A/N: I visited a friend in the hospital the other day. After a battery of tests, she was just diagnosed with Mantle Cell Lymphoma a week ago. It was her first appointment with the hematologist and she went straight to admissions. She's still there. She is really very sick. It's stage four. Terminal. Finding the right words is hard. I've had a really hard time with that one on several fronts lately. She just turned 50 in July. It's all scary as fuck. My high school best friend died of cancer ten days after diagnosis when she was twenty-three. In the same hospital. It's hard not to fear the worst. Everything sucks. A lot. So much. I am so fucking tired. My tank is empty. I am.

Trying to write but passion is gone. For everything. Pushing through. It helped get me through hell before. Maybe it will again. But things were different then. I will finish both stories. It just might be slow. Fuck, I miss the days of six chapters a week. So fucking hard.

Chapter 19

Sookie tried not to react, and was quite sure she managed to look natural. She didn't even think Eric had noticed. He gave her neck another sucking kiss and stroked the inside of her thigh.

She had no way to communicate with him, thanks to the woman's vampire companion. And Sookie had emptied her plate and the bottle, and Eric had already announced his intentions for her when she was through. She was going to have to drink what was left in her glass very slowly.

Eric tongued her ear and she almost forgot her objective, but she made at least part of herself listen in on the woman's thoughts. Right then, though, they were all about her and Eric. Emphasis on the Eric. It was kind of like a feedback loop; Sookie kept trying to pay attention to the woman's thoughts instead of what Eric was doing, but the woman just kept thinking about what Eric was doing and it made Sookie pay attention to it even more.

The woman would probably stop thinking about them if Eric stopped groping her. Eventually. But after Sookie had finished eating and without the pretense of their playtime, there wasn't much reason for them to still be sitting there instead of going upstairs and doing what he'd been promising he'd do since they'd arrived. Either way, the woman with the vampire needed to think about Felipe, not Eric fucking her senseless.

Sookie had to keep turning her own mind back in that direction, too.

There were rubbed away spots in the woman's memories, but Sookie wasn't surprised to see evidence of glamour when she had a vampire boyfriend. Said vampire's nostrils were still flaring and he kept sneaking glances at them out of the corner of his eye. Sookie had never seen him before, so he couldn't have been a local. Eric had apparently decided he wasn't a threat and was ignoring him.

Eric lightly trailed his nose up her throat and past her jaw and buried it in her hair when he whispered in her ear, loud enough for everyone nearby to hear.

"I need you again, my lover. No more waiting."

She shivered at Eric's cool breath on her neck. He put his very talented mouth and tongue back to work on her throat and ear. Sookie reached back and buried her hand in the hair on the nape of his neck and held him in place. She hummed happily and took another sip of wine. Vampires were going to vampire, especially at a vampire-owned casino, and she had no reason to rein him in. She was enjoying herself, too, even if he was a terrible distraction.

She was tempted to say fuck it and go back upstairs to fuck Eric senseless and leave the woman alone, but Sookie would be an idiot to just let her go. Maybe she and the vampire were planning some kind of attack where lots of innocent people would get hurt. Or what if the woman had been sent by Felipe to test her? Sookie really did not want to piss off the King and wind up back at the VIV Club so soon, torn away from her vampire. Her vampire, who would be still bonded to her and likely out of his mind with jealousy while she was being raped over and over again, ad nauseum, by anyone who wanted her. The thought made her sick.

"Soon, baby. But I think I want some dessert first."

She so did not want dessert, unless it involved his cock down her throat, but she didn't really have much of an option. Not unless she drank another bottle of wine instead. It really wouldn't do her a whole lot of good, though; she'd be way too drunk to make sense of anything she heard. Either way, Eric's penis would have to wait.

He growled low in his throat and then said, "You are a tease."

She threw her head back and laughed. More people turned to stare. He took the opportunity to lick up the length of her neck and then stage whispered into her ear again.

"You will pay for this later. I can be a tease as well."

She couldn't wait.

The restaurant didn't have pecan pie, so Sookie ordered a piece of cheesecake and a cup of coffee. She hoped it would help her sober up a little.

