Chapter 14

 

Chapter 14: The Gran Who Knew Too Little

Instead of taking the employee exit to the parking garage, Eric led me upstairs towards the roof.  The door slid shut behind us, and I was taken in by the sounds of Wilmington nightlife: the glittering throng of party-goers below, the symphony of honks and murmuring voices drifting up from numerous cafes.  The moon was a fat, glowing globe in a blackout sky, and I stared up at it breathless.

It was several moments before I glanced at Eric questioningly.

“Why are we up here?” I asked with a sexy smile.

“Jump on and I’ll show you,” Eric said as I trailed my fingertips over the roof’s brick edge.

I frowned a bit, glancing over the edge of the ledge then back at him.

“What do you mean ‘jump on’?”

He made a mirthful sound, than reached over and slung me around his back in one seamless motion.

“Hold on.”

“Hold on?” I demanded even as my arms tightened around his shoulders.  His hands came back and lifted me up a bit so my legs were tight around his hips.

“As I said.”

Then we were lifting into the sky in an easy rise, the wind catching our hair and tangling it around our faces.  The moon above was a glowing tease as we rose higher and higher, as my arms grew tighter and tighter around my vampire lover.

“Eric,” I squealed, burying my face in the side of his cool neck.

The ride to my apartment was short, and we set down on the sidewalk in an even motion, Eric swinging me around and catching me in a kiss full of laughter.

“That was incredible,” I said breathlessly.

“I thought you might like it.”

“Like a scene out of Twilight.”

Eric actually said “Ha,” at that, smoothing his hair back in a silky motion.

“I outdate that tweenage drivel by 10 centuries.”

“It’s not so bad,” I defended with a giggle.

“We at Coffin Bait Productions certainly wish we had movie rights,” he agreed generously.  I just rolled my eyes and tugged my keys out of my purse.

“Come on, Mr. CBP.”

We walked up the three stories to my apartment, and I had barely managed the lock open when Eric spun me around and stared down into what seemed like my soul.  I licked my lips nervously and tried to remember I had a need to keep breathing.

“This time you keep pace,” he demanded, staring down ferociously into my eyes, and I knew instinctively he wasn’t talking sexually.

“I decided,” I assured him breathlessly.  “I’m yours.  All the way.”

His forehead dropped down to mine, our eyes millimeters apart.  I could feel the loving relief flowing through the bond, and I opened myself to him, raising my palms to cup his pale face.  I kissed him softly, shoving my fingers slowly up into his long hair, and he lifted me by the waist as if I were a china doll.  I wrapped my legs around his hips as if I had been doing it for months rather than this sexy first.

We hit my bed together, and Eric twisted mid-fall to land on his back across the bed, with me straddling his hips.  We jerked at my dress together, yanking it over head with an audible tear before tossing it aside with a mutual laugh.

“Do I get a clothing reimbursement, Mr. Northman?” I asked saucily as he shredded my panties to bits.

“Anything you want,” he agreed as I pressed myself down on him.  He groaned when my breasts hit his chest, and even louder as I took him into myself.

“My Sookie,” he whispered, gripping my hair and forcing me to meet his eyes.

“My Eric,” I whispered back.

I began rocking, slowly at first, and Eric rolled his hips in motion with mine.  My eyes nearly crossed when he hit my g-spot, and I could see the devilish smile cross his lips over his discovery.  Deliberately, he repeated the motion, fingers biting deliciously into my hips even as mine gripped desperately at his biceps.

“You like that, my Sookie?” he murmured silkily.

“Oh yes,” I managed as he took over my stalled motions.

“Then come with me,” he whispered, right before sinking his fangs into my left breast.  And lordy, did I ever come.  I squeezed and moaned and jerked like a dying woman.  Eric pulled back from his drink on the outset, stared up into my eyes with an outrageous smile until we were both laughing through the shared pleasure.  My eyes crossed, his hips popped, and then we both collapsed still giggling.

I had learned something wonderfully new and fabulously important, I thought as I snuggled down onto his chest: love didn’t have to be dark and possessive.  It could be warm and miraculous and full of light.

Whoever would have thought that a dead man had so much to teach about life?

“That was delicious,” I finally managed from my blissed out state.

“Exceptional,” he agreed with a low chuckle.

He lifted me up, curled me around his side so my head was tucked into his shoulder, and sighed and rubbed my face along his skin like a purring cat marking a post.

“Sookie,” he said in a neutral tone of voice belied by the urgency flowing through the blood bond.

“Yes?” I asked cautiously.

“I want you to consider something for me.  A great favor.”

Tina chose that moment to jump up into Eric’s lap, curling her long tail around her fat body and looking up at Eric through lazy slits.  Apparently she had already decided in his “great favor.”

“What is it?” I asked even more suspiciously.

“I want you to move in with me.”

I blinked at him for a several moments, because honest to ya, my brain was playing possum to the very last thought.

“You want me to move in with you,” I repeated finally, trying to let it sink in.

“Yes.”

“Like a full-time sweetheart.”

“Precisely.”

“Into Coffin Bait Productions.”

“That is where I reside.”

I blew out a breath of air big enough to stir my bangs back over my forehead.

“Well then.”

“Yes?”

