Sorry, I only got 2 chapters out last weekend. With the end of the school year wrapping up, things get hectic when you have 3 kids and your husband is a teacher. This week I will be on a business trip to Louisville, I don't know if that means I'll have more or less time for writing, but I'll do my best.

Thank you everyone for your reviews. They have all (except for the one implying my story was dog feces) been great and so encouraging. I wish I had time to reply to them all individually, maybe when the story is done...

Again, I don't own anything.

Chapter 10

She awoke on her stomach, Eric's large hands were massaging her back. It felt wonderful, and she made a little sound of pleasure in her throat. "That's not too hard is it?" he asked softly, stilling his hands.

"No, it's perfect." She stretched while his hands were still. "How long is it till dawn?" He began rubbing again, working his way down her back.

"About half an hour." He shifted so he could kiss her back as well as rub it.

"Can you stay?" She had thought the room seemed light tight, but knew he would know.

"Do you want me to?" His hands covered her rear and kneaded, while his thumbs traced the crease. Her heartbeat sped up.

"Yes." She tried to turn over but he moved one hand back between her shoulder blades.

"Not yet, I'm not done with your massage. You're sure you want me to stay?" He murmured, while his other hand moved lower, between her legs which parted readily for him, to find her nubbin which jumped at his touch.

"Oh god, Eric yes!"

"Having you call my name with such passion drives me wild." He purred against her back. He had one knee between her legs and she was bringing her own knees forward, raising her hips and pushing back against his hand.

She could feel his arousal along her thigh, and tried to raise her torso, but his hand and body continued to press down on her. "Mmm Eric, I want to touch you." She reached back and ran her hand along his length. She heard his fangs click down. The hand on her back slid around her to her chest and he pulled her up to her knees in front of him. His other hand came around and continued to tease her nub from the front.

She continued stroking him, while her other hand reached behind him to grab his butt. A low growl, almost a purr, built in the back of his throat. She turned her head to look up at him and his mouth devoured hers as his hands brought her again to the brink. When she finally broke off the kiss to breathe he kissed down the column of her neck to her shoulder. She waited in anticipation for his bite, but it didn't come, instead his hand returned between her shoulder blades and pressed her torso down, she released him so she could prop herself up, spreading her legs and tilting her hips up like a cat in heat.

She looked back at him, her eyes dark and heavy-lidded with passion, "Eric, I am... I'm..." Her voice a throaty whisper.

In a single, lithe movement he shifted between her legs, and entered her from behind, driving himself in all the way until his body crashed into hers. "Mine!" Though the word was possessive he said it with joy. She cried out as he filled her and this angle magnified the sensations. His hand continued to rub her nerve center even as his thrusts brought his balls crashing against it. She bucked against his thrusts increasing the impact.

She only faintly heard the crunching noise, then Eric shifted forward, and his bloody wrist appeared in front of her. "Drink!" he urged, and she grabbed his wrist without thinking and closed her mouth over the wound.

As soon as the blood hit her tongue ecstasy overwhelmed her. Her first draw on his wrist sent him over the edge and he arched her back and bit her neck as his final spasms shook them.

He eased them onto their sides, still spooned together as he licked her wound closed and she licked the last of the blood away from his now-healed wrist. They were quiet for awhile. She was pleasantly reviewing their lovemaking, committing every moment to memory, when something he had said floated to the forefront of her thoughts.

"What about Pam?" she asked.

He shifted onto an elbow to look down at her, confusion and worry on his face. "What about Pam, what? I thought you weren't mad at her about yesterday."

She turned on her back to look up at him. "No, not that, When you were talking about vampires below you who couldn't argue with you, you didn't list Pam."

He looked relieved, "I'll let Pam argue with me privately at times, but since I am her maker I can always overrule her. I can even command her to be quiet." He grinned. Sookie could just imagine Pam's face when he did.

"What do you argue about?"

"Running the bar, other decisions." he shrugged and ran his fingers softly along her arm. He looked like he was trying to change the subject. She noticed the claw marks on her arm from Thalia were almost fully healed.

"What was your last argument about?" she pressed.

"It's not important."

"Tell me." His reluctance was piquing her curiosity.

"She wanted to kill those drainers tonight when we caught them. She was mad, when I didn't, she said I was getting too soft." He wouldn't meet her eyes.

"She blamed it on me didn't she?"

"Don't be mad at her, she actually likes you." he seemed surprised at that. But his face did show worry. He obviously did not want friction between the two women in his life.

