Chapter 9: Silver and Sunlight
Before we had settled in for the night, Sookie had insisted on our showering. I had worked shampoo into her long blonde hair and rinsed it before using my long fingers to scrub her from head to toe. Naturally enough, that had evolved into more lovemaking that ultimately required us to cleanse ourselves all over again, but by the time the water turned cold, we were damp but immaculate. We crawled back into Sookie's bed, still naked, and she asked me to stay with her until sunrise.
We lay nestled together in the moonlit bed, Sookie spooned behind me, an arm flung around my waist and her breath warming my back with each exhalation as she slept. I might have been able to close my eyes and fall into rest myself despite the time of night, but instead I was lying there enjoying the experience of Sookie being wrapped around me. I smiled in the semi-dark as I felt her emotions, subdued but still coursing through her dreams, flowing in generally happy ways: Lust. Surprise. Happiness. Pleasure. Love. Her dreams must have been good ones.
The sudden pain came from another direction, jarring me from my blissful immersion in Sookie. Pam: Agony. Disbelief. Fury. Bitterness. I opened my eyes in the dark and then carefully, reluctantly slipped out from under Sookie's cradling arm.
The cell phone was in the kitchen, plugged into a charger. When I picked it up, a message warned that there were five messages awaiting Sookie's attention. I didn't know how to access Sookie's messages – and was reasonably sure she wouldn't want me to listen to them, anyhow – but I could scroll the list of names that had called, apparently while we were too distracted to hear the phone. Jason. King Bill. Pam. King Bill twice more.
I called Pam's number by using the redial function.
"Sookie, you got my message?" Pam's voice was harsh and I could hear the undercurrent of pain in it when she answered.
"No," I replied. "I am answering your other kind of call. Are you alright?" I felt Pam's brief moment of surprise that I was the one on the phone and then her immediate relief.
"As alright as I can be after having my flesh stripped from my body," Pam growled. "But Dr. Ludwig assures me the treatment will at least keep me from getting worse. But, Eric, that's not important right now. Did Bill call you?" I could feel Pam's distress through our connection. That Pam's urgency about King Bill outweighed her own pain made my spirits sink. Whatever the news was, it had to be grim.
"It looks like he tried, but we were … otherwise occupied and didn't pick up."
Despite Pam's pain I felt the amusement roll through our connection. "I wondered if that was what I was feeling. You'll have to tell me when the crisis is over what it was like for you to finally fuck your fairy, but for now, you need to get as much silver as you can –"
"What? Silver for what?" I interrupted, confused.
"The witch. She's loose. And Bill thinks she may try to pull another suicide by sunlight spell, just like Logroño."
Pam said the last bit as if I was supposed to know what she was talking about, but that particular piece of general information wasn't in my head. "Uh, what happened at Logroño?"
"I am going to kill that fucking witch for what she did to you," Pam hissed with frustration. "Four hundred years ago, a witch in Logroño, Spain, cast a spell that made all the vampires in the region rise during their day rest and meet the sun. It was a fucking vampire genocide."
Well, fuck. "And King Bill thinks this new witch may do the same thing?"
"He's concerned enough about the possibility that he has ordered all vampires to leave the state if possible, and those who can't are expected to go to ground in silver for the day to prevent our walking into the sun." Pam groaned, obviously still in pain from whatever treatment the doctor had ordered. I winced; going to ground in silver on top of that was not going to be easy or pleasant for Pam.
"Do you have someone to assist you?" I asked.
"Ginger is here. She will take care of me. You worry about yourself. I suspect Sookie doesn't keep silver on hand, so you may need to go to Bill." Pam paused for a second before continuing. "When he called to give me instructions, I asked if he was going to arrest you again. He said he had no plans to do so at this point, so I think you will be safe approaching him in this. " She snorted. "Of course, he's probably hoping you will end up walking into the sun, which will save him from having to get his own hands dirty. If he put you back in his cells, he'd have to keep you safe. At least until he got another execution warrant from the Authority. Just be careful in dealing with him, Eric."
Filing Pam's advice away, I wished her well before we hung up.
"Eric?" Sookie stood in the doorway of the kitchen, wrapped in a short ice-blue bathrobe. "What's going on?" She was still quite sleepy and I felt her concern. "I woke up and you were gone. It's only five-thirty in the morning and I didn't think you'd need to go back to your cubby just yet."
