Chapter Thirty Eight:

"Marnie's wanting to see you alone before the meeting starts." Holly ushered me inside of Moon Goddess Emporium a few hours later.

"What for?" I questioned cautiously, shooting a glance at the door leading to the meeting room. The double doors were closed, but I could hear a low hum and some chanting every so often. The words weren't English, whatever was being muttered, and that in itself worried me. Nothing good ever came from chanting in some obscure language.

"No idea." Holly shrugged, wandering over to a shelf of herbs. "But she sounded excited earlier. The meet starts in an hour, so why don't you head on in? I have a few things to stock up on anyways."

"Are you sure? Maybe you should..." I tried to convince Holly to join Marnie and me. I just didn't want to be alone in the same room as Marnie. She gave me the creeps. It was bad enough being in a full room with her. But being alone? The last time we had touched, we had shared our magic and had been relatively alone, things had gone south quickly and now I was more powerful, more understanding of what and who I was. And I could feel the dark energy that was swirling around Marnie, and even the shop. It was enough for goose bumps to rise on my arms, for a chill to run down my spine. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I had the worst feeling in my gut that tonight wasn't going to turn out well at all.

But it wasn't like I could just leave, not when I knew Bill had his minions keeping an eye on everything, including me.

"Never mind." I muttered, tugging on the ends of my hair as I moved around the counter and towards the door. Holly shot me an encouraging look before going back to whatever she was doing. I inhaled sharply as I stopped before the double doors, wondering if there was any possible way out of this. I could stall, but Holly would think I was acting weird and I knew Marnie would just keep insisting on us spending time together. I might as well just get this over and done with.

"Shield. Just Shield from her." I muttered under my breath in a short pep talk with myself. I shook out my arms, exhaling slowly before pushing open the doors and slipping into the back room.

My nose instantly scrunched in disgust at whatever was being burned. There were candles throughout the room, the lights otherwise dimmed or turned off. Marnie sat in the middle on her usual pillow. There was a circle of pillows created, but was empty other than the single dark witch. I could feel her dark energy even from this distance. I almost couldn't step forward, startled with sudden fear. Whatever Marnie was diving into, it wasn't good. It was evil and I wanted no part in it. Unfortunately, I didn't have much of a choice.

"Savannah." Marnie's eyes popped open suddenly, nearly scaring the hell out of me. My heart was thumping inside of my chest almost painfully. I tried to calm myself down, but as I forced my legs to finally work and move me closer to the witch, I couldn't help but work myself into a frenzy. It was a little hard to be calm when I knew my life could be in danger every time I was around this woman. "Sit with me."

"I'm, uh, fine standing." I insisted, wrapping my arms around myself.

Or at least I tried to. Marnie however, had other ideas, and wrapped her long, bony fingers around my wrist and tugged me down onto the hard ground in front of her. I cursed under my breath, which she thankfully didn't seem to hear, and tried to tug my wrist from her grasp. I hated touching her. It felt like death was clawing at me, and not the sort of death I found comforting. This was the touch of death that was beyond the gifts I had been given. This was beyond what I was used to. This was dark, and terrible, and just pure evil. Touching her, it felt like it was seeping into my skin, tainting my blood. I tried as hard as I could to shield this darkness from Godric and Eric; we may all be arguing, but they didn't deserve this cold chill, this freezing, almost painful, flow of magic that was flowing through my veins. Unfortunately, as hard as I tried to shield from Godric and Eric to protect me, it left me wide open for Marnie to take advantage of me.

And that, she did.

"Marnie..." I tried to pull my hand away, but she only managed to grasp my other hand in her grip as well. I grunted, frowning as I glared down at where her fingers were pressing tightly into my wrists, almost like she was trying to squeeze the magic out of me. Hell, maybe she was trying to do just that.

It happened in only an instant. One moment I was kneeled there before Marnie, trying to tug my wrists away from her cold grasp, and the next, it felt like I wasn't even there at all. It felt like a jolt of electricity ran through my body from head to toe. I was frozen, numbed to the spot, unable to feel anything. My eyes grew wide, but black dots began to invade my vision. Marnie's look of excitement and wonder was no longer before me, and instead, I was transported to a forest.

A forest I remembered all too well.

I could hear the little boy running. I could hear the calls of his murderer. And then the gun shot. It rang in the dark night, haunting me just as it had the first time I had witnessed the poor boy being killed.

