Sookie's POV:

I was slowly stirring from my slumber when I could feel a large cold hand caressing my back and hip. I opened my eyes to find Eric staring at me intently.

"Good morning or rather good evening," I smiled. "How long have you been awake?

"Not very long. I take it you have slept the day away?" His hand was now over my butt, rubbing it.

"Yes. I must have been so exhausted from almost dying in a shootout and battling vampires," I reply. I let a big yawn and start rubbing my eyes. "What time is it?"

"Another hour till sunset." His hand was playing with the elastic band of my panty. I knew what he wanted. As much as I wanted the same, I didn't know how I felt about having sex in another vampire's lair. I mean I knew it was a stupid thought. I had sex with future Eric a couple days earlier in Pam's home. And we had just had sex in the shower of this bedroom's bathroom, before we went to bed. But it didn't feel right to be having sex in a bed, in Marten's home. He was the vampire child of my future husband. Which was another thing that still had me in a confusing twist, more like a humongous, perplexing knot. I was much closer to running into Marius now that Marten knew me. Even though I tried to keep what he knew about me to a minimum, he was learning the most important, rare things about me. I had no doubt he must've told Marius by now about me and Eric. Before meeting me, Marius was bored and going through the motions of living his vampire life. If Marten told him anything about what had happened last night, it could potentially intrigue him. As much as I missed him and still loved him, I didn't want to see him because of Eric. I loved Eric immensely. I couldn't imagine my life without him. God….. could my life get any more complicated? I needed to get home pronto before anything else happened.

"Eric I think we should get ready. We are guests here and Marten is probably waiting for us to get up," I say to Eric. I rub his shoulders as he continues paying attention to my lower region.

He doesn't look up or stop moving his hand.

"Eric!" I say a little louder as I playfully try to move his hand away.

"Sookie, I need you," he growls.

"Ugh, I know, but we have to get ready. We still need to figure out who tried to kill us. And like I said, I'm pretty sure Marten is out there waiting for us," I say. I could hear loud bangs and music in the living area. Was he banging pots around?

"Fine, I will go grab our bags," he says unhappily.

We start to get ready for the day. He was still sour, but I make it up to him by giving him shower sex again. Eric puts on a gray t-shirt and denim bell bottom jeans. I put on a white turtleneck and beige slacks. I was glad that I put my gray coat away in my bag. It was becoming chilly outside again.

I still had the king's envelope. He knew that I knew all about vampires now. I hoped it would make it a little easier for me to give it to him. Even though this may not have been the best plan, I hoped that he would believe the contents of the letter once he read it. And that when I returned to my time, everything would be okay for the vampire population. It was a long shot obviously.

We walk out of the bedroom and towards the kitchen where we find Marten cooking and singing along to the music. Eric and I give each other a confused look.

"Good evening," I say to him.

"Good evening. I trust you slept well. I made sure my valet had fresh sheets and towels in your room," he says as he starts scraping the bacon in the pan. I was really hungry and it looked delicious. "I felt ashamed of myself this morning. I realized that I didn't offer any food to you when I was going to rest. I wasn't being a very good host."

"Oh, that's okay," I say to him.

"But I thought that you might be hungry. I'm making breakfast food for you, Miss Kingsbury," he says. He sounded so young despite being almost as old as Eric.

"Thank you. And please, call me Anna," I tell him as I take a seat at the table. I knew he was trustworthy, but I didn't think I should tell him my real name.

"Is there any new information about the human we found?" Eric asks.

"Ummm, not really. Alex's daytime people spent the day interrogating him. He either doesn't know anything or he is just that good to not bending when being interrogated. I'm leaning towards that he doesn't know jack-shit," Marten says as he continues cooking.

When he is done, he leaves a huge mess in the kitchen. He brings a plate to the table.

"Voila!" he smiles happily. "See Eric, I told you that I can cook!"

After I finish eating, he shows us around the rest of his underground lair. He had a music room which he was especially proud of.

"I love Stockholm. This is where Eric and I first met each other. I was starting fresh on my own after being with my master for a few hundred years… Wait, do you know about vampire makers and their children?" he asks me.

