She slid herself onto him slowly, hips undulating. Eric sat up then, fangs dropping, he bit into his wrist, offering the flowing to her. Sookie pulled the hand to her mouth, sucking greedily. She was so caught up in the throes of passion and the heady feeling of his blood hitting her senses she didn't feel his fangs sliding into her skin. With a jerk of his hips, she let go of his wrist to scream out her orgasm. "I love you too." He murmured, face buried in her neck, licking the now closed wound. He'd never tasted anything so sweet in his thousand years. Her blood was a dead giveaway of the fact that she wasn't entirely human.
"You didn't want Lorena dead," Eric murmured.
"No, not in that way, but I didn't have a choice," This wasn't a conversation she wanted to have. "I have no right to intervene in the life and death of those whose life or death has no impact on mine."
"The Ancient Pythoness," Eric whispered.
Yep, I was given the chance to save my own life, not play God." Sookie sat up then.
"That is not what you are doing. You are saving the life of those you love." He argued.
"Not all of them, I'm afraid, and some… honestly, Eric, I'm not so sure I had the right. I informed the police of Drew Marshall before he killed Dawn, Maudette, and gran. I could justify that to myself because Jason was accused of the crime, and Drew Marshall killed gran…" Sookie's voice trailed off.
"The murders that would have brought you to Fangtasia." Eric inferred.
"The one and the same. I don't regret saving Lafayette, but I often wonder who died to balance things out." She wanted to get out of bed, but Eric's firm grip around her waist made it clear it would be futile.
"Can you truly say, with everything he's done for you since saving him, you regret your action?" He asked.
"I will save him again in a heartbeat, consequences be damned," Sookie said vehemently.
"Then there is little use in wondering about the consequences." He grumbled.
"Oh, you know, my human side likes doing the very human thing of asking what if. An exercise in futility, but we still do it." She smiled despite herself.
"Speaking of Lafayette isn't my memory loss round the corner."
"How is that…"
"He's a witch, isn't he," Eric smirked, earning an eye roll from Sookie.
"He is, and we have to see him tomorrow night. He and Jesus have had a lot of time to work on a protective charm for us. The local covens have also come together and are quietly protecting local supe business that Hallow will target." Sookie informed him. "Outside of that, it's a wait-and-see business."
"Hallow's coven they all die?" Eric asked.
"Yes," Sookie groaned.
"I take it you know their base of operations." Eric buried his face in her hair.
"Yes." She turned to look at him, realizing where he was going with his line of questioning.
"As far as I'm concerned, I have no knowledge of what she-wolf's coven have planned until they act." Sookie nodded. That was fair, not that it made any difference, Hallow and her coven had to die. She could not fathom the havoc they would cause if she left them alive.
"Can I count on your pack?" He asked.
Sookie giggled. "I suppose they are my pack. Yes, we will help."
"Excellent." Eric lay back down, pulling Sookie on top of him.
"Eh, no, I didn't get to finish my steak, so I'm going to do that now. When I'm done, I will come back and bend over whatever you like." She stared at her tone lingerie. "That was a three hundred dollar La Perla set." Sookie groused.
"I will replace it." He muttered offhandedly.
"Really, with what?" The challenging tone gave him pause.
"It's one of those limited edition sets." He groaned.
"That's right, big boy." She smirked.
"I will make it up to you." He promised.
"You bet your sweet tush you will." She threw on his bathrobe and sauntered out of the room.
He lasts all of five minutes in the bedroom on his own before he goes looking for Sookie. She is greedily digging into her steak, and has also managed to find his wine cooler, and has already poured herself a large glass. "Who did me this great disservice by introducing you to the delights of the fermented grape?"
"Uncle Desmond," Sookie murmured out of the corner of her mouth. The action had him grinning. "According to him, and I should say he was right, I learned the finer details of fine dining. I find my human clients are more inclined to show off by inviting you to some ultra-exclusive venue. It did help in such places to know which cutlery to use first. Which wine to have with which meal. And a whole bunch of other nonsense. Vampires show off their wealth by inviting you to their homes and just about manage a modicum of politeness. That comes with its own set of rules and etiquette, which I had to know because I am a supernatural. I hated all that in my nightmare, but a lack of real understanding played a part. That Sookie did not understand that playing her part, more often than not, saved her life and your reputation with your retinue. At least this time, I don't have to deal with the Sookie is mine crap you and Bill had going. In the end, I ended up with a shifter."
"I've known vampires several centuries old, ignorant of what you just said, resulting in unnecessary deaths. For all his faults, Appius thought me well, even if he sometimes disregarded it himself." Eric sat on the island stool next to her. "I would like the rest of my retinue to receive the same protection from your witch," Eric added.
"My phone is in my purse." The sentence had barely left Sookie's mouth when Eric appeared with said purse. "Thank you." Sookie sang, digging her phone out of her purse. The witch in question was not too pleased with the hour of her calling.
"Child, you best be dying or something because this is called an ungodly hour for a reason." Sookie promptly handed the phone to Eric. She was not dealing with a cranky Lala.
"I'm sorry for the late hour, Mr. Reynolds." Sookie thought his voice sounded a little too smooth.
"Well… hello handsome. You, I will wake up for, you is a vampire, and that's normal for you. Now, how can I can help your fine ass." He purred.
