Chapter 23: Driven to Distraction

A/N:

So? Was the last chapter worth the wait? Here’s hoping!

[1] I’ve starting incorporating some Swedish into the story and I may have forgotten to translate an earlier phrase. “Min älskare” means “My lover.” There’s some more Swedish coming up and I’m warning you all now, I don’t speak Swedish. I find the language beautiful, but the only words I understand I learned from phrases repeatedly used in TB/SVM fanfics. I used Google to translate my Swedish, so if it’s not a proper translation or I used the wrong words, feel free to correct me. I’d appreciate it!

[Translation update] Thank you to my Swedish reader who corrected Eric’s line for me. You are currently my second favorite Swede (we all know who my first is). You know who you are and thank you for your help. If I screwed it up again, let me know because I did it on my iPhone and it hates me. It told me so.

[2] This chapter gets a little lemony. More like it’s lemon flavored than an actual lemon. Keep in mind this is my first fanfic, so if I suck at it, I’m sorry. I know I’ve been teasing you all with lemon juice for a while now but keeping the actual fruit tucked away… I promise it’s coming soon. Not in the next chapter, but soon.

I cracked myself up with this chapter. My older sister stopped by my place while I was proof-reading it and gave me the strangest look since I was doubled over laughing. Then I read it to her. She thinks I’m insane, but funny. She also asked me the same question I constantly ask myself when I’m writing, “Where the hell do you get this stuff?”

I blame the V.

Disclaimer: HBO, Alan Ball, and Charlaine Harris own True Blood and SVM. I just find ways to twist it all up and make myself a pretzel. Thankfully, it’s pretty yummy.

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I knew what he was doing. Both Godric and I knew I could’ve swelled my tie with Jessica with the need to see her and she would’ve been back here faster than a racecar driver. Instead, Godric left the bar to go to her, leaving me alone with Eric.

Sneaky maker.

Of course, Eric hadn’t even realized Godric left, because he was so enthralled with the taste of my skin. His observational skills around me truly sucked, which I kind of took as a compliment. It was nice to know he found me so distracting.

He could be pretty distracting too.

Like how he was currently driving me to distraction with his mouth.

I turned around in his arms, derailing the master plans of his taste buds and throwing him off his game. He slowly lifted his head while I lifted my arms to encircle his neck and planted my hands at his nape to give a little tug to the hair gathered there. He threw me a quizzical look, still not realizing we were alone.

Well, if he hadn’t noticed, then I wasn’t about to point it out to him. Eric could take things pretty far pretty fast.

Also a lot like a racecar driver.

Instead of provoking his lust, I honestly didn’t need to anyway; he’d notice any second, I said, “You flooded me with trust.”

He nodded and shot me a raised eyebrow, as if to say, “So?”

I gave him a brilliant smile while reaching into our tie and caressing him through the blood, I may have caressed him a little longer and more provocatively than normal, while I whispered, “You’ve only ever trusted your maker and your progeny. You trust me, now?”

I guess I stroked him just a hint too intimately because he literally trembled under my caress and his fangs dropped, therefore causing mine to drop. Sometimes I thought they operated on the same remote control trigger and someone liked pressing them for fun to see what we would do. Eric’s eyes left mine slowly, looking up and finally noticing for the first time that Godric had left, before looking back down to meet my eyes only to find me with my eyebrows raised. He then proceeded to give me a lazy, boyish smile.

Ah, there it is.

And suddenly I was pressed up against the wall with his mouth on mine while he did sinful, unlawful things with it. His right hand provocatively wandered its way down the length of my body, coming to a stop over my left thigh before slipping itself underneath my leg and lifting it level with his hips while he pressed further into me.

I may have moaned into his mouth, I can’t be positive.

While he pressed closer, I sank my hands in his hair, giving it a firm tug then dragging my nails across his scalp languidly. His kiss became more aggressive, rougher, and his lust rose, so he must’ve liked that. His other hand suddenly found itself beneath my right thigh and lifted it, helping me wrap my legs around his waist as he pushed us harder against the wall. I stroked my tongue along one of his fangs, causing a delicious growl to erupt from his chest and reverberate into even more delicious places as my lust kicked up.

