The end of spring and the passing of summer into autumn seemed fast and unworthy of note, as if the year were saving up energy for the last days of August. Eric saw Sookie only a few times over those months, and when he did, she was brisk and distant. And then there was no time to think of Sookie because Hurricane Katrina swept up from the Gulf, the levees broke, and New Orleans was transformed into a quilt of rooftop islands. Vampires' resting places all along the Gulf Coast were washed away or leveled, and many died from the exposure, even though the sun was hidden by clouds and rain. The influx of vampires to Area 5, mostly in Shreveport and Bossier City, had required weeks of juggling and paperwork.
Now, the postponed summit in Rhodes was at hand, and the stakes were high for Sophie-Anne and her subjects. It was Andre who set the date and time for the meeting at Fangtasia, and it was understood that he did so with the queen's authority. All those summoned had gathered – all except Sookie.
Eric watched as the minute hand on his clock lazily moved from 7:04 to 7:05. He felt her even before he heard her car, and he smiled. Pam noticed. He met her eyes and gave a slight nod, her signal to go to the back door to let Sookie in. The two women took their time getting back to the office, and Eric could hear them talking outside the door before Pam opened it, grinning, and said, "Eric, maybe someday one of the waitresses will get pregnant, and we can go to a baby shower."
The gods only knew why Pam and Sookie had been talking about babies; was that something Sookie especially wanted? One of the few things he couldn't give her. Not that it mattered, since she was with the tiger still. "That would be something to see," he replied absently. He looked at Sookie, searched for something in her face, and didn't find it.
She should have somewhere to sit. It would be unseemly for a vampire in Eric's position to give his place at the desk to a human, but if he chose to pace with towering authority during the meeting… Well, no one could complain then.
Tossing aside his pen, Eric stood and lifted his long arms over his head in a casual stretch. Judging by the way her pulse picked up, his display wasn't lost on Sookie. Quinn who? he thought to himself as he fought a smile.
Clancy leered at Sookie and motioned to his lap. "You can sit in my lap, Sookie." Eric was not amused.
"No, thanks, Clancy," she told him.
Eric observed her as she took in the vampires who surrounded her. He caught her almost imperceptible flinch when Jake Purifoy greeted her, and that brought back the terrible night at the hospital in New Orleans. He quickly banished the memory of her pain – the way he had felt it, sharp and stabbing, in his own dead chest.
Beside him, Andre stood to greet Sookie with a bow. "Miss Stackhouse."
She returned his bow with one of her own, and Eric felt his mouth twitching with amusement. "Mr. Andre," she said.
Andre offered his chair to Sookie, and she accepted it with a gracious smile as Eric tried not to scowl. He remained standing in case Andre chose to take his seat at the desk, as was his right as a higher-up.
"How is Her Majesty?" Sookie asked Andre.
"That's part of the reason I am here tonight," Andre told her. "Eric," he continued, though he still looked at Sookie, "can we get started now?"
"Yes, we're all here. Go ahead, Andre. You have the floor." Andre apparently had no intention of sitting, so Eric sank back in his chair and propped his feet on the desk.
He listened idly as Andre relayed information about the queen's temporary living arrangements in Area Four. This Eric had already been told by Gervaise himself. Then Andre moved on to the property damage and fiscal losses, which were considerable.
"Maybe the queen should remain in Baton Rouge," Clancy interjected. "I'm sure Gervaise would be overwhelmed with delight at the prospect of hosting her permanently."
Clancy, you fucking idiot. Happily for Clancy, Andre chose to ignore him. Eric, however, shot him a withering glare.
"A delegation of New Orleans leaders came to visit our queen in Baton Rouge to ask that she return to the city. The human leaders think that if the vampires will return to New Orleans, tourism will pick up again." He gave Eric a meaningful, not very friendly, look. "In the meantime, the queen has talked to the four other sheriffs about the financial aspect of restoring the New Orleans building."
Translation: pay up. Eric nodded to show that he understood. "What about the queen's entertainment estate?" he asked Andre. If the old monastery had been ruined, it would cost a great deal of money to restore it.
"It didn't suffer much damage. There were looters there, too." Andre's mouth twisted into a smile. "Of course, they left a trace of their smell. One of them shot the lion."
"Do you need help with the apprehension?" When Andre's only answer was a raised brow, Eric added, "I only ask because your numbers are low."
"No." Andre gave an ugly smirk. "Already taken care of."
"Aside from the lion and the looting, how was the estate?"
