Authors Notes:

Hey howdy ho people. So most of you know that I was ubber sick not too long ago and this caused me to fall way behind in my work. So, this is why I am late. I am unsure if I am going to continue to do the update on Tuesday's. Perhaps I will get caught up this next week and then we can get back to our regularly scheduled program.

Everyone should send some love to my friggin' awesome Editor Catie Mak. Without her this story would not be as good as it is. She catches things that make me want to bang my head against the was because it is really small and stupid and I so know some of the things she catches, but that is what editors are for. They save the writer from looking to stupid. Hehe

Thank you all for your kind words over the last week. It means the world to me that you take the time out of your busy day and let me know how you feel. I appreciate and adore everyone of them. So when you reach the bottom of the chapter tell me how you feel, be it good bad or indifferent, I want to know.

Tons of love from the West Coast,

Lilli

Chapter 12

** Sookie's P.O.V. **

The tinkling of chimes greeted us as we enter the shop, I look over at Eric and his eyes are lit up like a kid in a candy store. He practically bounces from foot to foot, his line of sight never stopping for long on a single blade. I laugh lightly at his exuberant nature and he looks at me and says, "What?"

Before I can answer him the blacksmith comes through the back of the shop. "How can I… Princess Susannah," he says, and drops to one knee, again.

"What did I say the last time I was here? Get up man, for goodness sakes." I laugh and he joins me, and blushes slightly at my scolding. "I would like to introduce you to my husband, Eric this is," I stop midsentence racking my brain for a name, "well shoot, I am so good with names, why is it that I can't remember yours?"

"Probably because I forgot to tell you in all of the excitement Princess." He stuck out his hand to Eric and to my surprise Eric clasps it firmly, but not at hand like you would expect, no, Eric clasps him at the elbow. I know this is the sign of brotherhood and respect and it surprises me that Eric would make such a gesture.

"It is a pleasure to meet you sir, the blades here are truly works of art."

"Thank you, they call to me. I just do the best I can to bring them to life. I am Roland, by the way."

Eric gasps slightly; Roland had shifted from one foot to the other, which caused his hair to move just slightly and one of his pointed ears peaks through his graying hair. "You're a… how is it that I am even able to stand here with you?"

Roland smirks slightly. "Family secret." He winks. "It helps keep me and mine a little less dead." He laughs deeply, his belly shaking slightly. "If you wouldn't have spotted the ears you would never have known right?"

"Indeed." Eric nods.

"Yeah, I could go and have them altered, some of our race does that in order to 'fit in' with the humans, but I always felt like that was barbaric. I mean, you wouldn't go and cut off a limb or other appendages just to fit it. My ears are a part of me; they make me who I am. Why would I mutilate myself in order to fit in? It makes my blood run cold with just the thought of anyone doing such a thing to me. It is like asking me to cut off my manhood, it is just obscene."

Eric and Roland both shiver; no doubt they have images of their manhood's being separated from their body, dancing through their heads. I just shake my head and laugh slightly, and both of them whip their heads towards me; they must have forgotten that I am even in the room. Men.

"Sorry Princess." I roll my eyes; I don't think it would do him any good to be reminded, again, not to call me Princess. "Now," he claps his hands together and rubs them back and forth, "what is it that I can do for you?"

"You know what you can do, why don't you come stand here with me. Eric, take a walk around the shop and just check it out." Roland walks over and stands beside me, and Eric looks at me, clearly confused. "Just go on, look at the blades as if you were considering purchasing one."

"But I am not." That Eric, always so literal.

"Just try it, I want to see something." He nods at me and begins slowly walking around the shop. Of course he decides to start on the opposite wall from where Merlin sits. I hold my breath waiting, hoping that my suspicions are correct. I try hard, not to think, not to feel, not to do or say anything that could give away any thoughts that I may have about the waiting battle-axe. About half-way through Eric closes his eyes and sways a fraction of an inch, he spins around a huge smile on his face and strides across the room plucking Merlin off the wall. I am practically jumping up and down when he places the blade to his lips and kisses it reverently.

"Unbelievable," Roland says.

"You think that is crazy watch this," Eric says and points at the wall. "Lancelot," he says pointing to a Mace, "Gwain," he says pointing to a Katana, "Percivale, Lionell, Tristram, Gareth," he says as he points to four more swords hung on the wall. "Lucan, Palomedes, Lemorak, Kay, should I go on? There are about a dozen more. Plus I have this feeling that more are soon to be joining their ranks."

"I… I… I don't know what to say? How did you? I mean, how is that even possible?"

"Did it never occur to you that a good majority of your weapons have the Arthurian legend in common?" Eric asks.

"No, not really, I make so many blades, and other weapons, I…" Roland stops suddenly, his thoughts swept away on the tide of his confusion.

Eric's head snaps up towards the back of the shop. Without a word he grabs my hand and drags me towards the forge. "Eric, what are you…" before I can even finish getting my words out I run into his large frame when he stops suddenly in front of two dummies. There is one that is tiny and clearly womanly; the other is large and very male.

"Mordred and Morgana," he whispers, and I look up at him and then back to the two dummies. Draped across their fake bodies were two sets of beautiful matching armor. The male's breastplate was all a gold color, with the filigree all done in white platinum. The decorations were modest but distinct. I ran my fingers over the middle of the breast plate, tracing the lines of a ship, with a bear standing directly behind it, almost encompassing it in its large arms, and he looks as if he is standing watch, almost protective in nature over the Viking ship. I look back at Eric, hoping for some kind of indication as to what it meant. "My family crest," he says and smiles slightly at me. "I haven't seen it in a very long time."

