Chapter 15

15- Happy Birthday Handouts

 

“So I hear you put the throne in your basement,” I said coyly as I was driving us to Fangtasia.  I’d stopped by the house and changed into a pair of slimming jeans and a stretchy top that showed off my flat tan navel.  Eric had spun me around a time or two by the waist on seeing my outfit, following it up with a whopper of a kiss.  We’d barely managed to unhinge ourselves long enough to get us loaded into the Beast.

“I’ll have you know my basement is quite posh.”

“Maybe we should investigate this theory of yours later tonight, for certainty’s sake.”

“I think that is an excellent suggestion,” he replied just as professionally, and I squeezed his hand tightly with my own.

The club was hopping when we arrived.  The crowds parted like they were making way for Moses, and I caught more than a few snide thoughts at my presence at Eric’s side.  I just beamed all the harder; after all, I’d already won.

Service was on the double time.  Eric and I weren’t even all the way seated when Hadley came dashing up with a True Blood and gin and tonic.

“Hey there Had!” I said, squeezing her up in a big hug.  She giggled and smooched me back.

“Pam’s with Gran, I take it?”

“Oh yes!  They’re having a photo album night.”

“Well seeing as Pam has hundreds…”

“Oh, Gran’s just tickled pink as posies.  And by the by, she’s teaching the kitten not to climb the drapes last text I got.”

I laughed and hugged Eric tightly into my side.

It wasn’t long before a rather eager fangbanger took it upon herself to interject into our pleasantries.

“In the mood for a real dinner?” she said, tapping the side of Eric’s True Blood.

“My companion and I are well matched, thank you,” Eric said on giving her an arrogant glance down his proud brow.  The woman wasn’t quick to catch on.

“But she ain’t wearing no marks.”

Seems like this one was going to be a hard case.  Well, that was just fine.  I could dish right on back.

“There’s lots to me that can’t be seen, isn’t that right honey?”

The woman snickered, and I could feel Eric’s forearm tighten beneath my hand.

Okay, then.  We were gonna play this rough.

Using all the muscles I’d built up over the years playing softball, I hooked my leg behind Eric’s ankle and spun myself around to straddle his lap.  My long blond hair fanned around us like a peek-a-boo privacy curtain.  I put my throat parallel to his closed-mouthed fangs until I could feel them straining between our pressed together flesh.  Fang wasn’t all I was feeling; his gracious plenty was straining up between us too.

“Eric honey?”

“Yes my Sookie?”

“There’s no cops in this bar.”

“You’re sure of that?”

“As sure of how good this is gonna feel.”

And so Eric gave in.  His fangs made a crisp popping sound piercing flesh, and I ground myself down on him as he rode out the wave of my blood.  I knew the whole bar was staring at us now, but for the life of me, I just couldn’t bring myself to care.  Eric and I came at the same time, and I felt him knick his tongue and heal my little wounds clean, so it would look like we had just done a tease-n-show for the patrons.  Only the vampires would know different, them and the only woman standing close enough to catch a true glimpse.

I French kissed him after, lingering on the shared bloodiness of our mouths until the woman turned away in disgust.

“Marked enough for you?” I murmured after in his ear.

Eric cleared his throat and spoke with much difficulty.  “Yes, but I may need a change of clothes.”

“Huh,” I said on glancing down between us.  “How ‘bout that.  But not for me.”

“No?” he asked in surprise.

“Nope.  I’ll wear your proud.  And I want to wear your marks later,” I added softly.  “Somewhere where no one will see them, but I’d like to wear them all the same.”

“Girl I am a freak you shouldn’t say those things,” Eric lilted in a thick accent.

I giggled and cuffed him on the jaw.

“I’ll be right back,” he said, and made tracks for the office.  I finished off my gin and tonic just in time to have Hadley serving me up another one.

“Woo-hoo girl, you got ‘em riled up tonight, don’t cha?”

“I have no idea what you could possibly mean,” I said on batting not-so-innocent lashes her way.  I knocked the tonic back quick as you please when I saw Eric coming back.  It was all I could do not to drool as I watched him move lithely through the crowd, long legs striding, firm hips furling and unfurling.  Oh, god, I had it bad.  And wasn’t that just okay?

