Disclaimer: May contain some violence and much swearing. It’s also a little cracky, fluff, hellooooo handsome type of ficlet.
Third POV
A scowl was the prominent feature on Bella’s face as she threw back another drink and gestured for another. She had been in Fangtasia for three hours now, turned down a number of hungry bloodsuckers and still refused to answer her phone that was once again ringing.
“And what is a tiny human like you doing in a place like this on Christmas Eve?” A voice like honey asked to her right.
“Fuck off.” She muttered bitterly as she threw back the last of her drink once again before pouring another from the bottle the bartender graciously left for her.
The vampire chuckled. “Feisty I like that, but this fine establishment is mine can’t really do that.”
Bella turned her head to the right and peered up at the vampire before her. He was tall and handsome that was for sure but with an air of arrogance and superiority, qualities she did not care for. Though because of her gift she could see all that he was – his past-self overlaying on top of his modern self.
“You look better with longer hair Viking.” Was all she said before taking another sip of her good Ol’ friend Jimmy before she found herself spun around and pinned to the bar.
“How do you know me? I have never seen you before nor smelt a scent like yours in this area. Who are you and what are you?” He snarled darkly.
“It’s a gift.” She replied blandly, holding up her bitten wrist. “Half-breed.”
Eric let the girl go instantly as he took in the bite of a day walker on her wrist, his finger trailing over the cool flesh of the bite to the warmth of her own. “How are you not a full Day-Walker?”
Bella snorted and turned back to her drink, eyeing the blasted fucking phone once more. “I was friends with the natives near my home and amongst them was a shaman, who of course I went to for help when I realised that the venom was spreading. What the fuck he did, I do not know but now I’m stuck between human and leech.”
“Okay, I can accept that considering all the Supes that exist in this god forsaken world.” He replied before sitting down on the empty stool next to her. “But what I do not get is your gift and why you are here on Christmas Eve, isn’t there usually some festive stuff you all do? And why are you ignoring phone calls?” He asked.
Bella once again turned her head towards the Viking and snorted in amusement. “You see, I have a shitty hand with luck, luck and fate are cruel mistresses and like to fuck with my life. While I’d rather be at home and eating ice cream while watching whatever crappy Christmas movie on TV.” She started before throwing back another drink.
“But you see, I come home from work to find my boyfriend of three years fucking my best friend and roommate on MY bed, it’s a typical fuck you boy screwed me over situation. So I punched him in the face, swiped his keys and wallet before driving off into the sunset, found myself here and decided to have a drink.” She finished, giving him a lazy smile that seemed almost predatory to him.
Eric raised his brows amused at the tiny hybrid next to him and swiped a glass from the shelf before pouring himself a drink. “Well, he sure is an idiot, if I were him I would not even dare to look at another with a woman like you on my arm.”
The laugh that escaped her lips was dry and yet a bit hysteric. “You know for an old vampire, I would have hoped you had better pick-up lines, compliments or advice. You, sir, are surely lacking.”
“And I have never had to try this hard before.” He quipped in return, causing her to smirk. Besides Sookie, all other women, human and Supes alike threw themselves at his feet. It was not often that a woman turned him down or even showed little interest in him at all, it was quite refreshing to be honest.
“I have a question, what is a vampire like you doing here by yourself on Christmas Eve talking to me? I heard you clear out the bar about an hour or so ago.” She asked him, swirling her drink around with the tip of her finger.
Ah… “You are not the only one to have bad luck in the romance department. The woman I was interested in decided to play the, what do they call it now…” he trailed off with a frown.
“She decided to be interested but only to get what she wanted?” Bella supplied, earning a nod in return. “That sucks.”
Both Eric and Bella turned their eyes back to the cell phone that was once again vibrating annoyingly on the bar. John’s name flashed across the screen near mockingly before finally ringing out. One would think that the ignored calls would give them a clue but not John and apparently not Anna as well.
“What do you say we go make the night a bit more interesting before the sun comes up?” Eric asked as he saw her scowl deepening.
Bella shot him an interested look. “What do you suggest Viking?”
“Oh, a little mayhem and destruction to a selective group of humans and vampires.” He supplied causing her to grin wildly.
“I like the way you think…” She trailed off, realising now that she didn’t actually know his name.
“Eric Northman.” He chuckled out.
“Pleasure, Bella Swan.” She replied, raising her brow in amusement as he kissed the back of her hand and gave her a mock bow. “Enough charm Viking, if all goes well tonight you may even get lucky.” She taunted as she hopped off her stool and sashayed out the door.
Eric couldn’t help but laugh and follow her, looks like it would be an interesting Christmas after all.
Elijah’s wish: That their family once more be whole and happy.
Elijah sighed as he walked the streets of New Orleans. The farthest thing from his mind was to return to the Abattoir, where he knew Niklaus was bitterly drowning himself in alcohol at their latest find in the web of lies Hayley had constructed.
The noble one, as he was renowned for being, did not feel so noble at all tonight.
His family lay in tatters, divided—more so than they ever had been. Rebekah banished, Kol dead…
And then there was Hayley Marshall.
Guilt swarmed his mind. He knew he should have seen it, should have somehow found a way to… to protect his fragile brother from this latest, cruel betrayal. For that was what Niklaus was; the thousand years had only continued to scar him, his happiness, his light doomed to fall into a pit of never-ending darkness the very night he killed his first victim and the truth of his parentage was found out.
Elijah had always wanted the best for his impulsive, stubborn, violent hybrid brother. He had always been wracked with guilt at the hand he’d played the night the curse was laid upon him, at his weakness in the moment he stood staring into his brother’s pleading, desperate eyes, their father behind him ordering him to shackle his brother to the wood. The moment he had relented and done as asked, he had regretted it. And yet the fear of Mikael had… had forced him to…
He shook his head, looking up at the full moon above. A thousand years later and the Mikaelson family was more ruined than ever. Kol’s death had marked them all in ways they’d never anticipated, but of course it ran far deeper, one having to tread far further back in their history than that to truly understand the root of it.
No member of the family was without fault, was utterly innocent in the fall of their family. And yet Elijah could not help but shoulder the blame, at least to himself acknowledge that he was to blame for… most of it—however untrue that fact was.
This was why, after witnessing his brother kill the werewolf that had lied to them for months in sheer anger, sheer betrayal, and sheer grief at the loss of a child that had never been… this was why Elijah found himself looking up at the full moon on Christmas Eve, repeating a wish for the thousandth time.
He wished for his brother’s happiness and salvation. He wished for their family to once more become whole… he wished, he wished, he wished as he always had.
He looked down at the gravel beneath his feet, shoulders slumped in a rare show of forsaken hope.
