Chapter 53: It's Now or Never

From the corner of her eye, Sookie saw a blur of reddish fur. Before she could react, something hit her.

And—suddenly—she couldn't breathe.

She felt herself toppling and then hitting the floor, too surprised to use her arms to brace herself. She was expecting her head to bounce against the floor as well, but instead, she saw that Mr. Cataliades had moved fast enough to somehow prevent that.

As she worked to catch her breath, she noticed that the part demon was looking over her shoulder; she could see his sharp white teeth as he hissed. In that moment, she found herself wondering at the fact that he was able to keep them concealed, for she'd never noticed their sharpness at all. Perhaps, demons used a kind of magic to cover their sharp teeth. Or maybe they could retract them—but that was a lot of teeth to retract.

As she finally was able to take in a breath again, Sookie recognized that it wasn't the time to ask Desmond about his teeth.

Instead, she turned so that she could figure out what had hit her.

Her eyes met three things—actually four.

One: Padma kneeling down and bleeding profusely from deep wounds to her neck and right arm. Sookie almost gagged as she noticed that the wound actually seemed to have almost torn her arm in two right below her right elbow.

Two: Thalia standing menacingly with a sword in her hand.

Three—and four: A naked Debbie Pelt lying dead—in two pieces.

Below the waist, Debbie was facing downwards. Above the waist, she was twisted toward Sookie, staring straight at her. The telepath noticed blood all around the werefox's mouth, and she couldn't help thinking that Debbie likely died happy since she'd obviously been ingesting vampire blood when she'd been cut in two pieces.

Thalia was next to Sookie in seconds, speaking in a language the telepath didn't recognize, but the telepath guessed that what she was saying wasn't pleasant.

"I'm fine," Sookie said, accepting Mr. Cataliades's help as she got to her feet.

"You are injured," Thalia said.

"The wind was knocked out of me for a few seconds," Sookie replied, as she took a few calm breaths. "Padma took most of the blow. Are you okay?" she asked the bleeding vampiress.

Clearly, from Padma's expression, the answer was "no."

"Make your way to Ludwig," Thalia said gruffly.

Padma looked ready to protest, despite the fact that she literally seemed to be holding her right arm together with her left hand.

"Now!" Thalia ordered.

Padma looked at Sookie with sorrow-filled eyes and bowed a little before she moved away.

"We need to go," Sookie said, knowing that the ten minutes Appius had given to her was likely almost over.

Thalia kicked half of Debbie's corpse toward the side of the hall and looked at Sookie, her eyes full of rage and contrition. "I was mentally cataloguing ways I might slay Appius, so I missed Pelt," she growled by way of apology.

"I'm so far into Mark Stonebrook's thoughts that I missed her too," Sookie responded, motioning toward her head. She smiled a little. "We'll be more careful the rest of the way."

Thalia nodded and turned back to lead them toward the ballroom.

The ballroom was still—very still considering the fact that blood had been spilled.

Peter Threadgill, Ian Bowles, and Russell Edgington almost seemed to be in downtime as they watched Appius Livius Ocella staring back at them with a little smirk on his face. Sophie-Ann's eyes were still on Sigebert, who was still unmoving, though still holding on to his "un-death."

Eric was taking the moment to try to allow his body to heal as much as possible. Appius had lifted the command that Eric bring him Sookie; however, the Viking could still feel Appius's command that he meet the sun the next day. Still, it was a temporary respite for him.

Appius had been right about one thing. If meeting the sun was the only way he could protect himself and Sookie from Appius's wrath, he would do it without struggle or hesitation. He suspected that he and Sookie were so tightly connected that—if one of them died—the other would follow quickly.

And if they both died, Eric had no doubt that their souls would find each other. But if they both lived, they would be forced to endure a kind of pain that Eric didn't want to fathom; simply put, he didn't want to even contemplate Sookie having to go through whatever Appius planned for her.

He wouldn't allow that to happen! He couldn't.

He felt her confidence, and then he felt her confusion and pain. He couldn't help but to show an effect.

Of course, Appius noticed.

"Problem? Could it be that your so-called bonded is not coming? Tell me—has she left you here to rot?" Appius toyed with his child.

Eric forced a blank expression across his face, even as he desperately clutched to his bond with Sookie, trying to figure out what had happened. Within a minute, however, she seemed fine. Disgust and a little bit of guilt replaced the pain and surprise from her end of the bond. And then he felt a big burst of love from her.

