Pre Edit Count – 1,953 Words

Song I listened to for this chapter: Kashmir (Live) by Led Zepplin

Previously:

Blushing, she tells him, “I truly was not hungry. But I will try, Godric.”

He comes around the counter, and cupping her face in his hands, his eyes look into her blue ones. “And that is all I can ask. Now, let’s see what buildings we can buy, and how we can sneak the name Camelot into it.”

With that the two laugh, and head off into the living room.

Now:

When Eric wakes, he again wakes as he once did as a human. The only bad part, is that Sookie is not here with him. He understands though. Godric is using this time to bond with their Mate.

He smiles as he realizes that the two of them have not realized something — Sookie is Angel, and they may actually have children. One of the constants of the legends is that with a Mated Angel, there are children. The males, no. But, the females? He wonders how it would work.

Remembering the conversation before he fell asleep, Eric sits up on the bed, the sheet that he is sure Sookie had covered him with falling to his waist. He has some sleep pants on, but that is it. And he only wore them for his Mate.

He runs his hands through his long hair and sighs. Luckily, he didn’t have it cut. Before anything happens, he will call for someone to come today to cut what is left after the ceremony. The ceremony is an old one, and the cutting of hair is known. There will be blood of course. What ceremony has ever not needed blood?

He is debating one aspect of it, the one that should involve his Mate in the calling. Her blood will be needed, a drop, but he doesn’t wish to lock her into anything. The second the calling goes out with her blood, she will be his Queen.

But, if he wishes to claim her as his, he should leave the choice to her. He remembers many a time that someone had chosen for her in the previous timeline and how angry she would be. He smirks as he remembers a couple of times he had done it to make her angry at him. He loves her fiery spirit and has since he met her. In their one on one dealings when he had called for assistance with Longshadow, the deal she made had him staring at her and agreeing. She agreed to be on call to him, and he couldn’t think of anything better. Her slapping him had only made it permanent, his need to make her his.

Smirking at the memory, he grabs his phone and after sending some instructions out, he gets up and heads to the bathroom. Once in there, he hits a button and a safe appears. Eric had long ago thought up unique places to keep his treasures. This is one that had to be kept safe no matter what. As the safe scanned his eye and then his hand, he patiently waits. Once the click is heard, he opens it to a chalice and a knife.

Both are old, older than any human would ever guess. They have been handed down the centuries to end up with him as a human and when he had been searched out, handed to him again as a vampire. He carefully grabs the two, then closes the safe, the only items remaining in it are some items he had slowly retrieved from his human life. His father’s crown is the only missing thing, and he will be retrieving that soon.

Carrying the pieces out of the room, he heads into his sparring room. In the corner is an altar, one that he maintains in his beliefs. He sets everything down, and kneels before the altar, waiting on his Mate and his Maker to come down. He starts the flame on the oil brazier.

Soon they enter the room, Sookie in a black shirt paired with some pants of the same color. The color brings out her eyes, as well the golden color of her skin.

Godric is also wearing black, and Eric wonders if they had planned it somehow. He dismisses the thought, and holds out a hand to his Mate. “Min Älskade, this is your choice. When I was to call, it had been foretold that I would have another to make the call with. Never in my wildest dreams had I ever imagined it would be you. But, I offer you this choice. By doing what we are doing, it may be taken as a pledging by the knife. You will register with the ones to come as their Queen for sure. I did not want to do this without you, but I wanted you to be aware of what happens if you agree.”

Sookie looks behind her to Godric then back to Eric. “What does this pledging consist of?”

Godric answers her softly. “In the most basic way, it is a handing of a knife to the other, and that one accepting it. The more intricate way would be to exchange blood. I am taking by Eric’s stance that this will involve everything the ceremony will have.”

Sookie bites her lip, then asks, “Would it be binding? Would it be accepted by all the vampires that we need it accepted by?”

Godric smiles at his Mate, and nods. “Just like any can tell with a sniff that you are Bonded, they will be able to tell a love pledge. No worries about that, a stoirin. This is about what you want. Do you want the pomp and circumstance, or do you mind it just being the three of us witnessing to your union with Eric?”

