Description/notes:

A very cruel and cold Eric. A calculating and emotionless Godric, in the beginning. In this story, Sookie is going to drag out their hearts kicking and screaming. Eric is by far not seductive in the slightest until he falls for Sookie, and this will make him terribly angry. Think Dramione fanfiction where Draco tends to HATE that he wants "Granger" (Hermione). This will be similar to that.

Godric, differently from Eric, will relish the new feelings he gets to feel once more. He'll thwart custom to bring Sookie near him. Other monarchs will laugh at how a single human has changed Godric's centuries of indifferent behavior and make bold faced threats to him. He will care less but to lop off heads and stake vampires as needed.

***Sookie***

A wrong turn trying to get to Shreveport. A sketchy establishment to ask for directions. A confrontation. An error in judgement of character. A kidnapping.

I was trussed up in a van that was steadily moving away from my abandoned car. My wrists rubbed uncomfortably against the rope bindings. Old fashioned, rope. You'd think they would have handcuffs if they were professional kidnappers.

Joke's on them though if they think my family has any money for ransom. Everyone in Bon Temp was poorer than dirt, my Gran and I included.

I should have been thinking more on a way to escape, but I kept thinking about the sight of his fangs. I liked classic movies, like Gone with the Wind, but I had seen Nosferatu and Interview with a Vampire. Having now met what seemed to be a vampire, they were a little less Nosferatu and a lot more Lestat.

I tried to be confident in my abilities to escape this situation. Vampires slept during the day. I could read minds and use it to dodge their guards during the day to get out. They had to have guards, right?

The van rumbled right along, and each jostle took away my certainty of escape one piece at a time. How many miles, what direction, how many hours? I knew many humans, including me, thought they'd be more resourceful in a life or death situation. I'd watched movies where people kept track of right and left turns as well as the timing of them in order to tell where they were while locked in a car. That wasn't me, and it wasn't like anyone I knew either.

I had been driving to Shreveport at night to pick up a liquor shipment for my boss Sam after their delivery truck broke down. I got lost. Like many small town places in Louisiana, the only establishments that could be relied on to show up every 10 miles or so were Bar-Restaurants and gas stations. I just so happened to hit a bar first.

The motorcycles in front did not deter me from entering. Should anyone even think of doing something bad to me, I'd book it. While scanning the inside of the bar looking for any violent or unstable thoughts, I noticed that there were more bikes than minds. And funny, there were voids moving around. I almost didn't notice them because they didn't produce thoughts.

In the past, I'd run into some humans who were difficult to read. Makes sense that I'd finally meet some people who I couldn't hear their thoughts at all.

The door creaked open and revealed the prototypical Louisiana bar. Wood floor that needed a good sanding and staining. Same with the bar top itself. Old chairs with many nicks and dents from years of use and tables in the same condition. The beer memorabilia was from the 70s, the neon lights showing off a long-standing layer of dust.

Its patrons too were fixtures of this kind of bar. Work-worn faces, calloused hands wrapped around pints and whiskey-straights. You could see the dirt and grit permanently ground into their skin from working some form of construction.

The bartender was a pale brunette man with dark brown eyes. He was also one of the voids I had sensed. The stillness of him as he and the other patrons looked at me was eerie. And not a chirp or whistle out of his head. Not like the other assholes here who kept thinking about what they wanted to do with me… no, to me.

We all said nothing for a moment, and before I could open my mouth the door to the bar was pressed open again and I felt them before I saw them. More voids.

It was uncanny how well they ignored everyone in the bar and quietly shuffled their way to a back room without a look. I was facing them as they walked, curiously watching when one of the group and I made eye contact. He was a vampire, though I did not know that at the time. My mouth chose that moment to work.

"I'm sorry, I'm a little lost and I was wonderin' if you could give me directions to Shreveport?" The man stopped, letting the rest of the crowd file into the back room. He stood stationary, almost a statue, as he looked at me neutrally.

Back and forth my eyes and head went from the bartender to the man who had just entered with the other voided minds. How could they be so still?

"Yes, of course. Please wait while I close the bar up and we'll ensure you can get on your way." The newly arrived void-person gestured me towards the bar stools. I remained standing.

