6. Progress and Pain

He was all business when she appeared in the doorway. She had stared at the bites on her neck and tried to find a way to cover them, finally accepting defeat with her current wardrobe... until she realized that she had a turtleneck in her winter clothes. She put it on, satisfied that it covered the bite marks.

She was surprised to find that it was a struggle to let her hair down and leave it. It swayed to her knees, and she turned to make sure that the bottom of it was properly straight across.

So as she walked into the room in a brown turtleneck and her hair down, she felt almost queasy with fear. He was a vampire, and no matter how charming he was one minute, she knew now that he could turn on her instantly. What if he had killed her instead of stopping?

He looked at her appraisingly. "I have a suspicion of what may have happened to your sister," he told her, walking up to her as she sat down after he indicated a chair at her dining table. He came up behind her and she felt his hands moving her hair.

"You do?" she demanded, starting to turn.

He turned her back forward, draping her hair over her shoulder.

"I've learned that Liam, Malcolm, and Diane were invovled in a human trafficking ring."

He found what he was looking for, and she gasped as he ripped the neck of her shirt down the seam. Then he ripped it completely off. He dropped the bit of cloth in her lap casually and leaned against the table in front of her.

"They were operating it, apparently, out of my bar. Which, by the way, infuriates me." He said it as casually as if he hadn't just ripped her shirt up and then informed her that her sister was probably a sex slave.

"You will let me handle this, Alexis," he told her.

"But I-"

His fangs snapped out and his eyes glittered at her.

Her stomach twisted in a knot. "Yes, Eric."

"I mean it, Alexis. You endanger yourself with this foolishness of rushing off to try to get information that I can simply glamour out of people."

He sat on the table and leaned toward her, bracing his forearm on his knee. "I'm trying to make sure you know I'm getting something done. Don't betray me by abusing the information I'm giving you."

Her eyes met gorgeous green ones and confusion rose as she was assaulted by fear and lust at the same time. She was glad that he had washed her blood off of his face, but some of it still dotted his shirt. She reached up unconsciously to cover the bite on her neck.

"I am going to protect you," he told her. "And if I can, I will find your sister." He took her hand off of her neck and ran his finger down her palm. "But you have to cooperate with me, Alexis. You have to obey me immediately. If I tell you to run, I don't want to have to threaten you to get results."

She stared at him in consternation. His touch, despite being cool, was causing reactions in her body that she'd never even know it had the potential for. He raised her hand to his face and took a deep breath, as if he could smell the blood in her veins.

She jerked away from him and he let her go, a knowing smile on his face.

He leaned forward. "Do you think you can do that, Alexis?"

She opened her mouth to answer, but she had gotten distracted.

He leaned over just a bit more and she felt his lips and tongue on her neck, lapping at the bite on her neck. She wanted to flee. She wanted to... do things she hadn't even thought about for years. His hand curled into her hair.

"Say it," he murmured.

"Yes, Eric," she said, breathless and only half aware that she was clinging to him again.

"Good girl," he whispered, and then he was kissing her and she was dragged up against his body as his tongue and lips made her forget why she had objected to him in the first place.

"I have to go," he told her, pulling away. "I have more work to do tonight to find out what exactly is happening with the humans in my bar." His cool fingers ran down her neck. "You are mine, Alexis Gudersson."

OoOoOoO

She went to work the next day in a turtleneck. She couldn't yet bring herself to admit she had become a 'fangbanger'. But to her surprise, she felt guilty doing it. That night, her hair came out of its braid again in the night. Friday night, she put the band on tighter.

Saturday morning, she woke up with her hair loose from its band again. Frustrated, she worked out and tried to figure out what to do with herself. Finally, she got in her car and drove to Bon Temps. She got out at Merlotte's and went inside.

"Hi there," Sookie greeted her with a smile. "Your hair looks pretty like that," she added.

"I just wanted to stop by and thank you for getting me in to talk to Vampire Bill," she told the pretty blond, feeling dowdy beside her.

Sookie sat down across from her. "You're welcome. Though if I had known you were Eric's, I probably would have warned you that Bill wouldn't get involved."

"I'm not," Alexis said. "Well, he says I am, but-"

"But people aren't property!" Sookie finished for her.

"Right," Alexis smiled gratefully. Someone got it.

"They're all like that," Sookie told her. "I swear it's some kind of genetic disorder that comes with vampirism or something."

"But then you find yourself talking just like them," Alexis lamented.

