The farmhouse was a little spooky even when it wasn’t decorated for Halloween. Sookie had put that fake spiderweb stuff up on the bushes. Pumpkins had been carved with a variety of menacing faces and set out on the porch. Trick or treaters weren’t too coming out her way although there were inevitably kids who played tag in the cemetery. Sookie found that to be incredibly disrespectful. It wasn’t appropriate to go running around on top of someone’s final resting place.

Every year, without fail, Sheriff Bud Dearborn ended up running multiple teens out of the cemetery with a warning that they’d be charged with disturbing the peace if he caught them there again. The megahorn he used to make that announcement was louder than any of the kids were. Malcolm O’Donnell actually had the balls to sass the sheriff back for that very reason, which was how he ended up spending the weekend in jail. It wasn’t the first time Malcolm had been arrested. Given his troubled family life the jail was probably preferable. At least he got three meals a day and a moderately warm bed to sleep in.

Ghosts made of cheese cloth hung from the trees. Twinkling lights with black and orange bulbs were strung up on the porch and wound around the railings. A decal of a creepy haunted house was fixed to the big picture window in the living room. Inside the house candles were lit and the air smelled of apples. A pair of frozen pizzas were waiting to be baked. Sookie was dressed in all black, minus her shiny blonde hair. She had pulled it up in a messy bun that took nearly a half hour to get just right.

The black leggings she had on hugged her hips and backside. A black tank top displayed a decent amount of cleavage without going into the trashy category. Eric wouldn’t have said anything disparaging had Sookie opted to put more on display, but since their relationship was at a crossroads of sorts, she was a little uncertain about the direction it was going to go. For the last six years they had been friends. There had been flirting here and there, but it was only over the last six months that it didn’t seem as harmless and weightless as it did when they were shy fifteen-year-olds who weren’t quite old enough to date.

This wasn’t the first time Eric would be coming to her house or even the first Halloween they would be seeing each other. Last year they had gone to a keg party in the woods out by Alcide Herveaux’s house. Eric claimed to have had too much moonshine to remember that he had kissed her, but Sookie remembered. In fact, that moment had played over and over so many times that she had started to wonder if maybe she had just imagined it in her own moonshine haze, but no. She could recall too many details for it to have been imagined.

The kiss was real.

And it was good.

In fact it might have been the thing that emboldened her to flirt back when Eric made comments about how pretty she looked or how great her ass looked in those ridiculously expensive Paige Denim jeans she’d bought herself for Christmas while she was in Manhattan with Jessica and Tara for New Year’s Eve. It was an item checked off her bucket list. She hadn’t told Eric, but deep in her heart she had wished he would have been there too. Getting a midnight kiss from her two best friends just wasn’t the same.

It was hard to mistake the sound of Eric’s Corvette coming up her long gravel driveway for anything else. Sookie didn’t know much about cars. They weren’t her forte, although she had spent plenty of time watching the muscles in Eric’s arms twitch as he had tightened this or lifted that. Yeah, it was safe to say Sookie had it bad.

She checked her makeup one more time in the mirror over her dresser. Candles were even lit in her bedroom, just in case they ended up there. Gran was in Gettysburg for the holiday, hoping to hear from ghosts or see apparitions of Confederate soldiers on the old battlefield. She wouldn’t be back for four days.

There was a knock on the wooden framed screen door. Two black combat boots came into sight, followed by military fatigues and tan arms.

Lord have mercy, he came in costume…

Eric was standing there in an Army getup he must have borrowed from his brother, who was stationed at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. Good gravy did it look good on him. Sookie’s heart did backflips as she made her way to the door.

“Hi. I feel underdressed,” she said as she opened the door. It wasn’t until then that she noticed Eric was holding a small but perfect bouquet of red, orange and gold gerbera daisies. Her favorite.

“You look great. If anyone asks we’ll tell them you’re my shadow,” he said.

Good looking and a fast thinker.

He presented Sookie with the flowers.

“Thank you. They’re beautiful,” she said as she took them. They seemed more vibrant than usual with all the black. “Come in.”

“I would have brought pumpkin beer but I thought you might kill me, so I decided on flowers instead.”

“I appreciate it. Someone at the bar asked if we had pumpkin spice hot wings,” Sookie told a very disbelieving Eric. “Sam literally kicked the girl out and told her she wasn’t welcome. Ever.”

Eric let out one of his loud belly laughs that both filled Sookie with a warm glee and twisted up her insides. If that didn’t say how bad she had it, what would?

“Sam’s getting feisty in his old age.”

Sam wasn’t that old. He was approaching forty but that was it. Generally, he was a very nice man. He was gracious and welcoming to everyone, including the occasional meanderer who strayed too far from the highway. He wasn’t suspicious of strangers like most of the locals were. Then again, Bon Temps wasn’t exactly a town folks flocked to. The last time anyone was remotely interested it was because of the big house fire over on DuPont Court that had killed the aforementioned Malcolm O’Donnell, along with Liam Gilliam and Diane Lake. Fire inspector couldn’t determine the cause, which was strange.

There were rumors it was Royce Cunningham because Malcolm had stolen his girlfriend, Diane. Some thought it was invading meth makers from Hot Shot who didn’t know the other three were in the house when they started cooking. Anyone who knew anything wasn’t saying a peep about it. All the police had was three burned up corpses and whole lot of speculation.

“I wish,” she said with a hint of a smirk. “He had a fight with Nicole that day so he was in a mood.”

Sam’s wife was generally a nice person. Sookie liked that she was the more outwardly aggressive of the two of them. Sam wasn’t exactly a pushover but he was more likely to inconvenience himself for someone who didn’t really deserve his kindness or generosity. Nicole had no problem stepping in and saying no. Unfortunately, that caused tension between Sam and employees who had been working for him for way longer than Nicole had been in the picture. Granted, it was just the people who wanted to take advantage of him who took issue with Nicole’s approach to things.

“Ah ha. I don’t miss that part of having a girlfriend,” Eric said. “A fight with your girl can ruin your whole day.”

“Yeah, but making up can be a whole lot of fun,” Sookie said while she trimmed the stems of the daisies with the garden shears Gran kept in a drawer by the sink.

Gran grew roses, hydrangeas, begonias, and tulips that bloomed in both the spring and fall. In fact, there were some of the fall tulips – Queen of the Night to be exact – sitting in an antique vase on the dining room table that were dark as the night sky. Gran enjoyed her spooks and ghosts too, just not in the form of gory slasher films.

“So what’s on the agenda for tonight?” Eric asked while Sookie arranged her cheerful daisies in a milk glass vase.

“All the horror movies you can handle, plus frozen pizza and way more fun size candy than any two people should be comfortable sharing a house with,” she answered. Sookie turned off the sink and nearly spilled water all over Eric when she turned around. She hadn’t realized he had gotten so close to her. “Oops.” She smiled up at him.