Shaking his head, he spun and whooshed away, back to the Abattoir. He passed Niklaus, still drinking himself to sleep with an empty bottle of bourbon on the side table and a bottle of scotch in his hand as he gazed unseeingly at Hayley’s body, more pointedly to the counterfeit swollen belly he once believed to be filled with a child—his child. A chance at happiness, a chance at having someone who would love him without reservation; acceptance granted unconditionally.
But it was hollow, a spelled image.
Another dream shattered.
Elijah sighed and looked down, swallowing as he disappeared into his chambers—passing Kol and Rebekah’s barren rooms on his way.
He dressed for bed and tried to sleep but found all his efforts to be in vain. His thoughts whirling in his head fast and unrelenting, keeping him up even as his body ached for sleep.
He was at an utter loss.
Finally, a short hour before dawn, he fell asleep, unaware that upon awakening he would find his wish come true at last.
Elijah’s face scrunched as he felt prodding fingers on his face and he stretched and recoiled, manoeuvring away—or rather, attempting to—only to find himself incapable of escaping the persistent touches.
His eyes opened and he growled low in his chest, sitting up… only to pause, brow furrowing as his lips parted in confusion. His eyes narrowed as he looked around the bedroom, finding subtle changes and a definite change in scent that was… somehow familiar… but impossible.
His attention turned back to the young child in front of him, wide familiar blue eyes looking into his with a mastered innocence. “Who are you?” he murmured, taking in the dimples as she grinned, a pealing laugh leaving her mouth as her head of brunette curls shook from side to side.
“Silly Uncle ‘lijah…” the child giggled and Elijah opened his mouth to speak back when they were interrupted by a voice.
“Adisa!” an American accent called, the sound of a supernatural creature speeding through halls meeting his ears just a moment after.
The girl perched on his bed sighed and pouted, looking down. “Mama—” she whined.
“No,” was the firm response from outside the door before an apologetic brunette with brown eyes and pale skin appeared. “I’m so sorry, Elijah,” she said before turning back to her daughter, her expression firming as she rose an eyebrow. “Adisa Mikaelson, you apologise to your Uncle and come downstairs. Now.”
The girl sagged even further, a stubborn frown on her face. The pout deepened as she looked up from behind her eyelashes at a very confused and disoriented Elijah. “’m sorry,” she mumbled.
“Quite all right,” he answered, his voice aloof as he eyed the girl. She flashed him a grin and then got down and he gasped as he watched the child flash out of the room, careening down the hallway as she called “daddy!”
He looked up to find the girl’s mother watching him and she nodded. “We’re gonna have breakfast in about fifteen minutes… Nik was thinking maybe we could go to the bayou so Adisa could have some time with the wolves…?”
Elijah blinked, lips still parted and eyebrow quirked as he stared at her. He was unsure of exactly what to say.
Thankfully, the as-yet-unnamed brunette grinned. “I’ll, uh… leave you to get dressed.”
And then, with a smirk on her face, she, too, was gone down the hallway.
Elijah breathed out, frown deepening as thoughts whirled inside his head. Blurry images seemed to be awakened as the two brunettes left him to himself and he shook his head, rising from the bed. It appeared he had somewhere to be shortly…
A few minutes later, Elijah was feeling somewhat better as he fixed his cufflinks and ran his hands down his suit jacket. It had been utterly confusing to find new clothing—female clothing and other apparel at that—beside his usual attire. However, he pressed through, convinced he would be able to make sense of things once faced with all of the facts—mind-boggling though they may be.
He sighed as he left the room, taking another look before appearing in the hallway. He walked down at a leisurely if perhaps sluggish pace, still trying to come to terms with what he might find. He was so ensconced in his thoughts that he did not recognize the scent nor hear the quick approaching footsteps until it was too late and with a small cry he was yanked into a crevice.
He growled at his attacker, spinning them and then pinning them to the wall by both arms only to gape as he breathed the name of a woman he’d never thought he’d see again.
“Katerina…”
The woman was not smirking at him as she would have previously, instead grinning softly as she raised an eyebrow. The look was so unexpected, his hold on her loosened and then her arms were around his neck as she pulled him in. He sighed as blocked, murky images came to mind as he kissed her, the touch of their lips growing from passionate to tender and loving the longer she persisted.
She was the one to pull away first, looking between his eyes and his lips as she pecked him still just one… two… three more times before once again smiling. “Merry Christmas, ‘lijah,” she whispered, sighing as she leaned her forehead against his.
He swallowed, holding her to him tight, his brow furrowed with confusion at how… different she was with him in this moment. Just what in the world was happening?
“Merry Christmas,” he intoned a few moments late and she eyed him, worried a little as he could tell from the look in her brown eyes. He smiled and shook his head, head spinning as he guided her down to the courtyard at childish bellows of their names.
Once again, images cleared and—and he seemed to find himself belonging in this world constructed for him. He remembered the events of—was that five years? Yes… five years, while retaining the memories of all previous years before as concrete and true as ever. The memories that had been so fresh in his mind before he went to sleep were just as they had been but not quite so fresh, taken up now by five years’ worth of more recent ones…
Was this… was this real? Was this, what he was experiencing now, a true evolution of his life come to pass or an image of what was to come?
A paper was on the table as they encountered the girl once more—Adisa—sitting by herself, her legs swinging under the chair she was sitting on. She grinned at them as Elijah took the paper and he frowned as he read the date…
So it was real.
But then…
“Where is Kol?” he asked, urgent and breathless as he looked around.
Katerina looked up from where she was sitting with Adisa, once again worried. She grinned at the girl then flash to his side. “Kol’s upstairs… in the shower,” she answered in her husky tones, eyeing him carefully. “’lijah, are you—“
It was then that he realised that, as this was all real, his relationship with Katerina—the memories he had of them together, in love and happy… they were all true…
He grabbed her in his arms, pulling her in as his usual decorum left him and he kissed her firmly on the lips, a hand lifted to caress and curl to her cheek. She gasped under the passion, the urgency of his movements, but she softened to them and melted into him, trying to ease his mind as she kissed him passionately and tenderly and lovingly.
He pulled back, taking her face in his hands as he looked into her dazed eyes. “I love you,” he said strongly, emotion almost choking him, a genuine smile on his lips.
Her brow creased with confusion but she could not help but smile, her love for him echoed in not just words that she spoke but her eyes as well… her gorgeous brown eyes. “I love you, Elijah,” she whispered, smiling at him. And he believed her—utterly.
“Elijah, I never took you for one who’d treat a lady so in front of a child,” a sorely missed cheeky tone rang out through the courtyard. The oldest Mikaelson’s head spun around and he drank in the sight of his youngest, once-perished brother as now memories of him from the past five years entered his mind… easier now to see and make sense of.
Katerina smirked, standing in front of him as she wrapped his arms around her waist. “I don’t mind…” she said, tilting her head in quite a Katherine-like pose. But she was happy, mindlessly happy, Elijah could tell.
