Hello! Here's chapter 35. I hope you'll enjoy reading it! Oh, and just a litle detail about yours trully: I also had a dog called Nike when I was growing up! :) Anyway, as before: characters not mine and beta-support by Charhamblin. Thank you for reading! Célia

Eric "This Woman is Dangerous"

I suffered with Ocella's death. He had been an important (the most important) figure in my life for over a millennium. And that's something hard to forget. Yes, it's true: we had never gotten along perfectly well; but I had always known that he'd be there for me. Until he wasn't anymore. And I guess that his death did an impression on me because I… I started feeling somewhat alone in the world without him. And after that night, I kept feeling unsure of myself; I was hesitant, always second-guessing my own opinions and insecure… But more than that, I was afraid. I was terrified that something might happen to Sookie or Liz during the day, and that I wouldn't be there for them. And without them, I'd be even more alone.

And also, I'm ashamed to confess, I… Well, I seriously pondered turning Sookie, even against her will. But after more or less a couple of months in this… abnormal state, I managed to get myself together and I triumphed over my fears. I was me again. And I just wanted to keep promoting and managing the bars, as well as Area 5 and other Louisianan affairs while I also enjoyed both Liz and Sookie's company. You know: I wanted what Sookie had been wanting too since the beginning; I wanted a conventional life; I wanted to be just like any regular Joe.

And I was.

Okay, so I was only awake at night and I was respected… alright, feared by every vampire in the State and many more outside Louisiana, but other than that, I was just a guy who had his own business, and who liked to hang with his family. As soon as I'd awake, it would be dinner time for the humans in the house, so I usually stayed with them and watched them eat. And then I'd play with Elizabeth, or we'd all talk about their day or my previous night, and we would watch TV or play games or some other normal family stuff like that for a little while. Then, it was the bed and story time for Liz (either Sookie or I would read to Liz, but we'd both be there for her goodnight kiss and little prayer). After that, Sookie and I would have some time just to ourselves. Then, more or less at midnight, she'd go to bed and I'd go work. On weekends, Liz was authorized to stay up for a little longer and we used to go out as a family.

The night-only time table conditioned a little, because there weren't that many children-appropriate events at night, but we managed alright… There was always the cinema, the mall and the public parks and gardens in the summer. And then there would be the "different night" when we'd go to some place new… For instance, there was this night after I bribed, or rather, after I made a generous "donation" to the Shreveport Zoo, when we were authorized to visit it without any other patrons, at night, with one of the animals' keepers explaining everything to us – Liz loved that night and I felt pretty good with myself for allowing her that little treat because back then she wanted to be a veterinarian (Helen, her best friend in her class at school, had two dogs and a cat at home, and so they both wanted to be vets when they grew up). And then, once in a while, Liz would stay with Pam so Sookie and I could have a whole night to ourselves. And that was it: conventional life, regular Joe, family time.

But I still hated that Sookie and I had wasted 10 years. A decade didn't mean much to me (hell, a decade was less than 1% of my life) but Sookie was still determined to stay human and I had stopped thinking about turning her against her will… well, not really stopped thinking about it, but rather, I had decided that I wouldn't do it unless she'd want it. Anyway, in her life, 10 years was a considerable amount of time. And I really hated that we had been apart for so long. But, as Sookie was always saying, that "detour" was necessary because of Lizzie. And she was totally right. I just couldn't imagine our lives just the two of us without Liz. Elizabeth was just… well, she was in the top 10 most incredible people I had ever meet. And that was huge considering the number of people I met in more than 1000 years and the fact that she was still so young…

And so, Lizzie was really the true reason why I told Sookie to call her ex-husband when I discovered that he intended to fight Jake Scully, another were-bear.

Wait, let me answer you even before you question me: yes, I did have people checking David periodically… so sue me! The guy had once (at least I hoped, for his own sake, that it had only been once) bruised Sookie's arm because he had been too rough with her. And I would never forget that. Besides, he and Sookie had put their restaurant in Lizzie's name – and I wanted to make sure that he'd keep managing it well until her 18th birthday, at least.

But above everything else, Liz loved her father. David would come to Louisiana for a couple of days each month and she had stayed in Tennessee for three weeks on four different occasions during the last year and a half since they'd moved back with me.