Eric then slid one of his hands to my butt and squeezed while the other went to my waist, causing me to arch myself further into him and making him moan. I added to the tantalizing closeness of our pressed bodies by tightening my legs, pulling him impossibly closer.

Eric tore his lips away and muttered, “Fuck, Sookie,” before returning his lips to mine and caressing them gently, unhurriedly, slowing the kiss and our tempo, but making it all that more enticing. I found myself focused on the feel of his lips, the softness, the way he could move them as gentle as a feather across my own, and then make them firmer as he stroked his tongue deeper into my mouth. When those very lips became too much of a temptation for me, I bit down, lightly puncturing his lower lip with my fangs before flicking my tongue over it to soothe the hurt and swallow the blood.

He stilled for just a second in surprise, pulling his head back slightly as he felt his blood take hold. I didn’t let him go far. I flattened my hands against the back of his head and brought his forehead to rest against mine while the tie shimmered and stretched. We searched each other’s eyes while it grew, sharing the same breath intimately for a fleeting moment, until I leaned closer and spoke in a whisper against his lips, “Mine.”

He growled again and slid his tongue back into my mouth while his blood hummed in agreement with my claim, causing me to smile during the kiss when I had the chance. We moved our lips tenderly against the other’s, caressing with our tongues. I trailed my hands back down to his neck and ran a teasing finger over his jugular while Eric took the opportunity to even the tie by puncturing my tongue. He moaned from the taste and cleaned the blood from my mouth in the most sensual way I had yet to experience. Our tie expanded again, evening out, increasing the amount we could feel of each other’s levels of rising lust. My lips briefly broke away from his as I whimpered and arched myself into him again, leaving his mouth to desperately ghost its way along my neck and collarbone, licking and sucking, before he quickly recaptured them as he purred. The new vibrations sent a tasty shiver through my bones and down my spine and I reacted by grinding down against him, making him hiss, and rolling my body in tune with his. His hands moved to my hips to brace them, helping me move while he pressed ever closer and used his own hips in a new and even more erotic way, bumping up against my pleasure zone as he taunted me into a sexual frenzy.

We both took turns sighing into the kiss and gasping as we hit new waves of pleasure. My hand traced the outline of his chest and ab muscles until it slowly came to rest further down, stopping at his waist where I then smoothly slid my hand beneath his shirt, scratching lightly across his abs, teasing his skin with a new sensation, which just made him purr and sigh again. I was ready to drop my hand to his belt when I felt Jessica’s and Godric’s presences in my blood start to move towards us at very slow speeds. I caressed his lips again, slowly bringing my hand back out from under his shirt and trying not to laugh when I felt his disappointment. Eric didn’t seem to be deterred any though and began to lower his own hand to my jeans, but stopped with a frustrated sigh when he felt my shielded pull on the tie and warning. He released my mouth slowly, looked from my lips to my eyes and back again before he felt them moving closer in his own blood and tucked his forehead into the crook of my neck with a groan.

Frustration erupted in the tie and he growled, “Eventually, I will be alone with you, min älskare [my lover].”

I think he meant it somewhat as a threat, but I took it as a promise, chuckled, and pushed him hope, which had his lips twitching against my skin, before I very slowly lowered one leg, and then the other. He moved back just as slowly, grasping my waist as he gently set me on my feet. He looked at my mouth once more and leaned in to kiss me tenderly one last time before pulling back, pushing my hair behind my ear, and stroking his thumb over my lips. His thumb was still stroking when he whispered, “And yes. I do trust you.” I caught his thumb between my teeth, which had his eyes widening slightly, before I closed my lips over it, kissing it oh so softly as I pushed him gratitude and my own trust. I released it agonizingly slowly, pulling my lips from his skin just as the door opened and Jessica walked in with Godric behind her.

“Sookie?” Jess asked. I smiled wickedly at Eric and vamped over to her, retracting my fangs before I came to a stop.

“Jess?” I asked in the same tone.

She leaned around me to look at Eric with furrowed brows before looking back to me and whispered, “What’s wrong with Eric?”

I glanced over my shoulder and felt my mirth explode in my veins, though I fought bravely against laughing, when I saw that Eric was still standing there facing the wall, staring at his thumb. I glimpsed at his thoughts, quickly pulling back out when I saw he was fantasizing about my “talented little mouth.” I turned back to Jessica and shrugged. Then I leaned closer conspiratorially and whispered, “Easily driven to distraction.”