"Sookie," I said, turning to my confused lover, "Do you have any silver?"
~*E&S*~
After Sookie listened to the messages – one of which was from Jason, telling Sookie that he had gone back home after figuring out he wasn't going to turn into a werepanther, a bizarre expectation I couldn't even fathom – she responded to the missed calls from King Bill. He insisted on coming over in person to explain the situation and bring silver, although Sookie, her face flushing hot, asked him to give us a short period to prepare (i.e., dress) first.
Sookie had changed into a pair of white shorts, a red cotton sports bra and a thin white cotton top, and I had just pulled on one of my new plaid shirts and a pair of jeans when there was a knock at the door. It wasn't yet six a.m., so we still had an hour and a half before sunrise, but Sookie fairly sprinted to open the door.
I heard her greet the King as I searched fruitlessly for my shoes before remembering they were still in the woods. Given the circumstances, I hoped the King might be willing to forgive my bare feet despite the lack of proper decorum. I padded into the living room and bowed as I acknowledged him. "Your majesty."
"I don't know why you let Eric go," Sookie began joyfully, "I'm not sure I wanna know but – I'm glad you did." I felt her genuine gratefulness for my release pour through me. It also struck me that since she had once been the King's human, he might still feel it as well, should any blood bond remained between them. That was somewhat awkward – but if Sookie and I became One, all other blood bonds would be eradicated, so I wouldn't face a future of my ruler always knowing what my beloved was feeling. Assuming I had a future after today, that is.
"It appears the reunion was, uh, a happy one?" the King asked politely.
"Yes. Very much so," I said with equal politeness. Given Sookie's elation, I figured there wasn't much point in dissembling, as the King would be able to feel Sookie's responses anyhow. Indeed, he most likely already had, just as Pam had known Sookie and I were now lovers.
"Eric, shush!" Sookie said, and it didn't my quick glance in her direction to realize that she was embarrassed by my frankness. She wasn't embarrassed of me, that much I could feel, but she didn't want to rub our changed status in the face of the King. Which was probably just as well; until we were One, I wasn't going to feel entirely secure in my relationship with Sookie. He could still find a way to separate us if he chose to do so.
"Thank you," I concluded, turning my eyes back towards my regent. Appropriate gratitude for his having given me my night with Sookie – even if he was going to haul me off again in future – seemed the most politic choice. His eyes did not meet either mine or Sookie's and it made me wonder exactly what he was hoping to come of this day. I was grateful for Pam's reminder that I needed to tread carefully where William Compton was concerned.
Sookie was staring at the sizeable black velvet bag the king held at his side. "Is that the silver?" she asked. "Bill, I still don't understand how silvering Eric is going to help with some spell."
"Not just Eric, Sookie, all vampires in our area," King Bill said. "Sookie, may we?" He gestured to the living room and Sookie nodded. When we entered the room, the King placed the dark velvet bag on the coffee table and sat in one of the chairs, while Sookie and I took seats side by side on the couch.
Then the King continued. "Eric no doubt does not remember this in his condition, but in 1610, a sorceress named Antonia Gavilán de Logroño in Spain was burned at the stake for her witchcraft. She was a necromancer, Sookie; a witch who could control the dead through magic. As she was being burned on the stake, she worked a powerful spell that forced all the vampires within 20 miles to rise from their day sleep and walk into the sun. They all burned along with Antonia."
"Why kill all the vampires?" Sookie interrupted. "What did they have to do with this witch being burned at the stake?"
"There would have been vampires among the priests that controlled the Church of that time and place," King Bill explained. "They would not have taken kindly to a necromancer working in their midst. They would have had the witch executed promptly because of her threat to our kind, probably under the guise of protecting other humans from her dark magic."
"So these Shreveport witches are like that Antonia? Necromancers?" Sookie asked.
King Bill sighed. "Sookie, we have reason to believe that the head witch of the coven, a woman named Marnie, has somehow been taken over by the spirit of Antonia Gavilán. I interviewed this Marnie myself and determined that she did not have the power or knowledge necessary to be a threat to vampires. But somehow, while she was waiting to be further examined, the spirit of Antonia appears to have possessed her. The witch was able to influence one of the Sheriffs and use him to kill one of my guards. The witch has not been seen since."