And then her resolution returned.

She was confident in him—in herself. Eric could tell—because he knew her so well—that she had a plan.

He couldn't help but to look toward the door that he knew she'd be coming through.

Appius noticed that too.

Eric was feeling so many things in that moment. He didn't want Sookie anywhere near Appius, but—even as he wished with all that was in him that she would flee—he knew that his bonded would never abandon him, just as he would never abandon her.

So they would face Appius together.

It was now, or it was never, and Eric had no idea what fate held for them.

Sookie flexed her hands as she walked. They felt almost numb—or, maybe, as if they belonged to someone else.

Maybe they did, for she felt very unlike the Sookie she had been a year ago.

Before Bill Compton entered her life.

Before Gran died.

Before Eric.

Before she accepted that she was not human.

Before she realized that she was fine with who she was.

With her right hand, Sookie felt one of the weapons she had in her jacket, and her mind couldn't help but to go back to the night that Eric had given her the piece of clothing she was wearing.

Flashback:

"It's beautiful," Sookie said as she dragged her fingers over the soft, buttery black leather of the jacket that he'd surprised her with.

"Practical too," Eric grinned.

"Why? Because we'll always match?" she smirked as she gestured toward the black leather jacket he'd been wearing earlier.

He chuckled. "That wasn't exactly what I was thinking, though anything that marks you more as mine is fine by me."

She giggled. "More than your blood? More than our bond?"

"No—nothing is more than that," he growled as he pulled her into his arms and captured her lips in a breath-stealing kiss.

"All I have to do to get you all riled up is to mention the bond," she panted as he finally let her up for air.

"What do I have to do to get you all riled up, Miss Stackhouse?" he asked teasingly—suggestively.

"You're already doin' it," she responded as she initiated another vigorous kiss. Eric pushed the box that held her new jacket away and lifted her up onto the dining room table. Her legs immediately wrapped around him to pull him against her.

When he sensed she needed another breath, he trailed kisses down her neck, even as his hands reached behind her to unzip the dress she was wearing.

Impatiently, she gripped his shirt and lifted it up, getting help from him in pulling it off.

It wasn't long before all of their clothing had been strewn haphazardly on the floor.

"I want you so much," Sookie groaned out as their naked bodies pressed together.

Spurred by her words, Eric trailed kisses down her body until his mouth was hovering over her pussy. He flicked his tongue out to tease her clit and then flicked it some more as she mewled and squirmed in her pleasure. Soon, he increased the pressure of his tongue on her clit and started to tease her soaked entrance with two of his fingers. Slowly, he stroked into her, stretching and stimulating her.

"Eric! Yes!" Sookie exclaimed as his fingers began to drag over the spot inside of her that drove her mad.

Within moments, she was cumming around his fingers, and he moved his mouth to bite into her inner thigh and take a few gulps of her awe-inspiring blood, causing even more bursts of pleasure from her. He sealed her wound and then sealed his mouth over her entrance, drinking from her in another way.

"I will never get enough of you," he grunted as she quaked again due to his attentions.

"More!" she begged, echoing his sentiment.

"Hell yes!" Eric exclaimed as he stood and lined himself up to her. She was so ready and still so damned wet that he couldn't help but to thrust into her forcefully, bottoming out on the first stroke.

She arched her back and gripped his sides. "So good!" she moaned.

He couldn't agree more!

As he began moving out and into her in a rhythm that seemingly put them both on the edge of sanity, her grip intensified, and her nails caused little crescent wounds in Eric's flesh, each one of them seemingly trying to mimic one of his fangs.

The lovers didn't notice as the solid wood table scraped a bit along the floor due to their forceful pace. Or maybe they just didn't care, knowing that Sookie planned to redo the floors within the next year anyway.

They built each other up as she met his thrusts. And when the pleasure seemed too much, they both released within seconds of one another.

So intense were their orgasms that when they tried to kiss each other right after, they missed one another's lips.

Both laughed, though Sookie's laughter was mixed together with her still heaving breaths.

"Let's try that again," Eric said when they'd stopped laughing and were a bit more composed.

He leaned in and gently kissed her, and then he traveled the very short distance to the kitchen, where he wet a washrag for her. After he cleaned them both up, she jumped off the table and claimed a short kiss.

