Chapter 11 – One

 

 

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“I am no ghost,” she explained as an expert in the field of her chosen subject. “Ghosts have unfinished business. The fae in me allows me entry into the Summerlands but the vampire in me bars access. I am a spirit that walks alone on this plane now my humanity lost.”

 

“I’m so sorry,” Sookie said horrified to hear that Cecily was damned to this eternal half-life.

 

“Don’t be,” Cecily shrugged. “I quite enjoy my existence. Godric was dreadfully boring for centuries though. I’m glad for your presence.”

 

“There is life in you,” Tallulah observed as she regarded her aura carefully.

 

“Jason,” she said with an acknowledging nod of the man’s blood that was altering her physical composition for the first time since her second death.

 

“Yes baby?” he replied automatically at the mention of his name while pulling her closer into his side.

 

Cecily giggled a little at his lack of perception. “Nothing.”

 

---

 

Sookie’s feet dangled daintily over the cool marble counter of the island unit in the middle of what once housed the impressive wardrobe of Queen Sophie Anne. She really didn’t like being in the private spaces belonging to the former bitch queen as she continued to fidget while Eric carried on with his search so she persevered for his sake. Well in this case for Pam.

 

“How many white dresses can a woman own?” Sookie asked before adding thoughtfully, “I hope she wasn’t a messy eater.”

 

Eric chuckled quietly at Sookie’s pragmatism, it was a quality that Sophie Anne was clearly lacking. In fact the queen had been quite a messy eater but her wardrobe was as dispensable as the donors. His perusal of the racks had yet to yield Pam’s former dress. On sight of her wearing it the Queen had demanded it as tribute. His child had complied as expected but Eric had had to listen to her incessant whining over the loss of it for years. He also felt Pam would need some sort of reward for her excellent work with the former King of Mississippi. Eric had no idea if they would still be in need of his help but an ally with such great age was one he could not fail to cultivate.

 

“Why aren’t you talking to me?” Sookie asked with a hint of insecurity. Eric hadn’t behaved like his overbearing self after their dinner conversation or his overly amorous counterpart. He almost seemed downtrodden but she couldn’t figure out what had made him so. The evening had been pleasant, dinner conversation was light and Cecily had given insight into her unique make up.

 

“It’s nothing,” he returned dismissively leaving the silence to linger between the screeching sounds of hangers moving over the metal stands with the brusque force his torturous hands caused.

 

“Please just tell me if I did something wrong,” she requested softly. The poorly hidden insecurity of her earlier question had lost its covert nature as it shone through at the forefront of her worried eyes. Disgusted with the sight of it he was in front of her in an instant kissing her tenderly between her turned out legs. In contrast with the callousness that had attacked the lines of dresses his fingers ran delicately through her hair and over her back.

 

“You did nothing wrong,” he said sternly between the multitude of kisses. “They are just thoughts distracting me.”

 

“Ok,” she nodded in acceptance not daring to push for more in this moment. “Is that Pam’s dress?” she asked motioning to the garment bag that had appeared beside her on the counter.

 

“I think so,” Eric replied. “I have to check the care label. She leaves very specific instructions to the dry cleaners there.”

 

Sookie couldn’t stop the tug at the corners of her mouth over that revelation when reading the unmistakeable death threat to whomever dared ruin Pam’s dress in place of where the standardised care label would reside.

 

“Has she really killed someone over her clothing?” Sookie asked.

 

“No,” Eric chuckled wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his forehead on hers. “She came close at some chaotic sale over a sweater vest with another vampire. It was before the revelation and luckily she held on to the rationale that she couldn’t kill someone with so many witnesses.”

 

“Are you sure it wasn’t the fact that blood would ruin the item they were fighting over?”

 

“That actually sounds far more plausible,” Eric mused as he continued his kisses over her forehead. “I like this brain of yours.”

 

“I like yours too,” Sookie smiled up at him as she caught his lips. She pulled away instantly as she continued to feel the distance that had mysteriously settled between them that evening. He looked at her in confusion.

