I was going to post this as one long chapter, but it's been VERY VERY difficult to write, and the going is sloooow, so I decided to post the first part to tide everyone over. (and it makes me feel like I'm getting stuff done...)

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"What the fuck just happened here?" Eric snarled, looking from Bill to Quinn.

Bill was scratched and bleeding, and the tiger was wincing as he felt his ribs. Eric could tell that the latter's jaw was broken as well. At their feet lay Sookie's crumpled body. Apart from being unconscious, she looked unharmed. The blood on her clothing clearly wasn't hers, much to his relief.

He smelled fairies, too - several of them.

One thing at a time.

Not an hour ago, he'd received the call that Quinn was in the area illegally. Knowing why Quinn had come, he phoned Bill and told him to get his ass to Sookie's house. He had intended for Bill to guard Sookie until he himself could get there, but that plan had obviously gone awry.

"It's my fault," the shifter said through gritted teeth; he was trying not to move his jaw. "We fought."

Quinn stopped talking, and Bill took up the explanation. "She was knocked out accidentally. Just a second before you arrived, in fact. We were about to carry her inside and see to her when you landed."

Eric looked back and forth between them, more furious at Bill than at Quinn. The tiger hadn't come to start a fight, after all. It was Bill who had done that.

"I'll take care of her," he told Quinn. "You need to leave."

"Yes." Quinn nodded slowly. "Yes, I'll go. Tell her I'm sorry."

"You too, Bill," Eric said.

"I'm not leaving her like this. Let me take her to her room," Bill protested, making a move to do just that.

"I said leave."

Bill froze and looked up. The younger vampire was no fool, and he knew when to shut his mouth and obey. That time was now.

When both of them had gone, Eric knelt beside Sookie and pressed his fingertips to her wrist. Her pulse was strong and steady. Had this been any other circumstance, he might have assumed that she was sleeping peacefully. He slid his arms under her neck and the backs of her knees and lifted her up against his chest.

Her bedroom was dark and quiet. He laid her down on her bed and stepped into her bathroom to flip on the light. First of all, her clothes had to go. They reeked of the blood of Bill and Quinn, and they would dirty her sheets if she rolled over. With care, he removed the garments, leaving her clad only in her bra and panties. One or two spots of blood had seeped through her shirt onto her bra, but not enough to warrant removing it as well. He knew she wouldn't want him to do that.

Her face was very, very pale, and it struck him suddenly that she might have injured her head. Humans could look unharmed in every respect, yet still have serious injuries to their brains. He raised his wrist to his mouth, sank his teeth into his flesh, and held the bleeding wound over her parted lips until his skin healed itself. The sun-kissed tan and blushing pink hues of her face began to bloom, and he nodded, satisfied.

He went into her bathroom and pulled a washcloth from a small metal ring on the wall. He ran it under cold water in the sink until it was soaked through, then returned to sit on the edge of the bed. The first few drops of water on her face didn't rouse her, so he squeezed the cloth a little harder. A sharp gasp, followed by coughing, marked her return to consciousness.

"Too much?" he said, moving the cloth away from her face.

She grimaced and opened her eyes slowly, and he waited while they focused on him. She gave one last, short cough. "Enough," she mumbled.

He left her side to carry the wet rag back to the bathroom, returning to her with a dry towel he'd pulled from under the sink. With careful movements, he dried her face and the slope of her neck. A few drops of water had pooled in the sweet hollow of her collarbone, and these he swiped away with regret, forbidding himself from taking them with his tongue.

She folded her hands over her chest and shivered. Goosebumps had risen all over her skin. Her nipples had peaked under the smooth, white satin of her bra. "Cold," she whispered, her voice so soft it was almost inaudible. "Where are my clothes?"

"Stained," he told her as he reached for the blanket that was folded at the foot of her bed. He shook it out and spread it over her.

The moment called for a decision, and he made it. Before he could change his mind, he divested himself of his shoes and slipped into the bed beside her. He rubbed his palm in slow, soothing circles over her bare stomach as he looked down at her. Her body was calling to him, and he wanted to answer "yes, yes, yes" to every question it asked. She was looking up at him, watching him with clear eyes, waiting for him to speak first.

"Do you love him?" he asked her. The goosebumps on her stomach had faded away under his touch, and now he felt only warm skin.

She ignored his question. "Are they alive?"

"Quinn drove away with a few broken ribs and a broken jaw. Bill will heal tonight – if he hasn't already."

"I guess you had something to do with Bill being here?"

"I knew when Quinn disobeyed our ruling. He was sighted within half an hour of crossing into my area, and Bill was the closest vampire to send to your house," he explained. "His task was to make sure you weren't being harassed while I made my way here. He took his role a little too seriously." Sookie's mouth curved into a grim smile. "I'm sorry you were hurt," he finished, careful to rein in his anger at Bill and Quinn.

