Disclaimer: All characters depicted herein are the sole property of Charlaine Harris and HBO.

Chapter 8 - Broken

After Octavia and Amelia had left, I immediately took a shower. I felt more fit and hale than I could ever remember feeling, but I still felt a bit grungy from laying on the floor for hours, with blood being pumped out of and into me, and having to drink more on top of it. I let the hot water work the knots out of my muscles and relax me. There was no use worrying how this was going to turn out, I would find out soon enough.

I dried myself, and brushed my hair. As I looked in the mirror, I noticed my complexion seemed flawless- as If I was wearing the makeup they put on women in magazine ads, even though I was just out of the shower. My hair seemed lighter too. I guess the fairy blood was going to have some effect on me beyond just helping get rid of the bond, but I was willing to deal with that. Being a smidge less human is a small price to pay for not being bound to a vampire.

I realized it was full dark when my phone rang. I was sitting upstairs at the computer I had brought home from my cousin, Hadley's apartment. I was checking my e-mail, something I often neglected as I only recently came to using computers. I was amazed because I felt absolutely nothing beyond the anticipation of seeing if the bond had truly been broken. The phone was just out of my reach, but I knew it was Eric, so I knew I needed to answer it. Before the second ring though, I heard my front door crash open.

"Sookie!" Called a familiar voice, in what I could only describe as panic. I could hear rummaging in my bedroom. My phone rang again. "Sookie!" The voice called out again more ragged.

"Bill, I'm up here!" I called to him. I was in his arms in a flash.

"Oh, Sookie!" Bill said, his voice full of relief. The phone rang again.

"I need to answer that." I told him.

He handed me my cell phone. "I was so worried. After you answer, we'll talk."

I answered the call. "Sookie!" Exclaimed a voice just as panicked as the first. "Are you ok? Where are you?" Eric nearly yelled. I could hear sounds of the road in the background. He was obviously driving very fast, and probably over here.

"Eric, I'm fine." I told him calmly. "I'm at home."

Eric sighed. "I'm on my way." He said, sounding only a little relieved. "I can't feel you!" He roared. "Can you feel me? I think something has happened to our bond."

"I know. I can't feel you either." I told him, not explaining further. "You don't need to come over here. I'm perfectly fine." I offered, hoping I could dissuade him, though doubting I would be successful.

"Sookie, don't you understand, I can't feel you at all. Our bond is broken!" Eric responded. His voice carried what sounded like anger and confusion, and it was blissful not knowing for sure, by feeling through the bond.

I was still in Bill's arms. At Eric's words, he hugged me closer to him. I couldn't read his mind, and I couldn't feel his emotions, but I knew that Bill had figured it out. "I know, Eric." Was all that I said.

"I will be there in a moment." Eric said and hung up.

"You did it." Bill whispered to me. "You found a way to break your blood bond with Eric." It wasn't quite a question.

"Yes. I found a way." I told him, burying my face in his chest. "I love you." I told him.

"I love you too."

"I'm sure you heard, Eric will be here any second. You should probably go." I told him, though I didn't want to be apart from him, and I was a little afraid of Eric's reaction.

"I told you, I will not hide from Eric. Sookie, you are mine." He told me.

I knew there was no use fighting him, and if I was being honest with myself, I didn't want him to go. "Ok. But this is between Eric and I. I need to deal with him." I told him.

Bill nodded. "I will respect your decision."

I heard my front door open again. I looked at Bill and he set me down. I squeezed his hand before letting him go, and headed down the stairs.

"Sookie." Eric called, as Bill and I reached the first floor.

"Eric." I responded. He looked at and then past me. His eyes dilated. While I couldn't feel the hate, I was sure it was there. "Compton, what are you doing here?" Eric said, his voice giving way to his anger.

"The same thing you are. I was worried about Sookie, and came to make sure that she was alright." Bill responded, ignoring Eric's tone.

"You see that she is alright, now, you can go." Eric's anger refusing to abate.

"I will leave when Sookie asks me to." Bill responded, his voice cold as ice.