“I’m sure,” Kol smirked and he sat down next to his niece, looking at the sketch book in her hand. “Very nice, darling… Did you show daddy?”
“She did,” the man himself said as he entered the room, smirking and with his arm around the waist of the brunette from before. He dropped a kiss to his daughter’s head and the girl grinned up at him before looking at Elijah.
The brunet eyed Niklaus, taken aback even as the memories echoed in his ears, behind his eyelids every time he blinked, the knowledge of the past five years coming to him now.
But there was someone missing.
“Where’s Rebekah?” he asked, a frown on his face.
“She and Stefan are held up,” Bella—as he now knew her to be—answered, shrugging. “Should be here—”
The sound of a car stopping, the doors opening then slamming as a set of feet rushed in interrupted her. The blonde form grinned as she found her family, leaving her suitcase at the door as she flashed to everyone’s arms, hugging them and greeting them, happy. Elijah smiled as she finally made it to him and he remembered, now, the final piece of the puzzle.
He looked up and nodded to the new addition to the family—Stefan Salvatore—who nodded back, a small smile on his lips that grew larger as he was joined by his wife, Rebekah.
Elijah’s eyes wandered over his family’s form, taking in their happy faces with a freedom he’d never thought he’d experience. The guilt of a thousand years was lifted from his shoulders as he and Niklaus shared a nod, smiling genuinely at one another as the hybrid patted his back on their way out to the cars. He watched his brother re-join his mate and daughter before looking down as arms wrapped around his middle and he looked into shining brown eyes of the greatest love he’d ever known and would ever know.
His wish had been for the simple wholesomeness of their family, and for Klaus to find his salvation.
“Nik!” Rebekah called, a large grin on her face as she ran to him. The blond rose an eyebrow at his sister’s exuberance, but made no move to join her in standing. When the girl said nothing, he chuckled.
“What is it, sister?” he asked, looking behind her to his brothers conversing with two of the noblemen they were staying with, Lucien no doubt lurking somewhere unseen.
“It’s almost time for the bonfire,” she said, taking his hand and tugging him up off the log. He quickly let his hand drop and the smile on her face followed suit a moment before she turned around. “Nik?” she asked, stepping toward him.
He shook his head. “You go, sister.”
She took his hand and gave a tug, frowning deeper as he didn’t respond. “Nik…” she tried, tentative as she looked over her shoulder, seeing Elijah glance her way. His eyes narrowed for a second at the picture before him before he swallowed and was pulled back into conversation. “Brother, please…”
But Niklaus didn’t want to. “Sister, it is a pointless tradition. None of the wishes we make for one another or ourselves come to pass… We should leave it. If not for the fact that it does not work then for the attraction it will bring… no other families celebrate in this way. It will be spoken about and Mikael will hear… then we’ll have to run. I know how much you enjoy it here, the freedom the noble life brings…” He watched as her face fell, somewhat pleased.
Then her chin rose, her lips pressed together as she looked him in the eye. “If you do not wish to participate, Nik, then you don’t have to. But the rest of us will be…”
And thus they did, Niklaus staying in the shadows. He was far away enough that they could not sense him and more to the point, he could not hear the wishes they were sharing. He watched as Elijah and Rebekah looked around, and the way their faces fell slightly when they did not find him.
Vampirism had given him a stealth and strength that had always alluded him in humanity. Thus, it was because of this that he was able to remain undetected once his family had left the bonfire pit to burn. He remained, watching the ashes as they swirled through the sky, thick smoke tendrils making his eyes narrow. He looked around before dashing forward with his supernatural speed, and he looked down, unsure, before he pulled out two rather large pieces of bark. On one he had scratched the wish he held for the rest of his family, as was their family tradition, whereas on the other was the wish he held for himself—a smaller tradition held only by the children of the Mikaelson family.
With a sigh, shoulders slumped, his eyes glanced over the words once more. A bitter smile on his lips, he threw them in carelessly, spinning and walking away immediately without watching as the bark fell apart and disintegrated under the heat of the fire.
I wish for the safety and happiness of my siblings in the face of our parents.
I wish for love and acceptance.
PRESENT: Mystic Falls; 2012
Klaus growled as he slammed the door, the foundations shaking from the force. He looked around as he entered the empty manor, sneering at the surroundings. He whooshed through to the liquor cabinet, raiding it for the scotch. Foregoing a glass, he opened the bottle and took a long swig. His hand is gripping the thick glass of the bottle so hard he can feel it start to give from the tension and he set it down hard on his desk, gripping the dark wood.
Anger was but one of the many emotions coursing through his veins this Christmas night.
His family was gone and he had no idea where… any of them were. Rebekah was still in Mystic Falls but refused to speak with him. His hybrids were gone…
Perhaps the only good thing was that Esther and Mikael had remained dead since their timely deaths. But of course, that never stopped the threats from numerous others.
He sighed hard and gripped the bottle again, downing a significant portion. He was already close to three sheets to the wind before arriving home so he was staggering as he made his way to his studio. The door slammed against the wall as he opened it, and he chuckled, a hollow sound in the empty and cold room, as he looked at the sketches and paintings around. Some were angry clashes of blacks and reds, others blues of the woods… but there was a collection that always stood out and he made his way for them, his expression now utterly aloof.
Gripping the bottle in his left hand, he took the sheet covering them in his right and with a sharp flick of his wrist, they were unveiled. His eyes drank in the images and he swallowed, looking down after a moment before peeking back up at them. He could never stray from the blonde flowing hair, the green eyes…
Caroline…
He shook his head, emotions swirling. A foolish hope, that someone so… full of light could ever love him. He’d hoped, he’d longed for acceptance and love and what had he received in return?
Betrayal… deceit… abandonment… the sneers of the woman he regretfully loved.
And yet he could not stop.
Even as he stood in front of the paintings, his eyes filled with tears that began to silently slide down his cheeks… he could not bring himself to feel one iota of hatred towards the vampire.
A small amount of determination, however, he did feel. He breathed in deeply, turning away from the paintings and walking out of the room. He checked his phone and searched for her number, staring for a long time. Did he call or simply text?
Sighing, he sat down in the living room in his armchair, taking another swig of the scotch—which was three quarters empty.
Merry Christmas, love.—Klaus
He stared at the fire after sending it, the notion of the family’s forgotten Christmas ritual swirling in his drunken mind. Before he knew what he was doing, he was up and out of the room. A pen and two small pieces of paper in hand when he returned, he scribed two sets of wishes. He chuckled humourlessly and looked around the room when he was finished then back at the fire, standing up and leaving the room. The papers remained untouched until the next morning, where he came upon them and scrunched them into a ball, throwing them into the bin under his desk.