"Oh! Okay." What a very confusing thing to do since it was about 9pm. I hoped he wasn't doing it for me, though I doubted it. Waiting gave me the time to examine the newly arrived void-minded man.

He was also pale and brunette, but with blue eyes. Though his hair was much darker brown and he had these very old fashioned sideburns. He wore a brooding expression and I felt that prick of looking at a person who had something a little broken inside who needed some kind of help.

I should have been more concerned at the time that I couldn't read his mind, but enthusiasm for not hearing his running commentary overtook caution.

The bar was emptied, gruff men ambling out the door and revving their cycles loudly while I stood tentatively waiting, watching.

When it was only the bartender, Mr. Broody and myself left, I began to feel trepidation.

"Leave." Mr. Broody ordered the bartender. I watched him go, his boots clopping slowly on the floor as he headed to the back room.

"I just need directions… I have to pick something up and bring it back to work."

"Of course. Would you sit for a moment while I grab my laptop? I am not as well versed with these roads myself." Mr. Broody said with what sounded like false sympathy.

"For sure!" I watched him walk behind the bar and lean down, pulling out his computer.

"So where ya from?" Making conversation pushed the fear away. Sometimes when I heard terrible thoughts, I felt the same way I did now. Most people couldn't think and talk at the same time, so talking with them shut their nastier thoughts down. So instinctively, I talked.

"New Orleans." His southern drawl was comforting and he strode back over to sit down at a table. He gestured for me to do the same and I sat across from him.

"Oh that's neat! I'm from Bon Temp. Have you ever heard of it?"

"I do believe I have." His teeth were so white. And he kind of glowed up close. No, he had glowed before, much like the bartender. I hadn't been paying attention until now.

"I work at Merlotte's Bar and Grill as a waitress. I'm just helping my boss pick up a shipment of liquor tonight since the truck broke down. You know how people are without their poison of choice!" I assumed he owned the bar, or tended it well enough to know what I was talking about.

"Indeed." He said, opening his laptop.

"Now what's the delivery company location?" He asked. The man was looking in depth at his laptop, not making eye contact with me as he set everything up to look for where I should be going.

"Here's the address." I pulled the paper Sam, my boss, had given me out of my purse.

"I never asked you for your name. I'm Sookie Stackhouse." My hand thrust out and he eyed it carefully before slowly pulling up his own and shaking it. It made me glad that I was leaving soon, because while he seemed nice, his behavior was kind of creepy.

"A pleasure Miss Stackhouse. I am William Compton."

"Very nice to meet'cha. So where am I going?"

He sighed and closed the laptop, interlocking his fingers and placing his hands on top of it as he looked at me.

"With me."

"Pardon?"

"You'll be going with me."

"Uh, I don't think so mister." One of my failings was that I didn't abide by discretion being the better part of valor.

Relying on my mind reading, I could shoot first and ask questions later, if there were any left to ask. But I couldn't read his mind.

I should have been demure and non-committal, not angry. Instead it had taken one second to open my mouth and two seconds to realize I should have kept it shut.

"Don't worry, you will be taken care of and your absence will be accounted for. You'll have a new life, new identity and you'll be treated well."

"Are you seriously saying this to me right now? How dare you. I'm leaving." Real fear gripped me. Something I hadn't felt since I was a child and had been terrified of not being able to keep out other's thoughts.

I pushed the chair out, started towards the door and avoided looking at his face. Then he was in front of me, his body bearing down. If only I'd had the sense to be more afraid, staring up into his eyes. There was a soft click and he smiled, revealing fangs.

"Vampire?" My head tilted and he smiled cruelly before I felt the pressure. It tingled behind my eyes and squeezed my head like how a fever could make your whole noggin' feel swollen.

"Don't scream, walk out with me into the parking lot and get into the back of the white van. Stay there and wait for me."

"I'll do no such thing." I tried punching him then, but he caught my wrist. His grip was painful and I sunk to my knees while he tightened his hold.

And that was more or less how I found myself tied up in the back of a van, headed towards a 'new life'. At least until I escaped.

