Flash & Fire

I pulled her up and rolled her so I could bury my face in her neck.  She was hugging me.  “You’re The Big Fucking Dipper in this Sookieverse,” she whispered to me, kissing my cheek as she had earlier at the table, again magically combining passion and comfort effortlessly into one. I said the only thing a smartass like me could say.

 

“Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if you fell in love with me after all.”

 

 

Orbit/Flash & Fire

 

EPOV

 

She giggled beneath me, “Clearly you need to go read the fine print again.”

 

“It wouldn’t matter.  You’re going to love me no matter what the instructions tell you to do.”

 

“How do you fly with an ego that large?”

 

“Practice.”  I had been kissing her neck while we bantered, still covering her body with mine. I could not recall when I had felt this good or had this much fun in my long, long life. For all my imaginings, they fell so short when stacked against a warm teasing sated Sookie in my arms beneath the stars.

 

“You are probably right, and I shouldn’t let it happen,” she said into my neck, pulling me closer to her as her words worked to drive a wedge between us.

 

“Why, Sookie?”

 

“It might not be safe for you, Eric. The fairies may come back for me any minute now.”  I felt her peak around us then and when she stilled I realized she was listening with her telepathy to see if we were still alone.

 

“What happened, Sookie?”

 

“I was tricked into going with them, and when I got there they tried to make me into eat a fruit that would prevent me from leaving ever again.  I barely made it back, and they seemed pretty serious about keeping me.”

 

“Do you want to go back?”

 

“No!” I sighed with relief.

 

“Then we will do what we can to keep you safe and here with me.”

 

“With you, huh?” She smiled her playful smile again and I relaxed even further into her and feeling her arms around me.

 

“Yes, with me, Miss Stackhouse.  For as long as you want.”

 

“Could be awhile. You sure you don’t want to read that box again before you get in any deeper?”  I answered her with a kiss.  When I had kissed all the smart ass out of her for the moment I stood, adjusted my clothing and extended my hand to her.  She was folding the blanket when music from the phone in my pocket disturbed our quiet peaceful evening.

 

(I’m a driver; I’m the winner;
Things are gonna change
I can feel it)
Soy un perdedor
I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me?

 

Sookie cracked up while I dug into my pocket to stop Beck from announcing the desire of my King to speak with me.  Asshole.  I would love to kill him, now more than ever.  Who would have even thought that was possible?

 

“Northman,” I answered in clipped tone that should have told that asshole I was busy.  Perhaps it did and he just didn’t give a shit.  One of the many reasons I wanted to see that termite choking on splinters.

 

“Sheriff, I need to speak with you.  Immediately.”  I rolled my eyes.

 

“Yes?”

 

“Not over the phone.  I believe you are close by.” That perverted son of a bitch knew I was at Sookie’s.  Had he been watching us?  If so and I found out he would be choking on splinters tonight! “Come at once,” he said and terminated the call.  She turned to me with large eyes in the moonlight.

 

“Fuck! I was so worried about fairies I forgot that my lying psychotic ex was your boss now.”  She dropped the afghan on the dewy grass her hands in fists.  Before she could say something that would ensure the king’s death and cost me this delicate and fragile piece of my heart that we had been carefully nurturing all night I kissed her again, crushing her close to me.  When I stopped I looked at her and spoke my heart.

 

“If you decide that you don’t want to give this a chance, then I will respect that but I need that decision to be because you don’t want it, and not because of anyone or anything else. Please, Sookie.  Don’t shut me out now because of things that are beyond my control!”

 

“But, how can I let myself care about you, and put in you in danger?  I should be strong enough to send you away to keep you safe!”

 

“Perhaps, who I am to say what should be done? I can only tell you that sparing my life would mean nothing because this is the most alive that I have felt in a millennia. You sending me away is just another form of death for me.  Don’t do it for what might happen, Sookie!”  She flung her arms around me then, and sobbed.  I kissed the top of her head and hugged her back.

 

“It’s not how much time we have, Sookie, it’s how we spend it.”

 

“And you want to spend it here?” she mumbled into my chest.

 

“More than anything else in the world.  We got a rocket to build, remember?  I plan to send your ass into orbit, just like you wanted.”  She sniffled then and looked up at me.

 

“He knows you are here, doesn’t he?”

 

“Probably,” and if he didn’t already he would when I rolled in smelling of her from head to toe.

 

“Whatever he wants you to do, it’s going to be dangerous. It may not seem that way, but I know him, Eric, now better than ever!  Don’t trust him! You roll into things all flash and fire and with that massive ego shining like a beacon for your enemies to aim at!  Promise me that you will be cautious and think about not only what you are doing but also the consequences of those actions.”

 

I looked at her, astounded by what I was seeing in the woman before me. That time in Fae had done something to her that I could not yet fully see or measure.  “PROMISE ME!” she yelled, doing her best to shake me and ensure that she had my full attention.

