A/N: Awww come on guys! You know you love cliffhangers. Sure, you complain, but let's face it, you love the pain! You're a bunch of masochists. I'm gonna send you over to some of the Twi forums for BDSM training. You all need to learn some patience! Thanks again for all your reviews and support.

I always wanted to give a little shout out to everyone who reviewed my one shot, The Divide. Since it it's a one shot, I don't have a new chapter a/n to thank you all in, so I figured I'd throw it in here. Again, I wish I could respond to each and every review, but then my kids would be even more neglected than they are. Just kidding. No, I'm not. Wait, yes I am, really.

My thanks again to Galla and Kristin for their beta work on this chapter. Kristin, I know my dear, I know. I'm sorry.

As ever, my undying love to the ladies (and gents) at the LTEA thread at the wiki, and the to the ladies of the Sookieverse. You keep my wits sharp and my humor intact!

Chapter 29

When I came to, I was restrained and my head felt fuzzy. I blinked several times, and when I turned my head I could see Eric. He was wrapped in heavy silver chains and appeared to be unconscious. "Eric," I called out. "Eric!" He didn't respond. I tried to reach out to him with my mind, but there was . . . nothing. I tried to reach out further, to see if I could sense the minds of those in the house, but I was completely blocked. The bond was still there, thank God, but my telepathy and all my new abilities were gone. I had no idea Craig was capable of that. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I wondered why he had never blocked me before, but I dismissed it. The last time he held me, I barely liked to acknowledge my powers, much less know how to actually use them. I wasn't a threat to him, until that last day. Now, however, he knew better. Terror rose up from the pit of my stomach and overwhelmed me. How could this have happened? How had I miscalculated so completely? Where were Batanya and Clovache? Hope flared briefly, before I recalled that they were supposed to be the first ones in. If Eric and I were captured, they must have been captured, or worse. I felt bile in the back of my throat.

"Eric, baby, please, please wake up," I pleaded, but to no avail. His eyes did not so much as flicker. I looked around, trying to figure out where we were, and I realized we were in a barn, most likely still at the farm where Craig had been staying. I could hear the soft whinny of a horse off to the left somewhere, but from where I was, I couldn't see it. My legs were bound at the ankles and knees, and my hands were tied behind me at the wrists and elbows. I was lying on a hard-packed, dirt floor covered with straw, and I wriggled until I was on my side. Breathing heavily, I writhed and squirmed and contorted, until I managed to get to my knees. I realized there was a very good reason I was bound as I was; it restricted nearly all of my movements. Also, after all my straining, it began to hurt, and I could feel the ropes cutting into my skin.

From my new vantage point, I took a good look around. The exchange of blood with Eric the night before allowed me to see better in the semi-dark barn, which was illuminated only by the soft, pale light of a bare bulb near the entrance. I could see several horse stalls, but it seemed that only one had an occupant, and he was eyeing me with large, brown eyes that seemed to speak to me. Eyes that told me he understood how I felt, that he knew what it was to be confined, and to be broken. Suddenly, his nostrils flared, and a moment later I heard why.

"Hello, Sookie," Craig drawled, as he approached me, no sign of his previous injury in evidence. He gave me a heated gaze, raking his eyes over me. "You look beautiful." He squatted down in front of me and grabbed my chin in his hand, forcing me to look at him, forcing me to look into those beautiful, green eyes that were completely devoid of any spark of compassion. For a moment, it occurred to me that he would probably make an excellent vampire, cruel and merciless, and a hysterical giggle escaped my throat. Anger flashed across his face, and he spat out, "do I amuse you, Sookie?" He followed up with a sharp crack across my face. I toppled back to the ground, and tasted blood in my mouth.

"What did you do with Batanya and Clovache?" I asked. He looked confused for a moment: he might not have known their names, but he ignored my question.

Instead, he stood back up and walked over to Eric, before turning to look at me once more. "You really are fucking stupid, you know that? Did you think I wouldn't feel you coming? The moment you lowered your shields, I knew you were here. Although, I must say thank you for bringing me the Viking. Now, I can end your connection to each other. I told you at the beginning of all this that you were going to be mine, and I meant it." He ran his hand over Eric's head, almost tenderly, before he wrapped his fingers in his hair and yanked his head back. "I won't share you anymore, Sookie."

