Chapter 12 – Breakdown

 

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“Have you fed now?” Sookie queried as he finished up his story.

 

“Yes,” Eric replied as he caressed her cheek. “Don’t worry about it.”

 

“I was never worried,” she voiced while showing off the fearless persuasion of her eyes. “Tomorrow then.”

 

“Tomorrow what?” Eric asked as his brows scrunched in an attempt to meet each other.

 

“If you let me I will feed you.”

 

“You’re a strange creature,” he remarked masking the internal victory dance jumping around in his pants. “I worry for your self-preservation.”

 

“So I’ve been told,” she smirked right back.

 

 

Sookie woke in the early afternoon with the preparations for the King of Mississippi’s royal affair firmly on her mind. She had also awoken in Eric’s bed. After he had informed her of the sleeping arrangements that would be provided by the king they had decided it was best to practice sleeping in the same bed again. It would be expected that they would be sharing a room and if accidents continued to occur with the onset of dreams they preferred to be prepared and act accordingly.

 

None of the vampires had experienced any dreams again since Pam. Sookie had a small dream during the day. It had not felt as lifelike as her other dream and it was simply of her and Eric walking through a beautiful garden. Though it left her equally confused of what to think of that.

 

Straining eyes and a deep yawn halted her progress as the darkness that surrounded her refused to convince her the sun had been up for hours. A quick glance at the alarm clock had her hurrying out of the comfortable bed with the realisation that Godric would be waiting on her if she didn’t get behind the computer fast. She started up the computer and attempted to fix her hair in the reflection of the black screen. Eric’s computer booted up quickly so she didn’t have much time but she doubted Godric gave much care to her appearance anyhow. She certainly couldn’t discern any vanity on his end.

 

Godric began asking her a mountain of concerned questions as he would each and every day pertaining to her continued safety in Eric’s care. Sookie had teased him once that his overbearing nature was like that of a worrying father. She was surprised when he took that as an honour and he seemed genuinely intrigued to take Sookie to a father daughter dance even though she had been speaking of it in jest.

 

“What do you know of Russell Edgington?” Sookie asked when they had finished their lessons.

 

“I only know of him,” Godric responded. “He is the only vampire older than I in the American continents. We tend to stay out of each other’s way.”

 

“Yes,” Sookie replied. “Eric mentioned that. Is he a nice vampire?”

 

“There’s no such thing as a nice vampire Sookie,” Godric said seriously.

 

“Bullshit,” she declared. “You’re nice. So are Pam and Eric and the vampires who stayed at Gran’s.”

 

“You would not think me so nice if you knew all of me,” Godric responded solemnly.

 

“By that standard no one’s nice,” Sookie retorted knowing all too well what lay hidden in the depths of people’s minds. “I take people as they are Godric. Accept it when I tell you; you’re nice.”

 

He gave her a wistful smile. “You remind me so much of your grandmother,” he said with warmth. “But you cannot go through life thinking vampires are not the scarier race.”

 

“Humans are the scarier race Godric,” she expressed with conviction. “Animals kill because they have to eat. Humans kill each other without the need to eat. When they kill it is only for the act of killing. I think that’s why we have the word ‘murder’ in our lexicon. An animal is never accused of murder it’s always killing. Murder is a human condition.”

 

“Vampires are not domestic animals little one,” Godric disagreed. “There are many who kill for sport or simply for the joy of the drain. Murder is not uncommon to us either.”

 

“Of course not, you’re not animals. You come from us, you’re a version of humanity.” Sookie’s brows furrowed with the statement which Godric had been quick to recognise as her unwavering opinion on a particular subject matter that painted her abject determination. “There are going to be just as many bad apples among you as there are among the non-turned. You just live longer.”

 

“You view us with too much naivety,” he said shaking his head. “Sookie it is admirable for you to see the good in everyone but I fear it clouds your judgement to observe what lurks beneath.”

