This is Eric's compound (it is the fifth picture in the first post showing several different buildings):
www . indianrealestateforum ahmedabad / t-gift-city-vibrant-gujarat-dholera-plans-updates- 49711-page2 . html
No beta or proofing.
Chapter 4
"Hi, I'm here to speak to Eric."
"Join the rest of his little fan club over there."
Looking across the street where the vampire guard pointed, Sookie saw a herd of fangbangers with posters bearing Eric's face on it. They were calling out to him, and begging him to take them away from their human existence. After 200 years vampire society was completely out. Vampire monarchs were big celebrities, and with Eric looking the way he did, he'd become an overnight sensation.
Rolling her eyes at the lack of self respect some people had, Sookie focused on the vampire guard posted at the gate of Eric's new Shreveport compound and tried, "I'm not a fangbanger. My name is Sookie Stackhouse and I'm here to see the king."
If possible, the vampire guard would have gone pale when he learned who the blonde woman in front of him was. Not only did every supe in North America recognize the name Sookie Stackhouse simply because she'd made herself into a woman no one wanted to fuck with, but the king had made it very clear she was important to him and to be treated like a queen by all his subjects.
"Uh—I didn't know. Can I just see your ID to verify who you are? I don't want to offend you or anything, the king will have my head if I do, but if you're not Sookie and I let you in it could go bad for me as well."
"Sure."
Handing over her ID Sookie said, "You don't need to be so nervous. I'm not going to tell Eric to take your head. I just need to speak with him."
Quickly scanning the ID, the guard opened the gate and waved her through. Eric's compound was a modern high tech skyscraper smack dab in the middle of Shreveport. He'd quietly seen to its construction under an alias several years before as his marriage to Freyda neared it's end. Thus, it had been ready for use the night he'd taken over.
Usually vampire monarch compounds were in isolated areas to provide a certain degree of privacy from the mainstream world, but Eric had gone a different route. With his royal residence in the center of the city, so very visible, there was no way another monarch could attack his court unless they were traveling. He did have to suffer through a great deal of public scrutiny, but he had his ways to avoid it. Eric's compound was not only where his court was held, but it was also the headquarters for his many businesses. He had thousands of workers, and each and every one of them had been approved by him. The heads of each of his departments were recruited by him personally, and his regime, even as young as it was, already held the reputation of one that was efficient and dangerous. Dangerous because Eric's people were completely loyal to him. He was a firm ruler, but he was fair, and his people loved him for it.
Eric's security was top notch. Before anyone could even enter the building they had to get passed the gate and guard. If you were on the list for entrance, you didn't get in. But Sookie had banked on the fact Eric would hope she'd come to him, and would have taken the measures to pave the way for her. Apparently she was right, and he had.
Making her way into the lobby of the building Sookie went right to the visitor's center and told the receptionist, "I wish to be taken to the king. Right now."
The slim receptionist looked at Sookie with an appraising eye, and denied, "The King holds court the first three hours of every night. Only vampires and other supernaturals pre-approved for audience with the king are allowed to attend. If you need to speak to King Northman you can fill out a request form, and it will be processed as quickly as possible. If this is a state emergency I can put you in contact with a vampire in the King's emergency services department."
Digging out her ID again, Sookie said, "My name is Sookie Stackhouse and I want to be taken to the king right now. I assure you, he will not thank you for holding me up."
The woman's eyes bulged at Sookie's declaration, and she reached forward with a shaky hand to take Sookie's ID. She swiped it quickly through the ID scanner, and up popped Sookie Stackhouse's public file. This really was the girl the King had been forced to give up so long ago. Actually shaking now, the receptionist handed Sookie back her ID and stuttered, "I'm so sorry, Ma'am. I didn't know who you were. I won't make the mistake again. The king wishes for you to be comfortable any time you are on the premises. I'll summon a page to escort you to the King's court. While you're waiting can I get you anything? Water? Tea? A Coke?"
