Chapter 10

 Believing Ain’t Always Seeing

I have spent a whole lot of years keeping my smile bright and my mouth shut.

When I was a little girl and didn’t understand that what I was hearing and what I was hearing weren’t one and the same, things had been harder.  I’d walked around in constant confusion, trying to sort out why it was nobody ever seemed to hear things the way I did.  Why it was the church ladies cooed over each others’ shoes when what they really were saying was how tacky they were.  How the people always saying sorry were the ones meaning it least, or how the best liars always had the most friends.  Not everybody was like that.  Some were kind, and most of them tried to be even when they weren’t.

They weren’t trying very hard tonight.

What kinda good girl…

Just another fangbanger.

Dead man’s toy.

They all end up whores in the end.

I ran around serving burgers and handing out beer and dropping off checks and offering up tolerance, and all I wanted to do was scream at them all:

Shut.

The

Fuck.

Up!

There was a darkness building in me, a darkness I’d been sitting on for a long time.  People were so determined to draw lines I couldn’t cross, the same lines they’d been so quick to kick me over before.  Was I supposed to be their good little kicking post my whole life?  Lily white, ‘cept for the scuff marks?  All I wanted was some peace, a little quiet from all the hate folks festered in their brains just looking for an excuse to spit out.

By night’s end even Webster didn’t have a word for what I was.

“Sookie.”

I looked up from my furious cleaning to find Sam latched on to me with somber eyes.

“Sam,” I said flatly.  We were closed now, and I just didn’t have another smile in me.

“I’m sorry,” he said.  His face was raw and earnest.  “Earlier…  that wasn’t well done of me.”

“I’m used to it.”

His eyes flashed pain.

“Not from me.”

My fingers tightened.  My towel dripped sanitizer onto the table.
“No, not from you.  Until a few days ago I’d have thought you’d be one of the few happy for me.”

Sam’s eyes were blue, so very blue, and I was getting nothing.

“There ain’t nothing I want more than for you to be happy.  But this world you’re getting into…  You don’t belong in it, cher.”

“Like I belong here?” I said, real, real quiet like.

He started to say something, but I bowled right over.

“People tolerate me fetching and carrying, but I’m not a woman, I’m not even a person to most of them.  I’m Crazy Sookie, and I am beyond tired of it, Sam.  I am beyond tired of being hated for what I can’t help being.”

Frustration came rolling off him in waves, that thick hot energy I could never make heads or tails of.

“Don’t you think I know that?”

“I thought you did.”

Sam went to reach for me, and I ducked back.  His hands dropped, flexed against his legs.

“There’s things you just don’t know, cher.  Northman-”

“I got eyes.”  My interruption dripped ice.  “Eric is ruthless and highhanded and dangerous as all get out, but he’s no threat to me.”

Sam’s mouth went hard, his eyes went desperate.

“You’re so sure of that?”

“As Bodehouse on a bender,” I said with vicious cheer.

“You’re his now, then?”  The way Sam was saying it, the way Eric kept saying it, I got the feeling I was missing a Big Something.  It didn’t really matter.  I would sort everything out soon enough.

“We’re each others.”

“He said that?” Sam’s voice came out harshly intense.

“More’n that, he shows it.  Actions speak, Sam.  Louder than words, louder even than thoughts, actions speak.”

I stared at him with hard calm, willing him to come to terms.  I cared for him, and I wasn’t ignorant to his deeper feelings, but this was my life now.  Sam would accept it, or he wouldn’t, but I was done sugar coating the truth.

I would give no more ground.  I would straddle no more lines.

As if hearing my thoughts, Sam’s strong shoulders drooped to weary, his handsome face sagged to wistful.

“I wish…”

He trailed off speaking, but I heard him clear enough now.

I wish I’d been a braver man.

This time when Sam reached for me, I let him.

I came out of Merlotte’s with a head full of darkness.

Eric was stretched out against the door of my car, death sculpture up to his eyes.  Empty blue tracked my steps from the door until I stopped a few feet away.

“Eric, what is Sam?”

Eric gave a ghost of a smile.

“Why do you ask?”

I looked down at the tops of my sneakers as I considered what I’d gotten off hugging Sam.

“He… showed me something.  Flashes of something.  Body twistin’ up and changin,’ running through the woods on all fours.”

I sounded hideously calm, and Eric answered in kind.

“Merlotte is what Supes refer to as a shifter.  He can change into animal form at will, and must on full moon nights.”

“So there are others,” I murmured, keys digging into my palm.  “A whole other world, this whole time, this whole time I was feeling like I was the only one.”

There was a second of black silence before Eric spoke.

“He cares for you.”

“Not enough.”

I looked up from my shoes and stared him dead in the face.

“There’s things here, things I’m not getting.”

