Pre Edit Count – 2,918 Words

Song I listened to for this chapter: Goodbye, Apathy by OneRepublic & Everything (Live in Studio) by Lifehouse.

Previous:

Sookie groans. “They are all like you. God needs to help, since there is no way I am going to survive your entire line of Eric Mäninorr.” She falls against her Mate, but her amusement is clear in their Bond.

They all laugh, and Frey closes the door to the rest of the castle as the group moves in to get comfortable. They all know the storm will be coming, but for now, they will take these slow times.

Now:

Ushering everyone out except Sookie’s guards, Eric closes the door on the rest of the clan. He smiles down at his Mate sitting in the chair, and she looks up at him with a small smile of her own. He is hit by the disbelief that she is here in his home, his true home. This is something he never dreamed of sharing with her, and to be truthful, he never thought he would be here again anyway. Life without his little fairy is not something he has enjoyed for the last year.

With that in mind, Eric vamps to her side, and kneels before her, his fingers carefully tracing his lover’s face. He searches her eyes, and then takes in her features as he quietly asks her, “Are you truly ok with this, Lover?” He wants nothing but for her to be happy, and he would leave if it is what it would take.

She smiles softly at him. Sookie is getting tired, but she is also having those energy spikes from being in a new place and having so much put upon her so quickly. It is getting to the point she needs to latch on to the familiar, and she is grateful to Eric for telling them all to leave.

“Yes, as long as you don’t leave me alone in this castle. It is huge!”

He laughs, his eyes a lighter color from enjoying life in general. “It has been added to by the Clan when they are bored. As they understood the restrictions for the living challenged among us, they built from the inside out. They made sure that the rooms we need are more protected and deeper in the castle. They have also come up with some clever ways to filter out the harmful rays of the sun.” Picking her up and moving, Eric quickly has her sitting with him, holding her as they talk. Even though his rooms have been completely updated for his little Mate, he is comfortable as he watches the fire.

She smiles at him, and relaxes into his body, feeling so much comfort flowing to and from them both through their Bond. “I hate to ask, but how do they know what is harmful or not?” She is playing with his hand as she asks.

He flinches, and she looks up at him in astonishment. “Eric Nor–Mäninorr! You used yourself?!?!” She sits up, dropping his hand. She cannot believe that he would do such a thing!

Taking a breath, knowing she will be upset with him, Eric explains to her, “It was nothing more than a finger, but it was for a greater good. For those of us who could rise before the sun set, and go to rest after the sun rose, it allowed us more movement, and put a lot of rumors to rest. We could be in the great hall with lots of sunlight pouring in and suffer no harm.” He smiles as he thinks of how often that has helped his family with relations to the other royals out there. He has no doubt that, since the memory of the Monarchs is long, he has gained many allies because of that little trick long before many of the American Monarchs were even made.

She sits still and lets out a breath. “Do you still test things out?” Sookie looks up at him, glaring at the thought that he may intentionally harm himself.

Kissing her head, he chuckles. “Occasionally. All of us take turns since it is to benefit ourselves. It not only physically allows us to live better than most of our kind, but there is a financial reward since we sell our ideas. It also gains me the loyalty and friendship of other Monarchs. Being able to sit in your grand hall full of natural light and not be harmed was something that was coveted by many of our kind. Because of this we get to be safer in our home since many who would have tried to take over for the longer wake time in the winter months would instead spend their time in the freedom of sunlight in their own homes without being harmed.”

Many did not want this area in the summer because of the long days, but the benefit of the long nights in the winter could not be denied as it allowed them more time to do what they wanted without the hassle of longer days. Luckily for Eric, he had the strength and talents of Godric on his side when he took over. The ancient vampire had defended them and kept the kingdom safe when Eric and his Sons were too young to wake before the sun set.

Thinking it over, she can see the pluses, and asks, “How?” Sookie needs the information to allow her mind to make more sense of the benefits and maybe even come up with more ways to help them.

Eric traces lines on her arms as he answers, “My people have nothing to do in the winter time, so we have always encouraged them to think up new ideas. We hid much of what they came up with; often in fact it seemed that when we implemented something they thought of, we would have to have another team figure out how to hide that advancement. Plus we worked with all the races which gave us a bigger advantage than most. We had Weres who were stronger than humans to help build things that normally wouldn’t have been possible. When I was King as a human, we knew some about the existence of other races, but we didn’t know about all of them. When I became Vampire and found out about the rest, well to be frank, we were cut off from all the others. When I took power, I grabbed the rule from all the races as well. I am King. And instead of being just the King of the Vampires for my country, I am King of all of my land and peoples.”