Shaking her head, Sookie said, "I'm fine."
Ten minutes later Sookie was being led into the back of Eric's throne room. It was modern and sleek, but carried an elegance with it Sookie could definitely see Eric's hand in. She'd bet dollars to donuts that he'd helped design this room. Somehow the architecture of the throne room matched the personality of the man itself. At first glance the stone, metal, and glass room seemed cold and unmovable, but the special lighting Eric had in the ceiling caused lights to dance across the walls that somehow gave the room a softer appearance than one would expect. She liked it.
However, as beautiful as the room was she appreciated none of it because her eyes were riveted to the sight of Eric in the middle of the room as he meticulously removed the last of the skin from Felipe's cock. Sookie's mouth fell open in shock as she took in the completely skinless forms of the former monarchs that had taken so much from her and Eric two centuries before. Sookie didn't know how Eric was keeping their skin from growing back, and she didn't want to know.
The vampire page at her side was telling her he'd let the king's attendants know she was here, but Sookie wasn't going to wait for an announcement. She'd heard that Eric was torturing Felipe and Freyda every night, but she'd never expected anything like this. And as much as she hated them for what they'd done to her and Eric, she couldn't let this continue.
Pushing her way through the crowd, Sookie shouted, "Stop it!"
Eric froze where he stood in front of Felipe. He'd started on Freyda tonight. Slowly and methodically removing one patch of skin after another. The removal of the skin around her more sensitive parts had been especially satisfying to him. He truly had abhorred having to satisfy her in bed once a year, and with every swipe of his blade he let her know what he thought of her using him like some sex toy. When he'd finished with her, enjoying each and every time she cried out in pain and begged him for mercy, he'd started on Felipe.
To keep them from rejuvenating he'd sprayed the exposed muscle and sinew with a new silver serum that slowed vampire healing significantly. It was especially helpful in torture, and he was loving finding new ways to use it on the former monarchs. Tonight he'd decided to remove every shred of skin from the two vampires that had robbed him of his life with Sookie. He'd wanted to have them bloody and skinless and on display in the center of his court so everyone would know what happened when someone tried to hurt him and those he cared about. It was a lesson he'd been teaching to his court and the supe world at large every night for almost a year now. And every night his pursuit of Sookie got him nowhere he became more and more sadistic with his vengeance.
Now, hearing the voice of the woman he was determined to call his again, he pushed his rage for the two that had taken so much from him into the back of his mind, and turned to face Sookie. She stood at the edge of the throne room, her purse clutched over her shoulder, and a clear look of horror and disgust on her face. He refused to be cowed by it and stated, "They deserve this, Sookie."
Eyes darting to the savaged bodies of Felipe and Freyda, Sookie felt a shudder of revulsion rip through her. In the last two centuries she'd grown and matured quite a bit, and while she still considered herself kind and merciful, she'd long since learned that enemies needed to be killed as quickly as possible. She was no longer afraid to get bloody if it meant protecting her family, but she did not hold with torture for revenge.
"They deserve to die, Eric, but not this. Never this."
"They have to pay for what they did. I've waited 200 years for my revenge."
"You've got your revenge, Eric. You dismantled their kingdoms, took everything they owned, killed those that were loyal to them, and you've spent nearly a year now torturing them every night. It's done. They're done. You must stop this."
Eric and Sookie were both ignoring everyone around them. They were facing one another and looking at only each other. Eric's suit was spattered with blood, his hands covered in it, and Sookie was a stark contrast in her long white dress. The supes in attendance, all save Pam, were shocked that a human woman was speaking to the feared Northman in such a way, but all were riveted to the scene before them. For long moments the king and Sookie simply stared at each other before Eric asked, "Are you asking me to end this?"
"Yes, yes I'm asking you to end this. Stake them and be done with it. You've taken everything you can from them, and you've more than proven to everyone what you are capable of. This cruelty is unnecessary."
Sookie's eyes softened as she finished, "And while you were many things, Eric Northman, the vampire I knew was never unnecessarily cruel. Has that changed since I was your wife?"