Eric’s eyes reflected my darkness back at me.

“Such as…?”

“Such as what’s it mean, me saying I’m yours?  The way you keep saying it, and the way Sam asked me like he did.  Like the word’s in all caps or something.“

“What did you tell the shifter?”

“I told him we were each others.”

Eric’s eyes were darkly satisfied as he spoke.

“It is an official claim.  It means that no other vampire may feed from you or injury you without penalty.  It also indicates that I hold you a position of some trust.”

“So, I’m like your… possession now?”

“According to vampire law, yes.”

“And to you?”

“To me it means… something else.”

He went silent, staring off into the shadowy tree line.

I took a dark breath.

“I want to stay with you tonight.”  There was no mistaking my meaning.

Eric moved in a blur, spinning me round and yanking out my arms and pinning me to the car like some kind of human crucifix.  The tips of my toes dangled in the dirt, the metal doorframe bit into my spine, the points of my breasts crushed flat under the weight of his chest.  I glared defiantly up into his dead eyes, breathing hard and feeling harder.

“You come to me wearing anger, Miss Stackhouse.”  His voice was the softest of the soft.  “I find that I do not like it.”

“I wouldn’t think it’d bother you.”

He used his face to push mine to the side, sliding his lips from my jaw line to my jugular.

“It really should not.”

His thigh slid between my legs and began pressing slowly, slowly upwards.  I started fighting him for it, hips grinding, neck straining, body a trembling, hollow mess, but he gave no ground.

“Eric!” I hissed.

“Tell me why I should,” he said, bored to my desperation.

“Because I am yours!” I furiously insisted.

“Not enough.”

“Because I need you!” I bitterly confessed.

“Not enough.”

“Because you see me, and they never will!”

He released my arms and I flung them around his head and yanked him closer.  One of his hands buried in my hair, stretching my neck out almost to the point of pain, the other cradled the downside of my face.  Blunt teeth pressed hard enough to dent skin, muscled thigh pressed hard enough to soak flesh.

Almost, almost, almost…

“Eric!” I begged.

His fangs exploded into my neck, and I exploded into him.  He took it, all of it, all those years of closed mouth screaming, painful smiles, and full room loneliness.  He drew me out, he drank me in, he siphoned me off.  It was perfectly excruciating, it was terrifyingly exhilarating, it was monstrously serene.

When I got my skin back, it had never been a better fit.

I lay there for a blissful while after, listening to nighttime music and feeling his fingers slide over the crown of my head with rhythmic tenderness.  My blood hummed off them both, spreading like some kind of dark magic under the cover of my skin, and I leisurely marked the tune out on his collarbone with the tip of my nose.

Eventually I ducked my head into the wonderfully scented crease under his arm and tried convincing myself the rest of my bones were available for the moving.

“Feeling better then?”

Eric’s Smug voice was thick with my blood, his leg was soaked from my lust.  Sometime during our exchange he’d switched our positions.  I was straddling him now, with one big hand stroking my mussed hair, another splayed protectively over my thrumming back.  My keys were Lord knows where, my temper had long since flown, and my brain was mush at his feet.

“Catnip,” I muttered, and he roared with laughter.

I shoved off his shaking chest so I could look him in the face.  He was a wicked, gleaming thing, from the pale of his skin to blue of his eyes.

“I can’t believe we just did that in the parking lot.”

I couldn’t believe how not ashamed I sounded.

“I thought it an appropriate response, all things considered,” he teased, the lightest of devils.

I raised my hand up and traced his glowing mouth with the tips of my nonsensical fingers.  His lips slid slowly along my index finger, like a lazy cat marking a post.

“I keep trying to make sense of this, why it is a thousand year old killer is the one sorting me out.”  He nipped teasingly at the pad of my thumb, and my body jerked out an aftershock.

“Any conclusions?” he murmured, raising up glowing fingers to mirror mine.  His thumb started working mischief on the corner of my mouth, and my lips parted to please.

“I’m still workin’ on it,” I breathed.

He dipped in around the words, dragging a wet fingertip along the slack flesh of my bottom lip. The palm on my back began pressuring me slowly closer, and I could feel him, marble hard off my blood, digging into my belly.  My eyes dropped guiltily down, then shot back up to his face.

“Eric,” I protested.  “What about-“

“It will wait.”  His blue eyes sparkled with mischievous certainty.  “I have had my pleasure for the night.”

His palm slid up my spine to cup my neck, his fingers tilted my face to the side.  I trembled on hearing the snick of fangs, convulsed on feeling the wet tip of his tongue.  I was an urgent savage as he tasted upwards, frantic fingers tearing at shoulders of stone, virgin hips rolling in scandalous plea, needy lungs shoving out air in violent little gasps.  When his lips hit the edge of my jaw, I twisted my desperate face sideways and shuddered out my climax into the depths of his bloody mouth.

