Chapter 2 – Unexpected

EPOV

Instead of sitting on the dais and enthralling the vermin, I should have already been on my way to Jackson. The queen’s orders had been clear.

Retrieve Compton from his cunt of a Maker.

Then again, the bankrupt bitch had also ordered me to sell her blood and I had yet to comply with that command either.

But something other than habit or contempt for both the queen and Compton had kept me tethered to the bar. I’d conjectured it was my sixth sense telling me perhaps the Weres would make another appearance.

The Weres Compton’s progeny had discovered, during her search for her Maker on the night of his abduction. The same ones adorned with the identical markings as those who had killed my human family a millennium ago.

But thoughts of vengeance were quickly pushed aside seeing the equivalent of another family member walk into my bar. Shocked was too tame of a word to describe what I felt seeing him because not once had I entertained the thought my instincts to remain in Shreveport would be so my Maker could grace me with his presence.

Nor had I imagined hearing him utter those four unexpected words.

Meet your new sister.

But with those words my bond with him reopened and I was flooded with his joy. After so many years without its presence, I had feared he was no longer capable.

It was why I had worried he’d been at the hatemonger’s church of his own free will.

Doing as Godric had ordered, I rose up and finally took in his companion. One I’d paid no attention to at all until that very moment – with my eyes only for my Maker beforehand – when suddenly, everything and nothing at all made sense.

I couldn’t be sure if the relief I felt was at seeing my Maker or the blond who had preoccupied most of my thoughts over the previous weeks – perhaps it was a mixture of both – as I questioned, “Sookie?”

Questioning not just her name, but my own sanity, on the off-chance I was being haunted by her ghost.

Sookie was a vampire?

Godric’s new child?

It would explain all of the emotions I could now feel flowing through him. No longer empty – no longer tired of his two thousand year old existence – he felt reenergized. As though he had a newfound sense of purpose.

But that was all it explained.

The ‘How?’ was still stuck in my throat, with the ‘Why?’ sure to follow it, but more than just the words were stuck.

My mind was stuck on the fact she should have been dead.

But, I supposed, she was.

Upon rising on that fateful night in Dallas two months earlier, Compton had been adamant Sookie was dead. Certain of her demise because he could no longer feel her in his blood.

Having none of my own blood in her body, I’d had no way to refute his claim.

And if his immediate departure for New Orleans hadn’t been enough to convince me he’d been telling the truth, arriving at the church and scenting her blood in the basement would have been all the confirmation I needed.

The final nail in her coffin, as it were.

The unique fragrance that was solely hers had been unmistakable. Already familiar with it thanks to the maenad’s message to me, I’d known it was undoubtedly Sookie’s blood.

And the amount of it I’d found puddled on the floor told me she wouldn’t have survived her injuries.

With no body left behind and my Maker gone with it, I had wondered in the nights that followed if it had been Godric who had taken her with him to feed on and regain his strength.

And, like the Fellowship soldier I’d found lying on the basement floor that night, I too had been torn.

I couldn’t decide if I was glad Godric had chosen to live by sustaining himself on her blood, or if I was angry he’d ended her life instead of healing her.

As I would have done.

So my mind tried to reason he would have no inclination to heal her. No excuse to not drink her delectable blood.

No reason to go against his vampiric instincts and save her.

As I would have done.

Not once had I imagined he would have hurt her, much less turned her.

With the questions still clogging my throat, she managed to acknowledge me with a small nod and my name, but it was our Maker who said, “Perhaps we should adjourn to your office.”

Doing as he’d bade, I moved on autopilot and it wasn’t until Pam shut the office door behind her that the weight of his actions finally sank in.

And it was the scent of her unique fragrance, now mixed with the blood of my – our – Maker, that gave cause for another weight to befall me.

A few inches south of my waistline.

I’d always found her attractive – both in appearance and attitude – but the combination of both her blood and his was heady enough to make my head explode.

Both of them.

While I could sense an air of otherness surrounding her, at first glance she didn’t appear to be vampire. Her skin had retained most of its golden hue and her human mannerisms hadn’t left her entirely.

She was currently nervously picking invisible lint from the skirt of her dress.

If it hadn’t been for the silence in the room, indicating her heart no longer beat, I could have been convinced she were still alive.

And her scent would have convinced me she’d bonded to my Maker.

But I could feel her. I had a sense of her in my blood as I could sense Nora’s life force again, now that he’d opened our bond.

And seeming to understand my need for a few moments to gather my thoughts, they took a seat on the couch, while I leaned against the front of my desk facing them.