But just as quickly as I had appeared there, I found myself in another room, one with a sick girl lying in a bed, staring up at the ceiling as if waiting for the angels to take her up to heaven.

Before my very eyes, the scene changed again. I witnessed every single life, every single soul that I had ever touched with my gift. From that first time I had ever felt the compel to the dead, to those I had visited in the cemetery only last night. They all flashed before me as clear as day. Their voices, their cries or pleas, I could hear and feel them all. But unlike every time in those cemeteries, every time I touched their soul, when I pushed them towards the other side, it wasn't a calm, comforting feeling that wormed through my veins. It was dark, and depressing, and with every passing scene, with every death, my heart tightened, my lungs restricting my airflow. Soon I couldn't breathe at all, my eyes watering as I struggled to inhale a single ounce of oxygen.

I was thrown back into reality as my vision began to blur, as my hands shook, my chest heaving in panic. A blurry Marnie let go of my hands, but she seemed to be in a state of bliss instead of caring that I was in pain.

"Savannah?"

The voice sounded familiar, but everything just sounded so far away.

"Savannah are you alright?" I felt a hand on my shoulder.

And just like that, one giant breath of air rushing into my lungs, causing me to choke. I coughed, my throat raw and sore as I laid there on the floor of the room, grasping at my throat as I gasped for air. I was relieved when I was able to take a gulp, but still felt shaky and awful. It felt almost like I had gone through a week's worth of the flu. It was unlike the other times Marnie would tap into my magic. She had only grazed over the power that resided inside of me before. But this time, she had penetrated my necromancy with a sharp knife and just kept digging and digging until she was satisfied with what she embraced.

"Are you alright? Savannah, can you hear me?" It was Holly who was knelt beside me, a look of worry on her face.

I had to blink repeatedly, still gasping for air as I was able to nod in assurance. Though I wasn't so sure I was alright.

What the hell had Marnie done?

"Come on, let's get you a glass of water." Holly suggested, helping me up to my feet.

I felt like I was in a daze as she led me over to the small bathroom attached to the room. I barely even noticed that the rest of the coven had filtered into the room while Marnie and I had been sitting there. I could feel all their concerned and confused gazes, but I didn't care. All that mattered was figuring out what the hell Marnie had done. And getting far far away from the witch.

But that would have to wait, because as Holly helped me into the bathroom, closing the door behind us, my legs began to give out and I crashed down onto the toilet.

"Whoa, here you go." Holly helped lean me against the back of the toilet, her orbs filled with worry. "Let me get you something to drink."

I just groaned in response, letting my head fall into my hands. There was a pounding in my head worst than any headache I had ever felt before. My chest still felt painfully twisted and I felt light headed and breathless.

"Here, this might help." I felt a cool cloth being placed in my hand. "You're burning up."

I pressed the wet cloth against my forehead and I realized just how warm I really was. I was so caught up with everything else that I hadn't realized that it felt like my body was on fire. I shuddered, only for the burning to grow. I muttered incoherently under my breath as I closed my eyes and waited for the cool, wet cloth to help. But it didn't. It felt like a fever, only the worst possible kind. And very supernatural.

"Damn it." I sighed heavily, trying to push myself off of the toilet. "I need to..."

"You need to just sit down for a minute." Holly gently pushed me back down onto the toilet before pushing what I believed to be a cool glass of water into my hands. "Drink this hun."

I raised the glass to my lips, but the moment I caught whiff of whatever was actually in the glass, my stomach rolled and I shoved the glass back into the blonde's hands.

"It's an herbal concoction I use whenever my boys get sick." She assured. "It's completely safe. Not the greatest smelling, but it'll do the job."

"I'll stick with water." I shook my head.

"Up to you." She nodded, turning the tap on and filling up another glass with water. I opened my eyes a crack to make sure the glass she offered really was water before taking a long gulp. It helped. For a split second. Before it felt like the water was poison burning my insides.

I coughed, choked, raked at my throat as I fell onto my knees on the floor. My eyes grew wide, nearly bulging out as I tried to force the water back out. It took Holly's coaxing, and a few muttered words before the water found its way onto the floor before me, a sickly red tint to it.

"Maybe I should take you to a hospital." Holly sounded panicked.

"No." I shook my head, wincing at pain shot down my back. "I-I just need to..."

I was stopped by sudden chanting in the other room however.

"What are they doing now?" Holly muttered more to herself than to me as she shifted towards the door and peeked out into the room. By the way her eyebrows shot up into her hairline, her eyes growing wide and her mouth gaping open, I shouldn't have been surprised at all by what she said next. "What in the world is she doing with a dead bird?"