He thinks for a moment, telling himself that he will need to get Brandon to show Sookie maps of the Vampire kingdoms as they don’t seem to resemble the mess made of the human borders of these countries now. There had been talk about changing these borders as they have in the Americas to reflect the borders of the current times, but the Older Monarchs told them if they did, there would be no Authority members in any country but America.

It only took the European Kingdoms banning the Authority to make said Authority realize that they were not as powerful as they had thought they were. It was one of the reasons the Guardian had kissed his ass to the level he did, and why he is so scared right now of Eric’s response to Edgington being free. Roman had been hoping to have a good word with at least one king.

Sookie nods as she listens to the information and makes mental notes, but she is also finding it interesting as he tells her about their Kingdom. The fact that this is all relevant helps, but she loves history anyway and is enjoying finding out the history never hinted about in the text books.

“Because of the attack on all the species by Russell, they were happy to have one person to blame. However, when I took rule, I commanded them to guard the borders, and we implemented many ways to alert the Kingdom to any issues. This as well as using the people to their best advantage ensured our survival. There was no leeway for error; he had decimated our Kingdom when he came through. It made working with each other imperative and helped us to form one unit, and for them to submit to my rule when it became known who I was. I had been one of the few humans who had defeated many of the invaders who thought we would be weak. I was more successful than the supernaturals, so that helped them to follow me easier.” His eyes darken as he remembers those times, and even why this castle had been built and improved upon. Castles were not common to his people, but they needed a place to protect the future of their Kingdom.

Sookie swallows. “And he is free to do the same thing again.” Her eyes turn haunted, thinking of how much damage he did when was younger and weaker. Now the man is insane and has a legitimate cause to hate both Eric and her personally. Before he did the damage just because he could. How much worse will it be now?

Eric nods, his mind not only working to protect the future again, but more importantly to him, the woman who is the center of his universe. “It is why we are taking the care we are in getting the littles and the elders to safety. Your comment on not having them all grouped together is perfect. They are our future. The elders teach the children, and the children become the next generation, and eventually they become the elders to teach their grandchildren. It is why we are so orientated around the families, or Clans as they call them.” He trails off, his mind making plans, knowing that some of those elders do not look like they could be as old as they are, but he plans to have his Children educate his Mate. They would be the best since they lived those times, so they will also be able to impart to her their ways of living in those years.

Snuggling deeper in his arms, Sookie yawns then asks, “Can we move to the bedroom? I’m getting to the point that I really can’t take in any more information.” She looks up to him with a smile, hoping she is not upsetting him; she just needs some rest.

He nods, then rises with her in his arms and moves them to their room. He hesitates right inside the door. “Sookie, I know we need to exchange again, but…”

She looks up at him, then grabs his head to pull it down to her. Kissing him, she allows him to feel her lust, desire, and the need she has for him. When they come up for air, she smiles coyly. “Does that answer you?” She has been shocked that her Eric hasn’t pushed for this, but then, when has he had a chance to, really?

She glances away for a second, and is impressed by their bedroom. It is huge, having a sitting room inside of it as well as the one outside of their room. There is a fireplace, which she suspects is standard in the castle. But the bed area amazes her. It has an outdoor feel to it, with the ceiling having sticks lying across it, then the intricate headboard, as well as the lights coming down the sides, each one hanging from the one above and larger than the one above it. The room has a warm look to it, and she loves the thought that went into the decorations for the whole area. It’s not too masculine, not too feminine – a perfect blend of them both.

Noticing her examining their bed, Eric chuckles. He is pleased that she likes the changes, and starts backing her towards the bed. “Oh Lover, it has answered me, and if you think I will not take the chance to have you, you are sorely mistaken. I have waited for this moment too long to do anything but claim you as mine.” His voice is husky, deep from his need for her.

