Chapter 13: The Fine Print

“MOVE!” I pushed Eric further away from me. He looked offended, and rightfully so. “Oh God…I’m sorry…are you alright? I forgot about them.  You’ve got to see this!  I just need…one minute.” I patted his chest and gave him a weak smile, and then reached around him for the case file on the coffee table.

“Did you see their mouths?” I know he hadn’t, but I asked anyway.

Eric had now slightly recoiled from me, and was peering at me from behind narrow, cobalt blue slits.

“Their mouths, Eric. We never talked about it. You didn’t see them, I know you didn’t. You need –,” I reached over and grabbed his shirt and used it to pull him towards me. “I need you to tell me what you think about…Damn, where are they?” I was fumbling through the file and in exasperation, dumped all the contents of the folder onto the coffee table. I dove into the pile, grabbing, glancing and flinging aside photos in a Mad Hatter frenzied rush to find the vital photos.

I glanced over at Eric; he had adjusted himself into a more comfortable position with arms crossed. I could tell he was barely containing a building rage, but I had to give him credit, I was impressed at his admirable job of refraining from tearing me a new one.

My frenzied search continued. The photos of the victims contained a very unusual and bizarre item that most people were overlooking, except for me and a certain doctor. I needed Eric’s input, perhaps he could explain what it meant, because we couldn’t.

“Dammit, where is it…I can’t believe…This can’t be normal…I got so distracted by our…sheriff smack-down (I chuckled at my own wise-ass comment, Eric didn’t). You must be a hoot on a date…bungee jumping while hacking at each with swords, huh?... Just joking…YES, here’s – noooo - that’s not it!”

I took a deep breath to calm myself and tried to search in a more orderly manner. I stacked the reviewed pictures in a pile instead of tossing them away in a willy-nilly fashion. There were at least forty pictures in the file.

“Shit, where are they?” I heard a hissy sound coming from him, I ignored him and continued babbling and searching…“Patience, Princess, patience…Just another minute…by the way, you might want to re-think your attire for business meetings…though, it is a good look for you. HERE! Here’s one…AND the second one…Okay, where’s the third?…OKAY – now then! Here’s the third one. There’s some other views, but these are the three best.” I laid all three photos out on the table.

I turned to look at him and stopped short. There was no mistaking his expression. He was pissed.

I smiled as sweetly as could be believable. “Please look at these. Please.”

He frowned and turned away from me to look at the photos. He did not look at me as he spoke, “If you call me Princess one more time…” He stopped mid-sentence, then picked up one of the pictures and squinted, intently focusing on the photo.

“Look at their mouths.” I moved over so that I was now sitting against him, hip to knee. I pointed at the mouth of the victim in the folder.

He glanced at me and then looked back at the photo. He then jerked his head back slightly, that action told me that he had found what I wanted him to see.

Though I was excited, I tempered my voice so that I would not bust his eardrum. “Those are fangs. Each corpse has fangs! Don’t all vampires disintegrate into gelatinous globs or dust or something? I couldn’t find anything on the net about this type of vampire. So, what kind of vampire are they? Have you ever seen this before?”

He grabbed all three pictures and got up from the couch. He walked around the room without any particular destination. He finally stopped in front of his desk and sat down on its front edge.

He stopped looking at the photos and favored me with a bored, slightly triumphant, patronizing stare. “These aren’t vampires. They’re freaks, they’re cosmetically enhanced-“

“No, Eric! They are vampires! Their fangs are organic and the blood in their veins has been identified as vampire blood.” I felt like I was pleading a case to a jury, one that I had to win. It was imperative that he accept the reality of the situation.

“What more do you know about them?” Though he seemed expressionless, I could see the gears turning in his head.

“Nothing, that’s why I’m here. I thought you could help me. Are there vampires that die like this?

“None that I know of.” His eyes were cold, dark pools, void of any human emotion. They reminded me of shark eyes, before the shark attacks.

