Another installment of Sookie and Andre. Thank you, sincerely, to everyone who has taken the time to read this and to those who even left reviews. I am humbled by your kind words, and touched that you have allowed yourself to see Andre as a noble creature.

Your servant

Merick

Chapter 14

Vampires could pass time, when it was required, by setting themselves into a frozen type of state, shutting out everything, mostly everything, until such time as their attention was required. Andre found himself quite unable to do that, waiting for Burnham to appear at the club with his new phone. He heard, or imagined he heard the movement of the minute hand on the antique clock in Northman's office, counting every second that passed, trying to compose his mind enough to come up with a reason to provide Sophie Ann, to allay any suspicions she might be having about his absence and the motivation for it. Thankfully at least, Northman had left him to his peace in the office. And though his partner, this Pam had interrupted him once, likely to check up on him at her maker's request, it had been an otherwise solitary vigil. Thoughts of Sookie kept creeping into his head, and fears; fears that Northman would become aware of her, fears that Sophie Ann would demand her, and the fear that he would have to leave her behind. They all mixed together, along with the pleasures his body remembered leaving him confused and directionless; which was a terribly odd feeling for him. The soft knock, when it came, was welcome.

"I have your new phone sir." Bobby held out the box it had come in, lid askew as the service had been set up and the thing charged for his use.

"Thank you." The absolutely out of character response was made before Andre was even aware of it. He reached for the phone as Bobby backed away, and again left him to his privacy. Trembling fingers dialed Sophie Ann's private office, his heart relying on his innate intelligence to deal with the problem of her, with the finesse so previously commonplace to him.

"Hello?" The voice was bored and languid, as it so often was when Sophie Ann was busy with proper work, work she normally considered beneath her.

"My Queen."

"Andre? I've been so worried." The tone perked up immediately, and Andre could not help but feel the pull of her connection to him flair in his blood.

"I must offer my sincerest apologies my Queen. I have carelessly allowed my phone to become damaged, and myself to become distracted with the task at hand."

"I have missed you Andre." She actually sounded sincere, which only made Andre's task of lying to her that much harder. Centuries of feelings fought with the new emotions, and Andre actually thought he was feeling a little sick to his stomach. "But tell me, how is your task coming? What has you so distracted?"

"It is taking much longer than I had anticipated." He was very glad that he did not have to look her in the eyes as he spoke. "This little town, with its population of weres is less disposed to the supernatural than I would have hoped."

"Have you spoken with the girl yet?"

"I have, but I wish to proceed very carefully with her. It would better if she was at ease with us no matter the truth of these powers Hadley has spoken of."

"So you have seen no evidence of them?"

"She has not been able to read my mind as of yet, at least not that she has revealed to me. But she is only just now beginning to accept my very being, and to open up to me about herself."

"Open up to you? An interesting tack, though I know you can be very charming Andre." He could see in his mind Sophie Ann's indulgent smile, and the fangs beneath her lips. Truly, she indulged no one but herself, and demanded no less from those around her.

"I don't simply want this to be about seducing the girl, or glamouring her into spilling her secrets by force. I want her to trust me, and to come to us of her own volition. I'm sure you must agree that a servant of sound mind is worth a great deal more than one who is mindless."

"Of course Andre. Do what you must. If she is an asset then bring her to me, and I will find a use for her. If she isn't then you must come home to me yourself." The words, typical of Sophie Ann made Andre's blood run cold, Sophie Ann would most certainly use Sookie, and in so many ways that Andre could not bear to imagine. He forced himself to choke out a sincere sounding response to her.

"Of course my Queen. I think of little else but returning to your side."

ooOOoo

Andre saw little reason to hide his anger as he emerged from the office. In a thousand years he had done little else but follow Sophie Ann about like a well-heeled dog. Up until a week ago it had not truly bothered him. She was his maker, a sometime lover, a figurehead of power, and someone he was devoted to, despite her regular dalliances with mortals and other vampires. She had always come back to him in the end, while he, he had never left her. But now she threatened something that was his, and he had no idea what to do. That confusion presented itself stiffly as he returned to the bar where Northman and his offspring were. He hoped they would not be fool enough to question him, but he did not expect it.