As they traverse the large room, he nuzzles near her ear while telling her, “And you will be mine. Every part of you will know me intimately. Then I will exchange with you, and if possible, I will do it again to make sure you are Bonded to me. I will repeat it as often as I can to ensure that there is no way to part us, that you will feel the love, the lust, and the adoration I have for you at all times. The pride that you are mine, and the need I have to show my people the treasure I have found in you. How I need you like the blood flowing through our veins to be by my side at every moment of the day and night. Sookie, I love you, and I want you to be sure of my feelings for you.” By this time, he has stopped at the edge of their huge bed, and he cups her cheek with his hand.

Looking into her eyes, he softly informs her, “I never want you wondering if I want you for anything other than yourself. You are everything to me. My kingdom, my family, are nothing without you. From the moment we set eyes on each other in my bar in Shreveport, we have been on the course to this ending. I cannot even fathom an ending other than this one. It just may have taken us more time to get here.” Eric sends all of his love and adoration for this woman who is his other half. He truly believes that there is no other way that their story could have ended without the two of them being together.

She looks at him, and a tear falls from her eye, sliding down her cheek at the pure poetry of his words. “I don’t doubt you. Though I admit if it hadn’t been for the lessons in Fairy, we may have had more explosions of the type we seem to specialize in.” She gives him a smile, but it trembles; she is amazed by the emotions pouring through them right now.

Unable to help himself, Eric smirks. “And I love meeting Fairy Sookie. She is part of you, and is the one who seems to guard you well. We will make sure she is as much in control as Human Sookie for I don’t want you losing either of the parts that make you who you are. I fell in love with you as you are. For me to want to change any part of it, well, that would hardly make you the woman I love, would it?” He softly wipes the tears from her face as he teases her, but at the same time Eric is telling her the truth – he never wants her to change.

Sookie cannot help the laugh that tumbles out of her as Eric’s touches feel feather light on her face. “And that is why you are my Mate, my other half. Bill wanted me to be what he saw me as, and you – you just want me to be myself.” She leans her face into his touch.

Looking at her, Eric decides that he can’t wait any longer. He takes off her cardigan, then muses to her as he continues to remove her clothing with her help, “And that is why Beehl can’t understand why he didn’t win. I never competed with him for you. I had to win your heart, and being myself was the only way I could win it the way I would allow myself to have you. I wanted everything – nothing less – and that was the only way I would take this. It just took me longer to figure out what I was feeling, and why what I wanted from you was more than I’d ever wanted from any other.” Then he smirks as he looks over the body that is now revealed to him. “Though I may have made other suggestions, it is good I had no idea this was under your clothing, darling.”

She laughs, then falls back on the bed on her elbows. She lifts an eyebrow as she asks, “Am I to see you unclothed, or is this just a show for Eric Mäninorr?”

He chuckles, and in a blur he is suddenly kneeling before her, naked. She smirks down at him as he grins up at her. “Will my Lover allow her suffering Mate to feast upon her?” His fangs run down slowly, his need for his Mate and the thought of tasting her like this too much for him to keep them sheathed.

She snickers, not able to help it, and Eric takes the sound for agreement. After that, there are no other sounds that she consciously makes. He drags her to the edge of the bed and his mouth is soon fastened on her clit. He manages to partially draw in his fangs, but still has to be careful since they wouldn’t fully retract.  He laves and kisses it as though it is her actual tongue, and stares at her as she greedily sucks air in to counter the pure pleasure his actions give her.

He chuckles, enjoying her reactions, and places one arm across her hips to help her stay on the bed but moves his tongue back as his mouth moves along her slit. His free hand is coasting up her leg, and he enjoys the goose bumps he is giving her.  He moves back to her clit as his long fingers enter her to prepare her for him.

Then Sookie has the enjoyment of watching Eric’s eyes roll back as he feels how tight she is, how warm… how wet she is from his movements already…and from the anticipation of having him claim her in every way.

His fangs drop back down as his eyes zero back to hers. Now, Sookie has been on the receiving end of Eric’s lust for her many times. The first time he saw her, his eyes had been darker – the color of dark stormy water, what she imagines he had seen with those same eyes when he had been a Viking.

Then there was the time she had been topless in his bar from the maenad’s attack. That had the added bonus of him being angry too, and she had wondered if the color of his eyes had been the same color as the skies above those dark stormy waters.

After that, there was Dallas, and his bloodlust, pain, and the need he had of her. Then came the unadulterated devastation when Godric left him. She had wondered what color you could call that odd blackish blue.

