Eric's POV:
"We have to get out of here!" Sookie yells frantically.
What the fuck?! I thought to myself.
Just a few seconds later, the doors burst open and automatic gunfire ensues the room.
Without a thought to my own safety, I grab Sookie and run us both to safety behind the bar. I lie on top of her knowing that if I got hit by a bullet, the wounds would not be so severe. I could hear the women screaming as the gunfire doesn't cease. I look up and see Karlsson on the floor near us with two of his bodyguards on top, protecting him.
These fuckers were going to have to reload soon.
As soon as the gunfire stops, I get up and look towards the door. There were seven men dressed all in black reloading their guns. I don't give them a chance to finish before I go and attack them. I tear through the chest of one of assailants and literally punch his heart. The next one, I break his neck. I see Marten near me doing the same to a few other ones. Karlsson's other security are there as well killing the rest. I knew they weren't the only ones in the chalet.
"We will check the front. Keep my woman safe," I tell Karlsson's security and I look at Marten. He nods and we run in vampire speed to the front foyer. There are a several dead bodies of the King's chalet staff lying by the door.
Just then, one of Marten's associates is beside us holding weapons. Marten grabs a sword.
"Did you want one Eric?" he asks.
I grab a sword from him. "We need to keep at least one of them alive."
"I agree," Marten says as he takes off his robe and is now standing there naked.
I raise an eyebrow. "Are you really going to fight like that?"
"Why not? My sword skills do not require clothes. Besides I can always protect the most important thing to me," he says as he holds his cock.
We open the door and are met by another six men. This time they were vampires. We battle with them for several minutes before they are easily defeated. We look at their faces. They couldn't have been more than one hundred years old but they seemed well-trained.
"Is the second floor secure?" Marten asks his assistant as he holds the last vampire down on the ground.
"Yes your majesty, there were five more vampires and four were-snow leopards. Two of the vampires got away through the window. We left one were leopard alive. He is being chained right now in the basement."
"Good work," Marten replied as his assistant takes over subduing the vampire. "Take him downstairs as well."
I take in the air and sense no more danger for the moment. In vampire speed, I make my way back to the billiard room. I find Sookie on the floor trying to help one of the females. From the looks of her, she was not going to survive as she continued to bleed out.
Sookie holds her hand as the young woman takes her final breath.
Karlsson walks up to me. "Most of the humans are dead. A few of them were lucky to escape with minor wounds. I saw you grab your woman."
I look at him momentarily. "Yes."
"She knew something was wrong and was trying to warn us, possibly," he says as he looks down at Sookie on the ground. She was saying a little prayer for the deceased.
I look at him, then at her. There was something about her, maybe something connected with her Fae ancestry? But at the moment I suddenly realized what Karlsson was getting at.
"She is mine," I snarl at him as I go to stand in front of Sookie.
He is suddenly flanked by three of his guards, along with a few of his sheriffs.
Sookie stands up behind me.
"How did she know that they were in my home?" he asks me sternly.
Marten comes back into the room, this time he is wearing clothes.
I bring Sookie to my side. Though I wanted to protect her, I also wanted to know the answer to that question. I knew she was still hiding many things from me. She had startled me the night before with the admission that she was married to Marten's maker, Marius. My self-preservation was telling me that I needed to either leave her or kill her. But for some insane reason, that was unlike me, I could not do either. She was quite the paradox. I knew that she did not want to cause me harm, but at the same time, harm was something that I could not avoid when I was with her. I was still debating whether or not she was worth it to me. I had decided last night that I would keep her. More so because I knew the other vampires, especially Marten, would jump at the chance to have her. I was also having a difficult time sorting out what I was beginning to feel for her. Right now, I was leaning towards letting her go. That is, if she did not tell us the truth as to how she knew they were coming.
"Well?" I ask her. "Answer him!"
She looks at the king, then at me, then at Marten obviously frightened. "I heard them coming. I am a telepath."
We all stare at her with wide eyes. Could she hear me?
"I can't hear any of you! You are like voids to me," she says as she looks at me. I was still comprehending what she just told us.
"Eric, that is the truth. I can't hear you because of what you are," Sookie says.
"She knows? She knows about us?" Karlsson asks me.
"Yes, your majesty," I reply.
"Do you know who they were Miss Kingsbury?" Marten asks her.
