Chapter Twenty:
Eric and I sat silently in his office. I had found my way back to the black leather couch while Eric fiddled around with the paperwork on his desk. The silence had grown to almost an uncomfortable level after Godric had left. I was almost afraid that Eric was going to resort back to the arrogant vampire he was earlier in the night, but I was surprised when he too just kept his mouth shut, working through menial tasks until the office door opened and Pam stepped into the room. Her eyebrow rose as she sent me a look, her eyes rolling at my dishevelled appearance. I knew I was covered in dirt and blood, not to mention the tears that still stained my cheeks. I had tried to wipe away what I could, but the dirt and blood had dried and grown hard and I knew I was going to have to scrub my skin raw tonight before curling up in bed.
"What is it, Pam?" Eric spoke for the first time in nearly twenty minutes, a sigh escaping his lips as he gazed up at the blonde.
"The vermin are growing restless and bored." She planted her hands on her hips and glared down at Eric. "You haven't stepped out of this office once tonight except to rescue the little princess over there."
"I'm not in the mood to entertain humans tonight." Eric rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Flash a smile, give them a little fang, I really don't care. Just make an appearance, Eric."
"Not tonight."
"You can go." I surprised everyone by speaking softly.
Both sets of eyes fell on me, boring right through me. I fidgeted nervously as I fought the urge to look away and instead looked Eric dead in the eye.
"You can go out there, I'll be fine." I shrugged. "It's getting late anyways; I should probably just go..."
"No." Eric suddenly snapped, shaking his head as he stood and moved around his desk. He ignored Pam as he came to a stop only a foot in front of me, his tall form towering over the couch. "I promised Godric I would keep an eye on you."
"I'll be fine. I'll just call a cab home and..."
"I said no, Savannah."
"You do know that you can't order me around, right?" I raised an eyebrow.
"You sobbed all over me tonight." He leaned forward, resting both hands on either side of me, trapping me between the couch and his looming form. "You owe me."
"I owe you just because you felt a bit uncomfortable?" I scoffed. "That's not fair."
"I didn't ask for you to cling to me." He hissed, his gaze darkening. "So you're just going to sit there and not say another word until I'm ready to leave."
I frowned, not liking his attitude at all. Where had the kind and gentle vampire gone?
"And if I said no?" I asked defiantly.
"I have means to ensure that you do." a smirk slid across his lips. "Do we have an understanding, Savannah?"
I wanted to push him away; I wanted to storm from the room and never look back. But I knew that just wasn't possible. Not only could I not push him away because he was physically stronger, but because a small tiny part of me didn't want to run away, not again. The moment I had realized Eric had kidnapped me, I had been hell bent on going home, on going back to Connecticut so I could continue down the path that I had created for myself. But tonight had changed everything. I couldn't just run back to my apartment, I couldn't just pack up and head to New York, at least not without an understanding of what I was. If tonight was any indication of my power, then I needed to know what I was, and I needed to know sooner rather than later. Because avoiding dead bodies was hard enough, but avoiding not yet fully turned vampires? That was just going to end up being impossible, especially in a city like New York City that I was sure was crawling with both the dead and the undead. As much as I wished I could return to my internship, to the life I had sought out my entire life, I knew it was impossible, at least for now. Once I knew what I was, once I knew how to control my power at least a little bit, then maybe I could escape Eric's reigns.
And yet, a part of me knew that I wouldn't.
Because I wasn't entirely staying here because I was determined to search for what I was. I wasn't just here because of the struggle with my mysterious power. I was also here because of Godric, because the thought of that vampire meeting the sun tore through me in the most painful way. And I also knew that a small part of me was here because of Eric, because I sought answers to the questioning feelings that had begun to grow for both him and his maker. His rare moments of kindness might be few and far between, and he might be a complete jerk most of the time, but my heart still ached for him, my beast still coiled around the vampire's essence whenever he was within reaching distance. It was unexplainable, I didn't understand it, but as hard as I tried, I just couldn't cease it.
"Savannah?" Eric's smirk had twisted into a frown as he slid his fingertips across my cheek, brushing along my bottom lip and causing me to tremble beneath him. "I asked you a question."
