E-POV

Tonight has been a nightmare; Pamela has been in a snit for weeks about not liking the design for our new house. She wanted modern, I wanted classic southern charm, and I'm the Master so I get my way. Pamela apparently did not fall far from the tree, because she burned the partially built structure to the ground as soon as she rose tonight. I am enraged to say the least. I know it is my fault for spoiling her, but damn it she gives me those eyes and it makes it hard to say 'no' to her.

I decided to buy a membership to a gym and burn off some of this rage. After the revelation they tend to frown upon fury killings so I have had to take to finding other ways to burn off my excess rage. Vampires don't need to exercise because our bodies never change, but for some it is relaxing to just blow off some steam doing physical activities.

I pay the stupid girl at the counter, at first I think she has just been over glamoured but then I realize nope, she is just an idiot. When she asks if the 8 on my credit card is upside down, maybe if I drain her it will be seen as a mercy killing? My dreams of killing her and having it go unnoticed are dashed when I see her wedding ring; I sincerely hope she never breeds I muse as I walk to the row of treadmills.

I notice this place is almost empty which is normal considering it is almost 3am. There is a juiced up meat head with purple eyes, eye fucking himself in the mirror by the free weights, someone is swimming in the pool and there is a small very attractive blond woman getting on a treadmill that is a respectful distance away from where I am already running. I see her put in her ear buds and turn on the treadmill, she is hauling ass and I think I may see tears running down her face while she runs. It almost appears as if she is running from something. I continue to watch her for the next hour until she starts to slow down. I also slow down; I plan to casually bump into her on the way to the locker rooms. I'm not sure what I want from her yet, but a fuck and feed will do for now and if I want more, I can have it later.

She stops the treadmill and fusses with her iPod for a few seconds before I see her start to walk and I casually bump into her as she walks behind my machine. Just as our bodies touch I catch a whiff of her scent and it almost brings me to my knees it is so sweet and it is powerful because she has been sweating. I quickly right myself and begin my course of seduction. I don't want to glamour her because that would take the entire thrill from the chase.

"Oh, excuse me Miss." I say as I keep her from falling.

"Oh no, that's fine. I know how a long run can leave you in your own world." I give her my best unassuming smile and say.

"Well it almost looked like you were running from something." She smiled and patted my arm while replying.

"Well everyone is running from something. Don't you think?" I am stunned by her answer. I am not prepared to continue, I was expecting her to fall for my good looks and flirt shamelessly with me. No, instead she is getting philosophical and I find myself very attracted to her intelligence. Now I know that I want more than just a fuck and feed. Perhaps I should ask her out on a human style date, yes that is a great idea.

"I'm so sorry where are my manners, I'm Eric Northman and you are?" She smiles a humorless smile and says.

"I am a mysterious woman from the gym; I will see you tomorrow night at 8 o'clock for our meeting at Fangtasia so I can register in your area Mr. Northman Sheriff of Area 5." She respectfully inclines her head and averts her eyes from my own. I usually love when people show me proper respect, but from "Mysterious Gym Woman" I find myself frustrated that she will not look me in the eye! I lean in and take another sniff, ahh there it is, she's a fairy. This woman is the fairy that is moving into my territory. I believe her name is Sookie Stackhouse.

"Sookie Stackhouse?" I ask hoping against all hope that she is not Niall's granddaughter who is one of the few fairies left on earth after he closed the portal to our world.

"Yes Sheriff." Her eyes still cast down. I don't like this one bit. I granted all remaining fairies sanctuary in my territory as a favor to Niall before he closed the portal as a means to repay a 300 year old blood offence I committed against one of his kin. I try to steer this back into the direction of flirting before she goes any further with this subservient behavior. I want sassy Gym Girl back.

"Please call me Eric." She fidgets a little bit before whispering.

"I'm more comfortable with Sheriff or Mr. Northman." I roll my eyes, Niall has taught her well, maybe too well.

"May I call you Sookie?" I ask hoping if I call her by her first name she will be more inclined to call me by mine.