Godric chuckled, having heard us, and came to a stop next to Jessica. He looked at me, then Eric, back to me and gave me a smile full of mischief while pure amusement and glee ran through his veins. “Eric?” he called.

Nothing. He was still staring as his thumb.

Godric’s amusement and glee tripled and he tugged on their bond while he again called out, “Eric?”

Eric whipped around to look at Godric, with his fangs still out and his thumb still in the air. The amusement Godric felt skyrocketed and we all had to work like the dickens to keep our faces schooled and laughter stifled before Godric asked with a deadly serious voice, that in no way matched his emotions, “Do you find yourself this distracted often, child?”

I think Jess couldn’t help it any longer when she let out a snicker, though she kept most of her monumental need to laugh buried.

Eric’s eyes travelled between the three of us suspiciously, finally deciding to land on me and glare while he retracted his fangs and brought his hand down to his side before stating, “Of course not, master.”

Godric couldn’t take it anymore and he burst out laughing, which started an unfortunate chain reaction with Jessica and me. Eric’s eyes narrowed dangerously and he started to literally push blame at me through the tie.

“Eric,” Godric gasped between laughs and waved his hands in front of him, “Don’t blame Sookie, it was my fault. And yours,” he laughed again before he added, literally laughing out the words as a blood tear fell down cheek, “and your thumb’s.”

The blame literally doubled and he gave our tie two sharp tugs, the signal to read his mind.

This is all your fault, Miss Stackhouse. You bit my thumb.

Denial ran violently through me, making his lips twitch, and I pushed my influence towards him, pulled with my telepathy, and sent, I was not the one fantasizing about all the things you could do to me with your mouth, Mr. Northman.

His lips twitched again and his mirth and his lust jumped before he sent back, as he trailed his eyes down my body, Now you’re just giving me ideas.

I blushed in the blood and triumph rolled across it from Eric. Damn it! I blinked first. Well, blushed first. Revenge swelled from my side and Eric tsked me.

Never going to happen, Miss Stackhouse.

I looked at him pointedly with my eyebrows raised and replied, Really, Mr. Northman? Because lately I feel like I always walk away from our “exchanges” as the predator.

Every predatory encounter quickly flashed through his mind and, having known I just saw all that, Eric’s face fell while defeat rang out from his side. Triumph swelled on my side and I shot my arms up in victory before I remembered we had been speaking mentally. Godric burst out in laughter again and Eric snickered at me. I slowly turned as I dropped my arms and saw Godric was laughing at me and Jessica was staring at me with astonishment.

“Sookie, did you just have a whole conversation with Eric through your blood?” she asked. Amusement shot around the room at her wrong assumption, but since I couldn’t explain, I simply nodded, with my lips pressed together so I didn’t say anything stupid, thereby doubling their amusement. “Can you teach me to do that?”

I shook my head no immediately and said, “It only works with Eric because, unfortunately, I know exactly how Eric’s twisted mind works.”

Godric’s glee shot through the roof again, after all I did know how Eric’s mind worked, and both Godric and I felt Eric’s blood literally cry out a curse. I simply sent him victory all over again with a smug smile on my face.

I’ll get Vampire Sookie to submit at some point, he thought with a way too casual shoulder shrug, which led me to believe he doubted that statement and was shielding it.

I sent him an emotional eye-roll, doubt he could, and self-confidence as I took a step closer to him and pushed, Haven’t you been paying attention? Vampire Sookie submits to no one besides her maker. That’s how I passed the Magister’s challenge- I didn’t even lower my eyes.

He paused and cocked his head, sending a push that asked, Really? To which I sent a push answering in the affirmative. Eric quickly replayed everything that happened with the Magister and understanding flooded through him. I could literally feel how impressed he was that a month old baby vamp didn’t back down from one of America’s most powerful vampires, even before my emotions tightened and disappeared in the bond. Eric was also realizing that, in all the time leading up to the disappearance of my emotions, the only thing close to fear I had was alarm and concern for Jessica. She was still a newborn struggling with emotional control and bloodlust, who was only turned into a vampire upon the Magister’s orders, so I was worried it would trigger a violent reaction from her and she’d already had a nasty couple of nights. Eric searched my face for a second before then flipping through every predatory moment he’d ever seen from me, looking for any evidence of submissiveness and realized I was right, Vampire Sookie just refused to submit.