Their blue eyes met. Hers were just a little bit darker than his. However, their hair was the same shade of blonde. Eric’s was radically shorter lately than it had been for most of their friendship. He was finally looking more like a man, which was something Sookie could really get behind.

And not just because he had a behind worth looking at.

Although that was part of it.

“No harm done.” His teeth seemed to almost glow in the darkness. “What about the Compton House across the cemetery? Didn’t you tell me once that it was haunted?”

Eric wasn’t originally from Bon Temps. He wasn’t familiar with all of the town’s old ghost stories.

“That’s the rumor. Gran said she went over there once while old Jesse Compton was still alive to bring him a quart of gumbo and she heard something moving around upstairs even though he’d been living alone the last twenty years,” Sookie said. She carried the milk glass vase to the living room and put it on the console table under the picture window. When she went up to bed she planned to take her flowers with her.

“We could go investigate,” Eric suggested. “Not that I wouldn’t enjoy having you clinging to me out of terror, but a walk might be nice first.”

“We can go. Hopefully Bud isn’t already stalking the cemetery to ward off assholes who think it’s okay to play Hide ‘n Seek in mausoleums.”  

“People actually do that?”

“You forgot high school already. Lucky you.” Sookie laughed quietly and knelt down to retrieve a couple of flashlights Gran kept in the cabinet just in case of a power outage.

Storms could get pretty fierce up in their neck of the woods. Flash floods weren’t uncommon. On August 17, 1991 Corbett and Michelle Stackhouse were swept off a bridge during a flash flood. Both of them drowned. Sookie was just nine-years-old at the time. The event irrevocably changed her life. If it wasn’t for Gran, there was no telling where Sookie might be. For sure she would have been raised in the foster care system and separated from her big brother.

“How about a movie and then we can take a walk before the next one?” Sookie countered.

“Deal,” Eric agreed.

“So where should we start? I have modern slasher flicks, old school scary, really old silent movies, psychological thrillers, horror comedies…”

“Not to be predictable, but is it Halloween if you don’t watch Halloween?”

“I don’t think so,” Sookie smiled. “I just happen to have a box set.”

“My kind of girl.” Eric took a seat on the old couch in the living room. All of the furniture in the house was old. Much of it had been built by long dead family members.

Sookie retrieved her copy of Halloween from its case. It took a few minutes to get the television and DVD player all turned on and set to the appropriate channels and settings. She slipped the disc into the tray, all too aware of Eric’s eyes on her ass while she was bent over to close the DVD tray. As soon as she looked back at him his eyes quickly shifted.

She smiled to herself, relieved to know that her interest wasn’t completely one-sided. How awkward would that be? Of course she couldn’t see herself falling into a strictly physical relationship with him either. Their friendship was too deeply rooted to try pretending like he was just some dude she liked getting pelvic with. The possibility that Eric was only interested in a test drive out of curiosity had crossed her mind and it was something she decided she couldn’t do. As much as she was attracted to him, the aftermath would most likely destroy their friendship. Having him as a friend was infinitely more important than having him as a bed partner.

Sookie started the movie. The big glowing jack o’ lantern appeared on the TV. The set was at least ten years old. Gran only had a DVD player because Sookie had bought her one for Christmas last year. Actually, it was a DVD/VHS combo so Gran could still watch her tapes. It didn’t make sense to Gran to run out and buy new copies of old favorites simply because they were available in a new format. Then again, Gran hated for anything to go to waste which was why broken old furniture was up in the attic instead of being further broken down to be used as kindling.

Eric patted the cushion beside himself for Sookie to take a seat. She wrapped her black sweater around her a little tighter before she sat. His body heat immediately warmed her right side. It wasn’t long before his muscular left arm draped itself over her shoulder. Sookie didn’t read too much into it. They had snuggled before. No big deal.

But she wanted it to be. Boy did she want it to be.

🎃♥🎃♥🎃

Sookie smelled good, but then she always did. Even after a double shift at Merlotte’s she still managed to smell good. Not too girly like some women did. Not like she had emptied out the entire inventory of a Bath & Body Works. Her hair always smelled like a tropical island breeze. It blended nicely with her perpetual golden tan. He could only think to compare her silky smooth skin to the color of a perfectly baked buttermilk biscuit.

Yes, he wanted to sink his teeth into her.

From the start he had been attracted to Sookie. There was nothing outrageously beautiful about her in terms of what society and the media would have one believe, but there was something about her that turned him on. It was more than just her curves or the sparkle in her sapphire eyes or snort that escaped when she really let loose on her laughter; it was the whole package. Naturally she had her quirks, neurosis, flaws, and habits that could get under his skin. No one was perfect.

But Sookie was pretty damn close.

Even when she infuriated him he didn’t get sick of her. The things she said about making up being fun? It made him want to fight with her just to find out. Oh sure they had debated and argued as friends. That was unavoidable as well. It was different, however, when arguing with a potential mate. Some fights were childish and easily moved beyond with mutual apologies while others had the potential to change the course of a relationship. There was a lot to be learned about someone from the way they argued.

Eric had a tendency to get smug, particularly when he was sure he was right. When he was wounded he tended to withdraw to lick his wounds in private. He needed time for a cooler head to prevail. Sookie, he knew, could sometimes be the crowned Queen of Denial. Rather than dealing with things on the fly, she tucked them away for later consideration. As a single woman that probably wasn’t the healthiest of coping mechanisms, but it was just her own feelings she had to worry about and be considerate of. In a relationship there was no way to sweep shit under the rug and expect it to stay there.

Hash it out. Figure out how to move forward. Learn from your mistakes.

Failure to learn was failure to grow. It doomed one to repeat one’s mistakes over and over again.

All through the movie Eric debated with himself over whether or not to make a move. Usually there would be no debate. Eric was almost cocky at his confidence level, but Sookie wasn’t just some barfly who’d been making eyes at him all night from across the room. She wasn’t a girl he’d screw once and adios, muchacha. It drove him batshit crazy that he couldn’t remember kissing her the year before at Herveaux’s party. He tried to pretend it didn’t happen just so it wouldn’t affect him, but somehow even without the memory of it, he knew it had been magic.

Things had shifted after that night.

Maybe they had always been shifting. Real slow and subtle like the tectonic plates, slowly rubbing over one another until the friction could no longer be ignored. For six plus years the tension had been steadily rising. The slightest agitation was likely to cause an eruption.

There were things to say, no denying that, but there were other things Eric had been dying to do with his lips where Sookie was concerned. Six years of talking. No more talking.

It was time to act.

Just as he was finally getting around to planting a kiss on her, a fucking diesel truck lumbered up the long ass driveway . Without even looking outside I knew it was her brother. Jason’s truck had those obnoxious lights on the top of it that could blind Helen Keller all over again. Jason wasn’t a bad guy but he was annoying. He wasn’t very good at reading social cues but it was mostly because he was too wrapped up in himself to be paying attention to other people.