 

“Your heart’s not in it,” she whispered when she couldn’t meet his inquisitive eyes where Sookie feared judgement might further push them apart.

 

“I no longer have a heart,” he spoke sarcastically in an attempt to distract her from his true feelings. She gave him a sceptic look. “I’m not going to continue to ask if you won’t answer,” the telepath without insight sighed.

 

“Then ask.”

 

“I already did,” Sookie said pointedly.

 

He let out a heavy sigh of his own, a human need he did not indulge in often. “I fear to lose you before I have you.”

 

“I’m not going anywhere,” she returned with an encouraging smile, unsure where his insecurity was stemming from. To further prove this she rested her head against his chest in hope that the physical closeness would convince him as much.

 

“Will you take my blood,” he whispered so softly she almost didn’t hear him.

 

“But I’m not hurt,” Sookie said confused searching out the cool depths of his eyes.

 

“I forgot Compton has kept much from you,” Eric said with a grimace at the mention of the detested vampire who he had no power over to extract the punishment he clearly deserved. “What did he tell you of our blood?”

 

“It heals injuries. Those invasive dreams and the accompanying libido,” she exhaled noisily with the memory. In hindsight it was now so apparent to her how the management of his schemes and blood clearly tied into his manipulation of her. “He’d be able to sense me, find me if I were in trouble.”

 

“He was very selective with the truth then,” Eric replied with little surprise to that fact. “The dreams are only there if the vampire initiates them. Softly scripted so to speak. The rest is true albeit a pared down version of it.”

 

A small tear escaped the corner of her eye which was promptly kissed away as he tried to hush away the memory. In a small moment of relief they both considered her lucky that it had not lasted longer than it did. That the trade-off had given them this moment of relative safety with each other.

 

“For normal humans tying them by blood allows us to influence them. A version of our glamour, if you will. It is apparent that Bill could never exert that control on you, I have seen him try.” Eric paused for the information to settle in her worried eyes. “Even if it were possible this is not why I would wish for you to take my blood. Not for the sensing of your emotions either.”

 

“Bill knew what I was feeling all the time?” she asked horrified with the newfound information.

 

“I am unsure,” Eric replied. “He lacked the ability to control you perhaps it was the same for this.”

 

“I think he could,” Sookie groaned with resignation as she recalled the defining moments of her former relationship. “He anticipated to my emotional needs far too well. I thought it was from his many years on this earth. Now I’m not so sure.”

 

“How so?”

 

“You’re ten times his age,” she said with a slight tease and sparkle to her eyes. “You have missed the mark more than once on knowing exactly what I want or need.”

 

“Maybe I think giving in to your every desire is not the way you want to be treated every single step of the way,” he noted in return displaying exactly what a millennia of knowledge had afforded him in insight. “There’s an exciting light inside you, it doesn’t need tempering but it doesn’t need to be fuelled constantly either. You do very well on your own.”

 

“Thank you,” she returned shyly, slightly disconcerted that he saw through her so accurately. Sookie wondered if this is what it was like when her telepathy revealed more of someone than they intended to share with the world. It should have scared her that he saw her at the extremes between her innate vulnerabilities and strengths. Rather it settled her into a comfort that left her unguarded with him that had nothing to do with the reclusion his mind offered her.

 

“I would enjoy feeling what you feel,” he said thoughtfully as the sensitised tips of his fingers ran down her back. “But I would not use your emotions against you. I already lured you into my bed my precious,” Eric jested with a sinister voice before he added smugly, “I am already one step ahead of Bill.”

 

She laughed softly at him as she shook her head in reprimand. “So why do you want this?” Sookie asked, as the width of her eyes grew reminiscent of a doe’s.

 

“The connection,” he confessed speaking in reminiscence of the ties that had been abruptly severed in evenings passed. “What I feel between us to be tangible. That incorporeal thing that existed from the moment you stepped into my bar to be real.”