“You don’t know these victims, do you?” The question popped out of my sub-conscious and I felt foolish when I heard it. But, once I asked it, I realized that it was a valid question.

“No.” He responded.

“You mean that in your thousands of years of liv…existing, that you have never seen or heard of this kind of thing before?”

“Again, no. Now then…I want to see these bodies. When can I see them?” While speaking he crossed back over to the coach, threw the photos on the coffee table, and sat down.

“Um, you have to come tomorrow. I expect them to be removed within the next forty-eight hours, or sooner.” As I spoke, I slowly stood up and stretched my back bone and flexed my leg. My leg had started to throb with pain.

A bittersweet thought sparked in my mind and rapidly became a sad realization. I had been kissing Eric just a few moments ago - and it had been incredible, but now we were totally out of that moment and were now discussing vampire teeth.

Eric leaned forward, elbows on knees, “Jo, what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing. How early do you think that you can make it over to see them? The earlier the better.”

“I could be there at seven, p.m. It’s dark at five-thirty, but I have a few errands to do before I can get to Bon Temps. Will that be sufficient?”

I nodded ‘yes,’ and started to slowly walk and tried to stretch my leg as inconspicuously as possible. For some reason, I didn’t want Eric to see any of my weaknesses.

“Jo, what are you doing?” As he spoke, I stopped walking but didn’t turn to face him.

I looked at my watch, and was slightly amazed, it was later than I thought. I should leave, I have a stretch of a drive…need get up early tomorrow.

“I ah…I should be probably going. It’s a school night.” I snickered at my lame joke, and of course, he didn’t join me.

“What?” I looked up at Eric and had to bite my lip. The expression on his face was funny. In his confusion, he had tilted his head and it reminded me of a quizzical puppy. .

“Jo, you are confusing me. You aren’t actually thinking of leaving now, are you?” He stood up and slowly walked towards me. He smiled a sexy smile that was mesmerizing. His gait was slow and seductive, and his eyes were half closed but intense. I felt captivated by them; they had gone back to cobalt blue, and they seemed to twinkle.

He’s so beautiful, no man should be that beautiful.

I struggled to get control of my feelings and brain. “Eric, it’s late…I need to get up early. What about a rain check?”

“Jo, I don’t do rain checks or repeats. You get one shot. This is it – this is your one shot.”

His words plowed through my foggy mind - what did he just say? “What?”

“This is your one and only time with me, Jo. Use it or lose it.”

I was dumbfounded, “Are you shitting me?” I chuckled, despite myself.

“I don’t know what that means. You have such unusual, vulgar colloquialisms.” As he talked and walked towards me, I reacted by walking backwards, I had to stop when my back hit the door.

“Okay,” I lamely uttered.

He reached his hand up and stroked my cheek. I felt like I was falling into his eyes. He licked his lips and I watched every movement of his tongue. I wanted so much to kiss him.

“Jo, kiss me.” His voice was low and silky smooth, caressing and coaxing.

Okay. No! “Eric, in retrospect, I really don’t think we should be doing this. I…I’ve changed my mind.” I tried to step to the side so that I could go around him, but he blocked me with his arm.

He captured my face in his hands and peered in my eyes. “Jo, you want to kiss me, don’t you? I know you do.” I tried turning my face away but he held it firmly in his hands.

He leaned in to kiss me and I pulled back from him. He reached around behind me, encompassing my shoulders and pulled me roughly to his chest. He looked angry and I closed my eyes trying to avoid his eyes.

I felt his lips crush down on me and he started a full assault on my mouth. I was forced to open and relinquish all control or I was afraid that he would hurt me.

Eric pulled away and whispered, “Jo, open your eyes.” I complied. “Relax. Relax. We were having such a good time, weren’t we?” His eyes were just so intense that they felt like lasers beaming into my brain so forcefully that I started to feel pain.