"Thanks," she smiled as she scooped his T-shirt off the floor and put it on.

He quickly put on his jeans since he knew that his bonded was still somewhat modest when it came to clothing.

As Sookie went into the kitchen to get herself some water, Eric collected their other discarded clothing and tidied the dining room area. Not surprisingly, in their passion, a chair had been toppled over, and the decorative items Sookie kept in the middle of the table had been pushed back to the point that they were at the table's edge.

"Thanks again," Sookie said as she returned to the dining room with a clean towel and some Pledge so that she could clean the table.

Eric looked on with amusement.

"Well—I can't very well leave my butt print on it," she giggled. "Especially not with all the supernatural eyes and noses that come through here."

She blushed in a way that Eric continued to find delightful.

Hours later, they'd settled down—and settled in—for the evening and were doing the incredibly mundane activity of watching the news together. Both were relishing in their domesticity.

"You brought the jacket in here," Sookie observed during a commercial. The garment was on the coffee table.

Eric smirked and leaned forward to grab it. "Before you so distracted me, I was going to show you what makes this jacket so special."

Sookie leaned forward as well, even as she brushed her fingers over the soft leather.

The vampire opened up the jacket to show her the pockets inside. Cleverly worked into the garment, the pockets were almost unnoticeable—as were the weapons in them.

"Stakes?" Sookie asked.

"Wooden daggers," Eric corrected as he pulled one out.

Sookie couldn't help but to marvel at the beauty of the small objects as she thumbed one. It seemed almost soft to her touch.

"Chow makes them," Eric informed. "And I'm going to have him teach you how to use them, for even I haven't mastered throwing them as he does."

"Why not stakes?" Sookie asked, curiously as she gripped one of the daggers in her hand.

"I like the idea of your being able to throw something from a bit of a distance," Eric responded. "And, of course, they might as well be stakes in their potential effects on a vampire. Of course, you can use them like stakes, though—with the handle—you will have a better grip."

"So they allow for versatility?" Sookie said after taking a deep breath.

Eric could tell that she didn't enjoy the thought of taking a life—not at all.

"That they do," he responded softly. "And I hope you never have to use them."

"But you want me to know how," she commented—still apprehensive, but also determined.

"Yes, just as I hope to one day teach you how to wield a sword, but—for now—something more discreet is better."

She took a deep breath. "I'll learn then."

"I'll call Chow to set things up."

Flashback over

Sookie glanced over at the vampire who had graciously shared his knowledge with her. She'd not been sure about Chow when she'd met him, mostly because he seemed less than enthusiastic about the task Eric had given to him.

However, he'd been a patient teacher to her—sharing not just how to throw the wooden knives he painstakingly made, but also much of his philosophy. She'd learned that he enjoyed tasks that took a long time—even for a vampire.

And he had eventually warmed up to her—when he realized that she was taking his instruction seriously and carefully practicing. Indeed, during the two months that he'd been teaching her, Chow had become a friend to Sookie—not as close of a friend as Thalia or Maria-Star, who were almost constantly with her when Eric wasn't—but close enough that Sookie's heart lurched at the thought that he might die in the upcoming fight.

They all might die—she acknowledged.

She felt a wave of guilt, but then appreciation for everyone who was standing with her and Eric.

And—she realized—she would fight for them all too. Some things—some people—were worth dying for.

As they neared the ballroom, Sookie glanced again at Chow. He was right next to her, having taken that spot after Padma had to leave due to her injuries.

She was not surprised when he didn't return her glance. She'd learned that he was singularly focused and always kept his eyes straight ahead, and—though he did not hold his daggers in his hands at the moment—Sookie knew that he could have them ready to throw before she could gasp a breath.

Again, she felt the smooth handle of one of the knives in her jacket. She was glad to know that it was at the ready. And she was ready to use it.

Thalia turned to her as she reached the door that would take them into the ballroom.

Sookie gave her a nod. She was ready to confront her beloved's tormentor.

It was now.

Or it was never.

A/N:

I know that many of you are waiting for the "real" battle to start, but we have a bit of action in this chapter. And Debbie is dead! Yay! Certainly, there are bigger & "badder" villains to deal with, but let's take a sentence to relish in this one being taken care of.

I know that the rest of this chapter was transitional, but I needed for a couple of things to get accomplished before Sookie confronts Appius, which is coming in the next chapter. I promise.

Best,

CKat