"All is well with the Queen?" Northman hardly made eye contact as he spoke, leaned over the bar, making as though he was staring at the patterns in the polished woodwork: it was insulting.

"Things were never amiss." Andre snapped back, perhaps more sharply than he normally would have, but he was well on edge, and not a good edge.

"And you intend to return to this Bon Temps place then?" The voice never changed, Andre knew that the Sheriff was trying to provoke him into giving something away, but he still had the presence of mind to counter the parry.

"I intend to remind you that you and your people are to stay away from it." He reigned in his anger, regaining some control.

"As you wish. Shall I have my man keep your rooms ready?"

"I shall let him know when they are no longer required." Andre took Northman right out of the conversation, bypassing his involvement and shifting it to his day-man. It made him feel just a little better, though the sentiment did not last as Northman fell into step beside him as he made his way out the front doors of the club.

"Whoever she is," the Sheriff leaned in and whispered to Andre, "I hope she is worth deceiving the Queen."

Stopping in his tracks Andre hissed at Northman with true vehemence, his fangs dropping.

"You will stay away from Bon Temps Sheriff, or you will suffer." He looked back at Pamela, waiting at the bar for her maker. His voice became so low that Andre knew she would not hear him. "And your blond will suffer, slowly, long before I get to you."

ooOOoo

It was after midnight, Andre knew it, and yet he could run no faster. His gut was in knots; Sophie Ann was pulling his reins in tighter and Northman knew there had been a woman, and perhaps even understood something about her otherness. If he had needed to breathe Andre knew he would have been feeling the constriction in his chest. As it was, his heart flopped back and forth between anger and fear. One emotion he was familiar with, the other he had left behind along with his mortality. He wanted her, she was his, and he just had to sort out how to keep her. The distance between them was excruciating.

He glimpsed Sookie from the road, on the porch again, sitting in one of the faded chairs, hands in her lap, face to the woods. She did not immediately see him as he came down her driveway, but he could see her and hear her all too well.

"Sookie?" His call spoke out with all the pain in his heart. "Have you been crying?"

He watched her wipe obvious tears from her cheeks as her face turned to his, and bounding up the steps, he dropped his bag on the wooden floor, and himself to his knees in front of her. Her lips were swollen and red, her cheeks tearstained, eyes hardly able to meet his. He took up her hands and held them tightly to his chest, kissing the knot they made as he held them together.

"What has happened?"

"I didn't think," she sniffled, "I didn't think you were coming back."

"Oh Sookie." He whispered.

"I thought that maybe you got what you wanted from me and that you just left."

"Never Sookie." He pulled her forward into his arms, kissing her cheeks as he did so. Her body trembled against him and he inwardly cursed himself as he caressed her back. "I am so sorry I am late."

"Did something happen?" Her voice still sounded so small to his ears.

"When I woke I found another Vampire in the woods." He held her through the shiver.

"What did you do?"

"I spoke with him and asked him to move on."

"And did he?"

"I took him myself, all the way to Shreveport."

"And he won't come back?"

"I made myself quite clear that he shouldn't. I will not let anyone harm you Sookie."

"You think he meant to harm me?"

"No, but I will take no chances. You are too important to me."

"I am?"

Andre let his grasp of her slacken, so he could pull back to look into her eyes.

"You are." The seriousness of his tone even frightened Andre. He let the response hang, trying to find something in the depth of her beautiful blue eyes as she stared back at him, just as mute as he while she processed what he had said. He watched her as she stood slowly, and he followed her fluidly.

"Do you have time to stay for awhile?" She offered her hand and Andre took it. He grabbed up his duffle bag; intent on not letting anything else untoward happen to his phone, and followed her through the screened door. "I don't want to be alone tonight."