I sagged down on him after, feeling like a well used rag.

“You continue to surprise me, Miss Stackhouse,” he said softly, hands sliding down my back in tender absorption.  I smiled my satisfaction into the curve of his shoulder.

“After a thousand years, that’s got to be some kind of miracle,” I sighed.

“It is some kind of something,” he agreed vaguely, and I pushed back to study his glowing face.  His devilish blue eyes were narrowed to slits, wicked lips licked back to perfect paleness, vampiric expression lazily smug.

I propped my chin on his chest and stared up at him curiously.

“Do I taste different then other people?”

“Deliciously so.”  I shivered at his tone.

“Why do you think that is?”

His pale lashes dropped fractionally, then lifted.

“I have tasted similar before, but it merits consideration.”

“Alright,” I said after a moment’s hesitation.  I had lived 25 years not knowing; I could afford to wait a little longer for accuracy’s sake.

“And I must say, after you my other meals will definitely be bland to taste,” he said thoughtfully, glinting eyes devouring my face.

“I swear to God, Eric Northman,” I warned in all seriousness.  “You best not even glance at another neck if you ever want to eat Sookie again.”

“Restricting my diet so soon?” he drawled lazily.  He seemed anything but concerned with the possibility.

“No, you can still chew on ‘em,” I contradicted cheerfully.  “Just as long as it’s from elbow to wrist.”

His chest heaved and rumbled under my face, and I held on tight for the happy ride.  When he was coming down off the chuckles, I glanced over and saw Sam’s trailer light was still on.

“Oh my Lord,” I moaned, covering my face with my hands.  “Sam’s still up.  Do you think he heard?”

“The two-natured do have enhanced senses,” Eric admitted.  “But you were surprisingly quiet.”

I uncovered my relieved face and looked up at him.

“Really?” I begged.

“Yes.  But this just means I will have to do better next time.”  His face was positively gleeful with anticipatory delight.

Oh, oh my.

I moved on to other subjects by way of distraction.

“Eric, why do you think Sam never told me?”  I was thoughtful on the matter now that my temper had been lifted.

“The two-natured have lived in secret as long as vampires,” Eric said after a split second’s consideration.  “It would not have been easy for him to expose you to that world.”

That stung more than a little.

“But I wouldn’t have told!” I defended.

“Merlotte knows that,” he said quietly, lifting a hand to swallow up the side of my face, running his thumb soothingly over the crest of my cheek.  “I think it was more a matter of keeping your secret than worrying after his.”

I sighed and wrapped a length of Eric’s hair around my index finger.

“Sam’s so keen on protecting me he ended up denying me same as everybody else.  Being left in the dark isn’t any kind of shelter.”

“Yet here you are, being ‘sorted out’ under the cover of darkness,” Eric said, sounding immensely amused.

“Eric, you haven’t offered me anything but shelter since I met you.”  His blue eyes slid down into serious darkness at that.

“It will not always be so easy between us,” he warned softly.

This wasn’t news to me.  A week in I already had a killer stabbing at my heels and a town jabbing at my brain.  And Eric himself?  I had flat out heard him thinking about the joys of killing.  I knew full well what he was, yet all my instincts were screaming that if I ever saw that side of him in full force, it would be for me, not against me.  I had definitely enjoyed my taste of that darkness tonight, and wasn’t I lighter for it?  Wasn’t I edging close to something more?

I pressed my warm hand to the side of his cool face and put everything I couldn’t yet say into my eyes.

“Just as long as it’s real.”

“This I can ensure.”

Eric’s eyes were quietly violent on the promise.  I took it like the gift it was, stretching up on my toes and joining my mouth with his.  He tasted like shared rust, and I lingered over it awhile, wrapping my arms around his neck, burying my fingers in his corn silk hair.

Eventually he eased back, dropping departing kisses on my swollen mouth.

“I think we best go tell Adele what we learned tonight.”  I felt a rush of panic at that.

“You think she might be in danger?”

“I think it best we not take a chance on it.”

“Of course you’re right!  Not for anything in the world.”

We both got into my car, seeing as Eric had flown all the way from Shreveport.  I had a moment of fun watching him fold his long self up into my tiny passenger seat, during which he leered at me playfully.  But then my hand crept up my neck as I was turning over my stubborn engine, and I realized with some shock I was woundless.  I turned towards him again, lips already parted on my question.

“What-“

“I sealed them.”  His blue eyes were gravely considerate.

“I really don’t mind,” I insisted, and it was true.  I was surprisingly peaceful about the whole deep dish love marks.

“Perhaps not, but Bon Temps needs no more fuel for its idiots’ bonfire.”

