Thyra Dane

EPOV

I got up with a broad smile. In one jump I was up in the kitchen with a hard-on and some more `dessert` to serve.

This was a new feeling for me. I hadn`t been this sweet-talking in……….I couldn`t remember when I last had made fun and laughed during lovemaking. Actually I hadn`t made love in ages. I had fucked. A huge difference there somewhere.

On my way through the house, I stopped in my tracks. She wasn`t here. I looked out the window. The car was gone. This was the second evening in a row Sookie was gone when I woke up. Like yesterday, I roared out my anger, but this time I also kicked the first thing my foot could get near, the table we had made love on yesterday, actually. The table didn`t appreciate my kick much and collapsed.

I had to get out of here. I took a quick shower and put on my pants. The shirt had traces of polar bear so I couldn`t wear that. It wouldn`t be much bother for me to go outside in just my jeans and boots, but I figured I would pretty much stand out in the cold November night.

Just as I was on my way out the door, I heard a familiar sound in the drive way. The fucking little tin can Sookie was driving.

Before she could park the car, I opened the car door, almost pulling it from its hinges.

“Where were you?” I shouted.

SPOV

I almost jumped out of my skin.

“What do you mean, `where were you`? I was shopping, of course. We both needed some clothes, unless you prefer to show off your six-pack to everyone, and I wanted to have another food alternative than late-night pizza.” My voice definitely had an edge even if I tried to sound cool and collected. I don`t like being shouted at like a little girl.

I deliberately pushed the car door into his body, even if the car door was softer than the Viking.

With a big huff, I started to gather the bags from the car to carry them inside. Erik stood there with his arms crossed over his chest. Had I been a weaker person, his face would have scared me, but now it pissed me off.

“For crying out loud, Erik. I was shopping. What did you think I was doing?” I yelled.

“You should have stayed at the house. You had no one to protect you.” His face was made of stone.

Normally I would have given him a lecture on how I could protect myself, but the last few days` incidents bore witness to the opposite. So I shut up. This didn`t mean I agreed with him. I mean, what could have happened at Næstved Stor Center apart from my bank account being overdrawn?

Since he didn`t move to help me with the bags, I got out the two with clothes for him and threw them at his face. With his vampire speed I had no chance of actually hitting, but it was the sentiment that counted.

“This is what I bought for you. You`re welcome.” I said with ice in my voice.

Then I marched inside with the bags I managed to carry all by my tiny little female self.

Erik walked in after me. He carried nothing.

“Sookie, you have been attacked and kidnapped just in the last 48 hours. You`re not safe walking around alone.”

“And I`m safe here with you? I have been attacked three times the last 48 hours – and you were one of my attackers.” I almost spat at him. I was so disappointed because we were fighting and I had wanted to do something complete different.

EPOV

“Sookie, that`s a low blow and you know it. I didn`t mean to hurt you and if you had just let us talk about it, I could have explained it to you.” I was annoyed. First she went shopping all by herself and then she implied she wasn`t safe with me.

“Yeah well, you`ll just have to trust me to go shopping by myself Erik. You`re not there in the daylight and I can`t sit and stare at the wall all day.” She sounded annoyed too.

“Trust you? You mean like you trust me?” I asked. It may not have been the best of times to bring this up, but I had to.

“What`s that supposed to mean?” Sookie had stopped and she was staring at me.

“It means, my dear Sookie, that you keep important secrets from me. You don`t trust me.”

She was just about to say something when her phone rang. She seemed relieved by the disturbance. She went into another room to answer the phone and I went out to retrieve the rest of the bags.

Why couldn`t she see that I was just looking out for her? That I didn`t want her hurt.

SPOV

The phone conversation gave me something to think about.

I went back into the kitchen where Erik was coming in with what looked like 5 or 6 heavy bags in each hand. I stared at him. Next time I was going shopping, he was definitely accompanying me, if he liked it or not. He could pretend he was looking after me in the dangers of the shopping mall.

I giggled a little at the thought of Erik being the bodyguard slash mule on my next shopping trip. He looked at me with an unspoken question.

“It was Axel on the phone. He found out where the weres came from. Apparently Axel is real close to the packleader in Schleswig-Holstein, just across the border in Germany. He made some inquiries and found out that the weres who beat me up were packless, strange as that may sound, and selling themselves to the highest bidder. The Schleswig-Holstein packleader has a spy in their inner circle and that spy did some serious snooping around. Do you know what he found out?”

I made a pause for drama, but before I could continue, Erik said: “He found out that the weres were hired by an American vampire named Victor Madden who wanted me.”

I exhaled. “Yes, that`s pretty much what Axel said. Did you already know that?”

“No, I didn`t know it, but I guessed as much. It seems Victor Madden is very keen to have a chat with me. He hired the German weres, he went to the Danish queen and he was the one who hired Quinn. So can you see why I want you here safe and not wandering about out there where I can`t protect you?” He grabbed my hand.

I gave his hand a squeeze.

