SPOV
He washed my hair even though I told him I had just washed it a couple of hours earlier. I guess he felt it had become dirty again. I washed his hair too, though I could smell he had just washed it. There is something soothing about washing each other`s hair.
We kissed again, dried off and walked out to the bedroom.
I went over to my phone to call Jason again. You know how it is, you haven`t talked to, or maybe even thought about someone in a while, but when you want to talk to them, it has to be right now. I got the answering machine again and sighed.
Then there was a knock on the door. Erik opened it wearing only a pair of boxers. I shrieked, because I was wearing nothing, but the towel. I ran to the bathroom, but I could still hear Rasmus` chuckle.
“So how is sex as a bonded couple?”
I blushed all the way down to my toes. I really didn`t want to hear any other remarks from Rasmus, so I went to use the blow-dryer. When my hair was dry, I put some crème on my face and body. I also applied a little mascara, just for appearances. I had never been a heavy user of makeup.
Rasmus and Eric were apparently talking their way through all the hundreds of years they had had together because I could hear them laughing and talking. I was getting slightly annoyed. Bathrooms aren`t the most comfortable place to wait for your mmm whatever Erik was to me and his friend gossiping about old days.
When the door to the bathroom suddenly opened, I slid behind it. I was not going out to Rasmus in a towel. Apparently that was not what Erik had in mind. He gave me the light blue dress and the underwear in the same color.
“Get dressed, Lover. The party is starting any minute.”
That was when I noticed that he was wearing a tuxedo. Thank you for the warning, Erik.
EPOV
It had been great chatting with Rasmus. When you have had your life, child and house destroyed, killed and burned down, it is comforting to be able to go “home” and be accepted with open arms. Old memories were always fun to share, but Rasmus gave me something more. Apparently the Queen worked fast when she wanted something. She was determined to settle things just right for me.
And for Sookie too. The queen was angry with herself for not having detected Sookie`s telepathy before. “Sookie would have been so useful, especially now that we don`t glamor people anymore,” was what she had told Rasmus.
The queen was apparently working through both official and unofficial channels. I had no official channels I could work through myself, but I had made a few phone calls. I told Rasmus about them. Stone by stone, we would make a great defense against Victor Madden. And we all know what the best defense is: offense.
I could feel Sookie`s annoyance in the bath room. It was kind of silly that she was sitting in there. Rasmus had probably seen a few thousand girls with just a towel around them. And even more without the towel.
I would never be the most attentive of men, at least out of bed, but with the bond, I stood a better chance. I grabbed Sookie`s dress and underwear and gave it to her.
SPOV
The dress was just beautiful. The light blue color wasn`t what I would have picked for this time of the year, but when I looked at myself in the mirror, I could see why Erik had chosen it. If it indeed had been his choice. The dress brought out the color in my eyes.
I loved it. It fit me perfectly and was obviously made for a curvy person like me. I hated wearing dresses that were too tight over the chest-area. You can`t breathe and you look like a stuffed sausage.
The dress was a tad lower cut than I would have chosen for myself, but it looked great. What also looked great were my newly shaven armpits. The dress was sleeveless and even if I was forgetful in the shaving department, I wouldn`t have wanted to wear this dress with little bushes under my arms. Erik would just have to manage without my `cute little downs`.
When I came out to the guys in the living room, I had 4 admiring eyes on me. Two of them looked the other way very soon and two of them glowed.
“You look fantastic, Lover.” Erik said.
“Yes, you look exquisite, Sookie. I think I`ll wait outside and leave you two to it. Please try to keep your hands to yourself. You don`t want to wear her out, Erik. Remember that she is human.” Rasmus had the playful tone to his voice.
“Oh, I am very much aware of that.” Erik answered in a husky voice.
“And Sookie. Just keep up with the moaning and screaming. It is most rewarding for us to listen to.” And with those words, Rasmus walked out the door, leaving one vampire with a sly grin and one human with a tomato-red face behind.
“Shit!” I`m not always eloquent.
“Don`t worry, Sookie. He was just teasing you.” Erik kissed me on my cheek. He took one step back and looked at me. “You sure are ediable in that dress. When we come back from the party, I`m going to fuck you in the dress and then I`m going to fuck you out of it.” He kissed my hand and then he slipped my index finger into his mouth and gave it a little suck.
