So sorry! I had to send my laptop off to fix (waste of time since they didn't fix it) so I've been able to write :( And I know this is short, but I thought you'd like to know what's happening to Eric. I debated having a minor cliffhanger here and decided.. why not? :P

Brotherly Love

Chapter 10: Pain is just a state of Mind

Eric's Point of View:

"Sookie". Fuck, even to my ears I sound feeble. My bastard brother is going to pay for this. I knew I shouldn't have let him get close; before Sookie I wouldn't have even let him get closer than the next state but she stirred up some emotions... some humanity that I thought extinguished long ago.

I knew I was growing weak – Pam kept telling me so. She could be a bitch at times, but I knew that she had my best interests at heart, if only because my fall would simply precede hers. I let a known enemy get close to me because of some faint sense of family loyalty. And he took advantage of that to bind me with fucking silver. The pain was excruciating, but I'd felt worse (my creator enjoyed the darker side of kink – it had greatly toughened me) and I could endure it. No, the real pain came through the bond I shared with Sookie – I could feel nearly all of her emotions, meaning she must be close. Obviously they couldn't risk dragging me to somewhere more secure, even in the dark. They knew I could cause a lot of trouble, even bound. If I had to guess, I would assume I was in the forest by Sookie's house. I couldn't move – the silver removed my strength so I was stuck, forced to feel the anger and fear of the one I loved. Jökull knew how to torture, I'll give him that. Apparently, he couldn't give up a grudge, even after a millennium. He couldn't take it that I would always beat him – no matter what we were doing. Knattleikr, Wrestling, Hunting... I beat him at all of it. When my master bestowed immortality on me, I begged for him to bring my brother over. I thought he loved me, but he started doing everything he could to fuck me over. I moved to the New World with aims to political designs, he stayed in Sweden and aimed to become higher than me.

I took it as simple brotherly rivalry – until he made his first attempt upon my life. Since then, I've been wary of ever going near him. I couldn't bring myself to destroy him, though he would not hesitate to do the same to me. Even if I had no emotions left after these long years, I could not bring myself to break my oath of loyalty to protect my family. In the day of my youth, I would have faced the ting. Today, I would probably have to face the wrath of my creator. But I would gratefully destroy him now – regardless of any consequence - to protect my Sookie.

I could feel her anger swelling and her fury lent me strength. I pulled against my chains, "SOOKIE", but still I was too weak. I collapsed back and tears of blood fell as I felt pain unrelated to the silver ricochet through my body. I couldn't help her... I was supposed to be the one to save her but I failed her, like the nerd before me. She could never love me again – I had let this happen.

I stopped crying the second I heard light footsteps – definitely vampire. I couldn't show weakness – even at my lowest I had to let them know they could never break me. I don't know how many vampires Jökull had at his command – I had seen only 3. It had taken all of them to overcome me, and they had taken great joy in hurting me. The scars of the attack would take weeks to heal. It was probably one of his 'lackeys' (If I survive, I have to stop watching late-night TV) returning to check on me and perhaps cut off my other nipple (more embarrassing than painful). The footsteps were coming ever closer, slowly. As I suspected there was no sound of breath and whoever it is, they're moving stealthily, so their footsteps give away nothing to me – obviously they were hoping to surprise me. My brother never had the smartest friends.

I was surprised, however, when I heard a sharp breath. Why would they be surprised? Unless...

"Well, well, well... look what the feline dragged in".