Andre crossed his arms. "The queen can stay there while she views the other properties, but at the most for a night or two only. Our loss of personnel…" he continued, effectively closing the matter of property damage. "Our initial assessment was modest, as you know."
Modest was an understatement. Eric had known it was much worse the moment he had been sent the first numbers, which suggested that perhaps five vampires had met their final death. In total about forty vampires had disappeared from the Gulf Coast when Mississippi's coastal cities were also factored in. Eric knew the number already; the other vampires gathered in his office did not.
Sookie raised her hand like a school child, and Andre acknowledged her with a short nod. "What about Bubba?" she asked him, her genuine concern evident on her face.
"Bubba's alive," Andre assured her, briefly explaining that Bubba was staying in Nashville. What he didn't say was that Eric was the one paying the Nashville vampires to keep Bubba. He considered it a sound investment. Bubba, though stupid, was loyal.
As Andre told Sookie about Bubba, the other vampires had turned to each other, whispering questions about who was missing. Eric lifted one of the sheets of paper on his desk and held it up for the others to see. "Andre has brought me a list of those that are missing. I'll post it after the meeting."
Once again Sookie's hand was in the air.
"Yes, Sookie?" Andre said politely. Eric knew that Andre wouldn't dream of showing such deference to other humans. The fact that Andre valued Sookie wasn't necessarily a good thing for her.
"You know what I wonder, y'all?" she said, looking thoughtfully around the room. "I wonder if one of the kings or queens attending this summit, or whatever you all call it, has a… like a weather predictor or something like that on staff." Her suggestion was met with silence, not because the others thought she was foolish, but because she had set their brains in motion. "Because, look, the summit – or conference, or whatever – was supposed to take place in late spring originally, but… delay, delay, delay, right? And then Katrina hit." She looked up at Andre. "If the summit had started when it was supposed to, the queen could have gone in a powerful position. She would have had a big war chest and a full quiver of vamps, and maybe they wouldn't have been so anxious to prosecute her for the king's death. The queen would have gotten anything she asked for, probably. Instead she's going in as a… much less powerful."
She was onto something, though a "weather predictor" wasn't exactly it. Predicting the weather months in advance was absolutely impossible, but postponing a summit until the height of hurricane season was more than plausible.
Andre, who had been nodding along as she spoke, said, "That's one of the things you'll need to look for at the summit. Now that you've given me the idea, it seems oddly possible." He turned towards the desk. "Eric?"
"Yes," he replied, still looking at Sookie, "I think there is something in that. Sookie is good at thinking outside the box." And you can't have her, Andre.
"What about the suit filed by Jennifer Cater?" said Clancy.
"It's still active," Andre told him. "The queen has responded to the suit by testifying that she had to kill Peter to save her own life. Of course, she offered reparation to the common fund."
"Do we even have that much money after the disaster?" Clancy asked as Andre paced the room. He was moving closer and closer to Sookie, Eric noticed.
"The queen hopes the suit will be dismissed, but apparently the court is prepared to hear a trial." Andre's eyes flashed with anger. "Jennifer is charging that our queen lured Threadgill to New Orleans, away from his own territory, having planned all along to start the war and assassinate him."
"But that wasn't what happened at all," Sookie protested.
Moments later, adrenaline was rushing through her as if someone had suddenly held a gun to her head. She knew something. Andre, standing behind her like a malevolent shadow, had a look on his face that would have given it away even if her body hadn't. In fact, all the vampires had sensed the sudden shift in her chemical balance. Had she witnessed Threadgill's death? A glance at Andre made it clear that the moment had to be moved past, and quickly. Sookie really had no idea that she needed to protect herself from Andre. Someone else would have to do it.
"So you think the trial will be held?" Eric asked, carrying on as if there had been no lull in the conversation.
He had no doubt whatsoever that the trial would be held, but the distraction worked like a charm. Andre turned away from Sookie and explained to the gathering that under the circumstances, a trial was inevitable.
"We know there's no truth to the allegations," Bill said, speaking up for the first time since he'd come in. "Eric was there. I was there. Sookie was there."
Eric gave a wry smile. Leave it to Bill to draw the attention back to Sookie's having witnessed the events of that night. "I accounted for the one who started it," he told the others, knowing that Andre, Bill, and Sookie would well remember Ra Shawn – and the triumphant sight of Ra Shawn's head spinning slowly on the floor. "The king did his best to trap the queen in an indiscretion, but he didn't, thanks to our Sookie." He smiled at her briefly, pleased to see that Andre was finally moving away from her. "When his plot didn't work, he resorted to a simple frontal attack. I haven't seen Jennifer in twenty years. She's risen fast. She must be ruthless."