"I heard them speaking Swedish in their minds. My Swedish is rusty, but I'm pretty sure they said he's in there, he's our target. But it wasn't too clear. I still have trouble hearing other supernaturals like weres." Sookie replies.
"Anything else?" Karlsson says.
"No, I lost focus after that. My telepathy usually works better when I'm calm and focused. I could hear the thoughts of all the humans in the room. It was all overlapping."
"You know about weres and other supernaturals?" Karlsson asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Uhhhh, yes," she replies hesitantly.
"She's not completely human," I told him.
"Yes, I kind of figured that there was something not completely human about her," he smirks.
"Are you sure there's no more like her where she comes from?" Marten asks me in an airy tone.
"Yes, quite sure," I tell Marten in a firm tone.
"Your majesty, the vampire and were are secured. The chalet is secure for the moment. I suggest we leave soon just in case reinforcements arrive," one of the king's security says to him.
"My plane is ready to go," Marten says. "I called and made immediate departure arrangements with my crew."
"Miss Kingsbury? Are you able to find out from the were what he knows?" the King asks.
"I can try. I need to touch his arm. Skin contact works better too."
We go down to the basement to one of the holding rooms. The were is tied and gagged sitting on a chair. The vampire was in a different cell.
Sookie asks for a chair to sit in front of the were. She leans forward and touches his upper arm.
"Who sent you?" she asks him out loud in Swedish. She holds onto his arm for a moment.
"I can't understand him. He's speaking Swiss-German in his mind, I think," she says. "I'll try something else. Sometimes I search their images inside their head and find answers."
"You've done this before?" the king asks.
"Yes," Sookie answers. "Sometimes I do contract work for my telepathic services."
She continues to grasp his arm and is silent for several minutes. She closes her eyes.
After a short duration she reopens her eyes. "He knows someone in Stockholm hired them to kill the king. Some of his memory are missing pieces. I think he was glamoured by a vampire to forget certain things. I seen a casino. Not the one we were at a few nights ago. He doesn't really know who hired his pack. The rest of his pack is in Zurich."
We all take in the information.
"I don't think there's no point at this time to go after his were pack. We can get them later. Whoever is behind the attack must still be in Stockholm," Marten says. "We should leave immediately. They will have been told that they failed here in Switzerland."
"I agree with Marten," I tell the king. "We need to find the ones responsible."
"Yes," the king says. "Samuel, prepare to leave for the airport. We are going back to Stockholm tonight."
His assistant obeys and leaves the room to get ready.
I was not sure about going with the king. I have known him for a very long time but I was not close to him like I was with Marten. I trusted him more.
"Eric, did you want to come with me in my plane?" Marten asks.
"Yes, thank you for your offer," I reply. I take Sookie upstairs to our bedroom. I grab a few things as does she.
"Eric, I have to tell you something," Sookie says quietly. "I think I might be responsible for this. The casino is something I had seen in another person's vision. This person was from the future. He was the one who showed me how the time travel stones work."
I look at her momentarily. I had already somehow known she was connected. Like I had previously thought before, she was always going to present me with danger one way or another. "You said they may have been after the king?"
"Yes, that's what I heard. I even got the same thing from the were in the basement. But I have a feeling, I'm a part of what they were after."
"Do not tell the others about this," I tell her.
We go back downstairs and get into Marten's car. We arrive at the airport and board the plane. Soon we are in the air travelling back to Stockholm. The king and his entourage had departed around the same time as us.
"Marten, I do not think you need to go along with us any further. We will be able to handle the rest of this matter," I said to him. I was still thinking about his maker. I knew the connection a maker and his child had. I could sense the moments when my own protégées were in trouble. Most of the time I went to their aid. I had a feeling his maker would do the same. I did not want him near Sookie.
"Are you kidding Eric?! I wouldn't miss this for the world! You know how I love fights and battles. I am going to Stockholm too to find out who is responsible. Those bastards almost killed me too," he says jubilantly.
He starts playing music by the Four Seasons on his record player and begins singing along with the song.
"Eric and the king should be able to handle this," Sookie says to him. She was probably thinking the same thing.
"You do not want me in Stockholm? Why not?" he says curiously.
"Well I don't want you to get hurt. If you got hurt then that might cause harm to Eric. I don't want anything to happen to him," she says. Her reasoning did not sound too convincing.
"You care for my well-being Miss Kingsbury? I am truly flattered, but I am always able to defend myself. I learned from the best. Besides, Eric fights better when he is backing me up," he smirks.