***Eric***

"$100,000 that Andre and Waldo fight over the same donor again." A typical night in the Louisiana king's court. I stood behind Godric, my maker, as we watched the vermin. Felipe De Castro's representative, Victor Madden, was here in fine form. Donors carefully scurried away from the careless and entitled vampire. Several fines for donor damage or accidental draining had already been incurred and paid for by Felipe on behalf of Victor. These were the kinds of things one monarch did to another; sending tiny thorns into each other's sides. At this very moment my child, Pam, was in Las Vegas burning her way through Felipe's ambassador stipend and perks. She had seduced as many donors from their vampires as she was able without incurring penalties. But whereas Pam towed the line, Victor jumped over it. Pam's actions cost us nothing monetarily. Victor was a hole-in-the-bucket for Felipe.

"Eric that's absurd. They absolutely will. No. $100,000 for over-under five minutes?" We spent our nights making bets with one another on the vermin and donors. Last night's had been an over under on how long it would take Sophie-Anne to ask whether she could 'have a word, privately' with Godric. Sophie-Anne's words were always embarrassing propositions to do 'anything' Godric wanted.

"Ten minutes for the over-under, and I pick fifteen." The two vampires in question were both Sophie-Anne's get. Her reasoning for making children who could barely get along had merit, in that it was easy to pit them against one another to maintain control. But it was in no way preferable to having loyal progeny, like myself to Godric and Pam to me.

"I'll take seven minutes. You agree?" Godric was picking the under. Often I could not tell if he was bluffing when he bet or if he didn't care about the wins and losses. Sometimes it was a bit of both, I presumed. Keeping entertained after so many hundreds of years was difficult enough for me, and I knew tacking on another 1,000 years made most things boring.

"Yes." The money was irrelevant. We were both incredibly rich from our investments and growing richer now that Godric was the king of Louisiana and I was his second. It was what we bet on that made it interesting.

"Tell me, why do you think it will be so long before the fun begins?" When Godric asked a question, I knew he was looking to show off his impending victory. I still competed, but Godric was a master of knowing what happens behind closed doors in his court. As a king should be. My job was to act as enforcer.

"Sophie-Anne will not let her children fight. She's already reprimanded them." I said casually.

"I know for a fact that Sophie-Anne has not given her children the maker's command to not fight." Of course he did.

"I know this too." I had been looking to convince him that he might lose, at the very least.

"And I know that Sophie-Anne will not be at court tonight." And there was the kicker. Without Sophie-Anne it might take less than a minute for a fight to begin.

"Fuck you Godric. You knew." I was grinning, my hand on Godric's throne as I leaned down to speak to him.

"And you bet. Without knowing." He answered casually, also smiling. Jealousy for my relationship with Godric was a stink that lingered on other vampires who met us. Many maker and child relationships were not, had rarely been, as close as Godric and I. Our bloodline was small, closely knit and our relationships with one another were impenetrable.

Godric had his council, yes, but at the end of the day he and I made decisions together, with input from Pam.

Other monarchs chose to rule by different methods. Some excelled at blackmailing or brutal manipulation, others were only chaotic and vicious in their punishments. There were lenient rulers who had the support of unsavory but powerful vampires that wanted to live in a kingdom where they could kill with impunity. A few had monarchs with many children all under the maker's command to obey and defend the throne.

None had true loyalty. Not like Godric did. Many vampires in his court were devoted to their king for his fairness and strength. But there were always vultures, such as Sophie-Anne.

"So where is the disgustingly errant vampire?"

"She has a new pet." I snickered and smirked. Sophie-Anne couldn't find a pet outside of Godric's donor supply if it jumped up and bit her in public.

"I assume then that Compton brought a donor in and failed to present it?" I stated, filling in the unspoken.

"You assume correctly. I trust you to manage it." Godric brought his closed fist to rest under his chin as he graced his court with his smile.

Compton was our procurer, and while excellent at his job, he walked a tense line with us as a kingdom. He'd never done anything outright to break the most important rules of procurement. There was always some excuse or loophole for the indiscretions he made. But he was just too good at committing minor infractions for each to be considered solely a mistake when his actions were taken in as a whole.

A procurer acquired humans to feed on for vampires. Given that we hid in the shadows conducting our business in secrecy and adhering to our own rules, we only made consistent forays into the world of the exclusively human in order to glamor them into being our donors. Compton had the unusual ability to spot exotic blooded humans and a knack for a light, suggestive glamor that didn't damage the mind of the human as much as others could.

