Chapter 20

The Trait

 

    Once we were inside his office and seated on the couch, Eric reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.  “Call him,”  he said, handing it to me.

 

    “Who, Niall?”  I didn’t bring his…”  I watched Eric punch in a number and hand the phone back to me.  “Okay.”  I hadn’t thought about what I would say exactly-

 

    “Hello?”  a male voice answered.

 

    “Hi.  This is, uh, Sookie.  Sookie Stackhouse?” I looked at Eric helplessly.  “I’m calling to speak with Niall Brigant, please?”

 

    “Is this an emergency?”  the voice asked politely.

 

    For some reason that made me want to laugh.  “Well, it’s not a matter of life or death.”  Guess it depended on how you looked at it.  Eric shot me a look, so I got serious.  “I need to speak with him.  Is he available?”

 

    “I will pass along your message,”  the voice replied.

 

    “Oh.  Okay.  Thankyou.  Oh, wait!  This isn’t my phone.”  Damn, I didn’t even know my own phone number.

 

    “He will find you, Miss Stackhouse.  Good evening.”

 

    Well, that sounded ominous.  I shut the phone and gave it back to Eric.  “He doesn’t answer his phone?”  I looked at him and saw that he was smirking.  “What?  You take your own calls.”

 

    “I am not a prince.”

 

    “Niall’s a prince?”  Wow, I didn’t remember him wearing a crown or anything.  Then again, Eric didn’t wear a gold star, either.

 

    “You find humor in the strangest things.  Your great-grandfather is the last one, I believe.  He is very old and very powerful.  You are of a royal bloodline, lover.”

 

    No wonder then, that Niall would be capable of slaying his enemies.  “This is bad, isn’t it?”

 

    “Were someone attacking the Queen’s children, they would be dead, yes.  Finally dead.  The attack on you is far more serious than that.  As I said, it is in your favor, that he came to your aid.”  Eric put his arm around me to pull me close.  “What is bothering you?”

 

    “Do you remember when Pam asked me, what exactly had you done for me, by turning me?”  I couldn’t be called, I was able to block my own bond with my Maker, I didn’t seem to fear anything…I was very ‘unvampire’ in a lot of ways.

 

    “Yes.”  He was fully focused on me, which always helped me concentrate.

 

    “You said, you didn’t think the vampire existed, who could drain a fairy, and then have the will to turn it.”  I snuck a glance up at him.  “I could.”

 

    “You do not know that,”  he immediately shot back.

 

    I started to shake my head.  “I’m telling you-”

 

    “No.”

 

    “What are you, in denial?”  Nope, he was furious.  “Listen-”

 

    “No!”  He sprung up and turned on me, and I could feel Pam’s alarm as she headed for his office.  “You will not see him.”

 

    “Eric, he’s not going to-”

 

    “He will know you are not affected by their smell,”  he growled.

 

    “It won’t matter-”

 

    “What won’t matter?”  Pam asked, gliding into the room.

 

    Was I ever going to get a full sentence out?  “Niall,”  I said.

 

    “What is wrong?”  she demanded, looking to Eric.  “Why are you feeling threatened?”

 

    Eric felt threatened?  Is that what that was?  In a flash, I was in front of him, but he wouldn’t look at me.  “Hey, he’s not going to hurt me.”

 

    “Has Niall threatened you, Sookie?”  Pam asked incredulously.  “That makes no sense.”

 

    “Is that so?”  Eric asked.  “She is unlike any other vampire,”  he continued, nodding at me.  “She will be unaffected by their smell.  She is one of them.”

 

    “So?  How is that a problem?”  Pam looked between the two of us.  “She is a vampire who would not harm them.”

 

    Then I got it.  “Normally they would stay away from me.  But now they may not.”  He nodded.

 

    “On the other hand, she could turn them.”  Pam barked out a laugh.  “How ironic!”

 

    “Explain.”

 

    “Unless they learn of her immunity to them, they will stay away.  And if they learn of her immunity, they may come for her, but they would soon learn, she could turn them.  Either way, they stay away.  If this was the intended outcome, it is genius.”  She looked at Eric sharply.  “There is very little to fear here, Eric.”

 

    “That’s what I tried to tell him.”  He finally looked at me, and I could swear I felt hopelessness in him.  “Eric,”  I whispered, but the tears had already started down my face.  “What have I done to you?”  His expression softened, but his heart was still full of fear and anger.  “If we just keep fearing the worst…”  It was no way to live, and I should have learned that by dying.  I wiped my face, but I only managed to smear my bloody tears everywhere.  “I need the bathroom,”  I said, darting out into the hallway.

 

    I scrubbed my face in the employee bathroom and felt Pam come in behind me.  “I feel like I can’t make this better for him,”  I said, turning to face her as I dried off.  Maybe that was the hopelessness I had felt from him, and now it was my turn.

 

    “It is not of your doing.  He is not acting this way out of fear or pity.  It is out of love, and that is new for him.”  I got the feeling, it was new for her, too.  “Have mercy on him, Sookie.  I have never seen him like this,”  she said somberly.

