Thanks for the reviews :) Just to comment a few. Eric didn't kill Roman because he was in the center of the Authority. There were armed guards and Roman is much older than Eric. Besides it wouldn't have worked well with the story line. :) Just kidding. The Authority doesn't know that Sookie is Niall's great granddaughter, although I'm guessing (I know) that they have an idea of what she is.

I own none of the characters in this fan fiction. They are based on the Sookie Stackhouse series. This story is located somewhere between "Dead as a Doornail" and "All Together Dead". It takes parts from the whole series, but there is a twist I promise. I was devastated when the author did away with the blood bond and ultimately ended the relationship which I think defined the series. This is very Team Eric / Sookie.

Chapter 12

Previously… 'It was still pretty early and Eric said he had work to do. I asked him if I could join him in his office and we could work together. Not that I had to work but I wanted to prepare for school and get my books. I also wanted to send a few emails to my brother and Amelia. I checked the time that the sun would rise. 6:48am.'

Sookie's POV

The clock was ticking closer to sunrise. It was difficult to do anything. If it was true, it would complicate things even further in their lives. However, now I can defend myself or at least I have a shot at it. Being human in this world definitely had its drawbacks. Eric was always worried about threats to me, granted that probably wouldn't change, but at least now I wasn't quite so defenseless. In the wake of what we had learned from Rose, that was definitely a good thing.

Five minutes to go. I looked up from my laptop at Eric. "Sweetie. It's almost time." He was sullen about it. For him, it represented yet another challenge to our relationship. As we walked slowly down the stairs, one could cut through the tension with a knife. Eric grabbed us both a blood out of the refrigerator as he stood looking out the door to the back yard. He'd had all the windows replaced with special glass so I would have to actually go out the door. The light moved up the backyard as a beckoning omen. I put my hand on the handle to the back door.

"Just your hand Sookie," he nodded and I swallowed hard, I pushed the handle down and stood on one side of the door as I thrust my hand into the light. Nothing. No pain, no heat. My eyes widened as I looked at him. I moved my entire arm into the sun, holding it there, expecting it to just burst into flames at any second. That didn't happen. I was ready to take a step when he shook his head. Feeling a brave calm sweep through my body, I took a step forward until my entire body stepped through the back yard into the sun. In the house, he stood as still as a statue and I could see in his eyes that he was ready to spring forward to sacrifice himself to save me. I turned around and shook my head. Following this I turned and walked back into the house.

"Okay, that complicates things. "

"Sookie, the Authority doesn't know that you know that you can walk in the sun. You need to still act as a vampire for their purposes. We need to figure this out. Start planning the wedding, although we aren't officially engaged, it may be good to move as fast as possible when we are. In fact, let's make plans to visit city hall as soon as possible and apply for a marriage license. They have night time hours now that the VRA has passed. Let's do that tonight after we wake up."

I absently nodded at him. If I could walk in the sun and live normally eventually, being a vampire wouldn't be quite so bad; maybe I could still tan. As we walked down to the day chamber in the basement, thoughts of the sun filled my mind. As a vampire I'd be undetectable to people. No one would be able to tell. It was the one way to tell a vampire from a human.

The next thing I knew it was sunset and I could feel myself coming back to consciousness. Dying was kind of weird. There was nothing and then all the sudden there was something. Turning to the right, I noticed Eric laying there staring at the ceiling of the cubby. Straight to business, he sat up and pulled me to my feet and up the stairs, will it was more like a ladder only with wider steps and a slight angle. Okay, all business. Once upstairs he handed me a blood and we drank them down, before immediately jumping in the car to head to city hall. There wasn't a line. Not many vampires got married, Eric explained that it was because even if a vampire did bond, most of them considered the piece of paper unnecessary. Even property matters could be settled via legal means these days.

Before the nurse could finish, I pulled my arm back. He looked at me, almost hurt as if I was changing my mind. "Eric I need to talk to you." He asked the woman if we could have a minute and steered me into the hall.