“You got it bad,” my cousin said aloud, and I grinned at her wildly.  “Careful now, or I’ll have reasons to start suspecting you of mind reading.”

Eric reached us then and offered a hand.  I took it and let him lead me easily to my feet.

“How about a dance?”

“How about one?”

Eric led me by the hand over to the DJ booth, where the vamp was doing his best to look demure and giddy all at once.

“Any preferences, dear one?”

“Fast than slow.  Surprise me,” I told the DJ.

The fast song was Adam Lambert’s “If I had you,” and I let it fly as Eric wound himself around me in surprising good show.  I may not be able to carry a tune in a bucket, but by god can I dance.  I let him have it all, riding my hips on his, riding his thigh to get even closer, until he was almost growling at me in frustration.  When the song ended, he went to drag me out of the club, but I resisted.

“Just one more.”  He growled, and I slid into his arms with a gentle laugh.  “Then this Sookie’s all yours.”

The next song was just as good, for different reasoning.  VAST’s “Part of You,” piped over the speakers, somber enough for the dark laced crowd and sweet enough for the dark heart lovers.  We swayed among the crowds, two tow-headed magickal lovers lost in each other and the night.

“Take me home,” I whispered into his ear when it was over.

Eric drove while I stared at his profile, wondering how it was possible such a divine looking creature had chosen to share himself with me, crazy Sookie Stackhouse.

“What dark thoughts are taking you from me, my heart?” he asked once were down in his basement.  I suppose it was posh enough.  I was more concerned with my Viking’s eyes view.

“I just can’t believe my good luck,” I whispered.  “That you’re mine.”

His eyes went cobalt blue, and suddenly I was flying through the air to land, quite haphazardly I might add, on the edge of his throne.

Eric was still standing a good space away, staring at me darkly.  His mood had followed mine, taking a sudden plunge into a different sort of darkness, and I was more than willing to follow down with him.

“Off with the jeans or leave with them in pieces.”

I scrambled to my feet and made mad timing doing as he’d commanded.  My panties didn’t make the cutoff time though; I saw shredded pieces of them flying past my head and then I wasn’t thinking because Eric was inside me and around and shoving me back onto his throne for everything he it was worth.  My one arm was wrapped back around the throne, both legs wrapped high up on his hips, and the whole of me filled with his more than gracious plenty.

“There’s no one but you,” he whispered to me desperately on the pounding.  “No moon, no sky to hold it.  Only you that makes the nights tolerable for eternity.”

“It sounds like you’re telling me you love me,” I managed over his thrust.

“If this is love, if this is love, may the gods keep me from Valhalla for only your lifetime longer.”

I was crying now, crying tears for us both and not all of them were gentle tears.  I knew Eric prized his immortality, possibly above all else, but such a vow, such a statement.

“I’ll stay with you,” I swore over my sobs.  “I’ll stay with you always and forever, even if it means the sun can’t kiss my face without fire for the effort.”

And then there could be no more words between us.

The next day I had Alcide escort me to Wal-Mart to pick up Lisa’s birthday presents.  I’d gotten her a make-up kit and an outfit, shoes to shirt.  It was one of those pretty new pseudo-designer bits that Wal-Mart had been stocking as of late (and of which I had an outfit or two of my very own).  I’d had the whole lot of it on lay-a-way, but telepathy’s first paycheck had come through that morning, and I was easily able to pay off the whole lot.  I even went to the electronics department and picked up a DVD player I knew Arlene had been trying to buy the kids for awhile now.

“Coby and Lisa will have to share this,” I told Alcide.  I added on a fifty dollar gift card as well for them to pick up some new movies to watch on it.

“This your first payday, ain’t it?”

“Sure enough is,” I told him amiably.

“Why ain’t you buying yourself some silly frippery to celebrate then?”

“I’ve got all I could ever want or need, Alcide,” I told him gently.  “Now how ‘bout you and I get a bit of lunch, hmm?”