“Eric…” As I tried to look away, and then a question dawned on me – was he…wait, what was I going to say? “Eric, my head hurts. Are you hurting me…my head?”

He moved his hands to my temples and slowly massaged. “You have a headache? Here, let me help you. Does that feel good?”

I barely nodded in response.

“So strange. I guess you are tired, aren’t you? You need to relax. Relax for me, Jo.” He nibbled kisses on my mouth. “The pain is leaving now, isn’t it?” It was leaving; I nodded, once again.

He was smiling at me and I was so glad to see that he was smiling at me. He has a beautiful smile. My depth perception was off. I couldn’t tell if he was still close to me or far away. He had to be close because he was now sprinkling soft kisses on my forehead, nose, and mouth.

“You are so annoying, Josephina. You’re just so ordinary…a typical, boring human…your blood smells like…nothing…it’s so ordinary. So, why are you distracting me? Why is that?”

I concentrated on his question, but for the life of me, I really didn’t know why I was…like whatever he said.

Oh wait, I know. “You’re hungry.” I hoped that I got it right, that I answered his question right.

I heard him laugh. I started feeling a little dizzy, with the sensation that I was flying.

“I’m not hungry, but I have other cravings that you can fulfill. Do you know what I mean, Josephina? Hm? Do you?” He was chuckling.

Damn, those are some tough questions. An alarm went off somewhere in my nervous system, “Eric, I need my blood. So…don’t do that…I…I have a big…I meet with people tomorrow.”

I was now lying on the couch and he was lying beside me, and I don’t know how we got that way. My head was foggy. Eric was whispering to me, telling me to relax. I felt his hands roaming my body, caressing, cupping and softly squeezing, leaving excited flesh in their wake.

I felt warmth growing in my lower belly and between my legs. My libido was now awake and hunting like a lioness on the savannah, searching for fulfillment. I started to explore on my own and heard Eric moan his approval.

“You have a very womanly body. I like curves. The Italians have a wonderful saying, ‘Bone is for the dog, meat is for the man.’” He laughed to himself.

I watched him unbutton my work shirt and kiss the areas of my chest as they became exposed. I was becoming more and more aroused; my legs jerked from sexual tension.

His face was a complicated canvas - hunger, arousal, and amusement all swirled together. He seemed to be enjoying his discoveries, I heard him hum, purr, and moan approvals. “Ahhh, a sports bra! Hmmm…I don’t see a lot of those. This deserves special attention.”

He sat me up and gently removed my shirt. He cupped one of my breasts in his hand and ran his thumb over the nipple. I couldn’t stop myself in time, and audibly gasped. His mouth replaced his hand, administering affection through the material of my sports bra.

I reached over and pulled his face to mine and kissed him; I was self-conscious and needed to have a moment away from being focused on like that. He responded to my kiss.

I ran my hands under his shirt, caressing his back and then took off his shirt and threw it on the coffee table. He laughed his concurrence. He decided to take back control. As he cradled me in one arm, kissing me so deeply that I could barely breathe, his other hand started a journey down to my lower region. His hand skimmed over my stomach and then grabbed and squeezed my hip. He slowly conquered my buttocks, hips and thighs.

I reached down to rub his stomach but found something else, instead. He was extremely large and hard; it was protruding out of the waist band of his pants.

I slowly clasped him in my hand. He pushed his hips into my hand, showing his approval. He moaned into my mouth but then slowly broke away from me and sat up on his knees. With great gentleness and care, he picked up my right foot and took off the shoe and then the sock. He then did the same with my left foot. He then ran his hands up the sides of my thighs, over my hips, and up around to the front of my waist. He un-buttoned my pants and then slowly pulled down the zipper.

I was floating on the pleasure of his touch, enjoying his skill and tenderness. It had been quite awhile since I had been with someone, and all my repressed feelings and needs were now boiling to the surface. I needed this so much – I was so very, very needy.

Then, I heard it. Loud and clear.

