A/N: Okay, I might not be as good at explaining things as I thought. In chapter 8 while Sookie is explaining the purpose and origin the mark, she clearly states, "The appearance of the marks is the only way to conceive a child." There is no way the child could be anyone else's. I am often very mutual in the stories but I'm not sure why some readers are against Sookie, like Eric she never wanted to mate. That's why she chose a vampire, her odds for mating and getting pregnant were slim next to none.

These two are 'Lone Wolves' that got unknowingly stuck together and the situation is getting progressively dangerous. Their proximity is forced, their personalities are strong and will undoubtedly clash and there is a whole lot of sexual tension and sudden intense and confusion feelings. No one should feel like I'm blasting them off. I'm just trying to explain things that I feel I failed to do in the writing. If anyone thinks I should change or edit the summary, let me know. I would hate for folks to feel like I'm "Baiting and Switching" or misrepresenting.

Anyway, as promised here is the daily dose. So far so good, I'm proud of myself for delivering on my promise so far. (Crosses fingers,)

Chapter 11

Broken

The next night, I thought I would still be angry, and so would my mate, but she wasn't. Sookie was waiting on me with a bottle of blood in hand. It was human, just the right temperature, and she served it with a smile that made me feel as if I was the only man she desired. She always had a smile to offer me. It warmed and eased me, and I hated every ounce of that comfort. Clearly, sniffing the stench of were for so long was making me delusional.

The way Sookie smiled at me was the same way she smiled the guards that protected us. It was the way she smiled at cashiers and passersby in the street. She was simply beautiful when she smiled. I was sure everyone who had been on the receiving end of it felt like they were special, too. It always tasted good, not as good as her but better than anything could, considering , I was sniffing two-natured filth.

Our journey continued. The fastest way west from Louisiana to Hawaii was to go through Texas, then cut straight through Mexico toward the Gulf of California. It sounded easy enough, but there were several difficulties we were facing. After the incident at the rest stop in Dallas two days ago, we'd had no more trouble. When we hit Socorro, Texas, we had to decide if we would go northwest toward El Paso and enter New Mexico, or shoot straight into Mexico.

Hawaii and Mexico were autonomous in the division of Vampire Kingdom of the New World. Vampires in Hawaii governed themselves. There was no Regent. They protected one another and maintained their own peace and they took care of law breakers to retain their autonomous status. Mexico was just as independent, but ten times more hostile. It was probably the only place in the world where the vampires were all the same race. Yes, it was that bad. My title as an Enforcer for the Pythoness would do no good because the vampires in Mexico didn't recognize the Ancient One's authority. The Pythoness allowed their preference. It was either that, or wage war to subjugate them. Many of them never got over the loss of the Texas Revolution. It wasn't worth it. Instead, she formed a truce with them under penalty of war.

Mexican vampires could have their way if they did not allow their country to become a safe haven for fugitives from the rest of the New World. For a bounty, they caught, and or, executed any lawbreakers who entered their land. Flying would allow me to avoid Mexico entirely. The one variable I couldn't account for was the most crucial; I didn't know if any vampire there flew. Chances were there was at least one. Ordinarily I would risk it, but with a pregnant woman on my back, I needed to find another way.

"We want to avoid two-natured in that country same as you," Alcide said. "They tend to bite first and ask questions after everyone is dead and bleeding."

"We should take New Mexico and then Arizona," Sam said, dragging a stick in the dirt to illustrate our path. "It's longer but safer."

As our trek continued, I found the lack of physical distance between my mate and me dulled the emotional ties of the mating marks. The less Sookie needed the more peace I found. I welcomed it. Still, every night when I woke to her playing cards or laughing with one of the two-natured on duty, it managed to irritate me. She didn't want them. The way she treated them was polite and friendly, but not overly so. What riled my fury was the fact that they wanted her. I had a claim to her, but it was a claim I didn't want, so I refused to allow it to exert influence over me.

"If it comes to a fight during the day," Sookie said. "I can make sure we win."

Calvin Norris, the ever silent of the two-natured, spoke. "With all due respect, I'd feel lower than dirt having a pregnant woman fight my battles. I'm sure they all would too."

"We have to try now before I get any weaker," she said. "It's the fastest way. If things go bad, then we head back north of the border."

"You want to throw a Hail Mary in the second quarter," Alcide said. "That should be a last resort."

I knew what made the most sense. I could sense the differences in her. They were slight and would be unnoticeable to anyone else, but I knew her body well enough and had insight to her fatigue. She truly was getting weaker. It wasn't just the physical changes I noticed; it was her mental and emotional changes as well.

