My Bonds: Since Sookie

@BarmaidSookie

She looked out of place.

Everyone in Fangtasia could see it. The girl didn't belong within the doors of my club. Had she not arrived on the arm of Bill Compton, no one would have ever believed the blonde girl with an unnatural smile etched into her features was there on purpose. It was as if she had taken a very wrong turn, but was determined not to let such an inconvenience disrupt her night out on the town. It is almost comical to think that she was the one who appeared unnatural, but such was true. She was a Southern belle lost in a sea of black latex and form fitting leather that left nothing to the imagination. She kept her head held high and her shoulders back despite the fact that every club goer present was casting judgmental stares in her direction.

I didn't mind she stood so confidently. It really showed off her chest.

Pam had come to stand at my side as Bill took the human girl to the bar. Over the annoyingly loud music Fangtasia plays on a nightly basis, their words were impossible to pick up, but I could easily see the girl pull a few pictures from within the depths of the small purse she carried. After a moment more of watching Long Shadow speak to the pair, I watched him stiffen slightly, uncomfortable with some turn in their brief conversation. I watched Bill take a bottle of blood from my bartender.

My eyebrow quirked upward ever so slightly. So the girl wasn't feeding him. How very interesting...

The girl retreated to one of the tables with Bill, carrying a drink of her own that looked very much like water. As if she had anticipated my query, Pam informed me the drink was a gin and tonic. I had no idea what such a thing was, but I am positive I have it overpriced like all other Fangtasia drinks. I shrugged, relaxing lazily in my seat with Pam to my side, determined not to give Compton and his company any more attention than they deserved.

I didn't dislike Compton, not then, anyway. If anything, I found him unfortunate... pathetic. He was new to my Area having only recently relocated to my territory from Seattle. He had settled that ridiculous town of Bon Temps, a place he had lived when an insignificant human, and he had informed me he was committed to the idea of mainstreaming. Chancing another glance at his human play thing, it made me wonder briefly how committed to his nonsensical "cause" he really was. My eyes slipped from her face down her neck, searching for the obvious signs of vampire interaction emblazoned in her flesh and found none.

Very, very interesting.

Pam was talking quietly about the bar's profits for the night, informing me of what I always demanded to know, but I heard none of it as I looked once more to the human in white, nearly forgetting there was a vampire beside her. My head shifted fractionally and Pam silenced, both of us watching Bill and the girl stand from their table and weave through the crowd toward us.

Bill clung to the girl's elbow, trying to guide her movements in a fashion I was sure would leave the girl bruised by daylight. I felt the corner of my lip twitch slightly upward in amusement. He was as rigid as ever, but I didn't look at him as he offered his standard, forcibly humble greeting. There was nothing about Bill I found curious. The human with him was another story.

Her name was Sookie Stackhouse, and her name would haunt me from that night forward.

Soon the pictures Long Shadow had been offered previously were in my hands, the faces I hadn't been privy to see when the couple were at the bar now clear. Despite the girl's questions, I wasn't obligated to answer. Normally, I wouldn't have even considered it. In fact, I am more prone to tell a human just how little I owe them, especially when they are the ones who walk into my bar, but I suppose I was curious of her reaction. Acknowledging I had been with one of the girls in the picture, I can only say I was somewhat dumbfounded. Sookie's painfully large smile, the one she had been wearing since first approaching, never wavered.

Had this girl been glamored a time too many? Pam answered as well, and soon the girl was shoving the pictures anxiously back in her purse, thanking us for our time. Was this some senseless census by an insane human? I've hardly required sanity from those I bed, however, and sane or not, the girl was quite a sight to behold. With unmarked, smooth flesh, I simply had to try.

And when I try, I always get what I want.

Bill snapped at once, claiming his ownership, and briefly, I was certain the girl's bizarre smile faltered. Whether it was from Bill's words or from my own unabashed inquiry, I couldn't tell. Despite Compton's claim on her, I couldn't and wouldn't resist taking in the sight of the girl one more time. Those delicious curves, her hair pulled back just enough to show off the enticing curvature of her slender neck, her chest so appetizingly on display...

That wasn't the last I had heard from Sookie that night, however. When I was suddenly evacuating my own club as if it were on fire, it was because of the girl.

A telepath. I had never had one of those. At least, I hadn't yet.

She wasn't insane, she was guarded. She was rare, unusual, and misunderstood. That wouldn't last. I wouldn't let it. I would understand Sookie Stackhouse.

As I sped away from Fangtasia, I considered the encounter fully. I would be lying if I said I was not annoyed. Bill hadn't been at all surprised by Sookie's confession of such a hidden talent, which had immediately told me he was well aware of such before the raid upon my club. He had discovered a rare gem amid a sea of breathing wastelands and he was foolishly attempting to keep me from it. He could claim Sookie, I could not stop him from doing such if the girl wouldn't protest such a claim, but her gift, her talent... that was mine. She was a resident of my Area, a human in my domain. She was meant to be at my disposal, not his.

I was almost anxious to find an occasion in which I could call upon the telepath's talents. Compton desperately needed a reminder of the fact that I was his Sheriff, that he owes me fealty, and that I am the authority over everything he holds dear. I didn't wish misfortune upon myself, not even close, but when I was approached by our accountant with missing Fangtasia's funds, I certainly had the opportunity I had been hoping for.

I really wish it wouldn't have been at my own financial expense though.