While Sookie had been listening to King Bill, I had seen by her face that she was mentally putting together some conclusion. Even so, I was not expecting it when Sookie stated, "She's a medium. That Marnie woman. It has to be how she could have the spirit of that Spanish witch inside her."
"How do you know this, Sookie?" I asked in surprise. King Bill looked equally astonished.
"I went to her store, Moon Goddess Emporium, to see if I could find anything out," Sookie replied. She reached out and put one hand on my knee. "I thought maybe I could find out something about the spell she put you under," she said. "But I didn't find out much besides that my Gran thought she was dangerous."
"She channeled your grandmother?" King Bill asked.
Sookie flinched internally, but her face didn't reveal whatever it was that bothered her. "Not channeled, exactly, no. Marnie started passing on messages from my Gran to me, but I could actually hear my Gran's voice speaking in her head. When my Gran told me she was a dangerous woman and that I was to run, I did exactly that."
I looked at Sookie. While she was speaking, I had felt an ache in her heart as she remembered the incident. She was holding something back and whatever it was, it was not a good thing. I wasn't going to ask in front of our guest, though.
"You went to Moon Goddess by yourself? Sookie, how could you do something so foolish?" King Bill's jaw was tight.
Foolish but brave. And Sookie had done it for my sake? Before we had become lovers? I was deeply touched. I placed my hand on top of the one that rested on my knee and squeezed.
"Bill, never mind that right now. It's done and I was fine," Sookie said. I could feel her irritation with his majesty. "So, if Antonia is in Marnie, you think she might try to get all the vampires to walk in the sun? Like she did in 1610?"
"Yes," the King said.
"I can't believe a witch could make vampires do that," Sookie said.
I remembered my first memories in the candlelit witch store in Shreveport: the circle of hostile faces around me, the power that had left the stink of ozone in the air, the abyss of emptiness left inside me after the chanting. "Well, I believe it," I said heavily.
"Of course, it would be safest if Eric were to come with me, but the choice is his." The King looked at me, waiting for my decision.
If I left with the King, I might be safer – for a while. But who knew what he would decide to do with me once circumstances had changed? And if I was facing the True Death when the sun rose in a few hours, I'd much rather spend my last hours with Sookie than a bunch of strangers in the royal mansion.
"I'm not leaving," I said, rubbing the back of Sookie's hand with my thumb. I felt a small knot of tension in Sookie relax.
The King nodded. "I thought not. I'll leave you with this then." Reaching for the black velvet bag he had brought with him, he dumped out a large pile of silver chains, all of a heavy gauge, onto the coffee table between us.
"Are you kidding me?" Sookie burst out. I could feel her horror as she regarded the quantity of silver the King found necessary to subdue me. Remembering the discomfort that mere handcuffs had caused, I was regarding the pile of links with trepidation.
"If we do not chain ourselves, then we will all meet the sun together. I am going home where Jessica and I will do the very same thing," said the King. He rose to leave, looking at Sookie as he added, "If you care anything for him, you will do this. Or it'll be his last day on earth."
In the hallway, the King had final instructions for Sookie. "When you place the chains on him, I suggest you lay them across his ankles, across his waist and wrists, and then on the throat. It should be sufficient to hold him but will limit the number of silver burns if not the severity."
Sookie shuddered. "Thank you. I think." My lover looked and felt grim.
The king nodded his goodbyes as he left.
The moment the door closed behind him, Sookie came to me and pressed herself against my chest, her arms wrapped tightly around me. I could feel her trembling and I kissed the top of her head. "I'm sorry to have brought this burden on you, Sookie," I whispered.
She looked up into my eyes. "Protecting someone I care about is never a burden, Eric."
I pressed my lips to her forehead. "If you put the silver in the bag for me, I'll carry it down. It looks too heavy for you."
Sookie pulled away from me reluctantly and went back to the pile of silver links in the living room. As she worked them bit by bit into the dark bag, I felt her apprehension. When she was done, I bore my chains down into the dark of my cubby.
~*E&S*~
I was lying on my bed preparing for my imprisonment when I felt Pam's pain, but I tried to focus on the fact that it meant she was doing what she needed to do to be safe. And then Sookie began to place the silver on me and my progeny's pain became only a faint counterpoint to my own.