Things that didn't tire her out at the beginning of the trip were wearing on her now. It wasn't noticeable to everyone to everyone else but I knew. The instant she became fatigued that gnat in my head returned to tell me so. . It was reasonable that we should risk danger knowingly when she was strong, as opposed to when she was weaker and the threat was unexpected. It rankled that I knew what the best thing was, but I couldn't even begin to contemplate the idea. I couldn't do logical; I had to do what posed the least harm to her.

Sookie had gone to bed, so I then had planned the course of the journey to avoid Mexico entirely. Avoiding that lawless land was the way to go. I offered the two-natured an additional hundred thousand on top of what Sookie had already offered without my permission. I rose at first dark the next night to pure mayhem. It was an all-out brawl. I wasn't in the trailer. It was burning. Bodies of two-natured littered the desert and vampires were closing in on the scene. I was confused. Unless New Mexico had dropped the first portion of its name, I was in Mexico, the one place I had charted our course to avoid.

The first thing I searched for wasn't my knives or danger. It was my mate. She was in pain and her fear was heavy. It felt like I was being burned and stabbed. Sookie was terrified. It was because she thought her child would die. The panther was trying to talk her through it. She was huddled in a corner with Calvin Norris holding her. It wasn't only to protect, it was to calm.

"Send him to his room so he'll calm down, and you can do the same." The voice belonged to Calvin Norris. Unlike Quinn who loved to hear himself talk, the panther spoke so rarely that the sound of his voice was distinct when I heard it.

There was a breathy, "Okay," from her and a whimper. It wasn't of pain, it was of fear.

"Forget about them, suga'," he murmured, clouding her view of the fight, but there was nothing he could do about the sound. "The baby only wants out because you're scared, and you're scared because you think your baby wants out. Both of you are wrong and if you can't calm him, he'll die."

"I'm trying," she said with a sob. "I'm trying."

Her tears hit the air. That faint fragrance shouldn't have registered despite all this blood, but it was all that registered. Her hopelessness and despair shot through me. I knew the look on her face. It was like the one she had worn while the mating mark had tortured her for raising her hand to me. She was trying to escape, but she couldn't manage. Danger was too close. She couldn't disengage, so her body continued the natural process.

I snarled and flew over the scene. Someone was going to bleed. That what my mate needed. She needed her child to calm down and remain in her womb. Flying Sookie away should have been the first thought in my mind, but it wasn't. I wanted to show her that she was safe. I wanted her to see that her enemies were no more. That was the last thought I had before the bloodlust came.

All I saw were figures, faces, and weapons. I dismantled them all. I flew into a rampage that was worthy of my status, not only as an Enforcer, but an S7 vampire. I moved so quickly that not even I took note. I could feel the blood coating me. I could hear the cries for mercy, and the screams of pain. All that was left was the two-natured. I was about to attack them. Then one voice called me back.

"Help," Sookie whimpered. "Eric, help."

The tenor of her voice wasn't desperate or frightened. She was simply calling me to her. It was as if a switch had been flipped. I saw her curled into a corner. Thankfully, her pain was less. In the darkness, his eyes like emeralds, the panther had shed his human form and he sat at her feet. I didn't have to tell him to move. He stood aside, so I could gather the unexpected object of my affection into my arms. I was ready to fly her away, but she tapped my hand. I knew she wanted to say goodbye.

"Calvin, Sam, Alcide, Quinn," she nodded her head as deeply as my embrace would allow. They returned it. "Thank you," she said.

She pulled out another bag from inside her own and I knew it held the agreed-upon sum. Despite the magic propensities of her bag, I'd assumed I would be paying the price to get her to safety. That wasn't the case. She had their payday ready. In this moment, it was safe for her to offer and for them to take it.

I'd thought she would be afraid, but five minutes in the air, she was asleep with her face burrowed in my chest against the whipping winds. The carnage below provided all the cover I needed to get us across Mexico and back into the states. I moved as fast as my body allowed to get us into Arizona, bypassing New Mexico entirely.

All during the flight, my fury was growing. That shouldn't have happened. The fact that it had would bring me to the attention to Pythoness a lot sooner than anticipated or desired. Of course, that wasn't what I was most concerned about. It was the sleeping woman in my arms.

I'd already broken into the hotel room I wanted and I'd tucked my mate into bed. It wasn't until an hour before dawn did I go to the lobby to pay for our rooms.

I was in the middle of prepping a place to rest when Sookie woke. It wasn't quite dawn, but it was close. "Hi baby," she greeted.

I frowned. That term of endearment had affected me since she first whispered it in my ear, just the memory of it made me tingle and ache.

"How the hell did we end up in Mexico?" I asked. "I explicitly ordered otherwise."

She shrugged. "The order was made to them, but not to me. I rose, made the call, and they followed."