Let me say now, Long Shadow had truly picked the wrong vampire to steal from. Though I didn't know he was the one responsible at the time, Bill's concealment of Sookie's talent had gotten under my skin. I began to wonder what other vampires in my Area were attempting to rob me of. I was suspicious and angry, being brought a discrepancy of the books of such magnitude was throwing gasoline upon an already raging fire. I was prepared to slowly and painfully dismember the thief, I was ready to revel in each and every one of their screams of pain and terror as I slowly and meticulously put an end to their pathetic existence.

To say I took significant pleasure in notifying Bill that I would be using the services of Sookie Stackhouse with or without his- or her- approval could be an understatement. Sending out a team to hunt them down and bring them to me was unfortunately unnecessary.

Like good little sheep, they came at the call of their shepherd.

I should have known it wouldn't be that easy though. When is it ever easy anymore? As soon as Sookie knew what she would be doing, it became a matter of making a deal with me. With ME. Eric Northman. As if a human could negotiate with me.

My mind worked in overdrive. I didn't need to negotiate. Sookie was mine, Bill's claim on her or not. Perhaps I could not glamor this one, but that didn't mean I couldn't force her hand. I had looked into Sookie Stackhouse quickly after learning of her existence. She had family that could be used against her. She had friends in Bon Temps and seemed close to her Shifter employer. I could justify torturing or ending Bill if his human was insubordinate. With how much unnatural compassion she showed strangers- thieves- she would certainly bow quickly when innocent parties of importance were compromised.

But I didn't want that. I have killed for centuries, senselessly at times, with justified purpose at others. I have made my mistakes, I have climbed my ladders, and I have come to respect life as much as it can be. Sookie was intriguing, undeniably so. Would it be so bad to bargain with her in exchange for her cooperation? She had clearly been drawn to Bill's ridiculous mainstreaming ways. Would it be so awful for her to see I could be reasonable? That I could operate within the letter of human law? That I could even show compassion?

And so, I made a deal with the human.

Okay, things didn't go exactly to plan. In what even now seems to be a blur, the thief was identified and Long Shadow was ended eternally... to spare Sookie from meeting a death all her own. My mind reeled. Was the human with such a talent really worth ending a vampire over? Was she really worthy of being protected at such cost?

She was to me, and I couldn't understand how or why.

I wanted her. I needed her. A thousand years walking the earth couldn't prepare me for such a thing. Bill had her, but I needed her to belong to only me. I had to be delicate. Me... delicate! The idea in itself was utterly ridiculous and preposterous. I need only to look at a human with mild interest to have them at my feet, begging to be used, abused, and thrown out by me, even without the use of glamor.

But here was this stubborn human who dared to resist me, who dared to defy me, who actually chose Bill... pathetic, unimportant underling over me... Sheriff of Area Five. I am stronger, smarter, more experienced, more powerful... in general, superior in every way. Every single night, others desire to surround me, just to be near me. Who wants to be near Bill? Not even Bill wishes to be forced to endure his own boring company. And this was what Sookie chose?

I had to get to her, I had to reach her. I was always confident she desired me. Who doesn't? Women, men, vampire, human... I'm certain there is even more than a few moon mutts who would kill for a night with me. A desire was not my problem. I simply needed her to see me as more than the vampire I am.

I use the term "simply" very loosely. There is nothing simple about that task.

Can I help it I am such a superior vampire? There is no way I want to be practically human like Compton, nor do I want any to see me in such a way, even if it will help me get them into my bed. Despite the fact that Sookie was drawn to vampires, it wasn't our nature that appealed to her and instead our mental silence to her. How could I get her to see me as less a vampire and more a man without being a human handshaking, baby kissing, TruBlood slurpring, AVL poster boy?

Blood.

I knew it was the only way. My blood, so much older and so much stronger than Compton's would be my key to getting Sookie Stackhouse. With a single drop, I would be within her, leaving her forever changed. She would see me differently, whether she wanted to or not. She would not be free of me. I would leak into her thoughts, I would spill into her dreams. She would be drawn to me as I was drawn to her already.

Thank the gods for maenads and stray bullets.

Was it underhanded? I am sure many (Compton) would claim it was, but I fail to see my wrongdoing. I didn't force Sookie to let me have a sip of her, nor did I force my own blood through her lips. Did I mislead and deceive her? Perhaps, but I still did not force her at any time. Sookie drank from me, whether she wanted to admit it at the time or not, because she wanted to help me, because she didn't want me to be in pain. Whether Compton likes or dislikes it (I really hope he dislikes it personally), I was there when Sookie needed me. If I took advantage of that fact, it is his own fault for choosing to be absent. He can try to blame me, but he knows such is false, and unfortunately for him, Sookie knows it as well.

Sharing a connection with the telepath who has evaded me is something strange. It makes me desire her even more, if such a thing is even possible. It makes me more curious of her. It makes her somehow hold some importance in my existence, though I don't understand it. It makes her almost... precious to me.

And it infuriates me she is not so important to Compton. He was given a gift in Sookie Stackhouse, one I have coveted more than I have ever allowed myself to covet before. She is in my thoughts on a near constant basis, even when I am determined not to think on her. When she is near me, I want little else.

She entices me, she thrills me. She fascinates me, she confuses me. She challenges me, she baffles me. She defies me, she eludes me.

She makes me feel.

And that scares me more than anything else ever could.