SPOV
"Stay here with Pam and Godric, I have some errands to attend to." Eric ordered. I knew that he was keeping some things from me; I also knew that that wasn't atypical.
"No, Eric. I need you here, with me." I said sheepishly. It had been a very difficult week, and though I was healed physically, I had this innate urge to keep him close to me. I could feel his emotions, and they were all over the place, but the overwhelming feeling I got from him was need. There was something deep within him that was calling him to action; I had no idea what it was.
He looked at me with the most caring expression. Still, I knew that he was going to do whatever it was he needed to do.
"I will only be away from you for a while, I swear it." He stated firmly.
"Why do you need to go?" I asked, hating that I sounded so needy. He sighed audibly, and took my hands and led me over to the sofa. He sat down next to me, not letting go of our clasped hands.
"Sookie, what has happened to you cannot happen again." He said adamantly, and I could feel his firm resolution. "Though Istvan has paid for his crimes, there are still others out there who are complicit. And. They. Will. Pay." He growled. It was a terrifying expression. I actually feared for the person with whom it was directed. I understood, and I was surprisingly okay with his violent need to avenge me.
"How many others?" I asked. Though he and Godric were definitely the strongest vampires I knew, it didn't stop me from worrying about him.
"Just one." He said, and it felt ominous, he actually smirked when he said it.
In that moment, I knew who that one person was, and I almost didn't bother for confirmation, but I needed to hear it. "Who?" I asked tentatively.
"Sookie." He said pleadingly. He didn't want to tell me for fear that it would hurt me. The truth was, I didn't really know how to feel about it. I had a brief moment of relief, relief knowing that I would never have to interact with him again. Then I felt sorrow. I felt sorry for him, he had a horrible maker, and that had to contribute to who he ultimately became right? In his human life, I had no doubt that he was a good, honorable and brave husband, father and soldier, but that didn't entirely carry over into his vampire life.
The old philosophical debate of nature versus nurture, definitely applied to vampires, but for him, the deck was so incredibly stacked against him. It was a vampire's nature to be selfish and look out for their own interests, but to top that off with the sadistic nurturing offered by his maker, made it seem nearly impossible that he would become anything other than a monster.
Still though, when we were together, there were brief moments where his humanity shone through, and I could see the man inside the vampire, it was one of the reasons I fell for him and let him into my life. Maybe I was a naïve fool, maybe he never was honest with me for even a moment of our relationship, but somehow I refused to believe that.
Ultimately, whatever punishment was handed down to him by Eric, he deserved. He had the freedom of choice, and each time where I was concerned, he chose to hurt me. Eric wasn't an overly cruel person, he believed in doling our punishments that fit the crimes, hell, he even showed mercy where no other justification for it could be found. I trusted him, and because of the trust and love I had for him, I wouldn't question him on this, but I still wanted him to say it.
"Just tell me, Eric." I said, preparing myself for it.
He looked at me for a long time, no doubt appraising my feelings, but he ultimately gave in and said, "Bill."
I knew it was coming, I had internally prepared myself for it, I had come to terms with it, but my own tears took me by surprise. I don't know why I wept for Bill, he really didn't deserve my tears, I guess, I just felt disappointed in him because he could have been so much better than he had let himself be. I suppose I wept because no matter what he did to me and despite his lack of honestly with me, I never wanted to see him end up this way. Every death affected me in some way, and maybe his death wouldn't hurt me as much as the loss of my grandmother, but it would still hurt me. Maybe that was a selfish way to look at it, but that's how I felt.
I just shook my head and tried to keep the tears at bay. I knew that he could feel my acceptance of the situation, and he didn't want to coddle me. I had to come to terms with this, and he would let me do that on my own.
"Okay." I said with some semblance of resolve. He took my hand and kissed my palm. It was a show of support, he was telling me that he would be there for me if I needed him, but that he hoped that I could deal with this in my head on my own. I could, and I would, I wasn't a weak minded woman, I understood more about his world than Bill Compton ever gave me credit for. Again, one of the reasons I loved Eric, he just always believed in me.
"I will be back soon." He said standing and making his way to the garage. He stopped to say a few things to Godric and Pam, and he gave me one last loving glance before he left.
Godric came over and sat next to me, he seemed sad as he took my hand in his. "You okay?" I asked him. I hated seeing his sadness; it reminded me of the rooftop in Dallas and my desperation to keep him from killing himself.
"You and Eric are very lucky, you know." He said sadly. "Niall called her back." He admitted after being silent for a few moments. He loved my cousin, that much was obvious, but she was the sun and he was the moon and this was their eclipse and another would not happen for a long, long time.
"She will always love you." I said and reached over molding myself into his cool embrace.
"I know." He said smiling sadly. He broke my heart in that moment. He handed me a letter saying that it was from Claudette.
"You're not gonna kill yourself are you?" I asked in an airy melodic tone of voice, trying to lighten the somber mood.
He chuckled and pulled me into a closer hug. I noticed Pam looking at us with a raised eyebrow, signifying the fact that she thought both of us were loonier than Britney Spears in a Las Vegas chapel.