"That is at your discretion Sheriff." She replies and I can smell the fear starting to roll off of her in droves. This needs to come to an end, the last thing I want is for her to be afraid of me.

"Sookie, do not fear me." I say trying to be soothing.

"Yes Sir."

"Stop this right now!" I boom with frustration. "I was trying to flirt with you and ask you out, and you are making that damn near impossible while you are using political and social protocol." Her eyes shot up to me and her mouth was hanging open and her eyes looked shocked.

"You were going to ask me out?" Again, not the reaction I was expecting, but I suppose that I can at least be happy she will keep me on my toes.

"I don't see why this is such a shock to you, surly you know you are attractive. At first I just wanted to fuck and feed from you but then I saw that you were also intelligent and I wanted more than just a 'wam bam thank you ma'am' from you." Her mouth was once again hanging open and I fear I have said too much. I don't know how she will feel about my original intentions for her so I brace myself for the fallout.

"I'm only a quarter." Now I am confused, only a quarter what?

"What?" I ask trying to persuade her to elaborate her cryptic statement.

"I'm only a quarter Fae, my cousins Claude and Claudine accept me but the other fairies don't even think I'm worth bothering with. Lochlin said you probably would tell me not to bother registering because I'm almost all human." She looked down again with a shamed look on her face.

"First, I was going to bother with you before I even knew you were Fae, Second, if you have any Fae abilities under the new treaty you are obligated to register regardless of blood dilution, Third, Lochlin and his psychotic sister were… ended after it was determined they were too much of a threat to keep in this realm." She looked thoughtful for a moment. She pulled her pouty little red lip in between her teeth and chewed a little as she started tugging at her hair nervously before saying.

"I should feel bad that they are dead but they were really jerks." Again, not the reaction I was expecting from her. Now it was my turn to look stunned and all I could say was.

"Jerks?" She perked up and her southern lit got a touch thicker as she delved into a story.

"Oh ya real jerks! One time a few years ago when I was on vacation in Hawaii with my family we bumped into them and they talked me into going on the boat cruise thing with them, and they of course planned it so my cousins would be unaware as to where I was and because I guess I'm an eager to please idiot. I went and they bit the shit out of me and then left me on the beach bloody and alone. Like I said Jerks, Look at the scars!" Then she pulled up her shirt showing me her tight flat little stomach, there might have been a scar there but I never would have noticed it because I was too consumed with lust, which only get exponentially worse when she turned around lifting her shorts a little showing me the healthy curve of her ass and giving me a little peek at her lacy underwear. She put the shorts back down and I may have groaned a little, but I don't think she caught it because she continued.

"There are more in other more… you know places but I'm sure you don't want to see how ugly I am now." I was taken a back; I knew Fairies were cruel but to harm one of their own for no reason just seems… disgusting. At least vampires don't abuse each other unless we have reason. I was also disturbed by her thinking she is ugly. I do however remember Pam being very self-conscious about a scar on her leg for the first couple of decades that she was with me; it must be a woman thing. I chose my next words carefully, because I did not want to incur her wrath.

"I have many scars; they are the mark of a warrior. Also, believe me I would love to see… your more intimate places, scars or no scars; I am sure they are perfect." She gasped, and yet again pulled her lip between her teeth and started to shuffle her feet a little. She was averting her gaze again and I found myself aching for the warmth of her eyes. I gently placed my hand under her chin and directed her eyes back up to my face, which was when I saw her glassy eyes with a few stray tears escaping down her face. I was infuriated with myself for having made her cry. I decided to play the idiot man card and try to act like I didn't know what I just did.

"Sookie, why are you crying?" She sniffed a little and placed her hand over mine. Her skin was soft and warm and I knew I was going to be unhappy as soon as she removed her hand from my own.

"I… it's just… no one has ever been interested in me before. I tried to date a Were once but he was repulsed by my scars and asked me not to tan in his front yard because people would see." I let out a growl; I was enraged that someone would treat her with such disrespect. I would never; I would worship her like a deity. I would bring her to my side and make all who owe me fealty honor her. Apparently she misunderstood my anger and thought it was directed at her. She fell to her knees and bared her neck and started spouting off apologies that were completely unnecessary.