Unless it was a girl who might be interested in playing with his pecker.

The lights on the truck went out just after the engine did. Seconds later a door slammed. Sookie paused the movie while Jason’s feet crunched on the gravel. Heavy footsteps sounds as he ascended the front steps onto the porch. Jason pulled the screen door open and let it bounce shut behind him. He finally appeared in the living room, lit only by the flickering of apple scented candles and the dim glow from the TV. Lori was just going across the street to check on Linda. The movie was almost over.

“Northman, what are you doing here? Aren’t you hitting up the party at Herveaux’s?”

“Not this year,” Eric replied.

“What are you doing here?” Sookie asked her brother.

“Just lookin’ in on ya like Gran asked me to,” he said, but Sookie knew better than that. “And I was wonderin’ if there are any old blankets Gran wouldn’t miss if I took ’em?”

“I think there’s an old wool one out on the washing porch,” Sookie answered.

“That’ll work.” Jason started to walk away but quickly looped around. “Y’all aren’t on a date, are ya?”

“No,” they answered simultaneously.

If Jason wasn’t so dense he probably would have questioned it further, but as it was he had plans. He shrugged and left out the back door. Regardless, the hit and run had sufficiently ruined the moment.

“Sorry about that,” Sookie apologized.

“He’s good at sticking his nose in at the wrong time, isn’t he?”

“You could say that.”

Out front one of the truck doors opened and slammed. The diesel engine rumbled to life. Seconds later the sound of gravel spraying accompanied obnoxious amounts of light flooding the long driveway, lighting up the trees as Jason drove away.

“Well at least he’s gone for the night,” Sookie said. “Should we finish the movie or go for that walk? I can start the oven so when we get back we can put in a pizza.”

“Yeah, that sounds good.” Well if he needed proof he liked her he had it. Food was the furthest thing from his mind. Eric loved eating. Sookie knew that.

She smiled and got up off the couch. She took a detour to the front door to close and lock it. It was hard not to stare at her ass. Too bad it was covered by that long black sweater she was wearing. Her curves were ones he wanted to get familiar with. The sooner the better.

Eric also got up off the couch. He followed Sookie back to the kitchen. She started the old oven and grabbed a warmer jacket off a hook by the back door.

“Ready?”

Eric nodded. He followed Sookie out of the house. She didn’t lock the back door like she had the front. Honestly, there wasn’t much of value worth taking in the old house. Bon Temps wasn’t really the kind of town where people had to worry about that. It was Hot Shot that was the bigger problem. Those people were barely people. With all the meth use and inbreeding it was remarkable any of them walked upright.

Brother-cousins and auntie-mamas the whole lot of them.

Instead of Hot Shot they should have named the town Six Toe.

“Are you cold? I’m sure I can find a sweater for you if you are,” Sookie offered as they walked away from the house to the path into the cemetery.

“No, I’m good. You know I like colder weather,” Eric reminded her.

“Yes I do. I think you’re nuts to want to move up to Minnesota or Wisconsin.” She was a warm blood through and through, a southern girl with no use for snow shoes, parkas, or winter sports. The closest Sookie wanted to get to going skiing was watching the Winter Olympics.

“Says the girl who loves swamp weather,” Eric teased.

“It’s what I know. Besides, it affords me the ability to tan even in the middle of winter,” she pointed out.

Yes, that was certainly a perk.

Sookie guided Eric into the woods that divided the Stackhouse property from the cemetery. He reached for her hand, which she willingly let him take. Her hand was so much smaller than his, yet it felt so right there. It was almost like it belonged enveloped in his.

The grass beyond the dirt path was yellowing. Crickets and other insects serenaded them on their walk. The moon was bright overhead. In the distance Eric could have sworn he heard a wolf howling, but that had to be his ears playing a trick on him. At about the halfway point in the cemetery, Eric decided enough was enough. If he didn’t just spit out how he felt it was never going to happen.

So he stopped walking and waited for Sookie to turn back to face him. When she did, she looked up at him curiously.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing. I uh… I just needed to say…” Eric hadn’t rehearsed anything. He knew what he wanted to say but the words were failing him.

Lips, don’t fail me now…

Rather than awkwardly standing there, trying to summon the fleeing words, Eric leaned in and kissed Sookie. Any surprise she might have felt quickly gave way to something else. Her arms came up to wrap around his neck. His arms encircled her ribs and he lifted her off the ground like she was weightless. In that moment, she absolutely was.

The kiss did jog his memory, sadly, but he had a shiny new one he was going to be repeating over and over. Her lips were soft and sweet, and tasted like strawberries. The delicate moans coming from her while they explored each other’s mouths was enough to get his cock twitching away in his fatigues. If he shot a load in Lex’s pants he would never hear the end of it, but it was a distinct possibility if Sookie kept making those noises.

Every time she moaned he couldn’t help imagining her with a lot less clothing, trapped underneath him, bouncing on top of him, on her hands and knees in front of him… yeah…

Finally he had to put her down before he embarrassed himself by blowing his was like a fourteen-year-old who just touched his first tit.

“Now do you believe me?” Sookie whispered instead of asking why he kissed her or where it had come from.

She was referencing the kiss h couldn’t remember no matter how hard he tried. It wasn’t so impossible they had crazy good chemistry. Eric had played it off because he couldn’t remember. At the time he hadn’t been thinking about Sookie in terms of anything other than a friend. Seeing the disappointment on her face when he didn’t remember that kiss had woken something in him he didn’t know was sleeping. Right in that moment he knew he never again wanted to be responsible for that look on her face.

It snowballed from that one moment. It seemed like every time they were together after that he noticed little things he had never paid attention to. The different ways she smiled and the little inflections in her voice when her moods shifted. A guy didn’t pay attention to things like that with everyone. At least Eric didn’t. He found himself wanting to know the little things. Attracted to her as he wasn’t, it wasn’t enough to get her in bed. If that was all he wanted he could have done that a year ago.

“I’d be an idiot not to.” Eric wanted to kiss her again and again to make up for lost time, but Sookie grabbed his hand and pulled him along.

There was no sign of the sheriff being staked out in the cemetery or surrounding woods. When we got through the woods Eric took note of a house that looked like it was uninhabitable and had been for quite some time. From what Sookie had told him the house had been vacant for almost ten years. The old guy who lived there had died but hadn’t left a will.

“I’m surprised the state didn’t take the house and sell it,” Eric commented.

“Apparently there’s been some legal battling going on between the state and some extended relatives of Jesse’s who have an interest in keeping the house,” Sookie explained. “While they argue it in court, the house stays abandoned in deplorable conditions. I’m sure it’s been a great raccoon hostel, though.”

Eric laughed and followed her to the house. He wasn’t as creative as the petite woman next to him, but it wasn’t too hard to see that the house could be magnificent if someone with the funds came along and fixed it up.

