A/N Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read my story. I hope I don't disappoint you. I've never written anything like this before, but I hope it makes some kind of sense.
Eric's Demons
Chapter Five
Searing pain ripped through Eric's guts. Laughing man was on the other side of the door waiting. He had shot him with a crossbow.
"Bastard!" Eric hit him in the face with the pommel of his sword, the large functional hand guard smashed his opponent's nose. It was too close in the doorway to use the blade.
"Bastards, I'm starting to think this is personal!" he roared as he drove the man back.
In a heartbeat Eric took in the scene in the club. There were about a dozen of the regulars in, all vampires, all of whom were now staring startled at the fight that erupted from Eric's office. Around the entrance and exit Eric counted at least twenty of the figures he had seen at his house.
Only one human, Eddie Hobbs, the new barman.
Shit!
Laughing man came at Eric again, he had discarded the crossbow, and had pulled a long heavy chain with a vicious looking silver hook at the end from somewhere inside his clothes. Eric parried his first throw on the blade, tried to snare the chain, but his enemy simply flicked it free.
The other vampires in the room were on their feet, cheering and clapping as Eric launched himself at Laughing Man. They thought this was some kind of sport. Across the room Eric saw Pam emerge to see what the commotion was, then duck back and slam the door.
Clever girl, thought Eric, Sookie had to be protected at all costs.
"Kill the bloodbags!" Eric yelled to the other vampires as his feet danced in and out of his opponent's reach, trying to lay the blade into his foe's flesh.
Still they didn't see the danger. Too late, when the intruders were on them, an orgy of stakes and blood, they realized this was no game. Many of the less able died in the first attack, outnumbered and outclassed as they were. Those who remained were quickly overpowered.
Eric was suddenly alone in the club with Laughing Man and twenty of his followers. Every one of them carried wooden stakes, and they were all watching him and Laughing Man intently.
Crouching behind the bar, in a lake of his own urine Eddie Hobbs could see the fight in the bar mirror. He hoped none of the intruders had spotted him. There was a peace maker, a huge steel bat, strapped under the till. Trembling, threatening to disobey him, his hands eased it from it's resting place.
Huge and impressive Eric Northman was in the middle of the club floor, turning slowly as he used the blade to fend off another whistling attack, he could see now that he was alone with Laughing Man and his henchmen. For a moment he was disappointed at how soft his kin had been, how easily they had been slaughtered.
With all of the other vampires dead this fight had become decidedly one sided, Eric thought. A few feet away Laughing Man hesitated for the first time, his attack weak. He had seen something ugly in the viking's eyes before the huge warrior started to laugh.
Sensing rather than seeing the weak attack Eric leaped forward, blade gripped tight in both hands. Using every bit of the strength only a thousand year old vampire possesses to bring the heavy sword down on his opponent's head. Laughing Man saw the blow coming too late, put his arms up. Blood spurted from the stumps as he lost them, the massive blow cleaving him from neck to waist. In a stinking flash of crimson the body collapsed.
Grinning, mouth full of his own blood from biting his tongue, Eric spat a challenge at the others. They came.
Eddie Hobbs felt the urge to laugh before his soul was snuffed out. When he stood up from behind the bar Eddie was gone. His new host was laughing.
All at once they came at him. Stakes forward, intent only on the kill. The blade became a flash of light on steel as the viking danced with his slower enemies. Pressing together they hindered each other as they sought to take the big viking's life. As he danced Eric was aware of the tears and grazes which shredded his shirt, left dozens of bloody grazes on his taught muscular frame.
"I knew that was one sided!" he panted when it was all over.
Grimly he checked every one of them, beheading the dead and dying alike, his feet slipping in the growing pool of blood. All the while Eddie Hobbs watched, stifling his laugh.
"Well done, Northman," he congratulated Eric.
"Fuck! What are you doing here?" Something was wrong, Eddie was always to frightened to speak to Eric.
"You haven't lost your touch," Eddie Laughed.