FUTURE: New Orleans; 2015
The pitter-patter of small feet running down the halls made Klaus look up from his papers, a genuine and large smile already on his lips as the door opened and in a flash a small brunette ball of energy landed in his lap.
“Daddy!” Kari greeted him, her dimples showing as she grinned at him, her large blue eyes shining. He cupped her cheek and kissed her forehead, holding her close as he got up from his seat.
“Hello, sweetheart,” he said. He readjusted his two year old daughter on his hip as he walked to the door, leaving the room. “I thought your mother told you I was busy,” he said, raising an eyebrow.
The girl blushed and bit her lip, burrowing into her father’s embrace as she blinked up at him. The picture of innocence, she was just as cunning as the Original hybrid himself but he was powerless against her. Especially when she spoke, far more sophisticatedly than one would expect, her supernatural state making her far superior to a human or even wolf or witch two year old. “I’m sorry, daddy… I got excited…” They walked past a window and her legs tightened around his hips as she jumped with excitement. The bashful look on her face disappeared as an awed one took its place, her features filled with elation as she pointed toward the window—making him warm inside. “Look! It’s snowing!”
Klaus stopped and turned to the row of windows, holding her to him as they looked out them at the falling snow outside. “It is, love…”
“Uncle Kol said that he would take me out to make snow angels after dinner,” she prattled excitedly.
The blond smirked, darkly amused by the image of the second feared Mikaelson doing such an innocent thing—with a child no less. Then again, he would do anything for the little hybrid witch that had taken their family by both surprise and their hearts. “I’m sure he did…”
“He said Aunt Bekah and Uncle ‘lijah might not like it though… ‘cause it’s too cold…” she said, and she pouted, lifting her gaze to meet their identical match. She was slumped in his arms, clinging to him as she beseeched with pleading blue storms of emotion—another trait she’d received from her father. “Please, daddy,” she begged softly, her pout deepening. “Please can I go out and play? Uncle Kol will take good care of me!”
“Nik! Kari!” they heard a feminine, American accent call. A whoosh and the two blue-eyed Mikaelsons looked around to see the third member of their little trio leaning against the wall, a soft smile on her lips. “There you are… It’s time for the bonfire.”
Klaus grinned. His eyes roamed his wife’s form with a hungered promise she knew well. She was a sight for sore eyes even if he had only been cooped up in his office a few hours. The two hybrids smiled at one another as the Original repositioned their tribrid daughter on his other hip before reaching for his mate, arm outstretched as he raised an eyebrow. The brunette giggled and flashed into his arm on the other side of their daughter, on whose forehead she placed a kiss.
Klaus held his two girls close, breathing in his mate’s scent and sighing as he calmed, all tension leaving him as they simply stood there and watched the snow fall. Eventually, his daughter kicked to get down and he let her, watching until she was out of sight before he turned to his brown eyed other half.
“Hi,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck as she leaned up to kiss him on the mouth. He hummed into it, kissing her passionately, holding her body to his possessively but she did not mind. She loved it, craved it.
“Hello, love,” he murmured against her lips, his fingers combing through brunette curls. “Merry Christmas, Bella.”
Her grin widened as she withdrew from his arms, laughing outright at the pout that formed. “Nope, not gonna work, Mikaelson. It’s time for the bonfire… we’re holding everyone up.”
“It’s the same bloody thing as last year, and the year before, love,” he said, raising his eyebrow, a smirk on his lips.
“Nik…” she warned in that mother tone of hers, the one that never ceased to work on their whimsical, stubborn daughter. Another trait she had picked up from her father, but of course there was the double dose from her werewolf turned hybrid mother.
He sneered without any real malice behind it as the two knew, relenting with a petulant sigh. “Very well… Lead the way, love.”
She kissed his lips and sighed, leaning her forehead against his. She was of half the mind to just stay there, maybe sneak back to their ro—
“Nik, Bella!” they heard the only female Original call, the echoes of her stiletto heels slapping down on the cement accompanying. They separated.
“We’re bloody coming, Rebekah!” Klaus growled at his sister and he heard the sigh and muttered words as the blonde spun on her heels and walked away, back to the pit that Elijah had constructed in the middle of the courtyard.
The two took their time to arrive, the Mikaelsons already waiting there looking up—perhaps one or two glaring before a soft growl that held no wait averted their gaze. Klaus grinned as his daughter appeared at his side, and he let go of his wife in lieu of lifting the tribrid into his arms, holding her close as the fire picked up when Kol and Rebekah threw in their dual wishes, followed by Elijah and Bella.
“Daddy, it’s our turn,” little Kari whispered, glancing at him before her eyes drifted back to the fire, mouth open in awe as she trembled with excitement. Klaus held her steady, watching not the flames but her face as she threw in her two little pieces of paper (he chuckled when he glanced at the wish she’d written for herself).
Then it was his turn.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, reading the lines of wishes for every other being beside him. He stepped forward and threw it into the bonfire before stepping back, re-joining his wife.
“Only one piece of paper?” she whispered as she leaned her head onto his shoulder.
Klaus nodded, saying nothing as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. His eyes roamed the small gathering and then fell on his mate and daughter, his grin widening.
Summary: Centuries have passed for Sookie, Eric, Stefan and the rest. Have they been good? Bad? A mixture?
Beta:
Disclaimer: I do not own Sookie (Thank God! Although I do like her in this story). Nor do I own anyone else who belongs to Southern Vampire Mysteries, True Blood or The Vampire Diaries although if either Alexander Skarsgard or Ian Somerhalder were to pay a visit…well, I don’t think they would be leaving anytime soon since I own handcuffs and rope and know how to use them :D.
A/N: American Thanksgiving 2009 fell on November 26 and Christmas was on a Friday.
She sat staring into the fire on Christmas Eve, wrapped in an old natty afghan her Gran had once crocheted; that was many centuries ago, though. A tear slipped down her cheek as she thought of all that had happened since Adele had slipped into the great beyond.
So much had happened that first year; some of it good but most of it was beyond human comprehension. Sookie still, after all these years, had a hard time comprehending some of the things that had happened during those first months after Adele had died.
Sookie shook herself out of her grim thoughts and looked around the room at all the pictures and mementos of the people who had flitted in and out of her life and special moments with those she held most dear.
Above the mantle were the pictures of her human family: One of the few pictures of herself, her brother and their parents which had been taken just a few weeks before their car had skidded off the bridge and Corbett and Michelle had drowned. Pictures of her and Jason through the years as they grew up, mostly for Trunk or Treat. She laughed when she remembered them running through the Maize Maze trying to scare each other and beat the other to the exit.
She smiled when she saw the picture of Gran down by the pond. Jason was acting like a doofus in the water and she had used her first camera to take a picture of her Gran that first summer after their parents died. They didn’t have a lot of money for vacations and other little extras so they managed to find ways to make those special moments matter.