 

    I surprised her by hugging her and kissing her on the cheek.  “Thanks for saying that.  You’re a good friend.”  Or vampire.  Child.  Whatever.

 

    “Do you hug everyone?”  she asked, stepping back into the hall.  “And why do you smell like a puppy?”  We both heard Clancy call to her from the front of the club.

 

    “Who’s Bill Compton?”  I asked quietly.

 

    “Probably passing through,”  she answered, leaving me outside Eric’s office.

 

    I went inside and shut the door.  “Bill Compton’s here?”  Eric was seated at his desk, so I went to sit on his lap.  “Vampire?”

 

    “You tell me,”  he said, kissing me softly on the lips. I loved him so much.

 

    Two voids were making their way to his office, and I smiled.  “Vampire.”  I got up to stand behind him just as Pam opened the door.  She was followed my a male vampire with dark hair and dark eyes.  He was pretty good-looking, but he wasn’t nearly as tall as Eric, or as nicely built.  I really needed to stop comparing everyone to him, not that he would mind.

 

    “Bill Compton,”  Eric said, nodding to him.

 

    “Sheriff.”  Ah, a fellow Southerner.  Bill glanced at me and nodded as well.  I looked to Pam, who was standing behind him, and she shook her head.

 

    “This is my Child, Sookie Stackhouse,”  Eric said, gesturing to me.  Pam nodded, so then I did, too.  Vampires.  “What brings you to my Area?”  Eric reached a hand over each shoulder toward me, pulling me closer to him and resting my hands on his chest.  I wasn’t sure what it was supposed to mean to Bill, but I sure didn’t mind touching Eric.  The interesting thing was, it surprised Bill Compton, even disappointed him a little.  His face was composed, but his emotions were not.

 

    “I am relocating to my family home,”  Bill answered.

 

    “Where is that?”  Bill gave the address of the rundown farm next to my Gran’s house, much to my surprise.

 

    “Jesse Compton’s place?”  I asked without thinking.  I hadn’t even placed his last name, but I was guessing this Compton came way before the one’s I’d known.

 

    “What is your business these days?”  Eric asked, ignoring my interruption.

 

    “I plan to settle down for awhile,”  Bill explained.  While it might have been the truth, even Bill seemed unhappy with his answer.  Pam rolled her eyes behind him, and I tried not to smile.

 

    “The Stackhouse property is off-limits, as well as Merlotte’s.  Otherwise, the same rules apply here as in New Orleans,”  Eric said, leaning back into me in his chair.

 

    Bill’s mouth was set in a line, but he nodded and turned to leave.  “Enjoy your settling, Bill,”  Eric said, and I was smart enough to keep my mouth shut.

 

    Pam escorted Bill out of the club and was back within the minute.  “He will be living next to her grandmother?”

 

    “Lucky him, that place is a real wreck.”  I slid around to sit with Eric again and looked at him.  “What don’t you like about him?”

 

    “The same things you do not,”  he said, tracing my jaw with his fingertips.

 

    “What am I missing here?”  Pam asked.

 

    “There’s something Bill doesn’t like about me being with Eric,”  I started.

 

    “You could feel that from him?”  she clarified.

 

    “Yeah.  And he’s not happy to be ‘settling’ here.”  Don’t know why, but he wasn’t.  “Can you actually keep him from going to Merlotte’s?  I’ve never even seen a vampire there.”

 

    “If he wishes to live in my Area, yes.  It is not an unreasonable request.”  Plus, Eric was the boss, his unspoken words were telling me.

 

    “His heart’s just not in being here,”  I said absently as I played with Eric’s long hair.

 

    “I do not wish him to be near your family of friends at the moment,”  he explained.

 

    Pam was surprised.  “He would be a fool to discuss her with humans!”  I was getting used to them talking about me like I wasn’t there.  It gave my mind a chance to wander.  Maybe I could sneak in some downtime.

 

    “Sookie was right.  He is unhappy with our bond,”  Eric began.

 

    “So he is jealous,”  Pam shrugged.

 

    “Disappointed, it felt like,”  I interjected, dragging myself back into the conversation.  “Not jealousy.”

 

    “His last residence was in New Orleans,”  Eric said, sliding me off his lap and standing.  I plopped into his seat and leaned back to admire him.  “Shall we get you a drink?”  he asked, smirking.

 

    “Maybe we better,”  I agreed.  Or I’d be jumping him in a minute.

 

    “Perhaps we will make a vampire out of you, yet,”  Pam commented, leading the way to the bar.  I had no interest in being penned in by the two of them in a booth, so I hopped onto a stool at the bar.  A warm bottle of blood appeared in front of me, and I finished it in one long swallow, much to the alarm of the human seated next to me.  He had been about to get up to follow someone, but I realized I couldn’t let him.

 

    “Kind of early for that, isn’t it?”  I asked, pointing to the LSU football hat he was wearing.  Inside a vampire bar.  I smiled and turned more toward him.  “Baseball’s just starting.”