But it was my own child who – while not telepathic – had her own way of misreading my thoughts and broke the silence in the room by gleefully asking, “Does Nora know?”

She and Pam had never gotten along. Each jealous of the other for their own ridiculous reasons, they barely tolerated one another when in the other’s presence.

But then the same could be same about Nora and I.

We’d fought or fucked like champs in the past.

There had never been any middle ground.

And knowing full well what Pam was getting at, Godric smiled indulgently and shook his head, while answering, “No. You and Eric are the first to learn of my new child.”

My eyes had yet to leave his new child, still unable to wrap my mind around the fact she was my sister.

Sookie was a vampire.

But neither seeing nor feeling any resentment from her over that fact, I found myself asking her, “You wanted this?”

While I may have fantasized about turning her myself – more for my own selfish reasons than anything else – not once had I ever imagined it would be something Sookie would want.

She’d abhorred our ways. She hadn’t hidden the fact she was disgusted by the violence we were capable of.

Or our joy in carrying it out.

She’d slapped me across the face for merely chaining up her V dealing flamboyant friend, so what could have possibly changed her mind?

“I did,” she replied before turning a grateful smile towards my – our – Maker and adding, “Master gave me a gift. One I will be eternally grateful for.”

More than just lust shot through my veins hearing her say, ‘Master’. A sharp pang of jealousy rose up with it, but not because I now had to share the title which I used for the man who’d given me eternal life.

But because more than one of my fantasies had involved her calling me by that same name.

Both with the same reverence she’d just used and without it.

After all, an angry Sookie was a sexy Sookie.

The slight uptick in Godric’s brow brought my eyes to him and his lips turned up in amusement, obviously feeling everything I felt.

And even without feeling everything she felt, her unease at being stared at by everyone in the room was obvious by the way her eyes fell back to her lap, while she nervously picked at the fabric of her dress.

It was then Godric’s smile turned towards her and he reached out, placing his hand on hers, with her anxious actions immediately coming to an end. It was such a human gesture that I didn’t know what to make of it.

Had turning her vampire somehow made him more human?

“How are your shields holding up?” he asked her, reminding me of her gift and regardless of her admission with her mumbled reply of, “They’re fine,” I asked, “Her telepathy is still intact?”

Her eyes shot up towards mine, with her irritation plain to see, reminding me of something else Sookie abhorred.

Being spoken of, instead of to, when she was in the room.

The small unbidden smile formed by my lips, knowing I now had an eternity of ammunition to pass the time, and my delight over that fact was capped off with a wink in her direction.

It was all she needed to see for her to finally allow us to see the first sign of her new nature.

The sound of her fangs snapping down echoed through the room, but instead of leaping off of the couch in my direction or showing any other signs of her vampiric nature, Sookie’s hand shot up to cover her mouth, while her eyes widened in embarrassment and she squeaked out, “Sorry.”

Completely undeterred – completely turned on – I slowly stalked towards her and smiled with my soft spoken request of, “Let us see, Lover.”

Up until the night my world had been turned upside down in the Fellowship’s basement, I had been certain of her future role in my life.

As my lover.

Now I had an eternity to see it come to fruition.

With her innate stubbornness, it could very well take me an eternity to get her to agree to willingly come to my bed.

But Godric made it perfectly clear I could no longer be certain about anything and my steps immediately halted hearing him calmly say, “Eric.”

He’d needed no harsh tone or show of strength to get me to back down. His intent for me to cease and desist was crystal clear as soon as my name fell from his lips.

And while I couldn’t scent any evidence of sex on either one of them, it was evident – for now, at least – that he wouldn’t be allowing me to play with my new sister.

His preferences usually ran towards the masculine end of the spectrum – we had enjoyed each other’s bodies on and off for centuries – but it was normal for a Maker and child to have a sexual relationship. While Sookie was undoubtedly nothing but feminine, her allure definitely hadn’t died with her heartbeat, so it would stand to reason Godric hadn’t been left unaffected by her.

She still smelled like sunshine in a pretty blond bottle.

Now made even more heavenly, with the scent of Godric added to her blood.

But it would seem he was unwilling to share his treasure.

Had he been anyone else, I would have challenged him for her. Her Maker or not.

But he wasn’t anyone else.

He was the only vampire, save myself, who I would find worthy enough to be her Maker.

I was still curious as to how it had all come about, but Godric was running the show and I wouldn’t show him any disrespect by questioning his motives or – therefore – hers. But I couldn’t help but to wonder silently if her human mannerisms weren’t the only things she hadn’t let go of yet.

Was her affection for Compton the reason why she appeared untouched by our Maker?