On that occasion, they had taken the picnic basket, a blanket and towels to the pond instead of going to a beach where there would be a lot of people. It had been a scorching hot day in late August and Jason had been complaining about being hot and wanting to do things like his friends did so Gran had pulled out the basket, made some sandwiches, tea and potato salad and they had walked to the pond.
She sighed when she saw the next picture. Bill Compton. He had been a bump in the road to her happiness. By the time he had entered the picture, she had been in love with Stefan for a long while. That hadn’t mattered to him though, what mattered was getting her away from Bon Temps and to the queen.
Her gaze next landed on the snow globe in the center of the mantle and she actually laughed out loud. It was the first present Eric had ever given her. Actually, according to Pam, it was the first Christmas present he had ever given of his own accord without her hounding about the holiday and demanding he buy her something.
Sookie got up and walked over to the mantle, already seeing that Christmas in her mind’s eye. She shook it and watched as the snow settled on the roof of the little farmhouse as she thought back to that first Christmas after they had recovered Godric.
Stefan had brought her home at Thanksgiving and they had stayed through the New Year’s celebration at Fangtasia, leaving the next day for where they now called home: Fort Payne, Alabama. It was still southern enough for Sookie and there wasn’t anything Supernatural in the area. There was no Cross Road for Supernaturals, no Fae portal, nothing which could cause either of them any grief or drama. If they wanted to go for drama they went back home for a time; there was always something happening in either Bon Temps or Mystic Falls.
They had worked for nearly a month, from the day after Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve getting everything ready for their first Christmas together, her first since Gran had died.
Stefan had worked hard replacing broken and creaking boards and painting the house while Sookie cleaned top to bottom, inside and out, to get everything ready for what turned out to be one of the best Christmases she could remember.
By the time Christmas Day rolled around, there wasn’t a surface that didn’t have some sort of decoration on it. Someone had even managed to surprise her. Sookie had never had a white Christmas, but someone managed to rent a snowmaking machine and cover her property with snow. It had all melted by sundown, but she had been beside herself with joy at the sight from her bedroom window when she had gotten up. She still had the pictures of it, too. They had even managed to have a short snowball fight by the time Jason had arrived, his eyes full of wonder at the unexpected sight of snow.
Stefan had brought her breakfast in bed just as the sun was peaking over the horizon and they had shared an unhurried breakfast, lazing around on her bed for more than an hour before she forced herself to get up and put the turkey on to cook.
She had been in a baking frenzy for the last week so the cakes and pies and cookies were all sitting on their plates on the screened in back porch, just waiting for her family and friends to come and gobble them down.
The first present she had opened that morning had been a photo album with only one picture in it: her and Stefan standing in front of the house once all the decorations were up. “For all the memories we’ll make together,” he had told her. And they had made a lot of memories over the years; she had filled many albums before she had switched to digital so she could carry her memories with her wherever she went.
The first present she had opened that night had been the snowglobe. She still remembered how Eric’s face had lit up when she told him how much she liked it and had given him a hug and a peck on the cheek for being so thoughtful AND staying within the price limit.
Little did she suspect that he had had it made specially for her from pictures he’d managed to acquire over the months they had known each other. He knew from her own words that something that looked extravagant would not be appreciated so he’d contacted someone who had been able to make what he wanted. They had received an extra little bonus in the New Year since she had liked it to so much.
Stefan had been wrong about one thing, although she suspected he knew that at the time. The albums didn’t have just the memories of the two of them together. When her other present from him had been a camera she had gotten shutter happy and gone through many rolls of film that day but she had gotten all of them developed and put them in that first album, filling it.
As she had filled each photo album another, empty one, would mysteriously appear on the shelf next to the full one.
They had spent a happy morning preparing the dinner feast and when the time came, the table was full of not just food but friends and family, and those who would become family over the course of the years ahead of her. There was more than enough food for all the chewers to take home leftovers so she knew people like her brother wouldn’t be living on pizza and beer for a few days.
Stefan’s brother and his girlfriend had shared that first Christmas with them as had Pam and Eric and Godric, Tara and Lafayette, Jason and his date, Arlene and her kids, Terry and Andy, Holly and her boys, Sam, Godric, Caroline and Tyler, Bonnie and Jeremy. They had had to break out the lawn chairs and card tables to fit everyone which had been just fine with her!
Over the years the people who shared Holidays and Holy Days with her had changed but there were constants. Stefan was forever there, loving her and supporting her in whatever she chose to do and through the hardships life always threw her way. Eric had always supported her too. He had been disappointed, at first, that she hadn’t chosen to be with him but once he saw that she was happy he was simply happy for her. He may not always be able to be physically present, but he always made sure she knew he was thinking of her.
She sighed when she thought of Sam Merlotte. She truly had enjoyed working for him, but he simply could not be happy for her. In his eyes if she wasn’t with him, she shouldn’t be with anybody so she had quite Merlotte’s and gone to work for Eric in Shreveport.
With his tutoring help and online courses she had gotten her business degree and had helped him with Fangtasia, taking over the bookkeeping and managerial chores, leaving him free to do his Sheriff duties unhindered by anything other than sitting on the throne, signing paychecks and making sure invoices were paid on time.
Her Gran would have been on cloud nine with so many people around a full to bursting dinner table and she would have been so proud to see Sookie having fun with her friends and family. Friends had been hard to come by growing up. Her telepathy had made it nearly impossible for her to have close friends and relationships because she didn’t have any control of it until after she graduated high school.
Sookie looked over at the Christmas tree, sparkling with lights and dripping with glitter and icicles and smiled. Pam, of all people, had sent her a Christmas tree ornament from wherever she had traveled over the years. She was rarely at any of the get togethers, as she had gotten the traveling bug about the time they had finally shut Fangtasia’s doors for the final time.
Sookie had been exhausted by the end of dinner, but everyone helped with the clean-up and once the Night Walkers had shown up the music started, the booze began to flow and the furniture was pushed back to the walls for dancing, Twister and anything else they could think of.
She had danced with absolutely everyone, including Pam, Arlene, and Holly. The most special dances though were with Stefan. Being in his arms was more than she ever thought she’d have in her life although she had wanted what she had more than anything when she was a girl. She felt safe and loved and special. She didn’t feel special because she was a freak among the normal, it was because she knew that to him she was special; she held a special place within his heart.
Sookie went over to the bookshelf and removed that first photo album, placing a finger kiss on the picture of the two of them together before she opened it.
Right there, on the first page was a picture of her and Stefan dancing together that night. Then a picture of the groaning table with everyone sitting around it.
She leafed through the pages, stopping when one of them brought on a precious memory.
Jason with his goofy grin.
Dancing with Tara. They had done the same dance they had done for their high school talent show and received both applause and growls of approval when they finished. They hadn’t realized it at the time but Pat Benatar’s Love Is A Battlefield was extremely evocative and they had been disqualified once the judges had gotten over their shock.
