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Thanks for the reviews, both positive and somewhat negative ;) I think some of your questions will be answered in this chapter (hopefully).

NOTE: I have posted a poll asking my readers to decide who they'd like to see Sookie end up with during the final chapter. Please, please vote on this! It's available on my profile. Thanks a billion!

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PART NINE

No sooner than I spoke those words, Eric had pulled me up to his face and smashed his lips into mine, fangs already exposed and poking me between our kisses. I felt as stiff as a board. He was always to quickly able to make me hot, wet, and ready for him, but at this moment I just felt lifeless.

"Stop," I said, bracing my hands against his chest.

"Sookie," he mouthed, his lips at my neck. "Do not play games with me."

Except our whole damn relationship was a game. I had to clear my head, this was all way too much, way too fast. What I needed was to be alone, was to set Eric Northman in his place. Of course I still loved him, though, of course, I felt like sometimes I still loved Bill. But I had to set him in his place. I had to make him work for it. I needed to know then and there if he was willing to do the right thing, to treat me the way a girl wants to be treated, regardless of whatever ridiculous reason he had for hurting me the way he did.

Eric's tongue attempted to slide against mine, and his hand squeezed the mound between my legs. I moaned eagerly, but I forced myself to stop.

"ERIC!" I shouted. "No! No, no, NO!" I hopped off the bed and crossed my arms against my chest.

A blonde eyebrow peaked on Eric's furrowed face, as he raised up on his arms, his erection so massive it nearly burst out of his pants.

"Eric," I began my speech. "I just can't do this right now. I need to be alone, to clear my head. Ya know, my Gran didn't raise me to just roll over and take this treatment like a damn dog!"

Eric was holding me in a flash. "Sookie, I beg you."

I exhaled a long, deep sigh.

Eric suddenly knelt down, his head resting against my tummy, his large hands on the small of my back like a child clinging to his mother who's about to abandon him.

"You will not leave me Sookie. There is no question. I am in your veins, your heart, until the day you die," he whispered.

I knew he was right. But it didn't change my mind.

"As you wish, then. Though, I'm not entirely comfortable leaving you by yourself," he said, standing up.

"Oh, don't worry about that. Bill will be here later," I said.

His crystal blue eyes narrowed.

"Remind him of the fact that I am five times his age and roughly a thousand times more powerful than he," Eric muttered. He brushed past me, then said goodbye with a kiss, soft as an infant's touch, on my lips. He was gone then, no evidence of him having been here whatsover. Other than the fact that my heart was fluttering like a butterfly with a broken wing.

I packed a small suitcase, folding in neatly a pair of black shorts and a Merlotte's t-shirt, a pair of socks, panties, and a bra, as well as some toiletries. I left a note for Bill, telling him that I was gone to a friend's house for the night and needed to be alone for a bit, hesitating when I signed the words "Love, Sookie." I then double checked to make sure my front door was locked, and drove off to the house of the only man I felt safe with at this point.

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"Aw Sookie-Sookie!" Lafayette answered the door of his house, a blunt in his hand. "Baby girl, it's been quite some time since you visited."

He motioned for me to sit on the couch, and his legs adorned by leopard print pajamas found their way to a chair across the coffee table from where I sat.

"So," he inhaled his cigar, "What's goin' on in that pretty lil' head of yours?"

I sighed. "It's Eric. Well, it's Bill. Actually, it's both."

"Mmmhmm. Conflicted between two men, I know how it goes girl."

I shook my blonde ponytail. "No, no. Before the accident, and thanks for visiting me by the way, but anyways, somethin' real bad happened between Eric and I."

Lafayette pursed his painted lips and reached for his coffee cup, only to scowl when he realized it was empty.

"I think this conversation requires a lil bit of liquor, if you don't mind me sayin' so," he stood. "What can I get ya?"

"Oh, just a gin and tonic."

Moments later, he presented me with one in a pink glass, before sitting down and crossing his legs.

"You was sayin'?"

I cleared my throat. "Right, so. The night of the accident, I was on my way to visit Eric. He didn't answer the door, and I just assumed I'd open it and just go right on in. Except when I did, I found him naked with two other women."

Lafayette's heavily makeup-ed eyes widened. "Was this 'round dinner time?"