 

“I refuse to believe that,” Sookie returned. “I admire the restraint, the control. I’ve seen it with Eric and Pam. They have this power and physical superiority that could have them imposing it on anyone unwilling but they don’t. They only exert it to keep people in line for the good of everybody. We can argue if that’s the right thing but it comes from good intentions, there is a conscious choice that motivates them. It’s like the butterfly effect.”

 

“Chaos theory?” Godric asked in confirmation.

 

“Yes, you have the ability and strength to influence as if you were time travelling. Tweak the butterfly so to speak, put the odds decidedly in your favour,” Sookie said thoughtfully and the slight shimmer in her eye revealed to him that she would not be opposed to such a position of controlled superiority herself. “Yet you refrain from doing so. It’s not a collective decision, you all do it on an individual basis. Well aside from the bad apples perhaps but from Eric I understand they don’t last long.”

 

“Your advocacy of our kind is inspiring but misguided,” Godric voiced. “We are creatures of sin. There is no redemption for us.”

 

“You judge yourself by the worst acts of your kind. If humans were to do that we would be looking far worse on an individual basis. Genocide is a human invention,” Sookie sighed rubbing at her temples. “You all chose to come out because you feared to be discovered by man’s advancing technology. Why be so scared of being uncovered?”

 

“We feared the retaliation,” Godric replied alluding to the possible ethnic cleansing she had just spoken of.

 

“Exactly,” Sookie continued with smug conviction. “Your numbers may be smaller but I’m sure if you bound together and directed it towards specific targets you’d be ruling the world overnight.”

 

“Our survival would have to be maintained by forceful exertion,” Godric observed. “The fear of retaliation would not be alleviated by it. That’s disregarding the powers of other supernatural species.”

 

“So humans win by default?” Sookie concluded with an ascending brow line. “They may not have supernatural power but bigotry in numbers is what makes the threat. The mob incites fear for the worst and reacts to that. The individual loses recognition of personal choice.”

 

“I guess being enslaved to a master for most of one’s existence teaches a vampire the importance of choice and free will,” Godric answered as he began to see her point. “We are happy enough to be in control of ourselves, there is little lure in the enslavement of another that is not a child. Even that is a difficult thing to maintain.” Sookie didn’t fail to notice that Godric inadvertently spoke of his strained relationship with Eric.

 

“You politics and hierarchy is a version of man’s but not corrected to the uniqueness of your being. Everyone plays along but when it comes down to it, you all assert it from the position of yourself,” Sookie stated. “How else do you explain why Eric happily bows down to a petulant queen who is not even half his age? Instead he is paying me an extraordinary amount of money to put on this charade when he could snap her neck in less than a second and there would be nothing anyone could do about it except crown him the new king.”

 

“It is a good thing she is not a vampire, is it not Godric?” A voice behind her spoke causing her to jump out of the desk chair with a small jolt.

 

Godric chuckled at the sight of Sookie and his child’s comment. “I fear we’d all be living under Queen Sookie’s rule within the night.”

 

“Hey,” Sookie said miffed at being the brunt of their jokes.

 

“No she would not be a queen but a decent Machiavelli. According to her we should own up to the fact that age dictates the power hierarchy rather than our political plays,” Eric voiced with the twinkle in his eyes that always emerged when Sookie would challenge him. “She finds our royal marriages nothing more than glorified shark wombs.”

 

“Shark wombs?” Godric asked confused.

 

“Certain species of sharks will have the shark foetuses cannibalize their littermates in the womb. So the largest and strongest will be born giving them the best survival rate outside of it,” Sookie informed matter of fact.

 

“That is a rather accurate description of vampire marriage,” Godric replied disconcerted. “You are right my child, she would be quite the force as a vampire.”

 

“Lucky for you two I enjoy the sun too much to let that happen,” she smirked in triumph. Godric’s face turned sullen at the mention of the sun and she instantly regretted rubbing his nose in it. “Sorry Godric,” Sookie apologised. “That was rude of me.”

 

“Do not apologise for something you cannot help little one,” Godric said with fake cheer. “I enjoy whatever you have to say. Eric chose well, you make quite the conversationalist.”