She shakes her head as she smiles at Eric, taking his hand. “I much rather it be this private for us. I just didn’t want to find out that there will be questions on this. But what of Godric?”

Eric smiles as he brings her to kneel beside him. “Just as Godric is his own person, your Bond with him is that, your own. While we will be together and act as one, there are some things that will be our own. Our Bond, our Pledge is between us. It will be a living entity as is the Bond. I am now the King of Texas, and I can and will share that with you and Godric. But what I am doing now, can only be between the two of us. Godric is not one of us. He is not a Viking, nor does he carry the gene, I suspect. I carry it, and you are one. This will be what I think the call will need, but it doesn’t require it. It is why I wanted to make sure that you were fine with this. You are accepting your position as my Queen.”

She then grins at him, “As your Guinevere?”

He moans and mutters, “Had to tell her didn’t you?”

At their laughter, he sighs. “Ready, lover?”

She stops laughing and nods. “Just tell me what I need to do.”

He nods. “To do this, I will be speaking Old Norse. I have to sacrifice my hair, and drops of our blood. The hair part is easy, but the blood will need to be done with our hands clasped and joined with the knife in between us. Then I need to pull it from our hands, and that will draw the combined blood of both of us, and I suspect will join us as pledged. If for some reason it does not, before we leave here, we will be joined if this is what you wish, min älskade.”

She smiles at him, and taking the knife from him, kisses the blade and hands it back to him. His eyes brighten with her doing this, something he had not thought to inform her of, and starts chanting the ceremony he had learned at his father’s knee, never imagining he would be the one invoking it.

Godric watches as the two of them start glowing a light blue, neither looking away from the other. He smiles, knowing that this pledging will be one for the books, and is feeling very privileged to be the one witnessing it.

Eric takes the knife from her hands, and kisses the blade. He never loses his eye contact with his lover, even when grabbing his hair and jerking the knife through the length. He dumps this in the chalice, then taking his other hand, he holds it above the chalice with the blade edge side against his hand. Sookie then puts her hand on the other side of the blade, clasping his own to the point they both can feel the blade pressing down on them.

Meeting her eyes, he says the part that he was to add if his other half was to be there. He faithfully chants it and is shocked when Sookie starts chanting with him. Unknown to the both of them, the glow Godric had noticed before was brighter, lighting the room.

Then Eric grasps the knife, and Sookie holds their hands closer at the same time that Eric yanks the knife down, cutting both their palms, then having them join. Blood splatters on his hair, and without Eric lighting the contents, it starts burning in the chalice.

Neither notices it as they both feel the Bond that Eric had talked about settle around their shoulders, as though a mantle had been laid on them. Eric himself turns slightly more golden, matching his Queen. Sookie and his hair actually lighten, matching in color exactly.

A gong sounds, and they both feel connected to thousands of others. They can hear the answer from them as a resounding, “Yes!”

Then the fire in the chalice blazes higher, engulfing their hands that are still being held, but no heat is felt by the two. When the flame dies, there is nothing in the chalice; in fact, it looks like it is brand new.

Eric smiles at his Queen, the one that he knows was always meant to be here, beside him. Then he grabs the knife and to his astonishment, it grew to the length of a broadsword.

Sookie, though amazed by what had transpired, laughs in delight. “Excalibur!”

Rolling his eyes, Eric stands up, and reaches down his other hand to help his Mate, his Bonded, his Queen, and more importantly to him, his wife, up. But before she takes his hand, she glances at it, and her brow furrows, “What is that on your hand, Eric?”

He looks at it, and can see the rune that his family used for the symbol of the Seraphim, or what his people called the Valkyries. Then he picks up her hand, and shows her that the symbol is repeated on her hand.

Godric smiles and as he leans forward to see, he comments, “I take it the ceremony took. Hail King Eric and his Valkyrie Queen Sookie. May they live forever.”

Sookie gives him an odd look, and he looks at her with an eyebrow raised. “I truly wish you both the life, and though I know that you will not live past me, my heart never wants to think of either of you not in this world.”

Then his eyes get the mischievousness that Sookie is becoming used to. “Besides, who else would help me tease King Arthur here?”

Final Count: 1,936 words

Fairfarren ~