Sookie realized she wasn't mad at Pam. In the literally cut-throat world of vampire politics, any sign of weakness could make Eric a target. Pam loved Eric, anyone could see that. He was searching her face for her reaction. She rolled her eyes and said with a grin, "Well, she made that obvious last night. First her, then Thalia, tonight I'll have to be on my guard around Indira. Since I have suddenly become irresistible to the lady vamps of Fangtasia."

"Not just the lady vamps." he said and kissed her deeply again. Five minutes ago she would have said she was too tired to have sex again, but maybe it was his blood, her body was responding and aching for him.

She kissed her way back to his ear to bite his earlobe, then she whispered. "This kind of vamp attack I can live with." and he chuckled in her ear.

Then she sat bolt upright, Eric asked, "What's wrong?"

She shook her head, looking past him as her mind began to spin a plan. "No, a vamp attack!" She said as if it were obvious what she was talking about. She turned to him. "Eric, can you attack me tomorrow night?"

"I was about to attack you now." He replied moving in to kiss her again but she held him back.

"No, I mean at the bar."

"In my office?"

"No, out on the floor." speaking as if he were very thick for not catching on.

"Besides breaking several ordinances, I didn't think you would be open to such a public display."

Exasperated she backed up to explain. "No, to try to draw out the person in the crowd waiting for an attack." Eric started to comprehend what she was talking about. "Whoever it is will probably try to take pictures and stay as long as possible to get details. So we stage an attack and try to figure out who it is."

"If there is another attack in the bar so soon after the last one, the police will probably close us down for awhile."

"But if I don't press charges, it probably will only be for a little while. If someone else gets in wearing Vamp Bait and they really get hurt or killed how long will the bar be shutdown?"

"Indefinitely." he conceded. "But will you be able to scan for him while being attacked? I would imagine it would be very distracting."

"Not if I knew it was fake. If I figure out who it is before the planned attack I can always signal you to cancel it. But if I can't find them, there needs to be an attack, or they'll think their plan isn't working and they'll abandon it and we won't know what they will do next until it is too late." She dared him to find a flaw with that plan.

"Wouldn't it be better if I attacked someone else, while you scanned the crowd?"

She shook her head. "We would have to let whoever it is in on it and we don't know if they are involved, we might tip our hand. Plus, since I just had some of your blood, I should heal pretty fast." she reasoned.

He nodded, he looked like he was trying to think of another plan, whether it was because he did not want the bar shut down or didn't want to put her in harm's way she wasn't sure. But she wouldn't blame him for either. Then suddenly he stood, "Alright, stand up."

"Why?"

Mischief twinkled in his eyes. "So I can rehearse attacking you." he grinned, "We want it to look real don't we?"

They then tried various angles of attack to see which would seem most real and at the same time let her face be hidden so she could concentrate. Once they had decided they had hit upon a good approach, they practiced that a couple of times, before the tone of the attack changed and their passion ignited once more. Unfortunately time was against them and they both broke off a passionate kiss to yawn.

"I'm sorry," Sookie apologized. "I've been up for a long time."

Eric nodded, "It's well past dawn I'm afraid. I can sleep in the other room..." he offered.

"No, I do want you to stay. I'll be right out." She slipped into the bathroom, to brush her teeth and take care of necessities. Turning to return to the bedroom she saw the nightgown she had bought hanging on the door and slipped into it.

When she came out Eric was pacing, he stopped when he saw her, his eyes swept her appreciatively. "That's beautiful."

"Thank you." she said heading toward him. "I bought it for tonight, but you got here before I could change into it."

He wrapped his arms loosely around her. "Well, I'm glad, because it probably wouldn't have survived. But now I can admire you in it as I fall asleep." He kissed her tenderly, then scooped her up to lay her lightly on the bed, climbing in next to her and pulling the covers over them both. She turned to him and he slipped an arm under her, pulling her in against him.

"Goodnight Eric." She whispered.

"Goodnight Sookie."

Slowly Sookie woke feeling happy, but that changed to panic as she started to stretch and found herself trapped, something pinning her across her upper arms and legs. Her eyes popped open and she realized she wasn't bound just still wrapped in Eric's arms, one of his legs spread across hers. She was not used to waking up next to someone, since other than their brief stay in Dallas, Bill had always been gone from her bed by dawn. The problem was, right now Eric was just so much dead weight, with an emphasis on dead.

