'First impressions' were two words that held no meaning for a vampire. Why would it, when vampires had the ability to glamour? First impressions meant nothing when you could have numerous first impressions without the human's knowledge, then again why would he give a fuck about impressing a blood bag or anyone for that matter. As far as he was concerned the blood bags were only good for one thing a feed and a fuck. Since the great revelations, his food came to him in abundance.

It was with this in mind that Eric wondered how he found himself on the verge of apologizing to a human. He was desperate, and desperation was not a good look on anyone, sup or human.

Pam had sent him a text calling dips on the bartender he was about to interview, and in truth, he couldn't care less. That was until the human in question walked through the door, he realized he wasn't about to forfeit just yet. She smelled quite sweet, he knew her blood would at least taste pleasant, but he really liked was her overall package.

"Åh, jag tvivlar på att hon svänger dig. Titta på den röven och de bröstet ... En tjej som vet vet hur en tar en bra kuk och jag är säker på att svälja ivrigt. förlåt Pam, men du erbjuder inget av ovanstående." (Oh, I doubt she swings your way. Look at that ass and those breasts... a girl like that knows how a take a good dick and I'm sure swallows eagerly. Sorry Pam, but you offer none of the above.)

"Jag skulle inte vara så säker på det. Hur hon såg mig berättar för mig allt jag behöver veta." (I wouldn't be too sure about that. The way she looked at me tells me everything I need to know.)

Sookie lets out an audible sigh earning the attention of the two vampires blatantly talking about her. "Sorry, Miss Stackhouse… old habit, we tend to talk business in Swedish when others are in the room. Makes confidentiality easier to deal with." Eric delivered in a tone that left little to the imagination.

"Business?" Sookie questioned, her voice laced with disdain. "Is that what you call it. I thought I was here to interview for the position of bartender not prostitute. The only reason I can surmise for your talking about which way I swing or how well I can take a dick and swallow can be construed as business is if I was applying to a whore house."

Neither Eric or Pam could hide their shock, in the decades they have openly talked about others in Swedish never once had any understood or even if they did called them out on it. "This was clearly a bad idea. Thanks for the opportunity, but I don't think I'm suitable for this establishment." She needed the money desperately, but she wasn't about to sell herself for a job. The farmhouse was on its last legs, and the estimate from Herveaux and Sons was nearly fifty thousand dollars. Jackson Herveaux had agreed to have her pay in installments. Even then she still had to come up with two and a half thousand dollars a month. So far the only job she'd found advertised that gave her that kind of money without a college education was a vampire establishment that opened three months ago. She'd known about vampires since she was fourteen, so the great revelation came as no surprise to her. She just never thought she would find herself right in their midst.

"Miss Stackhouse, you just walked in here. The conversation you just heard never happened. Sit down, and no matter what the job entails you will accept it." Eric glamoured her as he wasn't about to let her go even if he had to play a little dirty to achieve it.

"Yep, I was right this is not the place for me. " Sookie mumbled making her way towards the door.

"You can't be glamoured," Pam asked her jaw practically hanging off, while Eric just stared, looking incredulous.

"What gave it away, Einstein?" The level of coldness in which that retort was delivered had Pam feeling a great deal of respect for the girl, not that she'd ever admit it out loud. This was dangerous and before the great revelation, she'd be dead. He wasn't entirely sure he should let her leave alive, but he had no idea who would come looking for her and if they had the same resistance to glamour as she did.

They were desperate for a bartender, even though they had advertised for one since before Fangtasia opened no one had applied for the position. They had Longshadow, but he was currently away due to his maker calling him. This had proved to be a colossal inconvenience since no one else knew how to mix drinks. In the last two weeks the humans weren't drinking as much because Pam, Maxwell nor Thalia knew a thing about tending bar. Fangtasia's primary source of income was the copious amounts of alcohol consumed by the blood bags. Right now that income was suffering, as the blood bags weren't drinking the vile concoctions they were served. Sookie Stackhouse was the first applicant they've had, not only was she applying for the job, she was experienced and a waitress to boot. Right now they had no bartender and only two waitresses, Ginger had been with them before it was a bar and Brenda only applied because she was desperate for money since her husband walked out on her leaving her with two kids. Right now, Miss Stackhouse was in control as much as they hated to admit it.