"What?" I croaked out, trying to make it up to my feet to witness whatever was going on. With Holly's help, I managed to lean against the wall, peering out through the small crack in the door, and watched as the circle of witches chanted every single word that escaped Marnie's mouth.

"Guardians of life, shadows of death, we summon thee." Marnie's voice was full of emotion. But it wasn't just emotion that I could feel swirling around her. There was this raw determination in her tone, in her tense form. She was staring at the bird as if her will alone could bring it back to life.

"What are they saying?" I questioned Holly, having a very bad feeling about all of this. Why was she playing with the dead? And right after our incident? Did she know what I was? Was she trying to use whatever magic she had drawn from me to bring this bird back to life? But that wasn't possible was it? Godric never said anything about bringing anyone back from the dead. Sure, I made that vampire rise nights before it was supposed to, but it was already technically dead. It wasn't like I was giving it a heartbeat or anything.

"It's a ritual to try and ease a spirit into the afterlife." Holly explained, though there was a frown settled on her lips. "What is she saying now?"

My eyebrows furrowed together as I listened closely. The others had stopped chanting as Marnie began speaking in a tongue that I couldn't recognize, the same tongue that she had been speaking when I had first walked into the magic shop not too long ago. That sinking feeling in my gut was getting worse. Every fibre of my being was telling me to get the hell out of there, and I was seconds away from listening to it. I just needed to get my legs to work properly first.

"You don't know what she's saying?" I shot Holly a worried look.

The blonde just shook her head before the chanting once again began.

"Restore within her the spirit of life and return her to the plane of the living."

"What the hell?" Holly shook her head. "I've never heard this before."

"I don't like this." I could feel what only felt like a pinprick in my chest. I winced before the pain died down. But then it happened again. And again. And again until it felt like hundred of hot knives slicing into my heart, trying to dig it out along with the magic I possessed. "Jesus Christ!"

"Restore within her the spirit of life and return her to the plane of the living." Marnie's tone was more forceful now.

"Marnie, we haven't studied this." One, who I recognized to be Jesus, commented with a look of confusion on his face.

"You." She shot a look to a form I couldn't make out from where Holly and I stood.

It didn't matter who she was talking to though. Because the pain was growing into pure torture. The agony was sweeping through me in continuous waves and soon, I was back on my knees, my hands curled into tight fists as I fought to keep from crying out.

"Shit, Savannah, are you alright?" Holly was down at my side in an instant. "What do you need?"

"I-I need out." I clenched my teeth together, my eyes threatening to roll into the back of my head. The pain was beyond anything I had every felt before, and unfortunately, I had felt more pain and agony than I would have liked. It was different than all the other coven meetings. I only felt drained of energy and magic then. All I needed was a good fresh cemetery and the dead, and I would be fine. But not this time. I needed my other halves. I needed my triumvirate. I needed Eric and Godric pronto.

"Okay, hang on." She drew her arm around me, helping me up onto my feet as best as she could.

She pushed open the door, most of my weight leaning against her side as she slowly drew us out of the bathroom. The circle barely even shot us a glance, too awed at the sight before them. Holly and I were too, coming to a dead halt as the once dead bird that had been lying in the middle of the circle was now flapping it's wings like the healthiest little being ever. The blood completely drained from my face, and I nearly lost what little food I had digested earlier at the mere sight. This wasn't possible. This wasn't at all possible. It couldn't be.

"Come on; let's get you out of here." Holly hurried us not towards the door leading back into the magic shop, but towards the back exit. She wasn't stupid; she knew being in this environment wasn't helping at all. And maybe she too could feel the darkness, the evil that was looming in the air, thick and almost suffocating. She was full of light, as was the magic that I could sense from her. No one with that kind of energy would want to be around something so tainting and horrific.

The moment the fresh air slapped us in the face, I felt relieved. I didn't feel an ounce of the pain cease, but to be out of that building, away from those witches even just by a few feet, I was happy.

But by the sudden roaring I felt rush through my blood, I knew a certain vampire was anything but happy.

"Go back." I waved at Holly as she helped me lean against the wall of the building.

"I'm not just going to leave you out here." She shook her head, wrapping her arms around herself and shivered. And it wasn't because the temperature had suddenly dropped. "I think I should take you to the hospital."

