A few minutes were all he needed to pull on a clean pair of pants and return to the large assembly room. When he entered, he was immediately motioned over by Sophie-Anne. He was careful to keep his face impassive as he walked over to the queen; somewhere in the hotel, Sookie was very upset, and his own insides twisted and ached along with her. If anything ended his long centuries of existence, it would be this blood bond.

"Sit," the youthful-looking queen said when he reached her, and she nodded to an empty chair at her right. She watched him as he obeyed her, then leaned in close to speak softly. "I'm considering the benefits of keeping the Stackhouse woman as part of my staff from now on. When my compound in New Orleans is rebuilt, she could stay in one of the apartments there. I'm sure she would be quite comfortable."

Eric shifted closer to her and lowered his voice. "Do you think that would be wise, your majesty? If she's unhappy about being forced to relocate, she might try to run away. Worse yet, she might begin to intentionally misread what people are thinking, putting you in a precarious position. A bitter servant can never be trusted."

Sophie-Anne nodded slowly. "You're perfectly right, Eric. In Bon Temps, content and near you, she will remain for now. By the way," she continued, "Russell was looking for you a few minutes ago. They need the bonding knife so they can have it returned."

"Returned?"

"It's a ritual knife used only for marriages."

"Attention, everyone!" came a voice from the main entrance. Eric looked up to see the bodyguard Batanya standing there, arms raised. "A bomb squad is en route to take care of a suspicious object discovered by Sookie Stackhouse on the fourth floor. It is advised that everyone remain in this room until the matter is resolved."

"That's our floor!" Sophie-Anne exclaimed, but Eric had already leapt up.

"Batanya," he said, seizing the Britlingen's shoulder, "where is Sookie now?"

She blinked, perhaps surprised by this sense of urgency from a vampire where a human was concerned. "She's upstairs with the object."

"Damn it," he spat. He turned away from Batanya to go to Sookie, but instead slammed into Bill.

"Going upstairs?" Bill asked.

"Of course."

"I'll come with you."

Eric growled. "No, you'll stay here." He was disobeying orders as it was, and the last thing anyone needed was Bill to escalate the situation. Ignoring Bill's furious expression, he took off for the elevator.

As soon as he exited the crowded room and focused on Sookie, her fear descended on him like an anvil, more powerful than anything he'd ever felt from her before. He stumbled back against the wall, more from shock than anything else. He had never been blood bonded to anyone. That wall of protection around himself was gone now, and the lack of it scared the shit out of him.

A guard blocked the way to the elevator, so Eric doubled back down the hall a little and made for the stairs, ignoring the man's protests behind him. With his long legs, he had no trouble racing up the stairs three at a time. As he climbed, he ignored the voice in his head that asked, Why are you doing this? The answer to that question was even more dangerous than the bomb.

"Are you trying to be a martyr for these damn things?" he heard the tiger ask in a raised voice that was almost a shout.

He started up the last landing as Sookie gave a bitter laugh. "Oh, haha. Yeah, 'cause they love me. You see how many vampires are up here? Zero, right?"

Eric yanked the door open and emerged into the fourth floor lobby. "One," he said, ignoring Quinn completely as he ran his eyes over Sookie. Her collar was stained with dried blood from earlier, but she seemed unharmed. Even though she was afraid, even though his own blood roiled with it, her presence began to calm him. "We're bound a bit too tightly to suit me, Sookie. I'm here to die right along with you, it seems."

The words were spoken before his brain could process the truth of them. You would really take that bomb and die in her place?

I would.

I love her.

He stared at her.

Sookie rolled her eyes and gave an exasperated sigh. "Good. To make my day absolutely effing complete, here's Eric again. Are you all completely nuts? Get the hell out of here!"

"Well, I will," said the human man who had seemed to be standing guard. "You won't let anyone take the can, you won't put it down, and you haven't blown up yet. So I think I'll go downstairs to wait for the bomb squad."

"Thanks for calling in the troops," Sookie told him as he pushed open the door to the stairwell.

While she was distracted, Eric took advantage of the opportunity to get closer to her. He didn't think there was a way to take the can from her without some kind of struggle, but perhaps there was a chance that the blood bond would weaken her defenses against him if he tried to glamor her. It was worth a try.

