All characters - and some of the dialouge at the beginning and the end - belong to the creators of True Blood and Charlaine Harris. I'm just an innocent fan with an active imagination.

Enjoy ^^

"I'm still Bill's."

His eyes fall to the ring on her left hand and he concedes, "So you are." He holds himself back from adding "for now" to the end of that statement, as he knows it will upset the fickle human. He adjusts his stance and smirks down at her; he can feel her pulse pick up again. Bill's my ass, he thinks with his widening smirk.

"Why are you so adamant about hating me?" he asks, stepping back and resituating himself on the porch seats. He looks up at her and finds her expression surprised. "I can feel that you're attracted to me – that's to be expected – but you put on this front. Why do you feel you have to hate me?"

She doesn't sit next to him, instead she looks down at him while she can. "You never apologized."

It's not the reaction he was expecting, but he works with what he has. "For what?" he prompts. Her hands move to her hips and he knows he's said the wrong thing. Instead of moving to correct himself, he sits back and looks up to her, waiting for her to respond.

"Let's see, Eric," the way she spits his name at her makes him want to flinch, but that is a human response and he is above it. She holds up fingers to tick off her reasons, "I nearly died trying to find your maker, you tricked me into drinking your blood, and now you're here trying to seduce me just because my fiancé is missing."

He raises his eyebrows in amusement; her accent gets stronger in her anger. "I do apologize for putting you in harm's way from my own personal gain, but I think you of all people would understand why I felt it necessary to risk everything for…" He fumbles over his maker's name, pauses, then presses on. "As for trying to seduce you, I'm not going to apologize for doing what is in my nature." He flashes that smirk at her and feels her heart rate quicken from both anger and lust. You can't say you don't enjoy it, he wants to add, but controls himself. "What I don't understand is why I would have to apologize for giving my blood to you. Bill has given you blood before, hasn't he?"

She glares at him – the look that never ceases to amuse yet intrigue him – before even thinking of an answer. "Of course he has," she finally tells him. "You saw him give me blood after the maenad attacked me. But that's different." He raises one eyebrow in questioning. "You wanted your blood in me so that I would be attracted to you, so I would want you more than I want Bill."

"Sookie, Sookie," he laughs, standing up so that he may look down at her. "You were attracted to me before you had my blood." She opens her mouth to protest but he presses on. "You feared me, but that doesn't mean you didn't find me attractive." He pauses to see if she will try to tell him off again. When she doesn't, he continues, "I wanted my blood in you so I could keep track of you. Bill's protection can only go so far, and you are a valuable asset in my Area.

"The point I'm trying to make is: When did Bill first give you his blood, Miss Stackhouse?" She opens her mouth to answer, rethinks, and then closes it again. "And if only a couple drops of my blood are responsible for the feelings you have towards me right now, then how do you think a healing amount of Bill's blood affects you?" She turns away from him, her eyes dark with thought as she crosses the porch and looks out over the cemetery. "Food for thought."

He allows her to pull away from him, knows that it is best to let her come to the conclusion he's reached already on her own.

"I love Bill," she says softly to no one in particular. If he weren't a vampire he would've thought he was just hearing things.

"I never said you didn't," he says, looking out at the woods instead of watching her. He can feel her eyes on him though, which makes him smirk slightly to himself. He waits for her eyes to leave him before turning back to her. "So… to have and to hold." He walks towards her, watching the emotions play across her face before she shuts down on him.

"To love and to cherish." I can do those things, Sookie, he thinks as he looks into her eyes. I can make you forget William Compton. But he can't tell her that; it sickens him to even hear it in his own mind. It's weak. Disturbingly Human.

He continues passing her to the other side of the porch. "To… blah-blah-blah-blah-blah, until death do you part." He sinks his hands into his pockets and turns to her, "It doesn't bother you that you'll be the only one doing the dieing?" It bothers me… He ignores that part of his mind completely as he waits for his answer.

"I'm not gonna talk about this with you."

Ah, but she is gonna talk to him. "Okay," he allows with an almost genuine smile. She may put on airs about hating him, but he knows that he is growing on her. It's only a matter of time.