Pam slid into the seat across the table from her maker and smiled at Sookie. Sookie grinned back. She was really quite tipsy.

"Hi, Pam."

Sookie liked her, and not just because she'd eased her pain the other night after the beating, when Sookie had been hurting so much she'd wanted to die. She was looking forward to spending more time with her and getting to know her better.

Pam raised an eyebrow and looked pointedly at Eric, who was nuzzling the crook of Sookie's neck. She tried to look stern but the corner of her mouth betrayed her.

"You two look cozy."

Eric gave Sookie's throat a sucking bite and then sat up. He grinned, too, and didn't have the excuse of being drunk.

"We are celebrating being bonded."

"Still? I thought that's what you did last night?"

He laughed.

"Then we are celebrating having incredible sex last night. And earlier this evening. That is why I've been trying to convince Sookie to go back up to our room to have some more."

Pam was glad to see him enjoying himself. He generally stayed silent and broody at Fangtasia — the humans expected him to be scary and mysterious and unattainable — but he had a wide streak of good humour and mischief and fun that had been sorely missing for far too long. It had been ages since she'd seen him so full of life. Since before Katrina, she was sure. The hurricane had been the first domino to fall, leading to Rhodes and then the takeover not more than a month later and all the way up to the position they were in right then.

And Pam thought making everyone look at them was a very good strategy for staying undercover; most wouldn't expect the most conspicuous ones in the room to be the ones most careful not to arouse attention. But, judging by the looks they were getting, Eric and Sookie were definitely arousing, and nobody seemed to suspect them of being anything but horny. Pam's fangs were even showing a little.

The waitress arrived with a mug and a carafe and the cheesecake. Sookie downed the rest of the wine in her glass and put it aside. She'd changed her mind and decided she wanted dessert after all. She closed her eyes in pleasure after taking a bite and again after she took a sip of coffee. She realized that Eric was smiling down at her, looking pleased and amused at how much she was enjoying herself.

"Good?"

"So very good."

She reached under the table and grabbed his cock, which was already thickening. She licked her lips and then bit the bottom one and he grinned and grew harder. She felt it twitch. She smirked and took another bite of dessert and kept her other hand in place. She squeezed him a little and he moaned.

Pam raised an eyebrow again.

"You two have gotten me all hot and bothered. I think I'll go to one of the bars around here and find a sweet girl looking for a taste of danger to corrupt."

Sookie was glad the interruption had cooled everyone down. When Pam left, the woman at the table nearby was talking to her vampire companion and Sookie took a dip into her head again and had another bite of cheesecake.

She really was quite drunk and it made it hard to concentrate, but at least it wasn't as bad as the heroin and cocaine cocktail Victor had shot her up with the last time she'd tried to read minds for Felipe.

She froze and then narrowed her eyes. Victor had set her up before. Had he done it again?

She hoped she spoke loud enough for the woman to hear.

"I wonder if Felipe has punished Victor yet."

She closed her eyes and listened in hard to the woman's thoughts.

Felipe DeCastro will pay.

The same phrase Sookie had heard her think when she'd first come into the restaurant with her dead boyfriend.

Eric hesitated with his mouth on her throat and then kissed it again before sitting up. He'd clued in that something had happened, or was happening, or was about to happen.

"I am not sure, my lover. We will have to find out soon. After we go upstairs and I take you again."

Sookie didn't know what to do. She still felt so incredibly guilty for getting Felipe's special pet killed soon after Sookie had first arrived in Nevada. The King would probably not fly off the handle and kill the girl after Sookie told him about her concerns, but what if he did? She was scared to death it would happen again. That she would kill someone else with her stupidity.

And what if she did leave the woman alone and it was a real threat and something bad happened to Felipe? Would she even care?

Really, she thought she would. Felipe was the devil she knew and, the other night aside, she had mostly figured out what made the King tick and how to stay on his good side. And what if Victor or Sandy ascended to the throne? The thought was terrifying.

