Chapter 14

When I got to the beach there was a huge uproar. I saw where the child had fallen and from where and fell to my knees. He had killed himself, for sure.

"Send a boat" Leif shouted.

"Don't be stupid, boy" an old man said "It would smash against the rocks."

"But, my brother..." The old man shook his head sorry "And my father..." He put a hand on his shoulder.

"What happened, boy?"

"He wanted to grab seagull eggs... I told him not to do it, it was very windy..." he began to mourn and didn't say anything else. I hadn't the strength to get up and comfort him.

Then I thought about what Leif had said and Leif as the vampire Eric told me some time ago about his human life and realized that I shouldn't be there. He said his three children with Audd had lived but my arrival could change everything. Erik shouldn't have ever known me, I was an intruder. He never should have gone for the eggs, he never did in the past that my vampire remembered, but it was happening. To what extent my presence could change things. If he was dead, it would be my fault.

We haven't seen Eric anywhere in a while. Waves crashed with an almost unnatural strength they seemed to be able to break the stone mountain off anytime, like a sand castle crumbling into the shore. A huge wave rose and threw so much foam that the ocean surface turned white. Then I saw them; both of them. Eric swam to his son who was clinging to a rock: he was alive. Eric was near when a heavy sea, a giant wave tore the child from the rock, pulled him, shook and left him in the black ocean. I screamed and momentarily due to waves and my tears, they both disappeared from my sight. I lowered my defenses and I started to hear people's thoughts. They thought the rocks would shatter them, and if the rocks didn't smash them, they would drown, and if they didn't drown, they would die frozen. No one could be in these waters more than five minutes without languish.

Everybody presumed they were dead and someone thought it had been stupid from Eric try to rescue a corpse.

"There he is" cried the watchman "He has him! He has the guy!" I approached the shore, I would dive to help Eric when Halvar pulled my arm.

"If you jump into the water, there will be another person to rescue" I stood there waiting, watching Eric fight flows, the weight of the wet wool, the frozen water and his son's inert body dragging him to the deep. He staggered out with the child in her arms. He was full of scratches. He fell to his knees and some people rushed to cover them with furs.

"Str... stri... strip off his clothes" Eric stammered due to the cold "He… He's alive" Helga took off the clothes from the little kid while I did the same. I undressed in the middle of the beach without caring who was watching, I bent down and cradled against my chest Erik's cold and nude body. His lips were purple and his skin was blue. I began to mourn as I hugged him. He was frozen and I barely noticed his heart. Not seem to have any serious blow though it was full of scratches.

"We have rub some warmth into him" Halvar covered us with several furs and showing improper strength on a man his age, he carried us both in his arms and we drove us to Eric's home. He walked behind his father, aided by Helga, Helgi and his wife, Jora. We got home, the climb from the beach to the village seemed that it lasted forever. Halvar put me and the child next to the fire, and began stoking it.

"Stay with me, do not go, Erik... honey" I heard Audr began to mourn. She didn't understand anything. Helga and Jora also stripped in a few minutes.

"Come on, give him to me" Helga said "We go to bed and lay him between both of us. Warm up a little near the fire" I shook my head squeezing the child against me "Sookie between us he will be hotter, until you warm up and recover your temperature" She tore the child away from me and I saw both of them get into bed, they covered themselves with furs and they tangled around the child so that he was no more than the forehead and eyes uncovered. His skin was not blue any longer, but still had a dull color that froze my heart. I covered myself with the fur and turned to get warm near the fire. Leif had taken Audr behind the curtain and the two talked quietly about what had happened. Eric was standing in front of the flame, naked under a fur that covered him from neck to knees, but that left to the air: head, legs, feet and arms. I saw that he had shrunken hands, stiff with cold. His skin so pale he seemed like my vampire for real in the light of day. Trembled and looked far and forth to the fire, as if he wanted to throw into it and burn rather than continue to bear the cold, and the child in bed. I walked over and took his hands. Also it seemed that my Eric, in the cold of the flesh, with no trace of the warm that made him human. I held his hands and approached them to my face, blew hot air from my lungs and Eric shook again.

"He is warming up" Jora said. I smiled and Eric tried too, but being shivering didn't let him. He had his lips purple. I stroked his hair, frozen with a frost that melted slowly by the fireplace; I released his hands and leaning on his shoulder, forced him to sit.

"Give me your hands" looked like two bear claws. His fingers curled inward and blue palms. I approached him, I opened my legs and put his hands between my thighs. I closed my legs and pinch them in my hottest area.

"It burns" he told me.

"You're freezing" He began leaning to rest his head on my chest. I hugged him and stroked and began to cry his against his forehead "Whew ... thank goodness..." Eric began to regain mobility in his hands after a few minutes, but was still shivering. His skin was cold, therefore, it was like being with the Vampire I was in love. He stroked my inner thigh with his thumb, he was warmer now.