 

“It hardly seems fair,” Sookie returned. “I never felt anything of a tie like that with Bill. I’d like to feel it just as you would.” She didn’t expect the look of joy grazing Eric’s handsome features at her reaction that accompanied the furrow of her brows.

 

“It is possible,” he stated with little of the emotion that had defined his initial reaction. “If we exchange three times it would be permanent and you would feel me as I do you.”

 

“And I’ll be a vampire,” she grumbled discontented.

 

“No,” he said decidedly. “You’ll never be a vampire.” In this instant Eric hid his disappointment well, even if she did detect the slightest hint of it.

 

“Have you ever done that before?” she asked curiously. “Is that what you and Pam have?” The close relationship had confused her from the moment they met especially since Pam seem to leer at her with the equal appetite of her maker. When she compared it to Bill’s cold treatment and abandonment of his progeny Jessica, whose welfare still remained unknown to Sookie, the contrast couldn’t be more startling.

 

“No,” Eric replied. “The only human I ever gave my blood to was Pam. That was only to turn her. I have never tied myself to anyone that wasn’t through a maker-child tie.”

 

“Is it like the bonds you had with Pam and Godric?”

 

“I have heard it is similar but different. When complete it is something between equals,” he said as he brushed some stray hairs from her forehead. “Is it something you would consider?”

 

“I would want it,” Sookie returned thoughtfully. “But only if it were to become permanent. Is that what you would want too? To be tied to me till I’m old and grey? Till I die.” She spoke her last sentence almost inaudibly as insecurity took hold of her once more.

 

“Yes.” There was no hesitance in his answer which unnerved her slightly in the nature of its determined declaration.

 

“I think we should revisit the permanence of it under more normal circumstances,” she offered with some thought, it seemed more permanent than a marriage and everything was still new between them. “You know when a maenad and a hurricane aren’t breathing down our necks.”

 

“That is perhaps for the best,” he said with a hint of dejection.

 

“Oh sweetie don’t get me wrong,” Sookie said with a lilting voice intended to smooth the frown off his face. “I meant we can try the first exchange now and see how it goes.”

 

“You are certain?” he asked with more enthusiasm kissing her gently in gratitude.

 

She nodded affirmatively. “If someone can track me through the blood I prefer you over Bill,” she voiced before curiosity got hold of her once more. “What will happen with his blood in my body? Will it disappear anytime soon?”

 

“His blood is young,” Eric explained with his nose already scenting the strong perfume of her lifeblood that emanated from the vein in the graceful arch of her neck. He considered that eradicating Bill’s blood was the only part he would regret about feeding her his blood. The surly vampire would no longer be able to feel the great pleasures he was bringing to his Sookie. However, the thought of being the only blood residing inside her was a far more enticing prospect all round. “When you take mine it will seek it out his and destroy it,”

 

“I think you should have opened with that,” she smiled at him. “I would have agreed without argument or further thought.”

 

“That’s how you ended up under his control Sookie,” he returned thoughtfully, not wishing to be too reprimanding in his tone but it slipped in regardless. “Pretty words are for pretty people but the supernatural world is not a pretty one. Never let your guard down, even with me.”

 

“You’re probably right,” Sookie agreed, her misjudgement had cost her a lot. While she could blame it all on Bill and the powers that be, there was an accounting of her own in the events that had passed. “So how do we do this?”

 

“Allow me,” Eric said as he scooped her up and placed her on the former regent’s bed. Sookie quickly tried to move herself off of it as soon as she landed on the sumptuous double bed in the all-white decor.

 

“Not here Eric,” she protested as he tried to keep her wriggling body in place.

 

“Why not it’s perfect?” He asked while continuing to hold her down with minimal force.

 

“Perfect?” Sookie reacted with abject incense. “Doing something so, so… intimate on the bed of the woman who set seduction and deception in course at my expense. That sounds perfect to you?”

 

“Yes,” Eric replied without blinking at her scrutiny. “We are here and she is not.”