I shake my head in disbelief and turn back towards the female's armor. It too is done in the gold and shining white like the other, but it is the opposite. The main body of the chest plate is done in the shimmering platinum, while all of the filigree was done in the bronzy gold. If you look at the breastplate head on you wouldn't notice the decoration right away. You have to move just right to see the slight glint of gold that starts low on the ribcage and works its way down to the waist. I run my fingers over the ridged surfaces and immediately know that it is meant to be feathers wrapped around the waist.

My fingers hum with the same energy that occurred when I picked up Guinevere for the first time. I slowly circle the armor, tracing the feathers to the back and realize that the feathers are actually wings, wrapped protectively around the body. At the base of the spine was a small, almost imperceptible shield and on top of the shield is a long spear. "The Valkyrie shield maidens were believed to carry a spear and a shield as they ushered fallen warriors into Valhalla," Eric says, and places his hands on my shoulders.

"What… what does this all mean Eric? I don't understand. Why all of the links with the Arthurian legends? Not to mention the fact that this is too weird. All of this is just crazy. We meet and barely a day later we get married. All the while we have to deal with my crazy ex, who is determined to kidnap me, for some odd reason, because he never gave a fuck before I don't understand why he wants me now. Not to mention the fact that I come in here, which I didn't plan by the way that was all Russell. While I am here I find not only our wedding sword, which Roland swears was made five years ago but has all of this Norse imagery and our initials engraved into it. But I also find a sword of my own that sings to my soul and begs me to wield it. Then she and our wedding sword are named after two of the greatest rulers of all times, in my opinion at least. I am just so… so…" I feel my chest tightening and a panic attack not far off. I know that if I don't calm down soon I am going to start hyperventilating, but I can't seem to stop myself.

Eric, bless him, snorts, and stops my miniature break down from progressing any further. "I get it love, but we aren't going to get any answers at the moment. We have a plane to catch, when we return I would suggest that we do a little research, perhaps sit down with Roland and talk about his journey with these swords. We also need to bring Pam, Ivar, Kaare, and Stephan in here, I have a sneaking suspicion that they have weapons up on that wall."

I let his words roll around in my brain for a moment and I have a few flashes of different faces float through my brain. "Amelia, Tray, Sam, Calvin, and my brother need to come in here as well."

Roland clears his throat from across the room and we both turn to him. "So does this mean that the armor is yours and your husband's Princess?"

"Yes Roland, it does. Do we need to come back, have it fitted or anything?"

"No, I am willing to bet dollars to diamonds that, that armor will fit you both perfectly. It is meant to be yours. I was actually shocked when I got the call for these two pieces during my meditation. I had never even attempted armor work before, so I tried to push it away, but the longer I waited the more persistent the call became. I had to make it or I would never have gotten a decent night's sleep." He chuckles lightly at his own joke.

"Roland, Sookie and I want to sit down with you and talk about all of this. There has been a lot going on with us and we are kind of unbalanced by the lack of answers that both of us have. Do you think you would be willing to talk with us?" Eric crosses his arms across his massive chest and looks down at Roland. I would imagine that most people would be intimidated by that look; Eric didn't really mean anything by it. He isn't trying to be intimidating or demanding, this is just how he is. He wants answers and he would not rest until he got them. Roland is the only place we have to start.

"Of course Eric."

"Good," Eric beamed at him. "We will call you when we return from Vegas and have you out to our home."

Roland and I both stare, gob smacked by Eric's gesture of trust; he just invited a stranger to his home, and not just any stranger, a fae stranger. What the hell? Eric looks over at me and just shrugs; I know he is just trying to let me know we could talk about it later, because he didn't really understand it either.

"I would be honored to join you and the Princess at your home. You need only call me when you return and we can set up a time."

"Marvelous," Eric says jovially. "Now we also have a few friends that we will be bringing by. Sookie and I both feel that they have weapons here and it would behoove us for them to have them sooner rather than later, I think."

"Of course, they can come in on their own or you can bring them, whatever is most convenient for you and the Princess. I am open very late and if you call I am willing to stay open even later for you. I assume that some of these people are vampires correct?"

"Indeed," Eric nods at him.

"Okay, again just call me when you return and we will set everything in motion."

"Excellent." Eric and Roland clasp arms again, in silent accord. I think I just witnessed my first fae/vamp peace treaty. We pay quickly and run back out to the car, and place our new goodies in the trunk, along side of Guinevere and Arthur.

Eric jumps in the driver's seat, turns the ignition, and revs the engine. A small groan escapes my lips at the purring vibration between my thighs, from the sheer power that is Eleanor. I look over at Eric, I know he did that shit on purpose and I try to glare at him through my lust induced haze.

He smirks a little at me and purrs. "Lover if I had time I would fuck you in every possible position and over every possible inch of this car, but unfortunately we are going to be late as it is. When we get home though, you just try and stop me from fulfilling those marvelous fantasies dancing around in that pretty little head of yours." He laughs darkly and squeals out of the parking lot and into the night; we are finally on our way to the airstrip and then we will be off to Vegas to meet the King. Lovely.

We speed through the streets of Shreveport, in awkward silence. Well, I am not sure if Eric is uncomfortable, but I know that I am. There is just so much going on. It all is a bit overwhelming. There are more questions than answers and I am so far outside of my comfort zone it isn't even funny.