Ruthless and more than willing to sleep with Threadgill. They had been lovers for some time, which no doubt added more fuel to her desire for revenge.
"Yes," Andre mused with a grim nod. "Ordinarily the queen would want a full contingent there to support her, but since we're forced to practice economy, the numbers going have been cut." And back he wandered to Sookie. Eric gritted his teeth. "The queen wants this woman close to her in meetings, since other humans will be there. She wants to know their thoughts. Stan is bringing his telepath." He looked down at Sookie. "Do you know the man?"
Sookie, not realizing that Andre was speaking to her, mumbled a complaint to Pam, then looked up with a start to see all the others looking at her. "I – I've only met one other telepath in my life," she answered quickly, "and he was living in Dallas, so I'm supposing it's the same guy. Barry the Bellboy. He was working at the vamp hotel in Dallas when I picked up on his… uh, gift."
"What do you know about him?" Andre pressed, still right beside her.
"He's younger than me, and he's weaker than me – or at least he was at the time. He'd never accepted what he was, the way that I had."
Andre was watching Sookie as if she were a butterfly fluttering just within reach of his net. Perhaps no one else in the room understood that Andre was maneuvering to claim Sookie for himself and Sophie-Anne. He was waiting for Sookie to accept – to agree to go as their telepath, falling for the illusion of choice. If she went as their human, she would always be theirs.
But if he, Eric, claimed her as his own…
"Sookie will be there," he said firmly, as if she were his own property. "She is the best at what she does." Andre forced a pleasant smile, and Eric could feel Sookie's own annoyance. I am Sheriff for a reason, Sookie. I know what I'm doing. "Clancy will stay here to run the bar," he added offhandedly.
"This human gets to go while I have to remain?" Clancy complained. "I won't get to see any of the fun!"
Fun?
"That's right," Eric replied, his light tone belying the threat in his eyes. Clancy got the idea and said nothing more. "Felicia will stay to help you. Bill, you will stay."
"No," Bill said before Eric could move on. "The queen requires me. I worked hard on that database, and she's asked me to market it at the summit to help recoup her losses."
And, of course, you want to keep an eye on Sookie. Unfortunately, there was no getting around it if Sophie-Anne wanted Bill there. He reined in his anger and turned away as if he didn't care either way. "Yes, I'd forgotten your computer skills. I suppose you need to be with us, then." He looked around at the small group. "Maxwell?"
"If it's your will, I will stay."
"Then you'll remain here. And you, too, Thalia." He gave her a stern look. "But you must promise me that you will be good in the bar."
"I don't want to go anyway," she said, her rebellious way of agreeing.
"So," Eric said, speaking over Pam's whisperings to Sookie, "the only ones attending the summit are Andre, our queen, Sookie, myself, Bill, and Pam… Cataliades the lawyer and his niece as his runner… Oh, yes, Gervaise from Four and his human woman, a concession since Gervaise has been hosting the queen so generously…" Not that he had a choice. "Rasul as driver… and Sigebert, of course. That's our party." To the sullen or angry faces in the room, he added, "I know some of you are disappointed, and I can only hope that next year will be a better year for Louisiana – and for Arkansas, which we now consider part of our territory."
Andre nodded along throughout Eric's little speech, then said, "I think that's all that we needed to talk about with all of you present."
Those who weren't going to Rhodes took their cue to leave, and Andre followed them out. Eric waited until Pam, Bill, and Sookie had resettled themselves before he proceeded to the specifics of the trip.
"We depart on September 29 – that's next Thursday – and we will return on the second or third of October, depending on how events play out." They would be leaving Rhodes even sooner if the queen's trial didn't go well, but there was no need to go into that. These were smart people. "We'll be flying a charter plane from Anubis. It picks up the Area Four group first – the queen, Gervaise, and so forth. Then it will come to meet us at our airport. We'll meet at the hangar just before sunrise and get into our coffins. Sookie, you'll need to be at the hangar at ten in the morning. Don't be late."
"I won't," she said without looking up from the notepad where she was scribbling down everything he said.
"As for clothing, you'll need formal evening attire. Suits for the men, a formal dress and a cocktail dress for the ladies. And nice business daywear for the humans. Sookie, you wouldn't need those clothes if it wasn't for the trip. I've called your friend's store, and you have credit there. Use it."