 

“This is akin to having revenge sex on someone’s grave,” she huffed out.

 

“I prefer to think of it as poetic justice. Like it or not Sookie,” he said gently caressing her face with his fingertips. “We are here together because of her. Would you really have come to Fangtasia on your own to seek out information on the murders of those women without Bill’s protection?”

 

Sookie was about to say she would do exactly that before she thought back more considerately. “No,” she admitted. “I would have come to listen in from the parking lot at most.”

 

“Her intervention in your life may not have been pleasant but it also brought you to me,” Eric said as he considered all the events that had transpired to bring them to this moment. Never in his existence had he considered bonding himself permanently to someone but the mere surfacing of her presence in his bar had given way to events neither one of them had control over. They could have continued to fight it endlessly but acceptance had brought them here. “Had I discovered her unscrupulous behaviour before, I would have done everything in my power to shield you from her. My sword would have been yours regardless whether you were mine at the time.”

 

“I never figured you for a romantic,” Sookie teased as she tittered softly at his disbelieving eyes.

 

“There is nothing romantic about swords dislodging heads,” he said in annoyance at her flowery words. “Beauty, yes. Romance, no.”

 

She smiled up at him in amusement. “If you say so,” she teased with mirth. “It sounds straight out one of my Gran’s romance novels if you ask me. The fair knight who protects the damsel in distress from the evil queen.”

 

“You should not sully your mind with such shite,” he said while cupping her face in his calloused hands. “Let’s not forget who saved who here Sookie. If we are characters in one of your romance novels than you are the fair maiden who saved the trapped knight. I am your damsel if anything.”

 

“Equals then,” Sookie replied contentedly with the realisation of what she had achieved when thinking back to her helpless moment that started this all when the shaky foundations of her relationship with Bill had come tumbling down. That had never been a relations of equals but she recognised what was offered to her now as such.

 

“Demanding much?” he grinned as he acknowledged her a position he never thought he would grant another. The vampire hierarchy had always been clear and simple like that, you were either above or below another but Sookie was the wild card that broke up that monotony.

 

“Scared I’m going to demand flowers and chocolates at every turn?” she pestered with a wide bearing grin.

 

“You can have anything you want for all I care,” he returned. “Just don’t expect me to be some hero from the pages of your novels. I am who I have been for over a thousand years, that’s not going to change because you wish me to be someone else.”

 

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Sookie said as she moved her soft lips to his. “I like you exactly as you are, flaws and all.” The sudden impact of an extremely loud thunderous noise had her yelping closer into his embrace much to his amusement.

 

“Perhaps you are a bit of a damsel in distress,” Eric chuckled as he held her tightly in comfort. “Maybe I should dust off my old armour for you, if you like?” He winked lasciviously and her deep blush answered when she didn’t. “So shall we continue?”

 

Sookie pondered for a moment if she was still comfortable continuing where they were. “I don’t know Eric,” she said heaving a sigh. “I really don’t like the idea of being in Sophie Anne’s bed where she did God knows what.”

 

“I think it was mostly for decoration,” Eric assured her. “She had a whole floor dedicated to her sexual exploits and her true day chambers lie beyond the closet. I cannot scent any trace of sex on the mattress if that is what worries you.”

 

“You can smell that?”

 

“Well not if it’s longer than a year ago,” he shrugged. “As far as I can tell this bed has never been used.”

 

“Ok then,” Sookie replied before slipping a small smile. His firm lips rested against the softness of her own set as they attempted to kiss away the nerves the moment brought with it as the night sky erupted in billowy storm clouds around them the threatening noise of the hurricane now lost to them.

 

“We will be one,” Eric said reverently as he sank his fangs in to the palm of his hand. He allowed the blood treacle down slightly as he offered the two points of impact towards her lips. She silently gave her permission through the sure intent of her eyes and held his large hand with her own two. She gave a tentative lick to palate the taste of him on her soft tongue. Tantalised by the flavour of him she took the gushing wounds to her mouth and sucked his ancient life force down into her own.