Eric Northman for the first time in his thousand-year existence was about to grovel to a human. A human who couldn't be glamoured and who wasn't afraid to speak her mind. "Miss Stackhouse… our behavior was unbecoming, and I would like to offer an apology." He said feeling proud of himself for having managed it without needlessly gagging. Except Miss Stackhouse stood there as though she was waiting for something.

"Saying you'd like to offer an apology and actually apologizing are two different things."

Miss Stackhouse wants her pound of flesh. The day she finally yields to me will be glorious. I will have her following me like a dog on a leash. In fact, I might get one for the basement… just for her.

"Indeed, I'm sorry for the crassness of the conversation you heard between myself and my childe, and for then trying to glamour you into forgetting." Much to his consternation, she opened the door to leave. "I apologized." He growled.

"And I don't have to accept it." She bit back.

"Miss Stackhouse, I will double your pay if you will just forget the last few minutes and allow us to start again." Eric tried his tone sounding apologetic and contrite.

"I will get back to you," Sookie said walking out the door without a backward glance.

"FUCK." Eric bellowed as he sent his desk flying. "If Longshadow doesn't come back soon we are fucked."

...

Eric tipped the contents of the shopping bag onto the bed, he tried on every outfit hating every single one of them. No, he didn't hate the clothes, what he hated was the fact that he had been reduced to a pimple-faced teenage boy going on his first date with the girl he'd wanted since he could get his dick to rise.

He thought back to their first interaction after she started working at the club.

"Hello, Sookie." He purred. "How are you finding working for me?" He said with a smirk that had many women falling over themselves to just answer him.

"It pays the bills." She responded her head still in her locker rummaging around.

He moved to stand behind her. "Yield to me." He said softly expecting her to startle since he knew she hadn't heard him move, except she appeared to know he was there and didn't flinch, not a muscle.

"Why would I? You've already made the mistake once of thinking me a whore. One would think it would be a mistake you wouldn't make again."

"I don't see you as one." He growled anger seeping into his voice.

"No, you only treat women as such."

"Only if they acted as such… then yes." He didn't see why he should treat women that acted like whores as anything another than that.

"And what does that say about the man… or vampire who is happy to delve into that filth. I have a great deal of self-respect Mr. Northman and like to spend time with like-minded individuals." He raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"Are you saying I'm a whore, Miss Stackhouse?"

"If the shoe fits." Was her sarcastic response. He threw his head back in laughter.

"Vampires view sex differently to humans, we don't hold it in the same moral regard you do." He defended hating the fact that he had to. But if he was to get what he wanted, then he had to play the game.

"Whatever." She mumbled shutting her locker door before heading out for her shift.

He had chuckled as she walked out knowing sooner or later she would be bent over his desk like everyone else.

Sookie was proving to be an entertaining challenge, one he welcomed. It broke up the tedium and lack of variety in his existence. He had learned in her first week that she didn't scare easy, in fact… she didn't scare at all. She had angered him for reasons he didn't care to think about, and he had pinned her against the wall with his fangs bared in fury. Her reaction had shocked him to the core as she always seemed to do, there was none. Her heart rate didn't change; he couldn't smell the stench of fear coming off her. In fact, she appeared positively bored by the whole thing. He stood with her against the wall wondering who she truly was and was lost in his head only to be brought back when she asked if he was done in a tone that only further served to anger him. He released her and vamped into his office perplexed further by the enigma that was Sookie Stackhouse.

He looked at the clothes in annoyance, the worst part, he wasn't going on the date because the girl in question barely acknowledged his existence. He'd heard the phrase there is a first time for everything, but never thought it would once apply to him, not in this capacity. He was the reason so many came to the club, fangbangers threw themselves at him begging to be fed from and if they were lucky, fucked. He loved nothing more than the adventurous once who liked to be introduced to the chains in his basement. Yet Sookie Stackhouse paid him no mind, she was far from yielding to him, and it made him irritable to be around. It had been seventeen months since she started working at Fangtasia and in that time he could count on one hand the number of interactions they'd had that didn't revolve around her job, and everyone was just like the first. She responded to his innuendos with a vacant stare or just walked away. He had offered her some sort of relationship before she left for her holiday, she had scoffed and walked away mumbling about the differences between a whore and a pet. She treated him like her boss and would not cross that line no matter how hard he tried. Now he wasn't sure if he wanted her because he couldn't have her or if he wanted her because he genuinely wanted her.