“Oh,” I said shyly, turning back to the road with a smile.  I shoved the car into drive, and when Eric’s fingers came up to play with the back of my neck, the smile spread to hurt my face.

Gran was still up when we pulled into the drive, but after all the chaos of the last few days, I wasn’t really surprised.  She was sitting at the kitchen table when we went in, and relief washed over her finely wrinkled face on seeing me.  When she realized who was behind me the relief turned into something else.

“Eric!” she cheered, shoving up out of her chair and sauntering over to him with enough sass to put Lafayette to jealous shame.

“I can’t thank you enough for the lovely flowers, and the thoughtful note!”

“Adele,” he murmured, leaning in to drop a tender kiss to her forehead.  “It was the least I will do.  And might I add, you are a vision in flannel.”

“Oh, you just hush now,” she scolded happily before turning to me.  She popped both my cheeks with a kiss, and brushed her fingers over my forehead.

“Sookie, you’re looking better than I’d expected off speaking with Hadley.  She sounds wonderful, by the way!  So happy!”

She gave Eric a sappy smile, and he grinned devilishly back.

“Well, Eric and her did a good job patching me up.  I’m sorry ‘bout not speaking to you myself after all that, but I just needed to get out of here awhile.”  I smiled guiltily at her over that fact.

“Don’t you worry about it!” she shushed as she settled back into her chair.  “You’ve got some catching up to do anyhow.”

I dropped into the chair across from her, sighing my relief at finally getting off my neglected feet.  Eric came up behind me and dropped supportive hands to my shoulders.  When his fingers started rubbing casually at my aching muscles, I let out another sigh and leaned back into the hard wall of his stomach.

“I suppose you heard about this nonsense with Jason and the police,” Gran said as she was giving Eric and me the hairy eyeball.

“From near everyone in town.  Don’t worry,” I said quickly.  “He didn’t do it, and I’m looking into it.”

“Of course he didn’t!” she scolded, although her mind was broadcasting some relief.

Eric took this for the opening it seemed to be.

“In regards to that matter, I am afraid Sookie and I must share some uncomfortable information.”

“Oh?” she drawled warily.

“It’s about the murderer, Gran.  He’s targeting…”  I hesitated, and Eric was quick to pick up.

“Donors,” he finished smoothly.  “He is targeting donors, and after my visit to Merlotte’s tonight we have some concerns that Sookie may be at risk.”

Gran’s face darkened at that.

“Sookie is not a donor.”

“No she is not,” Eric agreed fiercely.  “But she is my companion in every way, and such a man will not care to see the difference.”

“And neither will anyone else,” I added starkly.

Gran took a second to digest this bit of all around heaviness before giving a militant nod.

“Well, they’ll learn to see differently or they’ll be hearing words off the downside of my tongue.”

I felt warmer on hearing that, and got the strange sense Eric did too, even though his voice didn’t show it.

“Sookie’s nighttime hours are already covered, and I have called in a favor for a daytime guard, a man named Alcide Herveaux.”  The way he said man made me realize this Alcide fellow was a bit more.  A two-natured, perhaps?  I’d ask Eric when we were alone, but this was getting to be a lot more than I’d bargained on.

“Eric, you really don’t need to do all this,” I protested.

I might as well have been speaking Greek, although knowing Eric that wouldn’t even have been an issue.

“The house will be under guard from dusk to dawn, whether Sookie is here or not,” he continued on with stubborn authority.  I huffed out a sigh of protest, and his fingers brushed the edge of my cheekbone.

“It is a simple enough precaution,” he said softly.  “And I am owed many favors.”

“Oh, alright,” I grumbled after a moment’s consideration.  I got the sense from his tone that my consent wasn’t really required on the matter anyhow, and after earlier I was feeling too loose to really want to fight.

“Thank you, my Sookie,” he said warmly, dropping a kiss to the top of my head.

Gran watched this whole exchange with a gleaming hawk’s eye, and when it was through took up the argument for her own.

“Well, we won’t be sitting ducks here, bodyguards or not,” she said determinedly.  “Eric, why don’t you run on up and fetch me my shotgun?  It’s in the attic propped up behind that old green trunk.”

“Certainly.”

He gave my shoulders a final squeeze before striding out, and I watched his marvelous butt the whole way, mentally thanking Lucky brand for my good luck.

“You two seem to be handling each other well enough,” Gran said, and my horrified eyes flew to her knowing face.

“We’re well suited,” I managed weakly.

“From the looks of him,” she drawled, and when my face flushed, her mouth twitched.

“Gran!” I whispered, dropping my eyes to where I was worrying at the edges of my t-shirt.

“Oh, alright,” she huffed.  “But a man looks like that, you’d have to be dead if you weren’t wondering.  You’re happy, then?” she demanded.

I lifted my head and smiled blissfully into her protective face.