Eric lightly squeezes my hand and says, "Lover, we will figure it all out together. I know it is all a bit overwhelming, and you are doing things that you would consider out of character, but we are in this together. I do not believe that we would be put together like this if we didn't truly need each other. I love you, you love me, and no matter what we have that simple truth to fall back on. Alright?"

I sigh heavily. "I know, it is just a lot to take in. I know I keep saying that, but it all just keeps piling up. There is more and more and more and just when I adjust to what is there, more gets thrown on top. I feel like the friggin' leaning tower of Pisa, and I am liable to topple over if I have to deal with one more thing."

"See that's what's good about us being a couple. You do not have to deal with everything by yourself anymore. You have me to hold you up and if I need a little extra help, we have Pam, and my brothers. It will all be fine, you just need to take a deep breath and try and remember that we are in this together."

Eric squeezes my hand again, and I do my best to follow his advice. He is right; I am not in this by myself anymore. "Well of course I am right, I am always right. I have over a thousand years practice; it would probably be easier if you just remember that as a general rule from now on. It will make for far fewer arguments and a lot less stress."

I giggle lightly. "You know that is really annoying. Now I understand why everyone avoids me like the plague."

Eric smirks at me and turns his car off the main highway and into the private airstrip. He parks his car outside of the hanger and we jump out, and grab our armor and weapons from the trunk and head towards the plane. We walk through the large double doors and I am astonished by the size of the plane waiting for us. This is no puddle jumper, like I had taken before on my flight from here to Dallas, this is a full on jet. I shake my head, crazy vampires and their silly showing off. I mean is it really necessary to own a plane like this.

Pam is sitting at the top of the stairs leading into the plane with a board expression on her face. "Mummy, Daddy what took you so long? We were supposed to leave forty five minutes ago." She smells the air as we draw closer and a wicked grin spreads on her face. "You don't even have the good excuse of letting your newlywed getting the best of you. The only sent that lingers is burnt metal and smoke. Were you in a burning building or something?"

I roll my eyes. "Do something with your child."

Eric laughs. "I have been trying for two hundred years now, I think she needs her Mummy to deal with her."

Pam's eyes sparkle with mischief and then she spots our armor. "Ohh, you got pretties," she says and claps her hands together excitedly.

I make my way to the top of the stairs and pat her head lightly. "Yes we did and if you are a good girl when we get home you will have some new pretty toys to play with as well. But you have to be on your best behavior young lady."

"Hmph you're no fun," she says and crosses her arms across her chest. "Can we take her back and exchange her for a different model?" she asks Eric.

He laughs and clears his throat; clearly he is trying to cover up his amusement at the playful banter that is going on between Pam and I. "No we cannot. Behave yourself and listen to mummy like a good little girl."

"Oh my goodness, I can't take this anymore, seriously ya'll are too much. Pam stop callin' me mummy." I laugh and walk past her into the plane.

The interior of the plane is fairly sizable, considering it's an airplane. Soft white suede couches line one side, while the other is a large bar area as well as the largest friggin' flat screen television I have ever seen in my life. Jason and Sam would be in hog heaven if they could just sit and stare at it, not to mention watch football on it.

Stephan, Ivar, and Kaare are already seated towards the back; I nod at them and flop down on a couch in the middle of the plane heavily. I hate flying; it isn't so much the actual being in the air part, I actually love looking out over the world and seeing the clouds below me. No what bothers me is the take off, and the landing, oh yeah and the fact that I can plummet to my inevitable death from thirty thousand feet. Eric sits next to me and chuckles lightly. "You can face 90 Weres and shifters and not even bat an eyelash, but you are terrified of flying?"

"Well," I huff angrily at him, "with the Weres and shifters I can actually do something about stopping my death, but if for some reason I was to fall out of an airplane I would be fucked. There would be nothing I could do to stop what was going to happen." He raises an eyebrow at me questioningly. "Well okay, let's just say that I fell out of the plane right?"

"Right," he laughs.

"Okay so, if I fell out of the plane at 30,000 feet it would take me roughly two minutes and forty seconds to hit the ground. Now, if I die in a skirmish, I will never see it coming, it will most probably be, bang, boom, I'm dead, end of discussion. But, if I fall out of a plane it will take me almost three minutes to hit the ground. That is a long time to be terrified and knowing what is coming. I could probably try and slow it down a little bit, but what good would that really do? My body will reach terminal velocity long before it hits the ground, so no matter what when I hit the ground I'm done, finito, sayonara, that's all folks."

They all start to chuckle lightly at my little rant, and I cross my arms over my chest in irritation. "Not all of us are indestructible you know."

"No, no, you're right lover you are very fragile, but the thing is your theory is a little moot when your travel companions are a bunch of vampires. If it was anyone besides the five of us they could just wrap themselves around you and take the entire blow from the landing, they might have a few broken bones, but it wouldn't end them."

"Unless they have the unfortunate circumstance of landing on a sharp pointy stick," Ivar chuckles.

"Yes, there is that very slim possibility." Eric laughs. "But that would never happen when you travel with any of us. There would be no danger to you or to us. We would be just fine." Eric shrugs.

"And what makes ya'll so special, Mr. High and Mighty?"

Kaare laughs loudly, clutching his ribs as if he is having difficulty breathing, which only infuriates me more. I hate when people laugh at my expense. "Didn't he tell you?" he asks.

"Tell me what?" I huff.

"Seriously," Pam says and glares at Eric. "Umm Mummy," she flops in front of my and grasps my hands in hers, "we all can fly."

"Bullshit!" I exclaim. "Now I know ya'll are trying to pull one over on me."