We ate at TGIFs, and I had a blast watching Alcide mess himself in Jack Daniel’s sauce.  The noises he made grubbing on the ribs was near on animalistic, and I had a heck of time holding back on my corresponding giggles.  The waitress was wide-eyed on bringing him his second plate.  When time came for the check I had to arm wrestle him with vamp juiced strength in order to wrest the bill from him.

“My treat,” I said on dropping money down.  He was looking at me strangely as I handed the waitress the check.

Sure is stronger than she looks.

“It’s these new vitamins I’m taking,” I told him with a soft smile.

More like all the new vamp she’s taking.

“Alcide!” I scolded soundly, and had the great pleasure of watching him flush.

“It’s hard, you know?  You seem so…”

“Ordinary?”

“I was gonna go with harmless.”

“Thanks,” I grinned at him over the compliment.

We ended up spending much of the drive to Lisa’s party not-quite-really talking about Tara.  Reading between the lines, it seemed Alcide was getting more than a little hot to trot over my best friend, although his ex seemed to be in the picture more than a bit too.  “She won’t tolerate any funny business,” I told him straight out, to which he told me the funny would be one-sided from the ex if it were at all.

Arlene had the door open and a smile on her face before I’d even made it halfway up the steps with my freshly wrapped presents.

“I can’t stay long,” I said on kissing her cheek.  “You know how Sam gets on Saturdays.”

“You’ll at least come in for a slice of cake, Aunt Sookie?” asked Lisa on seeing I had arrived.  Her eyes were big for all the packages I carried.

“Of course I will,” I told her with a blinding smile.

“Who’s this?” Arlene asked on seeing Alcide step up behind me with the rest of the gifts.

“Oh, this is just my friend Alcide,” I told her pleasantly.  Alcide was doing his best to look harmless in his big red flannel shirt and well-worn blue jeans, but he was the size of a small horse at least.

“He’ll wait in the truck, if it’s a problem.”

“No, no, it’s fine.”

“Hey Rene,” I cheered on a little wave.

“Hey there, you.  Good to see ya cher, and a load of presents, aside.  Lisa gonna love you, girl.”

“Oh, well, it’s no big deal.  Not every day a girl turns 11, is it?” I asked on wrapping her up in a happy hug.

“Nope,” she agreed with a cheeky grin.  Her pretty red hair was done up in fat sausage curls, and there was green glitter rimming her hazel eyes.  Her nail polish was candy purple, and her dress was black with pink stripes showing through on deliberate fabric slices.  She looked like a punk rock fairy princess, and I told her so.

“Aunt Sookie,” she giggled on batting her fake eyelashes.

“Now, one of these is for you and Coby.  You’ll know it when you see it, alright?”

“Sure thing, Aunt Sookie.”  I smiled at her and ran a loving hand over her curls.

Arlene came to stand next to me and we watched as Lisa tore eagerly into her presents.

“Looks more and more like you every day.”

Arlene sighed in bittersweet acknowledgement.

“’Bout time for you to have a couple here real soon, Sook.”

“I don’t really think it’s in the cards for me,” I told her with a soft smile.

“Ought to get rid of your vamp and get yourself a real man, Sook.”

“Even if it weren’t for the fact that I’m blissfully in love with Eric, you know why that’s not possible.”

“I’ll admit the kitten was a sweet gesture.”

“And that’s just what you’ve seen first hand.  If you knew, if you knew what he was really like…  All he’s done for me.  Lord knows, Arlene, I don’t know a ‘real man,’ as you say, that could tend to my heart any better.”

Thankfully for my growing impatience, the kids chose to interrupt us over the shared gift.

“Oh thank you, Aunt Sookie!” Coby cheered on seeing the DVD player, throwing himself up into my arms.  I lifted him up and spun him around with a laugh, then took a turn hugging Lisa as well.

When I straightened up, I noticed my dress had slid down near to my bra on setting down Coby, and that Rene was staring at my exposed chest with a darkly considering expression.  I glanced down and caught sight of Eric’s second helping love marks from the previous night, and tugged my neck line back into appropriate place.

“Don’t that hurt?” he asked in nasty distaste.