 

    “Oh,”  he said, taking the hat off and looking at it.  “You think?”  He looked back at me, confused.

 

    “Maybe you should go home, wait for football season.”  I heard Eric from behind me.  Oops.  “Just for tonight.  I bet there’s something on TV you’d like to watch, since there’s nothing going on here.”  I rested my hand on his shoulder.  “It’s closing time, anyway.”

 

    “I should probably go,”  he agreed.  He picked up his hat and left some money on the bar before hurrying out.

 

    I turned around slowly and focused my thoughts on the club bathrooms.  “Mens’ room, Pam.  A vampire and a fang-banger.”  She was off like a shot, and I turned back to the bar, embarrassed.  “He was about to follow them.  There was a police radio in his pocket.”  Another bottle showed up in front of me, and I felt Eric’s arms wrap around my stomach.  “I’m not supposed to do that here, am I?”  I mumbled.  I’d glamored the guy without even thinking about it.

 

    “You were rather sweet,”  Eric assured me.  He kissed my cheek and sat next to me.  “Drink.”  I had to smile.  His feelings were far from ‘sweet.’

 

    “You’re not mad?”  I mean, I could tell that he wasn’t, but still.

 

    “Only that we are here, fully clothed.”  He looked past me and nodded slightly.

 

    “He’s terrified,”  I commented, referring to the vampire Pam was dragging from the back entrance, thanks to my snitching.

 

    “He should be.”  Eric looked at me sharply.  “His behavior is wrong.  Not yours.”

 

    “I know.”

 

    “You say you know, but you refuse to believe it.”  He eyed me carefully.  “You wish to protect me.  Or was that just talk?”

 

    “What?  Of course I would!”  Talk, my ass.  “Oh, wait.  Is that what I just did?”

 

    “In a way, yes.”

 

    “Stretching it a bit, aren’t you?”  I asked skeptically.  “What if that were us in the bathroom?”

 

    “That is different,”  he said, pulling me from my stool to stand against him between his legs.  “I believe there is a saying about ownership and privileges.”

 

    “That was membership, and it was a credit card commercial.”

 

    “He is banned for a month,”  Pam announced from behind me.  “Except for tomorrow night, when he returns to pay his fine.”  She smiled at the confused look on my face.  “I know.  I would have preferred to take his fangs now.  But things are different these days.  First offense,”  she added, making quotation marks with her fingers in the air.

 

    I unconsciously touched my teeth.  “How much is the fine?”  I managed to ask.

 

    “Five thousand.”

 

    “Holy shit!”  I was about to say something else when I caught wind of the thoughts of the woman seated on the other side of Eric.  I felt my fangs run out, and I swear the hair on the back of my neck stood up.  I silently moved around him, but he wouldn’t let go of my waist.

 

    She’d watched Eric, rubbing me against him between his legs, and her thoughts had turned venomous toward me.  Truth was, there was a time when I would have blocked her, smiled when I felt like crying, and tucked my tail and ran.  That time, apparently, was not now.

 

    The friend she’d brought, who could see me coming, nudged her in the arm, and the woman turned to me, her mental snickering drifting away.  She hadn’t realized I was a vampire, as if that should matter.

 

    “It was okay when you thought I was human?”  I hissed, as the woman’s face went white.  I heard Pam snicker and Eric’s grip on me tightened.  “Go on, then.  Say what you were thinking!”  I snarled.  “He’ll get tired of me and my fake tits?”  Her friend grabbed their purses and tried to pry the woman from her terrified grip on her stool.  “They’re real, though, and by the time he gets tired of them, you’ll be long dead.”  Eric was using considerable strength to hold me in place, while I watched the two run from the club, my body leaning for them.  “Let me go,”  I begged, looking wildly around.  No one even noticed, they’d just seen two women leave in a hurry.

 

    Eric pulled me into him, whispering in my ear and trying to calm me.  “We will leave.”

 

    “Now, have you felt the instinct for the kill?”  Pam asked quietly.  She gave me a little pinch as I walked by with Eric.  “Artificial breasts wished they looked as good as yours,”  she added.

 

    “I’m so sorry-”

 

    “Do not apologize!”  Eric said, cutting me off.  “It was a matter of time before you…”

 

    “Slipped up?”  I asked sarcastically.

 

    He opened the car door for me, and got in on his side.

 

    “I was going to say, gave in to an urge you wouldn’t have as a human.  I told you, I would help you.”

 

    “Yeah, and now you won’t touch me with a ten-foot pole,”  I complained.  Damn telepathy!

 

    “Ten inches, perhaps.”  He glanced down at his lap as he drove.  “Although, I may not be giving myself enough credit.”

 

    “Eric Northman!”  I screeched, bursting out in laughter.  “Did you just make a…a…”  I couldn’t even say it.

“I believe I did.”  He waggled his eyebrows at me and laughed.  “But I assure you, it is no joke.”