He stared down into her eyes and spoke with the authority of a master commanding a slave. It was something he had never intended to do with her. "You'll give it to me and leave."

She shook her head. "Won't work, never did."

He couldn't help feeling a little amused at the thought of what Andre would say if he could witness this. Eric's power over Sookie didn't even extend so far as handing over a soda can to save her own life. The idea made him strangely happy. She was the only human who wasn't his to command… the only person, apart from vampire royalty, who could defy him. He loved her for it.

Will you stop using that word?

"You are a stubborn woman," he said, unable to choose a tone between anger and affection.

Her eyes welled, but she stood firm. "I'm not. I just don't want to move it. That's safest!"

His gaze fell to her white knuckles as she gripped the can, then back up to her face. "Some might think you're suicidal," he told her with a smile.

"Well, some can stick it up their ass." She had relaxed a little, and he wondered if it was his presence or his teasing that had helped. Perhaps both.

"Babe, put it down on the urn," the tiger said, and Eric's smile faded into a thin line of irritation. "Just lay it down reeeeeeal easy." She's a woman, not a horse, you fucking idiot. "Then I'll get you a big drink with lots of alcohol. You're a real strong gal, you know that? I'm proud of you, Sookie." She's not a child, either. "But if you don't put that down now and get out of here, I'm gonna be real mad, hear me?" Do not kill the tiger. Do not kill the tiger. "I don't want anything to happen to you. That would be nuts, right?"

Only seconds after the moment when Eric decided that he would kill the tiger – and relish it – the elevator doors opened to reveal a robot. Eric tilted his head and watched curiously as it looked around, scanned Sookie, and rolled back into the elevator. A robot that allowed men to be cowards while a woman's life was at stake.

"I hate modern technology," he muttered.

Sookie looked at him. "Not true. You love what computers can do for you, I know that for a fact. Remember how happy you got when you saw the Fangtasia employee roster with all the work hours filled in?"

It must have been something Pam had told her. He could picture them laughing over it. "I don't like the impersonality of it." His mind wandered briefly to the fortune Bill was making with his computer database. "I like the knowledge it can hold," he admitted.

Every passing minute made her calmer, and the small talk seemed to be helping. She was visibly less tense, though by no means relaxed.

"Someone's coming up the stairs," said the tiger. He pushed open the door, and a vampire in a strange suit joined them.

The officer regarded Eric and Quinn for a moment, then jutted his chin towards the door to the stairwell. "You two civilians need to leave the floor to the lady and me." Civilian my ass, Eric thought. He didn't budge from his place near Sookie. To his credit, Quinn didn't leave, either. "Take a hike, guys," the vampire said in a sterner voice.

Eric raised an eyebrow. He couldn't recall ever being told to "take a hike," much less when his bonded lover was holding a bomb. "No," he said at the very moment Quinn said, "Hell no."

Realizing that he was out of luck, the vampire shrugged and turned to Sookie with a heavy-looking padded container. He held it out to her, and she slowly, gingerly placed the bomb inside. As soon as the vampire closed the box, Sookie's adrenaline flooded out all at once, and she started shaking. Eric took a step closer to her to catch her if she happened to faint.

The tiger opened the stairwell door again, and the vampire with the bomb left them alone. For a few seconds the three of them listened as he descended the stairs. Eric watched Sookie.

Would she turn to him, he wondered, or the tiger? He had saved her from Andre at great cost to himself, and he had proved that he cared for her when he offered to take the bomb himself. If she had any lingering doubts about what she meant to him, they must be gone now. He waited.

At last, she seemed to collapse in on herself with released tension. "Oh… oh…" she breathed, and her knees curled under her. Eric moved to catch her as she fell, but Quinn threw his arms around her and held her up as her body went limp against his solid frame.

"You idiot," the tiger murmured over and over.

Sookie was crying now, wiping her tears on Quinn's shirt.

She had made her choice, then. Eric didn't linger to see more.

The moment he opened the door to rejoin the rest of the vampires, Pam flung herself at him and embraced him. Entirely unfamiliar with such a display from her, he staggered back a little and laughed. "Pam?" he said, pushing her away slightly.