"No kidding," Sookie said with a grin. "It's contagious, I guess." She pulled a pad out of her apron. "So what'll you have?"

Alexis gave her order; some iced tea and a medium-rare burger.

She got out her book and tried to read, but she couldn't even focus well enough to make out individual letters. She stared at the wall and wondered if Mormor had known, or guessed, that she would be so attracted to Eric.

"Upside down," Sookie told her as she placed the iced tea on the table.

"What?" Alexis asked blankly, blinking at her.

"The book. It's upside down."

"Oh." Alexis sighed. "I can't concentrate on it anyway."

"Sometimes when I'm without Bill all day, I find myself trying to decide if I should file my nails or paint my toenails. That's when I know it's time for a nap so I can get up in the evening and spend a whole night with him."

"That's a terribly complex decision, though," Alexis said, deadpan.

Sookie smiled. "I know it."

She went on to another table, and Alexis was glad she had come to thank the other woman. She hadn't realized how lonely she had become without Mormor until she got to have a simple, nonsensical chat with someone that wasn't life-or-death.

And waiting for Eric was harder than she had ever imagined possible.

She ate and paid, then got back in her car and went home. She paced around the house, and cursed herself for being too tidy. If only she had something to clean. Finally, she decided that she had struck on the right idea. She opened the door to the attic and went up into it. There were multitudes of old boxes up there, and tons of dirt and dust. If that didn't keep her busy until Eric brought news of his investigation, she didn't know what would.

She went to her room and braided her hair. Covering it in a bandana, she went back up into the attic. Four hours later, she heard someone climbing the ladder. She turned with a smile, expecting Eric.

It was a man wearing a black mask.

"Where's the money, bitch? Where are the jewels?"

She backed away. How had they gotten past the alarm system? There were two of them, the second coming up behind the first.

"There aren't any jewels and there's no money," she told them.

"What's with all the fancy security and alarms, then?" the second one asked her.

"My grandmother died and the executor of her estate promised her he would protect me. This is his way of doing it," she answered. "That's it."

"Bullshit," the first one snarled. He grabbed her and she fought for all she was worth. He punched her in the face and she tried to bite him.

He threw her down and kicked her. She heard a rib crack. "Where are the fucking jewels?" he yelled, kicking her again.

The second one grabbed her head and slapped her so hard across the face that she felt blood trickle down from her nose. "Where's the money, bitch?"

"There is none, I swear," she said, fighting back sobs.

"You lying bitch," the first yelled. He kicked her and kicked her again.

A moment later, his buddy pulled him off. "Tell us where the money is, or the jewels, whatever, and we'll leave," he said.

Gagging on her own blood, she sobbed. "There's nothing. I swear-"

Blow after blow landed on her and she lost consciousness.

OoOoOoO

He couldn't find her. He looked in her room, and looked in the artifacts room. Her room was in complete disarray, but the artifacts room was undisturbed. A sick feeling began to roll through him and he went from room to room at lightning speed.

They were all rifled through, as if someone had been searching for something and not found it.

He stood still and strained his hearing, hoping he would catch even the slightest motion. Maybe she had found a hiding place. Her car was in the garage, so he knew she had to be there, somewhere.

The faintest sound reached him. A thready, weak heartbeat touched his ears, and he levitated so that his own footfalls couldn't drown it out. Ghosting down the hallway, he passed it by. Confused, he turned around. It was there.

Above him. He rose.

The heartbeat was dangerously slow. He looked around and saw no reasonable reason for the sound to be where it was. So he did the only thing left to him: he punched through the roof into the attic.

The lack of light did not effect him as it did humans. He saw her broken body lying against some boxes, her body temperature also dangerously low.

"Alexis," he breathed. How she was still alive, as badly as she was beaten, was impossible to guess.

"Eric?" she said, her voice gurgling. "Didn't tell them about your father's chair," she whispered, the coughed with a pained, strangled sound. "Alarm was off. I never turn it off..."

He opened his wrist and held it against her lips. She didn't fight him, or even react. At first, he heard only the gurgle of her breathing, then she swallowed once, a whining, keening, agonized sound following it.

He let her head fall back slightly and felt her throat. Her trachea had been kicked in, she could barely breathe or swallow at all. Knowing it would hurt, but not as badly as death, he pressed so that it snapped open. Then, steeling his heart against the whimper of pain she gave, he let more of his blood pour into her mouth.