"Uhhhh yes, but only a little bit. I know some stay with their makers their whole lives, but most go off on their own," I reply trying to sound nonchalant.

"Yeah. Mine let me go but he made sure I was thoroughly prepared for this life," he says. "Well we should get going. The sun should be gone by now and Alex is expecting us at his club, The Neon Room. I can get us there by car. I have several upstairs in the garage."

We reach the club twenty minutes later. All the lights were on and it was empty, except for the king and his entourage. We all exchange greetings and one of his men bring out the human. He looked like he was in awful shape.

"May I?" I ask the king. He nods his head and I go to him. They place him in a chair.

"Who are you?" I ask out loud.

"John…. Morrow," he grunts in pain. American!

"How did you get here?" I ask.

"By plane."

I roll my eyes. I wasn't a very good interrogator. "Yes I know that. I mean who did you come here with?"

"I can't….tell…. you…," he grunts.

I go and touch his arm. I close my eyes. I could see his life in the US. He was living in Miami in an expensive condominium. He lived the fast life. Clothes, cars, fancy meals, everything was at his disposal. He didn't make the money to buy all that stuff though. Someone was bankrolling his lifestyle. He was a pet to a vampire. I look deeper in his mind. I see women's clothing hanging in the closet. I see his viewpoint of having sex with a….. female. A Vampiress! I can't see her face. She seems to have glamoured him to forget her name and her face. I see the back of her head though. Her hair was brown. I try to sift through more memories but everything was blanked out that had anything to do with her. I try to find the memories that brought him to Stockholm but again, nothing comes up.

"He belongs to a vampiress," I tell them as I also explain the rest of the images. "She may still be in the area. I didn't recognize any other vampires, although I saw at least ten or more unfamiliar faces."

"Search the database for any female vampires living in Florida," the king tells his assistant.

"I know a few females who may be located in the region. Miss Bradbury, are you sure you didn't see her face?"

"Yes, I only saw the back of her head. She had a beehive type of hairdo. I don't recognize her either, but then again, I haven't met much female vampires."

"Sir we tracked their scent to a warehouse by the port outside the city," one of the guards says as he enters the club.

"They're always in a warehouse. What's with the bad guys and warehouses?" Marten scoffs loudly.

"Very well, send a small reconnaissance team. We need to know how many there are," the king says to the lead guard.

Weapons are brought in and the vampires began going through them.

As Eric begins to look, Marten comes up behind him with his own bags. "Those weapons are good, I suppose. But if you want to be fighting with the best, wait till you see what I have."

He throws his bags on another table and starts taking them out. He and Eric continue conversing until they choose what they are going to use for this possible battle.

"I think this will suit you," Eric says as he hands me a sword. He also gives me some daggers and stakes.

I flick it around and it was good, but also familiar. I look closer at the design. It was the same sword Marius had gifted me for one of my birthdays! Except the engrave wasn't there. Of course, that wouldn't on it. It had said, To my dear wife, Sookie. I guess Marius had given me a sword from one of Marten's collections.

"I will be fighting as well," the king announces to the room.

Everyone stares at him blankly.

"These people killed very dear members of my staff in Switzerland. I need to make sure that their deaths were not in vain," he says.

Two kings in the same battle. As well as me, the one from the future. Somehow, I think this is what they wanted, whoever was behind the attack. This was probably a trap, but I'm pretty sure everyone else in this room knew that as well.

Soon, a member of the reconnaissance team comes back. "Your majesty, there are quite a few number of vampires. About fifty from what we can see. Most of them are from Britain along with some from the U.S. We did not see who may be the lead member or members."

"We will leave shortly. I am honored to fight with you, all of you," Alexander says. We all bow our heads to him.

Alexander tell us the plan of attack. We were to go in last.

We reach the port. I use binoculars to try and look up closely while the vampires use their enhanced vision to scope out the scene. There were some vampires outside walking the perimeter of the warehouse. There were some coming from a ship that was docked nearby. I also notice a yacht out on the sea. I wondered briefly if there could be someone on that, but then again, there were other yachts and boats out there.

