shock. It was like the thing with the fangs. It took me completely by surprise. He wasn't even moving, just pressing down into me, grinding his hips slowly, but I felt like I might come at any second. If sex felt this good as a vampire, how did they ever get out of bed?

Eric restrained himself for a few moments, he probably didn't want to overwhelm me, but I could feel his lust through our bond, his blood humming in my veins. He was dying to fuck me and bite me. I could feel how difficult it was for him to hold himself back and as it was the little circles he was drawing with his hips were sending jolts of electricity through me and driving me mad. I moaned and his eyes caught mine with that look again. 'Eric, please…' I wriggled against him, making my desire for him to continue plain.

He didn't need further invitation. He pulled out of me, pulling a gasp of pleasure out of my body along with his cock, and then shoved back in a deep rough slide. He wasn't even using his vamp speed and I was a complete mess, moaning like a porn star and grabbing at his ass. I came on the third stroke, my body clenching tightly around him, completely overwhelmed. It seemed to go on and on, my body twisting and clawing at him mindless in my pleasure. When I came back to myself Eric had stilled again. He had one hand wrapped around my hips and the other in my hair. He felt like a steel rod within me. His tightly controlled lust burnt me through the bond. He was panting, his lips pulled back from his fangs. I was ready to go again just at the sight of him. I wanted him to let go. I was vampire now, he wouldn't hurt me. I leant up and scraped my fangs across his neck just beneath his ear. He twitched against me. 'Eric,' I said, letting every ounce of want I felt turn my voice into honey, 'I want you to fuck me.'

My words certainly got his attention. The hand on my hip tightened and Eric shoved me into the mattress, arranging my body as he pleased, and proceeded to give me exactly what I'd asked for. It was like making love to a thunder storm, he was everywhere at once. His hands, his teeth his cock... my brain fizzled under the onslaught. The massive bed shifted and groaned beneath us as Eric fucked me with abandon and I was making all sorts of noises I'd never made before. It felt incredible. The friction and pressure from Eric's vampire speed and strength were doing wonderful things to my body and I instinctually responded in kind. I didn't feel even remotely human, what we were doing. I felt like a creature created and put on this earth purely to have sex with Eric Northman. It was clearly my sole purpose for existing. I hate to think what my gran would have thought, but the experience was so perfect it was almost religious. This could not have occurred by accident. There had to be a god for anything to feel as good as fucking Eric Northman did. I may have said a few of these things out loud, or at least tried to. I definitely recalled wailing like I was dying all over again when Eric fucked me from deep from behind with his teeth buried in my neck.

He seemed extremely pleased by my enthusiasm.

I don't know much later, but eventually I came to my senses. I was wrapped around Eric with my face buried in his neck. His hair was soft against my face. He smelt divine. He was running a hand up and down my side, petting me like a cat. I didn't mind at all. I felt utterly content. Lord knew how long we'd been at it, how many times we'd had sex. I'd lost count. I felt amazing.

'Eric. Let's never leave this bed.' I said.

I felt him smile against the top on my head. He pressed a kiss onto my hair. 'That seems acceptable to me my dýrr sváss.' I didn't care that he wasn't speaking English. It was kinda cute. No one had ever given me pet names in another language and I was glad he wasn't calling me darling or any of the things Bill had.

We were silent for a few minutes. It was bliss just being close to Eric. My happiness was an insistent buzzing in my veins. I felt like I'd been handed a miracle. I had a thousand questions but I didn't want to break the spell between us and speak.

'Tell me what happened after I left you ástir.' Eric's voice was soft and I could sense his apprehension. I wasn't sure where to begin.

'We made it back to Bon Temps. Jason dropped me off home and Pam and Tara went to Shreveport.' I felt tears stinging my eyes. 'I… felt what Bill did to you. I guess Pam did as well.'

'Do not think on it.' Eric said. 'It's over now and I am recovered. What happened after.' The way Eric could just gloss over days of torture amazed me. I was traumatised and all I'd experienced was a kinda echo of whatever Eric went through. But still, if he didn't want to talk about it I sure as heck wasn't going to argue.