"Well, one of the women was a vampire. And she and Eric were feeding on the other one. But I could tell they had all been, ya know."

He nodded. "Freakin'."

"Right. So then I just completely freaked out, ran outside to my car, and the next thing I know I'd gotten into a car accident, and Bill was there to save me. Then one thing led to another, and he and I made love."

Lafayette held a hand up and squinted. "Wait up. Who was in the car you crashed into?"

Oh my God. I hadn't ever thought of it. Christ Allmighty, what if they didn't make it?

I shrugged, completely baffled now. "I, I guess...Well, shucks, they never told me.."

"Hmm. And Mista Bill Compton just so happened to be there. Just so happened to find you in a situation where you would need to drink his blood in order to live? Just so happened to feed you blood which gives you a stronger sexual attraction to him?" He took a gulp of liquor from his coffee mug. "Sookie Stackhouse, you smart enough to know betta."

I gasped. Of course. I remember the car now, a bright vivid flash of silver. It had undoubtedly been Bill's. He's a vampire, of course he would survive a car crash, and of course he would know that I would need to drink his blood to live, so I'd have no objection. Then to...to seduce me afterward, while I was still in the hospital? It was just unfathomable. Both he and Eric had shown their true colors last night: Eric, nothing more than a playboy who's only interested in pleasing the boss (as he put it) and Bill, a neurotic, devious, manipulative phony. What the hell did I get myself into?

"Oh my word. Lafayette, I think I'll have another," I said, and raised my glass toward him.

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"Evenin' Sook," Sam greeted me, his smile all pearly white teeth gleaming through smooth lips, contrasting the scruff of his face.

"Hey there, Sam," I said with a smile as I clocked in to work for the day.

"Listen, I really just think you need to be at home right now. You're the best darn waitress we got here, but I don't wanna have you workin' without much time after the accident," Sam said, leaning in towards me looking adorably concerned, a hand in the pocket of his form-fitting jeans.

But I had to come to work. With all that's went on, I couldn't sit home and mope, or even at Laffayette's because, shucks, he'd be here at Merlotte's.

"Naw, Sam. It's really no biggie. I got bored all by myself. There's only so much TCM I can watch in one day before I go nuts," I said, a failed attempt at humor.

Sam, however, was very serious. "Well, there's only so much of you gettin' into dangerous situations like that that I can take." He shuffled closer to me.

"You scare the hell outta me sometimes. I just...I just couldn't take it if somethin' ever happened to you," he stammered.

Sam Merlotte is probably the most genuine man I know. Notice I didn't say vampire, because not a damn thing appears to be genuine in either Bill or Eric. Sam looked so lost, so very afraid, and so adorable that I had no choice but to wrap my arms around his neck and give him a comforting hug. This manly, rough hands were on the small of my back. He smelled like the most strangeley delicious combination of laundry detergent and pine, and he was hot. Much, much, much warmer than the cold bodies of Bill and Eric that I'd become accustomed to. And then I realized something else, something very different and very significant about Sam Merlotte. His heart was beating. I could feel it, ever so slightly beating against my collarbone. So bizarre that I would be so delighted and surprised by such a normal thing. Though, I guess it hadn't ever been normal for me. I was counting the beats of his heart, and I could feel him half-smiling above me. One-two. Three-four. Five-six. Seven-eight.

"Hey there!" interrupted a somewhat familiar voice.

Startled, I quickly withdrew my arms from behind Sam's neck, and he stepped nearly a foot away from me as we both turned to the person speaking.

It was her. That long, chocolate hair like ribbons. Those unmistakably deep, beautiful green eyes. That buttery voice. That sickening feeling in my stomach telling me this bitch was up to no good.

"Remember me?" she asked, waving a delicate hand and flashing a smile so perfect it made me grimace. Like I could forget a face like that.

Sam turned to me, looking a little puzzled. "Oh. Sookie, how do you know Charlotte?"

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Sorry for the shortness of this chapter, it's setting up some drama for the future parts to come! I already have all the scenarios planned out, but I'd really like to get your opinions on who Sookie should be with in the end. Eric, Bill, or Sam? My vote goes to Laffayette :D But I kind of have an idea of who you'll pick! PLEASE review, and as always,

Hugs and kisses,

Jaclina