Sookie blushed deep crimson when she remembered just what that dance had meant once everyone had gone home. Stefan had chased her up the stairs to bed, but they hadn’t gone to sleep. Oh no, they had found their second wind and celebrated in a completely couples kind of way. In fact, that had been the night she had conceived the first of their three children together.
Being pregnant had certainly been a surprise given the fact he was a vampire and she a mostly human-fairy hybrid.
Dr. Ludwig had done her research, but it still took three years before she learned that it was a combination of Fae magic and Doppelganger magic which made the pregnancies possible.
She sighed when she saw the picture of Damon and Elena. They’d had their share of ups and downs, but they had faith in each other. That faith had pulled them through some tough times and even now they were still going strong.
Sookie laughed when she saw the next picture: It was Kayla, their daughter and first born, on her first Hallowe’en. They had dressed her as a sunflower and she had put up a huge fuss, but she had charmed absolutely everybody they came across as they walked around the mall, pushing her stroller.
She saw the lights of a vehicle coming up the driveway and soon heard the sound of tires on gravel. Stefan was home!
She ran to the door and threw it open and screamed when she was enveloped by a large pair of arms and was lifted into the air! And then another pair and another and another!
Just as she was set back on her feet, before she had a chance to see who all was there, “Surprise!”
Eric was the one who had lifted her off the ground, but she saw all her friends and family standing around them and there was Stefan, standing off in the background smiling, happy that he had been able to give her this gift.
She ran to him and threw herself into his arms, knowing he would catch her. And he did. “Thank you,” she whispered into his ear. “How did you ever manage it?”
He laughed, “We’ve been planning this since last Christmas.”
“We?” She rounded on everybody, still encased in her love’s arms, “You all knew about this? None of you said a damn thing this whole entire year?”
Kayla giggled, “He,” she indicated her father with her chin, “had Auntie Bekah compel us to not even think about it around you!”
She looked around at all the familiar faces, and even the newest whom she hadn’t had the chance to meet yet, turned in Stefan’s arms and gave him a long hard kiss thank you.
I froze sitting beside Sookie as she lay next to me across the bed in her dorm room at NYU. She had already drank half a bottle of wine when this quite tipsy unexpected wish fell from her lips, hitting me like a roundhouse to the gut.
We were celebrating our victory at the NYPA 2015 Dance Competition where we had just won the grand prize of $10,000. Money that she assured me we would split and use to keep ourselves in cheap beer and Ramen noodles for the next two semesters, easily.
It was Christmas Eve, the snow coming down outside in large fluffy flakes and the power had gone out in her dorm about an hour before. She had lit several candles which were unnecessary for me or so I had thought at first. However, once I saw her red sweater, now matching the color of blood bathed in the flickering golden light it was suddenly very necessary that I see her like this tonight. Perhaps that I always see her like this because it made something inside me feel warm, alive and insatiable.
I had first seen her in the harsh unforgiving light of the NYU library almost two months before, her long blond hair pulled back and her nose buried in a book. Her hair was the soft color of wheat, her form luscious as were her lips. I could feel my body respond as she shifted in her chair, crossing and uncrossing her legs and wiping her eyes with her small delicately boned hands. I had watched her from the stacks for almost an hour before she felt my gaze. When she looked up I had moved away at vampire speed, leaving an empty space for her human eyes to see. Circling around I came up on the other side of her and resumed my perusal. From this angle, I could see her soft pouty lips and her luminescent blue eyes that were a little bloodshot from hours of reading. I was captivated when she had glanced at her watch and then took a drink of coffee from her travel letting out a sigh of pleasure that made me clasp the bookcase in dangerous tension. I had released it when she placed the cup back on the table of dark synthetic wood and returned her full attention to her studies.
Three sugars and three creams my vampire senses told me as I caught a whiff of her coffee laced exhalation from over a dozen feet away. I had never tasted the beverage directly, but I was familiar with it on the tongues of those I invited to briefly dance with me in the shadows. It was also always laced with the owner’s scent and flavor. I forced myself to remain completely still as I wrestled with my desire to see what this beverage would taste like on her lips, but I won. That night I only observed this strange woman who called to me in a language I had never known.
It was the next night that I followed her to the coffee shop that, I was soon to discover, was her second favorite refuge from her life as a student at the university, the library being the first. I had arranged to bump into her in line for coffee and introduce myself. I let the impact of our meeting spill the coffee I could not drink on my shirt, and then I let her apologize to me as she frantically pressed napkins to my shirt offering to buy me another. I had agreed on the condition that she sit with me for a few moments.
I found out quickly that her name was Sookie and that she had been here for two years on scholarship. She was studying psychology, planning to be a child therapist when she was done with school. Before that conversation, where she looked at me with her sincere blue eyes and offered me the truths of her freely with no guile, I had been planning to take her will and her body for the night. By the end of those precious few minutes and words I had no plan at all, just some formless wish that I could not face let alone embrace.
I used my vampire skills to find her schedule and was delighted to find that she had several classes at night. I was in New York on a sabbatical of sorts. All vampires took them from time to time. It was necessary to maintain our sanity as the weight of our lives and times closed in on us. We would slip away and find someone else to be for a while. I had been pretending to be a student here, enjoying the parties and the wide options of free range pleasure partners for sex and blood. I was careful to never hurt them, and of course that they never retain anything other than the memory of an excellent time when I claimed them for a night. It wasn’t that I was above killing for pleasure. I had done it frequently in my long undead life. I just didn’t want to spoil my sabbatical with unnecessary attention. Being near the young always instilled something of that feeling into my old bones as well. I wanted to stay here for a while.
I was fortunate that my visage allowed me to pass among them with ease. I had been made young. Of course, you could go to school at any age in this wondrous time, so it was even less of hardship than it might have been.
If I had found Sookie in my regular existence as the Sheriff of Area 5 I would likely have killed her immediately because she left me unsettled. But here in this dream I was experiencing as Eric Northman college student she was exactly what I needed exactly when I needed it. There was meaning in that, but it was beyond me to determine it, at least now. It would be something I would no doubt seek in the endless nights before me when I slipped back into my skin and resumed my post as Sheriff to a vampire Queen. But for now I was here, and for this brief breath of time I could be someone else with her that my real life would never let me be.
Over the next few weeks we became friends, at least that is how she saw us, and I must admit that I did as well. She was smart and funny, strong and capable, and determined that she would achieve her goals going on to help children who had seen too much of this world at a young age to run and play with carefree thoughts. I was not able to understand why this was so important to her, but it was, and so it became important to me as well.
She might out like a brief candle compared to myself, but imagining the brightness and warmth of her in her brief time in turn warmed me. When she asked me to partner with her for the dance competition I had immediately said yes. I enjoyed dancing tremendously. I looked forward to winning with her, especially when she told me she needed the prize money for groceries.