With some amusement he recalled Tara Thornton's "How much?" when he had arranged for Sookie to have ten thousand dollars to spend in her store.
Sookie blushed, and he added a small, easy lie. "The staff has an account at a couple of stores here in Shreveport, but that would be inconvenient for you."
Pam's eyes flew up to his, then just as quickly looked away again. The fact was, Eric's employees didn't need him to supply credit accounts; Fangtasia made them all rich. And Bill, as everyone knew, was independently wealthy. There was also the fact that buying gifts for Sookie was a rare pleasure that he didn't intend to deny himself.
"We may have suffered a disaster, but we won't go in looking poor," he went on, looking at each of them in turn. "Is everyone clear? Our goals for this conference are to support the queen as she tries to clear herself of these ridiculous charges, and to let everyone know that Louisiana is still a prestigious state." He couldn't stop the dark smile that spread over his face. "None of the Arkansas vampires who came to Louisiana with their king survived to tell the tale. Any questions?"
They all shook their heads.
Later, as Eric fiddled with spreadsheet numbers on his laptop, Pam looked up from polishing her nails and observed, "Kind of strange that Sookie ignores Bill now. She won't even look at him." Eric made a noncommittal noise and didn't reply. "You know anything about that?" she pressed. She raised up her left hand and blew on her nails, now a demure shade of pink.
"I don't suppose it matters to you that I'm trying to work."
"You aren't working. You're thinking about Sookie."
"Pam," he said in a low, warning tone.
"I'm worried about you, Master. You've been different – preoccupied. You haven't called a human back to your office in months. You have lost your… pep."
Bill was a safer topic than himself. "She's avoiding Bill because she learned that the queen sent him to Bon Temps to seduce her."
"So?"
"For a human, that is a betrayal."
"But he had no choice if the queen sent him."
"She thought he loved her."
Pam smirked and dipped the nail polish brush into the tiny bottle to begin work on her right hand. "Vampires do not love." When he said nothing, she asked, "When did you learn of this? And how did Sookie find out?"
"I found out in New Orleans, as did Sookie. I forced Bill to tell her." He concentrated on his computer screen.
"What?" she exclaimed in disbelief. "You… what? An order from the queen, Eric! You made Bill reveal a secret mission to the human subject of that mission. What if--"
"She deserved to know," he replied shortly.
"Oh, fuck," she said. "Oh, fuck."
"Quite the vocabulary you've picked up from Dear Abby."
"You care about her," Pam went on, ignoring his remark. "I knew that you wanted her. Hell, I want her myself. But you care about her."
Eric rested his forehead in one hand and gave a loud sigh. "Is there nowhere else you can go to paint your nails, Pam? I don't have time for this."
"You can't care about her. You have to stop. You know you do."
In a flash, he slammed his fist on the desk and bared his fangs at his child. "Get the fuck out, Pam."
She looked at him, gaping, and rose without a word. Her bottle of nail polish lay spilled on the floor. "I'll send one of the girls in to clean that up," she murmured just before she closed the door.
* * *
You can't care about her.
Annoyed and angry as he had been two nights earlier, he knew Pam was right. This would have been easier to accept if there was something he could do about it. But he couldn't not care about Sookie. There was no hour in any night when he didn't think, at least once, of kissing her, touching her, drinking her, making her laugh, dancing with her, undressing her, turning her so that he could keep her. She was in his blood like a sweet poison that he needed and craved even as it killed him.
"Eric?" said Indira, interrupting his thoughts. She bore a small round tray on the palm of her hand, and several True Bloods rested on it. "You want something?"
He shook his head. "Nothing to drink. But I would like you to find Pam and tell her to meet me in my office." He had been meaning to speak to her for hours, but she still hadn't come to work. It was unusual for her to be so late.
"Pam went to Bon Temps, sir. She left a note at the bar for Felicia."
He knew she would be staring after him as he leapt up and flew out the door.
* * *
He arrived at the shifter's bar after looking for Sookie and Pam at Sookie's house. The two were outside in the lot of the now-closed bar; he heard Sookie's voice.
"I don't owe Eric a thing."
And then Pam's voice. "You care for him, I know you do. He's never been so entangled in his emotions. He's never been at such a disadvantage."
Whatever Sookie thought of this declaration from Pam, she didn't say it. He watched them move the chairs they'd been sitting on, and then he stepped forward and made his presence known. Pam's eyes widened. Sookie's face was blank.