Eric had let go of all his emotional filters as he searched, except for the main one Godric had revealed to me last night, and I could feel that he actually did doubt his capability to dominate me. I dug in deeper, going a layer further into his blood and had to filter my shock out of the tie when I realized he honestly didn’t want to dominate me. He put that challenge out there because he figured it would fire me up and my fire was the thing he most enjoyed about me, but he never wanted me to submit to him. Nearly everyone else he had met in the last few hundred years had. In fact, if Godric was right and Eric loved me, then I would say my refusal to submit was probably the thing Eric loved most about me, so he would never want me to submit to him. He found it fascinating that he never saw me submit to anyone even when I was human (with the exception of Bill Compton forcing compliance of course) and if I felt genuine fear of Eric, he felt I never showed it. If Eric hadn’t figured it out before, he was now realizing that I never submitted to anyone with the exception of Godric. I could feel the pleasure and excitement that realization caused him.

The fact that he had never wanted to dominate me told me something I hadn’t realized before, Eric was hoping my nature involved more than just a lack of being submissive to him… Eric wanted me to be his equal. The predator in him kept challenging me because it was transfixed by the fact I wouldn’t back down. In some weird-ass vampire way, it was almost like his predator was courting my predator, hoping to prove it’d found its equal and counterpart, its mate in a way. If I ever submitted to the vampire in Eric, I’d probably lose him. He also got an incredible thrill every time I proved he couldn’t dominate me and was even more thrilled when I kept forcing us back on an even playing field anytime it did look like his predator would one-up mine, but the predator in him liked that even more than the man because it was searching for that sort of individual, someone capable of forcing him to treat her like an equal, and he honestly hoped it was me. Eric apparently loved me, according to Godric, so he was hoping I would never submit; that I would keep slapping his challenges down and press for that equality.

He wanted to keep me.

Now, I had just told him my predator would only ever submit to Godric, something we both had in common, which surprised Eric because he hadn’t been focusing on things like where my eyes looked when the Magister was speaking. If Eric’s nature was like mine in that respect, and I actually believed it was, then Eric would never let another vampire ever dominate him either, no matter their age or power, and the only vampire that Eric would truly submit to was Godric. That would make me his equal, at least in that respect, wouldn’t it? And with the evidence that he just reviewed, that I never would let anyone dominate me, would the predator in him accept me as its equal?

I knew without a doubt that Eric and I would never stand a chance if he didn’t treat me as an equal. His predator wouldn’t stand for a submissive mate and mine wouldn’t stand for a dominant one (probably part of the reason any S and M talk freaked me the fuck out). I needed to be challenged, to be tested, in order to both improve and assert myself- which was exactly what Eric had been doing the last two nights and would continue to do as long as his predator courted mine. If I was with someone who wanted to dominate me, they would expect me to be submissive and, like I said, Vampire Sookie submitted to nobody besides her maker. We were actually oddly suited for each other in that respect.

Not that I was even looking for a “mate” for the predator in me, it was just something to think about since I had just now realized why Eric kept challenging me, yet honestly never actually wanting to dominate me and hoping I’d never submit.

“Godric?” Eric asked after reviewing all of his memories of my behavior. Godric, who had been wiping his face clean with a rag, brought his eyes to Eric’s face and quirked a brow. “Did you realize you are the only vampire Sookie actually submits to?”

Godric gave Eric a shit-eating grin that said he absolutely did and responded, “Yes, Eric. How did you not realize that?” He took a step closer, still smiling, and asked, “Have you been trying to establish dominance over Sookie, Eric?”

Something completely unprecedented happened when Godric asked this, Eric blushed in the bond. Both Godric and I burst out in long, hard laughs while Eric sent us violent pushes that said to go stake ourselves. We flooded him with mirth, the amount doubling when we realized both Pam and Nora had caught his emotional blush and were so shocked that their emotions had literally dissolved into static.