Godric would never force his will on anyone in that way – least of all his own child – so her human ideals of monogamy were a possible explanation for the lack of any of Godric’s other scents on her body.

Already, it had to be a record that she hadn’t asked about the antebellum asshole at all.        

But it wasn’t until I had taken my seat on the other side of the desk and Sookie managed to get her fangs back into her gums that he turned towards me and replied, “Yes. Her telepathy remained with her turning.”

Then, glancing at his newest child – who now held as still as a statue at his side – he seemed to wait for an unseen acknowledgement from her before he eventually looked back at me and added, “But it has strengthened.”

“Strengthened?” I asked, when he offered no more of an explanation.

I had assumed he’d been speaking about her range or perhaps her ability to read Weres – which would come in handy if the wolves spotted in my area did, in fact, have the same master as the ones who had ended my family – but I soon realized my erroneous assumptions had bitten me in the proverbial ass.

Because Sookie closed her eyes and took a deep unneeded breath of air – and comically twisted her face into an expression of disgust, mumbling out her comparison of the scent in the room to that of a hooker hotel – before turning to gaze back at our Maker and saying, “Eric is like you. He’s thinking in another language, so I can’t understand him. But he finds it funny that this couch smells like fangbanger cooch, so I’m glad I can’t catch whatever’s hopping around on it as we speak. Pam is just thinking she wants to be there when Nora meets me because she wants to see the look on her face and she’s considering how much face she’ll lose by yelling out, ‘Booyah!’”

My jolt of shock rebounded off of the identical jolt running through Pam and my eyes widened, as my voice whispered out, “She reads vampire minds now?”

Without waiting for a response, my mind automatically started making moves around the invisible chess board that existed only in my thoughts.

Sookie would be hunted.

If her abilities became known, both her life and death would be considered a prize for the one who either captured or killed her.

And they would have to kill Godric in order to succeed at either.

I suspected it was feeling my protective instincts kick in that made him smile back at me, obviously pleased with my reaction to his unexpected news.

Little did he know, had it been an ability she’d possessed all along, I likely would have killed her on the night she’d walked into my bar and warned me of the impending police raid.

Knowing her now, regretfully so.

“She does,” he replied to the question I’d already forgotten. “But that is not her only gift.”

Before explaining what else she could do – perhaps she could now glamour vampire, because her mind reading wasn’t enough to make her seen as a danger to others – he asked, “Did you know of her Fae ancestry?”

While I stared back at him, waiting – hoping – for the punchline, Pam smirked, “I always thought you were scrumptious, dear Sookie.”

“I always thought you were a vamp version of Alice in Wonderland,” Sookie smiled in return. “But fairy or not, it would be a fairytale for you to believe I’m batting for the same team now.”

And at Godric’s perplexed expression, she giggled out her explanation of, “Team Lesbian.”

He smiled at her clarification, not appearing to be possessive of her as he had been earlier with me, but rather than dwell on it, I got us back on the topic at hand by answering, “No. I wasn’t aware of her ancestry.”

“I tasted it in her blood,” he casually acknowledged and then added, “And given her scent, I suspect she still retains some of the Fae’s inherent sweetness in her blood.”

He suspects?

Sex and biting were instinctual, especially between a newly made vampire and their Maker. While Godric was old enough to temper his urges, he would have no reason to with his own child. The act itself would only strengthen their bond.

I didn’t know what to make of his admission.

But I knew better than to question him about it, so I only offered, “I tasted her once before, but her blood had been tainted by a maenad’s poison. I didn’t make the connection.”

And even so, she had been delicious.

But recalling the circumstances surrounding her need to be healed, I silently wondered if she knew of the maenad’s destruction of her home or the resulting aftermath in her hometown.

Did she know her shifter boss was dead, having been pointlessly sacrificed by the maenad on an altar of rancid meat in Sookie’s yard?

Did she know her brother had returned to the ranks of the Fellowship or that her loudmouthed friend had disappeared?

Did she know her former lover was being held captive by his cunt of a Maker?

Any and all of them would have been enough to send a human Sookie into a tailspin of despair, but there she sat, looking as sweet as the night she’d walked into a vampire bar, while wearing a white dress.

I knew then that she didn’t know.

About any of it.

Nor was I looking forward to telling her about everything she’d missed in her time away. She had either stopped reading our thoughts or couldn’t understand mine enough to know what had been running through my mind.

So I said nothing for now, while Godric nodded, seemingly having already known the story of how she came to be poisoned, and dropped his own bomb of unexpected news with his next words.

“Sookie is a day walker.”