"No really," Stephan says. "See?" He floats off his seat about a foot and a half, his head lightly bumping the roof of the plane.

"Fuck! Unbelievable, I married into a family of superheroes."

Before I can even bat an eye, all of them, all five of those goofy ass vampires with dead serious looks on their faces, jump to their feet, place their hands on their hips, spread their feet slightly, and sing, "Here I come to save the day!"

I cannot believe their antics. I bust up laughing, clutching my ribs tightly and double over. My lungs feel like they are going to burst from my chest and I am afraid I might have peed myself just a little bit, but it is totally worth it. "Oh… my… God…" I gasp out between fits of laughter. "Are ya'll always this fun?"

Eric shrugs. "It got you through take off without you even realizing it. Plus it is good to laugh once and awhile, even if it is at yourself. But, you are right in assuming that few ever see any of us behave this way. Since you are my wife you can't testify against me, therefore none of our antics will ever be able to pass your lips."

He kisses me lightly, and I make a motion over my heart. "Cross my heart, I will never tell a soul, your secret goofiness is safe with me."

"Oh this is nothing," Pam says.

"What do you mean?" I ask

"Pam," Eric says in a warning tone.

"What?" She glares at him and turns back to me. "When the five of us get together we are unholy terrors. Those four," she says and points to the guys, "are always trying to one up each other, and they always end up in the craziest situations."

I raise an eyebrow at her, extremely intrigued. "Pam I swear don't you dare, I will pull the maker card if I have to. Sookie doesn't want nor need to hear any of our antics."

Pam huffs slightly. "Come on."

"Actually I am really interested to hear what she has to say." I smile mischievously and look at Pam.

Pam opens her mouth but Eric cuts her off, "Don't do it if you know what's good for you." She sticks her tongue out at him and I swear she whispers 'spoil sport' under her breath.

"Ahh brother you cannot threaten us with gag orders," Ivar says and waggles his eyebrows at me.

"There was this one time in Prague, at least I think it was Prague, where Eric was caught quite unaware by about 15 vampires in a very compromising position, you should have seen him running through the streets mocking them as naked as the day he was born. Hilarity," Kaare says and chuckles.

"No wait, what about that time in the 60's where Eric got a hold of that gal who was high on mushrooms and ended up in the woods talking with the trees for hours." Stephan roars with laughter. "I swear Sook you should have seen him, it was hilarious."

I start to giggle. "Wait, ya'll can get high?"

Eric groans, "Ugh yes. If you're drunk, we get drunk, if your high we can get high. It all varies on the drug the person is using, how long they have been using for, and so on. It isn't so bad when you know it is going to hit you, but the girl that I fed from didn't even appear to be intoxicated." He rolls his eyes. "It was horrible Sookie," he sniffles slightly in mock angst. "I think I actually slept in the dirt that night."

Ivar says, "Yeah, and you were picking dirt, rocks, and sticks out of your crevices for weeks."

I snicker slightly. "Okay Pam hit me with your best shot." I wink at her.

"Goody," she claps her hands clearly excited at getting her turn. "Eric loves to do Karaoke."

"No way," I say in disbelief.

"Oh yeah, and he is very competitive too. There was this huge contest in New York one year, I think it was late 80's right?" She looks around the plane and everyone nods, Eric groans and shakes his head in agreement.

"So, there was this huge contest happening, and some dumbass blood bag from another Karaoke bar had told Eric he didn't have the guts to compete in this competition against him. Of course my daddy couldn't stand for that and immediately agreed to do the contest without finding out all of the pertinent facts first." Pam leans forward slightly. "Well, this bar wasn't just any bar; it was a trans gender/gay bar. All of the contestants had to come dressed in drag that night and do their best female impersonation."

"Oh oh who did he go as?" I ask Pam and then turn to Eric bouncing in my seat. "Who did you go as honey?"

"Oh please don't tell her." Eric practically begs them.

"CHER!" they all holler loudly and I burst into laughter.

"NO WAY!"

"Oh my God Sook, you should have seen it. You remember that video Cher did where she is wearing nothing more than a sling and a smile? I think it was for the If I Could Turn Back Time video."

"Yeah it was that one," I say and could see Cher prancing around on the Navy ship in her black sling swimsuit fishnet thing. "Wait, you didn't?" I gasp and look over at Eric.

"Oh he did, but our Eric wasn't just going to go in with a plain black number, oh no, he spent a week sewing up a magenta, sequenced sling suite, and wore thigh high magenta boots with matching fishnets and a black, curly wig. Oh, oh, oh and he sang that song of hers Just Like Jesse James, it was great. He strutted his stuff all up and down that stage and had all the boys swooning."

"You're pulling my leg," I giggle.

"Unfortunately she isn't lover." He groans. "But I beat that asshole and won the competition if that is any consolation to you?"

"Are the five of you always together?" I ask.

"For the most part," Ivar says.

"Once and awhile we all take space from each other to do various things, but for most of our lives we have all been together," Stephan says a handsome smile on his face.

"I think this is the first time in almost two hundred years that we have been apart. Our last separation was just after Pam was made, and we wanted to give the two of them time to bond," Kaare says.

Pam snorts. "What are you old farts complaining about? You were only gone for like six months and then you came right back. You didn't even leave when Jim was made. You all are like a bunch of gossiping old ladies and none of you can stand being away from the others for more than a month."

"Don't you start Pam; you are just as bad as the rest of us." Eric laughs and Pam huffs slightly and crosses her arms across her chest.

"I am not," she whines.