I snarled and my fangs extended spontaneously. The nerve of this woman! What should matter was that she was racing toward our common goal. That wasn't the case. What made me angrier wasn't her contradicting my orders. It was the fact she had endangered herself. I shouldn't care about that but I did, more than I did about anything else.

"You didn't make a judgment call." I yelled. "You made a fucking mistake."

"I'm getting weaker. If we had run into that kind of trouble further down the road, I would have been useless. I wanted us closer to where we had to be," was her calm retort. "And that's what I did. So with all due respect, you can take your opinion wrap it in sunlight and shove it up your ass."

I don't think I've had anyone go back and forth with me like that in a long time. I wasn't thrilled by the prospect of meeting my smart mouth equal. I was pissed, so I left. Sookie and I didn't speak to each other. She fell fast asleep. When dawn came, I rolled under the bed when all I wanted was to spoon with her in bed. That was stupid.

All she would do if I couldn't calm her was hit me. The good part was if I were dead for the day, I wouldn't feel it. I had no reason to trust her solely with my safety during the day. If not for the mating marks, I wouldn't. Yet, I placed my eternity in her hands. I left her a note informing her of where I was, in case she woke and was in search of me. I was such a fucking idiot. I rose at first dark the next night, so I supposed I wasn't as stupid as I feared.

We stole a car and used it to continue our travels that night toward California. Our speed was cut in half due to sun but it drew less attention.

It took us a night's trek to go from Douglas, Arizona to Quartzsite. With the weres we would have been halfway to San Diego by then. Sookie couldn't spare the energy to drive and watch over me during the day. I drove us to a place where we could find safe lodgings for the day and we only traveled at night. It was an hour so before dawn when Sookie and I checked into a hotel in El Centro, California. That was where the Old Bat found us.

Like always when she came looking for me, I felt her in the air before I saw her. I looked around the motel room half expecting her to be seated at the desk but she wasn't. She was outside the door. She must have known I knew because she didn't knock. She simply stood outside, patiently waiting. Before I went beyond the veil, I really had to find out how she always managed to find me.

"It's okay," I told Sookie, as she moved to stand behind the door. "This is a different kind of pain."

I opened the door and there she stood, hands folded in her lap, head held high. Somehow, she still managed to look like a waif in the cool night air. There was just something in the way she held herself. She moved me aside without really touching me. Her authority was blatant and I moved. It was that, and I didn't want her hanging out in front of the door.

"I seem to be suffering some technical difficulties," she said in hello. "Perhaps you can be of assistance. I pointed my gun, but it did not shoot. When it did, it was in the entirely opposite direction."

I rubbed my face because for once, I didn't have the energy to devote to antagonizing her but I gave it a good try. "Misfire," I suggested. "It can happen sometimes."

Since our bargain, I had never refused an assignment. She turned her head toward me as if my words didn't compute. They probably didn't. Then she spun on her heel, and faced Sookie where she was still lying in wait in the corner.

"What is that?" the Pythoness said, walking toward her. Her face was pulled in grimace as she tried to identify Sookie's scent through the many others in the room. She looked both confused and alarmed.

"Is it a full moon?" I asked the Pythoness.

"You guys probably have things to discuss." Sookie said, moving for the door. "I'm gonna go," I caught her eye so she would see the look on my face that called her a coward. She shrugged to show no remorse on the issue.

"Sit down," the Pythoness ordered.

"I'm just…"

"Sit," the Old Bat repeated. Her tone was the kind you heard when she was saying, 'Off with his head.' You couldn't help but give it your full attention.

"Sitting," Sookie replied raising her hand and finding the closest chair. "Okay, consider me sat."

Slowly the Pythoness made her way to Sookie. As not to frighten her, she lifted her hand and tilted her chin upward. It was as if she was looking for something. Her fingers traced the curve of Sookie's face. Apparently not finding what she sought, she leaned in closer as if she were going to kiss her. Had it been anyone else I couldn't say I wouldn't have claimed their head such as it was, I was smiling at Sookie's discomfort.

"Boy, this is awkward," my mate mumbled.

At that exact moment, the Pythoness dropped her hand as if Sookie's face had suddenly burst into flames. In the same instant, she let out a horrified hiss and skittered across the room. Her back was against the wall. One hand was thrown over her mouth as if she was afraid she would scream, the other was thrown over her un-beating heart.

"Was it something I said?" Sookie said, trying to smell her breath as if it offended.

"That is not only a Sin Eater, it is a God Killer," she pointed at Sookie as if she were sunlight wrapped in silver.

"Want to tell me what that means?" I said. I was getting tired of her odd behavior, amusing as it was. "Or will you bay at the moon first?"

"The nether will rise and the heavens will fall," The Pythoness said with a haunted look in her eyes. "The darkness will come and it will devour us all."

That shit didn't sound at all good.