“You think it’ll end up being torn down?” he asked.

“I hope not. I’d like to see it turned over to the Descendants of the Glorious Dead to be remodeled into their meeting place. This house is almost 200 years old. I would hate to see a wrecking ball go through it. The man who owned it in its heyday was a Confederate soldier. There are a lot of rumors that the ghosts haunting it are his wife and children, waiting for him to come home,” Sookie explained.

“That’s quite a wait. You think it’s true?”

“I don’t know. The romantic in me would like to believe it. One time Gran came by to bring Jesse some biscuits and leftover fried chicken. She said she heard a child laughing. If Jesse heard it too he paid it no mind,” Sookie told him.

“Is your house haunted?”

“No,” Sookie laughed. “No, no ghosts at the old Stackhouse homestead. I used to wish it was after my parents died. I’d have these vivid dreams of my parents that felt so real. I could smell my mom’s Elizabeth Arden perfume and feel the roughness of my dad’s hand when we’d walk together. Sometimes in my dreams they would just pass by wherever I was and smile and wave like everything was okay. The dreams were more comforting to me than having ghosts in the house. I don’t have as many dreams of them as I used to, but every now and then they show up. It’s always nice. I wake up with a smile instead of a heavy heart.”

“That’s good,” he said, suddenly aware his hand had moved up her body to rub her neck while she shared those pieces of herself with him. Of course Eric knew Sookie’s parents had passed away. He knew when and how, and had even found her weeping at her mother’s headstone shortly after Sookie’s sixteenth birthday when JB had broken her heart.

“I’ve never had nightmares about how they died. That’s not to say I haven’t imagined awful scenarios, but it’s always when I’m awake and conscious of it,” she said.

“Well dreams are acts of the subconscious, aren’t they? Isn’t supposed to be your brain’s way of purging things? Maybe you never have nightmares like that because you’re not afraid to confront the bad stuff,” Eric suggested.

Sookie smiled at him and rather than saying something that would probably come out goofy, she wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him. Eric returned the favor by folding his big arms around her shoulders. She was so soft and warm. Her body felt right pressed against his.

“I like this,” she whispered. “It feels right.”

Eric kissed the top of her head.

“Yes, it does,” he confirmed, hoping it was just the beginning of the next chapter for them.

🎃♥🎃♥🎃

Getting into the house was tricky. Technically they were trespassing by going inside. The house wasn’t exactly sealed up tight. Windows had to be boarded up after assholes bashed them in with rocks and things. To keep meth cookers from Hot Shot out of the house the doors had been locked but they weren’t reinforced or anything like that. All it took was a bobby pin or two to pick those locks. It took Sookie a few minutes and three pins, but she managed to pop the lock on the back door.

The smell inside the house was unexpectedly fresh. There was no dust on the floor or rodent droppings like Sookie would have expected. In fact, the house was surprisingly clean. Maybe the Bellefleurs had finally won their case. If that was true, they had just broken into a private property.

“Uhhh… we should probably make this quick,” Sookie said.

“Something wrong?” Eric asked as he looked around.

“Doesn’t this seem awfully clean for an abandoned house?”

“I wouldn’t say clean but it isn’t as filthy as it could be,” he said.

There were obvious places on the walls where paintings or other forms of art had once hung. Cobwebs decorated the corners and the intricately carved banister attached to the staircase in the entryway. Sookie stepped into the old living room and was disappointed to see the graffiti on the walls, tagging the class of ‘94 as vandals. She sighed, remembering how beautiful the library had once been.

Sookie hadn’t spent a lot of time at the Compton house, just enough to have recollections of how things should have looked. A few large pieces of furniture remained, covered by dingy cloths to protect it from dust and other elements. It was obvious the hardwood floors were going to need refinishing at the very least. Stained glass had been installed at some point up above the front door.

She crossed the foyer and went into the living room. The fireplace looked kind of scary without a fire to illuminate it. A grand piano had once been in the corner at the back of the room. As far as she knew, Jesse didn’t play. She had never seen him at the piano bench or heard the sound of a piano being played. The instrument was gone now, hopefully sold to a family who would treasure it and use it for something other than a conversation piece. Sookie recalled the old furniture, or maybe it was newer but styled to look old. That was popular now, wasn’t it? It try reproducing Chippendale or Louis XIV style furniture in an attempt to make it look like it had been passed down from generation to generation.

Perhaps that was why Gran saved things. With a few new screws, some polish or new upholstery something might look brand new and old at the same time.

Sookie heard footsteps that sounded like they were going upstairs. She assumed it was Eric since he had gone his own way to look around.

“Be careful up there!” Sookie called out. “I don’t know how sturdy the house is!”

“I’ll be fine,” Eric replied. The footsteps continued as he ascended the stairs. Sookie walked deeper into the room, crossing into what used to be the dining room.

There was a big spot on the wall where Sookie clearly remembered a painting hanging. It was an oil painting of a war scene. Rebel flags blew proudly in the breeze while Confederate soldiers charged and slaughtered the damn Yankees who dared cross them. Sookie closed her eyes and she could see guns and other weapons raised, prepared to kill anyone who came within striking distance. Of course all the dead or dying men in the painting were Yankee soldiers.

Rebel Pride was the name of the painting, if she remembered right. The artist’s name escaped her.

A stunning chandelier was blanketed and still hanging from the ceiling in the dining room. Sookie had imagined fancy dinner parties there as a child. Pretty ladies in hoop skirts and corsets fanning themselves while dapper gentlemen in fine three piece suits flirted with them as they sat around a heavy table and sipped strawberry wine or apple brandy. The house was a cornucopia of bits and pieces of history to inspire a young, creative mind.

Too bad Jesse could be a crusty old jerk.

As Sookie moved from room to room in the house she lost track of Eric’s footsteps overhead. She heard the creaky sound of a door slowly opening or closing somewhere in the house but couldn’t say where.

“Eric?” Her voice came out in a whisper-yell, as if she was in a tomb or church, someplace quiet was to be expected.

There was no answer to her quiet query. Sookie continued to move about until she felt as if she was being watched. She spun around, expecting to see Eric dart around a corner or behind a set of shelves but there was nothing there. A chill settled in the room. Sookie slowly turned, taking in a full 360 degree view of the room.

She was alone.

Suddenly her flashlight failed. She smacked it against her other hand. Sometimes that worked with the remote control. A good smack against her hand and it would work again for another day or two. Something about the batteries settling back into place, she presumed, but  it didn’t work with the flashlight.

Bummer.

“Er–” A cold hand clamped over her mouth from behind, muffling her call.

“If you scream, I will kill you where you’re standin’. Nod if you understand.” A man was behind her. The voice was the obvious give away. It was too deep to be a woman’s voice and it was smooth like Rhett Butler’s.