"So, can I ask, if ya'll are such a tight knit group how come Jim doesn't stay with you?"

A sudden flash of sadness crosses Eric's face. "I wasn't even supposed to bring Jim over, we were all banned from turning celebrities just for the sake of them being who they are. I knew I wasn't supposed to turn him, but I just had to. We had all been kind of following him from city to city for a long time, even after he went into seclusion in Paris."

"Ya'll were groupies?" I snort in amusement.

"We most certainly were not!"

"Okay what would you call a group of dedicated fans who follows a band from city to city." I raise an eyebrow at him amused.

"Ughh a groupie," he narrows his eyes at me. "Do you want to hear this story or not?"

"Sorry, sorry," I say and raise my hands in surrender.

"Now, as I was saying," he clears his throat slightly, "the five of us were following Jim around, of course Jim spotted us just a few weeks after we had started following him. He just knew there was something more to us, although he never asked, and he never pulled away from us. We would all sit around for hours talking until we could barely make it back to our various resting places at dawn. It really was amazing. He is so talented, and smart, way smarter than most critics have given him credit for. They always paint him to be the stupid California druggy, which he may have been from California, and he may have had an issue with drugs, but he was anything but stupid. He was completely misunderstood, then and even still is to this day."

Eric sighs slightly, and Ivar clears his throat taking up the story because Eric is clearly having a hard time continuing. "We all were very close and it was very hard to watch Jim drink so heavily and become deeper and deeper sucked into drugs. We all felt very powerless to stop his self-destructive spiral, Jim… well he struggled with being so famous. He struggled with being both loved and loathed all at the same time. He was really just a philosopher poet trying to share his gift with everyone. It was never about the music or the money that was the idiot goons he performed with thing. All he wanted was to spread a little bit of his gift around and have people stop and think about what he had to say."

"Like Kurt Cobain," I say sadly.

"Yeah," Pam says softly, "we knew what was going to happen with Kurt and tried to warn him. He had more problems than Jim did though. Kurt was actually unstable, and that bitch of a wife didn't help matters any."

I so wanted to dish about Cobain, but right now was about Jim, so I redirected the conversation back to him. "So, what happened with Jim?"

Eric picks the story up. "We convinced him that he needed to take a break. His relationship with his girl was almost non-existent, his career was almost shot with his drunken performances, and his band mates were trying to replace him as front man. They hadn't done it yet though because they knew without Jim they were nothing. He was The Doors and he was the soul of that band, no one could ever replace him, although those fucktards kept trying. Anyway one night we had all gotten together and confronted him about how out of control his life was. We told him how worried we all were, that he was going end up like Janis or Jimmy. We convinced him that a nice sabbatical in Paris would be perfect for him. He could get away from the gawking fans, have a little peace and quiet, work on his poetry and philosophy, maybe do a little music if he felt up to it, but most importantly get sober. Surprisingly he agreed, without much of a fight."

Eric fell silent again, and I could see time weighing heavily on his shoulders, all the horrors he had witnessed being brought to the forefront of his mind, and the things that happened with Jim still haunt him terribly. "We all thought he was fine, we were there a few weeks, none of us saw him drinking or using when we were around him. We didn't have a clue. One night, I arose and found a note, on the outside of our underground space. Jim had decided to kill himself. He said he just couldn't take it. I rushed through the house and found him in the tub, I watched him take his last breath as I cleared the door and his heart was just about to stop. I didn't even think about it, I just did what I had to in order to save my friend. It wasn't until Ivar and Kaare found me cradling him on the bathroom floor that I realized what I had done."

"So, I posed the scene, making it look like he had indeed died of an overdose in the tub. Pam called the police, and they came and took his body to the morgue. We followed behind and glamoured the mortician to swap Jim's body with another's and then took him. We had to keep his being turned quiet from everyone else. Many vampires knew that we traveled with him, and if something went wrong we would be the first that they would come looking for. So we fled into the country side and waited for him to rise," Eric says.

"Worse three days of my life," Ivar snorts.

"Agreed," Stephan says. "Not only did we lose our friend, but we were faced with the knowledge that if something went wrong in transition we would have to give him his final death with our own hands."

"On top of that we knew that even if Jim made the cross over just fine, we would still have to go before The Council and face up to what occurred, and possibly be put to death ourselves for disobeying our laws. And still face the possibility that our friend would not be saved if they decided to just end Jim because of who he is." Kaare says.

Pam decides to jump in and says, "Not to mention we also would have to deal with a very irate Jim who was cheated out of meeting his death because of Eric's grief and lack of thought."

"I never wanted to do that to anyone, take away their right to choose this life that I live. I gave Pam the option when I turned her and I will give any other person that I may choose to turn in the future the chance to say no. The four of us," Eric says pointing at the guys, "were not given a choice by our maker. Appius saw what he wanted and took it, with no regard to what we wanted. I am not complaining, I love my life, but I never wanted to do that to anyone else. Jim, well to be perfectly frank, I fucked up. He was my brother and I didn't want to lose him because of the stupidity of other humans. A lot of what he went through all had to do with the pressures that others placed on his shoulders and his inability to cope with them."

Eric shrugs. "So we waited, three very long nights we waited for him to rise. Fortunately he rose perfect, he had been sober beforehand long enough that most of the narcotics and alcohol was out of his system. So thank the Gods for small miracles there."

"Was he mad?" I whisper, afraid to know about the fall out that might have occurred after Jim rose. Sure they seemed to be all peaches and sunshine now, but I could just imagine what they could have been like then. I know if I was in Jim's position I would have not been a very happy camper.