So, yes, Liz was the true reason why I didn't want the death of the man who had lived with Sookie for almost eight years and who had had the audacity of marrying her when she was already married to me… Yes, I knew. I knew that the guy wasn't aware of it back then and that it had actually been Sookie's fault for keeping him ignorant of everything but… give me a break, okay? If I wanted to hate the guy for that, then I'd hate him!

Anyway, I got the call and I was told about David's plans.

"So you see Mr. Northman," Andrew Carter, the owner of the security and investigation firm I had hired to keep an eye on David, was saying, "after I did that check on Jake Scully, I decided to call you immediately instead of waiting for the end of the month, and sending it in the file report. I'm sorry if that was presumptuous of me. But it might be just a couple of days until they fight. A week at the most." I was to receive a detailed file of David's pack activities, as well as everything related to the restaurant on the last day of each month. But Carter had decided to call me with that news, and he had done alright.

"You did well. So, Scully's that tough?"

"Yeah, he sure is. Brown's in for a dangerous ride if he really gets on with it… I don't personally know Jake Scully, and I hadn't heard about him yet because, as I've said, he lives in Glasgow, Kentucky, but when I started sniffing around about him, everyone told me how brawny and kind of crazy he was…"

For some reason that I don't know and I sure don't give a shit about, there are not many were-bears out there. And so, bear-packs' territories are usually very extensive because that's the only way for them to get a considerate amount of members. Besides, most bears don't like to hang in packs (it might have to do with the real bears' non social identity and the fact that they don't even stay in family groups – but, again, I don't know and I don't give a shit about it)… So, the ones who do want to belong to some sort of pack, usually find easier to just be included in were-wolves' packs.

And the Tennessee were-bears had always been incorporated on one of the seven local were-wolves packs – David himself sort of belonged to the Hamilton County were-wolf pack. But even though they might belong or somewhat be kind of accepted in those wolves packs, there was still a "bear leader" (with huge territories because, as I said, there weren't that many were-bears), mainly to arbitrate disputes and to put different families in contact so they could breed. Damn weres and their obsession with breeding! Anyway, Jake Scully was the bear guy responsible for Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. And that was who David was challenging, so he'd be the pack leader himself, because of some fucking stupid disagreement or quarrel that Scully had decided against him.

Carter was still trying to figure out the exact reason for the dispute (something about how another guy had stolen David's woman…), but I told him to just forget it. The reason why wasn't important. The important thing was that David would be challenging the pack-leader (and son and grandson of previous pack-leaders), and that the guy was quite a fighter and a bit on the mad side… Well, I guess no one gets to be a first-rate warrior without some little psychosis in them, and I speak with a personal knowledge on the matter. The thing is: it's easy to fight when you know that you are good at it. But at first, you don't know it, and you're not good either. So you must be willing to risk everything, and fight without fear, so eventually you will be good at it. And I knew that David wasn't. Carter had also told me, that since Sookie left, David had been training. But it is one thing to work out in a gymnasium… Quite another to actually fight an experienced combatant. And I still remembered David's frozen stare after the Fae attack… And now he'd be challenging another were.

Oh, for fuck's sake… Those guys were crazy. All of them. All fucking double natured were fucking crazy. Fighting a pack-leader… Yeah, we vampires fight as well. Even I have been known to have participated in one or two wars and disputes. Okay, in many wars and disputes. But when we fight (when I fight), that's because our prizes are great. There's always much money to be made, much power or lands to be acquired or because our own lives are at stake.

But being a pack-leader? Specially a bear's pack leader? Like I said, the bears usually stay each by himself or herself. So being a bear pack-leader was even lamer than being a were's pack leader. It was much lamer. The bears' packs weren't packs at all. And so, being their leader was just an empty title without benefits. And to fight because of that? It was just crazy and stupid!

But even if it hurt me to admit it, David was a good father (well, as good as he could be living two states away, at least) and Liz loved him and I knew that she needed him around. And so, when I was informed of that pending fight, I did indeed inform Sookie about it. And I even urged her to call him or even go back to Cleveland to talk to him in person if she had to.