"If I said no, I wouldn't really have much of a choice in the matter, would I?" my shoulders slumped in defeat.
"Not at all." His smirk returned as he leaned even closer, his lips just barely brushing across mine. My eyes fluttered close and against my better judgement, my body began to react to the feather light touch. Eric snickered as he pulled away, rising to his full height and trekking over to the open office door. "One day you will yield to me, Savannah. I'll be waiting."
He left without another word, Pam on his heels with a wide smirk on her painted lips as both vampires disappeared into the bar. I groaned, putting my head in my hands at my stupidity. I hated myself for falling for Eric, for my body's reaction to his touch. It was embarrassing and degrading, and my pride certainly took a hit. But you couldn't help who you fell in love with, right?
Wait a minute, who ever mentioned love?
Because I certainly didn't love Eric Northman.
"Impossible." I shook my head, leaning back against the couch and running a hand through his hair. I glanced back at the door that I had never even noticed had been closed and sighed heavily.
Who was I kidding, I was starting to fall for Eric hard, and there was just no stopping it.
I hadn't realized how exhausted the night had made me until I found myself falling fast asleep on the couch in Eric's office. It hadn't taken long after Eric and Pam had left until I was curled up, laying my head on the puffy arm of the couch, and for sleep to tug at my consciousness. It wasn't a peaceful slumber by any means. I was racked with nightmare after nightmare, and yet I just couldn't seem to pull myself out of the terrifying dreams forcing me to relive the events in the cemetery. One nightmare transformed into another and into another and so forth. I tried to fight against the dreams, tried to run away screaming from the vampire that was pulling itself out of its graves using my limbs as leverage, but I just never seemed able to get away. My mind had concocted the terrifying vampire's form in its entirety and it was truly frightening. It wasn't a whole corpse by any means. There were bits and pieces of flesh hanging from the visible bones, muscles and joints clear to the naked eye. It was disgusting and terrifying all at the same time. In one of the dreams, I found that I had no voice to scream with, no fight in my body as the fangs of the vampire sank into every flailing limb viciously.
It wasn't until I felt my body being shaken that I was jostled from the nightmares, from the endless pit of dreams. My eyes flew open, a gasp sounding from my lips as I snapped up into a sitting position, my heart racing so fast that I was almost not able to catch my breath. My eyes darted around, searching for the corpse of a vampire waiting to sink it's fangs into my body, but I was only met with a pair of deep blue eyes staring down at me in concern.
"Savannah?" a frown was settled on his lips as he leaned over me, his warm hand curling around my cheek. The moment his bare flesh touched mine, a sigh of relief escaped my lips, my eyes fluttering back closed as the warmth began to spread through me with such intensity, it was able to shock my heart back to its normal pace. "You were having a nightmare."
It was more of a statement than a question, but I nodded anyways. I inhaled and exhaled slowly until my breathing had returned to normal and I was able to open my eyes to meet his gaze.
"They were endless." I breathed out, my voice barely above a whisper. "The nightmares, they were just continuous; I couldn't escape them."
My hands began to shake in my lap, the shaking soon spreading to the rest of my body as I remembered not only the nightmares, but the events from earlier in the night.
"You're safe now, Savannah." Eric's voice was unusually soft as the backs of his fingers caressed my cheek. "You're safe."
I nodded and just stared into those masked blue eyes. He was trying to keep whatever emotions at bay, to mask them from appearing to me. I wondered what the blonde was thinking at that moment, but I wasn't going to press him for details. He was acting so unlike himself, like he had been acting earlier before Godric had left, and I didn't want it to stop. I found that I liked this softer side of him, it reminded me of Godric. Maybe he wasn't entirely hopeless. Maybe Godric had taught him more than either of the vampires actually realized. Eric wasn't the hard ass he always tried to be. He would never admit it, and the moment someone pointed it out to him, I knew it would vanish like it had never existed. But it was there, it was lying beneath the jackass persona he kept up, just waiting to make an appearance.
"Sorry." I found myself mumbling as my cheeks began to grow red and I looked away.