Sookie had placed the silver restraints across my ankles and the air was full of the smoke from my burning flesh. I grunted as Sookie continued to lay the heavy links across my waist, pinioning my arms at my sides. Even I had been shocked at how much silver it had taken before I began to feel the weakening effects. The pain was unspeakable and in that moment, I was glad that Sookie and I were not yet bonded in a way that made her share in my suffering.
"I must be pretty strong," I gritted through my extended fangs.
"You're the strongest vampire I know," Sookie responded.
"It's like I've – I've been – drained," I choked out.
"I know," Sookie said before bending to the floor to gather up another length of metal. This would be the worst of all – the links that needed to be placed around my throat. "I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice full of regret.
I groaned and cursed, closing my eyes for a moment, unable to bear the sight of the silver which Sookie intended to place on my neck. She had the chain looped several times against itself so that it would form a thick collar against my flesh.
"I've lost too many people in my life," Sookie said, her voice choked with emotion and tears beginning to dampen her eyes. "I can't lose you, too."
I felt her reluctance to cause me pain struggle with the need to hurt me in order to protect me. She could so easily have allowed me to take my chances with the unknown power of the spell. I took heart in the knowledge that she loved me enough to fight for me even when the circumstances were hard. "I understand," I said, nodding my agreement for her to add the silver to my neck. I raised my chin to let her easily place the thick coil of links against my bare skin.
I couldn't help but scream at the pain as smoke wafted up from my throat. Sookie suppressed a tearful sniffle and tried to gather her self-control. "It'll be dawn soon," she said. "I hope – no, I'm sure this is enough."
The silver at my neck had drained me to the point I could barely keep my eyes open. My voice was as weak as my body as I tried to ignore the relentless pain. "Will you…please stay with me?"
My bed was not truly designed for two, but Sookie coiled up against me on the narrow space available. She kissed my face tenderly before placing her arm across my chest and putting her head beside mine on my pillow.
Having Sookie beside me comforted me somewhat, but I quickly realized that silence left me too attuned to the feel of the silver melting its way into my skin. I needed to be distracted.
"Normally –I would be pleased – to know I am a strong vampire," I labored to say. "But – I'd give up some strength – to have less silver on me," I feebly joked.
I felt Sookie smile just the tiniest bit. "The only vampires I met that were stronger than you were Godric and Russell Edgington, but they're both gone now. I wonder if that makes you the strongest vampire left in Louisiana?" Her hand absently began to brush my hair from my face.
Fuck.
So much had happened so quickly since the king had released me from my would-be execution that I had forgotten all about the news about Russell Edgington.
"Sookie," I grated out. "Russell Edgington — is not dead." I heard her heart leap in her chest. "Pam told me—that King Bill and I did not kill him – but that we imprisoned him. Chained him in silver—and buried him in cement." I was finding it more and more difficult to speak as the poison of the chains pressed down on me.
"W-Why? Why would you do that, Eric?" Shock. Fear.
"I don't know," I whispered. "I just want you to know the truth— in case he ever escapes." I closed my eyes for a moment, exhausted. I opened then again when I realized what I was feeling from Sookie was anger. "I'm sorry, Sookie," I murmured. "I wish I could explain—what I was thinking— but I just don't know."
"Eric, I know you don't remember," Sookie said, her hand stilling on my cheek. "But Bill told me that he had ended both Russell and you that night. I knew he hadn't killed you when you showed up on my doorstep, but it never occurred to me that he might not have killed Russell either."
"King Bill seems to spend a lot of time – trying to kill me," I said with a faint lift of my eyebrow.
"Well, not since that night, I'm sure," Sookie declared with confidence.
I stiffened in surprise. She didn't realize I had nearly been executed just 24 hours before?
She frowned as she felt the tension in my body. "Or has he?" She leaned up on her elbow to look into my barely open eyes at very close range.
"Last night…" I was too weak to go on with the details for a moment. "They stopped my execution. Just barely."
"They who? You mean Bill?" I could hear Sookie's heart pounding at how close I had come to death.
"No…the Authority. Wouldn't give the King permission." I grinned a little. "Lucky for me." I moved my head just the tiniest bit to press my lips against hers very lightly. "If I meet the True Death today, I will die happy because of you."
"No, you won't, Eric Northman," Sookie said sternly. "You be happy if you live, not if you die today." I could still feel a hot core of anger from her.