Up until now, the darkest color had been when he was fighting for their life, though she had not known it at the time, but the pure regret, as well as his need for her after their kiss, in his eyes was enough to make her wonder if there really was a such thing as a blue fire in black eyes.

Now she knows there is. His eyes are black, but the love in them for her, the need in them for her, has blue flame surrounding the black ‘nothing’ in the place where the blue usually is. But while they could have been scary, there is a softness to them letting her know that as badly as he wants, needs, has to have her, if she wanted to stop, he would.

She knows that men can stop.  She also admits it is painful for them, but the truly good ones can and will stop when asked. Eric is one of the good ones, and she knows it.  She can feel it.

While all of this is going through her mind, Eric somehow realizes that she is thinking…and not about how much she enjoys the pleasure he is bringing her. His thousand years of walking this earth gives him the benefit of knowing that a woman is different from a man and that her thinking just then does not mean that anything is wrong with either of them – but it does make him more determined to have her mindless with pleasure from his ministrations.

Her thoughts are soon brought to a halt as he works harder, giving her everything to make her brain stop wondering and concentrate on him only. He has always prided himself on giving his fucks a good experience. Why would he give any less to the woman who means everything to him?

He works to bring her to orgasm while stretching her, and enjoys the sensation of her releasing on his face, knowing that it is a sign of him accomplishing what he set out to do. And then he continues doing so, using their Bond to make sure he slices his tongue when she starts to get sore.

It’s good to be a vampire who loves sex and knows how to use his blood and body to bring pleasure to them both.

Soon, though, he is moving up her body, knowing that it is time – time to claim his Mate as his, time to do the Second Bond that will make their Bond stronger than any normal thrice-sealed Bond. He is throbbing, needing the relief of her body, but at the same time he is willing to stop here for her if she isn’t ready.

Sookie, however, isn’t going to stop anytime soon, not with how much her body craves his, craves joining with him in the most intimate way possible. So when he pauses with his cock sliding through her folds, she judges it and moves her hips just so… and they both moan with the pleasure of becoming one.

Not realizing he had closed his eyes, Eric opens them and focuses on her blue ones peering up at him. He tells her with his voice deeper than normal, “Never will another feel this. And you will never get rid of me now, Lover.”

Sookie smiles up at him, and she tells him with an eyebrow cocked up, “Good thing I’m the one who made this possible, isn’t it?”

He chuckles, peppering kisses on her face as he distracts her from the discomfort of stretching to his size. Thor is she tight!

Then the need to move is satisfied by her, and he surges up, seating himself deeper inside her. He loves the way her head falls back and he moves to nuzzle and lick her throat as he slowly pulls out, then surges forward quickly… over… and over… and over.

The two of them dance the dance that is as old as mankind – older than the Fae…as old as time itself, and the sounds from the two join the sympathy of others throughout time. However the two in that room care not for any of the poetry that could be made of this passion; instead, they work to please each other, wanting that deep connection that any soul wants with their other half.

“Hur kan detta vara bättre än så här? Hur kan detta vara bättre än så här? (How could this be any better than this?),” comes the heavy baritone voice’s question as the pleasure rushing through him is more than at any other time in his life. Not even his Maker had given him this type of pleasure.

But the only answers that come to his ears are the sounds of her pleasure, her moans, her panting to drag air into her lungs as he wrings pleasure out of her body for the two of them.

“Hur kan jag stå här med er, och inte flyttas av dig? (How can I stand here with you, and not be moved by you?),” comes out of his lips as he surges forward, harder than before, faster, his body demanding that he do more, give more, do whatever it takes to bring them both more pleasure.

But again, no answer.

Instead he answers himself, “Det är rätt, det här är bäst. (This is right, this is best.)”

And that is what he says as he surges forward, the back of his mind tracking that as he strikes at the neck of his Mate to complete his side of their Bond, to make the second of the three exchanges, as she too bites into his neck at the same moment.

But that pain does not make the two of them cum; no, instead it is the first taste of the blood of the other on their lips, their tongues, and their bodies combined. It is enough to make them see white but feel as though fireworks are going off in the body of the other, as their blood travels through their other half.

This all culminates in the two of them passing out, but around them swirls of light blue, matching their eyes, pass in and out of them as it ties the two parts of their souls together, making the Third Bond a necessity for them.

Final count, 4,233 words.

Fairfarren~