Poor Jessica looked so confused. I took mercy on her and explained why we were laughing and she snickered. Because of our extremely strong, new blood tie, Jessica could slightly feel everyone in the bloodline, but only enough to be aware of their presences in her blood, the thrum of their life-force, and their locations when they were close by. She couldn’t feel their emotions or them hers. It made me hope she would come to like Pam quickly and they would establish a maker-child bond, then she would be included when it came to the emotional exchanging of the bloodline, otherwise she would have to share blood with everyone in order to understand some of the things that were happening around her.

I hadn’t realized I’d been pushing my need for her to be blood kin towards her until she wrapped one arm around my waist in a sideways hug, laid her head on my shoulder, and flooded me with gratitude and a craving to be exactly that.

I stroked our tie and she purred, for only the third time since we’d first shared blood. We both smiled at each other before turning back to watch Godric give Eric shit for trying to assert dominance on a predator who literally felt no fear.

“Eric,” Godric chuckled, “how would you even attempt to assert dominance on someone who doesn’t feel anything when her predator takes over? Didn’t you realize that was exactly why the Magister commented she acted like an ancient? She comes across even deadlier than most ancients, because ancients still feel in that mode. The very old ones do not feel much, but even we have to work to suppress emotions. Sookie doesn’t, so she has no reason to submit since she isn’t afraid. It’s as simple as that.”

“I attempted to bring her emotions out in that mode, Godric,” Eric said, irritated and seriously annoyed.

Godric chuckled again and asked, “And what were the results?”

“The only thing I got out of her was lust. I get it, Sookie will never submit, I get it,” he said adopting a voice that would make you think he was bored to tears when, in reality, he was brimming with fascination and so much excitement that it was trickling into all of his connections with us. “Why is she submissive to you then?” he pointed out. I kept myself from grinning, with effort. Eric should’ve already understood all this, he really must’ve been extremely distracted by my presence if he wasn’t thinking everything through like he normally did.

“Because I am her maker, Eric,” Godric explained slowly, like he was talking to a toddler. Jessica snickered again. “With the maker’s command, the predator in her realizes I have ultimate authority over her. She also realizes I am her creator and her leader. I am her Alpha. She also submits to me, when not in predator mode, for the same reasons you do. Love and?”

“Respect. I apologize, master. I guess I have been too distracted lately,” Eric said, glaring at me. Godric and Jessica burst into laughter all over again. I just pulled a card from Eric’s deck and smirked.

Once Godric got control of himself, he smiled and gave Eric a quick, disbelieving shake of his head before shifting gears, ready to discuss more serious matters. He moved closer to Eric and they started to review everything that happened with the Magister and our upcoming mission in Mississippi. Jessica gave our tie a tentative tug while they debated plays in their half-time huddle and I looked over at her in question.

“Sookie? I’m sorry I tried to argue with you. Godric explained why you sent me away. I just didn’t understand your order,” she began.

I turned to face her and pushed a tendril of hair behind her ear as I said, “I didn’t have time to explain it all to you, Jess. The Magister was about to arrive. I know what he put you through, that he kidnapped you and caused your death just to punish Bill and I also know how hard it is when dealin’ with the people responsible for killin’ you, but you gotta trust me. If anyone from our bloodline gives you an order, it’s not without very good reason. I promised you protection and I’ll keep that promise. You may not always understand what I’m tryin’ to protect you from, but you need to trust that I am doing it for your protection.”

She nodded solemnly and confessed, “I’m not used to that, Sookie. I’m not used to someone looking out for me. My father was harsh, not protective, and Momma didn’t stand up for me when he’d come down on me. Bill pretty much left me to my own devices and made it clear he didn’t want anything to do with me when he first turned me. Nobody’s ever offered me protection before and the only experience I have with orders and commands had nothing to do with keeping me safe, but I promise to try.”

I nodded and pushed her understanding before tugging her into an embrace and whispered, “Well, now you have me and you have my bloodline. There are four very cool vampires who are lookin’ out for you. As the youngest, and I mean age-wise, you’ll have to deal with orders and commands, but we’ll never issue them just for the sake of it. All of us want you to survive and grow to be a strong vampire, Jess. We wanna equip you with everythin’ you need to make it in the vampire world.”