It had taken him two weeks of groveling phone calls to get Sookie to agree to another job interview. The second time he and Pam did not make the mistake of acting in anyway another than in a professional capacity. He was capable of that, after all, he owned several corporate businesses, but Fangtasia allowed their baser instincts to leap to the forefront. She had surprised them when she refused the offer of tripling her pay. Sookie was clearly a woman of high morals, and it annoyed the hell out of him.

Things have changed since then, now Fangtasia was popular, night after night there were long queues of blood bags just eager to be in his presence. He had more applicants for all sorts of job positions than he knew what to do with. Had that been the case seventeen months ago Sookie Stackhouse would not be in his brain tormenting his every waking moment. He could fire her, but she was incredibly popular with the fangbangers and the vampires. She had a little trick of knowing what drinks the customers wanted before they asked for it. She got it right ninety-five percent of the time. It was an incredible trick, everyone loved it. You could see the disappointment on people's faces when she got it wrong.

For the first time since she started working for them, she had requested two weeks off and today was her first day back. He wanted to look irresistible. Every approach he'd tried had failed, he was beginning to think Pam might have been right and that Sookie preferred women, except Pam was failing just as spectacularly as he was.

Maybe… it's time to accept she simply isn't interested in vampires.

He got dressed in his usual attire and threw a leather jacket on. Needing to clear his head he took to the sky only to drop back down clutching his chest needlessly. The pain he felt kept him on the ground. "Godric." He groaned just as the bond closed again. He'd known for years his maker was feeling despondent, but this was nothing like he expected. Godric seemed to have lost the will to continue to exist. He stood up wondering why the bond had been briefly opened. The pain he felt stayed with him even though the bond was closed.

He once again took to the sky, minutes later he landed in the back parking lot of the bar. He made his way to the office to find Pam waiting for him.

"You felt it."

"Yes, what was that." She choked out. If he was floored by what he felt at his age, Pam must have been in excruciating pain.

"Godric."

"Fuck."

"Yes," Eric said softly before sitting behind his desk. "I should get out there." Eric was out of the door before Pam could object.

He got his blackberry out hoping Godric would send a text at least explaining what had happened, but he knew none would come. That was when he felt it, the bond was still closed, but he knew his maker was in the area. Godric was on his way to Fangtasia. His maker had never seen the bar; he didn't care for such environments or the kind of humans who frequented it. For the first time in over a year, his focus wasn't on Sookie, who was, as usual, charming the regulars with her trick and witty remarks. Somehow she had them believing their clothing and personality told her what drinks they would order. She had asked a man what shoes he was wearing and when he had answered with the designer's name she put an umbrella in his drink, a wedge of lime and a straw. He had looked confounded but admitted it was precisely how he liked his drink. Eric thought it was complete bull but just didn't know how she did it. One thing he did know was that personal style of dressing had nothing to do with what they drunk.

She looked towards the door seconds before Godric walked in. She had felt a void unlike any other; it was huge but at the same time projected a certain calmness she never got from the others.

Thalia smiled at the sight of the ancient. Godric was the oldest vampire in North America and one of the oldest in the world. He had a quiet demeanor about him that belied a ruthlessness if called for. He was death itself and had earned the name for a reason. She also knew he didn't like to be reminded of his past, a past he was now ashamed of and haunted by.

"Master." She said bowing low.

"Thalia, how long has it been?" He asked with that congenial smile of his.

"Too long… it is good to see you." She stepped aside allowing him into the club.

With a sigh he walked in, his childe got up from his makeshift throne and headed towards him. "Master." He muttered barely above a whisper.

"Eric." He said looking around the club until his eyes found Sookie. For the first time in centuries, something caught Godric's eye, and it appeared the feeling was mutual. "We will talk when the bar closes." He said walking towards the bar.

"Can I have one those blood substitutes?" Despite the power emanating from him he actually sounded unsure of himself. Yet asking for a drink in a bar was the norm.

"Are you sure?" Sookie asked with a smile.

"At my age, I need very little blood to survive."

"Then why put yourself through drinking what I'm told is rather disgusting." She beamed a smile at him.

"I felt it was the best way to start a conversation." He admitted.

"You could start by asking my name." She offered.

"Yes, that is good. I am Godric." Much to her surprise, he put his hand out.

"Hello Godric, I'm Sookie Stackhouse." She took his hand in her and surprised by how soft his skin felt and not as cold as she expected.

"Someone caught her attention after all." Pam drooled leaning against Eric's throne.

"It would appear so," Eric admitted just as the bond with his maker opened again and this time, though the pain was still there, it appeared a sense of joy swam through it.