The confusion I felt in the bond was disconcerting. "Eric. I don't have a blood type. Won't they be able to tell that? Then it will be public knowledge. How do I even get married with a blood type?" I felt the bond relax.

"We'll simply request to get it from Dr. Ludwig." He picked up his phone and told the doctor that he needed to see her as soon as possible.

Eric walked back in the room. "My wife to be is a little untrusting of needles. We would like our family doctor to take her blood." The woman nodded as if it was something she had heard before and went about filling out the paperwork. She indicated where the doctor had to sign and indicated that we had to return in order for the license to be valid. An extra trip was completely worth it in my eyes to keep this under wraps.

Eric's POV

We stopped on the way home at a jeweler. I looked at Sookie. "Sookie I want to do this the right way and I will, but for now, we need to solidify our position." She nodded in agreement.

"Eric its fine, I understand." She smiled although I could feel in the bond that she was deeply sad that this was a matter of political importance as opposed to abiding love. I would give her the proposal of a lifetime either way next week in New Orleans.

We stepped in to the dimly lit reception area. The room was flanked by two steel doors with a very ornate desk in the middle of them and wrought iron candle holders on the wall. The girl sitting at the desk was very pretty with dark slicked back hair in a bun at the neck of her nape. She was definitely a vampire. I told her that we were here to meet Mr. Miller and she immediately pressed a button on the intercom on her desk to announce us.

The back of the jeweler was ten times as posh as the front with a marble floor, deep red velvet sofas on either side flanked by solid cherry wood tables. There was a cherry wood bar in the back that displayed very fine crystal ware. Mr. Miller appeared in a doorway towards the back. "Mr. and Mrs. Northman." I felt the bubble in the bond as he said that and smiled.

"Mr. Miller. Is my order ready."

"Nearly. It needs to be sized." He handed me the box.

I pulled Sookie towards me, then dropped down on one knee. "I love you Sookie Stackhouse. This is not my official proposal but I had this designed especially for you to represent our eternal love. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife." Her smile was contagious as she wrapped her arms around my neck and said "Yes of course Eric Northman."

She gulped as I opened the box. Closing her eyes for a moment after she sat down; she tried to still herself. When she re-opened them, she looked at the beautiful platinum ring with two huge rubies set on either side, cut into the shape of drops and set inside each other like a ying yang symbol. They circled around the middle of a 6 carat diamond. The band was set with smaller diamonds the entire way around. She actually gasped upon seeing the ring again; causing me to smile involuntarily. "Oh Eric, it's so beautiful." Nodding at the jeweler, he came closer to size her finger. He explained to her that the ring was not quite done yet, but that it would be in a day or two. She was every bit as gracious as always, repeatedly thanking him and then turning to thank me and tell me how much she loved me. After ample time to gush over the ring, we departed for home to meet Dr. Ludwig. She signed the paper and put Sookie's blood type down as O+.

After we were done with the doctor, I took her down to the gym and we worked out with swords. She was getting much better and much faster. I was proud of her. Though I had no doubt of her ability to make it through anything, I felt much better that she knew the basics of fighting; she would get stronger and stronger. One day, she would be as lethal as Pam and I.

As we were sitting drinking blood after the workout, my phone rang. I looked down to see Roman's name flash on the screen. "Northman here."

"Northman , it's Roman. I have an assignment of sorts for Ms. Stackhouse."

"She doesn't work for you Roman." I knew that this would happen eventually, but I had to question it.

"Northman, do we have to cover this again? There is a state dinner on the 12th in New Orleans. I need Sookie to attend, you can attend if you like. I'll be by tomorrow with the details at Fangtasia."

"Fine. Good night Roman." I slammed the phone shut.

"Sookie that was Roman. They want you to attend a state dinner on the 12th in New Orleans. We have about three weeks. How would you feel about announcing our engagement this week?"

"So it's starting." Her voice lulled for a moment.

"Yes, I'm afraid it is lover." Although she was doing her best to hold in her emotions, I could see that she wasn't pleased with the news. Wrapping my arms around her for reassurance, I whispered in her ear. "It's going to be okay. We'll get through anything they throw at us."