"Stop it you silly woman!" I have become frustrated with the fact that she thinks so little of herself. I will just have to see to it that she knows what a beautiful creature she really is. "I am not angry at you I am angry at this Were who had the audacity to treat you like anything other than the beautiful fairy princess that you are. I would like to take you to dinner, how is tomorrow night after we complete your registration paperwork?" She looked stunned at first but then a little smile started to curve on her lips before she asked.

"Do you want to take me to dinner or have me for dinner?" I had to chuckle and answer honestly.

"Both, but it doesn't have to all happen on the same night. I am a very patient man Sookie and you will yield to me soon enough of that I am sure." She smirked a little and said.

"Is that a challenge? I'm like a sex camel; I have never yet failed a challenge." I threw my head back and laughed, I knew I liked this girl! She just had to cut it out with all of the Mr. Northman-Sheriff crap. I usually like it, just not from her. My eyes filled with mirth as I rested my hand on her shoulder and replied.

"I would never make that challenge! I would hate to do anything to bring out your inner sex camel." She laughed and rolled her eyes and asked.

"Good, are you just heading home then?" I shake my head and say.

"No I need to return to the bar for a few moments." She smiled a mischievous smile and said.

"Well since I have to register my Fae abilities with you how about I give you a little show?" I look confused when she pulls my face to hers and she kisses me with a deep passion. When she pulls back we are in my office and she just smiles and say's.

"See you tomorrow Eric!" and then she was gone, fucking fairies!

I paced my office for about an hour after that. I was wondering how I could get Sookie to be more involved in area business so that we would be able to see more of one another. After much scheming and plotting the perfect idea occurred to me. I needed to assign a Fae representative to be present for area meetings and summits since technically they are all left under my authority not the queens I will need a representative by my side to help me make decisions that would affect the remaining Fae. I was considering asking Claude Crane to do it, but since Sookie is a hybrid and her scent does not make me want to instantly drain her it would be an advantageous arrangement for all parties. Plus I would get to see Sookie many times a week without having to shirk my Sheriffs responsibilities to spend time with her and get to know her better.

I decided this is what I wanted to do and I 'called' Pam to me thorough our maker-child bond with a bit more force than necessary because I am still pissed about her burning the house down during one of her temper tantrums. I however have to many things to think about and set up for tomorrow night to properly punish her, so I will file this incident in the back of my mind for later and just make her sweat when her punishment coming. Anticipation is always a good standby for a prolonged punishment and it requires very little effort on my part so it will do well for this.

Pamela arrives 15 minutes later looking unusually disheveled. Good she is freaking out. I lean back behind my desk and look at her with an indifferent face for a few moments before I say.

"Pam I have some tasks I need you to complete before dawn. I need you to draw up the forms to make Ms. Sookie Stackhouse-Brignat the official representative for the Fae in regards to my areas protection of them. Also have 3 dozen sunflowers sent to Miss. Stackhouse tomorrow during the day and attach this note to them. Also make me a reservation for 10pm at Moon Tide and make sure that the hostess I used to fuck will not be there… I don't care how you eliminate her just make it happen. Also from now on if you come across any of my past… meals, I want the glamoured to not remember me or that we ever fucked. I would also like you to arrange to have a selection of human desserts placed in my home by tomorrow evening. Got it?" She is staring at me and I can tell she is mentally filing this all away so she does not miss a step before she asks.

"Which safe house for the desserts?" I shake my head and say.

"Not a safe house, she is a lady and I plan to be honest with her from the start so my house on the lake will be good. Oh also, be careful not putting ridiculous things into the fangbangers minds when you glamour them because I did some research on the lady which holds my interests and she is rumored to be a telepath and she will most likely be able to tell if you put something crazy in there." She bows deeply and respectfully and I can feel she wants to question my but at the same time does not wish to press her luck so instead she says.

"Yes Master, it will be done." She abruptly accepts my dismissal and goes about her tasks. I make my list for my day man before I leave to go home and die for the day.