"Holly, I am so thankful that you care so much, but really, you need to go." I managed out as I wrapped an arm around my stomach, trying to stop the churning. But I only seemed to feel dizzier. "Please, go back inside. Please. You don't need to get involved with this."

"With what?" she questioned with a deep set frown.

"Just please, Holly." I was begging now. "I promise you I'll be fine. Just please, go inside."

I could feel him. The shields I had forced up to protect Godric and Eric had crumbled long ago. Eric felt like a mystery to me, but Godric's rage and concern was rolling through me like it was my own emotions. He was flying, rushing here as fast as he could. He didn't care about the spell that surrounded the building and nearly the entire block. He just cared about me. And I couldn't let Holly get hurt because Godric lost control. He knew this was the witches doing, and if he crossed a single member of the coven, even if it was innocent Holly, I was scared what he would do.

"Please, Holly."

"Okay." She sighed, shaking her head and looking like she didn't was to oblige. But she did, thankfully. "But you call me later, alright?"

"I promise." I shooed her back into the building.

I was relieved when the door closed tightly behind her, my eyes closing as the back of my head rested against the grimy wall. My legs were shaking beneath me, but before I could even stumble, I felt a pair of strong, rock solid arms curl themselves around my form.

"Godric..." I whispered out, not needing to open my eyes to know the vampire was there. There was a faint sizzling smell, however, and that caused my eyes to fly open. Worried sea coloured orbs were the first that I saw before the rising of smoke from his form. "Oh fuck, go Godric!"

He didn't need to be told twice, and before I knew it, Godric had me in his arms and had taken to the sky.

"Where is he?" I moaned, digging my head into Godric's shoulder, searching for relief. It felt like my body was on fire, like flames were licking across my skin in torture. Even pressed against Godric's naked chest, my own shirt discarded on the floor of Eric's office in Fangtasia, I found no escape from the agony. Godric's skin should have felt cool too touch, but instead, it felt just as warm as I did at that moment. His closeness helped, even just a tad, but I knew with our third, everythingwould feel complete.

But that was the problem.

Eric was nowhere to be found.

"I've tried calling to him." Godric sighed, his hand trying to soothe my pain by rubbing my back. Not that it helped, but it reminded me that despite whatever arguments we may have, he'll always be there for me to pick up the pieces.

The same apparently couldn't be said about his progeny.

"Why isn't he here?" my bottom lip trembled as my hands curled into tight fists in my lap. It was pure agony. It felt like hot knives were digging into every inch of my body repeatedly, taunting me to the brink of insanity. Whatever Marnie had done; whatever dark magic those witches had delved into, I was the one being punished for it.

Godric cursed in an ancient language under his breath as he tried once again to call Eric through their bond. I could hear it, the urgent demand. Eric should have responded by now. He should have felt the pain that I did, the agony that had leaked into the triumvirate we shared. So then where was he? What could possibly be so important that he couldn't be here with us?

"Come on, Eric." Godric muttered, running his fingers through my hair, holding me tighter against him. "Where are you?"

As if answering his maker's plea, the door to the office banged open. I peeked through my tangled hair and sighed in relief when Eric's form came into view. There was a look of horror written on his face as he flashed over to the couch and knelt before us. His eyes swept over me, as if looking for injury. But there wasn't a single mark, not on the outside anyways. It was my insides that were taking this beating.

"Savannah..." he breathed out, reaching a hand out as if to touch me affectionately, only to snap his hand back as if he had been bitten. And metaphysically, he had been. He scowled, holding his hand to his chest as his eyebrows furrowed together. "Savannah, I..."

"Where have you been?" I was caught between my boiling anger and wanting to just burst out into tears. I could already feel the wetness in my orbs and I knew it wouldn't be much longer before I broke apart. I could only take so much torture before I found my breaking point.

"I'm sorry." He offered. "I was...tied up."

"Didn't you hear my calls?" Godric frowned at his progeny. "Didn't you feel her pain?"

Eric sighed as he bowed his head, still kneeling before the couch. "I should have."

I glared at the blonde through the strands of hair that fell into my face. My inner beast, clawed at that invisible string that held this triumvirate together. Both vampires hissed in pain, Godric's arms growing tense around me while Eric's head snapped up to meet my gaze.

"I said I was sorry, Savannah." He rubbed the spot of his chest where his heart should have lied.

"You should have been here." That anger was beginning to boil over. The emotions from the past twenty four hours were spilling out of me and all over the two vampires and I didn't do a thing to stop it. I couldn't. I was on overload.