And she did call him and tried to put some reason in his mind. And he did say that he would back off his challenge. But he fought anyway. And he lost. And so, he was then killed by Jake Scully, the still pack-leader. Weres, very much like vampires, hardly ever left a challenger alive after a fight.

And then Sookie became really sad. She just cried all the time. Lizzie reacted better, I guess. We tried to explain everything to her and she just nodded. Her little face as sad as her mother's. But humans are resilient and both mother and daughter eventually continued with their lives. And later that year, at Christmas, Liz called me dad.

Sookie had told me that Lizzie had been wondering and asking about my role in her life for the past few months. When I asked Sookie her opinion about Lizzie's questions, she just said that it was between the two of us and that she had nothing to say about it – it was up to me and Liz to figure it out between us.

"Eric, I don't even know if you want or if you don't want Liz to see you as her father… And I sure won't influence you one way or another. Like I said, it's between you two. I'm just telling you that she'd been asking about it, so you won't be caught off-guard if she eventually asks you about it."

"But you don't have any opinion on this?" Sookie always had an opinion about absolutely everything. Sometimes, her constant opinions, especially those that were about the vampire way (against the vampire way), even drove me crazy.

"Oh, I do. I just won't share it." And she didn't.

So, I just kept thinking about it myself. And wondering what Liz was thinking about it too. But neither of us talked about my role in her life with each other. Well, I guess that I, being the adult, should just approach her and ask her what she wanted me to be in her life, but I just didn't have it in me. What was it with Sookie and Liz that always took away my courage in apparently easy matters?

But then, all of a sudden, and quite unexpectedly, I was no longer Eric but dad. Just like that. She didn't ask if I minded it. I didn't stop to think if I wanted it. We didn't even talk about it. She just called me dad. One moment, I was "Eric" to her; and the next, I was "dad".

And you know what? It was like all my life, all my more-than-1000-years-old life, had been lived so that I could get to that moment when Sookie loved me and her daughter called me dad. After centuries on my own, I was a father again; and this time, I would stay around to see my child grow up. Everything was just… perfect.

Well, I'm obviously not one who believes in Christmas Miracles (not Christmas, and sure as hell not Miracles), but I truly felt blessed on that moment when Lizzie called me "dad". I knew that I would never be her "daddy" – that title would be forever David's, and I truly didn't intend to step on that role. But he wasn't there anymore, and a little girl needs a father figure. And I loved that girl already, so I was damn glad to be her "dad". Me, a father again. I never thought I'd live to see the day.

"She called you dad," Sookie said after a particularly good sex marathon that same night that had me feeling blessed all over again.

"She did."

Sookie then asked me what I thought about it but I was still kind of high on the "dad calling" so I answered something cheesy. But Sookie didn't seem to mind it and told me she was happy for the two of us.

"And I'm really happy for the three of us, lover," I replied.

Yes, I know: cheesy again. Pam would laugh at me if she heard it. But I really didn't care, because that cheesy sentence awarded me a great kiss from Sookie. And then, my phone chose that particular moment to ring, but I didn't care about a single thing in the whole world other than Sookie's lips and I kept kissing her. However, when I saw Sookie trying to prevent a yawn right in the middle of our kiss, I let her go and then I looked at my cell phone.

It had already stopped ringing, so I had to open it to see the missing call's number. And that was when I saw the five letters: Nat NY. So Natércia was calling me from her one-bedroom Midtown Manhattan apartment. And that meant that she was no longer in Canada. At least for now… And she was probably calling me to ask if I wanted to meet her there, or if it would be easier for me that she come to Louisiana. Fuck!

I thought about when had been the last time that I had spoken to Nat on the phone... Well, two months, maybe... Fuck! After Nat left Shreveport and went to Canada again, we kept talking on the phone once in a while. And more or less twice a year we'd meet, either in Vancouver when I visited her, or in some European or Asian country, where we would remember past times there (and with an 800-years-old on and off relationship, we had lots of past times and places to remember). And I always had two or three great weeks with Nat whenever we were together. Natércia was gorgeous, intelligent and had a great sense of humor. Okay, a stange sense of humor. But I got her and she was indeed a very good friend. And a great fuck. Besides, she was just like me. We truly got along okay (for brief periods of time) because we were just two halves of the same pie. She had been made with the same flour that I had.