For a moment Eric closed his eyes, he would regret what he had to do next. Sometimes when he slept he still saw the faces of the humans he had been forced to slay the last time he had faced this enemy.
Cold light seemed to blaze from inside Eric when he opened his eyes again, his fangs were so elongated they were more wild animal than vampire. His own blood ran over his lip, down his chin in a thin scarlet line. He leaped into the air at Eddie Hobbs as the Laughing Man threw himself at the viking. Sparks flew as the blade met the peacemaker. The horrible blade was turned, but it traveled on up to Eddie Hobbs' hand, severing the fingers. Laughing Man punched Eric with Eddie's ruined limb as the viking stepped out, around, and cut him in half with a vicious cross cut.
Laughter filled the air, then slowly dispersed.
With regret Eric looked down at the dead barman for a moment before his thoughts came back to the here and now.
"Sookie, Pam," he called, hoping they had both survived this carnage.
First a crack, Pam flung the door open fully when she saw the last man standing was her beloved Northman. She rushed to him, looking over the wounds that were already healing.
Behind her Sookie stood in the doorway, dressed in one of Pam's leather shirts and blue jeans. Her face was whiter than normal, she looked as if she was going to heave. When Eric went to her he was tender, more gentle than she could ever have expected him to be.
"See, little one, the lengths I'll go to for some time with you."
Pam glared at his back. She wished the queen could be here to see this.
"Bravo Northman," that dry voice could be only one vampire, the Magister.
Behind him Sophie-Anne was still trying to take in the scene of carnage that was Eric's club. There seemed to be blood and body parts everywhere, both human and vampire. Huge and dangerous Eric was soaked in blood, his own and that of others. For the first time the queen saw just how dangerous this Sheriff really was.
Others were crowding into the club now, some of them Eric knew as the Magister's retinue, others as Sophie-Anne's. With quiet dignity they gathered, all eyes on Eric.
"Our Ancient enemy?" the Magister asked.
"The Watchers," Eric confirmed what they both knew. "One of them anyway."
"But they were bound, our brothers in Europe were to guard the pit for all eternity. I was there when the pact was made," the Magister told them, his voice low and rasping.
"As was I," Eric agreed, "but something has gone wrong."
"Too much time has passed, they have forgotten their obligation, or the reason for it. The new blood don't know how close we were to extinction." The Magister shook his head.
Behind them there was a commotion. Bill Compton had come into the club, something wrapped in a blanket was draped over his shoulder. He threw it on the ground between the Magister and Eric.
Sookie's heart leaped, Bill was alive. She thought Eric had done something horrible to him. Then she remembered what she had heard. Temper flaring she launched herself at him, fists and feet flying.
"You used me, you tricked me, I heard it all," she cried.
"I'm sorry Sookie, it's the only way she would let me be with you," Bill told her.
Her rage paused long enough to take in what Bill had just said. Eric had been telling the truth. Furious she launched herself at Bill again.
Disgusted the Magister waved one of his guards forward.
"Take this human outside and kill it," he said.
Sword still covered in gore Eric stepped forward, and was satisfied to see the guard hesitate. The Magister waved him back.
"She's mine now," Eric told them
"I am not, I'm mine. I want nothing more to do with any of you," Sookie had heard enough. She'd had enough of vampires to last her a lifetime. Was the Magister really going to have her casually killed like that? She leaned closer to Eric.
Pam gasped. She had leaned forward to nudge the blanket aside. The body inside was a dried husk, but she recognized Celia Hepburn, one of Eric's old conquests.
"What happened to her?"
All eyes were on the cadaver now. It was Eric who told them.
"They feed on us, as we do the humans. The Watchers have come to hunt us."
"Just so," the Magister agreed.
When he spoke again his voice was low, only heard by Eric and those standing closest to him.
"War Chief, do we have the means to bind them again?" he asked.
Eric grinned acknowledging the title he had held in Europe, in the last war with the Watchers. Reaching his hand out he pulled Sookie closer to him. He noticed that this time she didn't pull away from him.
"We have."