“No, not at all.  It was made in the care of someone I love,” I added, and his mouth curled in a half-lipped sneer before dropping back to more sociable lines.

“Not for me to say, I guess.  Just watch yourself, cher.”

Myself around you, I thought as I reviewed his cruel face in my mind.  I’d had no idea Rene was so anti-vampire.  But then, so was half of Bon Temps, even after the kitten at Merlotte’s.  Besides that, it was Lisa’s birthday, so I was determined to be civil.

“I hear you, Rene,” was all I could make myself say.

By the time we got in the truck, I was fuming.

“What’s eating you, cher?”

“Prejudice bastards with Cajun accents,” I muttered pissily.

“That’d be the Rene fellow?”

“Yes.”

“He smells off, you know.”

“What do you mean by ‘off’?” I asked carefully, to which Alcide shrugged.

“Can’t say directly.  Just off.  It’s a were thing,” he said.

“Hmm…” I replied, thinking furiously.  What all did I know about Rene?  Not much, only that he had a sister off in Shreveport.  She worked in a café, I thought.

Maybe I was being paranoid, but wasn’t safer better than sorry?  I wasn’t going to say anything just yet, not without doing a little investigating, but my suspicions were good and raised both by my observations, and Alcide’s.

“Alcide,” I said a little hesitantly.  “Can you have your werewolf buddy look into Rene for me?”

Alcide looked none too sure about that.

“Not Eric?”

“Eric’s liable to jump the fangs, and I’d rather not start anything unnecessarily.”

“Makes sense,” he said after some careful consideration.  “I’ll see what I can do.”

The next two weeks went by with suspiciously happy speed.  I was at Eric’s house near on every other night, and Eric, Hadley and Pam were at Gran’s much the same.  Jason had found out about Hadley’s miraculous reappearance, and aside from a groan or two about not being let in from the get go, he took to the news surprisingly well.

By week two, it was starting to grate on me that no one had found out anything more about our ‘donor killer,’ as the more polite of us were calling him.  ‘Fang-banger corpse fucker,’ was Pam’s sneering take on it, since we’d found out he’d raped the girls post-mortem.  I’d about lost my brain on hearing that piece of news.  I was feeling hunted despite everyone’s best efforts, and more than a little caged.

And when I finally got Tina back in a shoe-type box sealed in police tape, my control just up and cracked.

“I can feel your eyes,” I snapped savagely at my werewolf bodyguard.  “And your wagging eyebrows.”

Trey Dawson was a hoss of a man, so I couldn’t even imagine what he looked like as a wolf.

“Well now, Sookie.  And here I thought you could only read minds.  Got some eyeballs in the back of your head, do you?”

I spun around on him with a vengeance, only to find him locked on to me with compassionate consideration.  My temper deflated and dropped straight down into the hole I’d dug for Tina.

“Sorry,” I murmured softly.  “I guess I’m just missing her.”

“And your independence, I’m sure.”

“And my independence,” I confessed sorrowfully.

“Northman only wants to see you hale and hearty.  The alternative is a might bit less lively, if you catch my meaning,” he said, this time actually wagging his brows at the hole at my feet.

“Oh, I know,” I sighed.  “But I ain’t gotta like it.”

“Truth be told, me and Herveaux have been impressed by how well you’ve held up on all this.”

“Well, Eric’s mighty good at distracting me.”

“Yeah, and we’ve been shocked as shit to see that as well.  Well, at least we were.”

“Were?”

Trey gave a rueful smile.

“The way he looks at you…”

I smiled softly.

“He sees me, is all.”

“Loves you, more like.”

“Not much difference where I’m standing.”

“You sure are a strange female.”

“I know,” I cheered with ridiculous cheer.

And then, “Eric’s coming.”

The joy on my insides was growing with near on every second.

“You can tell?” Trey asked with a bit of surprise.

“Oh yes,” I nodded, hand pressed over my heart.

Eric dropped out of the sky and landed a foot or so away from me, smiling as hugely as I was.