She coughed and spume flew from her mouth. A moment later, she lost consciousness and he swore, focusing his energy to seal his torn wrist. Looking around, he found the hatch down into the house and lowered her through it. Then he changed his hold on her and walked out of the mansion. Reaching into his pocket, he activated the alarm—too little, too late. He swept into the air with her and flew at full speed to Bill's mansion.

He walked into the room where Sookie was sitting on Bill's lap. They leaped up and stared.

"Oh my god, what happened?" Sookie demanded.

Eric looked at Bill. "I need your help. We have to save her."

"How did this happen?" Bill asked, biting his wrist open to let his blood run into Alexis's mouth.

"It's my fault. I left the alarm off last night. I go sometimes when she doesn't know and watch her sleep."

Sookie looked at him like he'd grown two heads. "Who are you, and what have you done with Eric?"

"Very funny for a faerie," he snapped.

"Glad you think so," she said, pert as always.

Bill withdrew his wrist from Alexis's mouth. "Her wounds are extensive," he said.

"And she has already had my blood," Eric answered. "I fear she may not make it. I wonder how she was alive at all."

"If she lives, you're going to tell her that you've gone all weird stalker-vampire on her, right?" Sookie asked.

"No," Eric told her. "Neither will you."

"You have to tell her why the alarm was off."

"I will tell her that. In my own time, in my own way," he growled at her.

She threw her hands up. "Can you reason with him?" she asked Bill.

He shrugged. Then he looked at Eric. "He's a big boy. He can handle his own affairs." He straightened up and said, "Can we not do this again anytime soon? Especially with one that terrified of us."

"What?" Sookie demanded. "How can she be terrified of you? She was looking for you."

"I believe she has been attacked by a vampire and then inadequately glamored. She does not remember the event, only the fear it created in her."

Alexis groaned and sat up before Bill could question him further, and Eric was grateful for the distraction—as well as knowing that she was alive.

"What happened?" Bill asked her.

"Thieves. But they just thought I had money or jewels," she said. "Oh god, I feel like I've been run over by a semi." She put her hand to her head and swayed.

"You were badly beaten and almost dead," Eric told her. Sliding his hands along her neck, he caressed her cheeks with his thumbs. Closing his eyes, he pressed his lips against her forehead. He opened them again when he felt moisture on his thumb and realized she was crying silently.

"What is it, little doe?" he asked her, tilting her face up.

"I lost my glasses and I don't want to go home," she whispered softly, her voice ashamed.

"Sookie will take you tomorrow and you will get contacts," he told her, pulling a credit card out of his wallet and handing it to Sookie. To his relief, she took it without argument—for a change.

"But I-"

He almost snapped his fangs at her, but he knew she was over-wrought. Instead, he kissed her lightly on the mouth. "Say it," he told her between kisses.

"Yes, Eric," she said, defeated.

"She can stay at my house," Sookie said. "And Bill even had a cubby put in, so you can stay with her, if you want."

"Thank you Bill," he said to the king, then "Thank you Sookie," to his wife. He accepted the keys Sookie held out to get into her house.

"You're welcome. But try not to get her killed there, please. I'm not sure I could take it."

He picked Alexis up and flashed across the lawn and over to Sookie's house. Opening the door, he went inside. He looked at her and was surprised to find her eyes shining and a smile on her face. He had never seen her look so unreservedly happy before. He raised and eyebrow and smiled.

"You're like an amusement park ride," she told him. "You should sell tickets."

He grinned at her. "You haven't seen anything yet. Just wait until you get to ride me for real."

He was pleased when she gasped and turned red, burying her face in his neck. "I didn't mean it that way," she objected.

"I did," he told her, unrepentant.

But he found himself regretting one thing. He had wanted to win her over completely before giving her his blood. He never wanted her to doubt whether her feelings for him were real. He had already felt her responding, seen her turning to him on her own. But once she learned what his blood did to her, she would never believe him.

"Do not go to work tomorrow," he told her. "You are still too badly injured."

"But I-"

He scowled at her. "Must you say that every time? Can't you just say 'Yes, Eric'? Ever?"

He laid her down on the bed.

"Well, I just-"

"No."

"But it's-"

He snapped his fangs out and cut her off.

He felt blind terror rise in her, then subside. He hadn't realized just how strong it really was, and snapped his fangs back in.

"Yes, Eric," she said meekly.

He kissed her and fought the demon inside him that wanted to devour her and taste that exquisite terror.