He lifted his gaze from my cat, but kept running his long fingers over and over Tina’s fur.  Tina was sounding like a kitty chainsaw in response.

“Godric knows about this invitation of yours?”

He nodded slowly, a serious expression in his deep blue eyes.

“And approves most whole heartedly.”

“He does?” I asked in surprised delight.

“Of course he does,” he said softly, reaching out a pale hand to cup my cheek.  “You are a rare mind and an even rarer heart.”

I stared into him, feeling his shared certainty and the blush working its way up my cheeks.

“You’re gonna ruin me for life, talking to me like that.”

“I will do everything in my power to lighten your life, my Sookie.”

I glanced down at that.  I knew that I would not always be an easy soul for my Viking lover.  The darkness in me, the blackened edges that Bon Temps had worked into me, both through my parents’ deaths and the lifelong degradation from the community, would not fade so easily.  But if there was a truth I was getting to know with my vampire by my side, it was that darkness could be controlled, regulated at the very least.  I didn’t have to let it consume me, I didn’t have to bury it; I could stand on it and let the power come to me when it needed coming out.

“Are you still hungry?” I asked softly, glancing back up at him.

“You are changing the subject.”

He did not sound happy about that.

“Just for a little while,” I agreed.  “I need some time to think on it.”

“Some time to think.”

Nope, definitely not happy.

“Eric, honey, you’ve been planning this for awhile.  You even consulted Godric on it.  Isn’t it fair that I get my piece to consider?”

“I suppose,” he said cautiously.

“All I want to do is talk it over with Gran.”

“Your matriarch.”

I smiled a silly little smile at that.

“Among other things.”  Gran had been a mother, a mentor, a best friend.  There was no way I could move in with Eric without at least consulting her.

“This is all just so new to me…  I need to at least talk to her first before I make any decision.  You understand?” I asked gently, leaning my head down onto his chest and kissing his damp shoulder.

“I do.”

I felt a flash of worry through the blood bond, but he quickly cut it off.  He kissed the top of my head even as I let out a supersized yawn.

“You need your rest,” he said with good humor.

“Today was just a very long day.”

And it wasn’t long before I was drifting off.

Eric left on the cusp of dawn, kissing my sleepy face with the gentlest of lips.

“See you tonight, dear one.”

“Mmm hmm,” I murmured, leaning up into his mouth.

“Tonight.”

 

When I woke near dusk, Eric’s scent lingered over my skin like an after morning perfume.  I inhaled it slowly, letting the scent flow from my nose down into my body until I was aroused all over again.  I could recall his touch like a tactile memory, fingers sliding over my quivering belly, to my arching hips and even lower still until I was a quivering mass of-

Oh boy.  Was I ever in big trouble.

I took a deep breath and slid my eyes open.  I had an important phone call to make, and all the reminiscing in the world wouldn’t get me out of it.

Gran answered on the second ring.

“Hello?” she barked into the phone.  (She always talks at the thing like it’s deaf.)

“Hey Gran.  It’s Sookie.”

“Hello love.  Taking a break from your star trotting, eh?  I’m framing your picture out of the tabloid Jason brought over.”

Great.  Just great.

“That’s kind of what I was callin’ to talk to you about.”

“The tabloid?”

“No, the reason for the tabloid.”  I took a deep breath before spitting it out.  “Eric Northman asked me to move in with him.”

There was silence on the line, and it took all of two seconds for me to get antsy.

“Gran, you gotta tell me,” I begged desperately.  “What do I do?”

“Do you love him?”

I was quiet for a real long time, letting my feelings drift through me and over me.  I already knew, in fact, that I loved him, but admitting such a thing to the woman who raised me near from the cradle was something else entirely.

“I really do,” I said with quiet finality.

“And does the lucky vamp love you back, hmm?”

I hesitated again, considering the answer to that whopper of a question.

“It feels like he does, Gran.”

“Hmph,” she said.

“No, I mean, it actually feels like he does.”  I huffed air out at my bangs in frustration.  “We have this connection, a magickal one.  It’s called a blood bond.”

“Magickal, eh?  I didn’t tell you about your fairy blood so you could go running around dipping your fingers in dangerous power pies, girl.”

“No, no,” I said with a laugh.  “It’s not like that.  Eric he- well he saved my life, truth be told.  And the blood bond’s just grown from there.”

And what had it grown into?  A deep-seated bond, as full of warmth and gentleness as it was lust and passion.  Could I imagine anything more with a man, even if I were a regular sort of female?  The answer was no, and so my answer came out yes.

“I’m going to, Gran.  I’m going to move in with him.”

“Decided on your own, did you then?  Good then!  If your heart can’t give you an answer, there ain’t no sense in following yourself down into doubt.

“But I’ll tell you one thing, my Sookie.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m headed down to make judgment for myself.”

“Uh, maybe that’s not the best-“

“You saying I ain’t welcome?”

“No!  Of course not.  It’s just…  Well vampires are a real complicated lot Gran.  Sometimes dangerous, even.”

“Well then, I’ll bring Jason along with me.”

“Like that’s gonna make it whole lots better,” I muttered under my breath.

“What’s that girl?  Speak up!”

“I said I can’t wait to see you.”

“Hmph.”