There was a long pause before Eric replied, "No, it has not." Turning around to face his enemies, Eric set his scalpel down on the tray of tools he'd used tonight. Picking up the stake he focused on Freyda and Felipe and said, "You are lucky she is so merciful."
With two quick jabs of his hand he'd staked both Felipe and Freyda, and everyone in court watched as their bodies dissolved right off the large hooks they'd been hanging from the ceiling from. When they were nothing but a puddle at Eric's feet he ordered, "Court is done for the evening. Everyone out … except Sookie."
The room was quiet save the sounds of shoes hitting the floor as vampires, weres, witches, and the occasional humans in the know quickly scurried from the room. Sookie had clearly seen Pam among those ordered out, but she hadn't acknowledged the vampiress. She and Pam had only spoken once in the past 200 years, and that was after Sam died. She wouldn't mind becoming friends with Pam again, but right now her focus was solely on Eric.
When everyone was gone and it was just the two of them Sookie walked closer to Eric whose gaze was hot and intense as he followed her every move. When she was standing right in front of him she looked up into his eyes and said, "We need to talk."
"Are you coming back to me?"
"Eric, it's not that simple. You need to get cleaned up, and then you and I are going to sit down and talk."
Eric hesitated only a second before replying, "Very well."
A half hour later found Eric and Sookie sitting across from one another in the small living area attached to Eric's bedroom. The top five floors of his compound were devoted to his personal use, but no one was ever invited into his personal rooms. Other than his maid, no one came into them but him. And now Sookie.
Declining the drink Eric offered her, Sookie began, "Marcus is going to Mars for the next five months."
"My spies informed me of such."
"He asked that I date you while he's gone."
Eric blinked.
And blinked.
And blinked.
And then asked, "What?"
Uncomfortable with the topic, but realizing she couldn't hide from this, Sookie explained, "Marcus believes that my feelings for you, our relationship, aren't resolved. He wants me to date you while he's gone, and when he gets back he's going to ask me to choose. He's promised to let me go if I choose you."
Eric was crouched in front of Sookie before she finished her sentence. Taking her hands he exclaimed, "This is wonderful, my lover! It will be as it was! It will be better! We will have the life we were meant to have!"
Taking her hands from his, Sookie countered, "Eric, this doesn't mean what you think it does. Go sit back on your couch. I'm here to talk to you, and that's all that's going to happen tonight."
Once Eric had reluctantly returned to his seat, Sookie began, "I have some things to say to you, Eric Northman, and you are going to listen."
Recognizing his own words, Eric agreed, "Very well. I'm listening."
Taking a deep breath, Sookie opened her mouth and let everything she'd held inside her for so long run free. "I loved you more than I knew was humanly possible. You made me feel safe, and special, and wanted, and precious. When we were together I felt like the sky was the limit. I felt normal and sacred all at once. You challenged me in every way, and you got me. I felt like you were the first person to ever really understand me."
Tears filled Sookie's eyes as she continued, "But there was so much wrong with us, and we never could seem to fix it. After the curse was lifted and you left my house and returned to the way you were it broke my heart. That time you spent with me was so beautiful. It was like all the skepticism and coldness that had formed around your heart over the last 1,000 years just melted away. You were just a guy, and you made me feel like a normal girl. I fell in love with you to fast to stop myself. When you promised to live with me, to be my man and take care of me I wanted so much to let you. But I couldn't. I couldn't steal your past from you, and I helped to lift the curse. And then you were gone, and it hurt."
Wiping the tear from her cheek, she said, "Those first few months after the curse was lifted hurt me terribly. I'd always cared about and respected you, but I truly fell in love with you when you stayed with me, and to be cut off from you so coldly tore me up inside. You left and were back to the aloof sheriff I didn't know where I stood with. It hurt me so much, and I can be big enough to admit that I held that pain against you the rest of our relationship. I know that wasn't your fault, and I know that once you got your memories back you tried to talk to me about our time together. I shouldn't have run from you. I think that's when things began to really fall apart for us. Somehow, while still trusting each other, we stopped trusting each other. We both knew we wouldn't betray one another, but at the same time we stopped trusting the other in every other way."