“Erik, I appreciate that you want to keep me safe, but you can`t yell at me for going shopping. I`m not a kid and you`re not my father. And as for trusting you; I trust you more than I have done with anyone I have known for such a short period. Just know that. I`m not one to trust easily.”

He looked me deep in the eyes as if to read all my secrets there.

“It is a new experience for me to be with a human I can`t glamour.” He said and gave me a light kiss on my lips. “It`s discomforting that I can`t make you do what I want, but it is interesting too. I don`t think I`ll be bored with you anytime soon.”

I laughed. “Erik, if that was meant as a compliment, I must say I`ve heard better.” Then I saw the kitchen table.

“Did we do that last night?” I could remember hot sex on the table, but my last memory was of me lying on a table with four legs. The table still had four legs, but none of them were attached to the table. Actually it wasn`t even a table anymore.

He growled and went to heat a Blood. “You weren`t home when I woke up.”

I sighed. I`m an ordinary human being. Ok, I`m telepathic, but I`m still pretty plain and ordinary. He`s a vampire, with everything that entails. We were different. I sighed again. I knew what I had to do and I hated it.

“Erik, we need to have a talk. Can we do it outside, you know, take a walk while we talk?”

I`m not sure why I wanted to walk while talking. It could be that I was worried about more of my furniture being the subject of vampire wrath or maybe I just wanted to make sure the conversation wouldn`t end up in bed.

It was one of those chilly star bright nights, so I went to put on some more clothes. When I came back to the kitchen, Erik was still just wearing jeans. As much as I could stare at his incredibly sexy chest from now until my date with the Grim Reaper, I figured this could attract some unwanted attention if he went for a walk in the woods like that.

“Erik, you are going to stand out somewhat in just your jeans and I did buy you a nice warm sweater to wear.”

He was still just looking at me. “You want us to talk? I thought you said you hated talks.”

“I do, Erik. I do.” I sighed again. If every person only had a certain amount of sighs to use in the span of their lifetime, I would run short of them soon.

EPOV

I put on the sweater she had bought for me and we were out the door.

“Where do you want to go?”

“There is a nice little forest almost in the center of Næstved, called the Herlufsholm forest. I thought we could walk there.”

She walked towards the car, but before she had the keys in the door lock, I grabbed her and we were in the air. She let out a little shriek.

I flew her over the city of Næstved and I recognized the two major churches, Saint Jørgen and Saint Peder. Even if Næstved had changed since I was here last, the churches and all the houses from the Middle Ages, gave me direction. Soon we landed on the lawn of Herlufsholm boarding school. Well, I assumed it was still a boarding school. It had been since the 1560s.

“How did you know the way?” Sookie whispered. She was apparently still a bit shaken by the ride. It is hard for me to imagine how strange it must feel for a human to fly without the aid of wings and an engine. I gave her a small kiss on the lips.

“I knew the lady who owned this place, the lady who started the school.”

“You knew Birgitte Gøye?” She stared at me.

“She is still known today?” Nothing pleased me more. Birgitte Gøye had earned any fame she might still have.

“Yes, she is known today. How did you know her?”

Sookie`s face had some emotions to them I couldn`t really read. Was she jealous of a woman who died more than 500 years ago? Sookie would have a full-time job if she was going to dislike every woman I had ever been with, but Birgitte Gøye wasn`t one of them.

“She amazed me. Did you know that her family tried to force her to marry a man that suited their ambitions and that she turned them down for 15 years? She even had the king intervene on her behalf. She stood up against her parents in a time when women didn`t do that and she ended up marrying the man she loved. She started this school with him.”

“Herluf Trolle.” Sookie half asked, half stated.

I smiled. “Yes, Herluf Trolle. He wasn`t as rich, strong or well-connected as she was, but she still wanted him. She told me they were happy together.”

“So how did you know her?” She looked at me with the same expression as before. I decided she was jealous. I liked that and gave her a kiss.

“She was a strong woman. I prefer strong women. And I can tell you it wasn`t easy to be strong back then. If you`re asking if I was romantically involved with Birgitte Gøye, then the answer is no. She loved her Herluf. But she accepted me for what I was and I always appreciated that.”

Sookie let out a small sigh. I would never have been able to hear it, had I been an ordinary man, but I wasn`t.

“Sookie, I have lived for more than a 1000 years. I have known women before you.” I could see her tense up and I pulled her close to me.

“You can`t be jealous of my past. There is too much of it.”

She pulled out from my embrace and I let her.

“Erik. I`m not jealous of your past. It`s just that things have gone very fast between us and I still don`t really know what being with a vampire means. Of course I would have expected you to have an extensive past, but it`s one of the things I hadn`t thought about. And I`m not entire comfortable with this conversation. I mean, I don`t have any claims on you and I`m not really sure what questions I can ask you. Or what questions I want to ask you. Things are very easy in bed, but outside of it….” She trailed off.