She squeezed me tighter than a child would a teddy bear and flooded me with gratitude and affection. When I pulled back, a blood tear was slipping down her cheek. I scooped it up and popped it into my mouth and she gave me a radiant smile as the blood took hold.

We both turned back to look at Godric and Eric only to realize they were silently watching us. Jess looked up at me and pushed me her confusion while I sent them a push that said what?! Godric just smiled and sent me affection and Eric waggled his eyebrows at me and wrapped me up in friskiness.

I couldn’t help it, I smacked the back of his head again.

When he ducked, Jessica broke out in laughter and said, “That’s so freaking cool.”

Eric rubbed the back of his head gently while quietly muttering, “Your claws are sharp, min lilla lejoninna.” [My little lioness]

We stared at him in confusion and Godric looked at him with a cocked eyebrow while he just as softly repeated, “Lejoninna, Eric?” [Lioness]

He glanced back at Godric as he dropped his hand and stuffed it in his jacket pocket while he gave him a sheepish grin and asked, “Isn’t she?”

Godric returned his gaze to me and eyed me contemplatively before smiling very, very slowly and murmuring, “Ja det är hon. Vår lilla lejoninna,” while his blood hummed in agreement. [Yes, she is. Our little lioness.]

Both Jessica’s and my blood cried out with injustice and a sense of unfairness when they switched to Swedish and they just smirked at us in response, but before I could ask what “lilla lejoninna” meant, or “min älskare” for that matter, Pam pushed open the door to the club with her hip and walked in backwards while holding a mountain of equipment stored in big, shiny silver cases.

Jess and I both vamped over to her and I grabbed the case hiding her head from view while Jess held the door open. Pam shot me a smile and gratitude and we made our way over to a table in the center of the club to set things down. Just as Jess was shutting the door, a foot shot out and stopped her from closing it. She pulled it back open and an attractive, tough-looking man with wavy brown hair and pretty hazel eyes walked in pulling another, even larger case on wheels alongside him.

“Thanks,” he said gruffly and Jessica gave him a nod while blushing in the tie. He was nearly as tall as Eric, had smooth, olive skin, well-defined arm and chest muscles that made it clear he worked outside and was used to heavy-lifting, and was dressed in the clothing of a typical Southern gentleman; wearing a red button-down flannel shirt, a brown leather jacket, blue jeans, and a pair of work boots. I flooded Jess with mirth for her reaction and doubled it when she blushed again.

We all gathered around the table while they started setting up the equipment. The newcomer gave us each wary nods and accepted them in exchange. When he nodded at me, his gaze lingered on me for a second with surprise. I stunned both him and Pam (not really surprising Jess, Eric, and Godric) when I held my hand out to him and said, “Sookie, Sookie Stackhouse.”

I could smell he was a werewolf, which is why they were surprised I was willing to shake his hand, but most of my bloodline had figured out I didn’t judge people by what they were. I judged them by who they were, and I was still in the process of discovering who this man was.

He paused for a second before reaching out his own hand to give mine a firm shake with a tentative smile and said, with a Mississippi accent, “Alcide, Alcide Herveaux, ma’am.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Alcide,” I said with a bright smile.

Still somewhat stunned, he nodded and dropped my hand slowly while his smile gradually brightened and became genuine. Eric’s tie flared with possessiveness and I sent him exasperation while Pam and Godric swamped him in mirth. He just ignored them and not so subtly tucked me closer as he dropped an arm on my shoulders and wrapped it around my neck, like he’d done earlier tonight, and stroked my throat. Pam rolled her eyes and I pushed him my own eye-roll through the tie but snuggled into him anyways, looping an arm around his waist (I was always up for a cuddle). Soothed now by having me pressed against him, Eric nodded and said, “Herveaux.”

He then quickly introduced everyone and Jessica delighted me and Godric when she followed my lead and shook his hand in greeting.

Vamps shaking the hands of wolves. I’ve entered the twilight zone.

My mirth lit up like a sparkler in my blood when I heard his thoughts, carefully shielded from Jess and Pam. Godric flooded me with curiosity so I replayed Alcide’s thoughts for him while we watched the rest of the equipment be set up and he joined me in amusement.

When they were done, Jessica caught Pam’s eye and waved at everything on the table while asking, “What’s this all for, Pam?”