“Peacefully so,” I said softly, and her eyes went from wary to liquid.

“Lord bless him, he’s giving you girls what no one else can,” she whispered.  “He’s a Lazarus type miracle, and I aim to make sure everybody else recognizes him as such.”

Eric came back in the room then, and I could tell from the look in his eye he’d heard at least part of our conversation.  It was an odd sight, the six-foot-five vampire Viking wearing a tender face and holding a double barrel shotgun.  He walked over to Gran and offered it to her stock first.

Gran propped it up on her thigh, dabbing her damp eyes on the ruffles of her nightgown.  She turned back to me when her smile was a little drier.

“Sookie, the shells are in the pantry behind-”

But Eric was already in motion, blurring to the pantry and back before Gran could finish speaking.  Gran stared up at him with a wobbly jaw as he gallantly offered her the box.

“Show off,” I muttered, and he flashed me a wicked grin.

“How on earth?” Gran stuttered as she took them out of his glowing palm.

“I smelled them,” he cheerfully bragged.

“Well,” she managed.  “That sure is something.”

“And now, ladies, I am afraid I must go,” he said, turning to me with rueful eyes.  “Dawn will be here soon enough, and I have business to attend to.”

“Of course you have,” I said as he lifted me gently to my feet.  “You’re Sheriff Northman, after all.”

I was appalled by the pang I felt.  Eric was the vamp in charge, and he’d already been spending a lot of time with me these past few nights.

“I am indeed,” he agreed with serious eyes.

He seemed to sense I was feeling a bit off about the whole thing, because he did the fingertip brush over my cheekbone again.  This was well on its way to becoming a secret gesture with us.  Did vampires even have secret gestures?  I mean, it sure would make sense.  ‘Sorry honey, can’t smooch you in front of the other badies, but rest assured I still hold you in great esteem.’

While I was puzzling this silliness out, Eric was hugging a bliss faced Gran.

“You come see me on the regular now,” she commanded, and Sheriff Northman gave her an obedient nod.

“Sunday dinner,” she tacked on.  “Hadley’s bringing her Pam, and Sookie will be here, so you ought to as well.”

“I will arrange things with Long Shadow,” he easily complied, and she huffed in happy response.

He took my hand and I followed him out onto the porch, stupidly happy for the rear view.  He stopped us by the old hanging swing and turned around to stare down at me.

“I have need of your special talents tomorrow night,” Sheriff Northman ordered.  The porch light lit up his head like a golden hair halo.

“Sure thing,” I said energetically.  I was more than ready to test myself out on this account.  “You mind me asking what for?”

“Sixty thousand dollars has gone missing from Fangtasia’s books, and while the sum is paltry, the insult is not.  I will tell you more when you come to the club.”

He paused, searching the nighttime woods for things my human eyes could never see.

“As for the other matter, Pam will be outside all night, keeping watch.  She will wait to come in herself until Hadley makes introductions,” he added, anticipating my question.  “And Herveaux will come at first light to take over.”

“Speaking of, what is he?  A Supe of some kind?”

“Caught that, did you?” Eric drawled, and I smirked right on back.  “Herveaux is a two-natured.  A Were.”

“A Were?”

“A werewolf,” he elaborated, and my eyes went wide.

“Welcome to my world, Miss Stackhouse,” he murmured bemusedly, sliding his arms around my waist and pulling me to his chest.  “It is guaranteed unpredictable.”

“As long as I’m yours in it,” I whispered up towards his mouth.

His blue eyes darkened to midnight waters, and he raised me the rest of the way up into the softest of kisses.  This was a serener passion now, a gentler yearning, a more patient lust, but no less astounding for it.  My heart ached and swelled even as my hands kneaded at his waist.

“Tomorrow night, I can stay with you?” I breathed after.  I felt shy even asking after he’d stocked his house for my company, not even considering the extreme nature of our earlier passions, but there it was.

“You are so very certain, Miss Stackhouse?” he asked softly.  His blue eyes were drowning pools, and wasn’t it funny how I seemed to keep floating off them?

“I’ve never been so certain in my entire life,” I whispered back with absolute finality.  I’d made my decision tonight, even before the parking lot encounter.  I was fully prepared to be Eric’s Sookie through and through, crown to toes, lust to…  that word I wasn’t thinking yet.

“Take the day to think it over, at least,” he said in sensible consent.

I started to say something, but he kissed the argument off my lips.

“I have the time to give,” he murmured when I was senseless.

“’Kay,” I murmured back.  I had asked for time, after all, and even when I was asking for something else he seemed intent on still giving.

Oh my, Eric Northman.  If you weren’t already mine I would sure enough be on the chase to make it so.

“Until tomorrow, then, my Sookie,” he whispered against my forehead, and then he was gone.