And even after Sookie had come back, I had kept more or less in contact with Nat – she was and had been, after all, one of my closest friends for centuries. But I had stopped going to Vancouver to meet her. And we hadn't taken a trip to Europe either, for the last two years. Actually, our last vacation together and the last time we had seen each other personally, had been two months before I received Gilbert's phone call about Sookie's eminent danger. Nat and I had travelled trough Austria, Switzerland and Germany that time. And right at that moment, I wished that she'd still be in Europe. Or Canada. Or wherever. But not on the USA.

"Fuck," I mumbled, "Natércia's back!"

"Who's Natércia?" She asked.

"An old friend. I'll call her back later. Now it's time for the human to sleep," Sookie was yawning again, so she didn't answer me. She just kissed me quickly again and laid on the bed. A few minutes later, I heard Sookie's tranquil sleeping breathes and left our bed.

I took a quick shower and I dressed, before I moved towards the hallway. I stopped to check Liz and Nike (who was on the floor and not on her bed), and I found both child and dog sound asleep, so I went downstairs. The clock told me it was still night in Europe so I called Pam.

"Hey Eric,"

"Hello Pam. How was your Christmas?" I asked her.

Christmas never meant anything to me. Hell, I was brought up in a society that had worshiped Odin, Thor, Balder, Tyr and Ull, among others. Back when I died, some close villages (the bigger ones) were starting to go through a process of Christianization. But not me. I died truthful to the beliefs that I had been taught from birth. I died believing that the Gods lived in Asgard and that, if treated well, they would help us against evil forces; and for that, I made sacrifices, which we all called Blot. However, after my first death (and when I realized that I hadn't been saved from an evil force called Appius Livius, no matter all the Blots I had done), I stopped believing altogether that there was even a God.

But then and there, more than a millennium later, I believed again. Well, I didn't believe in any religion, but I did believe that there had to be some Greater Entities somewhere because the world was too perfect to be just a fluke. And I had decided to call them Gods.

However, since that first Christmas after I turned Pam, I realized how important this celebration was to her – not so much the religious aspect of the birth of Christ, but rather the celebration with your family and friends, and obviously, the exchange of gifts. Pam truly loved Christmas and I had allowed her to commemorate it ever since that year when she had became my child. Actually, that was the very first year that I truly celebrated Christmas, and all because of Pam, and her Christmas-in-family obsession. But believe me: she was not the only one. Sookie loved Christmas as well, and she saw it mainly as a family festivity too.

"I'm in Paris and it snowed Eric. It snowed. Tonight was a perfect night. You should have been here. The city is beautiful with all the Christmas lights in every street," Pam's voice showed me her glee and I was happy for her, "believe me, there's absolutely no gloom at all, with the elegant holiday lights… And the snow was just the cherry on top of everything."

"That's great Pam,"

"And how was your Christmas Eve? Did Liz like the dog?"

"She loves it already,"

"Great! But you... you sound off-key Eric. Is everything okay? The rest of the night?" I smiled inside. Of course Pam would recognize it on my voice. With a whole ocean between us, just extremely strong feelings could be felt through our maker-child bond. But Pam knew me too well and even without feeling me as she would if she was to be in Louisiana, she could tell that tonight had been a special night for me as well.

"Yes, everything's all right. And my night was pretty perfect too."

"Eric?"

I could hear the curiosity in her voice, but I only said: "Pam?"

"Eric, will you stop that? Just tell me already! What happened?"

I laughed at her impatience and after another "Eric!" from her, I answered: "Elizabeth called me dad tonight."

"Oh," Pam and her "oh's". "Oh" was Pam's "go-to phrase". Whenever she didn't know what to say (which wasn't that frequent), she would just say "oh". And after my answer, she really didn't know what to say.

But I knew the reason behind her silence. She was trying to figure out what I was feeling about this new "dad-calling" development. I had told her that the night had been perfect and that the reason was that Liz had called me "dad"; but that would be against all I had ever said and all my behavior towards humans and weres, and children as well. For more than 200 years, Pam had seen me all by myself, and she had never even visualized me as a family man. It was a hard concept for her to conciliate: me, her motherfucker maker, as a happy dad of a half-were child. I decided to add more fuel to the conversation and I said: "Actually, she said it more than once."

