Epilogue

My anticipation was building as I drove my – yes, my – Lexus down the dirt drive. The gravel was scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. Copley Carmichael, Amelia's very well to do father, came over as I pulled up.

"Mrs. Northman!" He greeted me warmly, taking my hand in both of his. "I'm so glad you were able to make it today."

"Thank you, Mr. Carmichael. I'm very excited to get the first tour." I said in eager anticipation, handing him a check.

"Please, call me Cope," he said, folding the check and placing it in his breast pocket without looking at it. I simply nodded, knowing I wouldn't.

"The electrician will be by tomorrow with all of the certifications. I'm terribly sorry that we weren't able to get that done sooner so that Mr. Northman could join us." He looked sincere in his apology, though I knew for a fact that Eric scared him a little.

We had planned to meet after dark, all three of us, but since the electricity wasn't up and running yet it really didn't make sense. Besides, Eric could come by on his own and see perfectly well in the dark.

Cope took me on a tour of the outside first. The house was at the center of a four and a half acre plot just outside of Shreveport. It didn't have the absolute isolation of Gran's house, but it gave us privacy enough. Looking at the house, it appeared to be a one level ranch style home sitting on top of a slight hill. It was actually two stories, though, with the entire second story under ground and light tight.

Inside the rooms were all oversized with high ceilings because, let's face it, Eric was a large man and wanted his space. One wall in each room was painted with a bold color except for the sun room, which had three walls of glass, and the kitchen, which was pale yellow.

The master bedroom was on the lower level, of course, and had an enormous shower with six shower heads, two above and two on either side. That was the only extravagance, though, since neither Eric nor I needed a huge closet. There was a large entertaining room upstairs with a built in blood-erator – a specially designed refrigerator for TrueBlood that popped them out at 98.6F.

The place looked finished to me, but Cope told me there were a few more inspections and finishing touches to be done, but the place would be ready by the end of the week, a full 10 days ahead of schedule. I couldn't wait.

"I'm very glad to have had the opportunity to do this for you and Mr. Northman," Cope said, "but I must admit I was surprised you didn't have Mr. Herveaux handle the project. He is local."

It was true, Alcide's construction company was based in Shreveport whereas most of Cope's projects were out of New Orleans. But Alcide had been having a hard time of things, or rather his business had, from the IRS. They seemed to be targeting the two-natured and Alcide, being the packmaster of the Long Tooth pack, was a prime target. This wasn't the only reason we went with Amelia's father, though.

"Amelia did us a real favor, Mr. Carmichael, and if there is anything we can do to help out her or her family in return, then that's what we'll do," I said.

He'd been wondering for a while if that was why he'd gotten the job. It nagged at him that Amelia had an in with the King of Louisiana, and I loved to help rub that in for her sake. Especially since it was the witch in Amelia that did us the favor.

"We hope you'll be able to come to the reception once everything is finished. Now that the construction is finishing up, we should be sending out invitations soon," I told him as we were wrapping up the tour.

"I would be delighted," he said, and meant it.

I drove back to Eric's house happy as a clam. It was getting close to sunset when I pulled in, so I went straight back to the bedroom and crawled into bed with him. He loved to wake up with me next to him, and he wasn't the only one. I felt him wake up a moment before he stirred.

"How was the tour, lover?" He asked after he gave me a kiss. I still found it pretty unfair that vampires didn't get evening breath.

"Perfect. Mr. Carmichael says everything will be finished by Thursday, and we can start moving in on Friday," I told him.

"Tell Mark the amount of the last payment," he said, stretching a little.

"No need to," I said. "I got the insurance check for Gran's house this morning from Greg, so I used that."

Eric shrugged as if to say "If you insist." I'd only had to tell him once how important it was to me that I pay for part of our new house, and that I do it with the legacy from Gran's house. Either he really got me and understood, or he didn't think it was worth the trouble to argue. I was pretty sure it was the first one, but either way, I was happy about it.

"I will be the only King in North America with a sun room in his house." He loved to tease me about my one indulgence.

"But you'll also be the only King whose wife has a perfect tan," I said.