"If it is always to be like this, I will have almost drowning and freezing to death everyday" he said to me. I smiled against his neck and kissed him. It would have been exciting if I hadn't been so worried about Erik. I reposition his hands on my belly and link my legs around his waist, sitting on his lap and hugging him to get warm. We were going to be very cold and be very concerned, because despite the situation, we didn't get turned on. Eric was starting to react when we heard a moan coming from the top bunk.

"Sookie" Helga called me "Erik wants to be with you" I abandoned Eric as Helga finished the last word, almost no cover, I climbed the ladder to the top bunk, I got the furs and hugged the boy, who between consciousness and unconsciousness, hugged me.

"And my bag?" he asked.

"I do not know, my love. We remove your clothes on the beach.

"But..."

"Chist" I whispered "Jora, can you please tell Leif to pick up Erik's clothes and bag.

"Tell him to be careful" the boy said.

"Tell him to be careful" Jora left, leaving Helga and me lying next to the little one.

"I'm cold, Sookie" I hugged him stronger.

"Better?" He nodded. Leif came back with the bag, Jora and Helgi were gone and we were just family. Leif opened the bag, Erick reached in and pulled it out the contents of a crushed egg. However, he took out a whole one, one that was saved.

"It's for you" Erik said.

"We'll boil it and we'll eat it very warm, you and me, okay?" We were like that a long time and I stroking his hair and him muttering things to me. Helga hugged her grandchild from the other side, she did it until she said he was going to prepare food. She wore a woolen dress, and went down and I heard her bustle in the kitchen preparing hot soup, we all drank.

"Eric, come with us" I called him.

"Go" Helga told him "The child is no longer in danger of falling asleep and not wake up and he would like to be with you" He climbed the stairs, undressed and got into bed, the back of his child very close to his chest. He wrapped his left arm around his child and rested his hand on my hip. We spent the day in bed, ate and slept fitfully, getting up just enough for doing our basic needs. At night, Leif and Audr slept with us, right behind me.

I woke up when a hot and rough lips kissed my forehead and lips fleetingly, I opened my eyes and found Eric, now kissing his daughter Audr. I touched him on the arm and pulled him to me.

"Sleep" he whispered, his breath shook my bangs and it tickled my forehead "It is still dark" He brushed the hair from my forehead and I muttered something unintelligible. I wanted to know if was Erik OK, if he was okay, and where and why he was going, leaving the warmth of the bed.

I heard him put some woods in the fire and leaving home. I tried to go back to sleep, as he had suggested, but I couldn't. I brushed the hair from Erik's face and smiled. He was full of scratches and bruises and couldn't move a leg, but we were lucky. I got up, I wore a wool dress and I looked out from the door. Eric wasn't washing himself in his morning grooming ritual. I saw his footprints in the snow, deep, safe, long stride. I covered myself with a fur and followed them. He was on the beach right by the point at which he had pulled Erik out from the water. I walked over to him and hugged him from behind. Eric covered my hands in his and so we stayed until dawn. He was thinking about his dead wife, his children and me.

"What was she like?"

"Hmmm?"

"Audd. What was she like?"

"She was beautiful. Blonde, tall, though not as much as I do. Neither one nor the other. Audr has drawn her nose and the shape of her eyes. She was hardworking and a good cook. My brother Leif was very in love with her."

"And you?"

"I loved her and always respected her" I didn't ask more and I chose to get into his mind to find the truth. Leif had loved Audd, but she hadn't loved him back with the same intensity, especially because she wanted kids and the two she had with Leif died. That marked her. Then Leif died, Eric married her and she loved him as she hadn't love Leif. He had admired his older brother forever, as they usually do all brothers, so he was for Audd the best husband he could be out of love for his brother. And due to affection for him, he loved her. I bit my lip and rubbed his nose with the cold tip against her back. Eric turned around, held me by the arms for a second and thought he could get to love me as he didn't love his wife. I trembled for the heartfelt emotion I saw in his mind, much as if I had felt it through our blood bond, useless now. Eric took it the wrong way, and guided me to home, thinking I was cold.

Erik woke up with a little fever, nothing to worry about and a sore throat. I healed the wounds: a lot of cuts from the sharp rocks, some deeper than others, but none seriously and his father massaged his right leg, which wasn't broken but remained motionless. I guess he must have some or more strains. Erik and I ate the seagull egg for breakfast and it was so hot that I burned my tongue. I killed a rabbit and made soup for the day.

Leif and Audr played with their brother when he wasn't surrounded by fans and admirers urging him to repeat them over and over again how he survived the sea, cold, and waves. Eric was also very popular among the friends of his son, but especially among mothers. Although I was as happy as Larry, happy because for Eric now only existed three women: Helga, I and Audr.