"Why are you sorry?" his eyebrows furrowed together.
"You always seem to be the one who has to deal with...well me."
"Does it earn me brownie points?" that hard exterior began to crack, the smirk slowly slipping across his lips.
"This isn't some game."
"It is to me." he shrugged, his hand dropping to his side as he stood. "You're fascinated with my maker."
"So this is all just some competition with Godric then?" I frowned and risked a glance up at him.
"I'm not a patient vampire, Savannah, and I like sharing even less."
"Someone wasn't taught manners."
"I was a Viking in my human years, we weren't known for our civilized behaviour." His smirk widened.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head.
"Come on, sleeping beauty, the bar has closed." He held out a hand to me.
I raised an eyebrow and eyed his hand suspiciously. He stood there impatiently however, and after a moment he let out a frustrated sigh. I quickly slipped my hand into his, and the moment our hands intertwined, I felt that link reconnect, as if it had never been broken. My frown deepened as I stared at our locked hands as the vampire pulled me to my feet. Eric glanced down at our hands in interest for a moment before the expression was masked and the smirk was plastered across his face once again. Before I could even utter a word, the vampire had swept me up into his arms and was racing from the room at vampire speed. I let out a very embarrassing girlish yelp as I clutched onto the vampire as he exited Fangtasia before shooting up into the night sky. My shriek was even more embarrassing than the yelp as I squeezed my eyes shut and clung to Eric's leather jacket as if my life depended on it. And at the moment, it did.
Eric's hold never loosened however, the entire trip to my house, and before I knew it, the vampire was slowly landing on the familiar concrete steps. I slapped at Eric's chest as he nearly dropped me on the ground, forcing me to grasp onto the iron railing to keep my balance. I glared up at the vampire who was instead staring up at my brick townhouse in disgust.
"You live in a shit hole." He mused.
"You've mentioned that before." I patted my pockets before realizing I couldn't remember collecting my thing from Eric's office.
"These belong to you, I believe." Eric dangled my phone and two folded up bills in front of my eyes. I quickly snatched them out of his grasps, looking them over to ensure no damage had come to either the phone or money. It was then that I realized there was a third, and quite possible the most important, item missing.
"Where's my keys, Eric." I narrowed my eyes at the vampire, clutching the money and phone to my chest almost possessively.
Eric snickered as he slipped his hand back into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out my ring of keys. I went to grab at them, much like I had done with my phone and money, but Eric was having just too much fun getting on my last nerve tonight, and decided to hold his hand high above his head and out of my reach. I didn't bother to make a fool out of myself by jumping around the vampire to grab at my keys. I just stood there glaring at him, knowing that my lack of reaction would annoy him more. But Eric never cracked as he just smirked down at me in utter enjoyment.
"Eric!" I stomped my foot on the ground like a child. "Stop acting like an immature five year old."
"You're one to talk." He snorted with an eye roll.
"Just give me my keys, Eric. I've had a long night and you promised Godric you would behave."
"I am behaving." He insisted, lowering the keys just a touch, but still keeping them out of reach. "I'm just...bargaining."
"Bargaining for what? Sex?" I grumbled in frustration. This wasn't the night that I wanted to play games with Eric. All I wanted to do was take a nice long bath, curl up in bed and hope that the nightmares wouldn't return. I knew I wouldn't be that lucky, but one could hope. I didn't, however, want to stand out here for the rest of the night and argue and play around with an annoying, immature vampire. How could he act so sweet and caring one minute only to act the complete opposite the next?
"I want you to yield to me willingly, Savannah, not because I forced you." He shook his head. "Oh no, I want you to invite me in."
"Oh hell no." I immediately refused. "I'll stand out here all night and wait until my mother comes home before that happens."
"Wouldn't she just love to know why her daughter is covered in dirt and blood?"
I knew he was right, that would raise my mother's suspicion, and all of the neighbours if any of them happened to wake up and glance out their front windows. I didn't want my mother and the nosey neighbours to know the truth, to know that I had been kidnapped by vampires, only to want to stay here on my own free will because of my damn confusing feelings for them. And I certainly didn't want anyone to find out about my mysterious powers, at least not until I could understand them a little better than I did now. And even then, I knew I would have to keep it a secret for the rest of my life. Because dealing with the dead just wasn't normal, and it would never be considered normal, not even by my own friends and family, that much I knew.