 

“Thank you Godric,” Sookie replied softly, beaming with the compliment. “We’ll speak again tomorrow?”

 

“I look forward to it,” he answered back as she waved him goodbye.

 

“You’re quite the radical,” Eric smirked as the screen turned black and rotated the desk chair round to him so they were facing each other.

 

“Hold on there, cowboy,” she yelled as he spun her a little too fast for her comfort. “You don’t want my breakfast all over your crotch.”

 

“I think we already established the masochist in me takes anything you’ll put on my crotch,” he teased.

 

“And I’m supposed to be the strange creature here?” she asked with mock indignation shaking her head back and forth. He just gave her that infuriating smirk that she detested and enjoyed sighting in equal measures.

 

“Speaking of breakfast,” he spoke hungrily, eyes raking down her body. Her face flushed a tantalising shade of deep carmine, only enticing him more with the knowledge that her blood was rising up under her skin to greet him.

 

“How should we do this?” she asked rather meekly.

 

“Do you have a preferential artery?” he enquired clinically.

 

“Do you?” she retorted with a punishing snap before realising of course he did and she just encouraged his pervy ass into embarrassing herself further.

 

“Naturally my sweet,” he smirked. “Care to guess?”

 

“Not especially,” she replied with a small huff. “Break it down for me.”

 

“What would you like to have destroyed?” he asked with confusion.

 

“It’s an expression. Like breaking down a chicken, chopping it into pieces. Showing you all the parts that make up the whole,” she tried to explain. “Except you don’t break down chickens since you don’t eat and all.”

 

“I remember from my human days,” Eric offered. “I broke down many animals for butchering.” He silently added that as a vampire this was not an unheard of exercise during torture either. “You wish to know the difference in arteries,” he clarified.

 

“Yes,” she nodded. “Give me the pros and cons.”

 

Eric held her wrist in one hand as he trailed the delicate blue lines with his finger. The chill and close contact sending minute shivers in the wake of his trail. “This we consider for emergency feedings. It is thin and far from the heart so it does not flow so easily, more flesh than vein. We must exert a lot of energy sucking it out, so we do not risk draining the donor.”

 

“That’s awfully considerate of you,” she remarked.

 

“In a sense yes, but is mostly motivated by survival. We gain better nourishment by intermittent feedings than by a single drain. It’s also where we learn to feed as newborns for the same reason. It is however more painful for the donor and will often bruise.” He moved his finger to trace the carotid artery of her neck that started beating just that little bit faster with the anticipation of what they were about to embark on.

 

“This is closest to the heart so the blood is freshly laced with oxygen as it is replenished by the lungs. The flavour is more pronounced, a little wild almost,” he explained. “The blood rushes up defying gravity so it is quick and circumvents the oxygen travelling to the brain when sucked out. I theorise this is what makes it so pleasurable for humans. Like depriving oxygen during sex. Life and death in a singular moment.”

 

Sookie grimaced a little at the comparison. She looked towards him to carry on when he remained silent while observing her reaction. He had hoped that the prospect of pleasure would have swayed her to this particular spot but now worried it would be a pull at the wrist by the reaction that carried her face. He managed to hide his disappointment well.

 

“We can bite anywhere and draw blood,” Eric continued as he placed his hands beside her thighs and sank to his knees in front of her slightly turned out thighs. “Like with the wrist it takes great effort to properly feed without causing a lot of pain. Love bites are fine but the rest of the body is not made for feeding.”

 

“That’s out then,” Sookie concluded while awaiting for the final artery to be described. His fingers drew softly, a touch that was barely felt, over the blue vein that was hardly visible under her tan skin. Her shorts only covered so much of her thighs but to a vampire’s eye the vein lay taunting in plain sight.

 

“The femoral artery may be further from the heart but it is a direct line down. Gravity aids its movement so it babbles out freely, like a small brook. The area is intimate so it is truly a place of offering,” he spoke longingly about his vein of choice. “The flavour is not as strong as in the neck but one can savour here. No rush.”

