CHAPTER THREE

I sat on the porch swing pushing with my foot and swinging. I was enjoying the sounds of the noctournal animals start to click and chirp as they woke up for the evening. I was still seething from the news that had been shared earlier this morning and Eric sure as hell had a lot to answer for. I heard the distinct clinks and splashes from Jason and Tara washing the dishes from dinner.

I loved that Jason and Tara had spent to whole day with me, even though I had to admit to feeling slightly miffed when they had both gotten into my small yellow car when I went to Merlotte's to ask Sam for my old job back. It was hard to try to explain to everyone where I had been for a whole year and two weeks. Jason, Tara and I had agreed that telling everyone I went to the land of the Fae was probably not the best idea, most people would think me crazy.

I saw the fading pink light of the sun and sucked in a breath. I knew Eric would be here in moments and I had some very important problems at hand. It bothered me that I was attacked by werewolves not a day after getting home. It was all way too much for me right now. To top it all off, if assigning Jason and Tara as my personal guard wasn't enough to watch me, Alcide had just left. Apparently things had changed very much. The new King Bill Compton had asked Eric to send Alcide to protect me also as it seemed I needed a were protector.

I was staring at the wooden floorboards of the porch and lost so deep in my thoughts that it took me some time to realise I was no longer alone on the porch swing. I screamed and felt my heart miss a beat when I saw Eric sitting beside me. He grinned and raised an eyebrow at me. "Hello, Miss Sookie." He said and he bent forward so fast that his lips brushed mine before I had a chance to react.

"Oh, no." I snapped as I pulled away. Eric chuckled. "You have some serious explaining to do here Sir."

"Really? I can think of MUCH better things to do with my mouth and tongue then talk." He taunted, watching my mouth.

"You had Jason and Tara follow me around all day?"

"It was Jason's idea. He wanted to be here." Eric frowned and then he stood. "I had better send him and Tara home." He walked inside and I felt like tearing my hair out. Did he honestly think he was going to get out of this simply by walking away from it? Well I certainly was not going to let that happen, not on my watch. Eric had to realise that he may be a vampire but when it came to me he had to take responsibility for his action. With my head high, shoulders back and jaw set I jumped off the porch swing and stormed into the house, making sure the fly screen door slammed behind me.

I marched into the kitchen where the other three were having some kind of discussion. It was almost homey, Eric, Jason and Tara sitting around the small round kitchen table, two with iced teas and one with a bottle of true blood. The soft amber glow from the kitchen light threw soft shadows around the room. I almost burst out laughing at the apparent normalcy of it all.

"Sookie, come sit." Eric motioned to the only empty seat, conveniently situated between Jason and Eric. I made no move to sit, I simply folded my arms. Eric lifted a brow, how I envied that... more than once since meeting Eric I had sat in front of my vanity mirror and had tried for endless hours to perfect it. He kicked the chair out from the table with his foot and nodded to the chair.

"Please, Sook." Jason said and I looked at him. "We need to talk." I felt as though my stomach had heaved itself into my chest and had set itself on staying there. I didn't like the underlying tone in my brothers voice. I walked over to the seat and slowly sank into it. I couldn't hold it in any longer so I blurted "are you drinkin' true blood?" Eric eyed the deep red bottle, almost in revoltion and then returned his gaze to me. "I thought you hated true blood."

"I do." He answered and felt confused.

"So why drink it?"

"Because human blood tastes all about the same as true blood now." I gulped as the understanding of that statement sank in.

"Oh, my God." I breathed. "It's true. What Mab said. You only want my blood."

"Let's get one thing very straight here, Sookie." Eric said as he leaned in close. "Yes, your blood is what I crave" he eyed me over and I saw Jason's hand twitch for his gun out of the corner of my eye. Eric must have seen it too cos in less than the blink of the eye he had reached over and pulled it close to himself. "Even though I desire your blood I am not going to drink it." He reclined back in his seat "at least not unless you give me permission to do so."

"Why not? You had no trouble drinking it without my permission while Russell was there. Or do you need a King present to encourage you?" Ok now I knew that was below the belt but I felt like I needed reparation for that act, or at least a heartfelt apology. I saw a fire flash behind his blue eyes and I knew had struck exactly the right cord I had been looking for.

"You had to know that I didn't want to do that. It was the only for Russell to follow me out into the sun. You know that don't you?"

"Why did you go out there? You knew my blood wouldn't keep you from burning, but you did it anyway." Eric got a haunted look that almost made him look human and I saw a muscle twitch in his jaw. He was a long time in responding.

"I had to be done. Russell had to die, it was either that or die." He chuckled. "I was going to die anyway, better I take him out with me. Besides I needed to protect y..." He didn't finish but I knew what he was going to say.

"Why?" I found myself asking. I was confused and awed by this side of Eric. It was not at all like the hard, unkind, self appreciating vampire I had originally believed him to be. Eric frowned at me.

"Why, what?"

"Why did you want to save me? Why did you tell me the truth about Bill? If you knew about why Bill had been sent by Sophie-Anne to... what was the word he used? Procure? Me, why did you not tell me straight away? Why did you kiss me when you were about to die? Why did you throw me in the basement of Fangtasia?" At this Tara and Jason arched up but Eric hissed at them. I wasn't finished. "Why did you feed from me without my permission and why the hell did you REALLY buy my house? At last but certainly not least Why do you drink true blood when you really hate it?"