 

From all that Eric knew of blood bonding it was supposed to be highly arousing for the vampire as the blood was shared. The sight of Sookie under any circumstances was just that. In this moment, however, it was her subtle beauty that struck and mesmerised him. It had nothing to do with the golden hue of her hair, the softness of her eyes or the grace of her curves. It was what was uniquely her, where aesthetics no longer swayed the desires of the man inside him. Or vampire in this instance.

 

She didn’t offer him salvation or deliverance. Welcoming him whole and without prejudice with unexperienced warmth. Sookie made him more than he was, and for her he wanted to be more than he already was. It was a true first in a thousand years of continued existence.

 

He couldn’t help but take her lips upon his own again after his wounds had sealed upon themselves tasting the remnants of himself mingled with her. Her face spread wide as he gazed down upon her adoring face. He could feel the faint flutter of emotion, anticipation and contentment. It was the sight of her giant smile in that moment that he would transcribe for eternity in memory of this moment.

 

“Your turn,” Sookie whispered as she offered herself by moving her neck to the side.

 

“No,” he responded equally soft while caressing her with his grasp to tilt her head back. “I want you to gaze upon me as I did you.”

 

She offered her left hand to his where his nose traced the scent that lingered strongly upon her wrist. She caressed his hair softly with her other hand as he gently numbed her wrist with the soothing qualities of his saliva. In truth the wrist was his least favourite place to feed from but he reminded himself this had nothing to do with nourishment. He would be patient with the tender area where the blood did not flow as richly as other arteries. Eric intended to suckle softly so she would experience no pain because from now on, or perhaps even before, that would harm him more than her.

 

He sought out her eyes that he was sure were capable of hypnotising him if he allowed it. The moment his fangs slipped into her supple skin the thunderous boom from the sky rang through their ears. In shock of the simultaneous assault of all her senses Sookie yanked the lingering gentle hand forcefully in his hair pulling them closer together. He merely purred in delight as the first drops of her blood ignited the bond that would form between them.

 

His gentle nourishing lulled her into a bliss neither had ever experienced. Her wandering hand sought to explore the arches and planes of his upper body as Eric felt the strings of their connection grab hold of him inside, growing out towards her. He wished desperately for her to feel the igniting forces growing between them as she had expressed earlier. For the first time in a thousand years he had found something that he wished to share.

 

Sookie gasped as if struck by lightning when an electrical force moved like millions of small tremors through her body and engulfed their bodies in a brilliant white light. Instantly, she too felt the strands that were reaching out to him. The moment the two branches reached each other and joined the roof trusses above them roared, the wood creaking to its restraints with the forces of the wind, before they were mercilessly torn from their ancient joints. It took them longer than expected to realise they were engulfed in pelting rain and were being soaked wet as the wind assaulted them from all angles.

 

With delayed realisation Eric flew Sookie into the protected day chambers before she urged him to see to the safety of the others. He found her brother and Lafayette quickly enough bringing them to shelter by Sookie’s side. She screamed in anguish as her telepathy caught the mind of the witch being sucked out into the blowing winds of the storm.

 

Nature’s strong winds stood to be quite a challenge even to the ancient vampire but he managed to find Tallulah swiftly and bring her to the newly assembled sanctuary. She remained somewhat unsteady on her feet as Lafayette saw to her wellbeing in the confines of the shelter.

 

“Any more?” Eric asked with haggard breath as his lungs had ingested a tremendous amount of water he would soon need to purge. Sookie replied all the other human minds were already safely tucked in the other day chambers belonging to the former queen’s children. He put the room in lockdown and Sookie shivered coldly in his arms.

 

“You remembered Pam’s dress,” Sookie said as she spotted the garment bag hanging on the wall.

 

“If she asks, it was the first thing I rescued.” Despite the wet cold that had her shaking she couldn’t help but smile at his dedication to Pam. He ran his hands up and down her body in a desperate attempt to warm her with friction as she tried to laugh at his joke which was more akin to teeth clattering.