"And you? Are you okay with that?"

I sighed. I actually sighed on the phone. And then I said: "Pam, I… I just… it was… I loved it."

I knew Pam wasn't used to hear me with difficulty just to say a few words. And she was not used to hear me use the word "love" lightly either, so she understood the huge importance of being called "dad". She knew that I truly was beyond words because it meant a lot to me. And, as the good vampire child that Pam was, she just disregarded my lack of words with profanities:

"It's just a fucking noun Eric. You were her father already for the last two years since she was five. The kid fucking adores you."

"You are right. It is just a noun."

"But Eric? Congrats!" And in that last word, I heard it. Pam's happiness for me. She had dismissed the "dad-calling" as just a noun, but she knew that it wasn't.

You see, Pam was just like me. Yes, we were both badass vampires, but we were also deep and we felt. We mostly kept that cool exterior but we were just like any human. Well… more or less. Kind of. Okay, not really. Not at all. But we did feel. We still do. Actually, the truth is that we are not (and we had never been) heartless even thought our hearts didn't beat any more. Yes, there was some savage within us, and there wasn't a lot of mercifulness, but we did feel.

"Thanks Pam," I said from the bottom of my unbeating heart.

But now that the pleasant part of our phone call conversation was done, we should move to the less enjoyable part because I needed Pam back in Shreveport since Nat would probably visit us, so I asked her: "So tell me: when are you coming back?"

"Missing me already? Eric, the bars' franchising is finally working without major problems. You know I deserve these long vacations… I was figuring two, maybe three more months. Why?"

"Can you come early if you have to?" I'd not force her to come back. Especially not because of Nat – I knew how Pam hated her. But I'd feel much better to know that Pam was at least available and close-by if Natércia did visit me.

"Why?" See asked again.

"Natércia called me tonight. From New York."

"Fuck. So she's in the US? Is she visiting you?"

"I haven't called her back yet. I don't know. But my guess is that she will, even if I don't call her back. Nat never calls just to chat. She calls when she wants something." And that would be "me" now.

"When was the last time you talked to her?"

"On the phone? A month or two ago. But I haven't been to Canada since Sookie came back. And you know how I used to stay a week or two there with Nat every year since the last time she was here in Louisiana after she came back from Russia."

"What do you think she wants?" Pam asked.

And I could only think that, again, the answer would be "me". But instead, I said: "Maybe she just wants to tell me that she's going to Australia or wherever. Or maybe this is a booty call. Or... who knows? Perhaps she isn't coming back at all but just wanted to ask how I was doing. With Nat, I don't know… But either way, I'd like if you were here, with Sookie, if necessary." Fuck. I truly didn't know what Nat would want. But I did know that I didn't want a sexual relationship with her. Not anymore. But I also felt certain that she was still important to me. Natércia would always be important to me. After all, she was my best friend.

"When do you want me back?"

"I'll tell you as soon as I call Natércia back. I'm still hoping that she won't be visiting us here..."

"What if you go and visit her in New York? Then Sookie won't even have to know about it..."

"I wouldn't cheat on her, and you know that, Pam," I said immediately. I wouldn't. And Pam knew it.

"You don't have to fuck Natércia in New York. Just meet her there, talk for a couple of days, and don't tell Sookie about it."

"It wouldn't work, Pam. Natércia would figure out that something was different with me, and she'd come here without a phone call afterwards. And Sookie would then discover that I had met Nat in New York, and that I had kept it from her. And you know Sookie…"

"Yeah,"

"I'm still hoping that Nat just called because she wants to talk,"

"I don't think so," Pam said.

"Me neither."

"And it won't be a nice visit with Sookie there," she almost whispered.

"No, it won't. I'm guessing that neither of them will like the other. Sookie won't understand how important Nat is to me, but she'll have to, as you did. And Natércia won't understand Sookie's role in my life but that's the way I live now. And as my friend, Nat will have to deal with it," Well, at least I sounded positive about it. And I did speak confident words. Even if I wasn't.