But I wasn't ready yet to invite Eric in. Godric I might bend my strict no vampire rule for. I had done it in Connecticut and I would do so again here. But there was no way I was going to invite Eric in, over my dead body.
"You saw what happened tonight." He decided on a different approach once he realized his first attempt hadn't worked. "You saw how you reacted once you and I were touching."
"It would have been the same with Godric." I shrugged as if it was nothing. But it was something, it was something huge.
"But it wasn't Godric, it was me. And you're precious Godric isn't here right now and I am." Eric took a step forward, trying to close the gap between us.
"I'm not having sex with you." I backed up into the iron railing.
"I never asked you to." his raised his free hand up to stroke my cheek with the backs of his fingers. The power inside of me roared to the forefront at his initial touch before falling silent, as if used to Eric's touches now. And sadly, I was becoming just as used to them as my inner power was. I would never admit to liking his warm touches however, never out loud anyways. "Do you remember that first night we met? You couldn't keep your eyes off of me."
"How could I forget? It's the night that ruined my life." I shot back at him, though deep down inside, I knew that wasn't true at all. That night had awakened something inside of me, and while it was terrifying and unknown, it was also exhilarating and almost intoxicating.
"You and I both know that isn't true." He shook his head, his smirk growing into an easy half smile. "And now I'm the one who cannot keep my eyes off of you."
"That's only because of what I am."
"I don't even know what you are." He pointed out.
"Maybe, but the power I possess is still the reason you haven't bored of me yet." I tried to put distance between us, but it was impossible as his tall figure loomed over me. I had to crane my neck up just to get a good view of his upper chest. "The only reason you even care about me is because you're trying to figure out how you can use me as some sort of power advantage in the future."
"Perhaps you're right." Eric shrugged. "And perhaps I'm just intrigued by you because of who you are and not because of the power that inhabits inside of you."
"I find that hard to believe."
"It's the truth." He grew even closer, if it was even remotely possible.
I rested my hands on his chest to keep whatever gap between us that I could, but it was just no use. Eric grasped onto both of my wrists with one large hand and pressed me against the railing with the rest of his body. I tried to struggle, but my body was beginning to betray me. It liked the way that his body moved against mine, the way that his rippled chest pressed into me. I could feel just how happy he was to be in this predicament and a soft moan escaped from my lips. I hated myself for this. I hated myself for not being able to control my own urges and desires around him. What was wrong with me?
"You're mine, Savannah. That power of yours, it's mine. This body, it's mine as well. And your sweet blood..." he lowered the hand that held my keys to the side of my neck, his thumb running over my pulsing vein so lightly, I almost didn't believe that he was touching me at all. "And I will have you, my little mystery. One day soon, you will yield to me, you will give yourself over to me completely."
"Y-you don't know that." I managed out breathlessly.
"Oh but I do." he lowered his lips down, brushing them against my neck, his tongue flicking out to tease the skin just below my ear. I let out another moan, this one louder and more embarrassing for me to hear. But I couldn't help it. That was my sweet spot, my one true weakness. And he knew it too. He worked that small path of skin, pulling it in his human teeth, marking me without even the use of his fangs. And all the while, I loved it. I was barely even able to hold myself upright, and I was thankful that Eric's body was pressed against mine. I couldn't think, I couldn't speak, I could barely even breathe. My eyes had fluttered shut and I was complete putty in Eric's hands. "You'll forever be mine, one way or another."
I shuddered at his words, but I wasn't in the right frame of mine to argue or agree. Eric laughed, a rich laughed that sent a shiver right up my spine as I let my forehead rest against his rumbling chest. His grip on my wrists began to loosen until he no longer had to hold onto them. He even put the smallest inch of distance between our bodies, as if waiting for me to follow, to give meaning to every one of his statements. And I did. My body moved with his, my hands had a mind of their own as they slid around him before clasping behind his back. I pressed myself against him like he had done to me and a sigh of content escaped my lips. It wasn't just the desire that I felt for this vampire that caused an uproar of warmth and calm inside of me. It was the fact that I felt safe. I felt safe and comforted, just like I had with Godric every time he embraced me. But this felt different, this felt more alluring than with Godric, but it felt just as nice, just as good.