"Why so angry with me, Sookie?" I asked.
She pinched her lips together before beginning to press them in light kisses across my face. "Not you, sweetie," she said. "Don't worry about it. We'll talk about it later, when this is all over."
After we had fallen quiet for a moment – which was allowing Sookie's anger to continue to percolate – I suggested, "You could tell me about Jason thinking he was going to become a werepanther."
Sookie groaned and settled in to tell me the story, her hand resting across my unbeating heart. It proved a good distraction for both of us.
~*E&S*~
Being under silver was excruciating. The corrosive metal had burned its way into my flesh wherever it contacted bare skin and I could feel where links had embedded into the angry red furrows they caused. It was best not to move in order to keep the half-buried links from shifting against the raw edges of my wounds. Fortunately, I was too weak to want to move anyhow.
Sookie and I talked off and on, but I was finding myself too exhausted and worn down by pain to think clearly after a while, so I gradually grew less and less responsive. As the agony wore on, I began to wonder why I was making myself suffer like this when there was so little guarantee that it was necessary. Or, if a spell truly was coming, if our preparations would even save me. This could all be a wasted effort.
I hated to think that if I ended up meeting the sun anyhow, my last hours with Sookie would have been spent in such endless pain and helplessness. If I was going to die today, I'd much rather spend it free and enjoying myself with her, not restrained like Prometheus waiting for the eagle to come and eat his liver.
Sookie had stayed curled against me for hours, one hand always touching me, either caressing my face or resting on my chest. As time had gone on, I had sensed her increased discomfort, which she finally confessed was a need to use a bathroom. She had been reluctant to leave me even for the few minutes necessary, but I had insisted once I realized.
My ears had been leaking blood as I fought my need for day sleep and when Sookie rose to go upstairs, I could see my blood had smeared all over the front and sleeves of her shirt where she had nuzzled against me.
While she was gone, I made my decision to broach the subject of not just lying here, waiting for my fate.
She had returned quickly, and settled back into her space beside me, her head sharing my pillow, her hand once again resting on me. She felt much more comfortable again.
"What time is it?" I asked.
"It must be past noon by now," Sookie answered.
"The spell hasn't come," I observed, my eyes closed in fatigue. "It may not come at all."
While the thought made me feel as if my suffering might be pointless, I felt Sookie experience a little leap of optimism at my words. "Maybe not," she said hopefully.
I opened my eyes. "Sookie – do you think you could – remove the silver?" I suggested.
She was shocked I would ask. I both felt the emotion and heard it when her heart skipped a beat. "I can't take that chance," Sookie insisted. "There's still a half a day of sunlight left yet. If I let you meet the sun, I'd never forgive myself." Her hand clutched at the fabric of my shirt as if she would hold me back using her own strength if necessary.
Longing to put the anguish behind me, I whispered, "King Bill said the witch is very powerful. So who knows? I – I may meet the sun anyway. I'd rather you didn't remember me – like this." Weak. Pathetic. Oozing blood. Helpless.
"There was one other time I saw you under silver," Sookie said, seizing the opportunity to redirect the conversation away from my request. "You were in a church full of people who hated vampires. You said you'd give yourself up in exchange for Godric – and for me." I felt the surge of her love for me. "Didn't sink in at the time, but even then, you were willing to die for me."
I noticed the shift in how she referred to the vampire I was with my memories – not as if I were some other person, 'the real Eric,' but as if she was finally thinking of him as me. I wasn't quite sure how to feel about that.
"And still, you didn't love me," I stated, unable to hide the hurt the thought gave me.
"There was all that other stuff that kinda blotted it out for me. I'd rather not think about it." Sookie shook her head as if to clear away the bad memories.
"But you love me now?" I could feel her feelings, but I wanted – no, needed to hear her say it.
She didn't hesitate. Stroking my cheek, she whispered, "Yes. I love you," before touching her lips to mine.
"And I love you," I answered. "If I do not survive today, Sookie, know that I truly loved you." In my intensity, I tried to lean closer to her, heedless for that moment of my chains, and gasped with pain as my silver bindings chafed my wounds.
"Shhh, I believe you," she said, urging me into stillness again.
"I wish – you could feel my feelings for you," I grated out. "Then you wouldn't just believe – you'd know."
