I Will Not Let You Down *One Shot*

*SPOILERS* For those not familiar with the books at this point in the story they have been to Dallas and Jackson.  They have saved Bill and Sookie has become an official friend of the Shreveport Pack, Alcide’s pack.  Eric has blackmailed Sookie into telling him what happened, but he does not remember himself.  Sookie has met John Quinn at pack event coordinated by the company he words for and he has asked her out on a date.  Eric has had Pam call Sookie and ask her to appear at the bar on Friday and she tells Pam that if he wants to see her he can ask her himself, but she has plans anyway.  Pam presses her and Sookie reveals that she has a date.  Of course, Eric shows up to see what is happening for himself.

She tells him about her date and that it is none of his business because he has not expressed any interest in her.  He makes a poor showing of explaining why her choices do impact him, falling back to that he has bedded her, and given her his blood and helped her…financially, and finally  that she is part of his retinue.  She tells him to shove it up his retinue, or words that effect and then leaves him standing on the porch as she heads off into the night with Quinn.

Eric’s final words in this scene are, “This woman has been mine, she will be mine again!”

This is a request from duckbutt60 and not something I had originally thought to do, so thank you for that! The idea gave me not only a cool banner but a cool story idea.

Knowing the future for Eric and Sookie, I hated this scene.  I like one better….

 

I Will Not Let You Down

 

There is a tiger in the halls of my mind…

“Sookie, look at me, lover.” He stopped moving and grabbed my head.  “Come back to me, Sookie!  Be here with me now! Please, we have so little time and I miss you so!”  I wanted to cry because he had said what I was always thinking, reassuring me that we were indeed in this together.

“But, Eric, what if”-

“No, not going to happen!” He swore to me fiercely that I couldn’t help but believe him.  He moved in me again then, commanding my attention back to him in a new way.  I gave into him and attacked his lips like I might never see them or him again.  A very real possibility if we were not able to stop what my keen eyed Viking had seen on the horizon.

Things had changed for us the night he came to ask me what happened between us in the time he stayed with me.  After I told him he had healed my wounds and then set about healing my broken heart.  We had but a few days of peace and joy, so short a time that no one knew about it but the Viking and myself and then I had met John Quinn at the pack event.

Maybe it was Eric’s blood that made him so easy to read, maybe I was just always supposed to know but Quinn was here to scope out Louisiana for a takeover by the Nevada vampires.

“Everyone knows that Arkansas is weak,” Eric had explained to me when I shared this with him.  “Sophie thinks to land grab as she works this alliance out with Threadgill, but it will leave her weak and exposed to try and cover so much territory if she proceeds with this marriage.  Mean time DeCastro sees another valuable gambling state that he could add to his roster and new participants in The Pit.”

“The Pit?”

“Yes, DeCastro runs fighting matches for supernaturals in his area.  Not all the participants are willing and not all of them owe him debt as the Tiger is rumored to.  He takes them, Sookie.  Those not strong enough or allied strongly enough to have protection are gobbled up as fodder for his profit.”

Immediately, I thought of Sam, and Alcide’s pack, and  Calvin Norris’ panthers.  They wouldn’t stand a chance against what Eric was describing.  “We have to stop them!” I told him standing and pacing as I tried to work out what a single telepath and a thousand year old Viking could do alone.

“The Queen is determined to see this union through and refuses to listen to even her most trusted council.  She has eyes only for Arkansas and has not looked to the west for dangers that will surely follow.”

Soon after we realized how deep we were in trouble when Quinn approached me on behalf of our Queen to recruit me for the upcoming summit to be held at Rhodes. As a bonus Quinn offered himself as my escort not only for the event but for an evening out to become more acquainted with me.  I had accepted, not knowing what else to do and then contacted Eric.  It was pure luck that I had called him from Merlotte’s and not from home because we found out that night that my house and phones were bugged.  A gift with purchase for the repairs after the fire.

We decided to trust no one but each other and play up the ruse that her strongest warrior was addled over his unsuccessful pursuit of yours truly.  “This will put them at greater ease over me and free me up to strike from the shadows.”

“But Pam, Pam should know right?”  He had thought that one over and decided that it was best to leave her even in the dark.  If his own child expressed concerns about his lack of focus it would cement the case and make him and Louisiana seem much more vulnerable than we actually were.

“It all hangs on you, my lover,” he had told me when we met in the woods on my property, a safe distance from the listening devices that now made my home a war zone.

“No pressure,” I said sarcastically suddenly so afraid that I wasn’t sure I could move from the spot.

“Sookie,” he said, going to his knees at my feet and taking my hands in his.  “If there were any other way to do this-“

“But there isn’t.  I know that.”

“The very thought of any man putting his hands on what is mine is almost more than I can stand!” his fangs came down, showing his deep hatred of this plan.  I was right there with him, but this was about more than just us.  This was about saving the innocent from the slaughter that would surely come if Nevada took over our area.   I knelt down in front of him then, scared for me and for him.  I looked at him in the streaky moonlight and then I kissed him, running my fingers through his hair as he did me when he was in the grips of passion.  He let me press him down to the ground and take him in all the ways I needed him, taking back control only when he whispered his love for me in my ear and pierced my skin with his fangs.

It was those rare and fleeting moments when I was just a young woman in the arms of her vampire lover that gave me the strength to do this.  He was mine and I would not lose him!  I would not let him be executed in take over nor would I let myself become the pet of a vampire king. No fucking way was that ever going to happen.

As we had planned Eric had Pam call me to come to the bar  and I said my lines, pretending to be uninterested and uncaring that the man I loved was summoning me to his side.  Offering the final bit at the end that would seal this path we were on.

“If Eric wants to see me tell him that he can tell me that himself!”

His hand slipped down and banished all other thoughts from my mind.  Thoughts of losing him, of what we were doing drove me to new heights as I tore his back and rode him like I could break him and then keep him by my side to heal.

His head went back, fangs down fully as I tore his flesh and came screaming his name.  He let me, bearing the brunt of my pain and love like the strong noble man he was, had always been. When I quieted he laid me down and then loved me deep and slowly, looking into my eyes, whispering his heart.

“You will always be mine, Sookie.  I will always be yours.  If you could see into the heart of me you would know that there is a temple in mind with an altar set for you.  I will not let you down.  I swear it!”

We found our release together and for a few moments the world was as it should be with just the two of us.  We had been meeting in an old abandoned church.  He would slip out when he could and pick me up off the side of the road after my shift at the bar.  I had seen far too little of him in the past weeks but when we did see each other we tried our best to make up for lost time.

“Someday, all the time will be ours, my Sookie,” he said kissing my head and holding me close.

I closed my eyes and saw the Tiger again.  My date was tonight.  Our “show” was tonight.  After he left me this morning I had no idea when I would see him again, and we had to go in just a few minutes.  I could feel the dawn coming and I resented it with every fiber of my being.

I dressed that night for Eric.  Tight black dress, black pumps, my hair down and shiny as he liked it when we made love. Quinn would think whatever Quinn would think and I hoped it worked to our advantage. I had a moment looking for my pumps that I nearly fell to the floor and cried, but the knowledge that somewhere someone was listening helped me keep it together.

I kept it in, thinking of all the ways I would vent that frustration when the time was right.  This was my world now and it was savage and violent and terrifying.  So be it! I thought, feeling savage and dangerous myself.   I wasn’t going down without one hell of a fight!

When the knock came at the door just after sunset and just before Quinn was due to arrive I swallowed the lump in my throat and put my hand on the door, hesitating but a moment.

Here we go, I thought swinging the door with a smile on my face.