I stared after him a second or two before turning my befuddled self towards the house.  I had a thought at the door, and turned back to wave and smile crazily out into the darkness.  Maybe I couldn’t see Pam, but I was sure she could see me.

After I washed my face and changed into my nightgown, I sat down on my bed with my work envelope, folding back the yellow lid and tugging the papers out.  Most of the forms were standard enough, W2s and the like.  My eyes widened a little on reading the health insurance packet.  It seemed vamps were extra serious about keeping their special talents healthy.  No co-pays, including vision and dental, and no limit or caps on hospital stays.  Immediate family was covered for a negligible fee, and I mentally made a note to ask Jason if he’d like me to sign him up.

I found my actual contract at the bottom of the generous stack, and started flipping carefully through.  I’m no expert on legalese, but it didn’t seem like I was signing away my first born child or anything like that.  I found my salary on page two, $120,000 just as Bobby had thought, and gave a little sigh.  I frowned a bit at a portion stating I had to get approval from Eric before offering my services elsewhere, but on a second glance I realized this only applied if I was getting paid.  I snorted at that.  Like I was going to ever need more than a $120,000 a year.  The rest of it was mostly an explanation of my responsibilities to Area 5, including an ominously worded death clause, but I shrugged that off easily enough.

When I finally reached the signature page, I saw a blood red sticky note with Fangtasia’s logo slanted across the right corner.  There was no mistaking the loopy handwriting.

Ms. Stackhouse,

As I anticipate some debate on the financial aspects of this contract, let me assure you this is the standard salary I offer independent contractors.  As you have been shunned for your talent your entire life, I suggest you count the coming benefits among your just deserts.

I will see you tomorrow night to offer you additional tastes.

Eric Northman

I stared down at the note with a heart full of hope.  One night knowing me, one single night, and he’d written this.  Most men would have just assumed I’d see the numbers and start going off on mental shopping sprees, counting off new pairs of shoes or planning wardrobes or some other such nonsense.  What man would take such care, or even realize it’d be necessary?

Eric Northman may not be a man, but he sure enough knew me better than any man ever had.

I shoved up off my bed and went over to my bureau for a pen.  I scribbled my signature on all the papers with absolute confidence, then tucked them neatly back into the packet and set it on my nightstand.  I plugged my phone in, then curled up under my sheet with a purring Tina and stared at the yellow packet as I drifted off to sleep.

Saturday

I spent an hour or two sunbathing the next morning, as I was determined not to neglect my tan on account of my nighttime life.  Jason came over for lunch as promised, and Gran clucked and cooed over him so much he was nigh on sheepish devouring his meatloaf sandwich.  We didn’t say anything to him about the bodyguards and the like, as we’d decided he didn’t need any more worries on top of being falsely accused.

I waited ‘til he was down the road a piece before I plated up a couple of meatloaf sandwiches with a side of crunchy dill pickles and a handful of kettle style chips.  I grabbed a Coke and a Sundrop out of the fridge and pushed out into the yard, heading for the buzzing, red flashes of mind I kept hearing.

I found him hiding out behind a big old elm tree, long, long legs stretched out from a green collapsible camping chair.  The rest of him was just as huge, with shoulders big enough to pull a plow off of and hands the size of dinner plates.  His pitch black hair was in chaos around his striking face, brilliant green eyes studying me with lazy curiosity.

“Hi, Mr. Herveaux?” I enquired with a sunny smile, wondering idly why it was every Supe I’d come across so far was handsome as all get out.

“That’s me,” he said gruffly, voice sounding like churned up gravel.

Northman must be havin’ a case of sweet tooth.

“I’m Sookie,” I said, notching my smile higher.  “Sookie Stackhouse.”

“I know.  Northman showed me a picture.”  My eyes narrowed at that, and Alcide was quick to take note.

“On his BlackBerry,” he added cheerfully.

“Those sure are convenient little invasion boxes,” I drawled.

Did Eric snapping a picture of me really bother me?  Not at all, but the idea that someone could have a snapped a picture without me realizing sure enough did.  Course Eric did have the vampire super speed going for him, and considering the serial-killer-at-large he probably just considered my human sensitivities besides the point.  I mentally sighed over my Mr. Highhandedly devoted.

“Aren’t you his?” Alcide asked on seeing my irritation.  His brain was a bit muddled on account of it, but as his focus was directly on me the reception was coming in loud and clear.  He was thinking that I sure seemed sweet for being a vamp’s, and that if I wasn’t Eric’s he might just try calling on me.  He was thinking Eric was likely to kill him for the trying, and that it might just be worth it anyhow.

Twenty five years living as a bottom rung female and suddenly I was like lady sweets for Supes.

“We’re each others,” I insisted over my flattery.

Alcide seemed to find that some kind of hilarious.