"I'd love to feel your feelings for me," she said, cupping me cheek as if to soothe me. "Maybe it would be more fun to be an empath than a telepath; at least I wouldn't hear the nasty words that go through people's minds, and I'd always know what they were really feeling, which has to be easier than knowing their thoughts."
I was quiet for a moment. "Will you set me free—so I can show you how much I love you—since you can't feel it?"
Her hazel eyes met my blue ones solemnly. "Eric, I would love to have you show me how much you love me. But it's because I love you that I am not letting you out of the silver. I want to keep loving you as long as I can, and I will fight to keep you alive. You hear me?" She kissed me on the mouth this time, with more passion than gentleness, but careful not to disturb my position much. "Even if it means fighting with you."
~*E&S*~
It was sometime in mid-afternoon when I heard a car approach and then footsteps on the front porch.
"Someone's at your door," I said in a low voice to Sookie.
"Be right back," she assured me, jumping up and hurrying towards the ladder to the upstairs.
As she climbed quickly up the steps, I heard a key turn in the front door and then a male voice call out, "Hello?" The footsteps moved from the dining room towards the living room. "Sookie?"
I heard Sookie's tennis shoes beating across the floor as she ran to greet whoever was here. "Hey. I'm a little busy. What's up?" my lover panted.
"I was gonna come and tell you the good news that I didn't turn into a werepanther after all," said the male voice. "I left a message for you last night but never heard back."
Jason, Sookie's brother.
In the distance, I could hear a rushing sound, like a mighty wind.
"Yeah, actually I asked. It doesn't work like that, but it must be a relief," Sookie said rapidly. I could feel her happiness for her brother warring with her anxiety for me.
"It is." I could hear the confusion in Jason's voice. "But what the hell's with the blood?"
The sound of the wind drew closer.
"It's kinda complicated. Eric's under silver and I got a little bit of him on me," Sookie said with increasing urgency.
"What?"
Now the rushing window had begun wuthering around the house, and even though I was below ground, far from windows and doors, I felt a hot air current swirl down the shaft towards me, ruffling my hair. I could feel the magic behind it, dark, menacing – and very, very powerful.
As the wind in the cubby rose and began to churn around me, I faintly heard Jason ask Sookie what was happening and her response. "There's a witch spell coming. It's supposed to make all the vampires walk out into the sun."
The spell was not coming; it was here.
As the wind howled around my chamber, I felt my body strain—against my will—against the shackles binding me. I couldn't help but scream as the acid-like links cut into my raw flesh and the alien force within me relentlessly tugged against the destructive metal. The white-hot, molten pain and my own screams drowned out whatever Sookie said to her brother until I heard her shout, "Go on! I'll be fine!" Within moments she was back down in the cubby with me, and had jumped up onto my bed.
The sun. The sun. I could think of nothing else, want nothing else, and as Sookie put both hands on my chest and leaned her full weight onto me to hold me down, I couldn't help but shout my need to her. She needed to free me, now! "To the sun! The sun!" I bellowed in frustration and pain. "Sun!"
"No! Eric, please! Hold on!" Sookie yelled into my face as the magical wind whipped her hair wildly.
"Take off the chains. Take them off!" I demanded, my fangs fully out, as I struggled against my bonds.
"Listen to me! You'll die if you go out there!" Sookie tried to reason with me.
"I don't care!" I roared at her. " I. Don't. Care!"
"Well, I. Do!" Sookie shouted back at me, her eyes filling with tears.
"Sookie! Let. Me. Go!" I growled.
"No! I won't let you go! I won't! I can't!" She was sobbing now and I could smell the saltiness of her human tears.
"Sookie, please!" I strained upwards and I could feel her fighting to maintain her position on me and yet avoid my fangs. I didn't want to hurt her, but I had to reach the sunlight. If only I could find a way to throw her weight off –
And suddenly the roaring wind faded to nothing. Sookie's hair, which had been swirling around her head like a halo, fell down around her tear-streaked face. The cubby grew silent except for the sound of Sookie's weeping.
"Eric?" she whispered, her hands still pressing firmly into my chest.
I stared at Sookie, suddenly aware of my fully erect fangs. Jesus, had I tried to bite her?
"Sookie?" I choked out. "Did I hurt you?" I was trying to scan her body for injuries, but I couldn't see anything and the only blood I smelled was my own.