EPOV
Leaving Sookie was definitely difficult, but it was necessary. I knew exactly what she was feeling, and I also knew that she was embracing the reality of the situation. If we were to be together for the long haul, it was necessary for her to fully understand and accept all that I am; I believed that she was almost there, though her Christian sensibilities seem to be at war with some aspects of my life. I understood that, but at the same time, it was her issue to deal with and I could not influence her one way or the other.
My plan for the useless Bill Compton was to end him, obviously, but I also didn't want to draw it out unnecessarily either. I had Sookie to go home to and she was far more important than pleasurably delaying the inevitable. Did he deserve a long, painful, and humiliating death? Absofuckinglutely. But it also wasn't in my best interest to do that, mainly because I really didn't need the queen snooping around looking for the asshole.
As I entered my empty club, I could hear Bill fighting to free himself from the chains by which he was bound. I had to laugh at that, he was like a caged rat.
"Going somewhere?" I mocked.
"You must let me go!" He demanded. I noticed that his tongue had grown back.
"Oh you will be free." I teased, pacing around him and grabbing my sword off the table that was sat a few feet away from him.
"You will be free of your service to the queen." I noticed him raising his eyebrow in question. The idiot had to know that I wasn't implying that I was going to doing him any favors.
"You will be free of your duties to your progeny." Not that he took his duties to her seriously anyway.
"You will be free of the maintenance to that ramshackle that you call a home." His face began to contort as the realization of what was about to occur washed over him.
"But most of all, you will be free of your pitiful, miserable, self serving, underwhelming existence." I said smirking cruelly. His face dropped and he started to panic, thrashing around in a pathetic attempt to escape his fate.
"You sold out Sookie." I accused.
"I did not!" he refuted belligerently. "I love her, I would do anything to protect her!"
"No! You would do anything to protect yourself!" I said punching him in the face. As the blood ran from his nose, my anger only grew more thinking of all the ways in which he had violated my lover's trust.
"That is not true! I had no control over the Queen or Lorena! You know that!" This wasn't even about his dishonesty about the Queen or Lorena, this was about his culpability in Sookie's kidnapping. This was about him freely providing information about Sookie's heritage to a psychotic vampire.
"And what of your involvement with your grandsire?" I asked casually. Did he really think I wouldn't figure it out?
"I helped you find her! Would I have done that if I desired him to have her? He's a psycho!" he was a drowning rat.
"I think you wanted to be her hero. You wanted to win her back and this was your twisted way of going about it. You betrayed her…Again. She was on the brink of death..Again. It was your entire fault…Again!" I paced angrily. He was seriously trying my patience, and this conversation was getting old.
"Don't you see Bill, your obsession with her is killing her, and as her lover, her protector, her mate, I am duty bound to end you." I swung the sword in an intimidating manner.
"The Queen will end you once she finds out!" He was grasping at straws, desperate to save his own life. What a coward. I thought he was a soldier in his human life? Didn't he have any dignity?
"No she won't. At best, you're an insignificant gopher, at worst, you're a pathetic vampire that can't even corral a small human woman." No one would miss him and his disappearance could easily be tied to his finally dead grandsire.
"Sookie will hate you for this!" The depths of which his wretchedness went knew no bounds. I laughed, knowing that I could currently feel how much Sookie, in fact, did not hate me.
"Be a man, Bill. Don't you want to die with at least a little bit of dignity?" I asked rhetorically.
"Besides, I am doing you a favor by ending you quickly." I said nonchalantly. He seemed to come to the realization that his minutes were numbered. He held his head up a little higher and puffed out his chest. That's right weasel, man the fuck up!
"Any last words?" I said mockingly. It was such a cliché and truthfully, I didn't give a shit what he had to say.
He looked at me for a split second, debating on what he should say. If he told me to tell her he loved her, would spit on his corpse.
"Perhaps this is for the best. I have brought nothing but pain to her life. She deserves better than that." He said swallowing unnecessarily. For once in his life, I agreed with him.
"You will protect her?" He asked, knowing that that is exactly what I was doing.
"She is my life." I said pointedly, swinging the sword to the left of my body. I swung it back about in one solid round, detaching his head from his shoulders. His body erupted in a bloody gooey fountain of dead vampire.
I dropped my sword and headed for the shower. The last thing I wanted was to go home to Sookie covered in the remains of her ex boyfriend.
After everything that both she and I had been through, it occurred to me that we both could stand to experience a little R & R. I had a number of properties throughout the world, but there was one place in particular that I wanted her to see, a place that I knew she would absolutely love.
As I got closer to my home, I could feel her happiness increasing exponentially. That was a feeling that I would never get used to, but cherished all the same.
As I entered the house through the garage, I was engulfed in a sea of blond hair and sunshine.
I held out my arms and said, "Jump!" and she did, jumping into my arms and wrapping her whole body around mine.
"I want to take you somewhere." I whispered to her as she peppered my face and neck with her honeyed kisses.
She paused, looking me in the eyes in confusion. "Like a vacation?" she asked, her accent sounded more pronounced, which I found delectable.
"MmmHmm." I said kissing her pouty lips. "Will you come away with me?" I asked her after removing my lips from her mouth.
"You bet your sweet ass!" She replied. Godric laughed and made his way out of the house, presumably to go stay with Pam, while Sookie and I christened the remaining rooms in the house. And that is exactly how we spent the remaining hours of the night.