“So that’s the way of it then, is it?” he teased, green eyes twinkling with mirth.  “The mighty Eric Northman roped up by a slip of a girl.”

“It’s ground holdin’, not ropin’,” I shot back.  “Eric is a thousand years willful.  If I don’t declare myself now, I’ll never hope to.”

“I ‘spose you have the truth of it there,” he admitted, eyeballing the food in my hands now with more than a little appreciation.

“Oh!” I said, sheepishly offering him the plate and the sweaty cans.  “I figured you might want something to eat being out here since dawn an’ all that.”

“Yeah, thanks for that, cher.  I’ve got a cooler in the truck, but it’s nothing even close to this.”  He inhaled and exhaled over the plate deeply, following it up with a happy grin.

“Smells great.”  His grateful eyes flicked discretely over my body.

Looks better.

“Well alright then,” I said shyly, tucking a spare strand of hair behind my ear.  “You come on up to the house if you need anything else.  My Gran’s in, too, and she’ll be here after I head in to work round 3:30.”

“Oh, I’ll be following you into work.  I’ve got a friend coming out to watch the house.”

“Another Were?”

“Yeah.”  Alcide didn’t seem real surprised at me knowing about his two-natured status.  I guess now I that I’d been admitted into the Supe club, I was in it up to the hips.

“If you don’t mind me askin,’ what are you?” he asked speculatively.  “Eric mentioned a special talent, but he didn’t specify as to what.”

My mouth slid automatically into a kooky smile at that, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“Well, I’ve got a special kind of hearing.”

Alcide looked doubtful, so I lifted two fingers to my temple and tapped them lightly.

“I’m a telepath.”

No shit? He thought, sitting up abruptly.  He almost lost the plate, but on a blur of motion caught it at the last second.  The two-natured were faster than humans as well, it seemed.  I’d have to keep that in mind.

“No shit,” I said out loud.  The words sounded more than a little strange coming out in my voice.

Alcide’s handsome jaw tightened at that, and he searched my face with hard eyes.

“So you can hear everything I’m thinkin’?”

“No, no,” I assured him.  “The two-natured are harder for me.  I can only hear you when you’re thinking real loud, or real passionately.  When you’re… projecting, I guess I’ll call it.”

He relaxed a bit at that.

“Well that’s good to know.  No offense, Miss Stackhouse,” he added kindly.

“It’s Sookie,” I corrected with a smile.  “Just plain Sookie.”

Not a plain thing about you.

His handsome face went smoky with appreciation on the thought.  I’ve had years of practice not reacting to men’s ignorant thoughts, and crass ones too, but truly complimentary ones?  I didn’t react exactly, but I was feeling more than a bit awkward.  Alcide looked disappointed on realizing that, but my own plate was happily full up on vampire hunk.

“Nice meeting you then, Mr. Herveaux.”

“Alcide,” he insisted, and I bobbed my head.

“Alcide, then, you come on in the bar tonight.  Beer’s on me,” I offered, making sure my tone was perfectly casual.

“Sure,” he said, brightening considerably.  He flashed me a brilliant smile, and I wondered on walking back to the house that I had felt nothing off the sight.

It seemed Eric was spoiling me in more ways than one.

Two hours later, I was at work unwrapping my apron when a little green bag fell out onto the floor.  I stared down at it in confusion for a second or two, long enough for Andy Bellefluer to come up behind me and clear his throat long and loud.  By then I was sure enough of what it was to flash to irritated.

“Oh, for God’s sake, Andy!  It’s catnip, not pot!”

I snatched the bundle up off the floor and shoved it under his nose.

“Go on then.  Whiff deep.”  He took a big sniff, then rocked back on his heels and hooked his thumbs in his belt.

“Smells innocent enough.  Still, I’m gonna need to take it on down to the station for testing.”

“You just try it,” I said, cradling the thing protectively to my chest.  The earth would spin out of orbit before I budged on this.

Sam came up behind me and set his hands on my shoulders.

“There a problem here?”

“Ms. Stackhouse is in possession of a suspicious substance-“

“He’s trying to take my catnip,” I rudely interrupted.

“Cher, why don’t you just let him take it for testing?” Sam asked in the most reasonable of voices.  I twisted around under his hands and glared my frustration up into his face.

“’Cause Eric gave it to me, and I’m not letting a single one of them touch what’s between us.”

She is good and off her rocker.

I spun back around at that and hissed my deliberate mistake right into Asshole Andy’s mocking face.

“If I am it’s ‘cause you all shoved me off!”

Andy’s eyes widened, and Sam’s fingers tightened warningly on my shoulders.

“It’s true then,” he breathed, gaze flicking between Sam and me.

Careful here, cher, Sam thought at me, and I took a deep breath to calm my temper down.  I reached a hand up to squeeze his fingers as I spoke to Andy in a more controlled tone.