“Erik, I`m just not sure that I`m up for it. Remember how many times we have made love in the past few days. I`m human, as Rasmus said. I`m starting to get sore in certain areas.” I huffed a little.
Erik looked at me with his big blue eyes. “Why didn`t you tell me?”
“I only felt it now. Erik don`t worry. In a couple of days, I`ll be fit again.” I smiled suggestively, but it didn`t have the intended effect.
“A COUPLE OF DAYS?? No, that won`t do. Sookie, give me your panties.” Erik went down on his knees, lifted my dress and pulled my panties off.
“What are you doing, Erik? If you are doing what I think you are doing, it is not going to help.” I tried to step away from him, but he held on to my thigh. Then I heard his fangs go `plop` and a crunching sound as he bit on his thumb.
When his finger touched my sore core, I hissed. “Erik!”
“Sookie, stand still. I don`t want to get blood on your beautiful dress.”
“Blood?”
“Yes, I`m using my blood to heal your soreness.” He said while kissing my thigh.
I heard the crunching sound again and now his index finger was inside me. I spread my legs a little. I could feel the healing, which was a relief. You really don`t want to be sore down there.
After a moment, I could feel something else too. I was definitely not sore anymore and Erik was apparently testing his healing powers with his fingers. He moved his thumb on the outside and index finger on the inside, both massaging my centers of pleasure. I held on to his head, weaving my fingers into his soft hair.
I had a hard time standing up, but with a huge Viking hand on my behind, I managed.
When Erik whispered “Oh, Sookie you smell so good.” I came with a deep moan. Never mind if the whole castle could hear me.
My knees gave out, but Erik stood up and held me.
Then I felt the wetness he had left behind. And I`m not talking about his healing blood.
“Thank you, Erik. Now I have to walk into a vampire-party all wet. Everyone is going to smell what you just did.”
Erik chuckled. “I can lick it off you, if you like.”
I pushed at him. “No, thank you. Somehow I think I would end up with just the same result.”
“Or you could go to the party without your panties. That would stop them from getting wet.”
“Erik!” I yelled. “Do I look like a girl who would visit a queen without wearing underwear?”
“You never know.” He smiled to himself with a dreamy look in his eyes.
I rolled my eyes and gave him a little slap on his butt and kiss on his cheek. “Thank you for the healing, I see that you have no problem going down on your knees for me.”
Erik`s laughter boomed through the room,
“As if anyone would ever think that I was submissive.”
EPOV
I had laughed at Rasmus when he told me to be careful with Sookie. Ha, as if I would ever hurt her. And then I learned that I had worn her out.
“Sookie, from now on you tell me if I hurt you. I don`t want to fuck you to a pulp even if I want to fuck you all the time.”
I grabbed the ceremonial knife and wrapped it in the black cloth. We walked out of the room and down the corridor. Rasmus waited for us around the corner. His smirk told me that he had heard at least part of what we were doing. I hoped he had only heard Sookie`s moan and not why she moaned. He would never let me live it down if he knew I had made meat loaf out of Sookie.
When we walked past a door, it opened and the spying lady from yesterday came out, apparently on some chore. She looked at us as if she had never seen us before and I knew what that meant. Sookie had apparently read the woman`s thoughts because she said with a gasp:
“She`s been glamored.”
“Of course,” Rasmus said. “Couldn`t have her calling collect to Nevada, now could we?”
Sookie stared at him. “But it`s illegal. You threatened to burn Erik`s eyes if he had glamored her.”
“Come now, Sookie. I doubt it very much if it would have come to that. No laws were broken; by the way. There is one person who is above the law. The queen can glamor anyone she wants. She doesn`t do it often, but in this case, it was called for.”
Sookie was clearly shocked so to divert her attention, I asked Rasmus why that rule had been made in the first place. Glamoring is after all such a central part of being a vampire.
“The queen made the rule back in the Sixties when the human Queen Margrethe II started to fall in love with that obnoxious Frenchman. Queen Margrethe had been sort of a mascot to the vampires since she was a girl. So smart and talented, we all wondered what greatness she could achieve. It didn`t take much glamoring on our part to convince certain politicians and journalists to campaign for changing the constitution to allow female heirs to the throne.” Rasmus snickered.
“She was so perfect and then she fell in love. Honestly, sometimes humans are too stupid for their own good.” Rasmus said rolling his eyes.