"Neither do I." The bag was tossed haphazardly to the nearest chair. Andre didn't even follow its progress. He was in front of her before it landed, wrapping his fingers around the back of her neck, pulling her into his mouth for a desperate kiss. The taste of her was nearly beyond his ability to control himself. He ground his lips against hers with a desperate violence, Sookie reciprocating until the point when an errant fang scratched her lower lip, and it was Andre who backed away first; transfixed on how the blood welled into a ruby pearl. When Sookie raised a hand to dab at it he caught her arm, instead returning his mouth to the tiny wound, his tongue curling around the scant drop, taking it into himself, shuddering with the magic of it and returning for more, pulling at the tear, taking the moan of pleasure that escaped her throat at his attentions along with the blood. In a swoop he pulled Sookie up into his arms and took her to the bedroom.

Laid tenderly upon her bed Sookie hands went to the hem of the white tee shirt she wore, and Andre watched as she wiggled free from it, even as he pulled off his own shirt, the one Sookie had washed for him. He laid it over the brass railing of her footboard carefully despite the desires that were tearing at his entire body. He wanted to watch her, for a moment, to commit the scene of her to his mind forever, because nagging at him, always in his mind, was the thought that he would have to leave her behind.

She was so beautiful. The swells that were her breasts rose and fell almost as if they were integral to her heartbeat. Her hair fell back around her head in an aura, so much more than a halo, the blond complimenting the blue, all of which complimented the healthy glow of her skin. As he inhaled of her scent Andre felt he might almost be smelling the sunshine itself, along with everything magical about Sookie. His body throbbed in need of her.

Her small hands reached for him, grabbed the waistband of his pants, caressing him, coaxing him to undo the fastenings; he was only too happy to comply with her wishes, easing them off his hips even before she had made a move to shimmy out of the little black shorts she was wearing. His were on the floor before hers, and in all his manhood he laid out over top of her, only the lace of her underthings between them. He could not keep his mouth from her. She received the kisses to her mouth in kind, her tongue tangling with his, not for dominance but in the depth of tasting each other. She arched as he kissed her throat and curled as he took himself to her breasts, pulling the lace aside, and taking her like a feast. Every movement she made encouraged him further and drove the electricity through his member, into his gut, making him gasp and drive again and again. He could have given himself up to her with just that, but he wanted more.

Her bra was torn away, her panties too, and without a pause he pushed her thighs apart and settled himself between her legs, the soft quilt cradling him as he drew in the scent of her honey and began to lap at her, soft moans accompanying him. His hips writhed against her bed as he worked her, fingers held her tightly in place for him, and he tasted depths as sweet as her blood. Her body practically hummed for him as he took her to the edge, prepared to carry her over it when she grasped his shoulders, and managed to speak out through the waves that threatened her.

"No, Andre, please, not unless you are inside me. I need you inside me."

To her it must have seemed a blur as Andre moved to lay directly over her, the head of him at her opening, his mouth, fangs and lips glistening, hovering over her own parted vermillion.

"You want me?"

"I want you." In one thrust he buried himself to the hilt within her body, not waiting for any further pleas, beginning to pump against her, watching her eyes flutter as she gave herself to him completely, the column of her neck offered. But he did not bite, absorbed in the way she held him so tightly he concentrated only on the rhythm until she could hold out no longer and her pulses pulled him within, milking the orgasm from his shaft even as hers ebbed. On trembling arms, he held himself within her as long as he could manage, and finally relaxed to the bed beside her, receiving the tender caresses of her fingertips over his chest, listening to the slow breaths she took.

How can I ever leave her? He asked himself.

"Did you want to, um, have my blood again Andre?" Her shy, hesitant offer sent a warm shudder though him.

"I dare not. I drank from you last night, I don't wish to hurt you Sookie." An absent-minded thought poked at his mind as he stared into her eyes; the Blood, yes, the Blood, it was all about the Blood.