"Really? I'm not so sure," he said, pulling me underneath him. He had me undressed before I'd noticed his fangs were half way out. "No, these aren't tanned at all," he said, running his hands around my breasts. His mouth followed soon after. Then he slid further down in the bed. "Here is another untanned patch," he said. Then his fingers and mouth were busy exploring my untanned inner regions.

After he'd had his fun, which came with double fun for me, I figured it was finally time to bring up the issue that had been nagging me for months. He felt my resolve through the bond and braced himself. He couldn't read my mind, but he knew me well enough to know what I was going to say.

"Eric," I said, "we have to find Bill."

He didn't say anything in response, but I could feel his irritation.

"No one has seen him since you drove a metal stake through his chest four months ago. I'm worried about him. He's depressed and alone." I kept my voice soft, hoping it would soften Eric a little. It didn't work.

"Bill Compton is always depressed. He wouldn't know a good time, to use your favorite expression, if it bit him in the ass." Eric was getting up now and getting dressed, a clear sign that I was losing this battle.

"But he's all alone and it's my fault. I killed Lorena and Judith. I took away his whole vampire family."

"And I am very proud of you for that," Eric said with a leer, and he meant it.

I have to say, though probably not out loud, that I didn't feel too guilty about Lorena, truth be told. For one thing, I'd staked her by accident when she was trying to kill me, and for another, I'd done it to save Bill, who she was also set on killing at the time. Judith was another story, a very sad story, and I had a lot of guilt there. Even though she also had been trying to kill me and had wrecked two of my cars and burned down my house in the process. But whatever my guilt, the fact was that I had killed them both and now Bill had no one.

"I just want to know that he's okay."

My guilt finally penetrated Eric's annoyance. "As his King and Sheriff, I will track down what has happened to him," he said with a whole bunch of reluctance.

"Thank you, Eric. I'm very grateful that you're doing the right thing here," I said.

"How grateful are you, Sookie?" His fangs were back out before he'd finished asking.

"Very, very grateful," I said, walking over to him. "Extremely grateful." I unfastened his pants. "Hugely grateful," I said as I slid down to my knees.

It didn't take too long to make him groan in gratitude. He dropped to his knees, shaking slightly. It was a huge ego rush for me to be able to bring my Viking to his knees like that. When he'd recovered enough, he leaned forward to kiss me.

"I'll have Pam send out the invitations Thursday night, after all of the paperwork for our house is finished. We'll have the reception in two weeks."

Since Eric was King, we apparently needed to hold a wedding reception for all of the big wigs in the state to come congratulate us. Part of it was vampire politics, but the other part was people politics. Vampire-human marriages were still banned in the great state of Louisiana, so Eric thought that having a high profile couple make such a public display would help move the cause forward. I was worried it would make us targets for Fellowship of the Sun fanatics, but equal rights never come easy.

"Great. You go to work and I'll start packing," I said, eager to be in a place I could make feel more like home.

"Not yet, my wife," Eric said, gently. "You cannot move in until after the reception."

"What? Why not? We can keep the guests on the main level." Eric was big into privacy, though oddly not modesty. I still sometimes had trouble reconciling that.

"Once you live in our house, any vampire who wishes to enter will need permission. I do not wish to give it out so broadly as we will need for the reception. It is only a few more weeks. I'm sure you can manage." He kissed me again and headed towards the door.

"Then we'd better call Mr. Carmichael in the morning and have him add a pad and pencil in the foyer," I said.

Eric stopped and gave me a puzzled look.

"I don't want to risk forgetting who's allowed in and who isn't."

He laughed. "I will call him when I get to Fangtasia."

I walked Eric out to the living room as he grabbed his keys to go.

"The camera is on the coffee table," he said as he was walking through the kitchen into the garage.

"Um, okay?" No idea what that comment meant, but I let him go without explanation.

I got the lemonade out of the refrigerator and noticed that the Word of the Day was "pornography" – Eric had found an Erotica Edition.

A/N: I thought I was done, but writing is addictive, especially with such great characters (thanks, CH!). There will be a sequel, "Dead or Deader", but it will probably be a lot slower coming up (weekly instead of daily updates). I hope to have chapter one out on the weekend.