The scream that erupted from me tore at my throat, "Leave him alone! Don't you fucking touch him!" I saw Eric's eyes flicker slightly, and I struggled to get back on my knees. "I swear by everything that is holy, Craig, if you hurt him I will . . ."

"You'll what?" He spat back. From behind his back, he pulled out a knife and drew it across Eric's cheek, cutting a gash from his mouth to his ear. Wrapped in as much silver as he was, Eric was not only immobilized, but his body would not heal. He did, however, wake up, the pain reaching through to him. "Well, well, well, welcome back, Mr. Northman." Eric said nothing, but he looked at me as if he were trying to tell me something, while pushing calm at me through the bond. Then he hissed, as Craig ran the knife across his other cheek.

"Craig, please!" I was begging now.

"He's not so pretty like this, is he?" He taunted me, and then he took the knife to Eric's hand, and gripped one of Eric's fingers before slicing it off. My screams echoed off the barn walls as I felt the searing pain through the bond, but Eric did not make a sound. He gritted his teeth, and kept his eyes on my face. "I'm going to take your vampire apart piece by piece while you watch, Sookie. And then, I'm going to remind you exactly what happens when you cross me." His voice was cold and bloodless, and I realized what I had to do.

I inched forward slightly, and I kept my voice low, but I didn't need to fake the fear and pain in it, "please, Craig. I'll do anything you want. I'll . . ."

"Sookie, no!" Eric interrupted.

I ignored him as he continued to plead with me, and went on, "I'll go with you, Craig. Anywhere you want to go. Just please, please don't hurt him." I begged. I begged like I'd never begged for anything in my life.

Eric sat there, his eyes wide, staring at me, "you promised," he said. "Sookie, don't do this." I think it was the closest I will ever come to hearing a vampire beg.

"Don't, Eric. Please. I can't . . . I can't." Tears were spilling down my face, and I turned to Craig. "I will be yours, if that's what you want. Just please, spare Eric. Please." If he wanted me to grovel, I would. Anything, anything he wanted, as long as he didn't hurt Eric.

Craig began clapping. "Oh, brava, brava. That was beautiful." He turned to Eric. "Wasn't that beautiful? She really is incredible, isn't she? How does it feel to know that from now on, I'll be the one enjoying her charms? I'll be the one buried deep inside her, and it will be my name she screams out."

Eric growled at Craig, and I could see him struggle against the chains, but there was nothing he could do. Craig turned his back to him, knowing full well Eric was incapable of anything. He looked at me. "You'll go with me?"

"Yes," I sobbed.

"You'll do anything?"

I nodded.

He looked back at Eric and smiled.

"You'll be mine?"

I nodded again.

He smiled, but it didn't touch his eyes. "You have a deal. I'll set him free at dawn. Then you and I will leave."

Eric finally spoke up. "Sookie, do not do this. You have no guarantee that he'll keep his word. He's going to kill me anyway." Eric's thousand years of experience, in survival, politics, and negotiating, was making itself known.

Craig smiled. "Do you doubt my honor, Viking? Don't worry you are still quite valuable to me. You have something else I want."

"Hot Rain," Eric replied.

"Yes. I need you to release him. He made certain promises to me, and I intend to see that he keeps them."

"And once I'm free, what is to keep me from reclaiming what is mine?" Eric asked.

"Because as much as I want Sookie, I will kill her if you try to take her back, and then I will find your child, and I will kill her too."

The most terrifying thing about Craig's words was his absolute conviction that he was capable of doing just what he said. The truth was, however, that he had me over a barrel. I had to believe he would keep his word, and release Eric. Otherwise, we were both going to die there, in a barn in some strange corner of the world, and no one would ever know what happened. No, I had to gamble on Craig's promise. He needed Eric alive, and so did I.

He looked at me again. "Mine?" he asked for a second time, and when I nodded yes, he smiled once more. "Now, let's show him how well you do heel," he teased, using the memory he previously ripped from my brain. "Come here."

I awkwardly shuffled forward to him, on my knees. My arms were still painfully bound behind me. When I reached him, he grabbed me roughly by my hair with one hand, and ...

[EDITED] SEE CHAPTER 1 NOTE

a/n . . . . . *wonders if Meads is still offering to babysit* *runs off and hides*