Waking up next to a vampire in the daytime was creepy, because during this 'sleep' they really did seem like corpses. They didn't breath, they were room temperature and almost impossible to rouse. Suppressing a shudder she shifted to try to move Eric's arm off her. Fortunately his hands were not clasped so she was able to slowly pull his arm so she could slide out from under it. His leg was heavier, but she was finally able to slide out from under it too.

"At least I don't have to tiptoe around." she murmured as she turned on the light and found her watch. It was almost 2:00 in the afternoon. "Crap." She had planned on getting up much earlier and getting things done, like talking to Claudine. She looked around for her purse and remembered she had left it on the couch before leaving the trail for Eric.

She went out to the living room and dug in her purse to find her cellphone. There were three voicemails, she listened to them while looking to see if the salads still looked edible, they didn't. One message was from Sam checking to see if everything was alright. The other two were from Claudine, the first just asking for a call back which came in at about 8am, in the second she sounded urgent and worried and that came in about noon.

She called Claudine right back. The fairy's voice was not her normal cheerful tone. "Sookie, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I was up late and left my cellphone in the other room so I didn't hear your calls. Did you find out anything?"

"Maybe, can we meet?" her voice was still urgent, so it just wasn't Sookie not answering that she was worried about.

"Sure, where?"

"I can come to you, where are you?"

"No, you can't come here." The last thing she needed was a fairy-scented living room. Plus it would be too dangerous for Claudine with Eric in the apartment.

"Something is wrong isn't it?" She was suspicious.

"No, it's just that Eric is here, and he's sleeping now, but I don't want you to be in danger. Can we meet for a late lunch?" That would kill two birds with one stone.

"Alright, where?" She didn't sound happy.

"You know Shreveport better than me, is there something close to this apartment?" she told Claudine the cross streets. She knew of a diner not far from there and they agreed to meet in an hour.

Sookie was late getting there, she had needed to wet down her hair to get it under control since it hadn't gotten combed after the shower the night before, and she had taken a wrong turn on the way. When she finally arrived she found a very nervous Claudine already seated at a booth.

After a quick hug Sookie sat, "You looked spooked." She said softly.

"I am, things are happening Sook and I'm not sure what."

"Have any fa..." she broke off as the waitress came up to take her order. She hadn't even looked at the menu but ordered chicken fried steak and a sweet tea. Claudine just ordered a coffee.

Completing her question, suddenly wary of listening ears, Sookie asked, "Have any of your folk gone missing?"

"Maybe, we're hard to follow, we can travel from here to home easily and no one keeps track. But there's something else," she looked around to see if anyone was listening. "someone is stirring up hard feelings against the vampires."

"Who?" Sookie asked, leaning forward conspiratorially.

"I can't pin it down, there has always been an undercurrent of anti-vamp feeling, after all, over the centuries we all know someone who was lost to the vamps. But this is different." She paused as the waitress came by with their drinks, giving the woman her sparkling smile. "Thank you dear. Can you do us a favor and not seat anyone back here?"

The waitress picked up Claudine's smile "Sure, not a problem, we're not really busy now."

"Is that the same as a vampire's glamor?" Sookie asked following the departing waitress with her eyes.

"No!" Apparently that offended the fairy. "She's happy and wants to make me happy. I am not controlling her mind."

"All right." Sookie agreed, although she didn't see a lot of difference. "You were saying?" she prompted.

"Well, the undercurrent is picking up steam and bubbling to the surface. But I haven't been able to pick up one source for the increased intensity, a louder voice among the throng." Sookie nodded, remembering when someone was rallying folks in Merlotte's before they burnt the vampires' house down. "I'll keep looking but since it's known I'm trying to move up, people are reluctant to talk around me."

"Was the store able to contact the manufacturer?" Sookie started on the other trail of clues.

"No answer on the phone, and I went by the address and it's a fake." Claudine shrugged, "So they definitely weren't looking to make money off it."

"Eric joked that if they were looking to make money, they would just market it to vampires." The fairy's face darkened, obviously she did not appreciate Eric's sense of humor. "That was before we hit upon this as a plot to make trouble for vampires." Sookie clarified.

"Speaking of Eric, you're with him now?" She didn't look pleased.

Blushing, Sookie nodded, she hated to kiss and tell.

"Sookie, you know that makes it harder for me to help you. It's dangerous for me to be around him."

"I know, but he was able to resist the make-up pretty well so maybe he could control himself. Now that he's him again." Remembering how he had acted around her that night at Merlotte's.

"Hmph!"

"Oh, speaking of danger..." Sookie broke off as the waitress came with her food. "Thank you, that smells wonderful!" She beamed up at the waitress.