 

“And for the human?” she asked as he seemed to become too lost in his lyrical praise of the enjoyable area.

 

“Soft and gentle,” he said in the same manner of which he spoke. “Like a baby suckling at his mother’s teat. The pleasure is in sustaining the other not in a personal high. Not many feed from here the skin is delicate; the wound must always be heeled with some of our own blood. As you know we do not dispense it willingly even for superficial wounds.”

 

“It’s like a home cooked meal versus fast food,” she remarked at the difference between the carotid and the femoral artery. He gave a small smile in acknowledgement.

 

“So Ms Stackhouse, what will it be?” Eric requested as he sat back on his haunches looking up at her.

 

She contemplated silently, her intent had been to feed him from the neck. It was a little cliché but seemed the most appropriate at the time. Now she felt it to be wrong, it was the fangbanger’s artery of choice. She tried not to look down on them, her Gran had taught her better than that, but she had no aspirations of being one or acting like it and this proposed feeding already had her venturing into their realm.

 

“I don’t want the marks,” she said knowing some vampires healed the traces left behind.

 

“I wouldn’t consider leaving you as such, no matter where you choose.”

 

“Will it hurt?” she probed nervously stalling the moment further.

 

“Two simultaneous pricks,” Eric explained. “I have never felt an injection but I am told it is similar to that. I will be gentle, I don’t tear at the flesh like some do to urge greater quantities to flow. I will retract my fangs once I reach the vein. Then a gentle pull.”

 

She took a deep breath taking it all in, steeling the nerves that were overtaking her. “You may change your mind,” he offered remembering she had hesitated in her own dream. “I will not take offense.”

 

“No,” she said shaking her head with a small range of movement. “I want to know. Where do we do this? The dinner table seems in bad taste.” She laughed a little at her poor attempt at a joke.

 

“Anywhere you are comfortable with,” he replied with an encouraging smile. “It takes a little longer if you are horizontal. For the wrist there is little influence on your position.”

 

“I think I would prefer to lay down. Do you mind?” The thought that she could simply stare up at a ceiling gave her some comfort that resolved her decision to allow this. His hungry gaze answered affirmatively before she heard him declaring the same.

 

She followed him back to the bedroom where he gently laid her down. She fussed over the necessity of towels but he assured her he was a clean eater.

 

“What about my clothes?” she asked.

 

“Have you decided where yet?” he asked looking at the high collar of her t-shirt.

 

“Yes,” she responded shyly as she opened up her thigh to him. “The femoral.”

 

His eyes glistened with delight at her offering. Eric gently drew his finger over the proposed point where he would bite, pushing the material of her shorts up a bit. “There is enough access but you may be more comfortable out them.”

 

“Ok,” she said unfastening the button at her waist. “Do you mind?” she asked as she wiggled out and lifted her butt indicating for him to pull them down her legs. She shook a little as his fingertips moved down her thighs in a manner that had little to do with helping and more with seduction. Careful crafted moves that fingers of a thousand years had memorised, never failing to communicate their intent. The expectation was hardly being tampered down for either of them as he touched her in such an intimate caress as gazes locked firmly upon the other. Her resolve to simply stare at the blank canvas of the ceiling was lost, the thought of not seeing what was about to happen scared her slightly more than seeing the fangs strike flesh.

 

“Are you ready?” Eric asked as he settled himself between her turned out thighs. She gave a tentative nod from her slightly elevated position on her elbows. “I will use the saliva on my tongue to numb the area a bit. It will also aid the healing of the skin. I can do without if you prefer.”

 

“It’s ok,” Sookie offered quietly. “Go ahead.”

 

He grazed the tip of his nose over her sensitised skin, taking in her unique scent. His cool tongue grazed out licking languidly at his intended spot and a little beyond. He focused himself on the artery desperately ignoring the scent wafting into his nostrils from behind the cotton of her panties. Eric reminded himself that her blood was all she was offering and he would reign himself in to enjoy only that. He looked to her intently observing eyes as one hand caressed her outer thigh in place and the other held her indented waist. His gaze pleaded for a final permission in the silence that had fallen to the room.