"You want me, Savannah, just as much as I want you. When will you finally just admit that to yourself?" He laid a single kiss over my pulsing vein before he straightened and laid his large hands on my shoulders. He slowly began to pry me off of him so he could clasp a finger under my chin, forcing our gazes to meet. "Invite me in."
I was still hesitant. I was afraid of what would happen if I invited him into my sanctuary. Would I yield to him? Would I finally just let the vampire ravish me like I've been wanting since I first met him?
"I won't seduce you, I won't even look at you if that's what you want." his thumb brushed across my cheek as he spoke. "Your nightmares vanished because I was there, isn't that right?'
"Yes..."
"And I was able to calm you earlier, when you were nothing more than a sobbing mess."
"Well yes..." I couldn't exactly deny that.
"Then until dawn, let me do so again." he offered.
"Why?" I asked in wonder. "Why would you do that for me?"
"Is it so peculiar to think that I could possibly care?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Honestly? Yes." I nodded, beginning to regain my composure again. "You don't strike me as someone who cares. You didn't even want to try and comfort me earlier."
Eric frowned as he stared down at me. "You were crying."
"So?"
"I don't do human tears."
"You don't do human tears?" I snorted. "Do they scare you, Eric? Do the human tears scare the big bad vampire?"
"Don't mock me." his eyes narrowed slightly. "I'm trying to be...nice here, Savannah. Don't make me regret it."
"I thought you weren't nice."
"Usually I'm not. Usually I don't care about a girl's virtue, usually I would glamour them into pleasuring me all night every night until I tire of them." His grip tightened on my chin.
"So why am I so different?"
"I don't know." He admitted, looking as perplexed as he sounded. "I wish I knew, but I don't."
"It's just my power."
"No, it's much more than that, Savannah. You're much more than that. If it was just what you were, then I would have just left you on your doorstep. I wouldn't have cared like apparently I do." his frown deepened. I don't think he liked the fact that he cared about a human girl. "Do you think I want this? Do you think I want to think about you day in and day out? I could have any human that I could ever dream of, and instead, I'm fascinated by you."
"I think I feel insulted by that..."
"Don't." he shook his head, lowering himself down until our gazes were level. "You're more than just another breather that stepped into my bar. I can't figure out why, and that infuriates me. But I will discover what it is that draws me to you. One day I will understand you, and when that day comes, you will yield to me, you will be mine in whatever way that I wish."
"You say that now."
"I say it in certainty." He drew closer, his lips pressing against mine his, his tongue sweeping across my lower lip as if tasting me being pulling back away, leaving me absolutely breathless from just a simple kiss. "Invite me in, Savannah."
"I..."I had to blink a few times to regain focus. What was I supposed to do? Part of me knew that he was right, that even his mere presence was enough to ward off the nightmares and demons. But I was scared to let him in, and I knew it wouldn't just be my home that I would be inviting him inside of, but also my heart. And I wasn't so sure I was ready for that, not yet at least. "I can't. Not tonight."
Eric sighed as he straightened and let his hands fall to his side, though not before tossing me my keys in defeat.
"I'll grant you this one night. But the next time I ask, I won't be as kind." He warned.
"Maybe the next time you ask I'll be ready to let you in." I replied softly, my gaze falling away as I couldn't take staring into those endless blue pits.
"Maybe." I felt his feather light touch on my cheek before a sudden gust of wind blew my hair back away from my face.
I glanced around, looking from one side to another, only to find the street completely empty. I sighed as I leaned against the iron railing for a moment, my eyes closing as I inhaled sharply. I wasn't so sure I would be ready the next time Eric asked, but I knew what my answer would be, I knew it without even a second thought. I may not be ready, but I knew in my heart that I wouldn't be able to keep myself locked away from Godric and Eric forever.