'I thought you were dead.' I sobbed a bit despite my best efforts. 'I thought you were dead and it was all my fault Eric!' I took a great, useless, breath. 'And I never told you how I felt about you.' My guilt over that had been eating me alive.

'You love me.' Eric said. It wasn't a question, but I felt obliged to answer anyway.

'Yeah. I do.' I tightened my hold around him and buried my face into his shoulder. My heart ached. 'I love you more than anything Eric Northman.' I admitted, my voice thick.

I felt his happiness and it was almost enough to pull me out of my guilt at not having told him how I felt before he fought Bill the first time. 'I knew that you loved me Sookie. The bond between us that we made when I was cursed, it is not like the blood tie you had with Bill, or that you shared with me after Dallas. It allows me to feel your emotions as you feel mine.' His fingers were tracing little patterns on my back as if he was trying comfort me, as if I'd been the one tortured and nearly killed. 'Had I met my true death at Bill's hands, I would not have done so ignorant of your true feelings.' he continued and I sobbed in relief. 'I felt your love for me, you kept me strong sváss.'

It was strange hearing Eric talk so sweetly to me. I was reminded of cursed Eric, but there was an underlying strength and confidence in him that was all 'real' Eric. I knew every word he said was true.

'Pam thought you were dead too.' I said. 'Neither of us could feel you. We were both certain you were gone. How is that possible?' I never wanted to go through that feeling again.

'I was very weak.' Eric admitted ruefully. 'Rather than kill me, Bill elected to drain me completely. It is a difficult process, usually the vampire dies. Without Lilith's blood I doubt Bill would have had the skill to perform such a feat. A vampires' life, their magic, is contained within their blood. Drained of it I was held on the precipice of death, an empty shell. That is why you could not sense me. I was not there.' He paused. 'I had not felt such a thing since the night Godric turned me. It was similar to the nothingness I felt before I first awoke vampire.' He was silent in reflection for a few minutes.

'So you weren't… aware?' I asked hopefully. 'When Bill had you nailed to the wall? You weren't in pain?'

'I felt nothing.'

I let out a sigh of the deepest relief. 'Thank god.'

The next words out of Eric's mouth were awkward and strained. 'Why did Pam turn you?' he asked. His emotions were real complicated on the subject. On the one hand he was ecstatic that I was vampire, but he was also both jealous of Pam and grateful to her, and guilty since he knew I hadn't wanted to be turned.

I figured I'd just tell it to him straight. 'I thought you were dead.' I said. 'Bill had had my blood so I knew he'd come for me sooner or later. I couldn't run from him. Anyone who tried to hide me woulda just ended up dead or worse. I was gonna kill myself. But I was so angry at Bill. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction. Plus I was scared he'd get to my body in time to turn me. So I went to Pam and she agreed to do it.'

I could tell he was surprised. 'You chose to be turned?'

'Yep.'

'I am sorry I could not protect you Sookie.'

Eric sounded pretty mournful. I pursed my lips and glared at him.

'Don't you dare apologise! You did everything you could and in the end it all worked out. We're both alive and Bill's dead.' I had conflicting feelings about my status as a vamp, but things had turned out a heck of a lot better than I'd thought they would when I'd made my choice sitting my bathtub the week before.

'Actually, we are both dead my lover.' Yep. Just like that Eric was back to being is usual annoying self. I could actually hear him smirking. I rolled my eyes.

I felt Pam's presence a moment before I heard her drawl from the foot of the bed. 'As much as I am loathe to break up this adorable little snugglefest his majesty has a royal shit storm to deal with.'

I felt Eric's irritation. 'I'm not pleased with your little display in the throne room Pamela. You know full well I have no desire to be King of Louisiana, and yet you attempted to get every vampire in the state to swear fealty to me.'

'I didn't attempt anything.' Pam snapped. 'Every vampire in Louisiana did swear fealty to you. Your Majesty.' She smirked and gave a sarcastic little curtsey.

I glanced up at Eric. I could see the muscle in his jaw flexing. I didn't need our blood bond to know he wasn't happy. 'Well they can unswear it!' he hissed.

Pam crossed her arms and glared at Eric. 'No. You owe me Eric. It's thanks to me that Sookie's in that bed beside you and not chained up in Bill's.'