We were quiet and started walking on the footpath by the river of Susåen. We had walked all the way down to the first bridge, a half hour walk. I was going to tell her that she could ask me anything, that I would tell her all about what being a vampire meant, when she caught me by surprise.

“Erik – I`m a telepath. That`s my big secret.”

SPOV

I didn`t know why I told him, I really didn`t. And, the minute I had told him, I regretted. Or at least I knew I would regret it one day. It just slipped out my mouth – and nothing ever slips out my mouth.

Maybe I was trying to get around the whole “how to date a vampire”-conversation by adding something completely off topic? All I knew was that it was plain old stupid to tell him. And that it actually felt good.

He looked at me for quite some time. Then I realized that he was thinking to me.

“Erik, I can`t read vampire mind. Only human and were.”

He laughed. “That`s a shame. All the thoughts I have had about you…What I wanted to do to you… With you.” He waggled his eyebrows.

I slapped his butt. “Erik!”

“Are you sure you haven`t read my mind? I have had thoughts of you slapping me and yelling my name for days, now.” If he waggled his eyebrows any more now, I`m sure they would come flying off.

“Be serious for one minute, Erik. I told you my biggest secret and you think about sex.” I couldn`t believe him, but I can`t say that I entirely disliked how easily he took my big disclosure. It made me feel lighter. And hornier. Who am I kidding? Erik reading from the phonebook would make me horny.

“With you, I always think about sex.” Now he added a sly smile to his waggling eyebrows.

“You can`t tell anyone about this, Erik. Ever. I have worked hard at keeping my telepathy to myself all these years.” I looked him deep in his eyes. I needed him to understand and respect this.

“Why?”

If I hadn`t already regretted that I had told him about the telepathy, I certainly did now. Had he lived a 1000 years without understanding how much trouble a telepath could end up in or was he just pretending to be stupid?

EPOV

She looked at me and I knew I would have to rephrase.

“Not, `why can`t I tell anyone? `, but `why did you choose to tell me?`”

She was quiet. Apparently she hadn`t planned to tell me, at least not yet.

We walked a bit on and then it hit me.

“So this was how you knew about Quinn`s plan to trap me in the silver net?” I asked.

“Yes.” She looked straight ahead.

“And you used to date Quinn.”

“Yes.” Her voice had an edge to it.

“But Quinn didn`t know about your telepathy.”

“No, Erik. I never told Quinn that I could read his brain even though I dated him for some time.” She walked faster and almost kicked the ground under her. Why was she angry? Was it so hard for her to admit that I was special to her? At least more special than the damned polar bear?

I made a silent jump and landed in front of her. She almost crashed into me, but before she could take a different direction, I took her hand in mine and held her chin with the other hand. I lifted her face and looked her deep in the eyes.

“Sookie, I`m honored that you have trusted me with your secret.” I bent down and gave her a warm kiss. When she broke free of my kiss, I let her go. She continued on the path we had walked on and she never looked back to see if I would join her. I figured she needed time to accept the fact that she had just opened up to me.

I walked next to her for some time. We walked in silence.

SPOV

I knew I was behaving like a child, but it wasn`t every day I told people I could read all their inner thoughts and wishes. Actually that wasn`t what I had told Erik, because I couldn`t read him, but I had revealed the very thing I kept secret from almost everyone.

We walked past the lock house where the river was regulated before going into the harbor of Næstved. In the summer they rent out canoes to people. It`s a beautiful canoe-ride up the river, past Herlufsholm and to the Tystrup-lake. On the hot summer days you can bring a picnic basket and stay out all day. Of course that would be a ride I would never be able to take Erik on, unless we did it at night.

Suddenly it hit me. Why not do it at night? If we can`t have things as we want them, we`ll just have to want the things we can have. I was with a vampire, I would have to adjust to some things as I was sure he would have to adjust to some of my human peculiarities.

I smiled and took Erik`s hand. I looked up in his face and he smiled too.

“So what`s the story with this Victor Madden?” I asked. “Can I help you in any way?”

EPOV

I told her everything I had told Rasmus and then some. I looked at her when I told her about the FotS I had killed, but she didn`t seem to react too badly on me being a murderous vampire.

She squeezed my hand when I told her about Pam and Fangtasia and I even saw her eyes getting a little wet. I guess my voice was a little thick when Pam was the subject of my speech.

Usually I would never have shown that kind of emotion to any human, or anyone at all, but it felt good to be able to do it with Sookie.

She stayed quiet a few minutes after I had finished talking, then she turned to me, leaned in and whispered to my chest.

“Maybe we should be getting back?”

She didn`t have to ask twice before I had her in the air, kissing her all the way home. Kissing while flying may not be the safest way to get from A to B, but I couldn`t help myself. This walk had been a turning point and I couldn`t wait to get home and celebrate. I was just relieved that the only high building as far as I could see, was the hospital. At least Sookie would be close to an emergency room, if I crashed into its walls.

I snickered. As if I would ever let Sookie go to an emergency room. My healing was way faster – and more enjoyable to me.

Herlufsholm School

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birgitte Gøye