We arrive in Stockholm later that evening and meet the king at his office downtown. The building had been secured before our arrival.
"Which casino did you see in his mind?" the king asks Sookie.
He shows her several pictures on the table and she looks them over thoroughly.
"It was this one," she says pointing to one of the pictures.
Mjolnir… It was owned by a group of weres but they also had a group of investors. Some of them were vampires.
"Very well, I will send a squad. Northman, will you lead my team?" Karlsson asks.
"I will go too," Marten says.
"Are you sure?" Karlsson asks. Usually royalty never partook in battles. Marten was named King of New York back in the 1700s. Before that, we had fought in many battles together in various parts of the world. It had been a very long since I fought with him.
"I am sure."
"Very well. Miss Kingsbury, you will be safe here," the king says.
"I am going too. I might be of some aid. If there are weres or other humans, I can learn from them if the culprit is not there," Sookie says.
"It would be safer if you stayed here. I would have some difficulty trying to protect you while fighting the enemy," I comment.
"I can protect myself," she says defiantly. "I have many years of training. I can swing a sword or fire a gun if necessary."
"I do not think it would be a good idea…."
She grabs a sword from the weapons table and starts wielding it magnificently. We all stare at her in awe. She must have been a Valkyrie in a previous life.
She puts the sword back in its case. "I am not some damsel in distress."
I wanted to fuck her right on that table. There was nothing more sexier than a woman who was capable of fighting. Unfortunately, the other vampires in the room shared the same sentiment. They started shifting uncomfortably.
I let out a low growl, reminding them that she was mine.
"It's time to go. The sun will be rising in about an hour," the king says coarsely.
I carry Sookie and we reach the casino in less than ten minutes by foot. It was an old building that was built in the 1800s. I tell some of the team to approach from the roof and the back and front entrance. I take Sookie and we go through the back entrance.
"Theres no one here," she whispers. I break down the door and go in first. There is no one. We reach the casino floor. All the machines were on but there was no one. I look at Sookie who shakes her head to let me know that no human was there. We meet up with Marten who had come through the front entrance.
Suddenly Sookie stops. She mouths voids as she points to the door that leads to the basement. We prepare ourselves and a minute later the door swings open.
Six vampires make their way up.
They stare at us in shock before baring their fangs at us.
"How did you find us?!" one of the uglier ones scowls.
"Who is in charge?" Marten asks calmly.
"We will never tell you!" one of them yells before they engage us in battle.
Two of them go after Marten and the three are after me. One of them goes after Sookie. I try to stay close to her but battling three experienced vampires at once proves to be somewhat of a challenge.
"You human bitch! You cannot win against me!" the small-statured vampire yells at Sookie.
She does not respond but starts engaging him in a sword battle. Though I was busy with my fight, I could see that she was proving to be too much for him. She sometimes would lunge at him with vampire-like speed. After a few minutes, she plunges through his heart and starts fighting one of the vamps who were after me. After I defeat my enemies, I watch as she finishes off her second enemy by slicing his head off.
Though blood was splayed everywhere, she was still clean from their blood like us. I grab her and give her a very passionate kiss.
This could not be happening….
Before I could fathom what I was feeling, the other team approaches us.
"Sir, there is no other vampires in the upper levels, however, we found this human." They drop a male human who makes a thudding sound as he hits the floor.
We all look down at him.
"Who are you?" I ask him. But he is too scared to say anything as he continues to shiver in fright.
Sookie bends down and touches him. "It's alright. Do you know who was here?"
Unsurprisingly, he does not say anything.
She gets up after a minute. "He doesn't know much. A lot of his memories have gaps. It's like he was glamoured over and over. I think he may be a daytime assistant or rather a lackey for a vampire."
Me and Marten take in his scent. He seemed to be in his early twenties and would considered to be handsome. He smelled of a female vampire. We both at each other. It was somewhat familiar but we both knew a lot of female vampires.
"Sir. The sun will be rising in about fifteen minutes," the guard says.
"Take this human back to the king's holding cell. We will meet up tomorrow night after sunset."
They take him away and Marten comes up to me as we walk out onto the street. "Do you have shelter nearby?"
I did not have safe refuge within the city. I found city life intolerable and preferred living in smaller towns or in the country. I knew if I flew now, I could possibly make it to my safehouse outside the city. But I did not want to leave Sookie. If weres were involved, they may seek her out during the day. I knew I would not make it to my home in time either if I flew with her.