"Compton, do I have to remind you that Sookie is…" Eric began to say, but I interrupted him. Something had just occurred to me.

"Bill, why did you think there might be something wrong with me?" I asked.

Bill turned to me. "I couldn't feel you anymore." He responded simply.

"You couldn't feel me? But we weren't bonded, or not that strongly, and wasn't that broken when I became bonded to Eric so completely?" I asked, confused.

"I could still feel your presence. I could still find you if needed. If your emotions were strong I could feel that too." Bill explained.

"I didn't know," I responded still processing what I had just learned. Bill had been connected to me all this time. Bill could feel my strong emotions. Oh my stars! Oh my stars! But that meant Bill could feel when… Oh my stars! Before I could continue down this track, the conversation caught up with me. "You weren't surprised Eric. Did you know?" I accused.

"You had a good deal of his blood, and he had yours. Neither time nor distance, deteriorate the bond. I did not know for sure, but I am not surprised." Eric said blandly.

Horror washed over me. I turned to Bill, "I am so sorry! I didn't know. I'm so sorry!" I told him.

"I know. It's alright." He tried to soothe me.

"Sookie, we have things to discuss." Eric said. "Our blood bond has been broken. I do not know how, but we need to re-forge it."

I could feel Bill tense behind me. "I broke the bond." I said simply.

Eric looked at me. At first he looked confused, and then rage took over his face. "What the hell did you do Sookie! Do you know how much danger this puts you in! Do you know what kind of position this puts me in? This cannot be!" Eric raged.

I tried to stay calm. It was much easier not feeling Eric's anger through the bond. "This puts me in no more danger than being in your life has. Victor has no idea we are no longer bonded, and neither does anyone else. And honestly Eric, I really don't care so much what our lack of a bond does for you. I will not be bonded to you EVER again." I told him.

Eric was incensed. "This weakens me Sookie, and I cannot have that!"

He moved towards me, and went to grab my arm. Bill was in front of me before I could register he had moved, "You will not touch her." Bill growled.

Eric snarled, "Move away from my wife."

"Eric, I made my position on this subject clear. How I broke the bond is my concern. How I deal with the repercussions, is also my concern. Your position is only weakened if someone were to know, and that is your concern to share, or not. You tricked me in to the blood bond, you tricked me into a marriage. I am done playing your fool." I nearly yelled at him. I was relieved beyond belief that the bond was broken, and now I was angry at having been in it in the first place.

"How will I find you if something were to happen to you?" Eric asked, trying to appeal to my logical side.

"That isn't your concern anymore." I told him plainly. "Anyhow, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it Bill who found me the last time I needed finding?" I asked him coolly.

The expression on Eric's face was indescribable. Was it hurt or anger? I didn't know. Nor did I really care at that moment. It was the truth, it was Bill who had rescued me from torture, and it was Bill who would gladly have died to save my life; even though all the while he could feel me- knew how I felt for Eric.

"This is not settled Sookie. Again, we will come to an understanding. Compton, take care to remember, what she says on the subject is of no consequence, she is still my wife." Eric said before storming out my front door, which he nearly shattering into splinters of wood when he slammed it behind him.

Eric was angry, but he was gone, so while I knew it, I didn't have to feel it. I was in heaven.

"You smell different, Sookie. Will you explain to me how you've done this?" Bill asked with the corners of his mouth twitching up in a semi-hidden smile.

We went to the living room, and sat on the couch. I held his hand, luxuriating in the fact that Eric couldn't feel me. Then I explained. I owed Bill a complete explanation, especially now that I knew that he could feel all of my deep emotions, and would have been able to feel when Eric and I were making love, or when I discovered Eric's hopes. I started at the night I realized Eric was hoping I would turn by accident, and I broke up with him. I finished with explaining what had happened earlier in the day. Bill was quiet and let me talk. After I was through we sat in a thoughtful silence for a few minutes.