Her half-hearted smile broke my heart. "We don't really have a choice, its better if there is a ton of attention on us. What do we do first?"

"We'll call the papers, I'll arrange some interviews and we'll publish it in the paper to begin." Studying my phone, I dialed Pam. "Pam. Sookie and I are announcing our engagement this week. Please set up an engagement party for next Friday after we return from New Orleans. Invite everyone. Also, please talk to Sookie about what she wants…..Yes I'll see you later."

Sookie's POV

Eric hung up the phone. "Eric I need to tell my brother and friends that I'm a vampire now. When are we going to get the marriage license?"

"We should go the day after tomorrow. We are leaving for New Orleans in two days."

"I'm going to set up a meeting with Niall afterwards before we leave for New Orleans."

His head dropped. He knew that would not go over well. "Yes that is a good idea. I need to consider having a separate office. Now that I am regent, I don't want to have people randomly showing up at our house. I'm thinking since I own the land around Fangtasia, I can have something added on to the club. As it is, the guards are not an intrusion, however, I can see privacy becoming an issue here. When Rose showed up, it was unexpected. I wasn't aware that the Authority even knew where we lived. We may also want to look for a permanent residence that is not here. I'll buy it under one of my corporations and it will be more difficult to locate."

"Yes I was going to say the same thing. I am not sure it is safe that everyone knows where we sleep Eric, especially with all the new threats. Although I will miss this place, it's kind of like my second home."

"Lover it is your home and our new home will be ours. We can make it our home together. We can pick out furniture together and build a life together. It can be everything we both want."

I sighed. No matter what was happening in our crazy life, he always knew the perfect thing to say to me. Our conversation steered towards what kind of office was practical. Building it from scratch seemed like overkill but after we discussed it at length, it did allow for a lot of custom additions like guest quarters and so on. Eric called Alcide and spoke briefly about his plans and asked him to start the paperwork. It didn't need to be as garish as Bertrand's mansion, but it needed to be functional. We decided that a hotel like structure would be best. Though it would be more of a private hotel than anything, Eric would allow visiting vampires to stay there if need be. He started roaring with laughter about calling it 'Dracula's Palace' like 'Ceasar's Palace'. I'll never understand his fascination with puns.

We spent the next couple of hours with him doing paperwork and me shopping for dresses, which we had a lengthy discussion about prior. I said I didn't need them, he said I did, I relented, he was happy. This is the way a lot of discussions went. For him it was a practical thing. He considered it 'caring' for me. I considered it a waste of money. Vampires viewed wealth way differently than most people. But I was a vampire so I guess I should get used to it.

He flipped open his phone, it was Alcide again. "Of course come over." He put the phone down. "Lover, Pam and Alcide will be here in a few minutes. Are you at a place to stop? We need to strategize."

"Yes. I can't find anything anways." I smiled as he frowned.

"You can always just go shopping. I did give you a credit card. We can go tomorrow night after I meet with Roman if you want. You should buy some clothes for New Orleans too." I frowned at his beautiful face.

We headed downstairs just as Pam and Alcide showed up together. I let them in and Eric indicated that he wanted have the meeting in the library.

"So Alcide, did you find out anything?"

"No. Not really. They are heavily guarded which we already knew. They rotate shifts of eight guards on the outside and from what we could count, at least six guards on the inside. During the day, they are protected by Were's. Roman never leaves unless he is surrounded by guards. The other council members leave sparingly. They have to be coming out a different exit. There just isn't as much traffic as one would expect. That news lady is always in and out though. She comes and goes the most." Eric nodded at Alcide.

"Pam, what is going on…anything?"

"Well Master, there is a lot of movement going on in the territories. Not that I pay attention much to the other Area's, but in the last couple of weeks, I have noticed a surge in requests for people to move into our area, citing everything from corruption to money issues. In Area 1, there was an issue recently with one of the Mayor's, his name is Hughes, cracking down on vampire businesses. He was supported by the Governor Jindal and passed a law requiring an extra tax on businesses open after 2am, which is of course affecting vamp businesses mostly as human bars close at 2am."

