A/N: Wow! I know you are all ready to kill me. What can I say? I take stories where they go. I can't say I planned this out 20 chapters ago. In fact, I think the last chapter was decided only the chapter before. What did Jessica Rabbit say? "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way." LOL! I write as it comes and I make no apologies. So, to those of you who have decided to continue reading the story, I thank you. Truthfully, only a few of you threatened to stop reading it and I hope that's true. I'm touched and humbled by the response. I know most of it comes from a deep and abiding love for Eric, regardless of what my story brings, but many of you made a point to tell me how invested you were with the story, and for that I'm ever so grateful.

Once again I have to thank Kristin and Galla for their fucktastic beta skills. Also, just so you understand how things work - Galla and I discuss things out, so she knew what was coming. Kristin is sort of like my beta tester, as well as my beta editor. She had no idea what was coming with that last chapter. She's who I gauge your reactions off of, and I still admit to being completely unprepared for the deluge of reviews and pm's I received for the last chapter. So, you all need to give it up to Kristin for living with this for nearly two weeks before you guys had to.

Chapter 30

I woke to searing pain across my cheek, and the sound of Sookie's voice, and found her on her knees, bound. Sutherfield was hovering over me, a knife dripping with my blood in his hand.

"Well, well, well, welcome back, Mr. Northman," he gloated. I ignored him and focused my attention on Sookie. I tried to send calm to her through the bond, but I could sense her growing hysteria. I hissed as Sutherfield's knife tore across my other cheek. The silver binding me so thoroughly had weakened me, and although after a few minutes the bleeding stopped, the gashes remained raw and open.

Sookie began to beg. "Craig, please!"

"He's not so pretty like this, is he?" he taunted her. I kept my eyes trained on her, even as I felt him grab my finger. I knew what was coming. A thousand years of experience told me what was coming, but there was no way to prepare her for it, and I was too weak to fully block the bond. He sliced through my finger cleanly, and although I managed not to cry out, Sookie's scream ripped through the air, voicing both our pain. "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."

I continued to try to send calm to her through the bond, as my mind desperately worked out how to get her out of this alive. I felt her decision a split second before she spoke.

Her voice was low, and soothing, as she pleaded, "Please, Craig. I'll do anything you want. I'll . . ."

I finally spoke, "Sookie, no!" But she ignored me, and continued to plead with him, offering herself, offering everything to save me. I stared at her uncomprehending. She promised. She promised she would not do this. "You promised," I reminded her. "Sookie, do not do this," I begged. I don't think I've begged for anything for hundreds of years.

"Don't, Eric. Please. I can't . . . I can't." Tears were spilling down her face as she continued, turning her face back to Craig, "I will be yours, if that's what you want. Just please, spare Eric. Please."

Sutherfield began clapping, and I wished to watch his face as I ripped those hands off. "Oh, brava, brava. That was beautiful." He turned to me. "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."

My mind's voice howled with rage at the thought of him touching her, violating her once more. I growled at him, and began what I knew was a useless struggle against the silver binding me. A part of my heart swelled with love, with the knowledge of what she was willing to suffer for me, while simultaneously I raged against her for agreeing to it. She promised. Just twenty four hours earlier she promised she would not let him use me against her, and here she was doing just that. She was breaking my heart along with her promise.

Sutherfield turned his back to me, and faced her. "You'll go with me?"

"Yes," she cried.

"You'll do anything?" he asked.

She nodded silently, tears still streaming down her face.

He turned and looked at me with a gloating smile.

"You'll be mine?" he asked, purposefully using the vampire terminology.

She nodded once more, and I heard him say, "You have a deal. I'll set him free at dawn. Then you and I will leave."

My many years of experience in negotiating, in politics, in surviving unsurviveable situations, set my senses tingling. "Sookie, do not do this. You have no guarantee that he'll keep his word. He's going to kill me anyway."

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

My synapses fired rapidly, "Hot Rain," I 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 am free, what is to keep me from reclaiming what is mine?" I asked, knowing full well he had no intention of freeing me, and hoping to get him to admit it so she would see the lie for what it was.

"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."

I sensed his utter insanity, and his conviction that he would do just what he said. I said nothing in reply. He would kill Sookie if I was not careful. No, I had to find a way to escape, and get to her before he fractured her completely.

He turned back to Sookie. "Mine?" he asked again, and she nodded. My face betrayed nothing, but I could not help the pain that slipped across the bond to her. "Now, let's show him how well you do heel," he teased her, somehow turning my words against her, using my words to hurt her. "Come here."

I watched as she awkwardly ...

[EDITED] SEE CHAPTER 1 NOTE

A/N: Happier now? LOL! Yes, I'm cruel, I'm evil, I should be a Disney villain! But really, didn't it just fit so well? So, do you agree with Eric? Is she scaring the crap out of you too?