 

“Let’s dry you off,” he said as her shivers failed to stop. Tallulah was already showering in one of the two bathrooms so he knew there was still a supply of warm water available for her. He drew a bath for them both and listened in on the TV report which Jason and Lafayette were watching in the small living room that charted the progression of the hurricane.

 

Sookie slipped in as soon as the bath water was high enough to reach most of her body and when Eric joined her there was little of her left uncovered by the soothingly warm water. She relaxed into his body and encompassing arms with a contented sigh that reverberated between them as they shared the same feeling of joy simultaneously for the first time.

 

“Is it really safe inside here?” she asked tentatively as he washed her hair. Eric assured her that he had personally recommended the contractors of the panic rooms and that Sophie Anne would have spared no money on her own security, at least her greed and spending behaviour had brought some good. Even if the building were to collapse they were perfectly safe, even from the possibility of flooding waters.

 

Exhaustion soon overtook Sookie and she allowed her eyes to drop slightly with the knowledge all was benign. Eric wrapped her in a towel as soon as the water temperature seemed to drop and brought her to one of the bedrooms where he snuggled with her under the covers as she softly snored.

 

“Don’t worry brother,” Cecily said as she appeared in a shroud of light.

 

“Is Sookie still projecting you?” he asked in confusion at their first seemingly private conversation with the sister he had only ever known as to be truly dead. “Even in her sleep?”

 

“No,” Cecily replied. “Something about their blood. I think Stackhouse is not their real name. They are special, the lineage is rare.”

 

“She is very special to me indeed,” Eric said as he delicately traced the contours of her face. In her slumbering state she automatically moved into his touch.

 

“Sookie will be with you long,” Cecily stated in assurance.

 

“Not long enough,” he sighed. With understanding exactly how Cecily had to come to be trapped in her semi-corporal being, Eric knew instantly that he would never wish such a continued existence on Sookie. It was with a heavy heart that he had resigned to the fact that Sookie would live out her life as a human, that vampire blood would only sustain het to keep her heart beating, never to bring her by his side in death. She would go to her heaven or Summerlands, he would not keep her here selfishly.

 

“She is of fae and carries the spark.”

 

“Even a few hundred years seems paltry,” he yearned letting the disappointment of the early night ebb out.

 

“Keep her safe till she matures,” Cecily advised. “Your blood has already accelerated it.”

 

“I guess any moment of time is precious,” he said in consolation to himself.

 

“Have you ever met an elder fae?”

 

“A friend of Godric’s once, he was over three centuries at the time,” Eric returned in vague remembrance of the peculiar being.

 

“Pff,” Cecily huffed out as her hair sprung into the air with her exhaled breath. “A baby fae. The fae are eternal beings, as long as they carry the spark. If Sookie chooses it, she can outlive you all.”

 

“Eternal as in immortal?” he asked with hope in his eyes.

 

“No eternal as in eternal. Her spark is congruent to the balance of magic on this plane.”

 

“Did you carry a spark?” Eric asked as he took in the new information. “That is why you are stuck?”

 

“No,” she said with a bit of disappointment. “I was like Jason. The fae in me keeps me corporal on this plane. The human in me is long gone.”

 

“I could turn Jason and stake him for you,” Eric offered with a malevolent grin. “You would not walk alone anymore.”

 

Cecily giggled with delight, “I don’t think Sookie will let you live for that. Besides I don’t think it necessary. Their blood it is special. Pure.”

 

“His blood is sustaining life in you,” he said recalling the witch’s observation earlier that night.

 

“Yes,” she smiled. “My light, it seems to be returning.”

 

“You will look over them during the day?” Eric asked as the sun started to pull on his conscious state.

 

“Not necessary,” she said kindly. “But you honour me with your request dear brother. They will be safe.”

 

---

 

“Well that was frustratingly easy,” Pam drawled through the cavernous halls of the palace as she tossed another severed head over her shoulder.