 

“I promise,” and I sealed my vow with a kiss.  “Let’s go inside, Sookie.  I have to do something before I go.”  I asked her for a pen and paper when we got inside.  When she handed them to me I stabbed the pen into my arm and wrote in blood that the house was now hers again.

 

“When I leave he will come here.  As long as the house is in my name he can enter if he chooses.  I would have you protected, Sookie.”  She looked at me, stared into the center of me, and when I handed the paper to her, she took it and put it on the table and then raised my wounded wrist to her lips.

 

The first touch of her lips on my skin was intoxicating.  The second made me so hard I thought I would split my jeans.  When I felt her suck the wound I nearly came in my pants.  When I saw her eyes roll back in her head and heard her moan in pleasure as I traveled down her throat, I did come in my pants.  Her blood smeared lips took mine then and I was lost in her.

 

All the places that I had once touched were mine again.  I could feel her heartbeat, and it felt like my own heart was beating.  She pulled back from the kiss and told me softly to stay here.  She returned with a warm washcloth that she offered to me for clean up before I headed out across the cemetery to face the tiny despot that now ruled Louisiana.

 

“Come back tonight, if there is time?” she said to me.

 

“Yes, if there is time,” I answered between kisses.  “If not, I will be here tomorrow as soon as I can?”

 

“Yes, as soon as you can, please.”  Like she had to ask, let alone beg.

 

“Save that kit for us to build together?”

 

“Do you think we will ever get it together?”

 

“Oh, yes, I think we will, Sookie.  We just need some time.”

 

 

32XXXXXXXXXXX23

 

The fucker made me wait in the foyer for ten minutes before he let me into his study.

 

“Sheriff Northman,” he greeted me, and while I was doing everything I could to be civil and calm, the pressure in me was relieved considerably when he took a breath and pulled in all the Sookie cologne I was wearing with pride.  I smiled pleasantly, and bowed, twirling my hand in front of me.

 

“Majesty.”

 

“There is a group of necromancers practicing in Shreveport.  Shut them down.”

 

“Necromancers?  You’re certain?”

 

“Yes, I had a spy in the group. Last night they resurrected a bird.”  I raised a brow.  He took it as a sign of contempt, but as usual he didn’t understand me.  “This is serious, Sheriff and I need you to handle it.  The last time-“

 

“Yes, I remember.  I was in Europe when Logrono happened.” I loved reminding the little prick of my age.

 

“Of course,” he nodded stiffly, properly chastised.  He dismissed me without asking about Sookie, which told me what I had feared was very likely.  He would make a beeline for her house once I left.

 

I swallowed my rage and decided to trust her and listen to her warnings.  As I flew toward Shreveport I thought over her words.  Something about them echoed to me.  When I landed on the roof and looked down through the skylight what she had jarred came back to me in full.

 

I had been in Lafayette’s car telling him that he couldn’t just go into every situation all flash and fire.  That he needed to tailor himself to his clients.  Seeing him in the circle below me brought that night back.

 

If I had not shown up the werepanthers would have made a meal of him.  I sent up a silent thanks to Sookie for her words of caution when I saw him sit down and in the circle and sensed that it was his power that really got things rolling down there.  No one else seemed to have noticed it, all their eyes were trained on one they called Marnie. She appeared to be the leader of the group.

 

I watched them for a while as they chanted and worked on how best to handle this situation.  I had just made my decision when I felt a spike of rage from Sookie that brought be my knees. Immediately I texted her.

 

Fine, she sent back.  HRH just came by.  I handled it.  U ok?

Yes thanks to you.  Explain later. 

K

 

I waited for the witches to leave for the night and as Marnie came out last I came down in front of her and captured her in a glamour before she could speak.

 

“You will pack up everything tonight and leave Shreveport.  You will tell no one where you are going.  You will remember nothing of this conversation. You will go to Nevada and set up shop there where you can do whatever you want.  You will never return to Louisiana again, and if you even think of coming back you will become violently ill.”  I stayed to help her pack, first her boxes and then her car.   In vamp time we were done in fifteen minutes.  I followed her to the Shreveport line and then turned back to Bon Temps.  It was two in the morning, plenty of time to get back to Sookie.

 

Merry Christmas, DeCastro, I thought as I put on an extra burst of speed to get back to my lover.

 

 

32XXXXXXXXXX23

 

SPOV

 

I didn’t plan to take his blood.  I hadn’t thought about it one way or the other.  It was pure instinct when I saw him stab his wrist and bleed for me in tribute for my safety.  That gesture touched me deep inside.  He didn’t flinch, why would I?

 

Of course, the down side was that tasting the man who had just wounded himself to protect me made me want him so badly that I was dizzy.  I couldn’t stop thinking of what he felt like inside me while the wall of his office held us up.  I wanted that again and I wanted it before he left me.

 

It was only my concern for his safety and my desire to keep him focused on his promise to me to be careful and think before he acted that helped me let him go. And my reward for this self-restraint?  Douchebag Compton on my doorstep a little over an hour later.