 

“Bite me,” she whispered as encouragement. Wet lips found the softly beating vein and with a slight suction grew large and heavy. With greatly exerted control his fangs slipped in place and slowly pierced her skin till they breached the blood vessel. As promised his fangs ascended back as he let the treacle of blood flow into his mouth. He sucked lightly, intermittently intensifying the pull to heighten the flavour momentarily, encouraging alternating moments of the high. Building and releasing to a greater crescendo for them both. It was misery and elation rolled into one as he realised she tasted better than anything he ever had sampled before. Surpassing his expectations, beyond dreams and imaginations. He moaned and the vibrations send shivers to her core as her body was flooded with the release of oxytocin.

 

Sookie was content, like she had never felt so close to someone ever before. It wasn’t even physical it was like a deep emotional connection. She closed her eyes to narrow slits with the sensation and softly caressed his hair with the ends of her fingers in praise while he slowly drank what was to him the nectar of the gods. Eric was equally lost in the feeling, never having experienced a feeding quite like it. Together they were absent in something unique that held a promise neither one could accurately describe. Intimacy perhaps, but it felt inadequate in its weight.

 

Sookie screamed out in sudden pain when she felt a gush of wind blow over her and the unmistakeable feel of sharp canines tearing across her flesh. Blood gushed out in enormous quantities that her weakening body tried to staunch with the sheets around her as she barely registered a whir of limbs fighting in the corner.

 

“What the fuck Pam,” Eric roared as soon as she lay defenceless beneath him.

 

“You were attacking Sookie in your dream again,” Pam fumed as her eyes dilated with the scent of Sookie’s blood permeating the room. The hunger written clearly in her descended fangs and eyes.

 

“As your maker I command you to leave this house,” Eric yelled as he sprinted back with preternatural speed to Sookie who was now teetering on the edge of consciousness.

 

“No, no, no,” he pleaded while holding her limply in his arms. In desperation he ripped at the sheets to fashion a makeshift tourniquet.

 

“Not your fault,” she croaked with the lids of her eyes falling heavy. “Hospital.”

 

“You’re bleeding out too fast,” he said as her vein and flesh bled through the pristine white cloth fastened around her thigh. “Sookie please take my blood.”

 

They had extensively discussed the ins and outs of blood bonding during her many lessons. So with that she knew exactly what he was offering and what to expect.

 

“Pam?” she whispered in a desperate attempt to retain her free will. For her emotions to remain her own when it came to Eric. Preferring a tie over a bond.

 

“I do not trust her not to attack,” he expressed while tightening the tourniquet further in an attempt to staunch the bleed. “She is too young to resist your blood consciously.”

 

“Ok,” Sookie finally agreed. “Don’t want to be turned.”

 

“You won’t,” he assured her before he bit into his wrist. “Please, drink.”

 

 

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A/N: I’m back from holidays but unfortunately there may be a chance that I have do some travel for work at the beginning of next week so you might have to wait a little longer on the next chapter… sorry… I’ll do my best to deliver as I am well aware that was a great place to finish up 😉

 

To make up for the lacklustre ending of the TB finale I am utilising the announcement posts for the stories to write little quick fixes around the ‘Thank You’ episode. Since not everyone follows the same stories I’ve decided to house them all here under the name Thanksgiving Fixin’s. Despite my previous claim that I would not be making announcements for announcement posts I have decided to send out a post on Sundays to remind you all of the fixin’s that were posted that week. Anyhow they’re uber short and I’ll see how far my imagination stretches but there’s a couple rummaging around in my head and they take as long to write as my usual announcement posts so it works for me. I am now also entertaining requests/prompts for these fixin’s if they spark my imagination I’ll write it and credit you. So if you have something in mind or simply have an idea for the identity of the mystery man at the head of the table or something else leave it behind in the comment section.

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