Sookie Takes Charge, Ch. 14

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With a very confused expression, Sookie placed her phone down on the table.

Had she really just had a nice, semi-normal conversation with Eric Northman?

Really?

When in self-defense she tried to recall her anger toward him for betraying her trust in such a painfully bloody way, all that surfaced was a bit of…sadness.

Melancholy.

Sookie had the strong suspicion that Eric had never truly seen her, that he had some idea about her in his head that just wasn’t who she really was, but that because of those preconceptions he thought he actually knew her.

Granted she had thought that she had known who Eric Northman was, too – a strong, cocky vampire with lots of experience who used people to make his own existence better, someone who wasn’t inherently mean or cruel but who took what he wanted without much care or consideration about who he used or hurt. He was always a little too full of himself for someone who hadn’t had to work in longer than he could probably remember, but he’d also had a weird sense of humor that clicked well with her own.

He could be brave and daring, and generous, too. He didn’t have to try to save her, too, at the Fellowship fiasco, but he had. And while his motives weren’t exactly pure when he tricked her into taking his blood, they hadn’t been terrible, either.

Sadly, she realized that she’d thought he had cared more about her than his actions proved he did, that maybe he really did care about her in a secret way, and finding out that he didn’t had hurt just as badly as Russell’s fangs when they had ripped through her skin.

“People just don’t serve up for dinner people they care about to other people, especially not to asshole people,” she huffed out loud to herself and the laptop she had picked up.  “They just don’t.“

She grabbed a drink and moved over to the comfy sofa.

“If he cared, he had a shitty way of showing it,” she thought with a sigh. “That’ll teach me to think someone cares when they don’t. If you care about someone, you really don’t hold them down for a sworn enemy to fang-rape you, and you don’t do it yourself, either.”

Assholes.  All of them.

As she set up her laptop and prepared to type out notes for her tell-all book, she admitted that the only vampire she even remotely liked anymore was Godric. Somehow she couldn’t see him doing any of the crap to her that Eric had done.

What hurts the most, she mused as she waited for her screen to load, is that Eric does have good places in his heart. He loves Godric, truly and absolutely adores him, so he’s capable of love. I can’t see him selling his Maker out, but he sold me out without a second thought. Why he thought he could treat me that way and have the gall to expect me to ‘understand’ is far beyond me.”

“Chapter 1: Vampires Are Manipulative Bastards,” she typed in angry satisfaction, her fingers pounding on the keyboard.

Sookie leaned back against the sofa and considered her words with nary a nip of guilt. Hell, as much as she adored him, even Godric was a wily, manipulative bastard when he wanted to be.

But he did give good hugs.

And he listened.

And he told interesting stories, too, she considered with a smile.

She wondered when, or even if, Eric would realize what she’d said to him.

“Nah, Eric’s smart…he already wonders…,” she thought with a smug grin. It never hurt to keep tall, blond, and arrogant on his toes.

Now oddly more content, she settled down to write with a lingering curve to her lips.

The more she wrote in her first chapter, the more she came to realize that while vampires really could be manipulative bastards, so could humans. Vampires were, after all, usually human first.  And, if humans had the same life-span as vampires, they’d probably be just as bad if not worse.

Hell, look at her own grandmother whose lies of omission had caused her own granddaughter to feel more alone, freakish, and excluded than she ever would have if she’d been told what the hypocritical bitch had known all along.

Dissatisfied that her self-righteous anger toward vampires seemed to be dissolving under the weight of her own thoughts and words, she stalked off to brush her teeth and shower.

The lovely scents of the luxury bathing supplies from Fairy always helped calm her nerves and soothe her senses.

•~•0•~•

 At 8:30 the next evening Sookie was castigating herself quite vocally. Eric was due in half an hour, she still hadn’t decided on what to wear, and she was angry with herself for even caring about any of it.

The bouquet of flowers he’d obviously ordered for her sat on the coffee table. The odd arrangement had puzzled her when it had first arrived – roses and daisies together? And what was up with that purple flower surrounded by baby’s breath sitting all by itself in the middle? Thanks to the plethora of library books she’d checked out in the past – they weren’t all silly romances thank-you-very-much – she’d eventually realized that the flowers could have been arranged in such a way for a reason, and had spent an hour online researching the meanings of flowers until she had put the pieces together.

According to the site she decided to concentrate on, one red rose in full bloom meant that the sender loved or still loved the recipient, however there was a dozen of of those roses in full bloom. Well, any red rose apparently meant love and respect, so either way it spoke of love.

Love?

She knew that baby’s breath was just a filler, and it wasn’t on the list she’d selected, so she proceeded to the next one.