"You idiot! What were you… No, I don't even want to know. I mean, I do know. But I don't want you to confirm it."

He decided to wait a few days, at least, before he told her about the blood bond.

* * *

Sophie-Anne was no fool, and she knew it wasn't a coincidence that the bomb had been set on her floor. She demanded the sheriffs' presence in her room at three in the morning. When Eric arrived for the meeting, he was admitted to the room by Sigebert. He had known before he entered that Sookie was inside, which gave him a few moments to steel himself. But that was no use. Her unhappiness was too strong to block.

She was on the couch in the sitting area, and she was doubled over with her head on her knees. Her exhaustion seeped into him. This was nothing like before, when he could simply feel what she felt. It was more immediate; her exhaustion became his, and it was the first time he had experienced such a thing since his days as a human. He sank heavily onto the couch beside her.

The moment he sat, she leapt to her feet. She crossed over to the suite's bar and ran some water into a glass, then sipped it with shaky hands. Her eyes met his from across the room, and he wasn't sure what he read there – at least nothing more specific than "upset." She returned to her place on the couch, her body language indicating that she'd rather be anywhere else.

He cast about for something to say. "Bill is still selling his little computer disk downstairs."

"So?" She took a sip of her water.

"I thought perhaps you were wondering why I showed up when you were in dire straits, and he didn't."

She shrugged with one shoulder. "It never crossed my mind."

Perhaps it would please her to know how many men cared about her. Humans were usually concerned with that kind of thing. He also realized, to his dismay, that it was important to him to be honest with her. That wouldn't come in handy. "I made him stay downstairs," Eric told her. "After all, I'm his area sheriff." Again she shrugged. "He wanted to hit me. He wanted to take the bomb from you and be your hero." He turned and studied the side of her face, so close and so inaccessible. "Quinn would have done that, too." And I would have done it. Did you even notice?

Sookie finished her water and leaned to set the glass on the floor at her feet. "I remember that Quinn offered."

He let a few seconds pass, waiting for some kind of acknowledgment, some sign that his caring hadn't escaped her notice. There was nothing. "I did, too," he said at last.

"I don't want to talk about it." She turned away.

He had expected some resentment about the blood bond, but surely she was grateful, too? Possibly she was too tired to know what she felt. Her feelings were so jumbled they almost made him dizzy. He looked around the room in an attempt to focus his mind on anything else but her. He failed utterly.

He listened and watched with disinterest as the human chief of hotel security was dismissed. Then Sookie addressed the queen. "If you'll excuse me, I'll just go to my room now."

Sophie-Anne turned her attention to Sookie slowly, her eyes narrow. "Are you unhappy about something, Sookie?"

"Oh, why would I be unhappy?" Sookie replied with a sarcastic twist to her mouth. "I love having things done to me without my will. And then I like hanging around the ones responsible. That's even better!"

Careful, dear one. You're talking to the queen.

Sophie-Anne stopped Sookie's speech with a raised hand. "You are assuming I know what you are talking about," she said in an icy tone, "and that I want to hear a human yelling at me."

Sophie-Anne didn't know. Eric's eyes darted furiously to Andre, then returned to Sookie, searching her face to see if she understood. Andre had been trying to take her for himself, quite independent of any order from the queen.

If Sookie did realize the fact, she gave no indication. "Excuse me… I'm very tired," she said softly. They all watched her move to the door with heavy steps and pull it shut behind her.

"Explain, Andre," Sophie-Anne said immediately. "Do you know something I don't?"

Her second-in-command remained impassive and calm. "I believe that Sookie was referring to steps I took earlier this evening to ensure her continued loyalty and service to you."

"What steps were those?"

"A blood bond, your majesty." He motioned in Eric's direction. "Her sheriff can now track her and summon her, should we ever need her services at a moment's notice."

Sophie-Anne nodded. "That is well done, Andre, but you know that you shouldn't have proceeded without my knowledge and approval."

"Of course," he said with a small bow, "and I do apologize for that."

"Well, that's taken care of," Sophie-Anne said lightly, waving her hand dismissively. "On to the business at hand."

Eric barely listened to the discussion that followed; he found himself unable to think of anything apart from the unattainable pleasure of killing Andre.