"Can I get either of you anything else?" Her smile perking up this close to Claudine.

"I think we're good for now." The fairy responded, since Sookie was already chewing on her first bite of supper.

"Hungry?"

"Starving!" Sookie replied as she cut another piece. "I haven't eaten in almost 24 hours."

"Why not?"

"Well, I was undercover as a waitress at Fangtasia last night so I ate before I went on shift. Then I discovered the drainer and where he was keeping Thalia, so Eric, Pam and I went and freed her." Quickly eating a fork full of mashed potatoes, she continued, "After that I was otherwise occupied." she blushed again and took another bite of steak.

"I'm assuming Eric ate?" Claudine said accusingly.

"Claudine!" She was half embarrassed and half angry.

"Okay, not really my business. You were saying something about danger?" she prompted.

Sookie nodded her head and tried to finish chewing quickly. "Eric is going to attack me tonight at Fangtasia." she said flatly before taking another bite.

"What!" Claudine was almost on her feet in rage. "How do you know that? Have your gifts expanded to prescience?"

Sookie held up her hands in a "calm down" gesture. "No, it's part of our plan. Last night I picked up a stray thought of someone waiting for an attack. But I couldn't pick them out of the crowd. So tonight I am going to pose as a waitress again and see if I can pick him out. If I can't, then Eric is going to attack me and we'll see who seems most interested in the attack."

"I'm sure Eric was all for this idea." The fairy glowered.

"No, actually I had to talk him into it. It's probably going to get Fangtasia closed down for awhile and he'll have to pay a big fine." She sipped her tea, watching to see how Claudine processed that information. The fairy looked dubious but offered up no other argument. "Do you have any other leads among your people?" She took another bite.

"I haven't given up. But it may take some time. Meanwhile, I want you to be careful."

"I will be. Let me know if you find out anything."

"Same here."

"How's Claude?"

"Same as always. He might help too."

"Really?" Sookie was a little surprised that the self-absorbed fairy would bother.

"Not out of the goodness of his heart, but I can usually get him to do the right thing."

Sookie nodded as she tried to finish chewing. Of course since she was trying to hurry it seemed to be taking forever. Claudine sipped her coffee while she waited. "Sorry, I didn't mean to imply he wouldn't. He just always seemed to be removed from fairy politics."

"I'm not sure this is politics, but if fairies are in danger he'll do what needs to be done." Claudine changed the subject. "How's your house? Have you gotten the kitchen replaced yet?"

They talked about the fire, Sookie filled her in on Charles, his secret agenda and what had happened since. By the time she had brought her up-to-date. Sookie had eaten all she could of her meal. After paying for the meal, they agreed to call each other in the morning, then parted with a hug.

Getting back into her car she realized she needed gas and pulled into a station on the way back to the apartment. As she was waiting to pay she glanced at the newspapers sitting in the rack. A headline caught her eye and she picked up the afternoon edition. However, just as the clerk was handing her her change her phone rang. It was Sam again, she had meant to return his call. Nodding her thanks at the clerk, she answered the phone brightly.

"Hi Sam. How are you doing?"

"Better now that I hear your voice. I was worried when you hadn't called. Is everything alright?" There was both relief and concern in his voice.

"Everything is fine, I'll be here a couple of more days though, you don't need me at Merlotte's do you?" She tucked the paper under her arm and headed back to her car.

"I'd prefer you here but I can get on for a few more days without you. I saw there was an attack at Fangtasia the other night and when I hadn't heard from you..."

"Sorry, I just got caught up in everything going on. I promise to call you tomorrow, though it probably won't be until the afternoon, working with vampires means really late nights." She didn't want him to worry when she didn't call first thing in the morning.

"Make sure you do. I'll be happier when you're back home."

"Me too. Bye."

Sam wasn't going to be happy she was back with Eric. He wouldn't say anything but she would know. Sighing she got in her car and glanced at the article. The headline read "2 Men Dead in Fire". According to the article two, as yet unidentified, men had died in a fire in what was supposed to be a closed up store. They were squatting in the building and had run their own electrical wires which were the cause of the fire. Some damage was done to a neighboring building, but it too had been closed and there were no other injuries.

Sookie sighed, she couldn't bring herself to feel sorry for the men and wondered yet again if that made her a bad person. She hoped Thalia was okay. As she started the car she realized how late it was getting, it was almost sundown. She hoped she got back before Eric awoke, she wanted to shower any traces of Claudine off her before encountering him.