Alexander signals the first team to move in.

Suddenly, I start feeling an ache in my chest. I rub it, not sure what it was. Was I having a heart attack or something?

"Is something wrong?" Eric asks me.

"I don't know," I answer. Soon the feeling is gone quickly. "It's probably nothing."

We watch as the first team fights their way to the warehouse doors and go in. Alexander signals for the second team to go in with them. We wait several minutes before the second team signals us to proceed.

Eric carries me down to the warehouse and we make our way in. Both teams had slaughtered all the vampires and we suffer several casualties.

I walk around the warehouse, looking at what was left over of the bodies. I know I couldn't read vampires but I knew the ones in charge weren't in here.

"The ship was empty except for three on the bridge," one of the guards says.

I try to focus and right away I could sense a couple voids outside, no, more like several dozens of voids!

"There's more coming!" I say loudly.

Right away, more vamps come roaring through the door and break through the back doors as well as the upper windows.

I break out my sword and begin fighting whoever comes at me. I try to stay close to Marten and Eric.

"Guns!"someone yells out as shots ring out.

I dodge a few bullets and pull out my gun to start shooting. I duck behind a barrel with Marten.

"This is so much fun! Oh how I have missed this!" he hoots out as he pulls his gun out. "Don't worry Anna I will protect you!"

I aim my gun at an approaching vampire and shoot. Marten finishes him off with his sword. I look for Eric and see him across the room still fighting.

After several minutes of fighting, the battle appears to be over.

Eric comes up me and inspects me.

"I'm okay," I breathe out as I try to catch my breath. I give him quick kiss on the lips.

We survey the damage. There were heavy casualties on both sides.

"Their leader is not here," Alexander says.

"Well, now he is," someone calls out all of a sudden.

We all turn around at the same time towards the main entrance.

It was Octavius James and he wasn't alone. More vampires follow behind him and more come through the back and the upper windows. They aim their guns, silver arrows and swords at us. We were outnumbered.

Octavius was wearing an armoured black suit and holding a shotgun. He had a sword in the other hand.

"Drop your weapons," he says to us sternly.

We all wait for Alexander to make the first move.

"I will not say it again," he huffs. "DROP YOUR WEAPONS!"

Alexander lowers his weapons to the floor and we all follow suit. The king's guards continue to try and protect him by moving closer to him.

"Who are you?" Eric asks.

Octavius smirks. "Yes, who am I? Right now, I'm just some nobody with great ambitions. But I will become someone great in the future. Isn't that right Miss Sookie Stackhouse?"

They all look at me.

"The future?" Marten asks confused.

"You are from the future? So that's why we have never heard about you! I mean Alex and I have had many conversations trying to figure out where you come from. We were wondering where Eric found you so that we can get our own beautiful, Fae telepath. There is no Anna Kingsbury in Atlanta. At least not a telepathic one," Marten says to me. I continue to stare at Octavius.

"If she's from the future, then are you from the future too?" Marten asks Octavius. "Is there anyone else in this room who is from the future?!"

"ENOUGH!" Octavius yells angrily.

"Why are you doing this? I thought you cared about vampire well-being?" I ask.

"I do, but I care about my own well-being more than others," Octavius says. "When I was made a vampire, my maker was killed. I had nobody to teach me. I basically lived in my own filth. I killed whoever, whatever I needed to survive. I had no money, no home. It was when I was at my lowest point, when I was draining the blood of rats, that I decided I had to have a better life. No other vampire had ever offered to help me. NOONE! So for the past hundred years, I have slowly made my way through the ranks of the council. I had a great disturbance just recently. I felt like there was someone who had my blood. Naturally, I had to go find the source of this tremor. I found a young man here in Stockholm. I didn't need to glamour him before he told me all that he knew. And what he told me was the either the most fascinating tale I have ever heard or the absolute truth."

"It was not until he returned that I knew he was telling me the truth. But by then I had already started my plans."

"Which is?" Alexander asks calmly.

"To be the best of all vampires."

Okay, I raise my eyebrow as Eric does the same. I could tell what he was thinking. This vampire was batshit crazy!