“Coffee, you mean?” I had teased her when she told me her plans for the cash, her blue eyes wide and earnest.
“That, too!” She assured me, taking my hands and dancing around me, jumping up and down outside the library in the cold November night air. She had a scarf around her neck and her coat buttoned as high as it would go to keep the chill out, but right then she was so high on her excitement nothing could dampen her spirits. Money was always a concern for her which made this something I could give her before I left New York to return to Louisiana at the beginning of the New Year. I couldn’t help but be pulled into her joy.
Over the next weeks we had practiced our routine countless times, in every available moment she had between classes. She was a natural dancer, her body lithe and responsive to my slightest touch. We had practiced just a few days when she told me that she had never had a partner as good as she was before. “Not that I am that great, don’t get me wrong.” Actually, she was. It was a shame she didn’t know it. “In competition it’s the women who do most of the work. The man can be barely mediocre but as long as he has a good female partner then they can still be a winning team.”
“You have done this before then?” I asked her as I pretended to stretch and warm up beside her. We had been working on some ‘wow steps’ as she called them for the free style competition. She was good at choreography, too, knowing how to play my height and her petite frame to advantage in every move we made. I offered suggestions here and there but this was her show, and it would be her full $10,000 as well when we won, she just didn’t know it yet.
“Yes. I had dance for my PE credit the first year I was here. My teacher recommended I compete. I partnered with Sam Merlotte, the best guy in the dance class. He’s a nice enough guy but not that great of a dancer.” She stood then and held her hand out to me calling to mind the elegance of a prima ballerina that I had known once in France a long time ago. Sookie was incredibly graceful. It showed at the most unexpected times, leaving me in awe of her when she did something as simple as wrap her scarf around her neck before we headed out the of her dorm. I pushed past gawping like the college boy I was pretending to be, took her hand and pulled her to me, spinning her as I did, wrapping her in my arms so that she finished pressed tightly against my side with her back.
Caught up in the momentum I had leaned down and kissed her neck softly. Her head fell back onto my shoulder as she pressed her hands down on my arms to bring me closer. “You are so good, Eric you make this all so easy that I forgot sometimes that…” she stopped.
“What?” I asked her, reluctantly letting her go so she could step away and allow our practice to finally begin. Away from me, she shrugged and dropped her head a moment before coming back up with a smile.
“Nothing,” she said shrugging and smiling her sweet Sookie smile. “Let’s dance.”
Sabbaticals by their very nature were like dreams. See things, do things, behave in ways that were contrary to our every day controlling natures. I had taken many sabbaticals, none had been more like a dream than the time I spent with Sookie practicing for the dance competition. I craved her touch on my skin, her laugh in my ears. I wanted my hands on her at all times and tried my best to get her to change her mind about the moves that broke our contact. She always held her ground, using words of flattery about my strength to lift and toss her nearly effortlessly.
I pretended to let her flatter me to her will. It felt nice when she complimented me. I returned the same to her to see curious to see if she reacted in a similar fashion. “You are quite easy to toss Miss Stackhouse, light as a feather.” She blushed at that, a pleasant rosy tone covered her skin from her head to the V of her cleavage. I longed to find some gallant way to stick my head between her breasts and follow the rosy color further to verify it continuance.
“Hush, now!” She chastised me, her flush growing a deeper shade of rose. “I know I could shed a few pounds. You don’t need to tease me about it. I am sure I will be lighter the night of the dance with all this exercise we are getting.” Refusing to be seen in such an unflattering way I placed myself right in front of her, nearly touching her and brought hand up under her chin.
“You misunderstand, Sookie. I meant it as a compliment. I wanted to see if my saying something nice to you made you feel the same way it makes me feel when you do it to me. I meant no disrespect or disparagement for that lovely backside.” She swallowed.
“My lovely b-backside?” I smiled.
“Oh, yes. I am very fond of it. I like looking at it, and best of all I like it when one of our moves lets me rest my hand on it as it tightens and releases when you move.” She wanted to be scandalized. I saw it in her eyes for just a moment and then it gave way to giggles. She rested her head on my chest a moment, perhaps too long because now I was starting to be offended. What exactly was so funny about me appreciating her physical beauty?
When she flung her arms around me pulling me full against her I forgot that I was starting to be offended. She was so soft, and warm and her laughter was rubbing her body against mine in the most delicious way. “Oh, Eric, I do love the way you talk!”
“The way I tal-?” but before I could finish her hand gave me a rousing crack on my own backside, just as she pulled back from her a look of mischief in her eyes that delighted me immeasurably.
“Yers, ain’t so bad either,” she said with a wink, letting her hide and seek southern accent dominate her flirty words. She flipped around and away as I stood there torn between grabbing her and kissing her mad and in continuing to build this flirtatious ember between us. Instead, we danced.
I danced with her spinning, flipping and pulling her against me at every opportunity. I rubbed myself against her shamelessly until she was breathless. I told myself it was more than the dancing that did that to her. As we danced I thought of how until this woman I had never doubted my prowess, or that I could make anyone desire me. She was different. Her rousing smack on my backside was the first time she had come close to letting herself indulge in me.
Did she not know? Could she not tell I was hers for the asking? Was she only interested in me for my dancing skills? I had been with her in the library the night before last when she consumed something called chocolate. I wanted her to experience me in that same hedonistic decadence she had spent on the candy.
Tonight, the dance behind us, the trophy shining in the candlelight on her small dresser, I had planned at long last to finish the real dance that had been happening since we met in the coffee shop. I had been just about to make my move when she trumped me with her unexpected holiday wish.
“I wish vampires were real,” she had said.
I opened my mouth, channeling Keaton in Batman, about to say ‘I’m a vampire’ when I shut it again. The fact that I was about to reveal myself told me that I had sunk too deeply into this innocent college boy persona I had adapted to be near her. When I said nothing she went on in the same mildly inebriated fashion.
“It would just be so neat if they were real. I mean, not like sparkly, ‘I can’t touch you because I might hurt you,’ but instead in the intense driving passionate way I imagine a dark immortal creature to be.” She turned toward me on the bed her face serious and open like it usually was. “You know what I mean, right? Or did I just embarrass myself to a level that you will be looking for your coat to leave?” Intense, driving, passionate…what? I closed my mouth and cleared my throat, an unnecessary necessary human affectation to hide that I was indeed an intense driving passionate dark immortal creature.
“What do you mean, Sookie? What if they were real, what then?” She flopped back boneless on the bed, jarring me slightly.
“I dunno I just think it would be…the cat’s meow if they were.”
“The cat’s…meow?”
“Yes, as in awesome, wonderful, amazing, completely and totally incredible!” I am…I am…I am.
“What would you do if they were real?”