“True is that women in this town are dying, women that need you to speak for them rather than chasin’ after ones that still have voices.”  Andy’s eyes tightened, but I pushed on.

“You’re a decent enough cop, Andy,” I said with quiet conviction.  “Work on the man if you want to get better.”

He stared at me for a long speculative minute, thoughts spinning round and round inside his head.  He was thinking how frustrated he was not having even a clue as to the killer, and how nobody in Bon Temps ever respected him, even the resident crazy.  He was thinking even if I wasn’t crazy and just psychic or the like, I’d gotten mighty uppity on account of my vampire boyfriend.

He was thinking I might also be right.

“You need to watch yourself, Stackhouse,” he scowled finally, before spinning on his heel and stalking off.

“Damn, cher,” Sam said from behind me.  “I’d ask what’s gotten in to you, but it seems obvious enough.”

“There’s lives at stake here, Sam, including my brother’s,” I said, watching Andy slam out the front door.  “I’m not gonna play nice while Andy takes out his frustrations on me.”

“On account of catnip, cher?”

Blood slammed my cheeks and rushed below my belt.  I could actually hear Sam’s nostrils flaring behind me, but I was so not going there.

“It’s kind of an inside joke,” I said weakly as I ducked my crimson face and shoved my hand through my apron, searching for my note.  When I found it I pulled it out and unfolded it eagerly.  The words were few, but the meaning was great.

To ensure easier listening.

My body flooded with a different kind of warmth now, and I lifted my fingers to giddily trace over Eric’s strong cursive.  I was on the brink of something here, something powerful and beautiful and so terrifyingly intense I thought I might actually go crazy even considering it.

I spun around on impulse, asking my question as Sam’s hands were sliding limply off my shoulders.

“Sam, can I cut out early tonight, after the rush?  The last few nights have been…  Well, difficult doesn’t quite cut it.  Plus there’s some business at Fangtasia that needs seeing to.”

“Sure thing, cher,” he easily agreed.  Sam had done a little soul searching last night, it seemed.  “And I’ve already got an ad in the penny saver for another waitress, so if you can just hang in there with me for a little while…”

“Oh, Sam, don’t even worry about that right now!  Even if it weren’t for what happened to Dawn, I told Eric before he hired me my Merlotte’s schedule came first.”

“You did?” he asked after a moment’s hesitation.

“Of course I did,” I scolded.  “This is my job, no matter the crazy brains, and no matter what Supe secrets you kept from me for near on four years now.”

I gave him a very pointed look, and the tips of his ears flushed scarlet.

“He explained it to you then?” he asked nervously, dragging both hands through his hair until it was standing up on its gold red ends.  “The whole two-natured thing?”

“He did.  He also told me you were probably trying to protect me more’n yourself.”

Sam wore shock down to his shoes on hearing this.

“He said that?”

“Yup,” I cheerfully confirmed, turning on the faucet to scrub my hands before starting on my prep.

“He cares for you.”  Sam’s voice was sadly resigned.

“I know he does,” I said confidently as I got a tub of lemons out of the mini fridge.

“I just hope it’s enough,” Sam said fervently, “because you deserve love like no one else, cher.”

My eyes dropped to the cutting board I was setting up.  Was it enough?  Absolutely.  Was it love?  Was Eric even capable of love after a thousand years?  Maybe, maybe not, but I’d seen people swear undying love and act with less consideration than Eric had shown me this past week.  Besides the fact, it was my almost epiphany that needed sorting out now, not that that even really mattered.  I had all the knowledge I needed at present.

Eric Northman was mine, and I was his, and by night’s end I was going to prove it to us both.

——————————————————————————————

I spent a long, long while on this, especially the juicy bits trying to capture Eric and Sookie’s particular brand of intimacy.  In the first book, Bill made it clear he was concerned with Bon Temps opinion (on True Blood, too), and I think this is one of the reasons Sookie had such a problem thinking better of herself.  Eric is defiant of such moronic opinions.  He’s The Vamp, he knows it, and as Sookie is his, she’s The Woman.  Duh.  I’m hoping to show her as a more confident person on account of Eric treating her with such oblivious-to-the-commoners affection, though he will (of course!) maintain his high handed ways.

As for Alcide, he will be in the background of these stories.  I in no way plan on that being an issue for Sookie and Eric, but I will not neglect the nature of his character in the SVM universe.  He is present because Bill made the mistake of leaving Sookie unprotected during the day, which is why she almost died.  Sookie will, indeed, witness violence in this story.  That is the nature of her new reality, but as in the books, Eric will handle it like the superior assed- err, that is to say, the superior bad ass that he is.

Next up, a trip to Fangtasia, an L word realization, and a vampire foe down…