A woman’s voice was yelling Eric’s name and it was coming through the talk box. “Eric. ERIC! I need to talk to you. Now! Please, Eric!?!”

Eric abruptly stopped pulling down my pants and cocked his head up to listen. He frowned and exhaled an exasperated breath. He looked at me and gave me a strained smile. “Wait here. This will hopefully only take a short moment. I’ll be right back.”

He got up, put on his shirt and flip-flops. The next words from the talk box froze the blood in my veins. “Eric, its Sookie! Please!” She sounded like she was crying.

I felt an extreme need to cover myself, so I sat up, pulled down my sports bra that had been pushed asunder and grabbed my shirt and proceeded to put it on. Eric had walked over to electrical panel on the credenza behind his desk. He pushed a button and responded, “I’m coming, Sookie.”

He then looked at me and frowned. He said something in a foreign language that sounded like a curse. “Just relax, Jo. I won’t be long. Just lie back and relax. Don’t do anything else.” He smiled, winked at me and then quickly left the room.

I jumped off the couch like it was burning me. The instant the weight of my body pressed on my knee, I doubled over and nearly collapsed from the pain. The pain combined with adrenaline cleared the fog in my brain and made me battle ready.

Move Marine! No time for pain. Move it, now! I knew that if I didn’t get out of there, I would be feeling more pain, but a different kind of pain – the kind that comes from scandal and public humiliation.

Shit, she could burst in here, see me lounging on the couch like a lizard on a rock and that would be the end of my career. I could see the headlines now, ‘Sheriff gives her ALL to the people.’ A wave of nausea curled in my stomach.

I finished dressing and stuffed the items on the coffee table back into the case folder – faster than the time it took my brain to order the actions.

I limped over to my holster, grabbed it, and put it back on. I then found my back-up gun that Eric had tossed about. I mentally and physically finished pulling myself together and headed out to my car.

Oh shit, she’s a psychic. As I got to the front door of the bar, I stopped and cleared my thoughts and started thinking of mundane, daily tasks that I needed to do.

I opened the bar’s front door and stepped out to an amazing sight. Eric and Sookie were in a tight embrace and were sharing a very deep, passionate kiss.

Wow…I did not see that coming.

They both pulled apart and looked at me. Move Marine. I sputtered out, “ Sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt…I gotta get going, thanks for the coffee, Eric…and thanks for,” I held up the case folder, “your help on this.” I tipped my head, “Well, good night folks.” Despite the searing pain of my leg, I double-timed it to my cruiser.

Eric yelled out to me, “Tomorrow, at seven, we’re still meeting, right?”

I didn’t look back at him, but waved the file above my head as a reply. I unlocked the car door and got in.

“Sheriff, I’ll be there, at seven.” He practically shouted out his statement. I refused to look at him; instead, I focused on the interior of the cruiser, smiled at the dashboard and nodded my ‘okay.’ He must have seen me because he didn’t say anything else.

As I was driving away, I looked at them from my rear view mirror. I could see him lead her into the bar; she was leaning against him, her head on his chest. He did not watch me drive away.

I felt very sober, very alert and wide, bright-eyed awake. The Eric bubble had burst. The mystery was gone and now stark reality was blasting bright and the undeniable truth slapped me on my forehead - I had just made a fool of myself.

What the hell was I thinking? He glamored me, I know he did! Ah hell, I wanted him. Well…that’s that. I sure as hell am not going to get involved in Eric’s soap opera or be a member of his harem. Oh, that’s right - it was my one and only time! I chuckled to myself. It was a sad sound.

Shit, no matter how old they are or if they are alive or dead, men are still assholes. I found myself nodding in agreement with my thoughts.

Well, at least my dreamy-eyed, internal teenager has been shut down. Yep, the prom is most definitely over.

I allowed myself one more thought before I started to stuff and repress images and feelings of Eric. I bet he would have been sensational…