 

“I told you, did I not mittens?” Russell said with amusement as he took in the atrocious new decorating scheme. “Enjoy the blood thirst in your youth. Most refuse to even engage you in battle when you’re over 1500.”

 

“I’ll be off to hang with a younger crowd then,” she teased as her ruined pumps kicked aside another disintegrating body.

 

“What will I do without your effervescent company Ms Swynford de Beaufort,” he declared with a cackle while picking at a poorly gilt column. “Ugh, the taste of the nouveau riche. There has never been a gold pillar that ever exuded taste. Yet they all try. My poor Talbot would be rolling over in his grave if he had one at the sight of it.”

 

“Speaking of which,” Pam said carefully at the mention of the regent’s former paramour. “The antique from the Civil War era in the basement is awfully loose lipped about him.”

 

“I knew I liked you,” he smirked. “I’ll see to him before dawn.”

 

“As you wish,” Pam replied as they entered the throne room. Russell’s eyes grew wide at the sight of it and let out a snarl.

 

“It looks like Laura Ashley threw up in here,” Pam seethed with distaste at the floral themed room. Without asking she tossed the ridiculously frilly throne out of the window. “I think my grandsire had the right idea with a bonfire.”

 

“I’m inclined to agree,” Russell said as he tossed out a cupboard full of china. It was all modern reproductions without any true sign of quality or taste. It’s only redeeming quality was that it screamed expensive.

 

Their personal bonfire was most pleasing to Russell, nowhere near as impressive as the one that had initiated the new regime in New Orleans but it burned brightly despite the downpour thanks to the copious amount of gasoline that Pam gleefully sprayed about. It didn’t take long for her to direct every single distasteful item towards it with the vampire minions that were now at her personal beck and call. Russell had just settled back into his reinstated throne, which luckily was still on the property as were most of his other furnishings, when Nan Flanagan arrived.

 

“Ms Flanagan,” Russell greeted as he softly petted the leather coverings on the arms of the chair not bothering to look up at the blonde vampiress whose face always seemed caught in exasperation. ”I would have expected you at least an hour ago. Meet Pamela my new decorator.”

 

“The weather has not been granting any favours,” the spokeswoman replied with annoyance. ”Have you informed The Authority of your return?”

 

“Fuck The Authority,” he said enunciating each word with leisure. “I am The Authority.”

 

“There were conditions to your retirement,” Nan replied coolly. “You’d do well to abide by them.”

 

“You and your precious authority would do well to read the fine print,” Russell replied with an agonising smirk as he tossed her a copy of their contract where his winning argument had been thoughtfully highlighted in pink by Pam. “Dissolving my state gives me rights of first offer. I merely took you up on the offer.”

 

Nan Flanagan seemed to pale more than possible as she recalled the safety net she herself had placed into the contract. It was meant to ward off hostile takeovers from other regents while the new Queen of Mississippi established her reign. A three thousand year old vampire ready to reassert his throne when necessary thwarted the circling sharks quite effectively. That was until the largest shark of them all returned to the table.

 

“I will inform The Authority of your return my liege,” Nan replied with a small bow before scurrying off in panic.

 

“You’re right,” Pam said in her signature intonation that expressed boredom like no other. “It’s no fun if even Nan Flanagan is pissing in her pants at the sight of you.”

 

“I’ve had enough of this place,” Russell said tapping his fingers away. “I want to experience this fangs out lifestyle. Let’s go find us some treats.”

 

Pam’s eyes lit up with glee at the prospect of a fresh feed, her little hotel bacchanal had been a few nights ago after all. “I know just the place.”

 

---

 

 

A/N: The WiFi is being testy again so I might need to find something to offer in sacrifice to the gods again. Suggestions welcome….

 

I am still officially on holidays so updates will come when they come. I am sticking to the order in which I usually release them so From Time Immemorial will be the next to receive an update. My version of season 7, It’s Already Gone, will be updated on Sunday as usual.

 

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