"Oh yes," Eric smirks. "I haven't heard so much profanity used ever, not before that and not since then. He was very angry, and he swore he would never speak to me again. Fortunately, Ivar, Stephan, Kaare, and Pam managed to calm him. He did forgive me eventually, but our relationship was very strained for a very long time. Jim was smart enough to know that we all had to be on the same page when we went before the council. Thankfully they were not as angry as they could have been, I think mostly due to the fact that Jim was so normal, and none of us had ever been in any kind of trouble before.

"Part of Jim's requirements though is that he cannot live here in the states and he cannot get anywhere near Paris. He has to wear disguises whenever he does go out in public and he cannot speak English at all unless he is around other vamps. That might all change now that we are out, but I don't think Jim will ever want to out himself to the public. He loves his life in Europe and I think he is truly happy there. It is hard for us to be separated from him, but he has always been a very solitary creature, even before he was turned.

"We try to spend as much time with him as possible though. We were all living over there together before I was offered the position as sheriff here. The rest as they say is history."

"Pfftt," Pam says. "When de Castro called you went on for weeks about how conflicted you were about coming to America. You knew you needed to be here, but you didn't want to leave Jim. We hadn't been back together in awhile and you never wanted to be drawn into the politics. You should have seen him mummy, ranting and raving about how he felt like he had no choice, he had to take the job, and whining like a little baby at the unfairness of it."

"Aww sweetie," I say and crawl into his lap, "you poor thing. You got a wife out of coming here though that has to be good for something." I wink at him, and try to lighten the mood. Eric and Jim's story was extremely sad, and I didn't want that to set the tone for our entire trip. Lord knows I have enough issues when I travel, and adding five morose vampires on top of my horrible luck would not be a good thing.

"I was not throwing a tantrum," Eric pouts slightly.

A wicked smile curves onto my face and I nibble his bottom lip and kiss my way to his earlobe, I bite and lick at the edge of his ear softly and whisper. "You poor baby, so put upon and teased relentlessly."

"That's it woman." He laughs and jumps up from our seat; he throws me over his shoulder and slaps my ass. "I am no baby!"

"Eric!" I squeal. "You put me down right this minute." I slap his back and what I could reach of his ass and try anything I could possibly think of for him to set me down.

"No!" he laughs.

"Aren't you guys gonna help me?" I yell at Kaare, Ivar, Stephan, and Pam. They all chuckle and I watch as they get further and further away from me.

"Sure I'll help," Ivar says. "Don't break her brother, we are all quite found of her."

I gasp in disbelief and Eric just chuckles and bounces me on his shoulder slightly. "I… what… how… un-fricking-believable. You just wait and see if I ever help any of you assholes!" I exclaim, and echoes of their laughter fill my ears as Eric slams the door to the bathroom behind us.

He sets me on my feet facing the large mirror above the sink. The first thing I notice glancing quickly around the space is that it is friggin huge. It is almost as big as my bathroom at the farmhouse, and is far bigger than any airplane bathroom I had ever seen before. It is all sleek lines, rounded edges and stainless steel that is polished to a mirror like shine. Everywhere I look I can see Eric and I reflected back at us and standing staring in the mirror I feel like I am surrounded by hundreds of little Erics weighing me heavily down with lust.

Eric takes a step closer to me, and I can feel the waves of desire rolling off of him and pulling me under like a rip tide. My body quivers with anticipation, knowing instinctually what is to come. He grabs the edges of my dress and slowly pulls it up and over my head, never once touching my skin. I never take my eyes off of him, watching him pull my clothes off in the mirror is turning into an erotic experience that I had never before encountered. Yes, I have had sex tons of times, and I have even had sex where there was a mirror present, twice recently with Eric, but I never have watched the experience unfold myself.

I could feel myself becoming excited; more excited than if we had spent the last three hours just making out. It is amazing! I have never felt such passion before. I half expect Eric to smirk at me, I know he knows that my body is screaming for him to take it, but there is no smirk, just a look of determination as if he has something to prove.

He snaps his fingers between my shoulder blades and my bra just falls away. Once again, he didn't touch my skin; he managed to remove my clothing without being handsy. The lack of physical contact is driving me up the fricken wall. He runs his hands over the contours of my body, never quiet touching, but skimming over me just enough that I feel the breath of air movement around me. My skin flushes and my body feels like it is on fire with every non-caress.

I whimper in frustration. "What's the matter lover?" he asks in a husky voice that only serves to stoke the flames of my desire further.

"Please Eric," I beg; I am not ashamed to admit that I want him.

He raises an eyebrow at me. "Could a baby make you feel this way without ever laying a single finger on you?"

"No," I whisper.

He continues his onslaught of touching yet not and I whimper again in frustration. "What do you want lover? Do you want me to touch you? Do you want me to taste you? Do you want me to play with you? Do you want me to fuck you?"

"God yes." My knees tremble, threatening to buckle beneath me from the built up anticipation.

"How do you want me to touch you lover?" he whispers and leans his mouth a hair's breath away from my ear. I can feel his cool breath flicking along the edge of my ear and a shiver travels down my spine and goose bumps pop up all over my arms in response.

"Do you want me to run my tongue along your creamy skin?"

"Yes," I say, closing my eyes and envisioning he is doing just that. I could almost feel his cool tongue running along my fevered flesh.

"Do you want me to suck your tender flesh into my mouth and roll it around like a fine wine? Do you want me to nibble and bite every inch of your body, until you beg for me to stop?"