"Pam, will the Mayor and Governor be at the State dinner on the 12th?"

"I don't know but I'm sure I can find out. I would guess that at least the Governor will be there." Eric nodded at her.

"Okay, so Pam is going to follow up on the state dinner. Alcide, keep someone on the Authority and try to find the alternative exit. I have to let you two in on a secret. It is extremely classified." I glanced at Eric. "If this ever gets out, I will kill you regardless of what you mean to me." That was meant for Pam. Alcide didn't mean that much to Eric, although he did like him. Alcide was still replaceable in Eric's mind. They both looked very concerned and voiced their agreement and understanding.

"Sookie is a vampire, which you know. However, there's more. She can hear vampire thoughts now and she can walk in the sun."

Pam nearly fell off her chair. Alcide seemed unaffected by the announcement. "Oh Sookie…" Pam started. "That's not good…But how did you discover it?"

"The Authority knows that she can walk in the sunlight. We tested it. No one knows about her being able to read vampire minds and we'd rather no one know it ever." Pam was shaking her head. She understood the threat to Eric and me. "We need to find a less known residence and Alcide knows this but we are building a hotel next door to the club to conduct state business."

"Will I have any responsibilities in running the hotel?" The ever-pragmatic Pam asked.

"No, it's not going to be that kind of hotel. It will be more of a private hotel. Although there will be staff it will be mostly visiting vampires and for having area events and so on. The club will still be the main business."

She nodded. "Eric what are you going to do?"

"About what?"

"About Sookie? This is not great. If people find out about her, I can imagine that you'll be challenged a lot."

"Well no one is going to find out. We are getting married. We are going to find a way to stop the Authority and we are going to tell Niall. The Authority has an idea that Sookie is a fairy, but they don't know she is related to Niall. Niall may just take them out for the sheer act of turning her into a vampire. We don't know. Our marriage license will be in city hall the day after tomorrow, Sookie is telling him that night. There is nothing 'to do' except plan. We need to find out what the Authority is up to. We know it is political, we just don't know the end game." He thought for a moment.

"Political? Like Vamp Politics?" Pam was confused.

"No Human Politics. The Authority is planning to infiltrate the government for some reason and they are planning to use Sookie to do it."

Pam's mouth dropped open. "What? Since when does the Authority care about human politics?"

"Well that was my question Pam. It doesn't really matter when they started caring. They do and we have to figure out why. Oh speaking of which, Roman will be meeting me at Fangtasia tomorrow. I intend to tell him that Sookie and I are planning a wedding."

Alcide rose from his stool upon hearing that. "Okay Northman, Pam…" he paused "Sookie. I need to get back on the road. I'll call you tomorrow Northman about permits for the new building and I'll send contracts over for the construction." Eric nodded at him.

Pam decided to stick around for awhile. I could tell she was concerned for our safety. She told Eric she wanted to hire more security for the house while we were still here. We both agreed. Eric's phone dinged at that moment.

Must meet. There is a gas station that is listed in the properties. Meet me there right after your meeting with R.

"Pam. Can you take Sookie shopping tomorrow night?" We both looked at each other. Raising an eyebrow. "Of course Master, is something wrong?"

"No. I mean I don't know. I just got a message that I have to meet someone tomorrow." Eric threw a glance at me. Pam saw it and ignored it. There was a few more minutes of discussion before Pam got up to leave.

Once the door was closed and Pam was well out of range, he turned to me. "Rose wants to meet tomorrow."

"I figured. I'll be fine with Pam Eric."

He thought for a moment. "No actually, I have changed my mind." He took his phone out of his pocket. "Pam, scratch tomorrow. Sookie and I are going together." He clicked the phone off and looked at me. "You are going to read Rose's mind. In fact, I want you in the bar when I meet with Roman. You should be able to hear him from the office right?"

Nodding, "I think so."