"Hush." Godric tried to calm my fraying emotions. "Let's just get you better, yes?"

I wanted to shake my head and tell Eric to go away, that I didn't want to see him. But I knew that I couldn't. Because the moment he had only just entered the room, I had felt better. The pressure had begun to lessen, the fire surrounding me slowly beginning to die. I knew the moment we touched, the moment the link was completed, that I would finally find my relief. I was stubborn and full of pride, but as the witches continued to dig at my soul, at my magic, I knew I had to swallow that pride, at least for now.

Hesitantly, I reached a hand towards Eric. I chewed on my bottom lip, partially out of fear that he would reject me, but also because it helped to cease the sobs of pain that were threatening to escape. I shouldn't have been surprised when Eric sighed and took my small hand into both of his large ones. His fingers intertwined with mine, grasping as tightly as he could without breaking a bone. The moment his hand touched mine, I could feel it. It felt like ice in my veins, working its way from the blonde Viking, into the bond that we all shared, and flowed through me entirely. Godric let out a sigh of relief as that icy cold feeling seeped into him as well, calming the burning that had accidentally slipped through our blood.

I'm not sure how long we all sat there, or when Eric had eventually moved onto the couch, supporting my back from beside Godric and me. All I knew was the relief, the content that my magic felt. Our triumvirate, the blood, all of the magic that we all shared, it had once again battled away the demonic witches that sought to steal what was mine. No, what was ours. I had known in my heart that it wasn't just the dead that I needed tonight, that it wasn't a cemetery I sought out. I knew it was them. I knew I needed my vampires, my lovers, the two I would forever be connected to in this unbelievable ways. It didn't matter the screams exchanged. It didn't matter the harsh words or the arguments. All that mattered was the three of us, the bond that no one could ever possibly understand.

Eventually, that burning subsided, along with the bubbling uncontrollable anger towards not only Eric, but to everything that wasn't going right in my life. And considering not a whole lot was going as I had planned, I was pretty much just angry with the world. But the longer I sat touching both of my vampires, our triumvirate whole and complete, that anger began to wash away until I was full with content and relief. I knew it was only temporary, but for now I would gladly enjoy it.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner." Eric murmured as he towed with the ends of my hair. "I should have been here."

"What's done is done." Godric assured his progeny. "We cannot change the past. Let's just rejoice that no one was seriously harmed."

"She could have been." Eric frowned, an arm circling around my waist, gripping me tightly. Godric must have sensed Eric's need, as he gently moved me off of his lap and placed me onto Eric's. I didn't argue, enjoying the warmth of his arm, my heart fluttering as I curled against the blonde, nestling my forehead into the crook of his neck. I inhaled slowly, my eyes closing at his scent. He drove me insane, made me want to bash my head in more than once in a day, and I had a feeling he would eventually break my heart; but for right now, he was mine and I loved him undoubtedly. And in this very moment, I knew he felt the same. I could feel it.

"I'm fine." I whispered, moving my head ever so slightly so my lips brushed across his neck. There was a low rumble in his chest, his large hand encasing my hip.

"Keep doing that and I won't be able to control myself." He warned, and I knew he was being honest. I could already begin to feel the swell in his pants, the burning in my body returning, only for a whole other reason this time. There was a yearning in my heart to be close to Eric and Godric, and not just in proximity. We hadn't all been intimate together in far too long. Either I was too exhausted from the coven meetings, or we would be arguing over something or other; that something usually revolving around a mysterious blonde that popped up out of nowhere last night. I didn't dare mention Sookie, and instead, let the burning ache between my legs do the thinking for me.

My lips never left Eric's neck, trailing up the length before reaching his ear. I nipped at the lobe teasingly, my devious smile growing wider and wider with every tense muscle, with every low growl emitting from the blonde. It brought me great happiness to know that I could pleasure a vampire that had been with just about every sort of woman imaginable. He knew things that I never thought were possible. He had more experience than I ever would. To know that I knew exactly how to pull his strings, well it only seemed to cause that need between my legs to grow.

"You shouldn't tease." Godric voice had grown low as he sat watching my seduction.