I begin to pant and moan lightly at the imaginary sensations spinning in my mind. I notice that the air has stopped stirring around me and he has gone silent. Apparently I am somehow supposed to form coherent thoughts beyond pleasure. I whimper and shake my head in the affirmative and I can hear him chuckle lightly at my lack of verbal response.

"Do you want me to caress, twist, and nibble those luscious breasts of yours to the point where you are so on edge all it would take is one tiny nudge to push you over?"

"Oh, please, please, please," I beg. I am dying for release and he hasn't even touched me yet.

"Do you want me to bite my way down your body, biting just hard enough to leave marks, but not draw blood? Do you want me to nibble on your thighs bringing you even closer to release? Do you want me to slide my cool… wet… tongue through your soaking wet folds? Do you want me to slide my fingers into you slick opening, curving them slightly so they hit just the right spot? Do you want to make you cum on my fingers and in my mouth Sookie?"

My entire body shakes and I stumble backwards and lean my weight against Eric's cool flesh. His arm snakes its way around my waist pulling me tightly against him. "Oh God yes Eric, I want that all of that."

"Are you wet for me lover, is your body dripping with lust and you know that only I can satisfy it?"

"Yes, please Eric I want you, I need you please, I need you to make me cum, I don't think I can take any more."

"So don't, cum for me Sookie cum for me right now." The moment his demand leaves his lips and reaches my brain my body explodes in orgasm.

"Fuck!" I scream, gripping his arm tightly. I feel like I am adrift in a stormy sea and the only thing keeping me in place is Eric's tight grip on my body. I slowly open my eyes, and see Eric staring at my reflection in the mirror. "Jesus Eric, how the hell did you do that?"

He growls at me and says, "Would a baby be able to make you cum without ever laying a single finger on you?"

"No," I shake my head empathically.

He bends me forward, my fevered body brushing across the cool metal and adding to my already heightened awareness of touch. He rips my panties from my body in one smooth movement and I moan loudly in response. My entire body tightens in anticipation, knowing what is about to come next, and I already feel like I am on the edge. My eyelids slip closed and I bite my bottom lip preparing myself.

"No," he slaps my ass firmly and I yelp at the suddenness of it. A hot, pleasurable burn spreads across me. "Open your eyes and watch me fuck you."

My eyes snap open and the moment they do he shoves into me roughly and I scream in pleasure. He pounds into me hard and fast, drawing gasping moans from me with every thrust, as he slams into me over and over. "Oh God Eric!" I scream. "I am gonna…" and with another thrust and twist of his hips I fly over the edge, trying desperately to pull a good breath, but all I can get is small little gasps of air.

I think for sure he is done, his point having been proven and our lusts satisfied, but I am wrong. He pulls out of me and spins me around so that I am facing him. He turns us so that he is leaned slightly against the counter and he lifts me wrapping my legs around his waist and pushes his way into me again. "Trust me," he whispers against my heated flesh and I nod in agreement.

He moves my upper body backwards, bending me so I am almost doing a handstand, once he has me in the weirdest position ever he slowly begins to rock his hips again and I instantly feel my orgasm building to a fever pitch. The weird angle was divine and had him hitting all the right spots. "Ughh Jesus Eric," I moan.

"So good, so fucking good," he groans in response, continuing he slow, steady thrusts. "Who do you belong to Sookie?" he says and grips my hips tighter, and bucks slightly at the end of each thrust.

"You," I gasp.

"Ugh, who owns this pussy Sookie?" He thrusts again and bucks and twists at the end.

I gasp again and moan. "Oh god Eric you, always you."

"Fuck, cum for me Sook, cum for me right now." He thrusts once, twice, three times and that is all she wrote, I clench around him and explode, and at the same moment I feel his body pulse within me, which only causes me to clench even harder around him, my excitement, and enjoyment amplified exponentially by the idea that he is reaching his own conclusion at the exact same moment as me.

He pulls me up from my backbend and slowly pulls out of me and sets me on my feet. I slump slightly against him, willing my heartbeat to slow and my breath to even out. "Do you think they heard us?" I gasp breathlessly into Eric's chest.

"I think people in New York heard you lover, but if my family knows what is good for them they will keep their mouths shut and not embarrass you." He raises his voice just a tiny bit on the last half of that sentence; clearly he wants to make sure that he gets his point across. The airplane suddenly rocks slightly and I fall forward, putting even more of my weight on Eric. "Are you alright lover?"

"Yeah I'm fine." The plane rocks again, this time Eric had me firmly grasped in his arms so I didn't stumble. "Eric, something is wrong."

"Sookie I am sure that everything is fine, we probably just hit some turbulence or something. The plane isn't going to crash and even if it does start to go down, remember you have five superhero Vampires to fly you to safety," he says in a condescending tone.

I want to slap the hell out of him for speaking to me that way. "I do not think we are going to crash!" I hiss between my teeth.

"Then what could possibly be wrong lover?"

I pull from his grasp and start throwing my dress, bra, and sandals back on as quickly as I can, unfortunately I am sans underpants, but I would just have to deal, you can't win 'em all. "You said it takes two hours to get from Shreveport to Vegas if we fly straight there, right?"

"Yes lover." He says in that same condescending tone and I take a deep breath as I try to put a lid on my anger.

"Then perhaps you can tell me why we are landing almost an hour early hmm?"

He closes his eyes and listens to the sounds of the plane, after a long moment his eyes snap open and he says, "Shit!"

"Exactly. I will forgive you for being such an ass, but only because we don't have time to fight about it now. Get your clothes on!" I throw open the door to the bathroom and stride back towards the others as quick as my feet will go without out bursting into a full on run.