Whoever had grabbed her, he wasn’t a cop. A cop would have shined his flashlight in her eyes and told her to freeze, maybe put her hands up and drop her flashlight. A cop wouldn’t sneak up on her and threaten to kill her if she made a peep.

Sookie nodded her head. The cold hand fell away from her mouth. Her captor – and maybe murderer and rapist – turned her around to face him. There was something familiar about him but Sookie couldn’t place how she knew him. His dark hair had a little too much product in it. It looked… greasy and unkempt, yet the rest of him was clean, including the Dockers and long sleeve shirt he was wearing.

Where do I know him from?

Before she could summon the answer her eyes met his. Deep blue, like the Atlantic on a sunny day. A haze fell over her, like the time she forgot Amelia was having company in their apartment at school. Marijuana smoke was heavy in the air and breathing in enough of it had given Sookie an unexpected contact high. Only unlike that time, this was no laughing matter.

“You’re not going to scream. You’re not going to call out at all for help. That young man you came with left for a date with another, prettier woman. Do you understand?” His voice remained smooth, even, calm…

Sookie again nodded her head. She made no complaint when she was suddenly hoisted over the man’s shoulder. He had to be about 5’11” or so. Eric was definitely– why did Eric leave her? They were having a good time. Who was his date with?

The man was on the move with Sookie hanging off him in a fireman’s carry.

“Hey!”

Sookie’s head turned and there was Eric. Blood was running down his neck and being soaked up by his shirt.

“Hey! Put her down!” Eric yelled.

Sookie was confused. Eric left her for another woman so how was he here? Why was he bleeding?

The world became a blur. Her stomach didn’t agree with the motion and emptied itself while her abductor ran out of the house. Eric’s voice trailed after them for a while, but the man was too fast. He only stopped once they were deep in the woods. There was a hole in the ground that caused a scream to rise up in Sookie’s throat. It died there, having nowhere to go.

His command did stop tears, however, nor did it prevent Sookie from begging for her life.

“Please don’t kill me. You can have anything you want, just don’t kill me,” she pleaded. Tears of terror streamed down her face. A list of regrets quickly compiled itself in her head.

So many things she had wanted to do and thought she’d do it tomorrow. Too late. Tomorrow wasn’t coming. No one who was taken to a hole in the middle of nowhere lived to tell about it. This wasn’t the movies.

“Get undressed,” he demanded.

“Please… please don’t–”

“Now!”

Sookie flinched and then began to remove her clothes. She had never let herself think about what it would be like to be sexually violated. Some women got off on those fantasies, but not her. There was nothing romantic or sexy about rape. Rape had murdered her cousin long before that syringe full of heroine did eight months ago. Hadley was just a little girl…

Sookie wept and silently cried out to her parents, praying for their help. Were they there, already waiting for her when she inevitably crossed over into that bright light and the loving arms of Jesus? She didn’t want to die, though.

She wanted to find her one big love.

There was marriage, children, a career, travel, friends to be made, differences to make. It was too soon to snuff it all out.

Wasn’t it?

“Please,” Sookie pleaded. When she looked up at the man again his eyes were more like the Atlantic before a storm. He also had fangs. That scream with nowhere to go triggered her bladder.

He growled as she wet herself and before Sookie knew what was coming, those fangs were buried deep in her throat.

🎃♥🎃♥🎃

“For the millionth time, I don’t know who took her!” Eric slammed his fist down on the metal table in frustration. Andy Bellefleur had been grilling him for seven hours. Eric’s head hurt and he was exhausted. The concussion he’d suffered wasn’t helping.

“I think you do,” Andy argued, his temper close to exploding. He had tried playing good cop and it got him exactly nowhere. “Sookie Stackhouse is a pretty girl. Maybe you made a move she didn’t like and she knocked you upside your head. I think that pissed you off. A good looking guy like you can have any girl he wants.”

“She’s my friend. I would never hurt her and I definitely wouldn’t rape her if she didn’t respond to any advances I made,” Eric replied. “Look, if you’re not arresting me, I’d like to go home.”

“I’m not arresting you yet, but I wouldn’t go too far if I was you, Eric.”

No one seemed to believe his story that Sookie had been abducted, despite his lack of a motive for doing it himself. Jason was able to verify that he had seen Eric and Sookie together at Gran’s house, but that just bolstered Andy’s date rape theory. They had moved to the abandoned house where it was less likely they’d be interrupted by Jason a second time. Andy didn’t seem too interested in the truth. He wanted to prove his theory of the crime rather than following leads. At least it looked that way to Eric.

His description of Sookie’s abductor was vague, but then his memory was hazy at best. The guy had dark hair, was a little scrawny and just under six-feet-tall. Eric couldn’t tell if his eyes were blue, brown, black… just that they were dark. He wore khakis and a light gray thermal shirt. He wasn’t outwardly monstrous or terrifying to look at. The blow to the side of Eric’s head had been swift.

It knocked him out for who knows how long. He suspected it was just a few minutes but it was enough for the man to snatch Sookie and run. For days he had been asking himself why she never screamed or called out for help.

On the chance that Eric was telling the truth, Sheriff Bud Dearborn had organized search teams to look for Sookie. Mrs. Stackhouse had flown home rather than taking the bus back with the rest of her traveling companions. Eric had apologized profusely for not being able to save Sookie from her abductor. The guilt coated the back of his throat with a sour taste. It was a lot like bile or stomach acid.

Food didn’t taste like anything. At first he thought it was just the concussion that was making it hard to keep down food, but the longer Sookie remained unfound, the more he was certain it was guilt over his own failure to protect her. Friends and family railed against the idea that Eric had hurt Sookie and tried to cover it up.

Andy walked Eric out of the interrogation room, out to the lobby. Tara was pacing back and forth.

“Detective, it wasn’t Eric,” Tara said. “I heard you think he attacked her and tried to cover it up, but I know that’s not possible.”

“Were you there?” Andy asked.

“No, I was with my boyfriend, but–”

“Miss Thornton, I appreciate that you want to protect your friends–”

“She was in love with Eric. If he wanted to have sex with her, Sookie would have been more than willing,” Tara cut him off.

Hearing that was a knife in Eric’s heart instead of relief.

“How do you know that?” Andy asked.

“She told me, dumbass,” Tara spat.

Andy straightened up, hitching up his pants some. Calling a cop a dumbass probably wasn’t smart but it wasn’t illegal.

Tara produced a stack of papers.

“Emails from Sookie talking about Eric,” she said as she handed them to Andy. “He didn’t take her. You’re wasting your time on him.”

Andy scanned over the emails but he didn’t say anything.

“She also had a diary. She hid it because her brother was a nosy asshole before he moved out. I’m not sure what it looks like or where she kept it,” Tara added.

“I’ll talk to Adele. Goodnight,” Andy turned to go back to his office.