Pam shot a questioning glance at the three of us. Godric and Eric looked at each other for a moment, came to a decision and pushed consent to her, leaving how much Pam chose to explain up to her discretion. Thrilled they chose to trust Jess, I rewarded them by stroking our connections, which earned them both a funny look from Alcide when they purred.

“I’ll tell you all about it, firefly, if you help me clean up the club?” she asked. Jess gave her a shrug and they both walked over to the bar to clean things up while Pam filled her in on our quest to locate Bill.

“Pam?” Eric called before she could say anything important. “Magistern har tilldelat Sookie och Godric uppgiften att hitta Compton.” [The Magister has tasked Sookie and Godric with finding Compton.]

Her eyebrows shot up to her hairline and she pushed understanding to each of us before she turned back to Jess and began explaining a revised version of our plan to search for her maker. I briefly read Pam’s mind and found myself agreeing with the story she would be telling her. Pam decided to let Jess in on the fact the Magister was looking for Bill because he was involved in providing his blood to sell and explain that Godric and I were being sent to Mississippi to find Bill by following a lead we got through the jackets on the bodies of the Weres they found. Jessica would quickly come to the conclusion that it was unlikely she would ever be living with Bill again, but I thought she’d be okay with that fact.

Once Pam finished recounting this, she’d explain that I suggested we record our search so we’d have evidence someone else was providing blood to wolves and that whoever it was had probably also kidnapped her maker. Pam would be omitting everything about the program and Eric’s personal vendetta, but trusting her with the crux of the matter all the same, that we had to find Bill.

Pam hadn’t known anything about Eric’s family until tonight. After she heard me talk about Eric hunting wolves for centuries and suggest he present the evidence we gather to the Authority, she realized there was more to the story. I read from her mind that she approached Eric about it after Godric and I left for Bon Temps. Now she was all caught up and very aware how personal this was for her maker.

“Pam told me you were calling in my marker, Northman, and asked me to help her get some of this equipment, nothing else. I used my pack master’s connection to the military to set her up with a contact, but I’m still in the dark,” he said, looking directly at Eric as he spoke.

His eyes shifted to me when I warned, “You probably won’t like what we’re ’bout to tell you, Alcide, but we found evidence confirming it.”

Godric nodded and Eric added, “The Magister gave Sookie and Godric the task of hunting down a V distributer named Bill Compton. He’s gone missing and his progeny tracked a maker’s call back to the site of a car accident. At the site, she discovered the bodies of a couple wolves who wore jackets with patches belonging to the ‘Fuck You Crew.’ Sookie and Godric need to go to Mississippi to look for that crew, find Compton, and bring him back. Sookie’s talking about the fact the wolves were covered in the scent of vampire blood. They did V.”

As he spoke, Alcide began transitioning from curiosity, to disbelief, and just as Eric finished, he finally settled on rage. The air around us grew tenser and thicker and Alcide seemed to be almost imperceptibly vibrating with his anger. He was trying to control himself, but was struggling and when he couldn’t contain himself anymore, he let loose a vicious growl. His canines started to elongate and his eyes glowed the most enthralling golden color before he managed to still the shift and force himself not to spiral any further.

The idea of Werewolves on vampire blood had enraged him to the point that he was on the verge of a full shift. When he started to react, Eric and Godric had instantly tensed, stilling in the way only the undead can. They were on high alert with me being so close to Alcide and were ready to act if he lost any more control and attacked. Conversely, I completely relaxed and loosened all my muscles, becoming as flexible as running water. As the predator in me took a step forward, ready to protect my kin, my emotions had drained away and my body limbered up. I purred as I watched Alcide and lazily stretched my neck before I tenderly stroked Eric’s arm, softly petting him like he was my favorite kitty cat.

Alcide’s eyes focused on me, taking in the way I moved and my leisurely stretches, and, oddly, started to calm down. It was like my stance and behavior had seeped into him, settled him, and gave him a chance to rein in his rage as he watched me in fascination. When his eyes returned to their normal color, he shook his head as if to clear it, studied me again, gave me a sheepish apology, and trained his gaze back on Eric to say, “Okay, I get it. There’s a blood pack in Jackson and Godric and Sookie need to find it. What’s the plan? What do you want me to do?”