"That is true, Sookie, we didn't—"
"Eric, please. I need to say all of this."
"As you wish. Continue. I will do my best not to interrupt."
Taking another steadying breath, Sookie pressed on. "I felt like I never knew where I really stood with you. I know I meant much to you, but I didn't know in what way. I didn't know what your plans for the future were. I didn't know if you were sleeping with other women at Fangtasia. I didn't even know how you spent your free time, because you spent so little of it with me. It's like the times you were with me were little vacations away from your real life. You told me so little about you and what was happening in your life. So I found myself doing the same.
"I know you cared for me, and wanted to keep me safe, but I didn't know if you wanted the same things with me that I wanted from you. And maybe if I had let you talk to me after you got your memories back I might have. But when you told Felipe you would not die for me, and then you spent months and months ignoring me after Felipe's takeover, it made me so insecure and scared. So when you first told me you wanted to talk, I didn't want to hear it. I found I preferred living in ignorance because I thought you were going to tell me that while you cared about me and wanted to be with me from time to time, you didn't want to spend your life with me, live with me, as you'd offered to do when you were cursed. I thought you were going to propose that I'd be like your favorite or something. Or maybe you'd tell me that you couldn't afford to get any closer to me than you had because I was a liability. "
Sookie could feel the pain she'd suppressed for so long overtaking her as she whispered, "I found that it was easier to avoid hearing bad news and live in ignorance than face you. So I kept pushing you away. I didn't want to feel my heart break. I was good at living with a bruised one."
Wiping more tears from her cheeks, Sookie insisted, "But when I wasn't pushing you away I was looking for signs from you that proved you wanted the same things I wanted. I looked so desperately, but they just weren't there. At least not ones I understood. You hid Freyda from me. If it weren't for Pam I really would have been blindsided by the divorce that night. You didn't tell me about a threat not only to you, but us. Then you refused to discuss it with me, and what little you did discuss with me did nothing to allay my fears about us. You kept saying you were handling it, and—well I guess I felt like if you really cared so much about 'us' you would have let me help you. You didn't let me fight for you, fight for us to be together, and I took that to mean I didn't mean as much to you as you meant to me."
Pausing to get control of her emotions, Sookie stated, "I know you wanted me to use the Cluviel Dor to save you from the marriage, but you have to remember that back then supe politics were still very unknown to me. Despite finding myself involved in them so much of the time, I still knew very little of how they worked. To me I couldn't understand the fact you literally couldn't get out of the marriage contract. Not until a few years after you'd divorced me, and by then my anger and hurt at what you'd done behind my back had me cursing your name. Maybe if I had known before I saved Sam's life I would have given it to you to save yourself, but I didn't know, and honestly, I'm glad I didn't because it allowed me to save Sam and end up here. I like who I am now, and I love my children. I love what my life has become.
"I'm not denying that I was to blame for much of the problems in our relationship, but when it came to our relationship ending? How it ended? My anger and pain at it's ending? That was all your fault. You never once told me what was really going on. Just as you'd done so many times before you tried to handle it all by yourself. You decided you were going to make the decisions for both of us, and I had to suffer the consequences. I didn't get any chance to try and help save us, and really, I never knew just how badly things could go. I knew the possibility of a divorce was there, but everything else that happened? Knowing how badly things were ending for us and Pam was an all new torture, and I still blame you for it."
Gripping her hands in her lap, Sookie continued, "I blame you for so much. I blame myself for so much, and every time I think of being with you again I get so angry. But my anger is based off of the pain your loss caused me, and I can't ignore that. I loved you so much that even 200 years later I'm still fucking pissed at how things ended between us."
When Sookie fell silent, Eric asked, "So where does that leave us?"