"No, I wish to seek shelter with my woman," I tell him.
He stops for a moment to think. "You trust her?" he says to me in Norse.
"Yes, without a doubt," I reply to him in the same dialect.
"Follow me. You will have to carry her," he says as he takes off in vampire speed. I let Sookie know we were going with him as I lift her up.
We enter a building and Marten uses a keypad to enter one of the doors. As he closes the door, he grabs some bags by the entrance and asks me to take a few. He uses another keypad to enter a hidden passageway. We walk down the stairs as the doors automatically close behind us. There is another locked door. We finally enter his underground refuge. It was modern with a rustic Danish look. There were older paintings on the walls in the living room along with a large collection of guitars on the wall. There was even a full kitchen which caused me to raise an eyebrow.
"I wanted the feel of a modern home, hence the kitchen," he says as he points to it.
"Welcome to my home," he says to Sookie. "I keep the fridge fully stocked with food and drinks. I don't have any human company, but I like to imagine sometimes that I am human."
"Why is that?" she asks quizzically.
"I've lived hundreds of years. It can get boring at times, especially living in secrecy for so long from the humans," he replies as he starts unpacking the bags and putting the food items in the fridge. "I envy you sometimes. This world is all of ours but we have to continue to living in hiding. We can't be free to be what we are."
"I understand that feeling. I have had to hide who I am my whole life too. My telepathy had always been curse to me. Everyone was either scared of me or thought I was crazy or both."
"You have an amazing collection of guitars Marten," she says as she looks over the collection on the wall.
"Thanks. My collection is something I quite enjoy doing. I have many others in my homes in New York and Denmark. I love my homeland. I have other homes in Norway and Finland," he says. I could tell he was really enjoying his conversation with her. Vampires rarely had free conversations with humans, unless we trusted them explicitly or if we were able to glamour them afterwards. Sookie always made whoever she was talking to feel at ease. Though I was glad they were getting along, I also felt worrisome that he might be getting attached to her.
"Would you like to listen to a song on my acoustic before we call it a night?" he asks her. He grabs a guitar from the wall and sits down on the couch. He shoots me a look; I silently shake my head no.
"Yes, that would great," she says politely. She takes a seat across from him. I go to sit beside her.
"What song do you want to hear? I know tons. I love music and I enjoy going to concerts. I must've seen Led Zeppelin a few dozen times," he says enthusiastically.
"Uhhh, a Led Zeppelin song would be good," she says.
He starts playing Stairway to Heaven and sings the lyrics. Sookie gives him her undivided attention as he croons away. During some of the verses, the pompous ass actually closes his eyes as he sings. I could not help but roll my eyes.
He finishes the song and Sookie claps. I give him a couple slow claps. He flashes her a bright smile and when she looks away, he gives me a smirk.
Asshole, I mouth to him.
"We are going to bed now. If you can show me the way to our quarters," I say quickly, before he can launch into another rendition of a song.
"Yes, sleep sounds lovely. I am so exhausted. It's been a long night," Sookie says.
Marten shows us to our room. I tell goodnight and as he is saying goodnight to Sookie, I close the door quickly on his face.
"I'll send my daytime man to bring your bags today!" he calls out from behind the door. I should've taken the chance to make it to my own home.
Sookie starts undressing. "I think I need to shower. Are you going to join me?"
She peers over her shoulder seductively. In an instant, I am unclothed as I sprint us to the shower/tub.
"You are a strong, passionate fighter," I say to her huskily as we stand under the rain shower setting. I had waited all evening to have her and I was not going to wait any longer. After we both are sexually sated for the moment, we wash up. I take the time to wash her breasts. I had never seen such glorious and natural breasts in my lifetime. I flick my tongue at each nipple. After we thoroughly enjoy our shower, we grab some white fluffy towels and dry up.
I lay down beside Sookie and it hits me; this was going to be the first time in my long life as a vampire that I was going to share my sleeping space with a human as I rested for the day. I did not know what to think except that I was starting to believe that this woman must be a witch. I had only known her for a short duration and I found myself putting my trust, my life in her hands.
"Good night Eric," Sookie smiles sleepily as she closes her eyes. She snuggles in closer to me and lays her head against my chest. I could hear her breathing slowing down as she stops moving. She is now sleeping. I let out an unnecessary sigh and let the day take me.