"Mummy, I thought he broke you, it is good to see that you are able to walk after your little interlude," Pam says with a huge smile on her face, but I was beyond joking at the moment. I am in full on warrior mode.

"Not now Pam. Stephan, see if you can get into the cockpit to figure out why we are landing an hour early. Ivar see if you can figure out where it is we are landing exactly, turn on your phone, use GPS, I don't care just figure out where we are. Pam, get your ass over here and help me into this armor, I haven't ever worn it before and I have any clue what the hell I am doing. Kaare please tell me ya'll brought weapons with you and that they are stashed somewhere nearby?"

All the vamps just stare at me a moment shocked at my sudden abruptness and then they all burst into action. Stephan runs off to the cockpit, and I can hear him banging on the door demanding to be let in immediately. Pam jumps up and grabs my armor, slipping it over my head and working on the various buckles and latches to secure it into place. Ivar whips out a laptop and pounds away furiously on his keys trying to figure out our exact location. "Sookie, we do have weapons, but they are all in storage underneath the plane," Kaare says.

"Can you get to them?"

"Yes, it might take some time though, I don't want to breech the hull, depressurizing the plane would not be a good thing."

"Hop to it, nearest I can figure you have maybe thirteen minutes before we touchdown and we need those weapons. Eric," I look over and see my husband fastening his own armor into place and I take one moment to smile at him. I have a sudden warmth of glee wash over me, I didn't have to do this alone, I wasn't alone. I have a family to stand by my side to fight with me, and I have a husband who loves me more than anything and is willing to die by my side if necessary. And it helped he was fucking sexy as hell in that armor.

"Yes lover?" He smirks, raising an eyebrow at me. God if we only had time I would lick that eyebrow and show it who's boss. He chuckles lightly at me, clearly having picked up on my train of thought.

I shake my head and force myself back on track. "Right, sorry, call de Castro. Let him know that we are landing early under mysterious circumstances." I look over at Ivar. "Do we know where we are yet?"

"New Mexico. Just outside of Albuquerque as far as I can tell. Does that mean anything to you?" Ivar asks.

"No, not really it could just be that this was a good place to intercept us in our flight path. Okay," I turn back to Eric "tell him that we are landing in Albuquerque. We don't know who has taken over our flight yet and we will get back to him with further details after the dust settles. He needs to call Niall and Claudine to let them know what is going on, just in case."

"In case of what lover?" He narrows his eyes at me.

"I don't know Eric. You all are killed and I am taken, or you all are knocked out and I am taken, or I get myself killed this time and we want to prevent a war simply by letting them know what is going on. I don't know Eric there are too many variables to list. Just do it please."

He walks towards the back of the plane, clearly displeased with my orders, but is following them anyways, thank God. "All done, you might be a bit uncomfortable because we don't have any proper padding underneath the breastplate, but it will work." Pam says patting my shoulder lightly.

I grab Guinevere off the floor and she instantly hums to life. "Yep sweetie, it is looking like we have a big fight ahead of us. You up for it?" She vibrates happily in my hand, letting me know she is more than ready. I stretch a little in the armor, testing my range of motion, and how much it weighs me down. Surprisingly, it hardly affects me at all, it is made of some of the lightest material I have ever come across and I just hope that it does its job. "Amazing. Thanks for the help Pam."

"Of course Sookie," she says solemnly. Fricken melancholy vampires, you would think I told her she couldn't have her favorite toy anymore with the way she is acting.

Fortunately Kaare choose this moment to come back into the room, his arms loaded down with weapons. He starts handing them out to everyone just as Stephan comes back in as well. "I can't get in Sookie. Ever since we came out of the coffin and the terrorist attacks they have made those doors damn near indestructible."

"Of course, it's all right Stephan, grab a weapon and get ready." I turn to Eric who has also rejoined us. "So Stephan can't get in to the cockpit to stop the landing and I can't get a good read on them for some reason. They aren't two natured and I know they aren't fae; it is kind of like when I encountered the security guards in Rhodes, it is like they are wearing a helmet over their thoughts that I just can't get through. So I have no idea what we are facing. I will know once we land, maybe before. De Castro have any pearls of wisdom he wished to impart?"

"Not to get ourselves killed," Eric says and smirks.

"Yeah, I will see what I can do about that." I turn back to all the other vamps and see them all standing in various fighting positions. "Okay, we have two minutes ya'll everyone get ready."

Eric slides behind me, curling his arms around my waist and squeezing me tight. I'm not sure if he is trying to keep me from falling on my ass when the plane lands or if he is trying to seek a bit of comfort before the battle, but either way, it is nice and I can feel my nerves calm and my head clear. I am focused on the task at hand. I will succeed damn it. "I love you," he whispers into my hair.

"I love you too," I whisper back and close my eyes concentrating on the approaching ground, sifting through the area and trying to determine the threat. The wheels squeal and skid as they touch down on the tarmac, the engines slowly winding down from being pushed into flight. We slide closer and closer to our final destination and I can feel them.

I hiss between my teeth. "Seventy five fucking vampires are waiting on for us." Growls erupt all around me; none of the others are too pleased with those odds. I suddenly get a wave, a spark of thought and I can't believe it. "FUCKING BASTARD! I AM GONNA FUCKING KILL HIM!"

"What is it lover, what's wrong, who are you going to kill?"

"I should make a small correction," I growl menacingly. "Seventy five vamps and one fucking soon to be dead werewolf."