“Most of the vampires felt that the Frenchman was bad news and wanted to glamor either him or her to stop them from marrying. You know how the queen has always protected her descendants, no matter how crazy they were or how poor choices they made?”
I definitely knew about the Queen. Her die-hard protection of the human royal family had been the reason I left Denmark in the first place. I just couldn`t stomach King Christian the 7th and his madness. I had been so close to killing the king`s mistress, the infamous Boot-Cathrine, and when the king`s leeches had thrown his queen out of the country, leaving the little prince behind alone and unprotected, it had been the straw that broke the camel`s back for me.
It didn`t help much that I was a close friend to Johann Struensee, the king`s advisor, the queen`s lover and Denmark`s savior. I thought Queen Thyra should have stopped King Christian the 7th – before he put Johann Struensee`s head on a stake, but the queen wouldn`t listen. Queen Thyra would never let us interfere with the lives of the human kings and queens – we were only supposed to keep them safe and help them win their battles.
I left Denmark just a few years after the killing of Johann Struensee in 1772 and was long gone when Copenhagen was bombed by the British in 1807, when Denmark lost Norway to Sweden in 1814 and when Denmark ceased to be a great power and started being the sleepy little country she is today. I was travelling Europe and, at some point, I ended up in Louisiana.
I had left the country and never looked back. Until a few weeks ago.
SPOV
I was all ears. I didn`t know that the vampires didn`t like Prince Henrik, or Henri de Monpezat as was his French name, Queen Margrethe`s husband. Actually nobody liked him, but I didn`t know the vampires even cared.
“Well, Queen Thyra had a hard time getting the vampires into line. All this democracy shit she had adopted made everyone think they were entitled to their own opinions and a lot of them just wanted to glamor the Frenchman to leave Margrethe alone. So Queen Thyra made it illegal for all vampires, except herself, to glamor.”
“And Queen Margrethe got her prince.” I stated.
“Yes, and see what that has led to.” Rasmus almost spat out. “We have a Crown Prince who is afraid of his own shadow because he was beaten by his father all through childhood. Can you imagine,” this time Rasmus talked to Erik because he knew I was familiar with this, “Crown Prince Frederik even talked about the beating in a public speech? Queen Thyra could have killed the Frenchman had she run into him just then.”
“He wouldn`t be the first royal to beat up his kids. Remember how Christian the 7th was beat up so badly it triggered his madness?” Erik said with a bitter tone.
“Yes, I know how you feel about the whole Christian the 7th-affair. I`m sorry it drove you out of the country and Queen Thyra was sorry too, when she got over her anger. I missed you.” Rasmus said with a sad smile.
I was all ears. Christian the 7th was probably the saddest, and maddest, king in Danish history. Imagine that he had been the reason for Erik to leave Denmark. Who would have thought?
I felt like I was given so many free history lessons I almost wanted to call my old history teacher and tell him that I wanted to take his tests all over again. He was so frustrated with me in school, always telling me that I could have done so much better if I had just paid more attention in class. I couldn`t tell him how impossible it was, to pay attention when you`re a telepath. What he said at the blackboard drowned in the thoughts from 23 minds in the class room.
“So you are not pleased with `the democracy shit`, as you put it?” Erik asked.
“Could you really imagine any other ruler of the vampires here in Denmark?” Rasmus looked at Erik. He continued.
“Well, neither could the queen. She only did adopt democracy because she wanted to show off Denmark as a pioneer to all the other vampire kingdoms. She never imagined anyone would ever run for office against her.”
“And now someone has?” Erik asked.
“Not yet, but there are rumors that some of the refugees want to put up one of their own as a candidate.”
Erik raised his eyebrows. “Really?”
“Yes, the ungrateful sons of bitches. This is why Queen Thyra hired Vladimir as her campaign manager. He knows those assholes and can get them to cast the correct vote. Queen Thyra is just as cunning as she used to be. She has just adapted to new times.”
We were quiet for some time while walking the long corridors of the castle. Then Erik spoke.
“I don`t trust this Vladimir-character.” He said.
Rasmus laughed. “I wouldn`t trust him either if it was my bonded he was making eyes at.”
I could feel a hint of jealousy and anger coming from Erik. Thank you very much, Rasmus. I sighed.