"So they stopped fighting when I hit the ground, I hope," she said with a trace of amusement that he could not share.

"Yes. The collision ended the… scuffle."

"And Quinn left on his own?" Her expression gave no hint as to how she felt about this.

"Yes, he did. I told him I would take care of you. He knew he'd crossed too many lines by coming to see you, since I'd told him not to enter my area." He wanted to make sure she understood, if she didn't already, that Quinn had been in the wrong. "Bill was less accepting, but I made him return to his house," he added.

She lay still and quiet for a few seconds. "Did you give me some of your blood?" she said at last.

He answered her with a nod. "You had been knocked unconscious, and I know that is serious." He moved his hand up to the side of her face and smoothed her hair back. "I wanted you to feel well. It was my fault."

"Mr. High-handed," she sighed.

There was that expression again. She had used it when he married her to save her from Felipe. It seemed to apply to situations where he took care of her without her knowledge. "Explain," he said, his curiosity getting the better of him. "I don't know this term."

She smiled a little. "It means someone who thinks he knows what's best for everyone. He makes decisions for them without asking them."

A sheriff, then. A protector. He accepted the label with no qualms. "Then I am high-handed. I'm also very…"

He hadn't intended to make love to her until he found out, once and for all, her feelings for Quinn. But her nonchalance at the tiger's departure answered his question well enough for the moment. He had waited long enough; he had wasted too much time already. He gave her a slow kiss, a question that she answered by opening her mouth under his. After a time, he broke off the kiss, looked down at her, and waited.

"Horny?" she said.

Close enough. "Exactly." He leaned to capture her mouth again, talking to her between kisses as she used the pauses to breathe. "I've worked with my new masters… I've shored up my authority… I can have my own life now." He could see himself in her eyes, and the passion on his own face took him aback. "It's time I claimed what is mine."

Sookie made a happy, satisfied noise as his lips found hers again, and he made some happy, satisfied sounds of his own when she returned his kisses with more certainty. She slid one hand down his back while the other grasped his shirt at the shoulder to pull him closer. He couldn't commit his hands to one place. Like a greedy child in a candy store, he wanted to touch all of her; he wanted to taste every treat. So many delicious things to lick, to suck, to savor as they melted on his tongue. For now, he was content with the endless banquet of her mouth.

"Do you really remember?" she said eventually, stopping for breath. Her eyes were both frightened and hopeful. "Do you really remember staying with me before?" She combed her fingers through his hair and kept them there, as if she thought he might disappear again if she didn't hold him there with her. "Do you remember what it felt like?" she whispered.

He slid one hand up from the small of her back to the clasp of her bra and made quick work of the three tiny hooks. "Oh, yes, I remember." He slid her bra off her arms and tossed it aside. Memory was nothing, nothing to reality. "How could I forget these?" he asked, smiling at her wickedly before he bent to take one nipple, then the other, in his mouth. Sookie whimpered and arched up to him with an "oh" or a "yes" or a "please" to match every swirl of his tongue, every nip of his teeth.

When one of her hands wandered to his jeans and touched him through the denim, he growled with happy impatience and sat up to rid himself of everything that stood in the way of her skin and his. He slid back over her as she raised her knees to cradle his hips. He was ravenous for her, and he kissed her with all the passion and frustration that had been building over the year. She had been in the sun; he could taste it.

He had imagined them making love again – he had imagined it often and in great detail – but it hadn't been like this. It had been slow, deliberate… an unhurried savoring. This was nothing but all of you now now now. This was the desperate, sloppy, undignified gulping of a dying man who had managed to drag himself to a desert oasis. No polite sipping. He would drink her in. He would bathe in her. He reached between them to see if she was ready for him. She most definitely was.

"Eric..." she breathed, her voice a little ragged. "Now." It was a demand more than a plea, and he was happy to comply.

"Oh, yes." He pushed into her as deeply as he could while he bent to kiss her, his lips barely touching hers. "This is best… this is best," he whispered, imagining that she could taste the words rather than hear them. "This is right." She moaned when he started to move, and he stopped, remembering their first night together, how she hadn't been quite ready. "Not hurting?" he murmured, stroking her hair.

She shook her head, her eyes on his. "Not hardly."

"I am too big for some," he admitted. He wouldn't mind stopping for now and readying her further, just as they had done a year ago. He inhaled the scent of her pleasure. No, he wouldn't mind at all.

"Bring it on," Sookie said, smiling up at him as she hooked her legs around him. He had never been one to back down from "bringing it." He smiled back at her and thrust forward. "Oh, my God," she said, her fingernails buried in his upper arms. "Yes!" she cried. "Again!"