The ferns rather looked like filler to her, too, but because there were so many of them she looked it up anyway.  She found out that ferns actually had a meaning – several of them: magic, fascination, confidence, or shelter.  The shelter part could have meant the place he’d built himself in her house, but she didn’t think that was it.

Why would he send her flowers over a place he‘d had built for himself?

Confidence was never a problem for him, but again, that didn’t have anything to do with her.

Magic could mean something about her heritage…maybe he was fascinated with her magic?

She snorted…more like ‘fascinated’ with her blood.

Ew.

The daisies…the daisies had her stumped. There was nothing innocent or pure about Eric fucking Northman…but he did keep secrets far too well, and he was super-loyal to Godric, but again… none of those things had anything to do with her.

Whatever.

Now for that weird looking purple flower… It was set off by itself in the middle of the bouquet, so obviously it was supposed to mean something specific. But what kind of flower was it? It smelled really good, whatever it was.

A search revealed that it was a hyacinth, and so she read the definition…

Tears sprang to her eyes.

*“HYACINTH  Purple – I Am Sorry; Please Forgive Me: Sorrow.”

Fucking Eric…

At five minutes till his arrival time, she was still mentally cursing the tall blond Viking.

 •~•0•~•

As Eric stood outside Sookie’s hotel door, he refused to acknowledge that the hand he raised to knock shook faintly, and paused. He could smell the slight floral decay of the flowers he’d had sent to her, and smiled. While the enclosed card simply stated “Thank You” and his name, he knew she had seemed to be a voracious reader and truly hoped his other messages were received.

Well, she had appeared to be a voracious reader at one time, at least.  It saddened him to realize how very little he truly did know about her, and wondered if even that small knowledge remained relevant in the present.

He glanced down at the wrapped chocolates in his other hand and hoped she liked fine confections. The genteel older lady who owned the upscale boutique he had heard Pam mention in past conversations had been genuine in her rather slow quest to help him pick out an appropriate gift, and had helped guide him to that less personal but guaranteed delicious option.

It still held an earthly, soothing scent, but didn’t smell as bitter as it used to, but it wasn’t as though he would know about its current taste. He and Godric had been curious about chocolate soon after its arrival in the Old World higher circles they’d been feeding from at the time, and so they had tasted it, and found it strongly lacking. Of course they couldn’t swallow it, but even so the strangely bitter aftertaste seemed to remain for months.

Godric… What he would give to have such adventures with his Maker again… Sadly he knew that even if the ancient vampire were able to find a way to visit him, such times were now in the past.

He wished he could have such times with his own progeny, but…

Pam.

He shook his head. So far his progeny was dealing quite well with her punishment – he could feel that specific tinge of irritation through the bond that told him she was not enjoying her compliance with his orders, but the twinge of self-directed anger told him that she knew such was deserved.

At least he hoped that’s what it meant.

Something tingled in the back of his mind, something about the command he had given her to halt that ridiculous jealousy she felt toward Sookie, but he wasn’t sure what it was. He would think of it later, or perhaps the best would come and, his heart soared at the idea, he could speak with his own Maker about the issue?

If nothing else, he could ask about it in a future letter, and smiled at the thought.

Maybe that joy was also why his schedule was off a bit?

Apparently in his anticipation for the night, he had risen a bit earlier than usual that afternoon, a fact which surprised and somewhat concerned him. No matter what was going on in a vampire’s life, emotions such as excitement or dread had no effect on the time of their rising.

Normally.

With a shrug he straightened his shoulders and knocked on the door.

Keep it short, he commanded himself as he heard her moving to answer. She can’t miss you if you’re around too long. Think before you speak. Don’t piss her off.

He took a deep breath and once again smelled the bouquet.

Did she get the meaning of the flowers?

When she opened the door, pure pleasure flooded his face as he took in her appearance.

Her silky blond hair flowed loosely across her blue silk-clad shoulders, and as his eyes surveyed her body, he decided that he loved the way silk clung to the soft, luscious curves of her breasts. Upon realizing that he was staring, he slowly raised his eyes to meet hers and flicked an eyebrow.

What could he say – he was fully male, after all…

Sookie surprised him, bowled him over really, when she just laughed and rolled her eyes at his bold appraisal and antics.

“Come in,” she invited, and when she turned around, he decided that snug denim definitely suited the deliciously rounded curves of her ass.

Luscious? Delicious?  He shook his head at himself.  Well, her enhanced scent did speak to him of juicy, mouth-watering fruit…

Wait…she invited me into her suite?

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**A/N:  *taken directly from this site: http://thelanguageofflowers.com/.  Ok, so…you know the drill:  what did you think?**

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