“I would ask him out for coffee.” I smiled in spite of myself.
“And if he couldn’t drink coffee?” She frowned slightly.
“Then I would…ask him for a walk in the park and talk to him about his long life. I would offer to be his friend if he wanted one. I’m a good friend, don’t you think, Eric?”
“Yes,” I said and made myself stop there.
“See, the vampire would want to be my friend, you could recommend me.” She turned back to me then. “You would give me a recommendation, right?”
“Yes,” I got out again, that and only that. She giggled.
“Tell me, what would you say?” Her blue eyes were wide open and staring at me in total innocent seriousness.
“I would tell him all the wonderful things about you that I know.”
“And then he would be my friend?” she pressed, her eyes starting to droop from the wine and the exhaustion of our performance. She shivered then, having lost the heat with lights. Quickly, I rearranged us on the bed, removing her shoes and tucking her into the covers. I remained on the outside but folded my long frame around hers, pulling her back to my chest to snuggle my tipsy partner.
She snuggled back into me, making a sound that made me feel a bit like that erstwhile candy bar, and I was suddenly struck with the truth that if another vampire found her I would kill him just for being near her. “I would not share you,” I said in the quiet room, unable to stop myself. She turned her head to look at me.
“Silly, Eric. You’re not a vampire!” As if tricks were just for kids and I hadn’t been pulling one here with her for weeks. “But, and I will deny this if you bring it up again, I swear I will!” She paused before going on. “Sometimes I pretend you are.” She pulled the covers over her head then. I was uncertain what to say, so I said what I wanted to say for the first time since this unexpected conversation had started.
“What do you pretend, Sookie?” She moaned under the covers, it went straight to my pretentions of being made by Mars, where my label promised to melt in her mouth not in her hands.
“You’ll make fun of me!” she moaned again.
“No, you have my word, I will not make fun of you if you tell me, Sookie. You can trust me.” She pulled the covers down slowly.
“I can?” she asked me, clearly unsure.
“Yes, you can trust me with anything.” She looked at me a long time, and then she settled the covers just under her neck.
“Get under here with me?” I toed off my shoes and slipped under the covers. She had already warmed the bed. When I was wrapped around her again she turned in my arms to face me. The candlelight danced on her golden hair like liquid moonlight and reflected back to me from the ponds of her eyes.
“Sometimes,” she started slowly, her palm coming up to rest on my chest. “I imagine that you come into my room at night and float above my bed.” I had thought of that, and was startled that she should be so close to the secret heart of me.
“What then?” I asked sounding strained and breathless.
“Then you wake me up with baby kisses on my face and neck.” I could so do that. Did she want me to do that? I could do that right now! “And then when I wake up, I pull back the covers,” she licked her lips slowly never looking away from my eyes. “And then, I invite you in, Mr. Northman.”
“You do?” I asked sounding as dreamy as she did lost in that imagery. “What then?”
“Then I get to put my hands and my…lips on that fabulous backside of yours until all you can say is my name.”
“Sookie,” I whispered, shaking with restraint from her provocative words.
“Just like that, ‘Sookie’,” she said imitating my gravelly tones of strung out desire. “You say it all night while you show me what it is to be possessed by a creature of the dark as large and powerful as yourself. Every time you say my name the only thing I say is yes, because I never want you to stop showing me. It’s your fault,” she told me in the same dreamy tone she used to describe our union.
“It is?” I asked.
“Yes, when we were dancing there was always a look on your face. It was like you claimed me in every touch in some primal way that I couldn’t shake when practice ended. Even the first night I wanted to bring you back here and do unspeakable things to you.”
“Speak them.”
“I couldn’t, they are too…intimate.”
“Be intimate.” Rather than speaking, she unbuttoned my dress shirt I had worn with my suit to the dance competition and kissed my chest with her soft lips. “I start here, undressing you slowly,” she continued to unbutton me with her hands as her lips followed. I fell back, letting her do as she would with me. My hand came up to the back of her head cupping her gently as she burned me with her kisses. When she reached the waistband of my dress slacks she hesitated. My hips moved restlessly to encourage her on, but she rested her head on my stomach and looked up at me.
“I really like you, Eric. I really, really, do.”
“I really like you, too. I really, really do, Sookie.” She closed her eyes and sighed. Her breath hitting my skin was like a revelation.
“And that’s why this is wrong. I’m sorry, Eric. I can’t do this. It’s not fair to you.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“I know how this sounds, believe me, I know, but the truth is you are just a man, and I want something…extraordinary. I want a lover who more than just a man. I want a lover who can show me things that no one else has or can. I want him to fly me away and love me all night. I want to be the one who tames the savage beast inside him, the only one who can.” She sat up then, putting her feet on the floor and her back to me as she rested her hands on her knees and her chin in her palms.
“I’m a psychology student, I know how messed up this is, but it’s the truth. I want those things, all of those things. You are a great guy, a fabulous dancer and the best friend I have had since grade school, so, no, I won’t use this you this way when you are not what my heart and soul tell me I truly want and need. I’m sorry.”
“But, Sookie,” I said half undressed and totally undone in her bed, and then I stopped. I could tell her vampires weren’t real, but that would be a lie. I could tell her that I was the creature that she dreamed of, but I would have to take that memory from her come first light. I could tell her that I loved her, because I knew now that I did, but it would change nothing. She only wanted me to be what I was, and I could not do that.
I could not have her for one night and walk away with truths spoken and erased. She would forget but the memory would slowly torture me to insanity. I could not be her creature of the night and reveal the existence of supernaturals to her. It would turn her entire world completely upside down and bring her into danger for the rest of her mortal existence. I could not turn her and bring her to my side, even if she wanted that, and she hadn’t said she had, because I loved her just as she was.
Slowly, I stood and picked up my shoes and jacket. She was still sitting on the bed with her head down when I rested my hand on the doorknob and hesitated. “I’m glad I met you, Sookie Stackhouse.” I went out the door but not before I heard her sob behind me. It almost covered the sound of my breaking heart.
I took two humanly slow steps down her hall and then I stopped. I was not the college boy I had been pretending to be. But I had sunk into the role so completely that I was thinking and feeling like I was. I was Eric fucking Northman, the vampire Sheriff of Area 5 and I was not going to pass on this because I would be the only one who could remember it in a week. I stood taller in the pitch black hall and turned around. Moving at vampire speed I blew through her door, slamming it back against the wall of her room only stopping when she was pinned to the bed beneath me.
Her face was covered in tears and her eyes were wide in surprise. The thundering of her heart finished unleashing the part of my nature that I had nearly convinced myself didn’t exist while I had been on this year of sabbatical. I shivered in pleasure as my fangs burst forth and I let them come all the way down to their full savage length. Her mouth formed a perfect bee stung kiss of surprise as I growled above her.
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