"I have never heard of someone purposefully breaking a blood bond before." Bill explained. "That is highly unusual, but I'm glad that you thought of trying, and that it worked." He said pulling me into his lap. "You smell sweeter, more fairy. Ingesting fairy blood was a good way to counteract the vampire blood. The fairy magic won out I guess, as there was probably so little of the vampire blood left in you. You've changed from the girl I met at Merlotte's." Bill said simply.

"Yes, I have." I agreed, taking no offense. It was the truth. I was no longer just sweet, crazy Sookie, barmaid, with few friends, and no love life to speak of. My heart had been broken more than once, I had been used an betrayed by different people I had cared about, I had been tortured, and as it now turned out, done some torturing of my own. "Oh Bill. I'm so sorry about everything. I didn't know you could feel me, still. That must have been horrible for you. I would never have put you through that if I had known."

"I know." He said while he stroked my hair. "You were happy, after a fashion, so I didn't want to hurt you by letting you know. I told you once that there were nights I wished Eric would die. It wasn't the night that I could feel your lust or passion with him, it was the nights I could feel how you loved him. The way you had once loved me."

"I did not love him the way I loved you, Bill. I loved you more, and without the complication of a blood bond egging it on. I love you now more than ever and far more than I loved him." I told him honestly.

He lifted my chin, so he could look straight into my eyes. "I don't know when exactly I fell in love with you, but it was not long after meeting you. I have loved you each day since and now more than ever. You are mine." He told me, making the last part more of a term of endearment than a title of ownership. Then he kissed me. It was a sweet kiss, long and lingering, filled with the love that we shared. I lost myself in him, if only for those few moments.

My eyes opened when I felt him move me. I didn't want to be apart from him, so I was about to protest until I realized he was placing me on the edge of my bed. I didn't feel that we had even moved from the couch, but Bill had carried me into my bedroom.

"Oh Bill." I sighed as he slowly started to undress me. "But Eric…" I said as panic shot through me. He had warned Bill that I was still his wife, and I knew that to touch another's wife was a punishable offence. No matter how much I wanted this- and boy did I, I did not want it at Bill's expense.

Bill interrupted me. "Eric is not here, and you are mine" he told me in a voice that made it clear that this was the final thing he would say on the subject.

He continued to unbutton my shirt, and he pulled it away gently. He then worked on removing my jeans. I was lying on my bed in a pink bra, and matching panties. Before I let him remove those as well, I leaned up and slipped my hands under his shirt to lift it over him, letting my fingertips caress his skin as I went. I unbuttoned and unzipped his pants, tugging them to the floor. His excitement was straining against his boxers. I pulled them to the floor as well. I took a moment to drink in the sight of him, before I began to kiss down his abdomen and take him into my mouth.

He groaned, as I worked to pleasure him using hands, lips, and tongue. "I want to be inside of you." He whispered after a few moments. I carefully pulled away, kissing the tip of his excitement before I moved farther onto the bed. Bill carefully unhooked my bra, freeing my breast for his affection. He then smoothly pulled my panties down my thighs, past my knees, and off. I was wet with anticipation, but Bill was taking things slow. He caressed my breasts with the same tools I used to caress his shaft. It was my turn to moan, and I did.

It was bliss when he finally slid into me. His hips and mine moved in tandem with soft movements. It felt like déjà vu, reminding me of the gentle way we had made love in my dream, only this was definitely real and immeasurably better. We were going to climax together. "Not the neck." I told Bill, in a voice that was more of a moan. As our pleasure peaked, I felt a sharp pain that quickly turned to pleasure on the top of my breast.

Bill had moved to lay on his side beside me, his leg over mine, and his hand cupped over the breast he had just recently bitten. "I love you," he told me.

"I love you too." I responded. I smiled at him. "The last time we had made love after being apart, I remember you telling me you couldn't be gentle. That it had been too long." I teased him. "Not that I'm complaining." I added.

"I have had time since then to learn patience." He told me. "I have been waiting for this chance since we parted. I have thought of this moment often. I wanted it to be special. Sookie, you are too important for me to lose again. Ever."

I ran my fingers through his hair. "Bill, make me yours," I told him, giving him a look that was unmistakable. And for a very long time that night, he did.