Eric growled in warning at his child. 'Pamela.'

She ignored him and continued. 'You know full well you have to be King. After that display in the hall no one will ever be content with you as a sheriff, how could they be? That strength you've kept hidden for centuries is out of the bag. It was bad enough when you were a thousand year old flying Viking. You made Sophie-Anne nervous as hell. Who'd be confident, or stupid enough to trust you in their kingdom now?'

Eric looked offended. 'I have never betrayed any monarch I have sworn my fealty to.'

'That doesn't matter!' Pam insisted, her voice rising in pitch. 'You're too strong! While you were pinned up like a bug Bill was going on and on about Appius's "noble bloodline" and how powerful he was,' Pam flicked her good arm in my direction. '- then your girlfriend told everyone she was a fucking sky fae and a goddamn Brigant Fairy Princess to boot and started shooting fairy sparks everywhere and then you came back from the dead and started disintegrating vamps by yelling at them before you proceeded to suck Lilith, a supposed god, right out of Bill.' It was a good thing Pam didn't need to breath.

'Are you quite done?' Eric asked coldly.

Pam pouted like a child. 'Sookie told everyone your real name.' she snapped irritably.

Eric turned to look at me sharply.

I glanced between them and raised my hands. 'Hey! Don't try and drag me into this. I've got no idea about vamp politics. I'm only a week old.' Eric narrowed his eyes suspiciously. 'I'm a baby vampire.' I insisted. 'Really. No idea.'

'You told them my name?' he asked. He did not sound pleased. At all.

'I thought we were all gonna die anyway!' I replied. It hadn't seemed like a big deal at the time. 'And I said it in Norse so it's not like anyone really picked up on it.' I added sulkily.

Pam snorted. 'Of course they 'picked up on it'.'

I frowned. 'Hey! You're the one that swore your fealty to him with his norse name! I only said it once and I'm sure I said it wrong anyways. If you didn't wanna draw attention to it you coulda just used Northman.' Pam's face didn't reveal much, but I could see she'd been hoping I would have forgotten that little fact.

Eric sighed and pressed a hand to his forehead. 'They swore fealty to me as Eiríkr?' he asked quietly in a voice of forced calm. He was massaging his temples with his fingers.

Pam nodded. I felt her intentionally keeping something back though.

'As Eiríkr inn Sigrsæli.' I felt obliged to clarify. I had a feeling Eric didn't remember much from that evening. And that fitted with what little I knew about Berserkers, which was admittedly, from movies and comics Jason had read when we were kids.

Eric growled at his progeny.'Pamela!'

She huffed. 'If you didn't want to be king you shouldn't have been so goddamn… Kingly!' Pam was clearly upset. She was usually much more eloquent. She had a point though.

'Eric, it's not Pam's fault.' I said. 'I don't know how else that situation could have possibly paid out. I mean, you killed the King of Louisiana, doesn't that usually mean you take over? The vamps all seemed to think so.' Eric had his eyes closed. I could tell he was trying to think of some way out for himself. He really didn't want to be king.

'Typical.' he huffed. ' Already you side with your maker against me.'

I scoffed. 'Stop being a baby Eric. You know full well this isn't Pam's fault. It's Bill's. If he hadn't drunk Lilith's blood you wouldn't have had to kill him.' I frowned. 'And to think we went back to get him cause we were worried about him.' I shook my head. How stupid could we be?

'Yes I spent quite some time in similar ruminations last week.' Eric agreed. 'I had grown almost fond of Bill over the last year. I was beginning to have hopes for him one day making a decent vampire. After he suggested the bombing of the Trueblood factories I should have accepted the obvious. Heimskr.'

Pam snorted. 'That's an understatement.'

'What are we gonna do Eric?' I asked. 'The way things are going vamps are gonna have to go into hiding again.' I was actually pretty worried. The situation hadn't gotten any worse in the time Eric had been recovering, but it sure as hell wasn't any better. People weren't sure if Bill was actually dead or what had happened. Vamps were still being hunted down and some were still likewise hunting humans. Someone needed to take control of the situation.

Eric sighed. 'Yet again I am left cleaning up after incompetent fools.'

Pam cheered. 'Oh goody. He's done with his tantrum.'