A/N This was a difficult chapter to write, I hope it all makes sense. Thanks for the positive feedback so far.
Eric's Demons
Chapter Twelve
Alone in the back of the big Chrysler, Eric watched Sookie intently. Something was different about the little woman he had given his heart to. Since her meeting with Nula she had changed. She was still just as sassy, and her new confidence made her even more attractive than before. But when she thought there was no one watching her face hardened, her eyes seemed to look into the middle distance, as if looking for a part of herself which had gone.
His hand played up and down her arm where Turel had grabbed her. Perfect hand marks showed red, although the bruised flesh was turning black. Eric played the scene over in his mind again, he had feared for Sookie's life, then her attacker lay lifeless at her feet.
What did you do?
Feeling his intent stare Sookie smiled weakly back.
"He's gone," she told Eric, as if that answered his question.
"But gone where? Has he flown to another host, have you learned how to turf them out of a stolen body already?" Eric wanted to know.
"Eric, no I can't really explain it, he's just gone," she explained.
"But gone where? Sookie what exactly did you do?"
She sighed, she had been trying to find some way to explain what had happened from the moment it had happened. In the end she described exactly what she had experienced.
Let Eric find the words for this, she thought.
"When I felt him grab me I knew what kind of being he was the moment he touched me. Nula had taught me how to open the little doors that let the power out, so I did. I was really afraid that it wouldn't work, or that he would hurt you, so I flung it open really wide.
"I felt him panic just before the shock hit him, like he knew what was coming. In my mind a great wind came, tugged him from the body, carried him away. He's gone now. I don't think he can come back."
Sookie paused, looking to see if Eric would laugh at her description. When he didn't she continued.
"I saw the wind carry him to a great valley, and somehow I know it was at the end of the world, the time not the place. There were four great men there, robed in white. They were waiting for him, greeted him by name, but they were not friends. One of them looked straight at me, nodded like he was saying thank you. I could hear Turel's last words as they threw him into the valley."
"What did he say?" Eric asked quietly.
"Oh shit!"
The car pulled up outside an old warehouse. Sookie had no idea where she was, but she was getting used to Eric leading her from one dangerous place to another. Her time with Nula would need to have been well spent if she was to save her vampire lover the way he seemed to find trouble. Behind them the other car glided to a halt.
Three figures were waiting for them, one she recognized as the Magister, the other two she assumed to be his guards. Beside her Eric had been silent since she had explained what happened with Turel. She wondered if he believed her.
Still without speaking, his face grim, Eric gestured for her to follow him from the car. Behind them Ulrich and the others stayed where they were.
"I've spoken to our kin in Europe," the Magister told Eric, ignoring Sookie as she clung to his powerful arm.
"You've been to see them already?" Eric asked.
For a moment the Magister studied Eric before he answered.
"On the phone, Northman. On the phone," he said.
"And?" Eric asked, fearing that he already knew the answer.
"Well you know how these old families are. It took a while to get someone I knew, and a while longer to get someone who knew what I was talking about. It would appear that our memories are better than theirs," the Magister paused.
"Our memories are better? Have they forgotten their pledge?" Eric was outraged, Sookie pulled away from him. For the first time she looked at the ancient vampire.
He's frightened. Shit he's frightened. What could frighten him?
"Not that bad," he reassured Eric, "not that it matters now."
"Why? Why doesn't it matter?" Sookie asked.
"Because an hour ago every one of the prisons was forced open, the guards slain. Something happened an hour ago that made the Nephilim panic, it made them fight their way out like they never had before," he paused, looking at Sookie before deciding to continue.
"Two hundred of our most ancient enemy are free, and my guess is they will come this way. No one knows why all of a sudden, after so many years they suddenly fought like cornered dogs. But they did and they are out."
For a moment Eric was quiet, taking in everything.
"I know what happened," he told the Magister.
"What? What has happened?"
Again Eric was quiet, as if choosing his words carefully. He looked at Sookie.
"She killed Turel."
"She what?" the Magister demanded, he thought he had heard Eric wrong.
"She killed Turel. Well more accurately she banished him to the Valley of the Damned until Judgment Day. Amounts to the same thing," Eric grinned at the Magister.
"Looks like your War Chief has his weapon of choice," he said.
Behind them Ulrich was approaching, marching Sophie-Anne by the arm. She looked furious. Sookie had forgotten about the queen locked in the trunk of their car.
"I demand these animals be punished," she told the Magister. "They have broken into my home, killed my guests, kidnapped me. I am a queen for fuck sake, I am the queen."
"Why, Sophie-Anne? Who did they kill? Vampires?" the Magister asked.
Self-preservation overtook rage, Sophie-Anne heard the danger in the Magister's tone.
"I tricked two of the Watchers to come to me, lured them into a trap. I had them just where I wanted them," she told him. "Then these came, they broke in, killed anyone who got in their way. The Watcher's are dead though."