The procurer's mistake this time was in providing a human donor to a vampire in Godric's court before presenting the donor to Godric. While everyone knew that Godric had not taken a donor in years, preferring bagged blood of all things, it was a courtesy that needed observing.

Compton would point to Godric's preferences as his latest excuse, that I knew.

"Find your own!"

"I claimed it last night!"

"It's a donor, not a pet, and you failed to show up on time to take it as yours. Now it's mine!"

It, it, it. Glamored or not, the humans hated to be objectified.

"Andre. Waldo. Come before me, now." Godric's voice was a whisper, but he barely spoke in court and it caused all of the vampires who resided here to keep their ears to the ground to listen for it. If Godric had to repeat himself, someone would lose their fangs or head.

Though the usual noises of vampires lessened, Andre and Waldo paid no attention to the growing quiet or Godric's voice. They had begun to pull on either arm of the donor, who was beginning to stretch between them. I could see the human's shoulders resist dislocation.

"Ta av sig fangs, Eric." Godric gave me the word and I flew quickly over, wresting their hands from the donor's arms before snatching both of their necks and pinning them against the wall.

"Longshadow. Hold this for me." I gestured to Andre and Longshadow's hand replaced mine on Andre's neck. Both vampires were too young to retract their fangs when in fear and I quickly wrenched them out of Waldo's mouth first, ignoring his screams. Dropping him to the floor, I did the same to Andre. Out of the corner of my eye I watched another of Sophie-Anne's children leave the room to find their maker. Excellent.

I took the fangs with me as I vamped up to Godric's throne, placing them in his outstretched palm.

"Thank you my son."

Sophie-Anne was quick, bursting into the room with her gaudy bustled dress swishing behind her.

"What is the meaning of this Godric? Am I not to be called to discipline my children?" Godric did not deign to address her, instead waving his hand at me in boredom, letting me know to speak for him.

"Your children continue to fight over donors, and instead of curbing their behavior you have issued no maker's commands and proceed to leave them at court where they cannot behave themselves. However, I sincerely apologize for usurping your position as maker and issuing punishment myself." I gave her my most winsome smile. She gave me a similarly insincere one in return. I felt a hint of smugness in her feeling secure that the conflict was over. Her children's fangs would grow back within a week if given enough blood.

"The sins of our children are a reflection on their maker." I continued. At that, I flitted over to her and seized her arms.

"For their behavior, and yours, you will be half-drained, silvered and locked in a coffin for a month. And the next time you choose to take a pet before presenting it to us, we'll kill it in front of you. In this case, we'll add it back to the donor pool. You will never feed from it again." I lied. With every listed punishment and potential punishment Sophie-Anne's eyes grew wider and angrier.

She never had the chance to respond as I hustled her to the dungeons, silvered her, plugged her body up to a repurposed blood donation machine and proceeded to take half of her blood. To her credit, she only whimpered when I finished and threw her into a coffin, instructing the guards to wheel it out and lock it in our safe.

I was back at Godric's side now, watching Waldo and Andre feel the inside of their mouth with their hands. They knew better than to dart away while I was securing their maker.

"Andre, retrieve the donor for presentation. Waldo, go to the bagged blood distributor and take two bags each. Be back here in a minute." It was not a request. Godric sat silent as I stood by his side, performing my duties to crown and king.

Andre had the donor in hand, her arms bruising under his fingers. She was still pretty, but her arms were scarred with track marks and she had that simpering nature all donors put on display. But she was sweet smelling. Even from here her scent was pleasant. It wouldn't be long before a vampire would make a mistake and drain her dry. It was at that point Godric chose to speak.

"Andre and Waldo. As your punishment, you will receive only one bag of donor blood a week for the month that your maker is imprisoned. During this time Andre will take charge of Sophie-Anne's new pet." Andre sighed with relief. The real punishment for the two children would be when Sophie-Anne was released. They seemed to think if they had the pet, it would go easier on them.

"You will turn her in two weeks time. If she dies as a human or meets the true death as a vampire by your hand or orders, you will all be staked. Which you can take to mean that if she dies at all and doesn't rise a vampire, you'll meet the true death together." I continued.

"Court is dismissed." We closed up shop early, leaving our constituents to gossip about the night's events.