“Hello, lover,” he murmured on scooping me up.  He swung me up and around the yard in a flying half spin, while I laughed and laughed like a sugared up loon.

“Oh, I missed you!” I said, giving him a resounding smack on the lips.

“I was only gone 12 hours.”

“It seems longer,” I confessed with a silly smile.

“I would have been here sooner, but I had to set some things in motion.  There is business at the club tonight.”

“Alrighty,” I agreed easily.  “What sort?”

“I am interviewing a new day man.”

“How come?” I asked, picking at the fingernail on my left thumb anxiously.

“Bobby took it upon himself to stress his dislike of you within Pamela’s range of hearing.”

“Oh,” I said.  Then, “Oh, Eric, you shouldn’t.”

His eyebrow raised questioningly.

“I shouldn’t?”

“Of course not!  People are allowed to dislike me, Eric.”

“Not if they intend to stay working for me,” he said haughtily.

“Honey, I love you…  But you have to understand.  Word’s gonna get around that I’m like…  I don’t know…  the boss’ over-coddled arm candy or something.  You don’t want that, do you?”

“No more than I want employees running their mouths about my contracted consultants.  So what to do?”

“How ‘bout a nice good scolding and a temporary pay cut?”

“I’d like to cut something else even more,” Eric muttered darkly.

“What’s that?” I intoned sweetly.

“I said, what an excellent idea, dear one.”

“And I was meaning to tell you…” Trey interjected.  “I’ve had some luck on the Rene front.”

Eric’s eyes grew dark as midnight at that, his face tightening with frightful intensity.  I grabbed for his hand and tugged him tight to my side.

“Now don’t be getting upset.  This is just a little something I had Trey looking into for us.”

“By all means,” he said with great sarcasm.  “Let’s hear what Trey has to say.”

Trey glanced between the two of us for a moment, then went on ahead with his report.

“I was asking around about him the last few nights, but he appears to be on the up and up.  Steady job, steady relationship.  Not much pointing to serial killer status, but-“

Eric’s hand went painfully tight on mine.

“-He did have a sister who ran with the fangbanger crowd for awhile but vanished.  Drugs or drained they suspect.”  Trey shrugged.

“Vanished, you say?”  Eric was growing scarier by the moment.

“Eric, honey,” I warned desperately.  “We can’t just go on and kill him yet.  Not until we’re sure.”

“But you are saying yet?”

“If he tries for me or anyone else I care about, you can bet your ass that’s a yes.”

Eric turned on me in a deadly storm.  Trey was slowly inching away from the as-yet-unfilled hole.

“I cannot believe you kept something like this from me.”

“You would if you could see your face right now.”

He scowled viciously at that.

“Did it ever occur to you that I could simply glamour him to find out what he knows?”

“Well, hmm, no actually it did not.”

I did my best impression of a meek and well-meaning Sookie, and Eric sighed out all of his angst and leaned his head down to mine.  He kissed me softly, so I knew all was forgiven.

“Dear one, you will be the death of me, I swear.”

“Hey!  That should be the human’s line!”

“Hassle’s more like it.”

Trey was grinning at this bit of by-play.

“Y’all realize you sound like a married couple.”

“We’re looking into it,” Eric said vaguely.

Whoa, grab a hold your cowboys and say, “WHAT?!”

Eric batted innocent blue eyes at me.

“I’ve been meaning to mention it.”

I glared at him.

“I hate to inform you, my veriest favorite Viking, but it’s not even legal yet.”

“It is for vampires to humans.”

He seemed bound and determined to settle the matter later, so I sighed out my own bit of frustration and kissed him soundly on the mouth.

“If there’s hassle to be had here, it sure does go both ways.”

“It’s why we’re so very well matched Miss Stackhouse.”  He pressed his lips to mine again and drew away the rest of my frustration.

Trey was in the background humming the wedding march.  I gave him a rightly sized glare before returning to more pressing matters.

“But what of Rene?”

“That will be dealt with tonight along with the rest.”

“Honey, Arlene’s working tonight and he’s all alone with the kids.”

“All the better than, is it not?”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I turned back to the grisly matter of burying Tina so we could move on with this dark business.