Sookie saw Eric tense into a coil of hard muscle and rope tight sinews. His fangs were out, and his eyes seemed to shine with the inner glow she had seen in them before. At his most dangerous she saw him as a thing of beauty, both attracted and repulsed by the danger that was Eric Northman.
"You are a fool, Sophie-Anne, at best stupid, at worst a traitor," he growled the words. "You are here before the Magister to face judgment."
"I am what? How dare you Sheriff?" she spat at him.
"Why didn't you just execute her?" the Magister asked, seeming amused by this turn of events.
Outraged Sophie-Anne glared from one to the other. Then she realized they weren't joking.
"You can't execute me, don't be ridiculous. I'm going to have you punished for even thinking that!"
"No, I'll defer to you on this one," Eric said, ignoring her. "Brave men have died on my blade, I won't defile the memory of my enemies with her blood."
With a wave the Magister's guards took the queen by the arms, led her away.
"What now Eric War Chief?"
"Now we go to war," Eric told him.
"Can we win?"
"Can we afford to lose?"
Back in the car Sookie tried to take in all she had seen and heard. All of the Nephilim were free, and most likely they knew about her talent. It wouldn't take a fancy college degree to work out what they would do next. Or who they would come looking for.
When the car stopped again they were outside Nula's house. The ancient woman was waiting at the door for them.
"I felt your power, I knew you'd come," she told Sookie.
"Can you help me?" Sookie asked.
"In the morning, yes. But you should stay here tonight, it won't be safe to go back to Fangtasia. Stay here tonight and in the morning I'll help you to understand what you just did. Your power is far beyond mine, but I can help you to control it."
"Beyond yours? But I saw you fight with Eric, you were magnificent," Sookie protested.
"You get some rest. In the morning I'll teach you what else I can," Nula tried to reassure her.
Without another word Eric led her to the guest room. It smelled clean and fresh, and was warm. He closed the door behind her, leaving the guards at the door before he next spoke.
"You are magnificent," he told Sookie.
"You're not so bad yourself," she teased.
Eric swept her up in his strong arms, crushed her to him. Clinging on to him for all she was worth Sookie never wanted him to let her go.
"I'm frightened," she told him.
"You should be," he told her, "now everyone wants you dead!"
"Even you?" she pouted.
"I only want you dead like me," he assured her.
"I don't think I want to die today," she informed him.
Eric could contain himself no longer. He crushed his lips to hers, his strong passionate kisses very different from the soul drinking marvels he had ignited her with before. Different but no less charged Sookie responded aggressively.
She felt her clothes torn away as he continued to work his magic on her neck and ear with his mouth. His teeth scraped the skin and she stretched her neck for him, expecting him to bite her. Sookie was almost disappointed when he didn't, instead moving down her shoulder to clamp firmly onto her erect nipple. A shudder of pleasure went through her as he cupped her breast firmly, ran his teeth over the bud before taking it back into his mouth. There would be bruises in the morning but she didn't care.
Straddling him, tying both legs around his waist she could feel his urgency pressing against her nerve center. One hand knotted into his blonde hair she used the other to reach below her, free the beast he kept in his jeans. For a second he pressed the massive head against her soaking opening, before pushing past the swollen lips and into her.
Pain shot from her core, he had never entered her this aggressively. With her legs tied around his waist she screamed when he drove into her. They fell on the bed tied together and began thrusting against each other. Eric pulled her legs up over his shoulders before gripping her hips with both hands. He thrust into her deeper than she thought he could go, pushing another squeal of pain from her.
Beautiful pain. Sookie ground herself on him as he thrust harder and harder, her nerve endings alight as he brought her closer to orgasm.
His breath at her ear was hoarse, he was nearing climax too. Sinking her teeth into his shoulder she didn't care if she hurt him, her nails pulled his magnificent back down onto her, crushing her breasts against his chest. With a struggle she got her hands down onto his world class ass, braced herself to pull him deeper inside when she came.
And another hand stroked hers.
Struggling to open her eyes Sookie saw Nula gazing down at her, her hand pressed on Sookie's.
How I long for both of you.
At that Eric thrust hard into her, reaching his climax. Sookie screamed in a mixture of agony and pure pleasure as she hit her own with him. She felt his teeth bury into her neck as he drank deeply from her. It was a while before she could open her eyes again, but when she did Nula was gone.
Eric licked the wound on her neck closed. How he had longed to have her completely like this. They stayed locked together on the bed for what seemed an age. He lost in the pleasure of Sookie, and she in him.
Nula lay alone in her bed. She had seen her viking lover in action, had tasted his sex in the air as he pounded her beautiful young replacement. Their love could not be complete while she was still around. With a sigh she thought once more about how Eric had loved her like that. Brave, handsome, frightening vampire. After all these years she loved him just as much as when they first met, on a wet hillside in Donegal.
She was still smiling with the memory of how he had made her feel when she died.