 

No good deed goes unpunished.

 

“Sookeh!” He called out from the porch. I rolled my eyes, thought about ignoring him and then realized that I had a head full of things I wanted to say to him since he rolled up here a few nights ago, saying that he knew he had no right to be here, but still being here anyway.  I jerked the door open and looked at the liar on my doorstep.

 

His lips were moving but all I could see was his face the night he told me that he had planned to tell me everything about how and why he had made me fall in love with him…someday.

 

“Sookeh!” he called again and tried to step into my home as though I had invited him.  The look of pain of his face when the invisible barrier that Eric had erected to protect me was comical. “Sookeh?” he said, pouting.  One hundred and seventy five years old and he pouted!  Well, come to that so did Eric, but he was cute when he did it.  Bill was just a new shade of pathetic.

 

The angry words that I wanted to scream at him faded, even before I heard the tone for a text on my phone.  Ignoring Bill, I answered Eric and then turned back to face my unwanted visitor.  I wasn’t angry anymore, because I didn’t care about him at all.  What he did to me was reprehensible, but the more emotion I poured into resenting him and those actions that could never be changed was a waste of energy that I could put into make my life better for me, and maybe for someone who truly cared for me.

 

In the end I didn’t need to tell him, he saw it in my eyes and understood that the days of him touching me with his words were as long gone as the days of him touching me with his hands and body.

 

I belonged to myself now.

 

“Eric will only hurt you,” he said, trying to cause doubt in what he now sensed was beyond his control to stop.

 

“Then he won’t be the first,” I said holding his gaze steadily.

 

“I can send him away,” his royal highness making an appearance.

 

“I would just go with him.”   He blinked, not expecting that, so I took advantage and drove it home.  “He’s the one who never gave up.  He’s the one who waited.  He’s the only one who believed.  It would be an honor to do the same for him.”

 

“I can kill him.”

 

“You can try.”  I laughed at his foolishness.  Eric would have him for breakfast.  “And if somehow you did succeed it would not matter.  I am done with you, Bill Compton.  He’s not in the way, you are.”  I shut the door then and walked away. I felt him leave a few minutes later and sent up a silent prayer for Eric’s safety on whatever mission Bill had sent him on.

 

Then I thought about what I had said and knew I meant it.  I would leave here with Eric if he wanted me to, and if I lost him I would leave on my own without him.  There was nothing here for me but him. Probably there had never been anything here for me but him.  I would take this world by storm and toast him in every exotic city in the world, if I lost him now, but I would go on.

 

No woman truly worthy of him would do anything else.

 

EPOV

 

I used my key to let myself into the dark  house.  I expected her to be sleeping. What I found instead was a line of tea light candles on the floor that led to my cubby.

 

I swallowed anxiously, humanly.

 

We hadn’t talked about that cubby yet.  I had been waiting, in between everything else for her to let me have it over my presumptuousness of building a place for myself here. Then I had a V-8 moment when I finally realized that she had known I had a place to stay, which is why she asked me to come back.

 

Still the candles were good, right?  How loud could she yell in candle light?  Probably as loud as ever, I thought, hunching my shoulders and prepping for a late night eleven round knockout.  Wonder if she will force me out now? I could sleep in the ground if I had to, I just really didn’t want to do that.  I locked the door, knowing my blood sacrifice would only keep out the psychos with fangs and then I climbed down to take my medicine.

 

My medicine was a mostly naked, Sookie sleeping in my bed.  She had nodded off looking at one of my books.  I gently took it from her hands and saw that it was one of the rare books I had purchased in her absence that was about the Fae.  Mostly mythos, mostly inaccurate crap that had done nothing to bring her back to me.  I had run out of ideas when she poofed back into my life. I didn’t do well with running of ideas to solve a problem.

 

Her eyes barely opened before she sat up and hugged me, snuggling into me.  “Yer back,” she mumbled sleepily and then yawning.  “I meant to be awake when you got here.”  I smiled.

 

“And why is that?” I asked her as her hands fumbled with my shirt, which wasn’t going to come off until I removed my jacket, no matter how hard she tried to make that happen.  She grunted in frustration and mumbled, “Off!” I was about to laugh at how cute she was when I found my shirt and jacket removed and I was sitting bare chested in the cubby.  She moved on to fumble with my jeans and moment later she mumbled again and I was totally naked.

 

THIS.WAS.AWESOME!!

 

I could barely contain my glee at her new power and choice of use to demonstrate it.

 

I wanted to jump up and howl with glee.

 

I wanted to jump her and put all this perfect nakedness to use, but she was already nearly asleep against me again.

 

I let her rest there a moment and when she stirred again, falling back, pulling me with her down to the mattress. I spooned her from behind and felt my heart swell more than other parts of me when she snuggled into me and whispered before sliding deeper into sleep.

 

“Glad yer home.”

 

And just like that, what had first been her house, then my house officially became our house.

 

How as a vampire supposed to get any rest when he was vibrating with joy?