"No! No, you didn't hurt me," Sookie said, biting her lip. "Are you okay?" I felt her concern for me and felt both ashamed and grateful that she could care so much when I had been threatening her with my fangs just moments earlier.
I fell back onto my pillow, aware that my wounds seemed worse. I knew Sookie had stopped me from going to meet the sun, but the memory was hazy and dream-like.
"I think so. Are you sure –I didn't hurt you?" I studied her anxiously as she finally shifted her weight off my chest to kneel on the bed beside me.
"You didn't lay a hand – or a fang – on me," she answered. "I'm so glad we had you chained up, though, or I never could have stopped you –" She stopped, her voice choked with emotion, and wiped her eyes with a hand. "Too strong for your own good, you big old Viking."
"You saved me," I whispered. "Thank you, Sookie."
"I love you," she replied. "I love you, Eric. And you've saved me, before, too." She bent down and kissed me. I felt her love flow towards me and despite the escalated pain of my deepened wounds, I felt calmer.
"It may not be over," I said with regret. "I should stay chained up."
"You bet you will," Sookie said firmly. "Eric, do you think you'd be okay if I ran upstairs and grabbed something out of the fridge? I just realized I haven't eaten since yesterday and if I have to try to hold you down again, I don't want to fail just because I've been stupid and didn't eat anything."
"It's fine. I think – I need to rest," I said, closing my eyes.
"I will be back lickety-split," Sookie said, giving me a quick kiss before scrambling up the ladder again.
I had actually dozed off for a bit when she came back, smelling of peanut butter and bananas. As she snuggled in beside me again, I opened my eyes. Even the little bit of rest had done me good; I felt less worn out. "You're not afraid to be so close after what happened before?" I asked with surprise.
"Of course not." She kissed my cheek. "Even when you were shouting at me and showing those big fangs of yours, I felt like you weren't going to hurt me to get what you wanted. I can trust you, Eric. I know it."
"I love you, Sookie."
"I know," she said, soothingly. "Why don't you try to get some rest, sweetie?"
"In a bit," I replied. "I just want to be awake with you for a while longer." I closed my eyes. "Maybe you can tell me more about Jason. Have I ever met him?"
"Well –" She drew the word out as if considering what to say.
I opened an eye to see if there any clues to why I felt hesitancy from her. Had I had a bad relationship with her brother? Had I done something to him as I had to the mysterious Lafayette?
"You met him when he was using V," she finally confessed. "Although he hasn't done that in a long, long time. At least, not as far as I know."
Sookie's brother had used vampire blood? That was a very serious crime.
"Did I – torture him?" I asked reluctantly, but I knew that V use and distribution merited very harsh punishment under vampire law.
"No! No, you never did anything like that," Sookie replied. "You just had a little talk with him and I think he had enough bad experiences with it that it made him quit." She was quiet for a moment. "Eric, can I ask you something about you all's blood?"
"Of course, Sookie." I was starting to get sleepy at last. It was very comforting to have Sookie curled up against me.
"Jason once told me that when he did V with his girlfriend, they had some kind of shared vision where it was like they could see things and feel things together. How is that possible?" She tilted her head up to look at my face. "I mean, I understand how drugs can make a person high, but how can they make two people have a shared experience like that?"
"Our blood is magic, Sookie." I looked into her hazel eyes. "I mean that literally. When humans take vampire blood into their bodies, they are ingesting magic. If people take vampire blood together, that magic can take them places."
"Real places?" Sookie put her head back on the pillow, listening to me.
"Yes and no," I answered. "Not physical places, no. But astral places, mystical planes. It's more than just imagination. It's magic." I fell silent again.
"No wonder y'all are so protective of it." Sookie began stroking my chest. "I thought that was just because it can heal people and you wouldn't want people to try to – I dunno – drain you all in the service of medicine or something." Sookie's hand stilled as a yawn caught her unaware. "Do you think it would be safe if we slept a bit? I think the night and day are finally catching up to me."
"I'll go to sleep if you give me a good day kiss," I said with a little smile.
Sookie chuckled, but she leaned up and delicately gave me a more thorough kiss than I had been expecting, before settling herself back into the curve of my body. "Good day, Eric," she said softly. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
And we both drifted off.