"Pam." He paused, unsure of what to say. On one hand, he was furious with her. On the other, he felt an overwhelming affection. For now, his anger would take precedence. "You were so late, I followed your trail to make sure all was well," he said smoothly.
"Master." Her voice was contrite as she knelt before him.
He held himself back from laying a hand on her head. You say vampires don't love, Pam, but that's bullshit. I know that you love me.
"Leave," he told her.
A second later, he stood alone before Sookie, who looked ragged and tired. So many reminders that she was human: the dark circles under her eyes, the sag of her shoulders. Some decades at most, and she would be gone. A blink in time, as all humans were. He stepped closer to her and raised her chin with one finger. Don't blink, he thought. Don't make me stand by while death closes your eyes.
He lowered his mouth and kissed her slowly, enjoying her. Her lips were as warm and smooth as always, her tongue as insistent as ever when it met his, her body supple as she pressed herself to him and accepted his kiss. He held her slim neck between his hands and loved the rapid pounding of her pulse – increasing every second – under the fingers of his left hand. She smelled like the tiger, but he just didn't care.
Then she backed away suddenly, her breathing ragged. She always pulled away first. Was that the allure of her? Simply the attraction of the unattainable?
"Eric, I don't know why you're here, and I don't know why we're having all this drama."
"Are you Quinn's now?" he asked. The tiger had been gone for months, giving Eric reason to believe that his rival was gone. But now--
He went back to the previous thought. His rival? His rival for what, exactly? Sookie's bed or something more?
Sookie's eyes flashed and the walls of stubborn resistance flew up around her. "I'm my own. I choose."
"And have you chosen?" he asked.
She sighed with frustration and rolled her eyes. "Eric, this is beyond gall. You haven't been dating me. You haven't given me any sign that was on your mind. You haven't treated me as though I had any significance in your life." The tumble of protests was like a traffic jam in his mouth; he couldn't form a single word. "I'm not saying I would have been open to those things," she continued, "but I'm saying in their absence I've been free to find another… uh, companion. And so far, I like Quinn just fine."
"You don't know him any more than you really knew Bill." Whereas I have been constant since you met me. Her flinch betrayed the fact that he'd wounded her, though it hadn't been his intent.
"At least I'm pretty damn sure he wasn't ordered to get me in bed so I'd be a political asset!" Tears had formed in her eyes, but she blinked them away.
If it makes you feel any better, you'd be a political liability for me.
"It's better that you knew about Bill," he said gently.
She nodded. "Yes, it's better. That doesn't mean I enjoyed the process."
"I knew that would be hard, but I had to make him tell you."
"Why?" she asked, her eyes searching his.
I have no idea. The silence was becoming heavier, so finally he said, "It wasn't right."
"True. But maybe you just wanted to be sure I wouldn't ever love him again."
Ever since he'd seen her in that car trunk in Jackson, raped and bloody, he had wanted to make sure that she would never love Bill again. No, before that. Since Dallas. And he had been quite determined in his efforts to undo her love for Bill, well before the night in New Orleans. He was a pragmatist. He took advantage of every opportunity.
"Maybe both things," he admitted.
Sookie's eyes flickered away from him and then back. "Okay…" She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "You've been moody around me for months, Eric, ever since you were… you know, not yourself. What's up with you?"
Not himself. The version that Sookie had loved.
"The victim's memory will be erased. He will seek out his heart's desire but never know it if he finds it."
"Ever since that night I was cursed, I've wondered why I ended up running down the road to your house," he said absently.
"Did you ever figure out the answer?"
"No," he said, venting all of his frustration into that single word. If Sookie had been his heart's desire, then how had he known that he wanted her? The curse said that he wouldn't know it if he found it. Sometimes he wondered if his heart's desire was to kill Sookie, to make himself immune to her for good, and the curse was that he fell in love with her.
When he was not himself. He had fallen in love with her when he wasn't himself. When it was safe… easy. When he couldn't remember what was at stake.
"No," he said again. "And the witch who cursed me is dead, though the curse was broken. Now she can't tell me what her curse entailed. Was I supposed to look for the person I hated? Loved?" Wanted to be rid of? "Could it have been random that I found myself running out in the middle of nowhere, except that nowhere was on the way to your house?"
Sookie was speechless, searching for words. Finally, she gave a half-smile and said, "Probably the fairy blood."
No. "No."
Enough of this. He flew into the air, away from her. He needed to be away.