"That's what I'm afraid of: the way she'll deal with it…"

And so was I. But I didn't tell Pam that. Instead, we then decided that she'd stay in Europe, enjoying her free time, and I'd call her back when I knew Nat's arrival schedule and then we ended our phone call.

I stayed in my office at home for another two or three hours, answering e-mails and calling a couple of vampires with orders about my Area. Most old–timers, like me, didn't celebrate Christmas, so they wouldn't have any problem about answering my phone call. And if they did, well then, as Pam would say in Paris, "tant pis".

Later that night, I checked Lizzie's room again and found her still sleeping. The dog though was chewing the little blanket where it was laying. But Nike (Lizzie's choice of name) was quiet, so I went to my room where I snuggled Sookie until dawn. And afterward, I went to my other room to sleep.

And why did I go to that other room? Because, even though Sookie had come back almost two years before, I was still spending the days in my room in the basement. And the main reason for that was that Sookie didn't want Liz to see me dead. She was only seven and there was no reason for her to see me not breathing, not moving and basically dead to the world.

To "compensate" me somehow, Sookie would meet me many times right before the sun went down. And let me tell you: I loved to wake up with her on my bed. Especially when she was naked.

But when I left our upstairs room that Christmas night, to go to my basement room, I couldn't stop myself from thinking that the new "dad calling" progress would perhaps mean that I'd be allowed to spend the day upstairs. Maybe Sookie would now feel comfortable enough to let Liz take the risk of seeing me dead? I wished she did. I was sure Liz would understand…

And that, the fact that we didn't sleep in the same bed, was one of the two thorns in our relationship. Yes, we stayed awake in the same bed frequently. But we weren't sleeping at those times. No. Definitely not sleeping. And yes, I spooned her often in the upstairs room late at night when Sookie was sleeping. And yes, she also met me quite often in my basement room. But sleep-sleep? Well… no. We really didn't sleep-sleep in the same bed. And that… bothered me.

I understood the reasons why: the need to keep my day time rest place secure and the fact that she didn't want to scare Lizzie. Hell, I didn't want to scare Liz either. And yes, Elizabeth hadn't yet seen me dead for the day, but I was willing to bet that she'd be okay with it. She had been okay with everything else that concerned my vampire nature (even more than Sookie). And I did miss the fact that Sookie and I didn't sleep in the same bed.

And then, there was the other thorn in our relationship. The blood bond. The no blood bond. Yes, I used to drink for her once or twice a week. Sometimes even more times than that, if I somehow found myself too caught up by the… situation, that I'd forget that I had already drank before. But she hadn't yet had my blood since right after she came back (we then decided that both she and Liz should have a couple of drops of my blood – just enough for me to be able to get to them if needed… you know, just in case).

And obviously, the absence of a blood bond bothered me to no end. And, every now and then, I would ask her about it but she usually just answered me "not yet" and I didn't insist anymore. I didn't want to scare her. Back then, I was really convinced that she wouldn't run again. But with Sookie? Well, you never knew. So it was always best to not insist too much. And I just kept hinting to her about it once in a while, and she kept saying "not yet".

But the thing that Sookie didn't realize was that my blood in her would mark her as mine for sure. Yes, she always smelled like me and any vampire that would approach her would know that she had been with me. Any supernatural would know that she, most probably, was mine. And it was the "most probably mine" instead of "definitely mine" that bothered me. I really wanted for everyone to know that she was mine. Completely and utterly mine. Blame it still on the "Ocella incident" if you want… I really didn't understand that so fucking deep need inside me either… But I needed it. I needed for everyone to know that she was mine. However, of course, I couldn't (and I would never) tell her about it.

And now, Natércia was probably coming back. She had been insisting for me to meet her in Vancouver for a while now… And I had a feeling that because I hadn't done it, she was going to visit me instead. And she would expect to have sex with me. We always did. She would expect that we would spend time together. We always did that too. She would expect to spend the day with me. As always.

Nevertheless, this time would be the exception. And Natércia would obviously figure out that Sookie was the reason behind the exception. But, as always, Nat would take a look at Sookie and see only a fangbanger. Yes, a fangbanger that had been having sex with me for some time, but nothing more than a feed and fuck.