Without thinking twice, Eric reached out to hug Tara. They weren’t particularly close but she might have just saved his ass from a shitload of felony charges. A hug might be in order.

“Thank you,” he said.

“You’re welcome.” Tara pulled back. “You need a ride somewhere?”

“Home. They impounded my car looking for evidence,” he answered.

“Fuckin’ assholes,” Tara muttered. “I know he’s just doing his job, but he’s a lazy son of a bitch. When I become a defense lawyer I’m going to have fun poking holes in all his lazy ass investigations.”

“You’re off to a good start,” Eric said as he followed Tara out of the police station. She was driving a shitty old Toyota, but it beat walking all over town.

“How’s your head?”

“Sore. I have no idea what that guy hit me with. He was stronger than I would have thought,” Eric told Tara.

The car rattled as she drove away from the police station. It had been a long couple of days. Even though Eric had wanted to go out and search for Sookie, the police hadn’t allowed it. In fact, anyone close to Sookie was forbidden from joining the search party. If, God forbid, all there was to find was a body the police didn’t want a loved one to rush in and fuck up the crime scene. The instinct was to get closer and try to help or revive someone, but that wasn’t what they needed as far as evidence preservation.

“They’re going to find her, Eric,” Tara said with certainty. “They have to.”

He agreed with that. Obviously there were things left unsaid between him and Sookie. She loved him. Hearing that from Tara wasn’t how he wanted to hear it the first time. It should have come from Sookie in her own time, when she was ready. Maybe it would have been that night or maybe it would have been weeks or months before she finally clued him in. Eric would never know since Sookie was gone.

When he reached his apartment there were reporters waiting, hoping to get a comment from him. Rather than going inside and being hounded by the press, Eric asked Tara to take him to the Bon Temps Inn. It was just down the road but no one would know he was there and he wouldn’t have to deal with his phone ringing off the hook. Of course there were multiple vacancies. The Bon Temps Inn didn’t usually have enough guests to be at capacity. Occasionally a married couple had a few too many at Merlotte’s and walked across the street to have a wild night away from the kiddos. Maybe a one night stand went down. It was pretty quiet and a safe bet he wouldn’t be bothered there.

He thanked Tara before getting out of the car. A middle-aged blonde woman wearing more eyeliner than was acceptable in the ’80s was sitting behind the counter with a lit cigarette hanging from her lips while she filed her nails. An old black and white TV with rabbit ears was playing Wheel of Fortune on the corner of her desk.

“Can I help you, sugar?”

“I’d like a room, please,” Eric requested.

“Sure thing. I just need a picture ID and for you to sign in right there in the guest book,” she said.

Eric picked up a pen that had come from the Bon Temps Savings and Loan over on Main Street. He filled out his name and home address. A quick scan of the page revealed he was the only one giving accurate sign-in information. In just the last week the hotel had been visited by Grace Kelly, Barney Rubble, John Shaft, and Seymour Butz. Quite the motley crew.

Having missed Barney Rubble was especially disappointing.

He passed his license to the woman behind the counter. Instead of getting up from her chair, she pushed herself across the room like she was starring in some sort of office furniture ballet. She rolled to the copy machine and then to the pegboard where the room keys were. She grabbed #8 off the board and rolled back to the desk.

“There you are, sugar. Checkout time in eleven AM and there’s no room service. Merlotte’s across the road is open until midnight tonight if you’re hungry,” she said.

“Thanks.” Eric tucked away his license and palmed the key. He was almost to the door when the woman at the desk stopped him.

“You was the fella with the Stackhouse girl the night she was taken, aren’t ya?”

“Yes,” he admitted. His name and face had been on the news since the media got wind of it.

“Shame what happened to her. I’m glad you’re okay,” the woman said.

“Thank you,” he replied.

“If anyone comes lookin’ for ya…”

“Unless it’s Mrs. Stackhouse or someone with a badge, I’m not here,” he said.

“You got it, sugar. Have a good night.”

Yeah, that wasn’t likely but he appreciated that she didn’t treat him like he had something to hide or like he was guilty as sin. It was only a matter of time before Andy publicly named him as a person of interest. Given the circumstances, if Eric took a big step back, he could see why Detective Bellefleur might have the theory he did. If Eric was a cop, he might have the same theory.

But it was evidence that would clear him.

Eric walked down to room #8 and let himself in. He chained the door shut and went straight to the shower to clean up. Sitting in the interrogation room for so long had him feeling slimy and unclean. For a while he just stood under the water. He had to be careful with the three stitches on the side of his head, but the water felt good on his torso. Eric could still feel the burn in his legs and lungs from chasing after Sookie’s abductor.

He had run as fast as he could for as long as he could before he collapsed. Between the blood loss, the adrenaline, and the head injury his body just shut down. He was discovered by Deputy Kenya Jones, who initially thought maybe he had partied too much and knocked himself out. Valuable time was lost chasing after Sookie and her captor. Bloodhounds were going to be joining the search. Mrs. Stackhouse had made emotional pleas to the community for their help and prayers.

Someone somewhere had to know what happened to Sookie.

🎃♥🎃♥🎃

She’d thought she was going to die that night in the woods. Technically, she had. Her mortal body died. It wasn’t painful at all, like movies made it seem. No wonder folks were so afraid of dying. One minute she was there and the next… well, there was a brief shimmer of the white light everyone said was there but then it was moonlight. When Sookie rose from that hole in the ground she was covered in dirt, starving, and a whole new Sookie.

The man who took her was there. His name was Bill. He had turned her, brought her over to be his child. At first it didn’t sink in, but the punching down of sharp fangs that pierced her lips and tongue brought back the memories of her final minutes. With speed and strength she’d never known before she had flown at Bill and attacked him. He let her at first, if only to show her the new and improved power she had. When she bashed his head with a rock he bled, but only for moments. Right before her eyes she watched him heal.

The revelation was both astonishing and infuriating.

Sookie demanded to know what he had done and Bill had told her, if only in vague terms. She was a vampire now. Not like in the movies with Lon Chaney or Gary Oldman, but a real vampire. Immortal? Yes, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. There was a lot to learn. Unfortunately, Bill wasn’t the best teacher. He had chosen her strictly on looks. She was beautiful and turned him on.

Sookie attacked him again.

His command put a stop to it.

Sookie’s first night above ground was pure hell. The hunger she felt was primal. She would have torn a squirrel limb from limb if she had to. The craving for blood was deeper than anything she had ever felt before. It was almost visceral. As if that wasn’t bad enough, there were the voices. Those didn’t hit her right away but as soon as Sookie got near people again she realized she could hear their thoughts.

It made feeding extremely difficult at first.

God, the noise was never ending in the beginning. Not just the thoughts, but being able to hear a possum’s heartbeat without getting close to it or hearing a car start two blocks away. Figuring out how to filter it all and turn down the volume was difficult. It took months of practice to make going out in public manageable.