"He provided valuable information about the future," Octavius adds. "Ways to expand my wealth and power faster than before."

Shit, it was just like Biff from Back to the Future! If this vampire was planning world domination, he may have the means to obtain it. I didn't know what kind of information Isaac gave to Octavius, obviously it wasn't good for anyone else but him.

He continued on with his ramblings. "For many years I have loved a woman. This woman I have been wooing is currently in Egypt. I have always wished to marry her but alas I am not very powerful for her. I work as a data-entry clerk for the council. She feels I am beneath her and she is nobility. There was one important factoid that this young men mentioned about you, your majesty, the king of Sweden."

We all look at Alexander now.

"I have no idea what you are referring to," he replies.

"Your future wife…." Octavius says slowly. "Is the woman I love. Apparently, she forgets all about me and marries you."

Alexander did have a wife but she died from Covid. I had met Sophia briefly at a vampire event years ago. I guess Sophia must've chose Alexander instead of Octavius?

"You are accusing me of something that I have not yet done. I do not know this woman of whom you are referring to," Alexander replies. "If you want to kill me over this, then you are mad!"

"It's not just her. It's the power and respect that I value the most!" he yells out. "This is what my maker promised me before he turned me!"

"It's very unfortunate that you did not receive the guidance and help that you needed when you were a young vampire," Marten says in a sincere tone. "But killing other vampires is not the answer. Guiding these vampires who follow you to destroy others is not the way either. Power comes from respect. The vampires of the world will not respect you."

"Perhaps you're right. But I was lucky to find someone who wanted the same things that I did," he replies.

Just then Freyda walks in, followed by Appius Livia Ocella and Alexei Romanov.

Oh my god….. I hush underneath my breath shocked by the sight of them.

I could see Eric tense up at the sight of his maker.

"I knew that someone else had travelled through the monoliths. I didn't know who it was until Isaac had returned from the future. Unfortunately, the travel had taken a very drastic toll on his mind. I was only able to get two names out of him before he died. Sookie Stackhouse and Anna Kingsbury. It took some time before we realized that these two names were the same person. It was easy to find Anna Kingsbury. She had been in Stockholm and was currently with Eric Northman."

"Eric, I command you to come to me," Appius says calmly.

I try to grab Eric's hand but he just bats it away. Eric walks toward Appius and kneels in front of him.

"See Alexei, this is how you must behave with me. You must listen to me! What I say and do is for us, for our safety," he scolds the young-looking boy.

"Eric, they will help Alexei. Alexei is your younger brother. We must protect him and help him," he laments.

"You see, Freyda has great ambitions as well. I suggested to her that having the Northman on her side will help in growing her power in the US," Octavius says.

"You were the one that told her to marry Eric," I coarsely add. Everything was all going to hell right now. If things continued in this direction, who knows what kind of future I would return to if I went home. I had to fight back my fears and anxiety. I had to find a way to save Eric and to kill the vampire bitch queen again.

"Eric you are on our side now," Appius commands.

Eric stands up and takes his place beside Appius. I could tell from the distressed look on his face that he was trying so hard to fight the command of his maker.

I wanted to cry out in anguish but I held it in. This was no time to lose myself in sorrow. I needed to be the strong woman that I knew I was capable of.

"You won't get away with any of this," Marten says as he takes a few steps forward.

"You know what? You were not supposed to be here! I only wanted one king to meet his final death tonight and that was Karlsson!" Octavius yells out.

"I guess I got in the way of your plans. So sorry about that," Marten says in a mocking tone. "But you know what, there's something else you will never know and that's comraderie. You want to threaten my friends? Well you are going to have to go through me first."

Octavius laughs. "Boy, you forget the position that you're in. I have the guns, the swords and the men. I have the upper hand! One signal from me and your life is over!"

"I'm not a boy," Marten says in a low tone. "I'm the King of New York."

Suddenly we all started to feel something. A strange sensation that I had not felt in a very long time. We could feel an energy building up as we look around the warehouse.

"Oh my god," I whisper quietly to myself. "Marius….."

Eric shoots a look at me right away. He must've heard me.

I take a huge gulp.