"My fine ass will like to hire you and your partner to create the charms you intend to create for Sookie and myself for the rest of my retinue." Sookie looked thoroughly amused by their exchange.
"Oh yes, I can do that. Has Sookie agreed though?" Sookie was nodding.
"She has."
"Good, it's her Fairy blood that will give us the advantage. Hallow uses vampire blood; we will do the same but with just…"
"Vampire blood, we cancel each other out." Eric nodded in understanding.
"Precisely. Since you are Sookie's boo and all, I will only charge you for the material cost. See you Sunday night."
"Goodnight, Lafayette."
"Gots to tell you, so glad you and Sookie finally together, girl has been mooning over you for years. Waiting until she was mature enough to tell you everything and hoping you still be interested. She nearly had a heart attack when she saw you in Rotterdam with that…" Lafayette's tattling was cut short.
"Goodnight, sheriff." Jesus' no-nonsense tone had him chuckling.
"Goodnight." Eric kept laughing even after the call ended.
"Let me guess, Lafayette is telling you all my secrets." Eric relaxed when he realized Sookie wasn't bothered in the least.
"Not enough of them if you ask me." Eric retorted.
"Don't worry, Viking, everything has its time and place, and so do my secrets. You will soon know all my secrets." Sookie kissed his lips softly.
"I'm not worried. You trusted me when I had no idea you had a reason to."
"I love you. I loved you when you turned my nightmares into a dream. I had every reason to trust you."
"I love…" Sookie's phone started ringing.
"Sook, do you know anything about a massacre at an orgy?"
"Jase, that was two months ago, and yes, the creature known as a maenad is responsible. Andy Bellefleur, of all people, isn't going to catch her, not that I'd advise it. That night, Jase wasn't a priority on my list of things to do." Sookie muttered.
"So, it wasn't anything a human did… right." His voice was barely above a whisper.
Sookie bit her lip to curtail her laughter. "Jase, no one is going to accuse you of murder, and God help anyone that does, so relax." Sookie laughed then. "When did you become so paranoid?" Sookie added, still thoroughly amused.
"When my sister told me I would be a murder suspect, and even when the real killer got caught, my reputation was still ruined." He groused.
"Yes, and the two women you were accused of killing are still very much alive. I haven't seen them in a while, but I'm guessing they are alive… right." Eric could feel her merriment at the expense of her brother.
"Of course they are." He blurted, then seemed to remember he wasn't alone.
"Jason, you are not in any trouble, okay. Now, focus on those new designs you've been working on. I will see you Sunday, gran insists we escort her to church since Christmas is coming up and everything. We can spend a good couple of hours gossiping and quietly ripping the shit out of the town folk." Eric heard Jason laugh.
"Oh, you are going to love this. Portia Bellefleur apparently has a client who wants to hire you. The thing is, at work, people think she knows you real well, and now she's stuck because her firm wants to retain you and asked her to ask you." Sookie shut her eyes in glee. Eric practically vibrated with the feeling of it.
"This Sunday is going to be a hoot." Both siblings cracked up laughing. "See you on Sunday, Jase." Sookie ended the call.
"Never knock small-town gossip; it is a thing of beauty. I know her firm and the client that told them about me." She cheered. "Now, what do you want to bend me over first?" She slowly pulled the tie, holding the bathrobe closed.
"You and your brother are rather close," Eric murmured, running a washcloth over Sookie's shoulders.
"We are, but we were a mess in my nightmares, and I was determined to change that. I didn't know quite how to do it until Jason got angry about my lack of visits to gran while I was in college. He turned up one morning at my apartment in Baton Rouge angry at me for ignoring gran, and then the truth came out." I was running late for a class, so I left him and came back to find him in the same spot, eyes red from crying. We spent the next two days talking, and then he left. Called the next day just to say hey. He called every couple of days, and then I started calling, and here we are. The funny thing is, in my nightmares, I hardly knew my brother didn't know how good he was designing tools to fix any problem. That came about in the most unexpected of ways. In the hotel room in Italy, he put the fear of God into the wire with a silver fork. He bent the tines, two forward and two backward, and put it in the were's mouth. Try closing your mouth around that." Sookie threw her head back on his shoulder.
"Pam is absolutely obsessed with his tools. Torturing vampires isn't like torturing humans or even weres. With us, the pain is temporary. The skill is finding ways to make the pain last, to stop the magic in our blood from doing its job. Your brother's tools do that so well and with little effort." Eric praised.
"Yes, he perfected his craft from a fire demon whose granddaughter I saved from continued attempts at kidnapping. That was my payment for the job, that and the window in my living room."
"The circular window?" Eric asked.
"Yep, the builders wanted to close that up. That window and the view were among the reasons I bought the building in the first place. Jago replaced the rotting one with a perfect replica." Sookie muttered. The warm water, Eric's hands softly caressing her skin, was lulling her into sleep.
"You own the apartment building?" He was impressed.
"Mm-hmm, own a few. Real estate is a solid investment, everybody tells me. My bedroom is light-tight and has security doors, and I have a safe room in the basement and a very secret way down." She whispered. "So you can spend the night without having to worry about rushing home." Sookie's mumbling was nearly incoherent.
"Let's get into bed, min kärlek." Eric lifted her out of the tub, wrapping her in a large soft towel. "So you nearly had a heart attack when you saw me in Rotterdam." Eric teased.
"I'm asleep." Eric chuckled, kissing her forehead softly as she dosed off.