I sent him the most sensual look I could muster, my hand reaching out to him as I continued to nip at Eric's lobe, my tongue flicking out every so often. Both of Eric's hands rested on my hips as he moved me so that I was straddling his lap, one of his hands sneaking between my legs and to the crotch of my shorts. My breath caught in my throat the moment his finger tips teased me, rubbing against the thin fabric expertly. He wasn't the only one getting in on the fun though, Godric moulding himself around Eric's and my side, his feather light touch dancing across my back and to the clasp of my bra. I shuddered against both of them, feeling my arousal peaking at their teasing touches. They were always able to make me feel things I never thought were possible. I knew I would never find pleasure like this with anyone else in the world. We were connected beyond anything else; when they touched me, it felt like mini orgasms were rolling through my body. They had barely even began when the moans were already escaping my lips, my eyes fluttering close as I ceased my own teasing and laid my forehead against Eric's collar bone. I felt Eric's soft lips brushing across the curve of my neck before the distinct flick of his fangs unsheathed and came to rest over my pulsing vein, the blood pumping beneath the thin patch of skin.

"Bite me." I urged the vampire, knowing he wanted it more than anything. And I did as well. I didn't know what it was about their bites, but it was more pleasurable than painful. It felt like pure pleasure was flowing through my blood whenever those fangs slid into my body, and I knew it was their pleasure I was feeling.

Eric didn't waste a moment, complying almost immediately. A gasp sounded in the room, and I was glad that the deafening music was hiding our activities from the rest of the crowded bar. I would have died in embarrassment if they could all hear us. But then again, in the heat of the moment, I knew I wouldn't care who was witnessing or listening to our love making. It didn't matter. All that mattered was the pleasure; the sheer bliss I knew was inevitable.

What drew out my first orgasm however, wasn't from either vampire's touches, but the moment that Godric too slid his fangs into the other side of my neck. I was in heaven; I was in a blissful, orgasmic heaven. I didn't even feel in control of myself. I felt like I was having an out of body experience, just floating there as fireworks erupted from inside my body. From the growls both vampires were making, I knew they were feeling everything that I was. Their grasps tightened, their fangs digging deeper into my neck, not enough to hurt, but just enough to show their possession. I was theirs. There may have been doubt. There may always be arguments between us all. I may never get rid of the ugly green monster residing inside of me. But one thing was for certain; we would forever be a triumvirate. There would just always be the three of us. No one, not an ounce of time, would ever be able to alter the connection, the link that we all shared now.

I wasn't sure how long the pleasurable high lasted. It could have been mere minutes, or it could have been hours, maybe even days. Hell, time was the last thing on my mind. But eventually, the orgasm did start to subside, the fangs slowly retracting from their possessive marks on my neck. Neither went to cover the small holes with their blood, to heal me in any way. They were marking me, making sure everyone knew that I belonged to both of them, despite whatever we may all be going through right now.

"That was..." I let out the breath I never knew I had held in. I felt breathless; my heart racing in my chest to the point that I thought it was going to leap right out of my body. I leaned my sweaty forehead against Eric's shoulder, the blonde nuzzling his nose into my hair. Godric was slowly rubbing my back, calming my worked up body into a relaxed state. I slumped against both vampires in exhaustion. I had gone through so much both physically and emotionally tonight that all I wanted was to curl up in bed with my lovers and sleep the rest of the night, and the day, away.

"Amazing." Godric finished for me, and I could just hear the smile in his voice. That in turn made me want to smile. Godric rarely ever smiled, he never had much since I met him. He had been just so withdrawn and maybe even depressed, that smiling seemed more like a chore to him than being natural. And even now, though I knew he was happier than he had been months ago, I knew he wasn't in the bet of places. How could he be when he was always in between Eric and I. And I hated myself for putting him in that position. I hated myself for getting angry at him for just trying to keep the peace, for trying to keep us all happy. I vowed to work harder, to help Godric find that happiness. Because I still feared that Godric would one day want to leave us. Twice now, he had been close to meeting the sun. I wasn't so sure either Eric or I would be able to talk him out of doing it a third time.

"Indeed..." Eric began before I felt his arms grow tense around me. I felt it almost immediately, Eric shutting down. It was like a brick wall was being built at the speed of light, blocking the blood bond that we shared. I frowned as I lifted my head, ready to question what was wrong. But then I saw the look on his face. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights. I couldn't understand what was wrong, but the moment that two syllable name passed through his lips, I knew this night was going to go downhill quickly. "Sookie."

I didn't even have time to register the fact that he was bringing her up after the orgasmic bliss we had all just experienced. Because before I could even utter a word, the door to the office flew open, banging against the wall loudly. I heard Godric's unneeded intake of breath and I had to force myself to turn in Eric's arms.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but a fuming Sookie Stackhouse certainly wasn't it.