In our 800 years old history together, there had been many times when I had visited Nat and found her living with another vampire or, more frequently, a human. And there had been the same many times when she had come to me when I was living with someone else. Hell, when she had met Pam, we had been living together. And that had never been a problem. I wasn't jealous about Nat and she wasn't jealous about me either. But except for Pam, who was my child, none of those women had ever meant anything to me. And because Natércia knew it, she had never felt threatened by them. But Sookie did mean a lot to me. She meant everything to me. And like Pam had said, I was afraid of the way Nat would "deal" with Sookie.

Damn it! Everything had been just great. Why the hell would Natércia come back now? Why would she? On all the times we had been together, I was almost always the one visiting. Not her. Yes, I knew that since Sookie had come back, I hadn't been to Canada, but Nat was never one to visit. She always wanted others to go to her. Not the other way. Yes, I believed that my not-visiting-her might make her come to me. But not yet. Maybe in 10 or 15 years. Not sooner! And definitely not so soon. Shit!

Hell, maybe I was being a little delusional in my thinking. Nat was my best friend. But we had been more than that during my 800 year relationship with her. Or rather, during my 800 years romantic relationship with her. Fuck! I could see Sookie being very angry at me for keeping her in the dark about Nat. Damn it! That woman was dangerous. Nat was really dangerous. And she would probably be a threat to my relationship with Sookie. Fuck! FUCK!

So, thinking about all this, I left Sookie alone in our bedroom upstairs and went to my bedroom in the basement. I laid on my bed, and I waited the final minutes before sunrise. I'd call Natércia on the following night. I needed some more time before that phone call. I then moved the bed sheets from me, and I almost sat on my bed, still thinking about that whole damned situation.

The only positive aspect of it was that Pam was coming back. And I was really glad for it because I was sure that she'd help me if Nat indeed intended to come to Louisiana. Pam was a vampire but she had been a human woman once and I was sure she'd be a good adviser. It was not frequent that I'd ask for guidance. Especially from my child. But these were women or, at least, former woman we were talking about. And sometimes I felt completely clueless about that gender. And even though I hadn't called Nat yet, I knew that she'd be coming to Louisiana too. I just knew it. And that made me value Pam's arrival yet again.

Suddenly, I felt the dawn approaching but I wasn't feeling its pull to sleep yet. Fuck! My lack of sleep was only a mirror of my worries. Fuck.

I laid on the bed again and I tried to sleep. My daytime death would come to me in the next few minutes. But before its arrival I had still some time to think. And I thought how Natércia was my long time friend, but Sookie was my wife. And then I wondered if they'd both understand how fucked up that situation was. I also tried to imagine what I'd do if Sookie left me again because she didn't understand how important Nat was to me. And I tried to picture Nat's reaction too. Would she hurt Sookie once she'd see how I loved her? I was sure that I wouldn't allow it and I'd fight Natércia if I had to.

Yes, I wouldn't care about our friendship. If Nat tried to hurt Sookie, I would protect her. No matter what. I would fight Nat if I had to. But… Natércia was probably a little older than I was. And then, I had my last couple of thoughts that night before I died for the day: I thought about how Nat and I had fought before once, right after we had met, and how I had lost.

So… if I really had to fight Nat, would I win?

So? Any thoughts about the chapter? Yes, yes, I know. Eric is guilty of poor judgment because he didn't tell Sookie about Natércia. But hey, extremely good-looking Viking vampire or not, he's a guy! And guys are… well, guys! Anyway, I'm dying to hear what you thought about this chapter! Please review! Thank you, Célia

The Power Station Years: The Unreleased Recordings is a compilation of previously unreleased songs recorded by vocalist/ guitarist Jon Bon Jovi (then known by his given name of John Bongiovi) that was first released as a 15 track compilation in 1997. They were recorded in the early 1980s in a local recording studio named the Power Station, where John worked as a janitor. The songs were recorded previous to the formation of the now-famous band, Bon Jovi. In 1998 the follow-up, a 20 track edition "More Power Station Years" was released consisting of the previous albums 15 tracks plus 5 unreleased songs, which included "This Woman Is Dangerous". It starts like this: "She can steal the stars and the moon / She can kill you with a wink of an eye."