But she didn’t get headaches.

Sookie had even tried to give herself one by running full speed – which was pretty damn fast – into a solid oak tree. She’d fucked up her face, but no headache. Her nose was fine by the time she rose the next night. The hard part was knowing her family was searching for her. The news told her Eric was the first suspect in her disappearance. Bill kept too tight a leash on her for Sookie to go running off to reveal herself.

She thought about killing Bill several times over. Far as she was concerned he deserved it. How many people had he killed? He had it coming. That wasn’t the Christian attitude, though, and being a vampire was no excuse to be a murderous asshole. Sookie ran all the way to Texas on Saturday night to attend a midnight service she found there. Bill didn’t like it but he didn’t stop her from going either. His commands allowed her to go there and come straight back without feeding. The service ended just in time for her to evacuate the communion she took since her body no longer digested food or drink.

The last thing Sookie wanted was to fall into a routine with Bill, but she did. That is until three weeks ago when he announced that she was free. He had been summoned by his own maker, who refused to release him, and he had to go to Seattle.

Free…

Free from Bill…

He had warned her about getting in touch with her family and friends. It was best to stay away. Sookie nodded along but immediately started making plans to go back to Louisiana, if only to see Eric. He deserved to know what happened to her. She couldn’t imagine what the last year of his life had been like.

Plus she missed him.

Sookie missed her friends, Gran, and even Jason but it wasn’t the same as it was with Eric. There were loose ends she needed to tie up.

For money, Sookie had started doing consulting work for the King of Mississippi. Russell Edgington was quite the character. He paid well, better than Sookie had ever earned as a human. If it wouldn’t be so detrimental, she would have given Gran the money to fix up the house. As it was, she was working with Russell’s lawyer to set up a dummy corporation and a fake charity she could use as a means to funnel the money into helping her grandmother.

It took some research and the help of a vampire private investigator, but Sookie was finally able to track Eric down. The rumors and eyes on him got to be too much. He moved to the Dallas area three months prior right before school was set to start. In her shiny new Volkswagen Beetle, Sookie drove across Louisiana to Texas. Russell had advised Stan Davis, the vampire king of Texas, that Sookie was coming. Stan was very excited to meet her, as telepaths were rare and he was hoping she would do some work for him.

For the right fee, of course she would.

Russell turned out to be a much better mentor than her own maker.

Armed with the information Sookie had obtained from the investigator, she arrived at the apartment building Eric was living in. Checking her speed and strength had been difficult at first too. It was so much easier to take the stairs now that her body no longer depended on oxygen. However, speeding up the stairs in a blur wouldn’t do. Not when there were potentially cameras around.

Sookie rode in the elevator to the fifth floor. Apartment 5H was on the right. She knocked and listened.

Ginger, I’m not in the mood tonight…

Who was Ginger?

Not that Sookie had any rights to be jealous.

The door opened and as soon as Eric saw her, he stumbled back.

“Soo… Sookie?” She was more pale but otherwise she looked exactly the same as she did the night she disappeared.

“It’s me. Can I come in?” She had to ask. That was part of the gig now. No admittance to a human residence without their invitation.

Eric rushed out of the apartment to hug her. With the sweater and leather coat she was wearing he couldn’t feel how cold her skin was. No more heartbeat to keep her warm. He didn’t seem to notice or care.

“You’re alive. Oh my god,” he said through tears that triggered her own.

I thought you were gone for good, Sookie. God, I missed you.

Hearing his words wasn’t enough. She could see the flashes of scenarios he thought might have been her fate. They were all awful and horrific.

“I missed you so much, Eric,” she said. She forced back her tears, lest she have bloody tear stains on her cheeks and his clothes.

“I missed you too. Where have you been? What happened? Tell me everything,” he said.

“Inside,” she said.

“Oh, yeah of course, come in.” He set her on her feet to walk in on her own. Eric wiped his tears of relief, joy and gratitude off his face. He followed her into the apartment and closed the door.

The apartment was sparsely decorated. Eric hadn’t been living there for too long, but long enough that it shouldn’t have felt so empty. It almost seemed like he was squatting there instead of making it his home. The square footage left something to be desired but it was enough space for a single man who didn’t even have a couch.

“Can I get you something to drink?” His strong pulse tempted her. She could see the slight bounce of the arteries in his neck and it made her fangs ache. She had never thought or wondered what he tasted like until that moment.

“No,” she answered. “I’m okay. I’d suggest we sit down but you seem to be experiencing a furniture shortage.”

“Yeah,” he said, looking around at his mostly empty apartment. “I have some.folding chairs though. I picked them up at IKEA last week.”

He moved to a closet with an accordion door and pulled out two chairs. He opened them and set them out in the living room. Eric was just as sturdy, handsome and muscular as he ever was. There was some tension in the air and for good reason. Sookie knew he had a million questions about what happened and where Sookie had been. There was nothing to suggest she was injured or that she and been damaged by her abductor. He was confused by that. How had she found him? It was a never-ending ticker tape of questions.

Sookie took a seat across from Eric.

“First, I want to say thank you for trying to save me that night. I know you ran as long as you could and it broke my heart that you tried so hard. I don’t know anyone else who would have tried as hard as you did,” Sookie said.

“You’re welcome. I’m sorry I couldn’t catch him,” he said. It was obvious that Eric was haunted by the whole thing and for good reason. He reached out for Sookie’s hands to hold them, like he was afraid she was going to float away. “Oh, you’re cold. I can get you a blanket…”

“No, that’s okay,” Sookie said quickly. “I can explain it, actually. You’re going to think I’m crazy when I tell you this.”

She could glamour him like Bill had done to her. She realized after she woke up that first night, naked under the new moon, that Bill had lied to her from the first second. Eric didn’t abandon her for another date. Bill seemed flabbergasted that she was able to override his glamour. The more she poked around, the more she realized that was a rare thing. Glamour was supposed to work on any human. Perhaps it was because it was so close to her having been turned. There was no way to know for sure.

“I doubt that. I’m just happy you’re here and alive and… I missed you so much, Sookie. I didn’t realize how much I cared about you until you were gone. I know that’s cliche. I just want you to know that I– I love you,” he said. He lifted her cold hand to kiss the back of it.

Well if that didn’t warm her cold, dead heart…

“Eric, the reason I’m cold is because I’m dead. Well, technically I’m undead. I’m a vampire,” she said.

He froze. His ice blue eyes settled on hers. His head was blank. Completely blank. If Sookie was still a breather, she would have been holding her breath.

“Vampires aren’t real,” he whispered.

“Yes they are.” Sookie had a variety of ways to prove it but it was going to come down to whether or not he wanted to believe it.

“No… no, they’re just in movies and books,” he said.

Sookie let go of his hand. She let her fangs drop. Eric stared at the extra sharp teeth that had magically appeared.

“But I saw your reflection when we walked by the window,” he said.