"I honestly don't know."
Looking at Eric, Sookie said, "But Marcus was right. My feelings for you and our relationship were never resolved. If I'm truly going to move forward in life I have to know."
Eric felt hope flare up inside him as he asked, "Meaning?"
"Meaning that Marcus leaves in two weeks. Once he's gone I'm going to take his suggestion and date you. I want you to know that nothing sexual will take place. As long as I'm married to Marcus I will be faithful. But I'd like to spend time with you. I'd like to talk to you. I'd like to see if those same intense feelings we had before are still there. I want to see if we've both changed enough that we can finally overcome all the obstacles between us."
Eric moved slowly this time, but once again he knelt down in front of Sookie and took hold of her hands as he asked, "And if we have changed enough? If you spend time with me and find you wish to be with me again?"
Sookie refused to answer that and instead said, "We'll talk about that if we get to such a point. For now I'm saying I want to see if we still love each other, if we still feel as deeply for one another as we did before, and more importantly I'm saying that I want to talk to you. Really talk to you."
Holding Eric's gaze, Sookie insisted, "I refuse to try and get back what we had, Eric. You say otherwise, but I know it wasn't great and wonderful. I've known great and wonderful over the last 200 years, and that's not what we had. Was our relationship intense and exciting? Oh yes, but I need more than that. If we're going to do this, Eric, you have to talk to me. We have to talk to each other."
Grinning, Eric assured, "I very much wish to talk to you, Sookie. There is much that needs to be said between us. The night is still young, could I take you to dinner?"
"No."
"No?"
"No."
Pulling her hands from Eric's again and motioning for him to back up, Sookie stood. She swept her bag over her shoulder and explained, "I'm going to spend the next two weeks with Marcus. Tonight we're having dinner at home."
When Eric's expression darkened, Sookie chastised, "Don't be like that. You may not like Marcus, but you will respect him. If it weren't for him I wouldn't be here. He's the one that insisted I come to you, that I try to see if we could fix what broke between us. He's making a great sacrifice here, and I for one am honored to be married to such a man."
Eric acknowledged, "He is a great man. A better one than me because I could never step aside and let you go. I do appreciate this chance he's giving us, but I can't help but want you all to myself."
"We'll you're going to have to get over it. I have 33 children now, and my youngest is only 13. And the number of grandchildren I have grows every year. My attention will never be all for you even if we do get back together."
"I would very much like to meet your children and grandchildren, Sookie."
Shaking her head, Sookie denied, "We are a long way from that, Eric, if ever."
Eric paused before asking, "Do they know of me?"
"The older ones have heard the stories. A few of my oldest grandchildren as well. What happened between you and me isn't exactly a secret in the supe world, and while I've worked hard to keep Bon Temps safe and removed from all the politics, people still talk. My youngest doesn't know yet, and Marcus and I have both decided not to tell her. We spoke with our other children, and they know what we're doing. Not many of them are happy about it, but they've agreed not to tell Linda that you and I will be dating while her father is gone."
Sookie's eyes narrowed as she insisted, "And that means that what time you and I do spend together while Marcus is gone needs to be done discreetly."
"I can arrange that."
"I need you to know that I do love Marcus, Eric, and I love my children more than life itself. In the end I'm going to make the decision I feel is best for all of us."
"What is best is you and I together, my lover."
"That remains to be seen."
Turning and heading towards Eric's personal elevator, Sookie called over her shoulder, "I don't want to see or hear from you again over the next two weeks. I'm going to devote them entirely to Marcus before he leaves. He deserves it. I can't imagine what it took for him to insist I do this. He's a better person than either of us ever could be, and his strength and compassion leave me in awe. You will honor him by allowing him these next two weeks with his wife without any more of your interference. Understood?"
"Completely."
Sookie held Eric's gaze as the elevator doors closed cutting him off from sight. When she was alone again she let out a ragged breath and whispered, "What the hell am I getting myself into?"