Eric didn't respond. He held my gaze and the muscle in his jaw ticked. A few moments past in silence, Jason leant forward with a wide- eyed expression, clearly he wanted to hear the answers for himself. Finally it was Tara who broke the silence. "Shit, Sook what is this? The spanish inquistion? That's a shit load of questions to throw at someone all at once. Besides the answer to all of them is exactly the same, not to mention totally obvious. Eric. Is. In. LOVE. With. You."

Eric bared his fangs and hissed at her. Tara jumped back away from him, a reaction instilled from her days with Franklin, the psychotic, murdering vampire bastard that had kidnapped and tried to turn her. However she quickly regained her senses and strength from the assurity that she was right. She hardened her features and glared at Eric. "Fuck you!" She snapped. "What don't you stop being a pussy and admit it. She ain't going to start trusting you until she knows the truth. Hell she may even start to open up and love you back if you just tell her."

I looked at Eric and he retracted his fangs. He took a drink of true blood, glowering at Tara over the rim of the bottle the whole time. He said nothing. I could feel his anger simmering under the surface but it quickly subsided. When he was calm he convieniently changed the subject. He turned to me. "Sookie I had Jason stay here today as he can... sense... things now."

"Are you a fairy?" I asked him and he shifted his weight. He ran a hand through his hair and responded with "i'm gonna need a beer if I'm gonna get into this." Then he stood and pulled a bottle of beer out of the fridge. It hummed loudly when it opened and I noticed sadly that the ice box was starting to melt.

"I'll replace that." Eric said and I looked at him. Part of me was thrilled with the idea and another part resented it. Was he trying to suggest I was too poor to replace it?

"It was Grans." I murmured, tears stinging my eyes. I really had to stop being so over emotional. I focused my attention on the table and I saw a large hand cover mine. For a moment I thought it was Eric, but when I followed up the length of the arm I discovered it was Jason.

"I miss her too, Sook." He said and I felt the dam of tears break and I was wracked with sobs. Jason pulled me to him and wrapped his arms around me. "Everyone's gone." Jason said as he rested his lips on the top of my head. Somewhere off to the side I heard sniffling and I held my arm out to Tara. She moved to Jason and I. Jason wrapped his free arm around Tara and the three of us simply held each other, grieving for those we had lost and what we would never get back.

A few minutes passed and we finally disentangled ourselves from each other. Eric had a strange expression on his face, one I couldn't recognise. It was moments like these I wished I could read vampire's minds. I would really like to know whether he was angry, uncomfortable or any other emotion for that matter. It was hard to guess what he was thinking.

"It was my Grans and I don't want to replace it. It seems every day something else of hers is destroyed and I lose another piece of her." I tried to explain. Eric kept his face completely stoic. "I don't expect you to understand."

"You need a new fridge." Was his reply. What the hell did Tara see in this guy? I was obviously missing something. He still seemed cold hearted and cruel to my eyes. "Keep that one in the laundry room for drinks and things but you definately need a new freezer. That one is about to die."

"How do'you know that?" Jason asked and Eric smiled.

"I can hear it in the motor." It was as if he were psychic. It was at that moment that I heard a loud BANG and the three humans in the room reacted. I jumped, Tara flattened herself against a wall and Jason dropped and rolled under the table as though a bomb had gone off. Eric remained calmly on his seat, drinking the true blood. He finished it, got up to rinse the bottle and then he threw it in my recycle bin. "I will have a new one sent tomorrow." He said as he stepped up to me. "In the meantime you should empty that one." He nodded to it.

Tara and Jason regained control of themselves and sat back down at the table. "What were we talkin' about?" I asked and Jason continued.

"I ain't no fairy." Jason replied and I turned to him.

"Well then, how can you sense things?"

"I'm..." He looked at Eric who motioned for him to continue. "I'm a were panther."

"Shut the fuck up." I said but Jason's face remained placid. "How? What exactly is a were panther?"

"I guess its kinda like a werewolf but on the full moon I turn into a panther."

"How did this happen?" I asked.

"Member that girl Crystal?" He asked and I nodded.

"Yeah."

"She turned me, her and her MOTHERFUCKING fiance'"

"She had a fiance'. Damn Jason how do you manage to chase down that kind of trouble?"

"How do you, Sook?"

"Sorry." I replied sheepishly. "That wasn't called for."

"Anyway, they bit me... it's a long story and I ain't gettin' into it right now." He said and I nodded. I knew Jason better than anyone and I knew that he would tell me when he was ready and I couldn't pressure him. "They turned me and now..." He spread his arms wide and smiled. "Here I am!"

"Yes, here you are." I chuckled " I still love you, even though you are some kind of weird freaky animal now."

"Oh? I'm weird? You're one to talk!" He snapped, jokingly as he pulled me down so he could nougie me. I screamed and flailed, trying to push him away. I hated my older brother... sometimes.

I heard the tinkling song of some old hymn and frowned as I extracted myself from Jason. I saw Eric fish his phone out of his pocket and he took a look at the caller. He snarled and punched the answer button. "What?" He snapped. "I heard the buzzing sound of the person on the other line talking. "Tell him to come back tomorrow!" He snapped. The other person spoke again and Eric became more visibly angry. "No!" There was silence as he listened. Tara and I exchanged curious and dumbfounded looks with each other. "Fine, I'll be there shortly."

He hung up and took a few breaths. Finally he looked at me. "Sookie, you need to get changed into something appropriate for Fangtasia." I frowned.

"Why?"

"Because the new King wishes to see us there." He replied. I suddenly understood his anger. I was already begininng to loath the new and less improved William Compton.