“The reflection thing is a myth.”

“Did you come here to kill me?”

“No, of course not. I came because I didn’t want you to worry anymore. I can’t tell everyone about what happened but I thought you deserved to know. If you would prefer it, I can erase your memory after my visit,” Sookie offered. Honestly, she probably should anyway so if he let it slip people wouldn’t think he had gone around the bend.

“No,” he said quickly. “No, I’m glad you’re here. You’re really a vampire?”

“Really. The man who took me was Bill Compton. That house was his ancestral home. Portia Bellefleur is a descendant of his. He glamoured her into filing a motion to protect the house from going to the state. The red tape is because of all the records they have to go through to make sure Portia is really a relative,” Sookie explained.

“Glamoured? What is that?”

“Hypnotizing, I suppose,” she clarified. “The night he took me, he tried doing it to me so I wouldn’t scream. He told me you left me for another date.”

“That explains a lot, actually,” he said. “Wait, it didn’t work?”

“It did that night, but after he made me a vampire it reversed itself,” Sookie explained. “I’m not sure how it all works, to be honest. There are vampires who can do all sorts of things humans can’t.”

“Like turn into a bat?”

“I suppose. I can’t do that.”

“What can you do?”

Sookie paused, unsure of how to answer or if she should be honest with him. In her mind, this was a goodbye visit. She was going to glamour him before she left and in a few weeks letters would arrive at the homes of her close family and friends, letting them know that she was okay but had decided it was best to sever contact. She had no reason in mind to give. They would always wonder why, but at least they wouldn’t be searching for her body anymore.

“I can read minds,” Sookie confided.

Eric didn’t react. He seemed too numb from the shock of it all. It was obvious the last year had been hell for him. He looked depressed and like a man with little else to lose. Sookie didn’t like that look.

“You know I can erase myself from your memory,” she told him. “It’ll be like I never existed. You can move far away from here and start over–”

“Why would I do that?” Eric finally showed some real time emotion. “I don’t want to forget you, Sookie. Forgetting you isn’t going to make it better. You know what keeps me going every day? I wake up and the first thing I think every single goddamn day is today is the day I’m going to find you. Today is the day all the uncertainty goes away. Today is the day when I can finally get on with my life. Every day that I’m not successful, that I fail you again… it’s a heavy burden but it’s one I can’t let you take from me.”

She reached for his hands and she could feel the sincerity and the heaviness of what he said. The hope burned bright in his mind. The failure, however, was a cluster of cannon balls tied to the ankles and wrists of a man desperately trying to break the surface for a breath of fresh air. Sookie was his sun.

“Make me like you,” he said, taking her by surprise.

“What?” Her vampire ears heard him just fine. It was her brain that had trouble believing it. “Eric, you don’t know what you’re asking for.”

He pulled her closer, off her chair and onto him for a kiss that damn near made her heart beat again. Out came her fangs and they pierced his tongue, offering her a taste of him. The temptation to bite him, fuck him and turn him was strong. His state of mind was what held her back. Was he just depressed and looking for a way out? Was Eric really in the right mindset to be making such big decisions?

The selfish part of her didn’t care. She was tired of being alone. She could teach him all she learned. They could spend decades, centuries, millennia even, walking the world and exploring everything it had to offer them.

“I’m asking for you, Sookie. I never got the chance to say it before, but all I want is you,” he said.

Those words were all she ever wanted to hear. They couldn’t work as a human and vampire. Eventually he would get old and die while Sookie stayed the same. She would have to be his dirty little secret. No one would ever be able to know about her.

But as two of a kind, they could go away together. They could find a remote place out in the woods where no one would really bother them of pay attention to their habits. A root cellar would be a normal thing to have, but it wouldn’t be for storing food; it would be for their daytime rest. It could work. They could be happy.

Together.

🎃♥🎃♥🎃

It didn’t happen right away. Eric sold off his possessions, got himself in slightly better shape since he was going to look exactly the same for eternity. He tattooed Sookie’s name on his chest. She would never leave him again. Sookie prepared him for what was going to happen. She told him about her first days as a vampire. She held nothing back.

He let her bite him. It provided a rush he was not expecting. He tasted her blood in return. The rush was even greater. He saw perfectly in the dark. His hearing was sharper. Smell and taste were just through the rough. Strawberries were sweeter. Apples were crisper. It was hard not to gorge himself on foods he would never eat again. Sookie had assured him that he would have no trouble finding ways to support himself, in spite of the inability to hold down banker’s hours.

She, for example, put her newfound talent to good use working for a man in Mississippi – a king, she said – who paid her handsomely for her time. Sookie ensured humans hadn’t caught whiff of the vampires living among them. Many businesses in Dallas were vampire owned and no one knew. It was easy to romanticize how it would be, but Sookie was careful not to let that go too far. She warned of the downside as well.

More than once she had challenged his decision. She had given him opportunity to back out. Were it not for the fact that Eric had reconsidered what he was doing a time or two, only to arrive at the same conclusion, Sookie might have put the kibosh on the whole thing anyway. As his maker, he was her responsibility. If she turned him and was unable to control him, it was her head on the chopping block.

Unlike her own sire, she took the whole thing very seriously.

Finally on the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, Sookie and Eric went back to Louisiana. Turning him there seemed risky, but also poetic. It was where their friendship was born so it only seemed fitting it should be where it was reincarnated. Sookie dug the hole they would be buried in. Godric, a sheriff from Texas who had become slightly enamored with Sookie, came along to cover them with dirt.

He was waiting somewhere in the distance, giving Eric and Sookie the necessary privacy to make the final exchange that would bond them together until the true death.

“You’re absolutely, one hundred percent, never been more sure of anything in your life that this is what you want?” Sookie asked him.

“I’m positive,” he said.

Sookie nodded and untied the robe she was wearing, revealing her naked body to him for the first time. Eric’s own body immediately reacted to the view. He paid special attention to the feeling of his blood rushing, since it was the last time he’d ever feel it. Eric found himself keenly aware of the sound of his own heartbeat and the breaths he drew. He dropped his robe like Sookie had done. Her fangs dropped with it.

“After you,” she said, motioning to the grave she had dug them.

Eric dropped in first before extending a hand up to Sookie. It wasn’t as if she needed it, but it was the polite, gentlemanly thing to do and she brought that out in him. No sooner was she in the grave with him than the gentleman was replaced by a much more passionate creature. He had waited years for this.

Going out with a bang was exactly how Eric wanted to die. Sookie’s limber body was wrapped around him. He pressed her against the wall of the grave as their two bodies became one. It was everything he had ever dreamed of and more. Sookie waited until he was delirious with desire, pleasure, and anticipation– then she struck. The bite was true and she came immediately at the taste of him filling her cold body. Her release triggered his and the orgasm was the last thing he felt before he died in the arms of the only woman he ever loved.

His death was just the beginning.