"Min enda älskade…" he said quietly. He kissed the spot just below her ear. "Du är den enda jag någonsin älskat."

His body took over from there, and he lost himself in the flood of touch, sight, sound, and taste. Knowing that their bond would make sex better was vastly different from experiencing it. Every detail was so stark and overpowering that he could only focus on one thing at a time, devoting a precious split-second to each. A bead of sweat at her hairline, a gasp, the crescent-shaped pressure of each of her nails in his back… it was all too much. He sank his fangs into her shoulder, releasing both of them at the same time. Neither of them made a sound, apart from Sookie's heavy breathing.

He lay on top of her, his nose and mouth tucked into the curve of her neck. Her pulse pounded so fast and hard, he wondered that her heart didn't burst out of her. As her breathing returned to normal, the steady rise and fall of her chest beneath him was as comforting a rhythm as anything he knew. Two red wounds marked the spot where he'd bitten her, and he turned his head to lick away the dried blood. Her fingertips were feather-light on his back as she traced up and down his spine.

"Will this change the blood bond?" she asked.

He kissed her shoulder. Her resentment of the bond disappointed him, and he didn't want to ruin this moment by saying outright that yes, the bond grew stronger each time they shared blood. Perhaps she didn't yet appreciate all the advantages.

"Felipe wanted you," he said. "The stronger our bond, the less chance there is he can maneuver you away."

"I can't do that."

"You won't need to," he assured her. He pressed his lips to the pulse in her neck. "We are pledged with the knife. We are bonded. He can't take you from me." Nothing can take you from me. He slid his hand to her breast and circled the nipple with his thumb as she sighed and wove her fingers through his hair. He propped himself on his elbow and kissed her, holding her bottom lip between his teeth for a moment before he let it go. "Bite me," he said, staring down at her face.

Her heart quickened, and her eyes searched his. "Why? You said you already gave me some."

"Because it makes me feel good. Just… for that." Now he rested on both of his forearms, and his tongue explored the shell of her ear.

"You can't be…" Her words trailed off as her hand wandered down to find him ready for her again. She guided him in and rewarded him with a soft moan of pleasure, and he smiled.

He kissed her, slowly and unhurried. Last time had been too fast. This time he would enjoy her as he had wanted. This time he would watch her. "Would you like to be on top?" he asked between kisses.

Judging by the catch in her breath and the sparks in her eyes, she liked that idea very much. "We could do that for a while…"

He smiled again and rolled onto his back, pulling her along with him. He kept his eyes fixed on hers. She must have remembered that he loved that, because she did the same, her gaze never wavering as she began to move. His own words from a year ago came back to him. If I had known you would be this gorgeous with your clothes off, I would have tried to do this sooner. Occasionally, she would draw her lower lip between her teeth, as if she were focusing very intently on having her pleasure and sharing it with him, and it was sexy as hell. He wasn't content to have his hands on her, and he raised himself to kiss and lick the path that his fingers had marked. Sookie had begun to increase her speed, and he rested his hands on her hips to slow her.

"Slow," he whispered.

She did as he asked, and he returned the favor by sliding his hand between them and working her with his thumb. He lay back down and watched her move over him, her speed building again. She seemed to have forgotten him and everything else in the world as she sought her release, and for him it was the same: there was nothing but Sookie. But she hadn't forgotten him. She surprised him by raising his wrist to her mouth and biting down hard. When he felt the pull of her mouth as she drank his blood, he came undone with a shout. She followed right behind him and fell onto his chest. A few strands of her hair were stuck to his lips, but he couldn't have cared less. She was licking his wrist, probably to clean away the blood. The shallow wounds made by her teeth would have already healed.

"Perfect," he murmured. That was perfect. You are perfect. "Perfect," he repeated some moments later.

Sookie shifted over slightly so that she lay on her side. His arm was still wrapped around her, and the weight of her body rested against his. He stroked her upper arm lightly with his fingernails, listening to the peaceful quiet.

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The Swedish means "My only love" and "You are the only one I've ever loved." Thanks to Medusicah for the translation.

Some people have asked me what I intend to do after book 10, or if Eric/Sookie isn't the end result, etc. The answer is, I don't really know yet! I'm definitely going to follow book 10 as I've done the others. After that, I'm not sure if I'll part ways with the books, or if I'll put the story on "hiatus" until book 11 comes out. I think it depends on what happens in book 10. Maybe I'll put "Eric" on hiatus and start a new story with my version. Decisions, decisions!

Thanks, as always, for your kind reviews. You guys are the caffeine in my coffee. ...Even though I don't drink coffee. You get the idea. ;-D