Being able to touch the woman and ask her questions would help, but that's what had gotten her into trouble the first time around. And she could hardly slide over into the booth beside them, grab the woman's hand, and ask her how, exactly, the King was going to pay, and how much.

Sookie needed to try again.

"Have you heard what the punishment might be?"

He looked confused. She had been with him constantly since he'd beaten the shit out of Victor and rescued her the night before, but she knew that as well as he did. He needed to tread carefully.

"No, Sookie. I am not sure. But I don't want to go back to the VIV Club and find out."

She shuddered. "Neither do I."

She saw the Club in the woman's mind. She was standing next to her vampire and there was a smear of Victor's blood on the floor near the stage. She was getting closer.

"God, I never want Victor Madden's hands on me ever again!"

Sookie had nearly spat out the words. It had the desired effect and the woman glanced over at her and then back at her date and thought about the Club again. They were both sitting on a couch across from Victor in one of the sitting areas. It flashed to a little girl's school picture and then the original thought.

Felipe DeCastro will pay.

The fact that Sookie was the rope in a vampire tug of war wasn't a secret. She was sure the one at the table nearby had heard all about it, even if he'd never visited the Club before the night before. But the fact that she was a telepath was not widely known. Only a small handful of the King's closest advisors had that information, and most of them believed Victor and thought the whole thing was next door to bullshit.

Sookie was pretty much positive this was something cooked up by Victor to discredit her, just like the last time. It was so clumsy, though. So obvious, with the same exact phrase repeated again and again. She didn't know if he'd had no idea how her telepathy worked or if he was just sloppy, or if thinking about Victor and the King jogged her memory and triggered the message to keep repeating, like a mental short circuit.

She ate the last bite of cheesecake and drained her cup of coffee.

"Let's get out of here."

He grinned.

"And it is about time."

He had the server bill the room and kissed Sookie's hand when he took it and led her out into the casino proper. He started to head back towards the elevator to take them up to their room, but she pulled him in another direction and into a gift shop across the way. It was full of everything vampire: postcards and fridge magnets and plush toys and Hawaiian shirts.

Even though the woman's food had arrived shortly before Sookie and Eric had left the restaurant, she and the vampire stepped out into the casino and looked around, like they were trying to find someone.

Sookie turned to Eric and spoke quietly.

"The girl over there with the vampire. I think Victor sent her to get me in trouble again. She kept thinking Felipe DeCastro will pay and I saw them both in the VIV Club with Victor in her thoughts."

Eric tensed and his fangs ran down. He was so goddamn sick of Victor Madden.

Sookie saw the vampire lift his nose a little and looked in their direction and then away. She didn't think he knew they'd been spotted. The vampire took the woman's hand and led her to a bench a hundred feet or so from the gift shop entrance. Waiting.

Sookie bought a vampire keychain and made sure to get a bag. She held Eric's hand and walked towards the bench. When they passed, the woman repeated the phrase again in her head.

Sookie made Eric stop at a clothing store and a bar for a couple of quick shots and then she sat them down at a slot machine and inserted Eric's key card and blew almost twenty thousand of Eric's imaginary dollars. She flirted and teased him relentlessly and he almost forgot she was acting undercover, especially since he could feel she was nearly as horny as he was.

Everywhere they stopped, the woman followed, hovering outside or walking past and making sure Sookie had every opportunity to hear what she was thinking. Sookie pretended not to notice. The woman had no idea Sookie was leading her around by the nose.

Sookie stopped to watch a few men clapping and cheering at a boxing match showing on the TV screens on the wall at the sportsbook, and then dragged Eric over to the cashier. Sookie leaned forward and talked through the cage.

"Hey! Can I get ten thousand in chips and security to grab those two over there for credible threats against Felipe DeCastro, please?"

The vampire heard her and froze. He contemplated running but there were vampire security guards as well as human ones already converging on them. Sookie didn't think he'd known what he'd signed up for. He looked like he hadn't expected to be bothered by anybody.

Eric grinned at Sookie for a second before his face fell. He sighed in resignation.

"I suppose this means the sex will have to wait."